Here are three things I learned well after I became an adult that I wish someone had told me when I was much younger:
1. If you’re ever seated at a crowded, formally set dinner table with a confusing array of glassware and little side plates and trying to figure out which belong to you, make a circle of the forefinger and thumb of your left hand. Viewed sideways, it looks like a “b” — your bread plate will be to your left. Now do the same with your right hand, which will form a “d,” indicating the location of your drinking glasses.
2. Interstate highways with odd numbers run north and south; even numbers run east and west. (This might have come in handy a few times when I was hopelessly lost in strange cities — thanks for nothing, crappy driver’s ed teacher in high school!)
3. Radio stations with call letters that begin with “K” are west of the Mississippi, and those that begin with “W” are to the east. (This doesn’t matter a bit and will soon be completely obsolete, but still, it’s nice to understand the pattern.)
What do you know that’s useful and/or interesting?
Joey Maloney
2a. Three-digit interstate numbers are spurs if the first digit is odd and loops if the first digit is even. And as for 35E and 35W in Dallas/Ft. Worth and Minneapolis/St. Paul – what the fuck I can’t even.
Smiling Mortician
1a. Too much silverware? Start at the outside and work your way in.
Michael Bersin
Last night in Kansas City Senator Claire McCaskill (D) took it to Donald Trump, including one of his favorite props:
Senator Claire McCaskill (D): “…the dangerous consequences of behaving like a buffoon on the world stage…”
Iowa Old Lady
Capital letters are called “upper case” because when printers used to set them one by one, the letters were all in a case with the capital ones on the top shelves.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“Um, ma’am, there is a lemur on your baby.”
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Joey Maloney: 2b. US routes are numbered from east to west. Interstates are numbered from south to north (odd) and west to east (even).
Cheers,
Scott.
Big Ole Hound
If you’re ever lost in the woods, find any water and follow it down stream. It will eventually lead to civilization or at least a road. Of course this is pre cell phone and GPS eras learned from my hunting uncle who was forever finding “new” trails.
Fred Fnord
When you realize that 95 North and 295 South are, for a few dozen miles, the same road, you discover what ‘honored more in the breach’ means.
PsiFighter37
@Joey Maloney: Dammit, I was about to launch into the 3-digit interstate bit when I saw this comment. I learned a lot about the interstate stuff when I was a kid…I was usually the backseat driver for my mom, armed with the big Rand McNally paper maps to help us navigate our way around the southwest U.S.
While fun in a nostalgic sense, Google Maps on a phone is much more convenient.
Bruce Webb
Real Interstates, which is to say ones that run coast to coast and border to border end with 0 if East-West and 5 if North-South. I currently live a hundred yards from I-10 which goes from LA to NO and have driven the length of I-5 which goes from LA to north of Seattle. Also Interstate numbers increase from W to E and S to North while U.S. Highways do the opposite. So on the West Coast we have US 101 and I 5 while the East Coast has US 1 and I-95.
Elmo
The higher in elevation you are, the lower the boiling point of water. This makes it challenging to cook rice or pasta to doneness in high-altitude camping, because the water boils (and therefore stops getting hotter) at a much lower temperature than it does at sea level.
At 8K feet, water boils at about 198 degrees. At 10K, about 194 degrees. And so on.
Betty Cracker
@srv:
That is a good one to know, especially if you’re in a rental car approaching a crowded gas station.
Germy Shoemangler
Don’t hire a contractor who begins the name of his business with a bunch of AAAs.
scav
Zip codes aren’t really areas, they’re (originally) routes, and land may not have a zip code until they assign it (although it’s usually easy to guess what it will be). In rural area with only Post offices, technically the land (and roads for GIS files) probably technically don’t have official ZIPs at all because it really just belongs to the post office. Other zip codes that are more like points include some that are essentially companies or floors on buildings. Or Postmasters. Zip+4s can be individual mailboxes.
Germy Shoemangler
If someone asks you conversationally “how are you?” simply reply “fine, how are you?”
Don’t actually tell them how terribly you’re doing. They don’t want to know.
CarolDuhart2
srv: there are exceptions because earlier radio stations were grandfathered in the system. Those who had certain call letters were allowed to keep them.
PsiFighter37
Just to stoke some more BernieBro poutrage, some enterprising folks at a travel forum I also post on deduced from his April campaign finance releases that Bernie spent $614k on chartering a plane to the Vatican, and another $14k on lodging. Someone can do the math and figure out how many $27 donations that equates to…
Suzan
My 3 favorite factoids: If you ate at 2 different restaurants a day in NYC and no restaurants changed ownership, it would take 47 years to eat at all of them.
If you earned 9% annual interest (learned this in the days you could earn that at a bank) and invested $1 B, you would earn $250,000 per day in interest. and Utah (where I live) is the must urban (or second must urban) state in the union. Due to our inhospitable land. Most of us live in cities of 50K or more.
Germy Shoemangler
Don’t eat chicken that smells like fish.
Don’t eat fish that smells like chicken.
cmorenc
It’s 75 Trillion miles (4.3 light-years) to the nearest star (Alpha Centauri) to our sun -in case you have a spare 75,000 years and a few spare trillions to spend on an exotic voyage to our next-nearest star to Earth. OK, so those among you who are true cognoscenti regarding things astronomical might point out that technically, a red dwarf member of the Alpha Centauri triple star system (Proxima Centauri) is slightly closer @4.2 light-years – which, should you choose to go to PC instead, would save you about 1500 years you could spend on other interesting endeavors. Among the biggest reasons it’s doubtful aliens have visited Earth is that it costs a fuck-ton of money to get here.
Robert Camner
@Bruce Webb:
Except for when they don’t. See I-97 in the middle of Pennsylvania! (Apparently a PA congressman traded his vote on another issue for a legal mandate to name a highway I-97 that the Feds never thought should be an interstate in the first place. Ain’t logrolling wonderful?)
Joey Maloney
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: There’s one interstate highway that doesn’t actually run interstate: H1, that is entirely within the state of Hawaii (in fact only on the island of Oahu).
EBT
@Germy Shoemangler: giving them the full details is a great way to shove annoying faux polite pricks out of your life on the otherhand.
scav
@PsiFighter37: I remember sitting in the back seat during my Dad’s first roadtrip with a SatNav system. 45 minutes or longer he was saying “But it says we’re headed NNW! This should be a E-W highway!” “Highways do that Dad. Thust me, it’s the right number, it works out large scale. My map shows exactly the jiggle we’re on.” I’m assuming by about the 59th time he was mostly doing it for fun and amusement.
kmeyer the lurker
Street addresses usually have odd numbers on the north and west sides of the streets and even numbers on south and east sides. My mnemonic reminder for this is “people from seattle are weird,” which is admittedly only a half truth.
Bruce Webb
“”f you’re ever lost in the woods, find any water and follow it down stream. It will eventually lead to civilization or at least a road.”
Unless you live in mountain country where is might lead you down into a steep gorge with a waterfall at the other end. Or in the desert where it might leave you trapped in a canyon during a summer thunderstorm with the ironic ending of drowning in a place that may get 8″ of rain a year. Too bad you were there when 2″ of it dropped in an hour.
If your grandfather was a country boy or outdoors kind of guy AND you still live in the same area then sure follow his advice. But advice that will keep you alive in Southern Indiana might get you killed in S. Florida (“Hey nobody said anything about a swamp!”) or Idaho (“What a beautiful view from the top of this impassible 100′ waterfall!”)
Joey Maloney
@Germy Shoemangler: Likewise, don’t patronize any business that prominently advertises their religion.
I think that rule should probably include churches, too.
jayboat
The ampersand used to be the 27th letter of the alphabet.
Lymie
@srv:
Unfortunately not always true!
Germy Shoemangler
If you’re traveling in Europe, avoid restaurants where the waiter stands outside the establishment and tries to talk tourists into entering.
swiftfox
When the yield spread between the 2-year bond and the 10-year bond drops below 1.5, make sure you have 20% or less invested in US stocks (or whatever international market you favor). If the 2-year has a higher yield than the 5-year or 10-year, or the 5-year is higher than the 10, get out of stocks entirely. If I had known this instead of following Rukeyser’s “elves” I would have been a lot better off.
Uncle Cosmo
@srv:
Nice try, fuckhead. You could’ve looked it up but you were too hot to type “liberal lies.”
bemused
“Maphead” by Ken Jennings is full of interesting this and that, geography related.
muddy
@PsiFighter37: Can there not be one thread without it?
Redshift
The exit number sign on the top of an interstate sign is on the left if it’s a left exit and on the right if it’s a right exit.
Germy Shoemangler
Don’t brush your teeth with baking soda. It will scratch all the enamel off your teeth.
Don’t poke a q-tip into your ear. Don’t use mouthwash that contains alcohol.
If you politely tell your 16-year-old neighbor not to use your driveway as a skateboard park (after he trips and sends his skateboard crashing into your fence a hundred times and tramples your wife’s flowers) his father will be told about it and will glare with white-hot hatred at you. (I learned this yesterday)
scav
@jayboat: It was certainly recited in the list and included on hornbooks, but did they count it as a letter? Especially as it’s used exclusively as an abbreviation of a word, not as a letter in its own right mixed up with the other letters in words.
Uncle Cosmo
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
FTFY.
Germy Shoemangler
If you live in a small town that is miles away from anything culturally significant, if you visit a comedy club, every comedian will begin his/her act by mocking your small town.
bemused
@Germy Shoemangler:
Sigh. I hate parents like that. Hopefully, he will glare at his kid with white-hot anger but the odds are not good.
Roger Moore
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
US 101 is considered to be a two digit route, where the first digit is “10”.
Major Major Major Major
@Germy Shoemangler: Don’t eat fish that smells like fish either, for that matter.
