Maybe I should keep at least a spare shirt at work. However, the seasons will solve that issue before too long. Still, there are cold days I shy away from walking. In particular, if the sidewalks are icy, I will wait for a bus, or take a cab if I have to.
("Shirt" above started out missing an "r". :smile:)

[QUOTE=kladner;467229]Maybe I should keep at least a spare shirt at work.[/QUOTE]

Maybe.

I found myself working in machine rooms. Bloody f'ing cold.

"[URL="http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article171208882.html"]Man Burns at the Burning Man Festival[/URL]."
Hmmmm... or maybe ...WTF?

Man's Best Friend
 

Headed out at sunset last night to do an exercise loop around a nearby park and catch the full moon rising (gorgeous - huge and deep orange from all the haze in the air ... who said having 30 wildfires burning in the state currently is all negative?) On way back from the far end of the park, at top of a rise between a large, shallow, now-dry (due to drought-related water-saving measures) fountain pond on my left and a nighttime-lit softball field on the right, passed a tall bald fellow walking his 2 small mutts, and ended up doing a double-take: the black dog was a standard terrier-type deal, but something odd about the little white one - because it was a cat. :) Robust ~15lb kitty, mostly off-white with just hints of orange patches, off-leash but sporting a leash-clippable chest harness. I chuckled and said to the fellow, "not often you see someone walking their cat", he grinned and replied, in a heavy Russian accent, "he thinks he is dog". Then, nodding in the direction of the dog: "and he is half cat". At that moment the cat-who-thinks-he-is-dog went bounding down the slope, leapt into the waterless fake-lake basin and started strolling around, happy as can be. Hilarious.

[QUOTE=chalsall;467195]I have a lot of respect for you. But I fundamentally disagree with you on this point.[/QUOTE]
No harm done, as I said many times, our force stays in the fact that we are different :razz:
Unfortunately you didn't read my post deep enough, the "50 km" was not about electric cars (I even mentioned that nowadays one [U]can[/U] have a battery to last so long) but about methane cars. I [U]do[/U] refill my CNG car almost daily, and that is a big pain in the sitting down part ...

For the second part of your post, yeah, my boss says the same, nobody will drive own cars anymore. And he is quite serious about it. We almost believe it too... However he buys a BMW or other luxury car every year...

[QUOTE=ewmayer;467283]…"he thinks he is dog".[/QUOTE]

[YOUTUBE]G3eZY8Dv4ew[/YOUTUBE]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;467283]Headed out at sunset last night to do an exercise loop around a nearby park and catch the full moon rising (gorgeous - huge and deep orange from all the haze in the air ... who said having 30 wildfires burning in the state currently is all negative?) [/QUOTE]

Had the same view early Wednesday morning (of the moon, not the dog and cat). The smoke from all the California fires gave the setting moon a nice tint- I haven't tweaked the colors or anything in the picture below, and it is very close to the shade I saw visually. Background was just a bit lighter, perhaps. Gorgeous.

Norm

A toddler peers over the border fence
 

"As the 'dreamers' face uncertainty, a young Mexican takes a look over the wall"
[QUOTE]JR, a self described “artivist,” was developing an idea that had come to him in a dream that took him to the Baja California cities of Tijuana and Tecate.

He was scouting locations close to the border fence in the latter city when he met a family and their year-old toddler David Enrique. When JR asked if he could photograph the child his family agreed, on condition that they could change Kikito, as the infant is called, into a fresh set of clothes.

As he was looking at the child through the lens of his camera JR’s dream took a definite shape. Kikito grasped the sides of his crib to peer out, and JR saw his project.
[/QUOTE]

Wife of Trump’s ethics adviser caught doing nasty with inmate in her car
 

[URL]http://amp.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article172067617.html[/URL]
Ah! Those highly ethical GOPpers! Sort of makes me think of "The Producers" when [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Mostel"]Zero Mostel's [/URL]character is setting up naughty skits with elderly female donors.
Or maybe Zappa's 200 Motels:
[QUOTE]Gonzo, the lead guitar player, placed his mutated member in her slithering slit.[/QUOTE][QUOTE]
The wife of a prominent Republican Party attorney who also serves as [B]Donald Trump’s[/B] ethics advisor was arrested and charged with “having sex with a 23-year-old inmate in the backseat of her car outside a Virginia prison.”
[B]
Teresa Jo Burchfield[/B], 53, is married to [B]Bobby Burchfield[/B], who serves as ethics advisor to Trump’s businesses. He also represented [B]George W. Bush[/B] during the 2000 lawsuit demanding a recount in Florida.
Burchfield was caught getting freaky with an inmate outside Virginia’s Fauquier County Adult Detention Center on Tuesday.

“The defendant was caught in the backseat of her vehicle with an inmate…,” Dept. [B]J. B. Thorpe[/B] wrote in Burchfield’s criminal complaint. “When the inmate exited the vehicle, he handed me a bag of brown pills [capsules] that he claims to be workout pills.”
According to the inmate, this wasn’t the first time the pair had gotten busy in her car. He told officers they had been having sex for about a month. In exchange for his services, the inmate was gifted with cigarettes, clothes and vitamin supplements.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]She has also been an advocate for migraine sufferers, though it appears she did not have a headache on Tuesday.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=kladner;467512][URL]http://amp.miamiherald.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/jose-lambiet/article172067617.html[/URL][/QUOTE]

[quote]The Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office declined to identify the inmate, who was on trustee status and authorized to leave the jail for work.

Burchfield’s husband is a major conservative causes attorney and a partner at King & Spalding in Atlanta. The firm had a $500,000 contract with Congress to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, although they resigned from the case after being criticized by gay rights groups. Soon after, they were dropped by the National Rifle Association, also a client.

Burchfield is also a long-standing member of the Republican National Lawyers Association and was the chairman of Crossroads GPS, a Republican advocacy group founded by Karl Rove.[/quote]Obviously, the Mrs. wanted to have sex with a better class of guy. And 30 years younger to boot!

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;467516]Obviously, the Mrs. wanted to have sex with a better class of guy. And 30 years younger to boot![/QUOTE]
ROFL!

Manchester’s hilarious attempt at reinventing London’s Oyster Card
 

[url]https://medium.com/@sushilnash/a-beginners-guide-to-using-my-get-me-there-manchester-s-hilarious-attempt-at-reinventing-london-s-70a6d1dde246[/url]

I got some liquid drain opener to unclog a drain (two drains, actually -- water put down the higher drain eventually starts backing out the lower drain. The water then drains, very but slowly.) I traced the plumbing to the junction where the drains meet. It's a reasonably long run to the junction from the lower drain, so I got a big bottle, 80 ounces.

