[Cap'n Tightpants]

It's Leo as a chick, in his youth he was the Renaissance trans dream. What's not to like about that?

[mindwaves]

Originally Posted by el chupacabra 

Whats so special about the Mona Lisa painting, it's kind of plain isn't it?
On a similar note why is most Renaissance art focused on religion, isn't there anything else to paint other than bible characters?

Mona Lisa, along with many other related things, is super overrated. Just a few people making a big deal about nothing which causes the entire world to wonder and contemplate about nothing. It is just a painting!!

[P]

Originally Posted by el chupacabra 

On a similar note why is most Renaissance art focused on religion, isn't there anything else to paint other than bible characters?

A combination of many things. The Renaissance involved the reformation, and perhaps more relevant the counter-reformation. That involved monks walking around destroying or straight up defacing works of art they didn't like. In some cases, they didn't stop at destroying the art. Painting a biblical motive was a good way to guard against that.

Also note that everything was works for hire - whoever paid decided the motive. Painting a biblical motive may have been a way for whoever ordered to demonstrate their allegiance; much art was also paid for by the church or donated to it.

[mindwaves]

Does anyone like this modern plating style?

I'm talking about Restaurant Impossible restaurant remakes and other more modern restaurants which basically does one to two things to the plating of the food:

1) Put some grain on the bottom of the plate (usually mashed potatoes or rice) and top that with a huge piece of meat and top of 1-2 small pieces of veggies and sauce. Basically looks like a tower.
2) Put some sauce on the plate and smear it across with a spoon.

Issue with #1: I don't want my food to be touching, especially mixing my steak/chicken/fish with my potatoes. I want to eat one at a time and not have mixed flavors. Looks pretty but fails. I don't want a tower on my plate. If I want to cut my steak/chicken/fish, I have to push it off to the side and then cut it.

Issue with #2: Smearing anything is disgusting, but somehow is perfectly acceptable in fancier restaurants. Double standards.

[Waragainstsleep]

Why is smearing disgusting?

[subego]

Painters are going to be in trouble once they find out.

[ajprice]

Originally Posted by mindwaves 

Does anyone like this modern plating style?

I'm talking about Restaurant Impossible restaurant remakes and other more modern restaurants which basically does one to two things to the plating of the food:

1) Put some grain on the bottom of the plate (usually mashed potatoes or rice) and top that with a huge piece of meat and top of 1-2 small pieces of veggies and sauce. Basically looks like a tower.
2) Put some sauce on the plate and smear it across with a spoon.

Issue with #1: I don't want my food to be touching, especially mixing my steak/chicken/fish with my potatoes. I want to eat one at a time and not have mixed flavors. Looks pretty but fails. I don't want a tower on my plate. If I want to cut my steak/chicken/fish, I have to push it off to the side and then cut it.

Issue with #2: Smearing anything is disgusting, but somehow is perfectly acceptable in fancier restaurants. Double standards.

We Want Plates

[mattyb]

Originally Posted by el chupacabra 

Whats so special about the Mona Lisa painting, it's kind of plain isn't it?
On a similar note why is most Renaissance art focused on religion, isn't there anything else to paint other than bible characters?

It is plain, and small. When you see it physically its such a let down.

Renaissance art is also lots of nudity for some reason. I never understood how they could get away with nudity at that period. Everyone was such a prude, except for the Borgias of course. They shagged anything that moved.

[P]

I suspect that quite a lot of them shagged anything that moved, it is just that the Borgias' dirty laundry was aired in public by their main enemy (and successor Pope) - who also had at least one illegitimate child. One can trace the spread of STDs across Europe in this era by the major Church conclaves, so the Borgias were hardly alone.

[ghporter]

Here's one: why are most school buses built on truck chassis? That makes them heavy, slow, inefficient, and prone to rolling. City buses seem to be just fine with low ground clearance and low centers of gravity, so why not school buses?

[P]

I hesitate to respond here, because this is just something I heard rather than know. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong:

The story I've heard is that nobody wants to produce and certify a new model school bus because the legal liability from any safety defect would be huge while school districts are poor and unable to spend much, so they keep running models first designed decades ago. Buses used to be designed more like trucks, so that's what school buses are. Slightly less cynically, it could be a repeat of the Ford Crown Victoria taxi situation - loads of spare parts and mechanics who only know one model creating a barrier to entry.

