Things I wish I knew

[AndrewT]

9. Why do people leave football matches with 5 minutes to go? Would they leave the cinema 5 minutes before the end of a film just to "beat the rush"?

You'll like this Keith.

[The Camel]

9. Why do people leave football matches with 5 minutes to go? Would they leave the cinema 5 minutes before the end of a film just to "beat the rush"?

You'll like this Keith.

My favourite bit is when he shouts the result to his mate.

Top stuff, almost wish Coventry had gone through.

[MintTrav]

8 can be caused by bad driving. A bad driver is driving too close to the car in front. He gets a bit closer and brakes slightly. The bad driver behind is too close to him and has to brake slightly too. This continues behind, increasing as it goes, as all the bad drivers behind are forced to do the same. It only stops if there is a good driver who has left enough space to absorb the effect without braking. If there isn't, and there is enough traffic, you get a jam five miles back. This then clears and everyone wonders what happened.

[GreekStein]

9. Why do people leave football matches with 5 minutes to go? Would they leave the cinema 5 minutes before the end of a film just to "beat the rush"?

Truly terrible analogy.

[Tal]

Does anything eat wasps?

[tikay]

There's more:

6. Is "a lot" one word or two? What about "thankyou"?

7. Why are people rude to strangers when it doesn't benefit them at all? Some bloke was driving down the road, slowed his car down, unwound his window and shouted "you fat *****" to me a couple of weeks ago. Why would he do this?

8. WTF causes some traffic jams? No roadworks, no crash, no nothing, yet traffic is at a standstill. Then 10 minutes the road is clear.

9. Why do people leave football matches with 5 minutes to go? Would they leave the cinema 5 minutes before the end of a film just to "beat the rush"?

10. Why is airline food notjust shit, but really shit? Can't they just buy loads of ready meals from Sainsburys and heat them up? Only £3 a time. First class passengers could have M and S ready meals.

8 is easy.

Read this, then I'll ask questions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-phase_traffic_theory




 

[RED-DOG]

Does anything eat wasps?

Yes sir!

Robber flies do.

[Tal]

Sick photo tekkers

[kinboshi]

2- I take it you are getting off the scale to have a crap?

Best answer in the thread

[kinboshi]

There's more:

6. Is "a lot" one word or two? What about "thankyou"?

Both two words.  Although you can use 'thankyou' as a noun or adjective (such as thankyou party), although I'd probably go for thank-you instead in that case.

7. Why are people rude to strangers when it doesn't benefit them at all? Some bloke was driving down the road, slowed his car down, unwound his window and shouted "you fat *****" to me a couple of weeks ago. Why would he do this?

He was from Leeds.

8. WTF causes some traffic jams? No roadworks, no crash, no nothing, yet traffic is at a standstill. Then 10 minutes the road is clear.

It's to do with waves (basically the traffic can be considered as a fluid flowing along a channel) and people driving badly/erratically can compound the effects.  If you think about a steady stream of traffic flowing at 60mph on a motorway, and suddenly a lorry jack-knifes across all the lanes, the traffic has to stop.  The tail-back this causes will grow at the rate of 1 mile every minute (assuming the traffic continues to join the flow at the same rate).  Even without coming to a complete stop, slowing down the flow causes bunching, and this moves like a wave down the traffic flow.  For example, the traffic on the other side of the motorway. It isn't directly affected by the accident, but people rubber-necking will cause the flow to slow, causing people to brake and slow down - and this effect is then passed back along the carriageway as a wave.  As they pass the accident, the traffic then accelerates back to their desired speed and runs smoothly again.

This happens all the time on the motorway but doesn't always have to be as dramatic or the causes as obvious.  It could be a steep hill (so lorries and cars slowing down), traffic joining or leaving the motorway at a congested junction, road works, changing weather conditions, a police car on or next to the carriageway (or even a traffic officer) causing people to slow down, etc.

9. Why do people leave football matches with 5 minutes to go? Would they leave the cinema 5 minutes before the end of a film just to "beat the rush"?

They calculate (subconsciously) the enjoyment-factor of staying at the match and compare it to the benefit-factor of leaving early and missing the traffic/rush, etc.

10. Why is airline food not just shit, but really shit? Can't they just buy loads of ready meals from Sainsburys and heat them up? Only £3 a time. First class passengers could have M and S ready meals.

They are made to a very strict budget, and also have long shelf-lives.  Not sure why they are quite as bad as they are though

[Woodsey]

7. Why are people rude to strangers when it doesn't benefit them at all? Some bloke was driving down the road, slowed his car down, unwound his window and shouted "you fat *****" to me a couple of weeks ago. Why would he do this? Cus he knew you would post it on here to give us a laugh 

10. Why is airline food notjust shit, but really shit? Can't they just buy loads of ready meals from Sainsburys and heat them up? Only £3 a time. First class passengers could have M and S ready meals. They aren't that bad are they FFS? As long as my expectations are at the right level I think they are mostly ok tbh.

[redarmi]

Yes Woodsey airline food is that bad.  You dont even get into edible until you reach first class imo.  Incidentally if you are taking a flight you should always take the food even if you have no intention of eating it because you are much more likely to get security delays if you don't.  Airline staff report those that take no food or drink to customs as more likely to be drugs swallowers according to a relative of mine that is an air hostess.

[Woodsey]

We'll I'm a pretty fussy eater, I guess you are pretty tough to feed!

It never looks great, but only the odd time I've thought it was shit, there is always at least half of it that is ok enough to keep you going.

[rfgqqabc]

I think I'd rather die then have to eat airline food. I mean I guess I'd have the heart for 6 months on the minimum spending some £££ but screw long term.

Starved myself on flights for the last 6 years or so, normally can find some sort of snack though.

I found this on about wasps

The following answer has been selected and edited by New Scientist staff

The lowly wasp certainly has its place in the food chain. Indeed, the question should possibly be "what doesn't feed, in one way or another, on this lowly and potentially dangerous insect?"

Here are a few that do, the first list being invertebrates: several species of dragonflies (Odonata); robber and hoverflies (Diptera); wasps (Hymenoptera), usually the larger species feeding on smaller species, such as social paper wasps (Vespula maculata) eating V. utahensis; beetles (Coleoptera); and moths (Lepidoptera).

The following are vertebrates that feed on wasps: numerous species of birds, skunks, bears, badgers, bats, weasels, wolverines, rats, mice and last, but certainly not least, humans and probably some of our closest ancestors.

I have eaten the larvae of several wasp species fried in butter, and found them quiet tasty.

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/lastword/2005/03/does-anything-eat-wasps.html

is the word *****

[Tal]

I actually own the book that wasp quote is taken from (actually the eponymous book!), but have never got round to reading it.