90% of everything is crap.
If you ever get lost, just remember, the mountains are West.*
*Un-learn if you move out of Denver
muddy
@bemused: I thought maybe the kid glared?
Joey Maloney
The Big Island of Hawaii contains every climate type on the planet except for sub-arctic and arctic tundra, in an area of 4000 square miles.
Germy Shoemangler
If you leave your garbage can in front of your house, even if it is on your property behind your porch, anyone walking their dog who is considerate enough to bag their dog’s shit will drop the bag into your garbage can. The trashmen may or may not empty the baggy from your can when they take your garbage. You will find a million white maggots squirming inside your garbage can.
Those who don’t bag their dog’s shit will simply leave it on the grass next to your sidewalk.
Schlemazel Khan
@Big Ole Hound:
Please do not ever try that in Northern Minnesota! The rivers flow North to Hudson Bay if you are North of the Laurentian Divide and it would be possible to make your way to down that stream and go several hundred miles before you see a road.
Roger Moore
@Elmo:
Which is why you should use minute rice for your rice-containing camping dishes. Perhaps more important, when the boiling point of water is lower, you have to boil it for longer to guarantee you’ve killed the microbes.
Ultraviolet Thunder
On a 120VAC power socket, the narrow one is ‘hot’ or ‘line’ (120VAC), the wide one is ‘neutral’ and the fat one is ground. Always wire your fuse closest to the plug, in the Hot wire, followed by the switch.
bemused
Before having your first baby, no one ever tells you to cut your fingernails short or wear medical gloves before changing diapers because you will be sure to get baby poo under those nails frequently.
bystander
@Germy Shoemangler: Europe or Little Italy in NYC. First day in Rome a couple of weeks ago and we wanted lunch so we went to a place our host had mentioned. Got a table and then noticed the guy at the front jumping up every time anybody stopped to read the menu. Then he lit the disco lig I’d failed to notice wrapped around the joint. Worst meal we had in two weeks.
As for number 3, my response is WDAF in KC.
bemused
@Schlemazel Khan:
That’s for sure! You would probably never be found.
Germy Shoemangler
@bemused: Trim the baby’s nails so the infant can’t scratch its own eyes out.
Ultraviolet Thunder
That hole in the tab on a can of soda* is to hold a straw in place.
I don’t do that and neither will you but there it is.
* or ‘pop’ as we call it in MI.
NCSteve
If you’re a left hander, you learn early that at any formal table setting, the drinking glasses will be placed so as maximize your chance of humiliating yourself by knocking them over while the bread, the one thing you can’t spill or knock over, be to your left. And if you rearrange things so as to reduce the risk, you increase the risk that your neighbor to the left will embarrass you both by drinking out of your glass.
Germy Shoemangler
@bystander: If you’re traveling in Italy, avoid restaurants with English-language menus. If you’re in Venice, do NOT put your feet or hands in the canals.
SiubhanDuinne
@scav:
C&y is d&y.
Major Major Major Major
@jayboat: Bring back the interrobang!
bystander
Here’s one thing I’ve learned: The older you get, the less of a hook overly sentimental songs like Losing My Mind and Not a Day Goes By have in you and the more likely you are to love hearing Jimmy Durante sing Umbriago and I’ll Do the Strutaway. But that may just be me.
Shell
Unless you’re in the Blair Witch Project.
********
As to advice. Putting salt in the water somehow makes peeling your hard boiled eggs a little easier.
Oh, and make sure each bathroom has its own individual toilet plunger.
Germy Shoemangler
Ducks don’t care what you think of them.
Feed them if there are no “Don’t Feed The Ducks” signs around, but they aren’t your friends.
Tim C.
@Ultraviolet Thunder: And related…
discovermagazine.com/~/media/Images/Web%20exclusives/2013/June/language%20maps/soda-pop.png?mw=738
PsiFighter37
@swiftfox: I would be skeptical of the first rule, just because interest rate curve flattening is something that is likely going to continue for some time – and I would not recommend having only 20% invested.
As for the 2nd rule, it’s perhaps a bit alarmist, but generally yield curve inversion means a recession is right around the corner.
Germy Shoemangler
The men you see on TV get haircuts from highly-skilled master barbers. Your own barber will not have the same skill or talent, no matter how much you tip him.
bystander
@Germy Shoemangler: The water ban applies in Rome as well. I was just reminiscing about the Italian movie director who fell in the Tiber and died a few days later from a microbe carried in rat urine. Katharine Hepburn famously talked about the lifelong eye infection she got doing the stunt tumble into the canal in the film Summertime.
Mike J
@kmeyer the lurker:
If you need to remember the order of the streets in Seattle from south to north, remember that Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest. Jefferson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike, Pine.
Felonius Monk
Is that why KYW which used to be in Cleveland when I was a kid is now further east in Philadelphia now? :-)
Germy Shoemangler
@Major Major Major Major:
But nostalgists look back at the years when they were young and insist that music/culture/movies/whatever were much superior to today. They forget all the crap from back then and only remember the cream. What they’re really nostalgic for is their youth.
Roger Moore
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
In American home wiring, 240V power has 2 hot wires, each of which is 120V above ground but with opposite polarity. In European home wiring 230V power has one hot wire that’s 230V above ground and a neutral wire. It’s possible to use well-designed 240V appliances on either system.
scav
@SiubhanDuinne: I ?? the Interweb changed everything, but point ♩ed.
SFAW
Roadway signs for upcoming exits will have the smaller exit-number sign (i.e., the one on top of the main part of the sign) on the same side as the exit ramp will be.
Of course, if you find one in the middle, you might want to consider laying off the drugs.
Omnes Omnibus
Spider webs can be used to stop bleeding.
Chyron HR
If you’re ever lost in the woods, hold your left hand out to the side, make a circle with your thumb and forefinger, and look through it. What you see through the circle will be to your left. The same trick also works to figure out which way is right, but with the other hand.
AdamK
@Iowa Old Lady: And when you’re “out of sorts,” you’re setting type and you’ve run out of sorted letters.
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
If you need to remember the planets, use the wonderful mnemonic from XKCD: “Mary’s ‘Virgin’ Explanation Made Joseph Suspect Upstairs Neighbor.”
Tripod
I-99 is a Bud Schuster created Frankenstein. Control cities are very important. On the big green signs. Rockford if you’re headed off of I-80 onto I-355. Which seems super hopeful. The it crosses 55, 88, and stubs into 290, hits the 90 merge but the mainline keeps going up to the Lake County border as a state highway and then just stops. I forgot the Elgin-O’Hare. Occasionally they pour concrete on that stack, but Rauner is a tool, and jammed up the works.
Steeplejack
@Redshift:
I was just going to mention that. I learned it recently and was mildly shocked at the gap in my grizzled-driver knowledge. Very useful in dense urban areas (like D.C.) when you need to keep your eyes on the road and can’t peer at the GPS. (On my phone, Google Maps has a little arrow showing which way the next exit/turn is, but sometimes it doesn’t get displayed until the exit is fairly close.)
Germy Shoemangler
If you’re a guest on the Jimmy Fallon show, do NOT inhale helium for a “high-pitched voice” gag, not matter how much he insists. You could die.
Cacti
This one applies to men but can be useful for Moms with boys also:
When tying a necktie with a four in hand knot (the simplest one), the way to get it the perfect length every time (point about midway of your belt buckle), is to follow the “sack rule”.
That is, when getting started, bring the point of the wide end down about even with the bottom of your scrote.
Was taught to me by a friend as a teenager.
Schlemazel Khan
One piece of trivial I would LOVE! to know is what I did to get put in moderation
Schlemazel Khan
These are more fun than useful information:
The 3 Musketeers bar was originally split into three pieces with three different flavors: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. It was during WWII that they went all chocolate apparently because of shortages
Bill CLinton appeared on Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and correctly answered three questions about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Kool-Aid was originally marketed as “Fruit Smack.”
The German word kummerspeck, Literally, grief bacon, means excess weight gained from emotional overeating.
The sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel is 666
bemused
@Germy Shoemangler:
That they tell you!
Roger Moore
@Iowa Old Lady:
They are also known formally as “majuscule” letters, and opposed to lower case letters, which are “minuscule”.
Schlemazel Khan
FIGURED IT OUT
These are more fun than useful information:
The 3 Musketeers bar was originally split into three pieces with three different flavors: vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. It was during WWII that they went all chocolate apparently because of shortages
Bill CLinton appeared on Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and correctly answered three questions about My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Kool-Aid was originally marketed as “Fruit Smack.”
The German word kummerspeck, Literally, grief bacon, means excess weight gained from emotional overeating.
The sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel is 666
Cookie Monster said that before he started eating cookies, his name was Sid.
scav
@kmeyer the lurker: That might be another very localized rule to follow, much like the water downhill trick. Addressing systems vary wildly, as anyone that has unexpectedly stumbled into, say, Salt Lake City, can assert. There was some rational Fire Dept designed system that gave my parents street name as Blahblah Ave Ct NW which utterly defies any USPS (and thus most CASS-based) SatNav systems existing.
Major Major Major Major
All the fountains in Zurich have potable water.
NCSteve
Wisdom for lawyers:
1. They get it right more often than not, but there is nothing so clear, obvious, simple, or manifestly just that a judge or jury can’t fuck it up.
2. Never, ever, ever, ever ask a judge to do one subatomically small nano-iota more work than the judge thinks it is his or her job to do.
3. If your first blush impression is “that can’t be legal,” it most likely isn’t.
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
My advice is to stop and learn how to tie a Full Windsor.
Felonius Monk
@Schlemazel Khan:
You lost your “Parmesan Rancor” — the Cheese Gods are not happy.
