What are things that confuse you?

thecrystalrook 2021-08-22 16:27:03 UTC #41

DesiredUsernameTaken 2021-08-22 16:30:36 UTC #42

Some of the worst norms start out this way, don't they >_________>.

Thank you though! I guess the question is, why has it stuck for so long, especially when most wouldn't know of the history behind grass...

@thecrystalrook

Yes. I never went through this phase when I was a kid, but I only think that's owed to my odd circumstances. Had I been exposed to society earlier, I likely would have been a "Not like other girls" kid, too. I still had a version of it, which was more broad. "I'm not like other people".

From what I've observed, the behavior is one that's guaranteed to happen because of how much 1) society hates teenagers, and especially girls. Literally everything girls do is "annoying" or "girl drama" or "childish", but when a boy does it, it can be charming or funny (This is not to say boys "have it easier". Both genders have it insanely hard in very different ways), and then 2) how much society values "being unique". They want special stand-out people. They want everyone to be creative enough to still be within their confining box but at the border between acceptable and way-too-out-there. So society tells everyone, "Be unique, because being normal is boring!", then mocks girls for trying.

NickRowler 2021-08-22 17:11:38 UTC #43

In all seriousness. Kansas and Arkansas are named after two Native American words from two different groups. American dialect from each area may have also altered the pronunciation of each over time.

rachurch95 2021-08-22 17:31:23 UTC #44

another thing that confuses me:

those cart things they use at grocery stores to bring the carts back into the store like

how the heck
magics???

Magnets??/?

VibrantFox 2021-08-22 17:55:27 UTC #45

i think it's magnets but only because i saw a store employee get their keys stuck on one of the carts or something while it was on. plus you usually see them charging when not in use

DokiDokiTsuna 2021-08-22 17:56:08 UTC #46

Oooh, are we allowed to answer these? I'll bite:

Schrodinger's cat is just a thought experiment: a cat is left in a box with a device that may or may not kill it. And until you open the box, you have no way of knowing whether the cat is alive or dead. That's it. At it's core, the idea is literally that simple.

Of course, as with all science, they take the analogy a step further in order to describe an abstract phenomenon: until you open the box, for all intents and purposes the cat exists in both states at once-- alive AND dead-- because both are equally likely.
And this is serves as an introduction to the idea of particles whose states can't be known until they are observed, and that the act of observation ('opening the box') automatically 'chooses' a state to observe.

If you mean stuff like x+x^2, there are plenty of ways to deal with those...mostly just involving breaking up x^2 into the smaller exponents that it must contain. As an adult, I don't think it has to 'stick'; you just have to know enough to quickly re-teach yourself how to use them again when the opportunity arises.

If you mean binary code, though...your guess is as good as mine. ^^;

I've never heard of this experiment, but I think it's meant to be a classic example of psychosomatics (I think there's a better word, but I don't remember what it is...basically, how your mind can influence your body's immune response and perception of pain).
Just like people can have real auto-immune responses brought on by stress, I think it's possible that the anticipation of intense pain accompanied by a real stimulus (even if it's not the "right" one) can provoke a physical response. Maybe not the actual cell death that results from a true burn (unless that rod was REALLY cold), but they could easily have swelling and redness in the area of the "burn".

What makes me skeptical about this, though, is the threatening nature of the experiment (and the fact that participants DID come away with some form of injury)...I'm not sure that would be allowed today. ^^; Maybe 50 years ago or earlier, when regulations were looser (or nonexistent)...

Anyway, here's some things that confuse me. If anyone wants to pop in and try to explain any of 'em, I welcome it:

Cell differentiation
Basically, how does an embryo form and grow? Like, how...do the cells know what to do? How do they know where to go?? How do they become the correct shape???

Mind you, I am a biochemistry student, so I am supposed to know how to answer this. And I guess I do...but only up to a certain point.
Like, I know DNA->mRNA->Protein...but I don't get how that works on the macroscopic scale. Like, between a certain protein being made and cells assembling themselves into a beating heart, what the f*ck is going on in there?? I just don't get it...

The Discovery of Mathematics
I can deal with math that exists: it may make my brain hurt, but at least everything can be explained...it has to; that's kind of the point. ^^;
Math that doesn't exist yet, though...that, I can't comprehend.