The instructions say, "Pour 1/5 of the bottle (2 cups) slowly down the drain. Use 1/2 of the bottle for a total clog."

How are you supposed to determine when you've poured the correct amount? I am leery of using a measuring cup for caustic gel.

This seems a great addition to the Annals of Unhelpful Instructions...

Meanwhile, I poured part of the bottle down the drain and waited, then ran water. Results were unsatisfactory, so I poured the rest of the bottle down the drain, and decided to wait longer...

Leaving it overnight can help.

We have a 10 metre long wire spring, which is very useful for clearing blocked pipes once you have learned how to work it around bends in the plumbing.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;468613]How are you supposed to determine when you've poured the correct amount? I am leery of using a measuring cup for caustic gel.[/QUOTE]

weight it ? if it's homogenous with roughly equal density then you can weigh it and do roughly 1/5 of the weight.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;468613]I got some liquid drain opener to unclog a drain (two drains, actually -- water put down the higher drain eventually starts backing out the lower drain. The water then drains, very but slowly.) I traced the plumbing to the junction where the drains meet. It's a reasonably long run to the junction from the lower drain, so I got a big bottle, 80 ounces.

The instructions say, "Pour 1/5 of the bottle (2 cups) slowly down the drain. Use 1/2 of the bottle for a total clog."

How are you supposed to determine when you've poured the correct amount? I am leery of using a measuring cup for caustic gel.[/QUOTE]I don't think you need to be so accurate with measuring things. Just pour some down until us "feels" like the right amount.

[QUOTE=retina;468623]I don't think you need to be so accurate with measuring things. Just pour some down until us "feels" like the right amount.[/QUOTE]No, I don't think great accuracy is necessary, nor trying to achieve it even desirable. With caustic drain openers, you want to minimize the chances of a spill.

So, I think the instructions have to be viewed as guidelines, to give a rough idea of how much of the stuff you actually need to clear your average clog. But I suppose it's possible the companies could use their impracticable instructions as a handy dodge to avoid liability if someone had problems. "Prove you used it according to package directions!" (This idea is not original to me. I read a fictional description of a company using this dodge for an insecticide that failed to kill insects (a nest of wasps), in [u]The Shining[/u].)

Well, the first bottle of drain opener I put down the lower (bathtub) drain didn't get the job done, but there was enough improvement that I decided to get more and try again. The other drain was for a double sink, and one sink has a Disposall-type appliance, whose output appeared to be backing up into the bathtub, so I wanted to clear any crud out of that drain. But I did NOT want to put drain opener through the Disposall. Luckily, double-checking under the sink showed the Disposall drained into the drainpipe for the other sink, so I simply put a whole bottle (80 ounces) of liquid drain opener down the other sink drain and waited an hour, then ran hot water down both the sink and the tub.

Clog dissolved, problem solved!

In my experience Drano-style declogging agents are a huge waste of money - I just use a shot of bleach, let sit for an hour or so, supplement with some mechanical agitation (e.g. coathanger), repeat as necessary. AFAICT bleach won't corrode pipes, waste disposals and such.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;468688]In my experience Drano-style declogging agents are a huge waste of money - I just use a shot of bleach, let sit for an hour or so, supplement with some mechanical agitation (e.g. coathanger), repeat as necessary. AFAICT bleach won't corrode pipes, waste disposals and such.[/QUOTE]Hmm. Chemically speaking, laundry bleach is pretty close.

Checking MSDS's I see that, in fact, the liquid drain openers have a shockingly low percentage of lye (sodium hydroxide), < 2.5% -- little more than in laundry bleach. The concentration of sodium hypochlorite is similar. The only significant differences are the jelly-like consistency, and the sodium silicate added to the drain openers as a corrosion inhibitor.

BTW, in some MSDS's I looked at, they didn't give percentages of lye or sodium hypochlorite. They were "trade secrets."

So I'd say the liquid drain openers are overpriced, but still way less than calling a professional (plumber or rooter service).

I'll definitely keep laundry bleach in mind as a substitute for liquid drain opener!

My first method of choice in unclogging a drain is the plunger. If the clog is near the drain, that usually works. You do NOT use drain opener in a toilet. If you've got a clogged toilet and the plunger doesn't work, use a snake if you can; otherwise, call a professional.

The clog I had to deal with was [i]way[/i] too far down the pipes for a coat hanger to reach. The length of pipe from one of the pipes to the clog was probably longer than most pipe snakes.

Back when I was a kid, crystal Drano was what we kept around the house. The MSDS says 30 to 60 percent lye (sodium hydroxide). Pure lye used to be available in hardware stores too. I haven't seen that in quite a while.

I still see crystal drain openers at Home Depot. There are also products that go the other way, chemically, i.e. sulfuric acid.
I have had more than one plumber/handyman tell me that caustic drain openers are known in the trade as "the plumbers friend" because they eventually eat through the pipe, especially at the trap.

In this parts of the world, one can buy [URL="https://www.homepro.co.th/product/213692"]this thing[/URL] (or equivalent, there are many types), which is just a mixture of caustic soda (NaOH) granules or powder and aluminum scrap (small pieces of aluminum burr, less than a millimeter in length). They do not react when dry, but as soon as you put them in water, a lot of sh.. action happens. Bubbling and gurgling and smoking hydrogen. The NaOH reacts violently with aluminum, when you put them in the sink, you actually could use a match to light the hydrogen that comes out from the hole (BOOM! no, I didn't try :missingteeth:, but my hands were very itchy to try it, hehe, as I could smell the hydrogen coming out from the hole). I used it few times with very good results. OTOH, plastic pipes everywhere... No idea how many holes would this dig into some iron pipes... (but this is a rented house, anyhow :razz: Just kidding, you know we really like the house and take care of it!).