AkaDad
Never take someone’s word for it that the electricity is off before pulling old wire through a metal plug box. Also,electricity decides when you can let go of said wire. Also too, people think it’s hilarious when you get knocked back and end up on the floor with that look on your face.
Cacti
@Roger Moore:
Does not work well with ties made from heavier fabrics.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Betty Cracker: Unless that has changed, it’s not universal. My mom’s 1970 GTO had the gas cap under the license plate in the center of the rear bumper. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Gravenstone
These words of wisdom were engraved upon the desktop I sat at in my first day of Philosophy 101: “Rent to own sucks”. About the only thing I took away from that class.
Ramping Up
Guess who’s beginning to lead in the polls!. One poll this morning has Trump up three, another within the margin of error! You can feel this race tightening up fast.
Whatever happened to “Hillary landslide!”? Getting nervous about PRESIDENT TRUMP?
Scalia dies, we stonewall, and then get someone even to his right appointed. SCOTUS will be ROCK-RIBBED RIGHT WING for the next generation!
smith
When opening a new jar of something, you can use the point on a bottle opener slipped under the rim of the cap to release the vacuum. Then the jar can be opened with no struggle at all.
Mike J
If you’re in a city with numbered streets, it’s pretty common for 20 blocks to roughly equal one mile.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Smiling Mortician: Also too, the knife points to your water glass.
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@Schlemazel Khan:
I had to listen to that one. He didn’t even hesitate in giving his answers, so I bet he’s secretly a Brony.
Ramping Up
With PRESIDENT TRUMP and control of all three branches of government, you can kiss goodbye what’s left of the New Deal and Great Society. Roe v. Wade will also be overturned when the Oklahoma law goes to the federal courts and we will finally score a victory even in the culture wars.
Schlemazel Khan
@Felonius Monk:
Good call! I probably dropped it too soon but I was angling for the position of Secretary of Domestic Pacification in Baud administration.
Gravenstone
@Germy Shoemangler: Sorry, that’s how I break people of asking me stupid questions in the name of some misguided sense of collegiality.
Schlemazel Khan
@Roger Moore:
It made me wonder if he had been fed the questions
Ultraviolet Thunder
Psych tip: Untrusting people are untrustworthy. Someone who sees dishonesty all around them is probably not honest. Conversely, very trusting people can usually be trusted.
However con men exploit this by placing their confidence in you so you will trust them in turn, to your disadvantage.
SFAW
@Redshift:
Completely missed this before posting my own version. Sorry.
Germy Shoemangler
@Gravenstone: When making introductions in a group of people, introduce ladies to gentlemen first, unless one of the gentlemen is a member of the clergy. If you are out walking with a lady, walk on the outer part of the sidewalk, closest to the street. When introduced to a lady, never offer your hand to shake unless she offers first.
Believe it or not, I remember being taught all this stuff in public elementary school. I don’t think they teach it nowadays.
pat
@Joey Maloney:
I 35 runs north to south. I 35 W is located west of I 35 east. 35 W is the old road and goes through Minneapolis, 35 E goes through St. Paul. Simple, really. Take a look at a map….
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Major Major Major Major:
Have they eradicated the pigeon?, because otherwise no they don’t.
amk
One trillion dollars
DonBoy
There is one notorious stretch of road in/near Cambridge, MA, that is both 2 East and 16 West at the same time. (it’s a N/S jiggle common to both roads, which run E/W and sort of cross each other.)
A Ghost To Most
@Major Major Major Major:
My directionally challenged wife actually uses this one
MattF
If your hair’s on fire from recent polling, read what Sam Wang has to say.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Joey Maloney: Denali is the tallest mountain in the world (measured from its base, on land). Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world (measured from its base, including height under water).
smith
@A Ghost To Most: Corollary to this in Chicago, the lake is East. If you look down a street and the buildings seem to abruptly stop, that’s East.
Ramping Up
@MattF:
USNKEWED POLLZ!
Liberals are shitting their pants because Trump is POLITICALLY INVINCIBLE. The only way to win is to hop on board!
You all were such idiots for clearing the bench for Shrillary.
smintheus
Buying a used vehicle: Contact via email first, ask basic questions about condition and get clear answers before any oral communication with the owner. It gives you a permanent record of any potential lies, so you can demand restitution if the owner conceals something major (the phrase “wire fraud” tends to focus attention).
Also good to know that there are questions you can ask that will save you from wasting time looking at clunkers. One of the best is: “Can I drive it to my mechanic to be checked out if I decide I like it?” A surprising number of people will say no outright.
Smedley the uncertain
@Robert Camner: I believe Congress critter Bud Schuster (sp) demanded and got I-99. He also demanded a route that was more difficult and expensive so it would run through his neighborhood. He chairs the transportation committee.
MattF
@Ramping Up: Idiot. How many different R candidates have you shilled for now? Four? Five?
scav
@smith: Similarly, the Pacific is so the South in Santa Barbara. (there’s a E/W jog in the Mississippi that’ll get you too.)
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Ramping Up:
Let me spell it for you:
F
U
C
K
O
F
F.
Ramping Up
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
P
R
E
S
I
D
E
N
T
T
R
U
M
P
JPL
@MattF: Thanks for that link. Just the idea of a Trump presidency, causes me great amount of stress.
Ramping Up
@MattF:
Trump is UTTERLY INVINCIBLE and Shrillary is sinking fast. Why did you nominate a candidate whose voice reminds people of their nagging mother-in-law yelling at them to take out the trash?
A Ghost To Most
@Ramping Up:
You are such a bought and paid for moron.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
US airplanes have “tail numbers” that begin with the letter N. If you know the number, you can look up who owns it, etc., etc..
Cheers,
Scott.
Digital Amish
Continuing on the interstate theme: the exit numbers are mileage markers from the southern state border on N/S interstates: from the western state border on E/W interstates. (this is something I suspect everyone else knew long before I figured it out)
Gravenstone
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: They stopped placing filler tubes in the center rear of vehicles some time in the late 70’s. Possibly a reflection of the Pinto debacle.
Prescott Cactus
The rule of 72 for doubling your money. Rough calculation, but close enough:
7.2% for 10 years (=72) will double your money
10% for 7.2 years (=72 )and you double your money
5% times 14.2 years (=72) will double your money
Ramping Up
@A Ghost To Most:
Keep on whining about being “bought” as Trump is elected, majorities are increased in the House and Senate, and ALEC/The Heritage Foundation gets carte blanche to write laws for the next four years! Not to mention SCOTUS will be ROCK RIBBED CONSERVATIVE for a generation to come.
Roger Moore
@amk:
A good thing to remember is that any American banknote weighs approximately 1 gram. That means 1000 bills weighs about 1 kg, 1,000,000 bills weighs about one metric ton, etc. Assuming you’re dealing with $100 bills, that means $1 trillion would weigh about 10^10 g or 10,000 metric tons. One 40 foot container will hold about 25 metric tons, so the $1 trillion in $100 bills would take about 400 standard 40 foot containers. The largest container ships can carry over 8,000 forty foot containers, so one could carry the entire US GDP in $100 bills loaded into 40 foot containers.
bystander
Another thing I’ve learned is that as the Sandernistas realize that Clinton is the Democratic candidate for POTUS, the only thing they have left is fearmongering and lying.
Ultraviolet Thunder
,etc.
Or fiddle with your napkin, watch what the highest status person at the table does, and do that. Assuming they’re sober.
scav
I’ve never met any person that has consistently correct 100% of the time. I have, however, stumbled across a few that are consistently wrong 100% of the time. It’s an unexpected superpower.
Gravenstone
@A Ghost To Most: It believes nothing it writes. It is simply a less subtle version of srv, stirring the shit solely for a reaction. Pie it and move on.
? Martin
@amk: There’s currently $7 trillion dollars in negative earning bonds. That means there is $7 trillion that the holders don’t know what to do with, so they are *paying* governments money in order to do something with them that won’t involve paying taxes. That’s $7 trillion dollars that aren’t starting businesses, paving roads, hiring people, going to Mars, whatever. $7 trillion dollars literally doing nothing, all piled up in hedge funds and corporations and really rich people sitting there idle. The opportunity costs on that $7 trillion is unimaginable.
Prescott Cactus
Tipping
Slide the decimal over one space to the left and either add half to that amount (15% tip) or double it for a 20% tip.
Example
100.00 bill slide decimal point to the left gives you $10.000 dollars and half as much bring you to $15 or double and you are at $20
pat
Hard boiled eggs:
Eggs stored in cardboard will peel more easily than eggs stored in plastic.
eta: refers to storage before cooking..
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Prescott Cactus:
Annually compounded interest can be calculated by (1+interest rate)to the power of the number of years. I’m lacking the proper symbols on this keyboard, but 5% annually for 8 years is 1.05 (up arrow) 8, or 1.4775.
Lynn Dee
@Redshift:
Wow! I never knew this. It may be my new fave.
Does everyone know that the little arrowhead next to the picture of a gas tank on your dashboard tells you which side the gas cap is on? I find this especially useful for rental cars because I almost always forget to check.
ThresherK (GPad)
@napoleon: KDKA predates the FRC (the predecessor to the FCC).
The K-W dividing line was first set at what was “the Far West”, leading to WFAA, WHO and other calls. After a short while it was seen that there were too many applicants for W calls, and it was moved to the Mississippi R.
And that was when St Louis was the westernmost MLB city. Imagine if all those growing places in the central plains got W calls for another 25-30 years. They might have run out.
Germy Shoemangler
Beer before wine, everything fine…
Jon
In many places, if you face the direction of the address (E 3rd Street, for instance,) odd numbers are on your left. Buy some cities can’t even agree the streets go East-West and avenues go North-South, so I’m sure this rule doesn’t work in Phoenix.
Prescott Cactus
@? Martin: A few European countries are now to the point of having negative interest mortgage rates.
