Today I learned...

[Buffalobiian]

What was the process like?

[Board of Command]

The guy asked me to edit the script for Kissxsis episode 1. Apparently I passed the set of arbitrary criteria.

[Buffalobiian]

The guy asked me to edit the script for Kissxsis episode 1. Apparently I passed the set of arbitrary criteria.

Ah, so you applied. Congrats. I'll be paying extra attention to SFW releases.

No pressure or anything. ;)

[Board of Command]

Ah, so you applied. Congrats. I'll be paying extra attention to SFW releases.

No pressure or anything. ;)
Yeah, I felt that after years of watching fansubs, I should try to give a bit back to the community. I've been real busy with school stuff this week so I haven't actually started to work on any of their stuff yet. At least the tentative plan right now is taking over some (or all) of the editing for Spice and Wolf II some time soon.

[Nadouku]

What other projects do you plan on taking? I would like to watch those, too!

[Board of Command]

I'll be editing Gendai Mahou 03 maybe...tonight.

I don't recommend you watch it though. It's a pretty crappy series. I watched the first episode just now to get an idea of what it's about, and I wasn't too thrilled about it.

[Buffalobiian]

People swing their arms when they walk. Why?

Because it consumes less energy.

Energy required: Normal swinging < Opposite swinging (left leg, left arm) < still arms.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090728/sc_afp/sciencearmsoffbeat

[XanBcoo]

Makes sense, so then why do Chinese girls seem to do it so exaggeratedly?


Little or none, some experts have said, contending that arm-swinging, like our appendix, is an evolutionary relic from when we used to go about on all fours.
Once again, unsurprisingly, Evolutionary science strikes out.

[Assertn]

So then how do we know to walk like that? Do we subconsciously observe the differences in energy output and adjust over time, or is it instinct?

[Buffalobiian]

I always found it "easier" to walk like that, though from a balance point of view rather than energy.

It could be linked though, since I might actually find it easier to balance by swinging my arms because it's less tiring.

Funnily enough, all animals AFAIK walk with front-right/back-left paired swinging limbs. All except the camel, which goes right-right, left-left.

[XanBcoo]

Yeah, I reckon it's a subconscious decision.


Funnily enough, all animals AFAIK walk with front-right/back-left paired swinging limbs. All except the camel, which goes right-right, left-left.
No, I can't believe that, how would they keep their bala...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmELfuvG-FM&feature=related

...well I'll be damned.

[Buffalobiian]

Today I learned that Velociraptors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velociraptor) are feathered dinosaurs the size of turkeys.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8590/velociraptorbw.jpg

It's funny how much we're influenced by Jurassic Park's (mis)interpretation of dinosars.

I'm preparing myself for the day someone tells me T-Rex looks more like Big Bird.

[darkshadow]

I think the T.rex was fairly accurate, maybe a bit bigger, but the velociraptor was like an amalgamation of several different raptors in the family, since there were very big ones and ones with less feathers and more scale.

[XanBcoo]

Today I learned that Grandpa Phil from Hey Arnold was voiced by Dan Castellaneta.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0Hgwfocfk

Blew my mind when I found out, but now that I listen to him, it's painfully obvious.

[Buffalobiian]

Swine flu, in Japanese is Buta Influenza.

Nothing special, but it has a nice ring.

[Buffalobiian]

The pink colours of a flamingo is not genetic, but a result from its diet. Brightly coloured flamingos are attractive mating partners as it reflects that they are healthy and well-fed.

[XanBcoo]

I was always taught it was because they eat so much shrimp/prawns. Not sure how accurate that is now, but it made sense when I was 8.

Yesterday I spent a bunch of time learning chords on my bass, but the only good online examples I could find were of chords commonly used in Jazz, 7th chords and such, which sound really pretty when played in the upper octaves of the neck.

I am going to woo me some females.

[The Heretic Azazel]

Today I learned there is freakin gummi bears hentai. I mean, really?

[Death BOO Z]

pics or it didn't happen.

today I learned about the state of anarchy in international relationships.
I have no idea how it's gonna come up on the test.

[The Heretic Azazel]

pics or it didn't happen.

today I learned about the state of anarchy in international relationships.
I have no idea how it's gonna come up on the test.