[QUOTE=LaurV;468792]In this parts of the world, one can buy [URL="https://www.homepro.co.th/product/213692"]this thing[/URL] (or equivalent, there are many types), which is just a mixture of caustic soda (NaOH) granules or powder and aluminum scrap (small pieces of aluminum burr, less than a millimeter in length). They do not react when dry, but as soon as you put them in water, a lot of sh.. action happens. Bubbling and gurgling and smoking hydrogen. The NaOH reacts violently with aluminum, when you put them in the sink, you actually could use a match to light the hydrogen that comes out from the hole (BOOM! no, I didn't try :missingteeth:, but my hands were very itchy to try it, hehe, as I could smell the hydrogen coming out from the hole). I used it few times with very good results. OTOH, plastic pipes everywhere... No idea how many holes would this dig into some iron pipes... (but this is a rented house, anyhow :razz: Just kidding, you know we really like the house and take care of it!).[/QUOTE]
Sounds a lot like crystal Drano. I don't know what you smelled coming out of the hole, but hydrogen is odorless. Still, if it or anything else flammable had gone BOOM, you might have had caustic sludge spraying all over the room.

There is another kind of drain opener, occasionally advertised on TV, that I find appalling. It uses high pressure to (try to) [i]force[/i] the clog through. I have two problems with this approach. One, if the clog won't be pushed, there's a good chance that whatever is in the drain [i]behind[/i] the clog will come geysering out. Two, there is also a chance the drain pipe will either fail, or leak at every joint. Drain pipes are not usually build to hold water under pressure.

Yet another sort of drain opener (recommended once by a Roto Rooter guy who also said the caustic ones promote corrosion of metal pipes) is "organic drain opener," a bacteria and enzyme powder. I bought some at a Home Depot, but when it ran low and I went to buy more, they no longer carried it.

I suspect the odor from fizzing Drano might be aerosolized aluminum compounds, and maybe some metal, too.

[QUOTE=kladner;468844]I suspect the odor from fizzing Drano might be aerosolized aluminum compounds, and maybe some metal, too.[/QUOTE]Not to mention whatever gradu was in the water in the clogged drain and the clog itself, being heated to the boiling point
:yucky:

[url=http://www.cracked.com/blog/thomas-tank-engine-horrible-racist-classist-monster/]Why The Most F-ed Up Show On TV (Is Thomas The Tank Engine)[/url] | Cracked.com

[QUOTE=ewmayer;469060][URL="http://www.cracked.com/blog/thomas-tank-engine-horrible-racist-classist-monster/"]Why The Most F-ed Up Show On TV (Is Thomas The Tank Engine)[/URL] | Cracked.com[/QUOTE]
I had no real clue about this literary world's horribleness. I thought it was all sickly sweet cuteness, at least judging by the book covers in the kiddie play room in the place I work.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;469060][URL="http://www.cracked.com/blog/thomas-tank-engine-horrible-racist-classist-monster/"]Why The Most F-ed Up Show On TV (Is Thomas The Tank Engine)[/URL] | Cracked.com[/QUOTE]
A serious critic would look at the original books that Rev. Awdry wrote half a century ago, not the current spin-off commercial activities.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;468815]I don't know what you smelled coming out of the hole, but hydrogen is odorless.[/QUOTE]
I know they say so, but every child who played with zinc granules and acid or who attempted water electrolysis in his early teens can tell you differently. Pure hydrogen may be odorless, but try to play with some chemicals as mentioned, and you will find that you can tell by smell if hydrogen is produced, and in which amount. No joke.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;468847]Not to mention whatever gradu was in the water in the clogged drain and the clog itself, being heated to the boiling point
:yucky:[/QUOTE]
Haha, well... :redface:

[QUOTE=LaurV;469116]I know they say so, but every child who played with zinc granules and acid or who attempted water electrolysis in his early teens can tell you differently. Pure hydrogen may be odorless, but try to play with some chemicals as mentioned, and you will find that you can tell by smell if hydrogen is produced, and in which amount. No joke[/QUOTE]And if you listen carefully, you can hear the hydrogen singing "You'll never walk alone." Well, perhaps not. But whatever reaction may be producing the hydrogen, will almost certainly be producing other things as well, and some of these other things will not be odorless. And their concentrations will be proportionate to that of the hydrogen, so will serve as an olfactory indicator of the amount of hydrogen produced.

I remember well the last day of chem lab one semester, some joker threw some zinc into a Pyrex beaker of 10 molar hydrochloric acid. Never mind the smell. The reaction became so violent we became concerned the hydrogen might explode, so decided we wanted something solid between us and the beaker...

In Santa Croce with no Baedeker
 

[QUOTE]A Spanish tourist in Italy has been killed by a falling stone fragment in one of Florence's main churches.
[/QUOTE]It is the Santa Croce, where we saw the tombs of both Galileo and Michaelangelo.

[URL]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41685760[/URL]

[url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/10/19/trump_put_chad_on_the_travel_ban_because_of_passport_paper.html]Finally, We Learn Why Chad Is on the Travel Ban List. It’s Not Good.[/url]

I imagine that folks in Puerto Rico, being told by FEMA to fill out reams of paperwork before any assistance will be rendered, can relate.

Well, [i]Il Duce[/i] did say he wanted to run the government like a business...

Less than a week after the grotesque decision to put Chad on the travel ban list, Chad pulled its troops out of Niger. [W.C. Fields voice]It must have been a coincidence...[/W.C. Fields voice]

And a week after [i]that[/i], four of our soldiers were killed in Niger on a patrol which had, for the six months before Chad withdrew its forces, been routine.

From the accounts I have heard, it seems that the assessment of risk had not taken into account the recent crucial change in circumstances. If that is the case, then, like the decision to put Chad on the travel ban list, it bespeaks a level of incompetence that beggars the imagination.

[URL="https://www.outsideonline.com/2249221/nine-year-old-completed-thru-hikings-triple-crown"]This 9-Year-Old Completed Thru-Hiking's Triple Crown[/URL]

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;470147]And a week after [i]that[/i], four of our soldiers were killed in Niger on a patrol which had, for the six months before Chad withdrew its forces, been routine.[/QUOTE]

"Routine" - except for the "WTF are 800 U.S. special-ops troops doing in Niger, anyway?" aspect, you mean? (Hint: [url=https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/10/links-102017.html#comment-2875981]French Uranium needs figure largely[/url].)
Also, according to Reuters, the area where the incident in question occurred has seen at least 46 such attacks since early *last* year, so your orange-haired-satanic-causality claim is dubious, as the attack frequency for over a year now seems to indicate something other than "routineness" should have been indicated in such missions. We're there supporting ongoing neocolonialist activities by the French, causing many of the locals not to love us, ergo bad shit happens now and again. (So of course we need to greatly increase our military involvement there, goes the inevitable line of Exceptional-nationalistic thinking.)

