Major or minor things that puzzle you

[kphoger]

Yeah, that didn't help.  Explain it to me like I'm a fifth grader.

[vdeane]

If I'm going on the road, despite getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 (depending on trip), I can easily go to lunch time without eating and operate on two meals/day.  If it's a normal day at the office (or telecommuting), despite getting up at the exact same time, I can't and will be really hungry by 11:00.  What the heck?  I guess I can kick any ideas of solving issues by going to two meals a day during the week to the curb (also, I need to figure out what to do with lunch for any future directed telecommuting days, because under my current system, I keep my cheerios at my desk rather than at home).

It's no trouble on a weekend day/day off either, but then, I get up later on those days.

[JayhawkCO]

Yeah, that didn't help.  Explain it to me like I'm a fifth grader.

I'm not an advocate of using ChatGPT for lots of things, but I would recommend putting your question in, asking it to explain it to you like you're a 5th grader, and then continue to drill down on the things that still don't make sense.

Electricity in general is a thing that puzzles me. I took AP Physics in high school, got a 5 (top score) on the mechanics portion and basically didn't even try the electricity and magnetism portion of the test because I understood it so badly.

I just bought my son (and myself) this to see if visualizing things helps me understand it all a bit better. I know voltage is "a difference in potential", but what that actually means to me is still not grokked.

[NE2]

What practical usefulness do neckties offer?

They allow dominant women to pull you close.

[NE2]

Yeah, that didn't help.  Explain it to me like I'm a fifth grader.

Find a copy of The Way Things Work.

[Scott5114]

Yeah, that didn't help.  Explain it to me like I'm a fifth grader.

There are a lot of different ways one can represent a 1 or a 0, because essentially it just reduces to "on" or "off". On a disk, for example, magnetized one way can be 1 and magnetized another way represents 0. Or, when dealing with raw electricity, 0 is "no current" and 1 is "current".

A logic gate takes some number of inputs, compares them in a predefined way, and then produces an output based on this. Because 0 and 1 can be represented by electrical current, a logic gate can be implemented as part of an electrical circuit. There are several ways to do this, such as with transistors.

Because of the electrical properties of silicon, an electrical circuit with many thousands of logic gates can be built into a tiny piece of silicon—a computer chip. If you have enough logic gates, you can get a chip to "understand" op codes.

[roadman65]

More curious than puzzled, but the common zipper can bring together two sets of teeth and lock them so you can't pull them apart without effort applied to the stroke. Just pull up and they're connected.

[Henry]

At Christmas, everybody hears stories of Santa Claus (along with his wife and the elves) living at the North Pole, and yet outside that time, it's a known fact that there's never been any human population. Wonder why that is?

[kphoger]

At Christmas, everybody hears stories of Santa Claus (along with his wife and the elves) living at the North Pole, and yet outside that time, it's a known fact that there's never been any human population. Wonder why that is?

There's a certain type of myth whose setting is a real but faraway place rather than a fictional place, but I can't remember the name for it right now.  Anyway, there you go.

[JayhawkCO]

At Christmas, everybody hears stories of Santa Claus (along with his wife and the elves) living at the North Pole, and yet outside that time, it's a known fact that there's never been any human population. Wonder why that is?

Most kids aren't reading about Peary or Amundsen.

[kphoger]

Most kids aren't reading about Peary or Amundsen.

They'd learn a much different sort of lesson.  Not one about a supernatural being who sees what you do in secret, rewards good behavior, and punishes bad.  Rather, one about eating your leafy greens.

Eat your broccoli, kids.  You don't want to get scurvy and die from anemia like Robert Peary, do you?  Ho ho ho.

[english si]

At Christmas, everybody hears stories of Santa Claus (along with his wife and the elves) living at the North Pole

Those in a most of Europe don't (or didn't until US cultural dominance messed it up):

Kalėdų Senelis 🇱🇹 lives in a generic cold northern area.

Father Christmas 🇬🇧🇮🇪 lives in Lapland.

Joulupukki 🇫🇮 officially lives at the mountain Korvatunturi near the Russian border, but now does his work near Rovaniemi as its a bit easier for tourists to get to.

Ziemassvētku vecītis 🇱🇻 lives in Rovaniemi.

Jõuluvana 🇪🇪 lives in Lapland, but his brother Glämmi is oft found at Torma Manor in Central Estonia, and he himself exchanges holiday greetings with Ded Morez on a bridge in Narva.

Ded Moroz 🇷🇺 lives in Veliky Ustyug, though Did Moroz 🇺🇦 lives where the Soviet Union assigned him housing, at Korvatunturi (though the USSR had him the other side of the border, Ukraine probably now has him in Finland).

Jultomten 🇸🇪 lives in the Gesunda Mountains in Mora (with a workshop in Mora itself).

Julenisse 🇳🇴 prefers to see the (unfrozen) sea, living in Drøbak which is south of Oslo. Though many (especially the Svalbardians) say he lives in an old mine near Longyearbyen.

The Julemanden 🇩🇰 lives in a cozy house near Uummannaq.

The Jólasveinar 🇮🇸 live, with their parents Grýla and Leppalúði and their pet Jólakötturinn in a mountain cave either in the Dimmuborgir lava fields, or the Esjan mountain range.

Père Noël 🇫🇷 and Babbo Natale 🇮🇹 lives at the North Pole (if you are French, then 1 Chemin des Nuages, Pôle Nord to be exact)

So Santa/equivalent that isn't specifically St Nicholas either lives in your northern country (or a territory thereof) or in Finnish Lapland (Ukraine will have recently moved him over the border from the Soviet placement, just as the Russians moved him to a more Russian part of Russia) if you are a bit further south, with only the French and Italians joining the Americans in putting him on the ice cap rather than land.

---

Sinterklaas 🇳🇱 lives in Spain, though everyone else in Europe who has St Nick come on the 6th has him live in either in his native what-is-now-Turkey, or in Heaven (save the Italians, who have him come from Jerusalem, or Bari where his relics are).

[SSOWorld]

Yeah, that didn't help.  Explain it to me like I'm a fifth grader.

there are 10 types of people in this world. those that understand binary and those that don't


yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes

[formulanone]

Before you choose a white vinyl sticker for your vehicle which proudly displays an outline of the place you call home or enjoy your vacations, take a moment to consider if it could be confused with bird poop.

[kphoger]

Before you choose a white vinyl sticker for your vehicle which proudly displays an outline of the place you call home or enjoy your vacations, take a moment to consider if it could be confused with bird poop.

What are you talking about?

[NE2]

Before you choose a white vinyl sticker for your vehicle which proudly displays an outline of the place you call home or enjoy your vacations, take a moment to consider if it could be confused with bird poop.

What are you talking about?

Sometimes a bird needs to get rid of indigestible waste. When that waste exits the bird, it is bird poop.

[kphoger]

I guess I should clarify:  I was asking about the first part.  The stickers that apparently look like bird poop.

[formulanone]

I guess I should clarify:  I was asking about the first part.  The stickers that apparently look like bird poop.

Chile, Great Lakes, and Long Island come to mind. And a few others which were inscrutable...