The bank pays you to take out a mortgage !
BBA
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: The prefixes for each country’s airplane tail numbers are the same as the prefixes for their radio stations. It’s just that the US, which has A/K/N/W, only uses K/W for radio and N for airplanes, and most other countries don’t bother giving call letters to their radio stations (they’re used worldwide for amateur radio though).
Roger Moore
@Digital Amish:
California only started to use numbered exits recently, so hardly anyone here pays attention to them.
RSA
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: 2c. Auxiliary Interstate Highways, like a lot of beltways, typically don’t go between states. They’re connectors or spurs from some main Interstate, the digits of which they incorporate, and numbers can be reused in different states.
Living in NC, I get on the unfinished I-495 connector when I head north on I-95, but I don’t get to the Washington beltway I-495 for another four hours or so.
eclare
@Big Ole Hound: also moss generally grows on the north side of trees.
burnspbesq
@Bruce Webb:
I-10 goes all the way to Jacksonville. And you are now persona non grata in Santa Monica for suggesting that it starts in LA.
D58826
@Joey Maloney: Did I-35 split and they are the east and west sides of the city? Or at least were when built. Urban growth has probably erased that clear distinction. Here in Charlotte the outer loop as it is called is now more the middle loop as population growth expanded faster than the highway construction.
Schlemazel Khan
@scav:
One of those second types you mention posts here all the time under different names, I assume you can guess who that is as they have been 100% wrong here for a long long time
Germy Shoemangler
A slice of buttered toast, if dropped to the floor, will land buttered-side down.
John Revolta
@Chyron HR: But, what if you’re south of the equator?
burnspbesq
@srv:
They can fucking learn the rules. This suit should be dismissed and the lawyers who filed it should be sanctioned. I am SICK of their bullshit.
Germy Shoemangler
If you are on the highway behind a tractor-trailer driving at 47mph and you move into the left lane to try and pass him, he will speed up. You will have to accelerate to 80mph to get around him. And then he will tailgate you if you drive slower than 75mph.
I assume the self-driving tractor trailers everyone here keeps raving about will have this feature designed into them.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Digital Amish: Ah, but don’t depend on that when driving on the NJ Turnpike!!
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who learned that the hard way…)
Schlemazel Khan
@D58826:
in Minnesota the 35 split each goes through the heart of the two cities. They used much of the path to clear urban areas of poor and often minority neighborhoods. Although by the time 35E got to my working class neighborhood it was driven though a swamp that added millions to the cost & delayed completion.
allium
Due to their origins as silver coins, dimes, quarters, half-dollars and Eisenhower dollars are interchangeable by weight (i. e., ten dimes, four quarters, two half dollars and one Eisenhower have the same monetary value and weight).
Los Angeles is actually east of Reno, Nevada.
In classical Latin, “v” was pronounced with a “wuh” sound. “Vini,vidi,vici” would have sounded like “Weenie,weedy,weechy”.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Germy Shoemangler: A dropped buttered cat will turn into a perpetual motion machine.
Cheers,
Scott.
D58826
@srv: ah who will fight to have people spend a few minutes on google, calling their local election office or checking with the league of women voters. It’s not like the rules are written in Sanskrit and hidden on Mt. Everest.
Or better yet, rather than file a law suit, print up the relevant section of the law and stuff it in every mailbox in California. But that is old fashion politics 101, not how am I being mistreated today by Debbie, Hillary and Barbara.
Scamp Dog
@Mike J: In Denver, it’s 8 numbered avenues (which run east-west) to the mile, except in downtown, where it’s 16 per mile. Trivia: the furlong is an eighth of mile. So the furlong lives! It lives in obscurity, to be sure, but it’s a feature of daily life here.
redshirt
The moon can be used for general orientation. If the moon rises before the sun sets, the lit side is roughly west. If the moon rises after the sun sets, the lit side is roughly east.
Also, the right most side of the Big Dipper points straight up to the Polaris, the North star.
D58826
@Schlemazel Khan: My in-laws lived within spitting distance of the I-35w overpass in Richfield.
A Ghost To Most
Rule Number One when driving in the mountains of CO – stay on the road; assume there is no guardrail, because there probably isn’t.
redshirt
@allium: If you find a quarter from before 1965, keep it, as it’s pure silver and worth far more than 25%.
Odds are you won’t find one though. I’ve been looking my whole life and never found one.
Roger Moore
@srv:
Shorter Sanders: I’m losing; change the rules!
scav
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Didn’t some states number exits sequentially, utterly bollexing things when they built a new exit, especially when companies put the exit number on directions? (I think I remember some states — PA? — having to put two exit numbers up on signs for a bit). and I don’t remember exit numbers at all from growing up in CA (although I think they might have them now).
Death Panel Truck
@Uncle Cosmo:
U.S. 2 – Everett, Washington to St. Ignace, Wisconsin, and again from Rouses Point, New York to Houlton, Maine.
U.S. 95 – Canada to Mexico
U.S. 395 – Canada to Hesperia, California.
You need to unfix what you “fixed.”
? Martin
@burnspbesq: Especially when the state is working through the process of getting automatic registration going. Why is the Sanders campaign doing anything to disrupt that process? That is an unalloyed good for every aspect of democracy, so why interrupt it?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@redshirt: A friend’s kid would occasionally go to the bank and buy bunch of rolled dimes ($5 per roll) or quarters ($10 per roll) to sort through. He’d occasionally get lucky and find an old one and make a little bit of a profit (not counting his time, of course).
Cheers,
Scott.
Ultraviolet Thunder
To convert Celsius to Fahrenheit just divide by 5, multiply by 9 and add 32.
To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, subtract 32, divide by 9 and multiply by 5.
Schlemazel Khan
@D58826:
The bloody ally? Neither Minneapolis nor Richfield wanted to give up land to build a proper exchange between 62 and 35 so there was a section that required people who wanted to stay on one of the two had to cross over lanes of the other highway. It was a bad compromise they finally fixed last year.
You can also look at 35 south from downtown Minneapolis and see the highway swerve around the old Honeywell headquarters. The cleared out poor people all around it but left the office building. Money talks, poor people move
Smedley the uncertain
@Digital Amish: Sadly, NY state does not number their Interstate exits IAW mile markers. They still use sequential exit numbers starting at NYC. Leads to some interesting exit numbers, e.g. # A, # B, # C… that are miles apart…
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Ultraviolet Thunder: -40 F = -40 C is a sometimes handy thing to remember, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
redshirt
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I used to do this with quarters, thinking if I could just fine one pre-1965 quarter it would be worth the effort. Alas, nothing.
Roger Moore
@redshirt:
Actually they’re only about 90% silver. Pure silver is too soft to make good coins- they wear too rapidly- so it’s normally alloyed with other metals like copper to make it harder. And I once had the good fortune to find two pre-1965 quarters in my change within a week. They’re actually easy to notice if you ever get one because the sound they make when they jingle is different from copper/nickle sandwich coins. The silver has a much more musical ring to it than modern coins.
Smedley the uncertain
@BBA: US does use A and N for ham radio and special licensed Radio Stations.
W7GSM
Ultraviolet Thunder
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Also 20C = 68F.
A Ghost To Most
@Scamp Dog:
I just learned this recently, but didn’t know why. Thx for the explanation.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@redshirt: I think the kid said that estate sales can be a place to look for treasures like that too, but one would think that most families would be smart enough to look through piggy banks and the like.
It was easier to find old coins when I was a kid (in the ’60s). There was still some silver in many coins, and one could still occasionally get wheat pennies and buffalo nickels in change.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who doesn’t like the way pennies sound so cheap now, but copper is expensive and what are ya gonna do…)
redshirt
@Ultraviolet Thunder: You can roughly convert celsius to fahrenheit by doubling the celsius temp and adding 32.
ThresherK (GPad)
US Routes and Interstate Routes start at opposite corners of the country. The Interstates, coming later , were numbered that way to avoid confusion. US 2 is in the North but I-10 is in the South.
Roger Moore
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
And 37C = 98.6F. FWIW, the old thing about human body temperature being 37C/98.6F is only an average. Some people consistently run hotter or colder than the standard temperature. For example, I am consistently about 0.5C cooler than the standard body temperature.
redshirt
@Roger Moore: Thanks. I didn’t know that. Did you trade in your pre-65 quarters for $$$?
Prescott Cactus
@John Revolta: You’ll need a passport.
Fair Economist
@Roger Moore:
Really? I thought I’d been ignoring them for years…
Roger Moore
@A Ghost To Most:
In much of the western US, the land was originally surveyed with a very regular grid. It was divided into square “sections” 1 mile on a side and “townships” 6 miles on a side (36 square miles), and the land was either sold or homesteaded with those boundaries. Because of that, roads were originally built along the section lines, which made them exactly one mile apart. That’s why many cities in the West have major streets exactly one mile apart; they’re still following the old section lines.
Of course that didn’t work perfectly because the grid was planar and the Earth is spherical. So there are places where the north/south section lines are offset, and the section line roads are generally offset, too. If you look at a map of a rural area in one of the flyover states, you can often see this.
MattF
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Which also happens to be near the freezing point of mercury.
ETA: Also, there are (approximately) pi * 10^7 seconds in a year. Useful! Sometimes.
cleek
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
indian head pennies stopped in 1908. that’s 52 years from 1960.
i just reached into my coin jar and the second nickel i pulled out was from 1952: 64 years old. but it’s just a plain old Jefferson nickel. no silver, no nothing. worth $0.07 in great condition.
they went so long between design changes that old coins look pretty much identical to new ones.
Lynn Dee
@Lynn Dee:
Okay, I see that’s been reported. Here’s the most useful thing I’ve learned, which I don’t see reported here: “Lefty loosey, righty tighty” — for loosening or tightening screws, nuts, lightbulbs, etc.