Getting back to the Puerto Rico situation, a well-known blog has an update:

[url=https://www.duffelblog.com/2017/10/puerto-rico-reaches-out-to-taliban-for-tips-on-getting-us-aid/]Puerto Rico reaches out to Taliban for tips on getting US aid[/url] Duffel Blog

(BTW, Other recent Duffel Blog gems include "War in Afghanistan turns 16, applies for driver's license".)

[QUOTE=ewmayer;470205]so your orange-haired-satanic-causality claim is dubious[/QUOTE]The only thing I claimed (and only implicitly) as (likely) cause-and-effect was, putting Chad on the travel-ban list, and Chad withdrawing its troops from Niger within a week. I certainly never even suggested that this was "satanic." I have never heard of Satan being accused of a level of incompetence that beggars the imagination!

How Chad's withdrawal from Niger may have affected the threat to the unit whose men got killed has not been established, and I made no claim in that regard, but I'm sure the Islamist fighters didn't ignore the fact that hundreds of their most effective military enemies had abruptly left the field.

You may, if you wish, dispute the DOD's claim that the same patrol had been conducted 30 times in the last 6 months without incident.

It is possible that in the October 4 engagement, the patrol was lured into an ambush by skirmishers, whom they unwisely pursued. Of course, this raises the question of whether the enemy force had been in the area for a long time, or had only arrived recently.

If the commanders thought the unit had inadequate support for its mission (lack of intel, air recon, air cover, etc) but allowed the mission to proceed anyway, that would be less an "intelligence failure" and more along the lines of dereliction of duty.

As to [i]Il Duce[/i], there remains his refusal to address the soldiers' deaths publicly. Perhaps the new WH motto should be, [b]THE BUCK [i]never[/i] STOPS HERE[/b].

It turns out that, as early as October 5th, the NSC had prepared a [url=http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/18/trump-niger-condolence-statement-243917]routine condolence statement[/url], but [i]Il Duce[/i] never read it. Now, [i]that[/i] is something that makes me go Hmmmm...

Not sure where to share this but Prof Hawking's 1966 thesis "Properties of expanding universes" was made freely available for the first time on the publications section of university's website at 00:01 BST.

Stephen Hawking PhD readers crash Cambridge University website - BBC News
[url]https://apple.news/AYAC20fdYTGO1DfTskFWzUg[/url]

[url]https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/step-inside-the-mind-of-the-young-stephen-hawking-as-his-phd-thesis-goes-online-for-first-time[/url]

[QUOTE=pinhodecarlos;470243]Not sure where to share this but Prof Hawking's 1966 thesis "Properties of expanding universes" was made freely available for the first time on the publications section of university's website at 00:01 BST.

Stephen Hawking PhD readers crash Cambridge University website - BBC News
[url]https://apple.news/AYAC20fdYTGO1DfTskFWzUg[/url]

[url]https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/step-inside-the-mind-of-the-young-stephen-hawking-as-his-phd-thesis-goes-online-for-first-time[/url][/QUOTE]

I tried to download it 4 times, but the download never started :sad:

Sssh... Looks like I had to write this message to matke the download start...

[QUOTE=ET_;470271][quote]Originally Posted by pinhodecarlos
Not sure where to share this but Prof Hawking's 1966 thesis "Properties of expanding universes" was made freely available for the first time on the publications section of university's website at 00:01 BST.

Stephen Hawking PhD readers crash Cambridge University website - BBC News
[url]https://apple.news/AYAC20fdYTGO1DfTskFWzUg[/url]

[url]https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/...for-first-time[/url][/quote]I tried to download it 4 times, but the download never started :sad:

Sssh... Looks like I had to write this message to matke the download start...[/QUOTE]
The crush of requests for Hawking's thesis reminds me of an anecdote about Einstein, found e.g. on the [url=http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Einstein.html]University of St Andrews Albert Einstein bio[/url]:

[quote]During 1921 Einstein made his first visit to the United States. His main reason was to raise funds for the planned Hebrew University of Jerusalem. However he received the Barnard Medal during his visit and lectured several times on relativity. He is reported to have commented to the chairman at the lecture he gave in a large hall at Princeton which was overflowing with people:-

[i]I never realised that so many Americans were interested in tensor analysis.[/i][/quote]

[url]https://reddit.com/r/hmmm[/url]

[QUOTE=ixfd64;470568][url]https://reddit.com/r/hmmm[/url][/QUOTE]

:thumbs-up:

[url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/harvey-weinsteins-army-of-spies]Harvey Weinstein’s Army of Spies[/url] | The New Yorker
[quote]In some cases, the investigative effort was run through Weinstein’s lawyers, including David Boies, a celebrated attorney who represented Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential-election dispute and argued for marriage equality before the U.S. Supreme Court. Boies personally signed the contract directing Black Cube to attempt to uncover information that would stop the publication of a [New York] [i]Times[/i] story about Weinstein’s abuses, while his firm was also representing the [i]Times[/i], including in a libel case.

Boies confirmed that his firm contracted with and paid two of the agencies and that investigators from one of them sent him reports, which were then passed on to Weinstein. He said that he did not select the firms or direct the investigators’ work. [u]He also denied that the work regarding the [i]Times[/i] story represented a conflict of interest.[/u][/quote]
You wanna get down and dirty in your spying and dirty-tricks-playing, you can do no better than ex-Mossad operatives. Some jaw-dropping ethical contortions and [i]chutzpah[/i] there by Mr. big-time white-shoe defense lawyer David Boies.

In other dirty-tricks news: [url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/07/facebook-revenge-porn-nude-photos]Facebook asks users for nude photos in project to combat revenge porn[/url]. I'm sure you can trust FB to not misappropriate or misuse your nude pics in any way, and you can rest assure that their data security is top-notch, just like that of, say, the [url=https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/11/me_on_the_equif.html]credit-history-data-vampires at Equifax Inc[/url].