I do know that nobody makes money off of city buses today. All big manufacturers make them as part of another business (usually trucks) which is what pays the bills, and the city buses barely break even. The reason is the broken bidding process, where every city specifies the bus they want slightly differently, forcing manufacturers to make short special build series instead of having a few standard models with options, the way cars and trucks work.

[mindwaves]

How to people get on TV/front page of a major news website?

I see news broadcasting about a cat up a tree to a lady taking pictures of herself on a honeymoon without her husband every day. How do the news sites pick these things up and why does it deserve placing on the main page?

[mindwaves]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

Why is smearing disgusting?

Smeared paint


Smeared underwear


Would ordinarily be considered a mistake, but in a fancy restaurant, it is art!

[subego]

Originally Posted by mindwaves 

How to people get on TV/front page of a major news website?

I see news broadcasting about a cat up a tree to a lady taking pictures of herself on a honeymoon without her husband every day. How do the news sites pick these things up and why does it deserve placing on the main page?

In TV this is called a "kicker", and is usually what they sign off with.

I always assumed the idea is the news is so utterly depressing, they want to leave you on a lighter/happier note.

One of the Onion's better gags is taking some horrible story – the one I recall was about a bear raping a zookeeper to death – and writing it like it's a kicker.

[subego]

Originally Posted by mindwaves 

Smeared paint


Smeared underwear


Would ordinarily be considered a mistake, but in a fancy restaurant, it is art!

Since it's usually done purely for presentation purposes, a decent chef will take pains to make it not look like a skid mark. That said, there are better presentation tricks to be had.

[osiris]

I wonder if Geico is aware that the music in their motorcycle insurance ads are about going to a whore house.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

I thought it was a strip club?

[subego]

Cord cutter...

What song?

[osiris]

Originally Posted by subego 

Cord cutter...

What song?

La Grange

Rumour spreadin' a-'round in that Texas town
'bout that shack outside La Grange
and you know what I'm talkin' about.
Just let me know if you wanna go
to that home out on the range.
They gotta lotta nice girls.

Have mercy.
A haw, haw, haw, haw, a haw.
A haw, haw, haw.

Well, I hear it's fine if you got the time
and the ten to get yourself in.
A hmm, hmm.
And I hear it's tight most ev'ry night,
but now I might be mistaken.
hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.

Have mercy.

[osiris]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

I thought it was a strip club?

perhaps, but I always read it the other way. The song refers to it as a shack and a home, so that to me means whore house. We need to bring an expert in on this.

wikiwhatever had this:

"The song refers to a brothel on the outskirts of La Grange, Texas (later called the "Chicken Ranch"). The brothel is also the subject of the Broadway play and film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the latter starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grange_(song)

[subego]

So, the connection is "insure your cycle with Geico like you insure your dick with an industrial-grade tarp".

[osiris]

what a wonderful world we live in.

[subego]

What is this thing on the pet carrier for?

[osiris]

That's so you can clip it onto your shirt pocket.

I have no idea.

[subego]

I even asked at the vet once, and they had no idea either.

The best I've been able to improvise is shoving the discharge papers under it.

[andi*pandi]

air? for when crates go on airplanes and the holes on the sides might be blocked by luggage?

All I know is, for my cats it would be a sniper vent for claw slashing vengeance to the poor sucker holding the handle.

[subego]

This is their pattern for letting in air, which makes me think it's also supposed to do something else.

[Cap'n Tightpants]

It's to secure the carrier with a car seatbelt.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Cap'n Tightpants 

It's to secure the carrier with a car seatbelt.

****ing brilliant. Thank you!

[osiris]

That's why he gets the big bucks.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by osiris 

La Grange

Rumour spreadin' a-'round in that Texas town
'bout that shack outside La Grange
and you know what I'm talkin' about.
Just let me know if you wanna go
to that home out on the range.
They gotta lotta nice girls.

Have mercy.
A haw, haw, haw, haw, a haw.
A haw, haw, haw.