Warning... NSFW (http://g.e-hentai.org/g/176442/b9b555a384/)

[fahoumh]

Warning... NSFW (http://g.e-hentai.org/g/176442/b9b555a384/)
That is totally fucked up.

Today I learnt just how much working in groups can suck. One of the asshats in my group signed us up to present our assignment today but told the rest of the group we were presenting this Thursday. The prof wasn't too impressed, hahaha.

[Uchiha Barles]

Today I think I learned a little bit more about the nature of human depravity. I can't precisely explain it, but I do feel I understand it more, and I've died a little inside

Check out the game I'll link, it's an awesome physics simulator where you build a card designed to carry coconuts over a terrain. Your design is judged on how quickly it crosses the terrain along with the number of coconuts remaining when you reach the end of the course. You can use the example cart to see just what the cart's supposed to do.

http://www.playaddictingwebgames.com/game/Coconut-Run

Now...I really don't have a clue if what follows is safe for work or not:

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI92S9hysa4
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqBaBN07gos&NR=1&feature=fvwp

With this and the shit I've just seen in the posts above...I starting to wonder if fema camps are such a bad idea.

[XanBcoo]

I don't care who thinks I'm immature. I laughed at that first one.

However I've also seen something similar to that before. Someone created a "man train" using some physics sandbox thing which I've forgotten the name of. It was even more glorious.

[Archangel]

Indeed, he's going wild on her ass in that first one

[XanBcoo]

Indeed, he's going wild on her ass in that first one
Women have breasts.

I've decided it's Yakety Sax that makes that video funny, not the content alone. Yakety Sax makes everything funny.

[Archangel]

Women have breasts.
Men have dongs

I'll interpret the scene as i see fit

[Buffalobiian]

I thought it was an animal of some sort.

[Archangel]

I thought it was an animal of some sort.

You should give the gummi bears hentai a shot then

[Uchiha Barles]

I don't care who thinks I'm immature. I laughed at that first one.

However I've also seen something similar to that before. Someone created a "man train" using some physics sandbox thing which I've forgotten the name of. It was even more glorious.

Yeah I laughed too, but as I kept watching a dark realization was overcoming me, and as it crept up, the laughter died down. Could've almost shed a tear by the time it was done.

[Buffalobiian]

Today I realised that with the introduction of touch phones that lack a physical number pad came the introduction of the inability to perform emergency calls with locked keypads.

[itadakimasu]

yeah... it would be a bitch to dial 911 on my iphone.....

Slide to unlock
Phone (wait for it to open)
Takes me to my contacts page so i have to push the keypad button
now dial 911
push talk

and if you're in some sort of catastrophe and your screen is busted.... forget about it.

[Psyke]

and if you're in some sort of catastrophe and your screen is busted.... forget about it.

You can write an app to automatically call 911 when your screen is busted and sell it in the Apps Store for $0.99. :p

[Death BOO Z]

you should write an app that recognizes an S.O.S Morse code. and then calls the emergency service.

[XanBcoo]

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9141/venonatbutterfree.jpg

Holy crap.

[Death BOO Z]

that's just wrong.
I mean, sure, the bottom ones look more logical.
but they make butterfree so mean, and I always used it as a gentle psychic blaster.

my mind is broken, and it can't be repaired. thank you, really, for destroying my life.

[XanBcoo]

that's just wrong.
I mean, sure, the bottom ones look more logical.
but they make butterfree so mean, and I always used it as a gentle psychic blaster
That's very likely the reason for the switch.

I imagine the sprites were switched very early in the production of the game, even as early as the concept art stages. It could be that the art director saw the designs for Metapod's evolution and decided to switch it for Venonat's evolution because they wanted a "nice" looking Pokemon to catch or evolve early in the game. Either that or it was a completely mistaken switch and they just didn't bother fixing it.

[Buffalobiian]

Today I learned that I suck at mini-golf.

I played an 18-hole game with my friends today, and the aggregate number of hits was:

49, 52, 47, 49, 96 <- yes, that last one was me. I shouted food n drinks afterwards.