[QUOTE=ewmayer;471444][url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/harvey-weinsteins-army-of-spies]Harvey Weinstein’s Army of Spies[/url] | The New Yorker

You wanna get down and dirty in your spying and dirty-tricks-playing, you can do no better than ex-Mossad operatives. Some jaw-dropping ethical contortions and [i]chutzpah[/i] there by Mr. big-time white-shoe defense lawyer David Boies.
[/QUOTE]

[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Boies"]David Boies[/URL] was the same lawyer retained by SCO when they tried to shake down Linux users.
[QUOTE]Boies' firm was retained by the SCO Group, during the SCO–Linux controversies, in their pursuit of alleged infringement of their rights to the Unix intellectual properties. He spoke to the media about the case, but never personally appeared in court.[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42053634"]Oumuamua [/URL]appears (a) to be an interstellar visitor and (b) elongated by a factor of at least 10:1

I think it's akin to [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama"]Rama[/URL]. :cmd:

[QUOTE=xilman;472209][URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42053634"]Oumuamua [/URL]appears (a) to be an interstellar visitor and (b) elongated by a factor of at least 10:1

I think it's akin to [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama"]Rama[/URL]. :cmd:[/QUOTE]

Do they have other data, besides the light curve, to suggest the long elongation? Radar perhaps? If not, I wonder if very large (admittedly very unusually large) differences in albedo on different sides could account for the dramatic changes in brightness.

Something akin to Rama is indeed the preferred answer.

Norm

[QUOTE=xilman;472209][URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42053634"]Oumuamua [/URL]appears (a) to be an interstellar visitor and (b) elongated by a factor of at least 10:1

I think it's akin to [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama"]Rama[/URL]. :cmd:[/QUOTE]
:goodposting:Exactly! ...or Klingons, or Kzin,... :sirrobin:
[QUOTE]Using observations from the Very Large Telescope in Chile, Karen Meech, from the Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu, Hawaii, and colleagues determined that the object was about 400m long, rapidly rotating and subject to dramatic changes in brightness.[/QUOTE]
A spindle does seem to be quite unusual for a natural shape. With a possible length-width ratio of 10:1, and an estimated 400m length, an average thickness of 40m is suggested. While that seems a bit cramped for human sub-light interstellar voyages, maybe these are smaller aliens. :alien2:

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl6t8SgZ5Gg[/url]

Bread-squishing fetish video.

The only thing making it nsfw is the swearing and the ironic sexual references in the commentary.

For those not familiar with penguinz0, he serves what I like to call the manchild demographic. Pewdiepie also serves this demographic, reasonably intelligent young to middle-aged men that like their humor to be kind of silly, but also "mature."

Survived an other at work.
Todays job was to clean for small pipes that contained Phosphorustrichloride (PCL3) and Methandichlorphosphon (MPC), booth have heavy reactions with water. (We had observed an MPC fire 1 week ago, the flames were ~2 Meters high and lasted for 15 sec.)

Today the reaction was different, instead of, way safer burning, it created a massive hydrogenchloride cloud. The whole building was evacuated and we had to wear a gasmask. I didn´t expected such an fast and heavy reaction, the whole building was filled with HCL-steam in just a few seconds.
The amount of fluid PCl3 was about 0,3L. One of those train trailers hold about 65000 liters, just think about the size of a possible HCl cloud.

[QUOTE=MisterBitcoin;472818]Survived an other at work...The whole building was evacuated and we had to wear a gasmask...[/QUOTE]
That sounds very serious - glad you came through it OK!

[QUOTE=MisterBitcoin;472818]The amount of fluid PCl3 was about 0,3L. One of those train trailers hold about 65000 liters, just think about the size of a possible HCl cloud.[/QUOTE]
Hollyschmolly! Where can we buy that stuff?

Joking apart, glad to hear that everything is ok! Thanks for sharing that experience.

My hmmmmm, take it how you want to, is that I've suspected Trump might be the anti-Christ, and now he's trying to put the US embassy to Israel in Jerusalem.

I tentatively predict he'll sign a 7-year peace at some point, possibly this Christmas or late January, depending on how a Biblical prophetic year is determined, and then 2024 Christmas is the Rapture.

Not saying I want the Tribulation that would happen in the intervening 7 years if I'm correct, but if anyone here is into Bible prophecy, you know things are getting kinda weird, what with the Syrian war and all the natural disasters going on, plus North Korea toying with the nuclear option.

Things are going from bad to worse, and very quickly.

The world is the most stable and peaceful it has been in its history, even despite what Trump has managed to "accomplish" so far.

The background natural disaster rate is no higher than it has even been in the last n-thousand years, for some n greater than (e.g.) 10.

It did not take long for the expected blowback from Trump's Zionist-demographic-pleasing inanity w.r.to Jerusalem to begin:

[url=https://www.thebeaverton.com/2017/12/palestinians-recognize-texas-part-mexico/]Palestinians recognize Texas as part of Mexico[/url] | The Beaverton

[QUOTE=Dubslow;473414]The world is the most stable and peaceful it has been in its history, even despite what Trump has managed to "accomplish" so far.

The background natural disaster rate is no higher than it has even been in the last n-thousand years, for some n greater than (e.g.) 10.[/QUOTE]

I assume you're trolling, what with North Korea upping its nuclear program and the fact that Russia's been making its own moves.

[QUOTE=jasong;473553]I assume you're trolling, what with North Korea upping its nuclear program and the fact that Russia's been making its own moves.[/QUOTE]I assumed the exact opposite.

By historical standards, hardly anyone is at war with anyone else and civil society almost everywhere is amazingly peaceful, again by historical standards.

There have been a few unfortunate incidents recently in places like northern Burma but nothing on the scale which happened throughout Europe, the Soviet Union, China and Cambodia in the 20th century, or North America in the 19th, to mention only domestic incidents.

If you want to know what life was like back in the good old days you could do worse than research the stories of Carthage, the Thirty Years War, and the Mongol empire.

[QUOTE=jasong;473553]I assume you're trolling, what with North Korea upping its nuclear program and the fact that Russia's been making its own moves.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, if you think I'm trolling, then you are quite ignorant of the history of the world.

Nuclear weapons always have the potential to be the worst thing in the history of humanity, but even North Korea is a far less serious threat than either the USSR or USA back during the Cold War.

[QUOTE=Dubslow;473414]The world is the most stable and peaceful it has been in its history, even despite what Trump has managed to "accomplish" so far.

The background natural disaster rate is no higher than it has even been in the last n-thousand years, for some n greater than (e.g.) 10.[/QUOTE]
In the sense of there being no wars killing off tens of millions of people, or pandemics killing of more than 10% of humanity, you've got a point. There are some wars worthy of note, and a man-made famine progressing in Yemen.

As to "stable," I'm not so sure about that.