Well, I hear it's fine if you got the time
and the ten to get yourself in.
A hmm, hmm.
And I hear it's tight most ev'ry night,
but now I might be mistaken.
hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm.

Have mercy.

Not just any whore house. The "Chicken Ranch." Apparently it was a pretty popular place "back in the day."

La Grange, Texas is a very sleepy little town. It was just a wide spot on the road when I was doing radio repair work out of Austin in the early 1980s, but this was after ZZ Top's song from 1973, and of course after Marvin Zindler. (Look him up, he was something of a Houston celebrity.)

Whatever the song is "about," it's a [email protected] riding song.

[osiris]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Whatever the song is "about," it's a [email protected] riding song.

and it must be played loud!

edit: had no idea it was the Chicken Ranch... that's some bit of Texas history right there.

Why do I feel like I have an asthma attack after I take a giant number two?

[Doc HM]

Originally Posted by And.reg 

Why do I feel like I have an asthma attack after I take a giant number two?

It's called Dump shock*







*not a proper medical term

[osiris]

I believe a vacuum forms inside you, hence the asthma attack.

Separate question:

Knowing that fairly-decent modern PC laptops cost $500 for people who, for the most part, just need to get things done for home and work... in comparison, what is the sense in having Apple's laptops span a $2000 price range for the same purposes?

[P]

That people buy them at those prices?

[Waragainstsleep]

They last a lot longer as a rule.
Part of it is the same reason you spend $50k on a BMW when you could get a Ford for $30k. (I don't know the prices of Fords or BMWs but you get the idea).

[P]

That's why people pay the prices, yes, but basically, Apple charges what it can get away with.

[subego]

I had a friend who bought an MBA. She got the smaller one, used it for a week, and then decided she wanted the bigger one.

Nervous, she called the store asking what she should do.

Their response was "walk in with that computer, then walk out with a new computer and a smile".

[andi*pandi]

The perception of quality, the perception of longevity (a mac will run for years and years) and ease of use.

[Doc HM]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

The perception of quality, the perception of longevity (a mac will run for years and years) and ease of use.

Actual not perceptual longevity. I have dozens of clients happily rolling along with 2008 iMacs, MacBook Pro's, etc. All running the latest OS. Yes they may miss out on hand off, Airplay etc but these are not power users. They are people who paid £1000 8 years or so ago and are still getting good use from their investment.

[Doc HM]

Originally Posted by subego 

I had a friend who bought an MBA. She got the smaller one, used it for a week, and then decided she wanted the bigger one.

Nervous, she called the store asking what she should do.

Their response was "walk in with that computer, then walk out with a new computer and a smile".

This.

Again, loads of clients with 2011 (so a five year old machine) 15in MacBook Pro's where the graphics cards let go and Apple will fix it for free under their extension programme. That's five years!! Most can't believe it. A five year old PC laptop. They get binned even if they are still working!

[Laminar]

But how do the numbers actually compare? It's easy to say that tons of Macs are out there, but without knowing exactly how many competitor's products are lasting that long, you can't really make any definitive statements.

[subego]

This is true, but a couple of what I think are safe observations.

1) At $500, it doesn't need to last as long
2) At $500, the manufacturers would probably prefer it didn't last as long.

[Laminar]

I actually went and looked at Apple's current offerings. Ouch, that's rough. I'll stick with my 2010 iMac and 2013 MBA.

[Doc HM]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

I actually went and looked at Apple's current offerings. Ouch, that's rough. I'll stick with my 2010 iMac and 2013 MBA.

Indeed. It's been many a year since most of Apples updates have been compelling

iMac 2012
15in MacBook Pro 2012
13in MacBook Pro 2013
Air 2013

Good job they last.

[subego]

Get a load of how long that Mac Pro lasts.

[andi*pandi]

Posting from a 2008 mac pro right now. It's had a new hard drive, and I suspect needs another one at some point.. but I also have a 2012 mac pro sitting here waiting for me to swap all my files on it...

[Doc HM]

Originally Posted by subego 

Get a load of how long that Mac Pro lasts.

Got a client with a 2013 waastebin MacPro. They've just dropped big $ on a 4TB (yup) flash drive for it.

Not. Cheap.