Schlemazel Khan
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
I always check my change & have come across wheaties as recently as last year. No idea if they are worth the effort but it gives me something to do.
peej01
This is the US…we don’t need no stinking Celsius. We use Fahrenheit as God intended .
Prescott Cactus
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: OT:
Put a box of Cheerios into a popcorn serving bowl (large) warm a stick of butter in the microwave in pyrex measuring cup.
Lightly pour and mix the butter onto the Cheerios.
Stir Cheerios by hand and till butter has covered most of them.
Pour Cheerios onto a baking sheet and lightly salt.
Throw in a pre-heated oven (300 to 350) for a few minutes.
You want them warm, not brown.
Pour them back into the original bowl.
Just like popcorn. 10 minutes start to finish.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
I always check the piles of silverware at estate sales now. A friend found some old spoons and asked me to check them out because he thought they were silver. I recognized Hester Bateman’s “HB” mark and knew he had something. Matched set of 6 from 1785, eBayed off to an English collector for $1,100. English sterling makers’ marks are an obscure body of knowledge but it’s worth knowing a few.
Roger Moore
@redshirt:
Nope; I still have them.
I also have some old Morgan silver dollars that I inherited from my grandparents. It used to be common to give people silver dollars as gifts, especially around holidays. My grandfather wanted to give somebody a silver dollar as a present and went to the bank to get one, but they told him they wouldn’t deal in individual coins like that. If he wanted to get a silver dollar, he’d have to exchange $500 in paper for $500 in silver.
He figured what the heck; he had the money and the silver dollars were still legal tender so he wasn’t losing anything. He only gave out a few of the dollars, and decades later when my grandmother died (my grandfather having died almost 20 years earlier) somebody going through her stuff found a bag with the silver dollars. All her descendants got a couple of rolls as part of our inheritance.
rikyrah
I know that Walmart is the 7th rung of hell.
Ryan
Lefty loosey, righty tighty. Except for natural gas lines and poorly-engineered containers.
Also, I used to know this a long long time ago (right hand rule #1).
physicsed.buffalostate.edu/SeatExpts/resource/rhr/rhr.htm
Gravenstone
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Same outcome, but I use [(2C)-10%] + 32 = F. Just faster for my brain to process the numbers.
Doug R
@kmeyer the lurker: Calgary is half weird.
Gravenstone
Deleted for redundancy
Roger Moore
@MattF:
Also interesting:
1) pi is approximately equal to sqrt(10), so there are also about pi^15 seconds in a year.
2) A cube one mile on a side has almost the same volume as a sphere one kilometer in radius.
StellaB
@redshirt: My Spanish teacher came to class once in fury. She had purchased two rolls of quarters at Wells Fargo and one of the rolls was full of fake coins. She dumped them on the table to demonstrate their color and inauthentic sound when they landed. They were all pre-1965.
@Ultraviolet Thunder: For a quick atmospheric temperature approximation multiply C by 2 and add 30. It will be close enough to tell you which jacket to wear while vacationing in Europe.
“Some lovers try positions that they can’t handle” is the mnemonic for the eight bones of the wrist: scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform, trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, hamate. Good luck remembering which “t” is which.
Roger Moore
@Lynn Dee:
This is also called the right hand rule. Take your right hand and point the thumb in the direction you want the screw (or whatever) to go; your fingers will curl the way you turn it to make it go that direction.
Ruckus
@Lynn Dee:
Except in the case of left hand threads. Which tighten by turning counter clockwise. And of course that depends on which end you look at it from.
PsiFighter37
@srv: I agree with the merits of the lawsuit, but filing it a mere couple weeks before the primary reeks of what others have already mentioned – the Sanders camp not being familiar with the rules set in place well before they came into the picture and trying to change them to favor their candidate.
I mentioned this to my wife, and she made a comment about it sounding like millennials (which we are both a part of, ironically). But in my interactions online, the most vocal BernieBros are old white hippies who have no skin in the game themselves.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Gravenstone:
I’d give the mnemonic for translating colors* to integers in electronic component values, but I learned it in the ’70s and don’t know one that’s fit for polite company.
*BBROYGBVGW
MattF
@StellaB: And similar mnemonics for the cranial nerves tend to be obscene.
Exurban Mom
Empty the bottom drawer of a dishwasher first; items that collect water are more likely found in the top. Emptying the top second means you aren’t getting dishes wet on the bottom.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Ruckus:
Watchmaking still uses left-hand screws. They’re designated by a shallow slot on either side of the deep central slot.
Doug R
@Mike J: Major streets especially around Los Angeles tend to be a half mile from each other.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
I’d like to assume that is widespread knowledge. Of course I’ve been wrong about the general knowledge of humans before.
Prescott Cactus
@Ruckus: Often propane tanks for grills.
Feathers
Two from Massachusetts – If a road has the name of a town it is invariably the road TO that town. Concord Ave out of Harvard Square will actually get you to Concord. (Although you will have to hop on Rte 2 – The Concord Turnpike – to get across 128.) Waltham Street becomes Lexington Street as you cross the Lexington/Waltham line.
In order to uphold the Masshole Law that if you don’t know where you are, you don’t belong here -numbered state roads don’t always stay the same road, sometimes the number takes a turn, while the road keeps going straight. Ask me how I know. Do they do this everywhere?
Bonus – haven’t had a car for a while, might not still be true – while other states may restrict commercial vehicles, Massachusetts signage reads “Pleasure Vehicles Only.” Leading to the startling of out-of- when the driver hollered “Are we a pleasure vehicle?” to much whooping and “Hells yes!” from the other passengers as we pulled onto Storrow Drive.
Double bonus – if you want to let a powerful car go crazy, scary fast, find an empty cloverleaf. The turns will make the speed seem greater and the police can’t get a speed reading because of the turns. So I’ve been told. By friends who drive race cars.
RSA
@Ryan:
And lug nuts on some older cars–on just one side. So I’m told.
The Lodger
@CarolDuhart2: I’m about 200 posts behind, so forgive me for any redundancy in mentioning the first radio station in the US was KDKA in Pittsburgh.
Gravenstone
@Prescott Cactus: All flammable compressed gas fittings should be reverse threaded (denoted by having grooves cut into the sides of the CGA fitting). This is to prevent inadvertent introduction of a flammable gas into a non-flammable system.
Prescott Cactus
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Cool watches from Iceland. They have a very expensive line, same company
Ruckus
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Then it’s OK here. The concept of polite was thrown out as being too restrictive for productive conversation in 2008 if I’m correct.
Doug R
@Ramping Up: So when’s ¿JEB? campaign taking off again? Did the Brinks trucks break down?
Ruckus
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Many machines use left hand threads to keep them from flying apart when used. Many types of grinding spindles for example. Most are marked as such.
Doug R
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: All plane tail numbers are related to the country of registration. Canadian aircraft all have five letters starting with C-F or C-G, useful for spotting those cheap made-in-Canada TV shows.
Ruckus
@Prescott Cactus:
Gas hardware generally have a direction of thread consistent with safety. For example oxygen and acetylene torches have threads of opposite directions to keep you from mixing the gases up and therefore blowing yourself up.
Roger Moore
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
And compressed gas cylinders use them for some kinds of gasses. There are different fittings depending on the category of gas you’re using so you can’t accidentally connect, say, oxygen to a line that’s supposed to have an inert gas.
Feathers
@Roger Moore: and 4 inches equals 10cm. This is why knitting & crochet use a square this size as the standard gauge swatch. I’ve been knitting longer than some of the women in my knitting group have been alive – so I’ll end this here.
Cooking – once the water gets back up to boiling after you’ve put the pasta in, you can turn the heat down to almost medium. The water will keep boiling, but the pot won’t boil over.
Ruckus
@Gravenstone:
A better explanation than mine.
Ruckus
@Feathers:
4 inches equals 10cm
Well….. not exactly. More than close enough for knitting and many other needs but not for many others, say making parts for vehicles, airplanes, etc.
CarolDuhart2
@Germy Shoemangler:
So true. I’m listening to an oldies station, and the only thing they play are the hits. The dreck between the hits? You have to go to YouTube for them now. All the rotten stuff in other areas have long ago gone to the landfill or got packed away in the attic.
For an AA like me, nostalgia has to be selective, weighed against the restrictions of the past. I was born right around the time the Civil Rights movement got some momentum. Love the music, may even buy another Nehru jacket someday. But to go back there? No thanks. Give me the Internet and Obama and cellphones and no legal restrictions on where I can go and what I can do. And it’s not just race either. It was only when I was a young adult that I could have gotten credit in my own name or applied for some majors in college.
Roger Moore
@Feathers:
Rules for freeways in Los Angles:
1) If a freeway passes through downtown, the segments on opposite sides will have different names and will usually be referred to by name rather than number (e.g. The Pasadena Freeway rather than CA-110).
2) If a freeway has the same name for two segments with different numbers, people will use the name instead of the number (e.g. The Ventura Freeway rather than CA-134 and US-101).
3) If a numbered highway has different segments with different names, people will use the names rather than the number (e.g. CA-2 is called variously Santa Monica Blvd., The Glendale Freeway, and Angeles Crest Highway rather than by number)
4) Other numbered freeways will be called by number rather than by name (e.g. The 105, not The Century Freeway).
5) All freeway names and numbers use the definite article and either name or number (e.g. The 405 not I-405).
Feathers
The US interstate highway system is built to military specifications. However, at some point the military realized they would need to be able to use all their equipment on European roads. Therefore, all US military equipment is built to the specs of the European highway system, with much lower bridge clearances, etc. The Federal Highway Administration periodically fights to be allowed to build roads and bridges to suit the military’s actual needs. But the Pentagon says no. The extra cost doesn’t come out of their budget, however.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
And then there are screw extractors.