[KitKat]

My prof was teaching about hydrogels today, and directed us to look up the hagfish on youtube, the only creature that produces a natural hydrogel. I was amazed!

Hagfish sliming video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb2EOP3ohnE)

[Buffalobiian]

Under local (Japanese) law, a suspect can be held for up to 23 days without being formally charged with a crime and bail is seldom granted to foreigners.

Moral: don't screw up in Japan. (or be suspicious of doing so).

[darkshadow]

23 days? Lol that's pretty insane.
Doesn't that mean they can just grab anyone of the street and just hold them for 23 days? o_O

[Animeniax]

Alternatively, messing with a foreigner has stiff penalties for a local. The Japanese don't want to discourage tourism or to give foreigners the impression the country is uncivil and unrefined.

[Buffalobiian]

Vinyl vs CD: What's the difference

The key to this question is the difference between a digital and an
analog recording. Natural sound is by definition analog.
When a CD recording is created, this analog is sound is digitized. To
do this, they take a lot of snapshots of the analog sound. For a CD
recording they take 44,100 snapshots in a minute. These snapshots are
then converted to digital information with a certain precision. For a
CD recording this precision is 16 bits which means that every one of
the 44,100 snapshots needs to be converted into one of the 65,536
(2^16) possible values.

You can probably see where I am going: by definition a digital
recording doesn't include all the sound information. You could
visualize a CD recording as a really large chest with a lot of
drawers. Because the number of snapshots that are taken are not
infinite (the maximum is 44,100 per minute), the process of taking
snapshots results in the loss of information. Information is further
lost because each of these snapshots must be made to fit in one of the
65,536 drawers of the chest.

A record player which plays LP?s is strictly analog. A vinyl record
has a groove carved into it that mirrors the original sound's
waveform. The record player than transforms this groove to an analogue
sound signal which can be fed into an amplifier.
In this process, no information can be lost. No snapshots need to be
taken and the sound doesn't need be converted to one of the possible
65,536 values. There basically is an infinite number of 'snapshots'
and 'possible values'. Therefore vinyl recording sound richer than CD
recordings (as long as you have a decent vinyl record player).

Be aware that recent DVD Audio players and Super Audio CD players come
closer to vinyl recordings as they have a much larger number of
possible snapshots in one minute (up to 192,000) and because these
snapshots can be converted to a larger number of possible values (up
to 16,777,216 possible values, or 24 bit).

[Kraco]

Don't take that to heart too easily, Bill. Lots of professionals judge the LP records can't reliably even reproduce that 16-bit dynamic range. That is, if the sound played is analyzed, you can't separate a full 16-bit dynamic range worth of sound levels. So, in that sense nothing at all is lost when it's turned into a CD. Although it has been a while and I can't remember how deep a range an LP approximately produces.

But there are other reasons why they sound different, though. Like a vinyl record not sounding exactly the same during replayes due to being analog, making it sound more realistic.

[Assertn]

Analog also suffers what digital does not, which is degradation over time. Since analog isn't captured in finite data sets, it can't be perfectly copied and preserved into another analog state the way digital can into another digital state.

[Assertn]

Decided to try something uncharacteristically me recently. I had a falling out with a friend a few months back and decided to try sending an apology to her. Even though I was (and still is) pretty adamant that she was overreacting and took things out of line, I figured "eh, what do I have to lose?" Wow, you'd be surprised how big of a deal that can be to some people. It almost seems like she's more interested in hanging out now than since before the conflict in the first place!

I tend to let my pride get the best of me, but some fights just aren't really worth it, regardless of whether you're in the right or wrong.

[Psyke]

Girls tend to forgive but not forget.

[shinta|hikari]

I personally believe that pride is worth more than any friendship has to offer, as long as it is grounded in right. A relationship that costs one his/her righteous pride is worthless/pointless in my opinion.

[Assertn]

I personally believe that pride is worth more than any friendship has to offer, as long as it is grounded in right. A relationship that costs one his/her righteous pride is worthless/pointless in my opinion.

In a dispute where both parties think they are right, both parties may feel their pride is at stake.This is how friendships end for the most arbitrary (read: dumb) reasons.