It just never ceases to amaze me that math is just...not real. It's not; it's wholly and completely a human construct. So all these rules and equations that we're exposed to throughout school, from the streamlined and elegant to the nasty and horrible: someone had to invent them.
And someone had to invent whatever they were based on...at some point, someone had to think of numbers as more than a mnemonic device to help you keep track of how many things you have, and as an entity of their own that could be manipulated in the abstract...what a place the inside of their head must have been. '_' I don't think I could do that.

Consciousness
Once I heard that butterflies (or some kind of bug that goes through metamorphosis) can retain memories from before, when they were caterpillars. As in, their whole body liquefies and is rebuilt from the ground up, and somehow, someway, their conscious experiences survive the process.

That was a pretty mind-blowing day for me. Like, Big Bang level mind explosion...

I...just don't even know how to deal with that, if it's true. I feel like maybe there are three possible explanations:

1) The bugs don't completely liquefy; there's some brain remnant floating in the goop that we've just overlooked
2) CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT A TRUE GESTALT SITUATION; IF THE PARTS ARE THERE, WE CAN BRING IT BACK FROM DEATH AND BEYOND...MOTHER NATURE ALREADY KNOWS HOW; WE JUST HAVE TO FIGURE IT OUT
3) Bugs have souls?? Idk

ar-ninetysix 2021-08-22 21:15:41 UTC #47

Money and inflation. Like.. I don't get it, we assign this arbitrary value to a dollar, and somehow it's decided and agreed upon that physically making too much of that currency makes it worth less?? Why??? Why can we not just keep it at the same value? I've received countless explanations and it still doesn't make sense to me.

A dollar is a dollar! Why dollar go less when still same on the paper??? Who invented this concept???? JUST KEEP IT THE SAME!

Kelheor 2021-08-22 21:20:13 UTC #48

Languages with the verb in the end of the sentence.

Yes, German and Japanese, I am talking about you two, crazy handsome bastards.

Sailor 2021-08-22 21:36:25 UTC #49

Lol I speak French and I'll try to explain briefly-

Let's use the sentence 'I'm walking to school' in English

So the walk has three phases. Past present and Future.

.walked
.walk
.walking

In French that'll be

.Marché
.Marche
.Marche

I know in German it's the same- meaning the words 'walk' and 'walking' are the same.
(Gehen)

The only way to know which tense you are talking in- is to use different words to define the verb.

So in other words- you put the verb last.

Sorry if this makes no sense. I'm bad at explaining

Kelheor 2021-08-22 22:13:50 UTC #50

It was actually more of a rhetorical question really, thank you unfortunately French doesn't cut it, it's not in the same league

Sailor 2021-08-22 22:18:20 UTC #51

Makes sense- never mind then lol

telari 2021-08-22 22:21:37 UTC #52

In all honesty, bigots. Like, I can read about and comprehend their backgrounds, but it still escapes me how a person can make a choice to be a piece of sh*t to other people basing solely on their existence.

Kura 2021-08-22 22:22:25 UTC #53

Almost everything haha

I feel like every day I learn something new.

To do something more specific. Almost half the tools in CSP. That program can do so much, and I use a LOT of tools in it very smoothly and without issue, but there's also so much more I have not even touched yet and sometimes when I try to check them out I get overwhelmed and really confused.

DiegoPalacios 2021-08-22 22:43:47 UTC #54

i understand.....they are being selfish......no more logic aside from that

NickRowler 2021-08-22 22:44:52 UTC #55

Why are popular songs for adults from the 1890s to 1910s now considered music for toddlers? Including ones that came from minstrel shows? I know in recent years people have been trying to remove some of the more racist ones from American public schools, but it is sort of weird that they were there in the first place.

Even when I was in school, we had a song book with Little Brown Jug, which is not really a song appropriate for kids.

DokiDokiTsuna 2021-08-22 23:23:07 UTC #56

I don't have a definite answer for this, but I think the question I would ask to someone who might know better is this: If, somehow, there was an invisible mint that magically put extra dollars into people's pockets, and we somehow managed to collectively keep that a secret from the world's governments...what would happen?