Feathers
@Ruckus: now you’re going to tell me 100g isn’t 4 oz!
Ruckus
@CarolDuhart2:
And of course the corollary to your post is the conservatives that want to go back to that time when you were restricted and hidden and crapped upon worse than now because they liked doing that and having someone to do it to.
Doug R
@Feathers: In Winnipeg, route numbers are different from highway numbers. Also, intersections controlled by traffic lights-if there is one direction that cannot go, there will be a red light in the middle of the intersection. There can be a red light (to stop turns) with a green arrow pointing straight up right underneath it. Also, a flashing green means go ahead with the left turn.
Roger Moore
@Feathers:
For most pasta, once the water has returned to a boil you can just cover the pot and turn the heat off completely and it will cook fine. Also, there’s no need to use many times as much water as pasta; you can cook it just fine in barely enough water to cover the pasta.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Screw extractors are generally used after something has gone wrong.
Roger Moore
@Feathers:
It’s quite a bit closer to 3 1/2 oz than to 4 oz. That’s quite different from 4in/10cm, where the difference is less than 2%.
Ruckus
@Feathers:
Well if you want to get technical………….
MattF
@Roger Moore: Heresy!
CarolDuhart2
@Ruckus:
So true. Sometimes I think that what the anger is really all about. For years the promise was that somehow, in a world of computers and international trade and travel, the world of the 50’s would come back. Women would come home from the kitchen and leave those high-paying coding jobs. Hispanics would go back to wherever they came from, even as they settled and had 3 generations. The promise was that if you voted Republican enough, that world would reappear. But nobody wants to recreate that world anymore-even the complainers. Back to smoky factories, carbon paper, and the secretarial pool? As a reader of Alvin Toffler, I know it can’t.-anymore than tenant farming can be made profitable after the introduction of the tractor. Technology drives change as much as anything else-especially communication technology. How can you take back knowledge and awareness?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Doug R:
So that’s what that means! Thanks. It was quite a mystery to us when we saw it up there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Germy Shoemangler
@Ruckus: An appalling account of the death of Louis Slotkin:
newyorker.com/tech/elements/demon-core-the-strange-death-of-louis-slotin
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Prescott Cactus:
Sweet
I don’t have a watch with a dial made from Icelandic volcano ash, and an Old Norse engraved case.
I don’t think I want to know the price. But it’s cool.
Patricia Kayden
@Germy Shoemangler: LOL wildly at your last point! That’s why I’m so glad that I don’t have teenagers as neighbors.
CarolDuhart2
Thanks for the pasta tips. I never really get pasta right, so maybe this time I’ll get the right texture.
Germy Shoemangler
@Patricia Kayden: The look his father gave me actually shocked me. I was polite to the kid. I didn’t say anything the first few times I saw him, but after a few days he moved closer and closer onto our property and it sort of bugged me. I guess I’m officially an old fart now.*
@CarolDuhart2: True about the disappointed “futurists” envisioning a return to a happier (and whiter) past. Sort of like the Jetsons in a restricted neighborhood.
.
*If the kid had developed any skills on his skateboard so that he could ride it without tripping and sending it crashing against our fence and car and flowers, maybe I would have ignored it.
Patricia Kayden
@Omnes Omnibus: Make sure the spider is still not in the web though. :)
Schlemazel Khan
@Ruckus:
loading fuel on planes or sending rockets to Mars are a couple of places where confusing metric and imperial led to really uncomfortable outcomes.
Feathers
In Massachusetts a THICKLY SETTLED sign does not mean stupid people live there. It means a certain set of traffic rules, set by the commonwealth, apply. FYI – the speed limit is 30, and over that, a bad ticket.
I also like the SLO CHILDREN signs. I particularly mourned for the children who lived on my aunt’s neighborhood. They had a double whammy of signage – DEAD END / SLO CHILDREN. The roads dead-ended at the ocean, so I did not overly pity them.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@RSA:
(were reverse thread).
Including the ‘knock-off’ hubs on old British sports cars. One side had an arrow and the letters “UNDO” to indicate the side to hit with your lead hammer to remove the nut.
Leading to the gawker question “What year Undo is that?”
Lead hammer works on idiots too.
Germy Shoemangler
@Feathers: I used to see “deaf child” signs, and always felt a rush of sadness.
redshirt
@Germy Shoemangler: I always get a twinge of sad when I see old “Children Playing” signs, because they’re not children anymore.
Schlemazel Khan
@Feathers:
Basmati Rice:
Rinse the rice briefly as sometimes talc is used to keep the grains separate. Put equal amounts of rice and water into a sauce pan large enough to hold 3 times the rice. add salt to taste & a pat of butter if you want. Bring the water to a boil, stir then turn off the heat, cover the pan and let it sit for 20 minutes. This has never failed to produce perfectly done rice.
Jasmine & sticky rice get more water, 1 3/4 to 2 cups but that does make them stickier.
Brown rice is an adventure, get your fiber someplace else! Perverted . . . . er, converted rice is left to the readers imagination.
Roger Moore
@CarolDuhart2:
I would strongly recommend following the cooking time recommendations that come with the pasta. And, of course, it never hurts to try it as it’s cooking so you can see where it is.
Doug R
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Flashing green in British Columbia means a pedestrian controlled crossing. Pedestrian pushes the button, light goes generally solid green, then amber (yellow) then red. Some pedestrian lights have a sensor “pity circuit” that detects cars waiting for long periods and turns the light red for them (with bonus countdown timer). A half-assed traffic light is better than none.
Schlemazel Khan
@redshirt:
I get that when I see “SLOW Children” signs around here. I mean, why do you want to bring attention to that, it will only make them feel bad.
Feathers
@allium: The westernmost corner of Virginia is further west than Detroit.
The longest domestic air route is Boston to San Francisco. Pilots on some planes are required to do a fuel check when going there (or San Diego) 3/4 of the way through, to make sure they don’t have to stop to refuel. This can happen with strong headwinds. Learned this from a stewardess who admitted she was doing a overall weight estimate on the passengers onboard for the pilot.
Feathers
@Schlemazel Khan: I’ve always found YIELD TO PED a bit creepy myself.
Mustang Bobby
There’s a stretch of I-25 through New Mexico where, according to the compass, the northbound lanes run south and the southbound lanes run north. That’s to negotiate the mountain passes southeast of Santa Fe.
In my travels, I have driven every mile of I-75 from Hialeah, Florida, to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Not all at once, however.
Mustang Bobby
@Feathers: I would have said Miami to Seattle, but maybe it just seemed like the longest.
Just checked: According to Great Circle Mapper, MIA-SEA is 2,724; BOS-SAN is 2,588.
Schlemazel Khan
@Feathers:
I understand there was one of those signs in the Penn St. locker room
Steve in the ATL
@Lynn Dee:
That is handy. The rule of thumb I have noticed from my frequent rental cars and the 5 cars in my driveway is Japanese on driver side, German on passenger side.
Doug R
@Schlemazel Khan: Confusing metric and imperial led to Air Canada’s “Gimli Glider” when an Air Canada 767 ran out of fuel suddenly near Winnipeg ran out of fuel due to refueling confusion. Thankfully, one of the pilots remembered the World War 2 vintage retired airstrip at Gimli, Manitoba. The landing plane was quite a shock to the drag racers on the decommissioned runway…..
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider
Feathers
@Schlemazel Khan: Why I have a rice cooker. Seriously, the fancy fuzzy logic rice cooker is the best spendy kitchen thing I’ve ever bought. Use it twice a day. Excellent steel cut oats for breakfast. Having a pot of rice waiting for me at home is what keeps me from stopping for something on the way home.
@Mustang Bobby: Hmm. That is undoubtedly correct. Perhaps the BOS flight crew didn’t know about that one. Or it’s one Jet Blue doesn’t fly.
PaulW
At Clearwater Beach celebrating parents 50th anniversary
Mustang Bobby
Rumor has it that if a sign indicating an upcoming entrance a to freeway is mounted on the left side of the overhead, the entrance is to the left, and if on the right, to the right. Heh; not in Florida. They put them wherever the hell they want to.
MattF
@Schlemazel Khan: Or, use a rice cooker.
cleek
yeah, just sticking a fork in the pot and fishing out a sample is the only true way to cook pasta perfectly.
redshirt
@Schlemazel Khan: I always want to get those SLOW CHILDREN into a training program. C’mon, pick it up kids!
Mustang Bobby
@Steve in the ATL: According to the Car Talk guys, the filler hole is on the opposite side of the exhaust pipe, but that’s not always the case. The exhaust pipe on my ’88 Pontiac is on the left, just below the filler cap. (And in a ’56 Chevy, it’s hidden behind the left taillight.)
Mustang Bobby
@PaulW: Mazel tov to the happy couple.
Honus
@srv: KDKA Pittsburgh. It’s an exception because it was the first commercial station in the country.
cleek
@redshirt:
whenever i see a “LOW SOFT SHOULDER” sign, i take a deep breath and try to re-lax.
also, if i see an “END ROAD WORK” sign, i give a little fist pump of solidarity.
Doug R
@Mustang Bobby: Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles to go through Castaic Pass actually has the Northbound lanes on the west side and Southbound lands on the east side to allow for a better slope..
BillCinSD
for men, the distance across your little fingernail is about 1 cm
you can use the Fahrenheit equals Celsius at -40 to convert the temperature easily. Take the current temperature, add 40, multiply the result by 5/9 (F to C) or 9/5 (C to F) then subtract 40 from this result. So 0 C — add 40 gives you 40, multiply by 9/5 [40/5=8, 8*9=72] to get 72; 72-40 = 32.