Anyway like I said, I didn't really feel I had anything to lose. Worst case scenario, she ignores it. Even then, I never really was that close to her in the first place. I got the idea to try it out after reading this: http://trueslant.com/daviddisalvo/2009/12/28/ten-psychology-studies-from-2009-worth-knowing-about/

Makes sense, I always believe that half of who we are is how we are projected onto other people.

[Kraco]

I personally believe that pride is worth more than any friendship has to offer, as long as it is grounded in right. A relationship that costs one his/her righteous pride is worthless/pointless in my opinion.

Pride will never fill an empty stomach. Friends may.

[XanBcoo]

I tend to let my pride get the best of me, but some fights just aren't really worth it, regardless of whether you're in the right or wrong.

I completely agree. Unfortunately both of my own attempts to reconnect with old friends weren't quite as successful.

Despite my efforts, at the end of the day both of them were moronic and socially inept individuals not worth associating with. I'm not burning bridges, but I have no desire to seek out the pleasure of their company.

Some fights aren't worth it, but some people certainly are.

[Assertn]

Oh yeah, and there's still some people that I'd absolutely refuse to make an effort reconnecting with. In that case I would rather they stay out of my life without anything short of an apology from them.

[shinta|hikari]

I absolutely agree about people who are not worth reconnecting with. Sometimes a friend's trespasses can simply not be forgiven, and even if they could, should not be without an explicit attempt on their part to seek it and ask for it.

[Animeniax]

I don't know, sometimes I think friends are the few people in this world that you ever really get to know and be a part of your life and therefore you should cut them more slack and forgive them for some of their bullshit since they most likely have cut you some slack for some of the bullshit you've pulled.

[shinta|hikari]

Depends on what kind of bullshit. And not all friendships, or relationships in general, are fair. Most of the time, one knows their place, while the other has their foot on that one's face.

[Xelbair]

I learned that each verb has approx 62 forms in Polish...I wish luck to anyone who is trying to learn Polish.

[Buffalobiian]

62...

Crazy Polish people... :p

[Xelbair]

Of course this count does not include prefixes.

[Ryllharu]

That the Finns are both completely insane, and incredibly hardcore.

Sauna World Championships (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5198604)

Make sure you read the whole thing for all the gruesome details.

140°C (284°F) saunas.

[Kraco]

That's a brilliantly written article. No wonder the author has been consecutively chosen as the best sports writer.

It's 110 degrees for the competition, though. I have personally experienced a 120°C sauna and it was hell already. I don't even want to imagine the 140°C one the sauna champion uses for practice.

Anyway, before you are allowed to participate in that competition, you will need to sign a paper relieving the organizers from any responsibility. Makes perfect sense.

[Buffalobiian]

That's a brilliantly written article. No wonder the author has been consecutively chosen as the best sports writer..

Hah, too right. His descriptions are awesome.

I loved how the twin burnt patches above the guy's lip was only the beginning. Serious, Ellis needs an award for effort. That's just hardcore.

[fahoumh]

I learnt how to properly tie a Windsor knot. Up until now I was just tying it in the "Four in Hand" knot...which was all I knew. :-S

[Buffalobiian]

I learnt how to properly tie a Windsor knot. Up until now I was just tying it in the "Four in Hand" knot...which was all I knew. :-S

That's all I knew too, and I often have enough trouble remembering how to tie one when required since I rarely ever need to do so.

[XanBcoo]

Just keep your ties tied. Loosen them when you take them off and tighten them when you put them on.

I've had the same tie tied for about 3 years and accidentally untied it a few days ago before a job interview. Youtube saved the day.

[Buffalobiian]

Just keep your ties tied. Loosen them when you take them off and tighten them when you put them on.

I've had the same tie tied for about 3 years and accidentally untied it a few days ago before a job interview. Youtube saved the day.

Keeping my tie tied throughout my last 2 years of highschool (we wear a uniform here) was the very reason why the knowledge hasn't sunk in.

Another good reason to untie ties regularly is that the tie creases. When it inevitably unties, the crease becomes bothersome.

[fahoumh]

That's all I knew too, and I often have enough trouble remembering how to tie one when required since I rarely ever need to do so.

