Das hier ist zwar schon etwas älter, gehört aber zwingend in mein Blog. Der geniale Randall Munroe aka XKCD hat vor einiger Zeit drölfhundert Warum-Fragen aus Googles Autocomplete-Dingens kopiert und ein Poster daraus gemacht. Redditer GeeJo hat sich dann mal hingesetzt und alle beantwortet.

Alle.

Wie kann man das Internet nicht lieben? Ich hätte davon gerne für den Fall der Fälle eine lokale Kopie angelegt, bin daran aber kläglich gescheitert weil da ständig Kommentare dazwischen sind

Update: lokale Kopie (danke, Eloi!)

Why are there celebrities?
"Celebrity worship" is just another form of submission to authority. Organisms get more done in teams than as a bunch of individuals (specialisation and mutual dependency are very strong weapons if you can set up an environment where you can actually rely on them). This is true from the very simplest organisms (biofilms beat out lone bacteria in many conditions) right up to us humans. Once you have a team in place, those teams who agree to coordinate their efforts through a leader (however that leader is chosen) outperform those without any leaders. There are moral arguments against subjugation (read up on the philosophy of Anarchism for more) but evolutionarily it's proven to be a winning formula, and submission to authority is deeply rooted in human psychology - see the Milgram experiment or Asch's conformity experiments for backup. Celebrity worship is an outgrowth of this phenomenon. People attribute celebrities with strong personal or leadership qualities, and then seek to emulate them.

Why are there trees in the middle of fields?
They provide shade for field-workers during breaks. Less relevant now with increasing mechanisation, so most are there these days because they've "always" been there, and getting rid of trees is a bitch of a job.

Why are there doors on the freeway?
Maintenance access. That or portals to alternate realities, depending on whether you've read 1Q84.

Why is there kicking in my stomach?
You know those sticks you can buy that you pee on and get one line or two? You might want to go and get one of those. And then schedule an appointment with a doctor.

Why are there so many svchost.exe running?
Failsafing. The svchost processes handle background services for the operating system. You have a lot of them because it means that if there's an error with one service (and hence one svchost process) it doesn't bring down the whole thing. There are other ways of handling this, but this is the way that Windows chose to go.

Why are there scary sounds in Minecraft?
Because they add to a sense of danger, which gives a bit more of a thrill to players. It also gives another incentive to avoid Creepers, as the explosion scares the bejeezus out of me every time, even without the environmental damage.

| Abgelegt unter Internetmythen, Nützlich
The views expressed by the author are personal.