Estimating lots of things with reasonable accuracy is easy. Check out the book Guesstimation for some handy tips and fun problems
Mustang Bobby
@cleek: When I see DIP IN ROAD, I expect to see Donald Trump lying on the pavement.
redshirt
@cleek: I get a lot of “FROST HEAVE” signs and I always think of a drunken Frosty the Snowman puking his guts out.
father pussbucket
One nanosecond ~= one light-foot.
One gigasecond ~= thirty years.
Humans are approximately 100 watt machines.
Mustang Bobby
@BillCinSD: I am terrible at math, so for F to C conversion I remember: “0 is cold, 15 is not, 25 is warm, 35 is hot.”
Feathers
@CarolDuhart2: I did a gig recently where the classic rock station was playing. I recognized about 90% of the music and remembered about half the band names. Of course it was all white, but so was “album rock” back in the day. What amazed me was how they disappeared the women. I didn’t listen to album rock much, and it was dudely, but there were women. On classic rock, it is one every other day. Janis Joplin on Tuesday, Heart on Thursday. That was it. Sad!
I try telling the millennials that I remember when women got the right to have a credit card or solo bank account in their own name, and they are amazed. I worry sometimes about the trend towards “more inclusivity” in film and TV. Yes, it helps with inspiration, but it also hides how bad things really were. Pretending that living the feisty and off the beaten path life took lots of courage and had its costs doesn’t help. Maybe they should come with a disclaimer.
Schlemazel Khan
@MattF:
yet another appliance sitting on my counter for occasional use? No thanks. I see the appeal but it is so easy to just whip it up without the added expense.
Germy Shoemangler
@Feathers: I remember job hunting in the ’70s and the newspaper help wanted section (which was pages and pages long) had “Help Wanted – Men” and “Help Wanted – Women” separate sections.
Feathers
@Mustang Bobby: In Virginia, Arlington & Alexandria have North Glebe, South Glebe, East Glebe, West Glebe, and Old Glebe Roads.
father pussbucket
One newton of force is roughly the weight of an apple in Earth gravity.
redshirt
@Feathers: I’ve had the same revelation recently. I can only get a few radio stations and one of them is a classics hit (not rock) station but I realized on the day Prince died they don’t play any music by black artists at all, since they didn’t play any freaking Prince. And as for women artists, I can list them: Heart, Stevie Nicks/FM, Pat Benetar, Joan Jett, The Pretenders, and maybe Jefferson Airplane.
Roger Moore
@Feathers:
And Virginia is the most flown over state, i.e. there are more flights that travel over but not to Virginia than any other state. Who knew?
Mustang Bobby
@Feathers: Also, Miami is as far west as Pittsburgh.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@father pussbucket:
Pulse lasers that I work on have a pulse around 300 microns long at the speed of light. Really really short, and the power in the pulse is 6,500,000,000 Watts (6.5 Gigawatts).
I’ve heard from bicyclists that their peak power output was around 1/4HP, which would be about 180W. Sounds about right.
Roger Moore
@father pussbucket:
At rest. During vigorous exercise, we can put out close to 1 kW in bursts.
Feathers
@Germy Shoemangler: I took that job interests test recently where they ask you how interested in different possible jobs. My mother remembered when there were separate ones for men and women. Interestingly enough, she took it senior year in college and everyone took the men’s version, as the women’s one assumed a high school education. My father told me one of the jobs on the list when he took it was “riding in a sheriff’s posse.” Being from Boston, he found that hilarious.
One of the magic early memories of Boston for me, was the time we went into the city and there was a portly policeman in a long uniform coat, just like in Make Way For Ducklings. I was used to younger policemen who tucked their shirts in.
Ruckus
@Germy Shoemangler:
I said had gone wrong. Not seriously and stupidly wrong. They had knowledge of the dangers and chose to use the wrong tools and procedures anyway. Not that I can talk, as a yout I worked in a machine shop with some equipment from around the turn of the century. That’s the last century, just in case you didn’t realize it. Safety was not a concern. In any way, shape or form. I still can’t get over that I’ve lasted this long with all my digits working at nearly 100% or haven’t bled to death or whatever. Maybe I actually learned something running those machines. How can that be?
father pussbucket
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Great Scott!!
Ruckus
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
The amount of work that a human can do varies quite a bit, depending on structure, training and desire. I’ve been able to push 500 watts on a trainer for a couple of seconds and sustain about 120 watts for a couple of hours. I’ve seen professional bicycle racers who could sustain 1200 watts and hold a normal conversation. They are freaks though.
CarolDuhart2
@Feathers: It really what both white and male back then, wasn’t it? There were far more and dominant women in soul, in disco-probably even more classical divas than in that genre. It wasn’t until early 80’s pop that we see much more diversity gender-wise? And today? much more women.
Feathers
@redshirt: Yeah, they go fairly deep cuts and obscure with the mens, but not far enough to find any women. I mean, tons of Eagles, but no Linda Ronstadt? And with Prince, if you don’t count Purple Rain (my least favorite Prince song) as “rock” it says something about you, not Prince.
But…. there ain’t no party like the empty ladies room during intermission at a Rush concert!
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Ruckus:
The Gossamer Condor, a human powered airplane, was engineered to fly with 1/4HP of power input. I guess that would be about 190W continuously for extended periods.
jayboat
@Germy Shoemangler:
Beer on whiskey, mighty risky.
divF
@Mustang Bobby: I-80 West and I-580 East occupy the same lanes going through Emeryville and Berkeley.
A photo of the highway signs showing this are part of the decor for the Peet’s coffee stores.
Ruckus
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
That system had to have a pretty decent margin of error and unknown to even think about trying. The person had to be able to sustain, wild ass guess here, at least 2 or 3 times the “normal” rate of work, swimming otherwise being a very strong possibility.
Spike
@Joey Maloney: Interstate 45 from Dallas to Galveston never leaves Texas.
redshirt
@Feathers: LOL. Well, I suppose these radio stations know their audience.
It’s interesting because once I’m in my truck, I can pick up another classic hits station but they play all kinds of 80’s music including Prince, Madonna, Cindi Lauper, MJ, and Lenny Kravitz. It strikes me as weird because the two stations self-identify nearly identically and yet one will never play that music.
Doug R
@Ruckus: As a former bicycle courier, I found I could light up the 1000 watt bulb for a few seconds, which makes me believe the 1HP stories. Sustained, though, more like 1/4 to 1/2 HP.
divF
@Steve in the ATL:
Both are on the passenger side, given that the fundamental design of Japanese cars is for right-side drivers.
Spike
@DonBoy: There’s a stretch of road in my ancestral homeland of Letcher County, Kentucky, that is simultaneously KY 15 North, KY 7 South, and KY 160 West.
Feathers
@Ruckus: I grew up in the DC area, so my experience may be different. I listened to mostly Top 40 stations, which did play both black and white. Disco and soul played alongside the Eagles and Styx and Steely Dan. I listened to the American Top 40 every Sunday. One of the things I remember is that every so often there were songs which were national hits, but not on the local radio in DC.
But the FM album rock stations were totally white. Listening to the classic rock station I kept waiting for Paradise by the Dashboard Light, which was a nightly staple of 70s album rock – but No! Ha! Not work safe anymore, I suppose. I wonder if they play it at night, but not enough to actually find a radio to listen.
I think MTV changed music a lot. For one thing, you could see who was black and who was white. And how old they were. I brought home a BeeGees album. My father was astonished to discover they were white. And white men, too. MTV was totally white at first, but once Thriller came out, that really changed things in the pop world. But… the album rock audience shifted to the college rock crowd and that stayed almost entirely white.
I went to a white minority high school, where “everybody” danced to the disco/soul/pop stuff, but the floor cleared and it was assholes only for the “white” music. Guys I’ve dated, as well as my ex, have been amazed by the huge holes in my music knowledge. But back in the day, you didn’t go there.
Roger Moore
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
FWIW, 100W is about 86 kcal/hour or between 2000 and 2100 kcal/day. That’s the basic diet that nutritional information is planned around, so it’s a reasonable estimate for a normal-sized person who isn’t doing anything especially strenuous. People who are doing very strenuous work or exercise can consume more like 6000 kcal/day without gaining weight, which implies that they’re averaging around 300W throughout the day, including sleep. Their peak output must be a lot higher.
Uncle Cosmo
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Again, old numbering system grandfathered in–the NJT predates the Interstate system. Same with other roads that were built independently after the passage of the enabling act & only added retroactively (e.g., Baltimore Harbor Tunnel [“Old” Tunnel] Thruway, now I-895).
Avery Greynold
Miles are bigger than Kilometers in a ratio of nearly 5 to 8, though 3 to 5 will do if the math is easier. If the Indy 500 went metric, it would be the Indy 800 (OK, 804.7ish).
Roger Moore
ISO standard paper sizes are built around paper with a short side:long side ratio of 1:sqrt(2). That’s convenient because it means paper that’s cut in half widthwise keeps its shape. American standard paper sizes could have had approximately the same ratio if we’d chosen 8 1/2 x 12 instead of 8 1/2 x 11, since 12/8.5 is within 0.2% of sqrt(2).
NotMax
One can start at Bowling Green in lower Manhattan and walk, bike or drive to Albany (nearly 150 miles) on the same roadway* (although it changes names along the route, it’s been a continuous road connecting the two locations since the mid-17th century).
*Recent exception for autos being the ban on vehicular traffic for a few blocks at Times Square area, so would have to begin at about 49th street to avoid detours now.
Adding a little white vinegar to the water when making poached eggs makes them cook up better and firmer.
Ink stains on fabric can be treated by soaking them in (or blotting with) whole milk.
Cheat for (close enough) Hollandaise sauce:
1 stick butter
3 egg yolks
2 tsp. lemon juice
pinch of salt
dash or two of Tabasco sauce (or cayenne pepper)
Melt butter in a pan.