I also rarely ever need to do so since I hardly ever go to any formal occasions. Last time I had to wear a tie was over a year ago and it was for a funeral...which was what I was attending this Wednesday.

[The Heretic Azazel]

Keeping my tie tied throughout my last 2 years of highschool (we wear a uniform here) was the very reason why the knowledge hasn't sunk in.

Another good reason to untie ties regularly is that the tie creases. When it inevitably unties, the crease becomes bothersome.

They wouldn't let you wear a clip-on? I always rock the clip-on. I can't be bothered to memorize such a tedious process, I have big things going on. BIG THINGS.

[samsonlonghair]

On the rare occasion I need to wear a tie I usually rock the half-windsor. It looks the least fancy, which fits my personality.

[Buffalobiian]

They wouldn't let you wear a clip-on? I always rock the clip-on. I can't be bothered to memorize such a tedious process, I have big things going on. BIG THINGS.

Girls wore the clip-ons. We had the real deal.

[Animeniax]

Tying a tie is like so many everyday art forms, the skills to do them are slowly disappearing through lack of use. One prime example is writing kanji among Japanese youth. They rely so heavily on their cell phones and computers to generate kanji that they are losing the ability to write the characters by hand.

Buck the trend. Learn how to tie a tie. It's not like it's hard.

[Xelbair]

Its not only youth in japan, some professors in japan's university specialized in teaching kanji and kanji related stuff don't know sequences of strokes.(Info from my Japanese teacher who studied there)

[Kraco]

I don't wear a tie that often but somehow I can't forget the Four-In-Hand knot, which is consequently everything I ever use. I always keep my ties unknotted in the closet. Surely keeping them all the time preknotted will ruin them, like Bill said.

[Animeniax]

Its not only youth in japan, some professors in japan's university specialized in teaching kanji and kanji related stuff don't know sequences of strokes.(Info from my Japanese teacher who studied there)

As Japan becomes more and more modernized and the elderly die and their ways die with them, maybe in the next 100 years romaji/hiragana/katakana will be the norm and kanji be less widely used. It will be a shame.


I don't wear a tie that often but somehow I can't forget the Four-In-Hand knot, which is consequently everything I ever use. Loop twice, under, over, through, done.

[Xelbair]

I don't think that kanji will get extinct - it is very useful for fast reading - you can write logical sentences without having any idea how to read this out loud - you can only know the meaning of the kanji and its connections, not necessary the whole word and be able to read the text.

[Kraco]

Apparently Japan recently introduced closer to 200 new official kanji (and scrapped a few old ones). So, at least the ministries believe in the future of kanji.

[Buffalobiian]

Regarding Kanji being "older", more difficult to write etc, Traditional/Simplified Chinese usage shares much the same usage. I don't see Traditional Chinese fading out in the foreseeable future though, because simplified is just ugly. :(

You'll see Simplified in writing, but you'll never see it as a store sign etc.

It's not an entirely identical situation as Japanese though, since Simplified is still using characters. No one ever writes with the PinYin (phonetic characters used to aid pronunciation) except incompetent students such as myself :p

And even then, I'm pretty sure that method of teaching is phasing out in preference for a Romanised pronunciation aid.

[Animeniax]

Apparently Japan recently introduced closer to 200 new official kanji (and scrapped a few old ones). So, at least the ministries believe in the future of kanji.

That's the way of things though isn't it? The old school ministry members want to keep the old ways. It's for the youth of their nation to continue to use and/or celebrate the old ways or they will die (the ways, not the youth).

Today I re-learned that emulating something you see in the movies is not always as much fun in real life. My HP all-in-one printer started having problems the other day so I took it apart to see if I could get it to work again. After messing with it for an hour and making new problems, I took it out to the yard and hit it with a baseball bat a few times. The problem is it has a scanner with a full plate of glass. I had to spend 5-10 minutes in the Texas sun picking up pieces of broken glass so my dog won't get cut on them when he plays in the yard. Not as satisfying as they make it seem in Office Space.

