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Questions that you always wanted to ask but were afraid to ask (Page 2)
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ghporter
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Nov 15, 2015, 11:04 AM
 
Originally Posted by mindwaves View Post
Why do people care so much about their alma mater? I left mind in the dust long ago, while others proudly display their university logos everywhere.
I think it has to do with how many people "become adults" and "become themselves" while attending a university. Part of it is the social conditioning, part of it is "good old days," and part of it is the alma mater being a major factor in the person's coming of age (socialization, group norms, etc.).

I have attended a bunch of "institutions of higher education," primarily because Uncle Sam liked to let me get close to finishing a degree program and then whisking me off to some other place, whose schools didn't have a similar program or where I had to repeat courses because "those classes don't count." I am not very nostalgic for most of those schools because they weren't as much instruments of my adulthood as tools to reach goals.

I am fondest of my last school, where I earned both a BS and a Master of Occupational Therapy degree. I attribute that to the camaraderie among my class and the unique way occupational therapy drew each of us to the school. But I think this had less to do with my "coming of age" than about finding a real calling and sharing that with a bunch of other folks. I was in my 40s when I went to OT school...

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Nov 15, 2015, 11:29 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
It would have to be significantly more than that, no?

The rotor not only needs to keep the choppy going through something significantly more resistant than grass, it needs to accommodate all the extra weight from the reinforcement.

So, you beef up the rotor, and all the linkages, and armor them.

Now you're front heavy, so you weigh down the back with armor.

Crap... I did mention your engine isn't running at peak efficiency because you're using grain alcohol as fuel, right?
They run on diesel, so treated cooking oil should be fine. Plus zombies are a lot drier than humans and subsequently weigh a lot less, I doubt they would be much more difficult to combine than sorghum or barley (aside from the bones). Just reinforce the rotor, put an equal weight on the back, rebar the cockpit, and chop away. Oh, and 2 guys need to ride on the roof with shotguns, to pick off the ones from the sides.
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subego
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Nov 15, 2015, 03:39 PM
 
The bones are a non-trivial problem. Bones are notorious for breaking your choppy. Which I'll note if that happens you are well and truly ****ed.

As for fuel, let's make a deal... after the apocalypse, you can put your bottle caps in cooking oil futures, and I'll put mine in the moonshine market.

May the best resource win.
     
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Nov 15, 2015, 04:18 PM
 
Diesel vs ethanol? You're on!
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mindwaves  (op)
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Nov 19, 2015, 10:00 PM
 
What is so special about Jersey, which I think refers to New Jersey? People seem to be so enthusiastic about themselves.
     
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Nov 20, 2015, 09:37 AM
 
Apocalyptic Mega-fauna and the Clovis peoples: Was it really the Younger-Dryas comet/ cataclysmic glacial melt that did them in - or were they just too damn lazy?
"Faster, faster! 'Till the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." - HST
     
Laminar
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Nov 20, 2015, 11:26 AM
 
Originally Posted by mindwaves View Post
What is so special about Jersey, which I think refers to New Jersey? People seem to be so enthusiastic about themselves.
It's like the South. It's garbage, but that's endearing to those that live there and their minds twist it as somehow being better, so they end up taking some kind of backwards pride in their imagined superiority.
JK <3 Jawbone
     
subego
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Nov 20, 2015, 02:19 PM
 
I'd say the residents believe the shithole aspect allows people there to "keep it real" in a way other states (coff... New York... coff) cannot.
     
Cap'n Tightpants
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Nov 20, 2015, 02:28 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
It's like the South. It's garbage, but that's endearing to those that live there and their minds twist it as somehow being better, so they end up taking some kind of backwards pride in their imagined superiority.
JK <3 Jawbone
I wish more Midwesterners felt that way, then they'd go somewhere else while on vacation and quit clogging our better driving roads.
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mindwaves  (op)
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Nov 21, 2015, 08:39 PM
 
Thanks for all of the answers. Here is the next one:

Does traditional Middle Eastern food (Iranian/Persian, Saudi Arabia, etc) serve a salad for dinner or lunch? Whenever I go to restaurants here in Socal, I get served a salad that is heavy on cucumbers and tomatoes on a bed of lettuce. Is it the same in traditional Middle Eastern food?
     
