no.stupid.answers

Here’s a mystery word for you: succah. It’s pronounced soo-KAH or SOOK-uh.

If you know what it is, how it should be built and what you’re supposed to do inside it, what are you waiting for? Start answering before you-know-what is over.

If you’re wondering why on earth these huts have been popping up in backyards recently, let’s see if we can’t get you some answers.

• What is a succah? I know the answer! | Tell me
• How should a succah be built? I know the answer! | Tell me
• How is a succah used? I know the answer! | Tell me
  

There are a lot of new categories on WikiAnswers lately: Exotic Pets, Canadian Football, Eli Whitney, Copernicus…

One new category on the block, Household Hints, has really caught my eye. Get a load of these questions!

Some creative cleaning issues:

• How can you remove the scent of a stinky person from a microfiber couch?
• How do you get shredded paper off a sweat jacket it was accidentally washed with?
• What is the best way to wash pillows in the washer?

Your basic household maintenance:

• How can you unclog a toilet with no plunger?
• What is the best way to stop a vinyl window from squeaking when it is being opened and closed?
• Can dog urine damage vinyl siding?
• What is the effect of light on the color of paint?

A green question:

• Why would your refrigerator be consuming more energy than usual?

And my favorite…

• What household item is lithium found in?

Take a crack at these questions - if you succeed, there will be some very grateful people out there.

Visit the What’s New page to see a running list of the newest WikiAnswers categories.

Let’s talk about moving things. On Earth, we’re always on the move (or so they tell us), but we don’t feel it. There are other places, too, where we can be jetting along at, oh, hundreds of miles an hour, and not feel that, either. For example, on excruciatingly long leg-bending neck-cricking plane rides, why does it feel like you’re going nowhere?

When it comes to machines, we know that they move. We can see it and usually we can feel it. But the rules that govern that motion elude us. Take the bicycle - a brillant two-wheeled invention that translates radial motion (what your feet do) into lateral motion (the bike’s movement forward). We all know that if you sit on a non-moving bike and take your feet off the ground, you’ll tip over pretty quickly. But put that same body on the same moving bike and - voila! - you are magically one with the machine, perched easily atop it. If gravity is constant, and you weigh the same, and of course the bike is the same… why does motion change everything?

Some movements are so fast - or slow - as to defy sight and sound. A hummingbird’s flutter can’t be seen at high speeds, and glass moves so slowly that it appears stagnant, like a solid - even though it’s really an amorphous liquid. And an object moving quickly enough can break the sound barrier, which actually causes a huge bang.

Two bonus questions for mechanics aficionados:

• Can a simple pendulum oscillate in a moving satellite?
• Where will a rock hit the ground if you drop it out a moving vehicle?

Today’s topic, motion, was chosen in honor of the new Batch Recat tool. (Supers: read more about it here; non-supers: here’s how to become one!)

If you paid me, I couldn’t tell you why I was wondering today, What is that red thing hanging down from the rooster’s chin?

If you’ve ever watched Ally McBeal, you’ll know the answer to this one. The flap of loose skin, found on roosters, turkeys, rabbits, some dog and goat varieties and even some humans, is called a wattle. Some bird species have wattles hanging from their eyes as well.

Just FYI, the rooster’s red hat is called a comb. And turkeys have a special blob of skin covering their beaks, called a snood. The bumpy stuff on their necks is a caruncle (vocab quiz next Thursday, kids).

Still, as I scavenged the web for information about this fleshy appendage, I was left hungry for more. Why do some animals have wattles? What are they for? Are they just fatty extras, or did they have an ancient evolutionary purpose?

Luckily, I was able to turn to Nirel, one of my coworkers, who has zoo-keeping experience and a ready answer for everything. According to Nirel,

I think this is the equivalent to the tail of a peacock - a measure of the health of the turkey, and therefore a bigger redder brighter wattle is a chick magnet, which will increase the fitness (number of offspring) of an individual.

Thanks, Nirel, for your wisdom. That explains the appeal of Judge Whipper.

Next week: Why do pigeons bob their heads?

Summertime, and the livin’ is…. beesy.

Does PICNIC = BEES? Why are there always so many bees at picnics? Just today, I was lunching outdoors with a friend when a humongous furry bee-thing decided to Merengue in our marinara. After 10 terrifying minutes, we packed up the food and went inside.

So, what attracted that bee to our spaghetti?

Bees are simply attracted to picnics for the same reason humans are: food! Honey bees are attracted to sweets (hello, apple juice can!) and water (we had some of that, too). They also like tree sap (they use it to caulk up their nests to keep the ants out).

What’s bugging me is: I’d rather have my picnic and eat, too. Can you help me?

• How do you keep bees away from BBQs and picnics?
• How do you get bees to leave a picnic without killing them?
• How do you keep bees off a picnic umbrella?

Has this ever happened to you? There you are, drifting softly into sleep, when all of a sudden -

- your arms flail, your legs shudder and you’re awake again. Oh, why DO we twitch as we fall asleep?

The myoclonic twitch (a brain-stem reflex also known as a hypnic jerk or hypnagogic startle) is experienced while sleeping or while falling asleep and is thought to be associated with the reticular activating system.

In plain English, as you fall asleep, your body goes through certain steps to relax and prepare for sleep. Your breathing slows, your muscles relax, and your brain shuts off certain sensory inputs - including those from your inner ear. It seems that if the brain is still too alert when it halts input from the inner ear, this triggers a reflex to startle and reach out - not unlike the sensation you have right after you realize you’re falling.

Chin up

We’ve all dozed off in class, waking up with a snap as our heads jerk back up. And it usually feels like the whole class (and the guy by the blackboard) has seen the dramatic movement.

Well, for those whose entire formal education was punctuated by frequent hypnic jerks, here’s something that might help you feel a little less embarrassed. It turns out that hypnic jerks happen most frequently to those who are resisting sleep - not those who are trying to succumb to it. So chin up, folks. You didn’t mean it.