[Buffalobiian]

Fugu contains lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin in the organs, especially the liver area and ovaries, and also the skin. The poison, a sodium channel blocker, paralyzes the muscles while the victim stays fully conscious, and eventually dies from asphyxiation. Currently, there is no known antidote, and the standard medical approach is to try to support the respiratory and circulatory system until the poison dissipates.

As of 2008, advances in fugu research and farming have allowed some farmers to mass produce non-toxic fugu. Researchers surmised that fugu's tetrodotoxin came from eating other animals that had the tetrodotoxin-laden bacteria, and developed immunity over time. Many farmers now are producing 'poison-free' fugu by keeping the fugu away from tetrodotoxin-laden bacteria. Usuki, a town in Ōita Prefecture, became famous for selling non-poisonous fugu. No one has been poisoned eating it yet.

Despite this, the more thrilling experience of eating authentic Fugu would be around to stay I think.

[The Heretic Azazel]

I'd like my fugu WITH mouth-numbing poison please.

[Kraco]

Despite this, the more thrilling experience of eating authentic Fugu would be around to stay I think.

It wouldn't surprise me if some restaurants purposefully failed to mention they are using non-toxic fugu just so that the customers would be imagining the danger.

[shinta|hikari]

But they would get found out very easily since it would be missing its distinct tingling sensation on the mouth.

[Buffalobiian]

Every piece of meat feels mouth-numbing?

[Kraco]

I had no idea it has such an effect.

[samsonlonghair]

I don't think you guys realize that the point of eating fugu is the poison. Tetrodotoxin has a narcotic effect.

Non-poisonous fugu is comparable to non-alcoholic beer, and I'm sure it's just as popular.

[Kraco]

They could take the non-poisonous fugu and add manually some toxin to it. That way they could always be sure there's just the right tiny amount of it.

[Buffalobiian]

They could take the non-poisonous fugu and add manually some toxin to it. That way they could always be sure there's just the right tiny amount of it.

lol, after reading Kraco's post, I spontaneously had a fantasy-advertisement playing in my head:

-------
"Can't find a Fugu chef? With Fugu Heart Stopper, you can savour the Fugu exoticness right from your kitchen! Just add a few drops to your sushi, pasta or anything of your choice and experience the mouth-numbing sensation of Fugu.

Out now, at all large supermarkets near you!
------

It'll be the new Tabasco or something.

[The Heretic Azazel]

Every piece of meat feels mouth-numbing?

Supposedly if you are at a restaurant with a chef who can skillfully handle a knife, he leaves just enough poison in to numb your lips and mouth, but not enough to kill you.

[Assassin]

so if the chef isn't as skilled, does he get charged with manslaughter?

[The Heretic Azazel]

If I'm not mistaken you have to sign a waiver first.

[Buffalobiian]

so if the chef isn't as skilled, does he get charged with manslaughter?

I read some unofficial source saying that a chef who has caused death due to Fugu poisoning is has his license permanently withdrawn.

I went shopping today and noticed for the first time that while Coke comes in every size available, Pepsi does not cater for the 390mL or the 625mL market.

Is that an Australian thing, or elsewhere too?

One other thing I learned is that Japan's cellphones work on weird frequencies and all that doesn't conform to international standards.

But... 3G works (with limitations) I think?

[Xelbair]

Only some of 3g functions - you wont be able to make a call with jap cellphone anywhere else...

[Buffalobiian]

Only some of 3g functions - you wont be able to make a call with jap cellphone anywhere else...

But you can take a 3G phone into Japan and have International Roaming there, yes?

[XanBcoo]

"higher testosterone concentrations were observed following the period of abstinence." (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11760788?ordinalpos=16&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVDocSum)

Shit, no wonder my lifts have been stalling lately...

[Animeniax]

"higher testosterone concentrations were observed following the period of abstinence." (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11760788?ordinalpos=16&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_RVDocSum)

Shit, no wonder my lifts have been stalling lately...

Higher testosterone reduces your manliness?

[XanBcoo]

The study shows that there were raised levels of testosterone in the subjects who abstained from masturbation for 3 weeks.

[Psyke]

Be a man. Do the right thing.

[XanBcoo]

Today I learned about the Just World Phenomenon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_phenomenon).

It's pretty sad. Things like that and the Bystander Effect make me seriously depressed because it seems to be the default thought process that many people (myself included) go through.