As to "natural disasters," there's a book entitled [u][b]The Sixth Extinction:[/b] [i]An unnatural History[/i][/u] by Elizabeth Kolbert you might find a sobering read.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;473638] There are some wars worthy of note, and a man-made famine progressing in Yemen.[/QUOTE]Examples of the former? I can't think of any off-hand. Some low-level skirmishes in and around Syria, ditto in southern Arabia. Nothing, as far as I am aware, in the Americas (north or south), Europe, Australasia or the vast majority of Asia. Technically there is a war going on in the Korean Peninsula but more people are killed by lightning in Europe per annum than are in that war. Oh yes, the Indians and Pakistanis, and the Israelis and the Palestinians are hurling insults at each other.

As for famines, ome of us remember Biafra, the Great Leap Sideways, Ethiopia and Cambodia's Year Zero. What is happening in Yemen is piddling by comparison with any of these.

No-one now remembers the Irish potato famine or that thousands of people in the UK would die of starvation and exposure every winter without fail. Very few remember the collectivization of Soviet agriculture either. For each of these we need go back less than 300 years.

I'm not saying the world is perfect, far from it, but that's not the argument, which is whether it's better now than it has been in the past.

[QUOTE=jasong;473553]I assume you're trolling, what with North Korea upping its nuclear program and the fact that Russia's been making its own moves.[/QUOTE]
To follow on to the historical perspective, one need not go back further than the first three years of the 1950s. As happened in other parts of the world, the US took extreme exception to a homegrown hero taking power, who had fought the Japanese occupation. This umbrage was due to the northern fighters being associated with China, and that other [B]"C" [/B]word. South Korea was a US-propped puppet regime, which changed dictators frequently.
From Wikipedia:
[QUOTE]The U.S. dropped a total of 635,000 tons of bombs, including 32,557 tons of napalm, on Korea, more than during the whole Pacific campaign of World War II.[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-Walkom2010-320"][317][/URL][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-japanfocus.org-321"][318][/URL][/QUOTE]General Curtis Lemay bragged,
[QUOTE]We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in [URL="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/North_Korea"]North Korea[/URL] anyway, someway or another, [U]and some in [URL="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/South_Korea"]South Korea[/URL] too[/U].… Over a period of three years or so, [B]we killed off[/B] — what — t[B]wenty percent of the population of Korea[/B] as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure? [/QUOTE][QUOTE]Almost every substantial building in North Korea was destroyed as a result.[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-FOOTNOTECumings2005297%E2%80%9398-322"][319][/URL][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-FOOTNOTEJager2013237%E2%80%9342-323"][320][/URL] The war's highest-ranking U.S. POW, U.S. Major General [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Dean"]William F. Dean[/URL],[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-Witt2005-324"][321][/URL] reported that the majority of North Korean cities and villages he saw were either rubble or snow-covered wasteland.[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-Cumings2004-325"][322][/URL][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-326"][323][/URL] North Korean factories, schools, hospitals, and government offices were forced to move underground, and air defenses were "non-existent."[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-japanfocus.org-321"][318][/URL] In November 1950, the North Korean leadership instructed their population to build dugouts and mud huts and to dig underground tunnels, in order to solve the acute housing problem.[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-327"][324][/URL] [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_of_the_Air_Force_%28United_States%29"]U.S. Air Force General[/URL] [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_LeMay"]Curtis LeMay[/URL] commented, "we went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, some way or another, and some in South Korea, too."[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-328"][325][/URL] [B][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyongyang"]Pyongyang[/URL], which saw 75 percent of its area destroyed, was so devastated that bombing was halted as [U]there were no longer any worthy targets.[/U][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-329"][326][/URL][/B][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-330"][B][327[/B]][/URL] On 28 November, Bomber Command reported on the campaign's progress: 95 percent of Manpojin was destroyed, along with 90 percent of Hoeryong, Namsi and Koindong, 85 percent of Chosan, 75 percent of both Sakchu and Huichon, and 20 percent of Uiju. According to USAF damage assessments, [B]"eighteen of twenty-two major cities in North Korea had been at least half obliterated.[/B]"[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-331"][328][/URL] By the end of the campaign, US bombers had difficulty in finding targets and were reduced to bombing footbridges or jettisoning their bombs into the sea.[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War#cite_note-332"][329][/URL][/QUOTE]They also destroyed the rice paddies and irrigation structures.

The point of this rant is that North Korea's interest are in deterrence. They could effectively obliterate Seoul by [U]conventional[/U] means. They don't.

It is obvious that if they even attempted a nuclear first strike against [U]any[/U] other state, they would be utterly destroyed by the only nation that ever used nuclear weapons in war.

They have before them the examples of Syria, Iraq, and Libya. Those governments attempted to comply with disarmament demands, only to be destroyed, or grievously injured. They see Iran in the cross-hairs.

North Korea's threat is, "We know you can destroy us. Take us out, we will hurt you on the way." That is the only value of [U]any[/U] weaponry they may have.

Don't say that I am defending the Kims. I am trying to show some of the historic antecedents to the current situation.

Russia is a whole other issue.

Realize that the current state of the world is more complicated than what is presented in popular media in the US. Research, and meditate on the word "blowback." This can be translated roughly as "karma."

I understand that your views of the world are different than mine. I hope that you can grant me the same grace.

[QUOTE=kladner;473671]To follow on to the historical perspective, one need not go back further than the first three years of the 1950s. As happened in other parts of the world, the US took extreme exception to a homegrown hero taking power, who had fought the Japanese occupation. This umbrage was due to the northern fighters being associated with China, and that other [B]"C" [/B]word. South Korea was a US-propped puppet regime, which changed dictators frequently.
From Wikipedia:
General Curtis Lemay bragged,
They also destroyed the rice paddies and irrigation structures.

The point of this rant is that North Korea's interest are in deterrence. They could effectively obliterate Seoul by [U]conventional[/U] means. They don't.

It is obvious that if they even attempted a nuclear first strike against [U]any[/U] other state, they would be utterly destroyed by the only nation that ever used nuclear weapons in war.

They have before them the examples of Syria, Iraq, and Libya. Those governments attempted to comply with disarmament demands, only to be destroyed, or grievously injured. They see Iran in the cross-hairs.

North Korea's threat is, "We know you can destroy us. Take us out, we will hurt you on the way." That is the only value of [U]any[/U] weaponry they may have.

Don't say that I am defending the Kims. I am trying to show some of the historic antecedents to the current situation.

Russia is a whole other issue.

