Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 2]

[shakotan]

ChemicalChaos said:

What is the fake coal in gas fireplaces made of? It seems to have no mass whatsoever

Its made from ceramic fibre.

The fibre slurry is pressed into moulds and depending how much pressure is supplied provides the density of the coals.

If you have a gas fire with panelling on the rear, the fibre is pressed densely into a tile before being painted, whereas the fake coals aren't pressed as tightly, then a large sheet is torn up into coal shaped pieces before painting.

I used to work in China for one of the UK's largest coal effect fire companies and had to regularly visit the factory that made the coals.

http://english.luyang.com/html/cn/chanpin/taocixia...

Edited by shakotan on Monday 27th October 15:54

[Agrispeed]

mybrainhurts said:

Farmer up the road has hundreds of white geese in a field.

Why don't they fly away?

Many breeds are too heavy to fly.

Also, why would they, from a animals point of view it's perfect, you get food for nothing and a nice place to sleep. Not too dissimilar to what some people would consider a perfect life!

If they're wild geese then it's because there is good grazing and usually a pond nearby. They make a hell of a mess!

[ATTAK Z]

Agrispeed said:

mybrainhurts said:

Farmer up the road has hundreds of white geese in a field.

Why don't they fly away?

Many breeds are too heavy to fly.

Also, why would they, from a animals point of view it's perfect, you get food for nothing and a nice place to sleep. Not too dissimilar to what some people would consider a perfect life!

If they're wild geese then it's because there is good grazing and usually a pond nearby. They make a hell of a mess!

That's what I said

ATTAK Z said:

mybrainhurts said:

Farmer up the road has hundreds of white geese in a field.

Why don't they fly away?

Cos they're hungry

[FiF]

scdan4 said:

FiF said:

singlecoil said:

Dr Jekyll said:

scarble said:

.. because people spill beer on the tables?

Well yes, but is it that beer is impossible to clean off, or that most pubs don't bother? Or is it the cleaning stuff that makes tables sticky? My favourite pub currently has non sticky tables, any chance it will stay that way?

One possibility is that whoever is going around wiping the tables is using a cloth that is insufficiently wet, and/or not rinsing it often enough, with the result that they are wiping the tables with slightly diluted beer. Laziness, basically.

Would tend to agree with singlecoil's suggestion with the caveat that you sometimes get this in cafés who don't sell beer.

It's laziness for sure, quick spray with some sort of goodness knows what fluid and then a wipe with a cloth that has probably been recycled after cleaning up a bottom eruption in trap 2.

Probably the seat in trap 2 could be cleaner than the table.

It might depend on the woodstain / varnish and cleaner used. We had a load of well cleaned tables all turn sticky over about a week - we'd changed the sanitiser we used to clean them with. I had to strip and revarnish them all (twice - as the initial revarnish did exactly the same thing. Ended up using toolstation brand cheap yacht varnish. That has now lasted well)

Admittedly in some establishments it will be grot - but if it looks otherwise clean, that is what my money would be on.

That's a fair point. We went to one place where the tables looked clean but were very sticky. The varnish appeared to have been spread with a trowel and it seemed very soft.

On the other hand the floor hadn't seen a decent clean in forever so who knows really.

[torqueofthedevil]

Why on some cars, especially vans, do the reversing lights often flash on as thy are setting off? It's not an auto passing through reverse when going from say park to drive. Because I sometimes see it as a van clearly drops from a higher gear into first.

[illmonkey]

Dodgy reverse sensor pickup? They're usually located on the gear selector thing (technical term)

[Dr Jekyll]

Why are eggs sold in multiples of 6 but other things hardly ever are?

[mybrainhurts]

Dr Jekyll said:

Why are eggs sold in multiples of 6 but other things hardly ever are?

The hen would get too sore.

[mybrainhurts]

Agrispeed said:

mybrainhurts said:

Farmer up the road has hundreds of white geese in a field.

Why don't they fly away?

Many breeds are too heavy to fly.

Also, why would they, from a animals point of view it's perfect, you get food for nothing and a nice place to sleep. Not too dissimilar to what some people would consider a perfect life!

Thanks. Fat bd geese, eh? Didn't know that....

[HA51EMT]

Dr Jekyll said:

Why are eggs sold in multiples of 6 but other things hardly ever are?

Bought a 9 pack earlier, you can also buy 10s.

[grumbledoak]

Dr Jekyll said:

Why are eggs sold in multiples of 6 but other things hardly ever are?

Ancient civilisations ate eggs and counted in dozens. It is better really - twelve is more divisible than ten.

[glazbagun]

Dr Jekyll said:

Why are eggs sold in multiples of 6 but other things hardly ever are?

I'm guessing but it's probably of ancient origin. In the same way that there's 24 hours in a day and not 20 or 100. 12 divides/multiplies easily enough without the need for fractions and decimals which is why a lot of ancient currencies were divided into 60 (and subdivided into another 60)

But these days you can get ten (Happy Egg) or fifteen(Lidl) eggs, so nothing's sacred.

[Shaolin]

Chickens have 3 toes on each foot, 6's allow them to keep count.

[Rickyy]

torqueofthedevil said:

Why on some cars, especially vans, do the reversing lights often flash on as thy are setting off? It's not an auto passing through reverse when going from say park to drive. Because I sometimes see it as a van clearly drops from a higher gear into first.

Some gearboxes with reverse next to first, will activate the reverse lights just by pushing the stick far left, so most probably pushed too far over when trying to select first.

Also, I think a lot of Tesco vans and the like are autos.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Dr Jekyll said:

Why are eggs sold in multiples of 6 but other things hardly ever are?

My wife sent me to the shop for a pint of milk. As I was leaving she said "if they've got eggs, get half a dozen."

I returned 10 mins later with 6 pints of milk. She said "why the hell did you buy 6 pints of milk?"

And I said "Because they had eggs!"

[ATTAK Z]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

My wife sent me to the shop for a pint of milk. As I was leaving she said "if they've got eggs, get half a dozen."

I returned 10 mins later with 6 pints of milk. She said "why the hell did you buy 6 pints of milk?"

And I said "Because they had eggs!"

Good man

[Fun Bus]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

My wife sent me to the shop for a pint of milk. As I was leaving she said "if they've got eggs, get half a dozen."

I returned 10 mins later with 6 pints of milk. She said "why the hell did you buy 6 pints of milk?"

And I said "Because they had eggs!"

[Jimmyarm]

We have probably had this before but;

What would happen in everybody(including businesses) with a postive balance in a UK based bank account decided to withdraw their money (in cash) all at once ?

I'm talking absolutely everything, current, isa's, savings, investments (assume that you can just pull the cash).

Would the banking system collapse ? My understanding is banks work by leveraging deposits against loans and have to maintain some sort of correlation between the two.

Is there even enough currency to do this ?

[walm]

Just ask Northern Rock.

[berlintaxi]

I guess the banks would immediately call in all loans overdrafts etc and the economy would be in meltdown. I'd bring a stool as I would imagine the queue down the high street would be rather large.