ghporter
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Nov 23, 2015, 07:20 PM
 
That's very common in Mediterranean food, and a lot of those "Middle Eastern" cuisines are quite similar.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
mindwaves  (op)
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Nov 23, 2015, 10:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
That's very common in Mediterranean food, and a lot of those "Middle Eastern" cuisines are quite similar.
Thanks, I just was wondering because I would think growing lettuce in the arid environment would be harsh, thus the lettuce based salad might be non-traditional. I don't eat much of the food, but I do like what I taste.
     
subego
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Nov 24, 2015, 07:23 AM
 
My understanding is it's only sorta traditional.

The Mediterranean and ME have lots of non lettuce salads, like a tabbouleh. There's also "Arab salad", which will usually be something like cucumbers, tomato, onion, and olives. No lettuce. The grocery store near me sells "Greek salad", which is this. I'm sure you'd get a sock in the puss if you said it was Arab, even though it's the exact same thing.

There are salads which do call for lettuce, like a fattoush, though it isn't officially required. What makes a fattoush a fattoush is pita croutons.

My guess is you are correct in that it's far less traditional than in the west, but is so cheap, that when it's available, it gets used to bulk things out.
     
mindwaves  (op)
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Nov 29, 2015, 12:36 PM
 
Thanks.

Do people use the wardrobe or drawers for their clothes when in a hotel?

I usually keep everything still folded in my suitcase and hang up a few items. Never ever use the wardrobe or drawers.
     
ghporter
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Nov 29, 2015, 03:58 PM
 
I unpack if I'm going to be there for more than a day or so. I hang stuff up, put stuff in drawers, etc., but only if I'm staying long enough. Overnight? Nope.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
subego
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Nov 29, 2015, 05:51 PM
 
I have to be staying over a week to do that.
     
andi*pandi
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Nov 29, 2015, 07:02 PM
 
Yep, I might hang up something, but don't use the drawers unless I'm going to be someplace a long time. My suitcase is usually packed well enough that I know where things are at.
     
mattyb
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Dec 1, 2015, 07:53 AM
 
Shirts, trousers, pants, jackets, coats etc all get hung up. In whatever you want to call it.
     
mindwaves  (op)
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Dec 2, 2015, 09:28 PM
 
Thanks. Next question: Where are all of the flies in my house coming from? I live in SoCal and all of my windows are closed with the screens installed with no tears. I only open the door for a couple of seconds to leave. I have killed 30 flies every day for the past 5 days. Are they coming in through the central air vents?

They are very easy to kill as they seem to be cold and don't buzz around much and flock around the windows.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Dec 3, 2015, 07:47 PM
 
Originally Posted by mindwaves View Post
Thanks. Next question: Where are all of the flies in my house coming from? I live in SoCal and all of my windows are closed with the screens installed with no tears. I only open the door for a couple of seconds to leave. I have killed 30 flies every day for the past 5 days. Are they coming in through the central air vents?

They are very easy to kill as they seem to be cold and don't buzz around much and flock around the windows.
Do you have a cat? It brought something in and it crawled into a hiding place and died.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
BadKosh
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Dec 8, 2015, 11:19 AM
 
Can I have some more porridge?
     
subego
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Dec 8, 2015, 11:43 AM
 
I highly recommend porridge with just some salt.
     
mindwaves  (op)
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Dec 8, 2015, 11:58 AM
 
No cat. But nothing that eight rolls of fly sticky traps hanged near the windows couldn't handle.
     
subego
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Dec 8, 2015, 12:05 PM
 
Instead of a tear in the screen, there may be a place where the frame for a screen isn't seated properly... though this is probably not the problem if your windows are closed.
     
BadKosh
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Dec 8, 2015, 03:39 PM
 
WHO are you?

WHAT do you want?
     
BadKosh
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Dec 8, 2015, 03:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by mindwaves View Post
Thanks. Next question: Where are all of the flies in my house coming from? I live in SoCal and all of my windows are closed with the screens installed with no tears. I only open the door for a couple of seconds to leave. I have killed 30 flies every day for the past 5 days. Are they coming in through the central air vents?