I'm pretty sure the concept of 'inflation' is purely arbitrary: if value/currency exists that the powers that be simply aren't aware of, there's no way they can factor it into their make-believe money games. This is why counterfeiting works perfectly fine on the small scale. ^^
The only issue that remains is whether or not the system can make them aware of it at some point...which is what the 'invisible mint' question should clear up. I think one of these things would happen:

A) No one notices/cares. Business owners would see their profits going up and decide not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Economists would see the increase in spending per capita, but chalk it up to some BS 'trickle down' program finally kicking in and call it good. =/ Everything will be hunky-dory until inflation slowly creeps back into the economy over time.

B) Somehow, people's increase in spending power would force a new level of capitalist evil to kick in and 'rebalance' the system. Maybe CEO's would collectively raise the price of literally everything so they can go back to bleeding people dry, or politicians would suddenly decide that taxes are good and we need a LOT more of them.

I'd bet on B. ^^; Although I'd love to hear an expert opinion.

Maybe it's because I've been exposed to Japanese for a while, but I don't see anything that strange about it. We do it in English too, actually...like when we say "Off we go", or "United we stand". It's not the normal word order, but no one blinks an eye when they hear those phrases.

Syntax is generally very flexible; I don't know of any languages (yet) where a little word order switching isn't allowed at least some of the time. ^^;

I think it's just cultural evolution of at work. When a song becomes so old that its original context, or even the meaning of the words themselves fall out of the collective memory...we'll take it if it sounds cute. That's all. ^^;

To be honest, I think a lot of popular/folk songs of that age and older tend to be "cuter" in composition because they were meant to be sung and interacted with...before the age of radio and records made passive listening more accessible to the public.
They are designed to be fun and catchy and easy to learn, and so it kinda makes sense that they get resurrected to be marketed to children.

NickRowler 2021-08-22 23:35:03 UTC #57

Records were invented in 1877 and even then sound recordings predate that. Even movies would have a record playing in place of it's music. Thanks to YouTube and internet archives, we had the ability to listen to original records of some of these songs. And it is debatable if their are cuter. You are My Sunshine is about a depressed person loser their lover and crying, yet is has been appropriated into a love song. Or really weird ones like Go Tell Aunt Rhody.

And then you have stuff that is a bit more recent like This Land Is Your Land which was a protest song.

DiegoPalacios 2021-08-22 23:53:35 UTC #58

I can explain......and avoid using too many fancy words to overcomplicate the explanation

Is kinda crazy, because economics looks like pure math, but is a mix of sociology, psychology and math to understand the behavior of people trading and getting stuff.

Why people care about money?:

The value of money is the ability to make trading stuff and services easier, so instead of wasting hours trading chickens for pigs and pigs for cellphones and cellphones for a computer, we use the money represents value itself that can be traded for stuff.

Money itself is only useful as long as people are willing to accept it. When nobody cares about your money:

You only have to offer a bunch of pieces of paper.....

Differents currencies like dollars, yens and euros, between others are valued based on the perception of the world of their use and the credibility of the country when it comes to business.....

What is inflation: inflation is when money loses it's value. The value of things vary naturally based on how useful it is in the short and long term, how easy or hard is to get something, and the needs of the people buying.

When something becomes easier to get, it becomes less valuable. Maybe one dollar used to get you an apple, but now that getting dollars is easier, you may want more in exchange of the same apple.

Hope this helps, and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

DokiDokiTsuna 2021-08-23 00:33:49 UTC #60

When I said "cute", I meant...well, what I said: in composition. When it comes to people's enjoyment of music, the subject matter or even the lyrics are secondary, even when it comes to modern songs. What matters most is the sound.

Maybe it's composed in a major key, so it just sounds 'happy'. Or maybe the rhythm is bouncy, or the syllables are arranged in a fun way. Or maybe (especially when it comes to folk songs) there are lots of open, sustained vowels that just make you sound good when you sing them. Those are the things that attract people to songs long before they realize what they're about.

And this is a little beside the point, but the point at which something is invented and the point at which it becomes ubiquitous are two different things. Computers were invented decades before they were even available for the average person to buy, let alone a staple in everyone's homes.

wekanian 2021-08-23 03:31:10 UTC #61

Thank youu!!