Easy Questions?

[goat starer]

gluten strands are sticky because otherwise they would be useless for making dough. God made them that way so we would not starve.

[Swatopluk]

Swato, you have been evil, why don't you answer the questions to which you already know the answer?

That would be showing off (and I would have to look it up)
The simple answer: adhesion
But that is about as useful as "why is water coming fro the sky?" "because it is raining" = a tautology

Edit: I looked it up (Sorry, it's German)
http://www.foodmultimedia.de/brotbackwaren/archiv/index.php3?id=1365
Seems that there is still a debate about the exact reason.

[Sibling Chatty]

Silly boy peoples. This is a COOKING answer.

So it won't fly apart when it gets hot and thus make the oven messy!

Banged grains, good. Exploded bread, bad.

[Griffin NoName]

Same reason as babies have sticky hands. For clinging onto mother's back without falling off during trips across the savanah, possibly between cooking pots.

[ivor]

I think love makes them cling together. 

[Sibling Chatty]

I think love makes them cling together. 

[Swatopluk]

That was the idea of an ancient Greek philosopher (pre-Socratic, Xanthippe didn't like her husband to comment on kitchen matters).

[Swatopluk]

Why was there no 90th anniversary of the discovery of America*?
(The answer is not that celebrating was not yet common)

*by Columbus (not the Vikings, Irish monks, prehistoric men etc.)

[beagle]

The plebs were too busy rioting about the theft of days from their lives due to the calendar switch?

Or an astrologer had predicted George W?

----

By the way, studies by British car insurers show astrologers have the lowest accident rate; doctors the highest.

[Griffin NoName]

Easy question: how do I become an astrologer?

[Swatopluk]

beagle got it right. The 90th anniversary would have been on a day that did not take plave due to the switch from Julian to Greogrian calendar

Griffin, that's written in the stars what's in the cards for you
There are some (otherwise reputable) universities where one can officially study astrology, btw.

[Swatopluk]

Okay, back to everyday observations.

I find that water cookers* that have collected a lot of scale/fur/tartar/"chalk" cook much louder, while a new or recently cleaned one cooks almost without making any sound at all. WHY?

*I mean not big boilers to heat your bath but the 0.5-2 l electric things to provide hot water e.g. for tea

[Sibling Chatty]

Mineral solids are mineral solids? And when agitated (by heated water, which produces motion)--they make a sound?

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

But the tea pot gunk collects on the bottom, I would think. I certainly wouldn't boil water with an ooky one, so I assume that Swato would not.

Maybe it's an uneven distribution of heat? The crud on the bottom would alter the path of the heat, I think. So it makes funny noises.

I dunno. BSing right there.

[Griffin NoName]

I have this Thing that looks like a roll of steel string I put in my kettle.

It attracts all the limescale and you can just wash it out under a running tap.

Naturally, it rattles around.

That's why my kettle makes a lot of noise.