They are very easy to kill as they seem to be cold and don't buzz around much and flock around the windows.
The need something to eat.

Fruit left somewhere?
Plate of food forgotten?
Dead animal someplace?

Are they more concentrated in one place than another?
Try closing the doors to all rooms in the place for a few hours (4-7) to see better where they are coming from.
Are they fruit flies, black flies, bottle flies or something else?
     
mindwaves  (op)
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Dec 9, 2015, 04:41 PM
 
No food left anywhere. No dead animals that I know of. They seem to be clustering around the windows facing N and S more or less. They are all adult flies, so no baby flies are being born inside the house.

Next question: How come I always receive less than the amount on an international wire transfer? For example, if someone internationally wires me $5,000, I only receive $4,975 or $4,985. That is a loss of $15-$25. I then am fined a wire fee of $15. How come the bank cannot give me $5,000 (and then fines me $15 wire fee)?
     
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Dec 9, 2015, 06:06 PM
 
Probably the sender has to pay a fee as well, and whoever sends it doesn't know that. His bank takes the fee, sends the rest to you, and your bank takes a fee. Banks are run on fees like that, fees you don't see.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
subego
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Dec 9, 2015, 07:35 PM
 
I've had places demand I check for fees and tack on the extra if they are incurred.
     
mindwaves  (op)
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Dec 9, 2015, 10:51 PM
 
Originally Posted by P View Post
Probably the sender has to pay a fee as well, and whoever sends it doesn't know that. His bank takes the fee, sends the rest to you, and your bank takes a fee. Banks are run on fees like that, fees you don't see.
I assume that the sender also has a fee and that is paid by the sender himself/herself.
     
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Dec 10, 2015, 01:43 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
I've had places demand I check for fees and tack on the extra if they are incurred.
Pricejapan does that, sometimes after the fact. It's annoying.
"I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a
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ajprice
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Dec 21, 2015, 07:43 AM
 
'There is 8 pints of blood in the human body'

That must be an average size human. I'm 6'6 and 220lb, a girl in work is 5' and 100lb. How much blood is there in me and in her?

It'll be much easier if you just comply.
     
subego
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Dec 21, 2015, 01:31 PM
 
The more important question is if you have enough skin for her to make a coat out of you.
     
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Dec 21, 2015, 01:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by BadKosh View Post
WHO are you?

WHAT do you want?
Well done.
     
el chupacabra
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Feb 8, 2016, 03:49 PM
 
Why are batteries round? Rectangular would be a more efficient shape.
     
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Feb 8, 2016, 04:56 PM
 
Interesting question. From some light research, it seems that it comes from early manufacturing techniques - make one thin sheet the anode and the other the cathode, with electrolyte in-between and isolators on the outside - then roll the whole package up for convenient storage. If you put the respective connectors at opposite corners of the original sandwich, they will end up one in the center on the top and one on the outside at the bottom.

This matches up reasonably well with what I know of Volta and his early batteries, which were sandwiches with connectors at opposite corners and then connected in series for sufficient voltage. Batteries in smartphones and similar are made as similar sandwiches, except never rolled up, just stacked on top of each other.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
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Feb 8, 2016, 10:10 PM
 
If we're talking about AA batteries, the anode is basically a nail in the center, so the interior surface of a cylinder shaped case acting as cathode is equidistant of the center at the entire radius. A square shaped battery would have corners farther from the center than the sides, which is fine for a car battery where the cathodes and anodes are flat plates sandwiched together.
     
ghporter
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Feb 8, 2016, 10:14 PM
 
Yep, it's much simpler to make batteries with large electrodes, and cramming them into a contained space by rolling them just works. Some types of capacitors are made this way for the same reason; you can get bigger plates into a reasonable-sized package by rolling them up together.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
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Feb 9, 2016, 02:59 PM
 
If you crack open a rectangular 9v battery it's two stacks of disc shaped cells.
     
subego
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Feb 9, 2016, 03:26 PM
 
This has been known to happen as well:

     
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Feb 9, 2016, 05:58 PM
 
This was a long time ago, but back in the dawn of time we did crack open a 9V battery, and it was six cylinders next to each other. The production process improved, but the shape was fixed.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
ghporter
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Feb 9, 2016, 09:54 PM
 
The first time I cracked open a 9v battery, it was one stack of rectangular cells. More recently, they have been found with what seem to be 6 AAAA (or even smaller) cylindrical cells in them. Go figure.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
ajprice
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Feb 10, 2016, 03:38 AM
 
So is a watch battery a single one of those cells connected up inside a case?