Meanwhile put everything else in a blender and run on lowest setting. With blender still running, carefully remove cover and slowly stream in hot butter, then turn blender off.
Uncle Cosmo
@redshirt: The Pointers (stars, not sisters) followed in the direction away from Polaris guide the eye to Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo.
Continue the curve of the Big Dipper’s bowl & you come to Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Bootes, & thence to Spica, the brightest star in Virgo. First-magnitude stars all.
Follow the line of Orion’s Belt to the right & it leads to Aldebaran, the brightest star in Taurus; follow it to the left & it leads to Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.
BruceFromOhio
@rikyrah: lol.
Don’t cross the streams.
Always empty paper cups before leaving for the weekend.
Be nice to everyone, because it’s really not that big of a planet.
VOR
@Joey Maloney: In Minneapolis/St.Paul, 35E (i.e. East branch) and 35W (i.e. West branch) still run north/south. Now try I-394 near Chicago, aka the Tri-State. It clearly runs north/south.
Uncle Cosmo
@Death Panel Truck: Um… US 95 and US 395 (both odd) are N-S routes on the Left Coast (vs US 1 on the Least Coast) while US 2 is an E-W route in the far north, where the numbering starts.
Maybe for the numerically challenged amongst us I should have specified that when I said “numbered from east to west (or north to south)” I meant starting at the lowest number & increasing in that direction. I thought that was obvious, but ‘peers not…
Uncle Cosmo
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Celsius to Fahrenheit: Double the C value, knock off 10%, then add 32. Easier to do that way in your head. I first saw that little trick in Rick Steves’ Europe through the Back Door many moons ago.
Or you could memorize this small list:
0 C = 32 F
10 C = 50 F
20 C = 68 F
30 C = 86 F
40 C = 104 F
redshirt
@Uncle Cosmo: An ancient test of superior vision used to be if you can see the double stars (Mizar and Alcor) in the “second” star in the handle of the Big Dipper.
I cannot.
Kent
If you bite something and you die it was poisonous.
If something bites you and you die it was venomous.
(There is no such thing as a poisonous snake)
Also….
Levies hold back rivers
Dikes hold back the ocean or lakes.
grandpa john
@Smedley the uncertain: U S navel ships are assigned a 4 letter call sign beginning with N its used for both radio and visual communications. Ours ( USS Noa DD 841) was NBBS
Ruckus
@Doug R:
My info was gained using a calibrated load generator on a bicycle fitting bike. The numbers may not be exact but they were pretty close and repeatable. They didn’t tell what the rider was producing but the load they could sustain or peak at. Also used a CO2/O2 measuring device to see how sustainable that load was, for how long. The most amazing thing was the range of load/sustainability and how looks could be deceiving.
Uncle Cosmo
@PsiFighter37:
Bangalore, young’un! I call ’em BernieBeards. Most of the original DFHs (I was “Clean for Gene” in ’68 & count myself as one) grew out of their knowitall assholistic onomatoskeptic solipsistic neerdowellness. Many (too fucking many IMHO) turned hard right as soon as they had something they thought they had to defend (e.g., job, house, car, savings account, spouse, kids). The gooey remnant that never did either are the BernieBeards.
I have no gripe with the idealistic Millenials. I despise the BernieBeards, who fucking well ought to know better but don’t.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Joey Maloney: There’s actually 3: H-1, H-2, and H-3.
NotMax
@Kent
Levees.
Somewhat fungible distinction – see Lake Pontchartrain, for example.
@grandpa john
Naval.
/pedant
NotMax
@BillinGlendale
Yup. All three on Oahu. Interstates due to a loophole which allows for any highway connecting military bases to qualify for the funding and the designation.
Ruckus
@Uncle Cosmo:
Some people learn from experience and some just experience stuff. Twas ever so, probably will be until there aren’t any more of us left. I think the ones that refuse to learn are what could be known as Darwin examples.
NotMax
@BruceFromOhio
If someone is nauseous, they make others feel sick.
If someone is nauseated, they are ill.
redshirt
@Uncle Cosmo: Fascinating.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@father pussbucket: one nanosecond = 2/3 foot of RG-58 coax cable.
Cheers,
Scott.
Shell
And Play-Doh was originally developed for cleaning wallpaper.
NotMax
@Shell
The Frisbee was first marketed (and failed) as the Pluto Platter.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: You know, for kids.
Uncle Cosmo
@redshirt: Another celestial eye chart is the Pleiades: how many stars can you see with the naked eye? Seven is the supposed norm (hence the Seven Sisters nickname) but I have heard of folks whose eyes can resolve 10 or more. (In fact the cluster contains over 1000 statistically-confirmed stars, excluding unresolved binaries & brown dwarfs.)
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Lawn darts!
Ultraviolet Thunder
@NotMax:
I’ve had a hole in my leg for 47 years from one of those. Why did we ever think that was a good idea?
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus: I understand that reference!
BruceFromOhio
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Darwin’s Games: that which does not destroy you makes your descendants more likely to survive.
redshirt
@Uncle Cosmo: The Pleiades is my favorite constellation, and yet I can only really see it out of the side of my eye. I think I’ve wrecked my eyes of late by looking at the sun far too often.
WaterGirl
@Roger Moore: I have a bag of silver dollars from my dad. That’s what the tooth fairy used to give us. I have googled a few times, but I have never figured out a way to find out if any of them are worth anything. Besides the sentimental value!
Any suggestions?
BruceFromOhio
@NotMax: This thread is now officially awesome.
redshirt
@Uncle Cosmo: Shout out to US2! It’s right down the road from me. And I’m somewhat chagrined to realize how much of my life has been spent within 20 miles of US1.
Davebo
@PsiFighter37:
One could easily argue that Bernie’s Vatican trip was in no way related to his campaign and therefore he should not be allowed to pay for it with campaign funds.
Roger Moore
@WaterGirl:
If they’re pre-1965, they’re worth at least the bullion value. There are a few rare silver dollars that have real numismatic value, but it was a very common coin and was heavily collected, so the common date/mint combinations have little collector’s value.
Lymie
@scav:
Vermont and New Hampshire are counter examples.
henqiguai
@WaterGirl(#337):
Find a local numismatist (check your local Yellow Pages or equivalent).
SteverinoCT
@Betty Cracker: There was a Facebook meme circulating that the gas cap was on the same side as the handle of the icon. False; just coincidental if it worked. Now on my 2012 Honda, there is indeed a little arrow together with the icon. Proof that designers sometimes do listen.
John W.
@cmorenc: Indeed, a fuck-ton of money. But, in a sufficiently advanced civilization (or one much different than the only examples we know) maybe energy is cheap. Maybe that matter-energy thingie is well known and common. In such a civilization, neither time nor resources would perhaps not be limiting. I think that rather than money, the size of the galaxy, not to mention the whole shebang, is rather large and the interesting places though many are generally far apart. With the nearer galactic center, with it’s plethora of stars, it seems unlikely that the advanced civ. would spend much time wandering among the sparsely scattered stars in our digs.
You gotta know that the Star Trek universe is out there somewhere.
jw
SteverinoCT
@DonBoy: In Connecticut, I-95 and US-1 run east-west; in some sections US-1 is actually labeled as such.
Origuy
Some parts of a bicycle have left-handed thread, most notably the left-side pedal. Otherwise normal use would unscrew it.
redshirt
@John W.: Where? Real stars around us? Which are all terrifying?
Sasha
Still doesn’t explain Q105 in the Tampa Bay area.
A Streeter
@kmeyer the lurker:
In Chicago it’s exactly the opposite.
In Washington, DC it depends on the quadrant (NW, SE, etc.) according to the basic rule: if you’re walking away from the Capitol, one of the Capitol Streets, or the Mall, then odd numbers are on your right, even numbers on your left. There’s a special rule for circles that I don’t know.
WaterGirl
@Roger Moore: I have several from the 1920s and one from 1889. And a bunch of eisenhower from 1972. I looked online and I am completely confused!
edit: this can’t possibly be right, right?
1965-1970 Half Dollar (40% silver) $0.50 $2.4446
1921 Morgan Dollar 1878-1921 Morgan Dollar $1.00 $12.7851
1935 Peace Dollar 1921-1935 Peace Dollar $1.00 $12.7851
silver Ike dollar 1971-1976 Eisenhower Dollar (40% silver) ** $1.00 $5.2273
Silver Eagle 1986-2013 Silver Eagle (.999 Silver)
$1.00
$16.5134
coinflation.com/silver_coin_values.html
WaterGirl
@henqiguai: I don’t think I would ever take them to a total stranger without first having an idea of what they would be worth.
Bruce Webb
“I-80 West and I-580 East occupy the same lanes going through Emeryville and Berkeley.”
And for what it is worth run N-S
Steeplejack
@Sasha:
Isn’t that WRBQ? A W-station east of the Mississippi.
Bill Tucker
The closest US state to Africa is Maine.
Wyatt Derp
If you want to know if an egg is hard boiled or not spin it. A hard boiled eggs spins freely while a raw egg wobbles for a couple of seconds then stops.
mardam422
@And KDKA, Pittsburgh. srv:
Speedbumped
Re: 1:
The mnemonic I heard was “lumpy on the left, runny on the right.”
Original Lee
Do as you oughter, add acid to water. And never try to mix ammonia and bleach.
Bob Munck
@Joey Maloney: I-66 also does not run between states, though it does straggle about a mile into the District of Columbia, mostly crossing the Potomac from Virginia.
Alex in NYC
@Joey Maloney: Technically, a 3 digit interstate with an even digit doesn’t have to be a “loop” — it means that it intersects with the main interstate more than once. So, it could be a bypass of the center of a city (going around the city and meeting back up on the other side). See I-295 in Richmond.