Realize that the current state of the world is more complicated than what is presented in popular media in the US. Research, and meditate on the word "blowback." This can be translated roughly as "karma."

I understand that your views of the world are different than mine. I hope that you can grant me the same grace.[/QUOTE]
I will definitely agree that I am ignorant of most history, especially stuff that the US media tends to stay away from.

I googled the whole more disasters than normal thing, and I am "kind of" correct. I say "kind of" because global warming could explain the increase, and maybe statistics math as well. (I want to learn about statistics math and how to test studies, but have never gotten around to it)

While I believe the Jerusalem thing is a sign of things to come, it's totally possible, even probable, that I'm wrong about Trump, and I withdraw the admittedly shrill comment.

God bless. :)

Be assured that a variety of possible-to-probable disasters are of grave concern to me. At some point, it is hard to separate "Natural" from "Acts of G*d." Nor does it much matter.

Perhaps ascending on a column of plasma will turn out to be rapturous.

[QUOTE=kladner;473679]
Perhaps ascending on a column of plasma will turn out to be rapturous.[/QUOTE]

Sounds to me more like "immediately and thoroughly deadly" rather than "rapturous".

[QUOTE=Dubslow;473685]Sounds to me more like "immediately and thoroughly deadly" rather than "rapturous".[/QUOTE]
I agree. That was an attempt at grim humor.

[QUOTE=kladner;473700]I agree. That was an attempt at grim humor.[/QUOTE]

I figured as much :smile: It reminded me of the old video game series "Halo", in which the religious leaders of the highly-religious enemy collective talk of The Great Journey into the divine beyond; (spoilers!) it's later revealed that their "great journey" is in fact the wiping out of all sentient life in the galaxy. "Rapture"/"Great Journey" indeed.

I really don't know where is best to post [URL="http://www.revk.uk/2017/12/its-official-adsl-works-over-wet-string.html"]this[/URL].

[QUOTE=xilman;473940]I really don't know where is best to post [URL="http://www.revk.uk/2017/12/its-official-adsl-works-over-wet-string.html"]this[/URL].[/QUOTE]
That is really amusing. :smile:

("The former" refers to "wars worthy of note") [QUOTE=xilman;473642]Examples of the former? I can't think of any off-hand.[/QUOTE]I would hardly call the civil war in Syria a "skirmish." To date it has killed upwards of half a million people and displaced millions more. In a nation whose population was maybe 25 million when the war started, and is now less than 20 million, I consider that to be at least worthy of note. In Yemen, upwards of 10,000 killed and 50,000 wounded. And, of course, many refugees.

You may recall, the plight of Syrian refugees also became a campaign issue in the 2016 US general election.

I thought this search would be entertaining, and it's definitely something, but not sure if entertaining is the proper word.


[url]https://www.google.com/search?q=face+swapping+weirdness&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjc64LLsJDYAhWC8YMKHbQHBeMQ_AUICigB&biw=2559&bih=1321#imgrc=x83bm6i_kDcl3M:[/url]

[URL="http://mentalfloss.com/article/12710/13-little-known-punctuation-marks-we-should-be-using"]13 little known punctuation marks we should be using[/URL]

Birthday-number effect
 

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday-number_effect[/url]
There have been recent appeals to numerology, hereabouts. This article discusses number preferences, which seem to be very common. There are some interesting studies described.

Hmmmmm......
 

[url]http://op011.com[/url]

[url]http://pythonsweetness.tumblr.com/post/169166980422/the-mysterious-case-of-the-linux-page-table[/url]

[url]http://www.bbc.com/news/stories-42568390[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;475920][URL]http://pythonsweetness.tumblr.com/post/169166980422/the-mysterious-case-of-the-linux-page-table[/URL][/QUOTE]
Love that.
[B]"Invest in popcorn, 2018 is going to be fun"
[/B]Haha! Mike, you knew something...
:popcorn:

Edit: for some reason, the second link is blocked here :shock: (we could read the article using secure connection to an anon proxy, and I don't see any reason for it to be blocked, most probably is bot-managed and it falls on some word patterns).

the second link is about The Tattooist of Auschwitz - and his secret love
maybe understandable

CES2018: power cut
 

[QUOTE]A major US consumer electronics show has suffered a power cut, plunging part of the event into darkness...
The trade fair is marketed as the "world's gathering place for all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies".
[/QUOTE][URL="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42639780"]Press article[/URL]

[QUOTE=Nick;477183][URL="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42639780"]Press article[/URL][/QUOTE]
The irony is beyond words. We were cackling over this story.

Prosecutors say Mac spyware stole millions of user images over 13 years
 

"Fruitfly creepware turned on cameras and mics, automatically detected porn searches."
[QUOTE]Early last year, a piece of [URL="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/01/newly-discovered-mac-malware-may-have-circulated-in-the-wild-for-2-years/"]Mac malware came to light[/URL] that left researchers puzzled. They knew that malware dubbed Fruitfly captured screenshots and webcam images and [URL="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/perverse-malware-infecting-hundreds-of-macs-remained-undetected-for-years/"]had been installed on hundreds of computers in the US and elsewhere[/URL], possibly for more than a decade. Still, the researchers didn't know who did it or why.

An indictment filed Wednesday in federal court in Ohio may answer some of those questions. It alleges Fruitfly was the creation of an Ohio man who used it for more than 13 years to steal millions of images from infected computers, as he took detailed notes of what he observed. Prosecutors also said defendant Phillip R. Durachinsky used the malware to surreptitiously turn on cameras and microphones, take and download screenshots, log keystrokes, and steal tax and medical records, photographs, Internet searches, and bank transactions. In some cases, Fruitfly alerted Durachinsky when victims typed words associated with porn. The suspect, in addition to allegedly targeting individuals, also allegedly infected computers belonging to police departments, schools, companies and the federal government, including the US Department of Energy.
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Nick;477183][URL="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42639780"]Press article[/URL][/QUOTE]

Oh, dear - one hopes the [url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/pole-dancing-robot-strippers-las-11821117]pole-dancing robot strippers[/url][sup]*[/sup] performing at a nearby "gentlemen's club" were not impacted.

-----------------

[sup]*[/sup] Despite the British-artist-creator's hifalutin disclaimer about making a cautionary statement about surveillance and techno-voyeurism, stuff like this makes me ashamed to be a Silicon Valley geek ... time to go do some diverting old-economy-style stuff, like head out to the work bench and play with the drill press for a while.