It'll be much easier if you just comply.
     
ghporter
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Feb 12, 2016, 01:41 PM
 
More like the stacks of SR41*-style batteries, but yes, like that.

Why build "new" batteries when you can just "package" the others you make in different ways? It's probably an "efficiency" thing. But it's also something that gives you options; if your brand of 9v batteries has SR41s in it and something else you have uses SR41s, the 9v battery is probably a cheaper source than just buying SR41s.

*The SR41 is a common "coin cell" battery that is equivalent to the following batteries:
G3, LR4192, LR736, A63, AG3, SR41SW, 325, 384, 392, LR41, SR736, SB-A1/D1, 280-18, V384, D384, 247, GP192, GP384, S736E, SR736PW, SR736SW, TR41SW, SR41W, V392, Seiko SB-B1, Seiko SB-A1, Citizen 280-13, Citizen 280-18, Timex K, 192
...and probably a lot of others.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
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Feb 12, 2016, 10:48 PM
 
This thread conjures up a thought-provoking question about life...

What kind of trail does a rabbit leave if he wipes his heinie as he goes?
     
mindwaves  (op)
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Feb 16, 2016, 04:12 PM
 
Who do Americans (or Westerners) put cheese on everything?

From noodles (spaghetti, mac & cheese, lasagna), to meat (hamburger), vegetables (broccoli with cheese sauce, salad), to fish (fish sticks with cheese, maybe?), to fruit (apple slices with cheese sauce?), I always see cheese being added to everything.

I was born and raised in the US, but have rarely eaten the typical American meal (or Western meal), so this peaks my curiosity.

I only like cheese on some noodles (but just a little), hamburgers and sandwiches (just sometimes) and nothing else.
     
Paco500
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Feb 16, 2016, 04:19 PM
 
We like the way it tastes.

Originally Posted by mindwaves View Post
Who do Americans (or Westerners) put cheese on everything?

From noodles (spaghetti, mac & cheese, lasagna), to meat (hamburger), vegetables (broccoli with cheese sauce, salad), to fish (fish sticks with cheese, maybe?), to fruit (apple slices with cheese sauce?), I always see cheese being added to everything.

I was born and raised in the US, but have rarely eaten the typical American meal (or Western meal), so this peaks my curiosity.

I only like cheese on some noodles (but just a little), hamburgers and sandwiches (just sometimes) and nothing else.
     
ghporter
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Feb 16, 2016, 10:25 PM
 
I agree - cheese tastes good. It goes on migas, it goes on any form of bread, and it goes on noodle dishes very nicely. For me, which cheese makes a huge difference. Burgers are almost always better with cheddar (preferably sharp), but a nice turkey sandwich does better with a lighter cheese like provalone. Italian style noodles get grated Parmesan (on top of whatever sauce I'm using), but Asian noodles don't get any cheese.

Sidebar: "everybody knows" how horrible pre-packaged ramen noodles are for you, right? Not really. The noodles are actually pretty decent, but the broth mix/devil's brew that comes with them is like 90% salt and MSG. Cook the noodles in low-sodium bouillon and you get yummy noodles without the chemistry.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
subego
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Feb 17, 2016, 12:07 PM
 
Let's say you want to spin your space ring to get 1G.

What's the minimum ring diameter for this to be effective?
     
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Feb 17, 2016, 05:25 PM
 
Originally Posted by mindwaves View Post
Who do Americans (or Westerners) put cheese on everything?
Good cheese is one of the best foods there is. And there is so much variety. When eating mostly cheese as one might with a cheese board, its common to pair fruits or preserves that are quite sharp or acidic with a good strong cheddar. Hence apple slices. Its a great combo, but don't waste your time with that awful orange plastic crap. Get some real farmhouse cheddar that was made wrapped in cheese cloth and left in a shed or a cave for 6 months.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
 
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