November 18, 2014
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Unknown answers to questions...
No one had any response to my earlier;
Why is it that the rest of the world is opposite to England when it comes to driving?today's pondering is
Has anyone ever wondered who came up with the idea for pencils... a piece of lead encased in wood?
How is that even done?
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and just an other odd thought:
These days it's hard to tell if it's getting dark, or if it's just getting ready to rain. It gets dark so early now. :-/
Comments (17)
Although we all know about England driving on the wrong side of the road, there are other countries --
New Zealand and Australia, and I believe one or two of the Asian countries also drive on the left side of the road.
What I ponder, is; who is the one driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, with the steering wheels
I am assuming places like
on the 'wrong' side of the car. Who was driving first, and who is it that chose to be different
and why?
I wonder these things. There must have been reasons.
New Zealand, Australia, or the asian countries are influenced by whom they import their
vehicles from? I don't know, and I don't know where to find the answers to such things.
It intrigues me.
Lead is actually a really soft metal, and though it can leave a mark on paper, it's actually graphite that is in pencils today, Graphite is compressed of carbon. It's in wood for a controlable shape, to keep the graphite from breakingto keep our fingers from smudging. I am sure most pencils are made by machine, which drills the hole into the wood and inserts the thin metal cylinder.
The days are getting dark early for us because we are in the northern hemisphere and as the Earth rotates around the sun, it also spins on it's axis, which is tilted, currently away from the sun.
I had a scary thought the other day, about how students just learning to drive, after they have had their permit (not even their license) for 3 months, are allowed to drive up until 10pm, but with the sky getting dark about 5 now, that means there are inexperienced teens driving for several hours after dark. Eeek. It's hard enough as an adult who has been driving for years to do, especially in towns where people jaywalk or bike, wearing dark clothing and no reflectors, and there are many roads without sidewalks or breakdown lanes which makes the danger all the more so.
Ah, drill holes in wood, how simple... now I feel silly.
I think I will google how pencils are made. I don't know the answers to your questions. I wonder about lots of things too. In fact, just the other day my daughter told me I wonder too much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZHp1fGdAWE
Check out this video on You Tube. It was very interesting.
Oh wow, that's quite a process... thanks for sharing.
I still wonder who ever thought of it... how it ever came to be.
I'm always fascinated with how machines can do all those intricate things too.
I enjoyed watching the video on how pencils are made. I had no idea, and wow, what a process it is ... yep, you can learn something new every day! And I love the smell of a freshly sharpened pencil, too! Brings back memories of my school days. Sad, but not many people use them these days with all this new technology right at the tip of our fingers, but me, well I guess I'm just 'old school' ... I prefer a good old fashioned pencil, myself!
As for the differences in driving in other countries - I know it would totally confuse me if I were to sit on the right side of the car to drive on the left side of the road here, but they say the short answer to that question in this article is stubbornness, and it pretty much explains why we do what we do. Thanks for making us curious about things, too!
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/31/the-right-and-left-stuff-why-countries-drive-on-different-sides-of-the-road/
Once again, Google answers.
I conceed that I was wrong evidently b/c I read that it's 2 halves glued together. Now I look the foolish one and can start my day embarrassed. This is why perhaps it's wise not to answer ponderables, besides those that don't know, or don't care, we are all on the internet to blog, so we can and might as well look up anything with a simple engine search. Google, YouTube, Bing etc., all are more than ready and willing to answer just about anything.
In my defense though, when I suggested drilling a hole in wood, I was thinking of someone I know who makes homemade crayons/colored pencils in sticks for the flea market, but that is of course in much lower quantities than the average mass marketed #2 pencil.
Hi Crystal, You shouldn't be embarrassed, and I don't think you look foolish at all
... that's the fun of pondering together... it's fun to know what ideas other people have. I had none.
I think it would just totally disconbobulate me to drive on the other side of the road ~
Me too... it does... it did. I visited the Bahama's once and we rented motor bikes and I did terrible... could not get the hang of it. My mind does not reverse things very well. I have trouble with mirrors too, for the same reason.
My wife hates it getting dark early. lol
I do no know about driving sides of the road. Is it only England? Iwill have to read your comments to see if anyone knew.
It's good to wonder. Wasn't the automobile invented here first? That may mean we are driving the right way and they are driving the wrong way!
Hi Miriam, That's sort of the thing I always wonder... is it because the automobile was invented in the U.S.? but then, why would England go to the bother of manufacturing theirs differently? ??? ponder, ponder Michel shared a link with good information but I don't want to do that much reading. lol
I found this on Wikipedi
I found this on Wikipédia :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic
burt probably you already knew.
Love
Michel