[url=www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42826028]Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets[/url] - BBC News

The 2014 Beeb piece (linked on the same page) on the Ferrero-family chocolate-and-hazelnut dynasty, "Nutella: How the world went nuts for a hazelnut spread" (ha, ha, very clever punning) is also worth a read.

Please, keep the theological stuff to a suitable thread on that topic, perhaps in one of the blog-subfora.

====================

[url=https://twitter.com/ShaunUsher/status/960628825318219776/photo/1]Fake tweet on Trump & the stock market gets way more buy-in than its creator expected[/url]

Following the thread down is really funny.

This will definitely make you go "Hmmmm...."
 

I posted a thread awhile ago that asked how long humanity would take to discover another large prime number if we had to start from scratch. Someone then said that this might have already happened before, and that the next Mersenne prime found would lead to the great unveiling of all the lost knowledge and goods we once possessed.

He was right in a way. We made it to "Point X" in a distant time in the past. A time when we built machines that surpassed all humans in all fields. Anything someone could do, a machine could do better. The machines either knew the solution to every problem, such as curing cancer, or were able to prove that it was not possible, such as reversing entropy within a closed system.

This was fun, but we eventually got bored. And so we had the machines create a world that was identical to the one we grew up in, except that we would have nothing but our bodies and whatever existed in the natural environment. No flint arrowheads, no axes, no wheels. We called this "Day Zero".

Our objective is to get from "Day Zero" to "Point X" as fast as possible. It's like a video game speedrun, but the timescale is much longer for this game. The rumor is that the high score, or fastest time, is 4608 years.

My guess is that we're about 70% of the way there. We're not going to break that record, but this run has been faster than most. Maybe another game will start once this one is complete, but some of the variables, such as the locations and quantities of various minerals and fossil fuels, will change for that run. I wonder what will happen.

[QUOTE=MooMoo2;479633]My guess is that we're about 70% of the way there.[/QUOTE]
Ok, so you are not the wizard. I feel much better now, I was a bit afraid, I must say... :blush:

[QUOTE=MooMoo2;479633]I posted a thread awhile ago that asked how long humanity would take to discover another large prime number if we had to start from scratch. Someone then said that this might have already happened before, and that the next Mersenne prime found would lead to the great unveiling of all the lost knowledge and goods we once possessed.

He was right in a way. We made it to "Point X" in a distant time in the past. A time when we built machines that surpassed all humans in all fields. Anything someone could do, a machine could do better. The machines either knew the solution to every problem, such as curing cancer, or were able to prove that it was not possible, such as reversing entropy within a closed system.

This was fun, but we eventually got bored. And so we had the machines create a world that was identical to the one we grew up in, except that we would have nothing but our bodies and whatever existed in the natural environment. No flint arrowheads, no axes, no wheels. We called this "Day Zero".

Our objective is to get from "Day Zero" to "Point X" as fast as possible. It's like a video game speedrun, but the timescale is much longer for this game. The rumor is that the high score, or fastest time, is 4608 years.

My guess is that we're about 70% of the way there. We're not going to break that record, but this run has been faster than most. Maybe another game will start once this one is complete, but some of the variables, such as the locations and quantities of various minerals and fossil fuels, will change for that run. I wonder what will happen.[/QUOTE]
You can create a great new [strike]movie[/strike] [strike]TV series[/strike] religion out of this.

[QUOTE=LaurV;479657]Ok, so you are not the wizard. I feel much better now, I was a bit afraid, I must say... :blush:[/QUOTE]

The wizard is closer than you think...

[QUOTE=masser;479949]The wizard is closer than you think...[/QUOTE]I think the wizard is within 1.616229 × 10[sup]−35[/sup] metres.

[QUOTE=retina;479952]I think the wizard is within 1.616229 × 10[sup]−35[/sup] metres.[/QUOTE]As thick as a Planck, in other words.

Yellow snow
 

[URL="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/warnings#?date=2018-02-26"]Don't say you weren't warned[/URL]

[QUOTE=xilman;480864][URL="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/warnings#?date=2018-02-26"]Don't say you weren't warned[/URL][/QUOTE]
So you've got English huskies to weedle on the snow?

Or cats... in fact if you click on March 1st on his link, an yellow cat is already showing her tail to you... :razz:

(edit, please just skip the amber snow for the following days)

[QUOTE=LaurV;480897]Or cats... in fact if you click on March 1st on his link, an yellow cat is already showing her tail to you... :razz:

(edit, please just skip the amber snow for the following days)[/QUOTE]
Are you aware of the Frank Zappa song, "Yellow Snow"?[INDENT][QUOTE]Watch out where the huskies go
Don't you eat that yellow snow[/QUOTE][/INDENT]

[QUOTE=kladner;480919]Are you aware of the Frank Zappa song, "Yellow Snow"?[INDENT][/INDENT][/QUOTE]Were you asking me or LaurV? I guess the latter because otherwise why should I have posted?

Snow started here a few minutes ago. Only a few flakes so far and all of them white AFAICT.

You can tell when it's cold outside when ... [color=white]you go outside and it's cold.[/color]

Definitely, the question is for LaurV. Your intent was clear. :smile:

[QUOTE=kladner;480919]Are you aware of the Frank Zappa song, "Yellow Snow"?[/QUOTE]
Yes, I am, I know the song... hehe... However, I didn't get the joke before you asked... :blush:

[url]https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2018/plogging-fd.html[/url]

[url]https://gizmodo.com/artist-hides-secret-code-to-10-000-worth-of-cryptocurr-1824030024[/url]

So, as previously mentioned, our pool sprung a leak.

One cubic metre (give or take 999,997 cubic centimetres) of epoxy later, I tried another product. FiberFix.

Still not sure if it will successfully fix my particular problem (it's going well so far), but their [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RIuQkn5_sA"]ad left me rolling on the floor laughing[/URL]. (Check out the [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ5UsPyEges"]behind-the-scenes video if you're into that kind of thing.[/URL])

[QUOTE=chalsall;483318]So, as previously mentioned, our pool sprung a leak.

One cubic metre (give or take 999,997 cubic centimetres) of epoxy later, I tried another product. FiberFix.

Still not sure if it will successfully fix my particular problem (it's going well so far), but their [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RIuQkn5_sA"]ad left me rolling on the floor laughing[/URL]. (Check out the [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ5UsPyEges"]behind-the-scenes video if you're into that kind of thing.[/URL])[/QUOTE]

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a53u9_BGhmQ[/url]