[Buffalobiian]

I often question of the victim did something that would have caused them to be, well, "victimised", but I can not say how often that is, or if it's because I'm always presented with a "one sided" view supporting otherwise, provoking me to think of alternatives.

[shinta|hikari]

I always question both sides in any case, so I also scrutinize the victim's actions or inaction in such situations. I don't feel compelled to blame the victim though. I just think it is a better practice to consider all angles instead of always rooting for the underdog or victim. Not all perceived "victims" are true victims after all.

[Animeniax]

Today I learned about the Just World Phenomenon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_phenomenon).

It's pretty sad. Things like that and the Bystander Effect make me seriously depressed because it seems to be the default thought process that many people (myself included) go through.

I tend to think this way except in a more theological sense, ie it is God's will that this person be punished/tested. But sometimes it just comes down to the fact that humans are nothing but animals and it's a dog eat dog world.

[XanBcoo]

I always question both sides in any case, so I also scrutinize the victim's actions or inaction in such situations. I don't feel compelled to blame the victim though. I just think it is a better practice to consider all angles instead of always rooting for the underdog or victim. Not all perceived "victims" are true victims after all.

See, I'm guilty of this too and it's exactly the line of thinking that makes it so scary depressing. That everyone is capable of shifting blame onto a victim in some misguided attempt to appear balanced in their reasoning.

The study that's cited in the Wiki link illustrates that pretty well. In each case, the woman is perceived to be responsible for her actions. Even with the different outcomes of rape and marriage, participants "logically" concluded that she had done something to deserve each.

[KitKat]

See, I'm guilty of this too and it's exactly the line of thinking that makes it so scary depressing. That everyone is capable of shifting blame onto a victim in some misguided attempt to appear balanced in their reasoning.

But now that we've learned this and had a chance to analyze it in ourselves, it shifts the responsibility back to us, so that the next time we find ourselves in a situation where someone is being victimized we can't so easily shrug it off and walk away. It's easier to live in ignorance a lot of the time because when you take the time to really find out the truth, sometimes it forces you to act.

@Ani: I tend to think the opposite of you, in that it's God's will that people be blessed, but because of the authority given to humans and the power of free will, it allows people to override God's will and bring injustice and suffering on others.

[Sapphire]

Today I learned about the Just World Phenomenon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_phenomenon).

It's pretty sad. Things like that and the Bystander Effect make me seriously depressed because it seems to be the default thought process that many people (myself included) go through.
Look at the vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8vS7IrcNfo&feature=fvhl), apparently it's justifiable (and even underreacting) to not only arrest someone for jaywalking of all things (lol) but also punch an innocent woman in the face for trying to separate you from accosting the person. I don't get this "holy-unable-to-sin" status that American society gives government workers and it's quite infuriating.

What would you guys do? Resist arrest too? Video tape it if you saw it being done? Try to break up the fray?

As painful as it is to say, in my opinion the best thing to do against an evil government worker is not be violent, so I would have done what the camera person did and get it all on camera (to use as evidence against the person etc.). I've done it before and it looks even worse if the person tries to steal your camera or accost you for it. The woman who got punched by no means deserved it in my opinion, but it's to be expected that she would get punched or worse for trying to defend her friend (which is a horrible truth).

[Buffalobiian]

Look at the vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8vS7IrcNfo&feature=fvhl), apparently it's justifiable (and even underreacting) to not only arrest someone for jaywalking of all things (lol) but also punch an innocent woman in the face for trying to separate you from accosting the person. I don't get this "holy-unable-to-sin" status that American society gives government workers and it's quite infuriating.

What would you guys do? Resist arrest too? Video tape it if you saw it being done? Try to break up the fray?

As painful as it is to say, in my opinion the best thing to do against an evil government worker is not be violent, so I would have done what the camera person did and get it all on camera (to use as evidence against the person etc.). I've done it before and it looks even worse if the person tries to steal your camera or accost you for it. The woman who got punched by no means deserved it in my opinion, but it's to be expected that she would get punched or worse for trying to defend her friend (which is a horrible truth).

The hardest thing about deciding write and wrong with that vid is that you can't hear anything.

Were the girls verbally provoking the cop? Did he give any verbal warning to the pink girl before? That all factors in I think.

As for "holy-unable-to-sin", of course not. But one thing people have to keep in mind of is that cops are give authority for reasons of upholding the law. If you believe they've tread beyond that, you can report them - but resisting or breaking up an arrest isn't the appropriate way to say "the cop's not right".

[Sapphire]

If a cop tries to actually try to arrest someone for saying, say "f*ck off, f*cking pig" then his actions are really nothing other than an emotional response. If you can't handle feeling uncomfortable then you shouldn't be a cop. Look at "don't taze me bro" for instance.

I also highly doubt that the woman said anything threatening towards the police officer. It blows my mind that you think crossing the street at the wrong place (a laughable "offence" in NYC and MOST places in the US)/being rude is a justifiable reason to be arrested?

But yes, sadly, resisting a cops decision will most likely end up with pain on your end. As far as I can tell the girl wanted to be left alone, no grown woman is going to just walk past a cop and cuss at him while jaywalking. lol. Chances are she was innocently crossing the street when the cop thought "jackpot" when the cop approached her and tried to write her up or arrest her.

Edit: And as for "authority".... hate to sound like a broken record, but when the system itself is corrupt then "authority" is nothing but a title. This guy probably failed every rule in the "cop protocol" book and yet people still support his actions because of this title of "authority" that was given to him. Look at people authorizing torture in the Bush administration and shooting up small towns oversees and people still close their eyes and use the default responses of "authority," "responsibility" and "permission". Not saying you think like that Buff but it just makes me mad when "people" turn a blind eye to horrors of the world because of this assumed "right" people have over others to commit such deeds.

[darkshadow]

Chances are she was innocently crossing the street when the cop thought "jackpot" when the cop approached her and tried to write her up or arrest her.


Then she is still breaking the law, how petty it may seem. I don't know about US laws, but here insulting a police officer can get you arrested, so saying "fuck of, fucking pig" would've just added a second infraction.
Then there is resisting arrest, then the second girl steps in and is basically impeding an arrest and endangering the safety of multiple people.

So basically 5 laws were broken just because she didn't agree with the cop. It's better to just shut up, take the fine and just report the officer, nothing good ever comes from trying to argue the law by breaking more laws.

[Sapphire]

Wait, who's safety was being endangered? :O

Oh America, land of free speech. (Unless you're around the police)

BTW before we go assuming that she told him to "pig f*ck off" in an attempt to justify the cops actions, that was just me referring to a separate hypothetical situation. In which it would be equally emotional/stupid to arrest someone (regardless of current "law").

Edit: The only thing I really agree with you guys is the victims hand in escalating the situation. I'm not saying she was -wrong- for resisting, because I do believe she was wrongfully victimized, but there's probably not much you can do against that kind of oppression other than go limp and hope someone happens to have a camera on them (if you don't want to get slammed into a car door etc.) A sad, horrible and injustifiable truth IMO. :(

[darkshadow]

Free speech is here too, it just depends on how you word it, if I said "I think you are a fucking piece of shit", the cop can't do anything. But if I just out right say "You are a piece of shit", then it's an insult.

And who's safety? Everyone who was standing around there, including the cop and the 2 girls. What if you were standing there, and the cop tried to use something like pepperspray instead of a punch, but because of the struggling you, or some other bystander, gets the spray in their face too?

Or what if more people started interfering in the situation?

[Sapphire]

Anything can be taken as an insult. Refusing to look at someone can be an insult. Come on now. Are you really going to try debate on semantics?

Oh, and another thing. If you actually watch the video, the woman was trying to get away from the cop who was pretty much manhandling her/picking her up god knows what. I mean it doesn't look pretty. Her friend comes in and just pushes them away from each other. The woman then CALMS DOWN for a split second and just stands there. It's not like the woman is going to book it as soon as she gets seperated. Clearly this woman just didn't want to be manhandled as she calmed down as soon as he let go of her.

That's when the woman who SEPARATED them gets punched in the face (and everyone and their mother says well the cop was right cuz he's a cop). Well that -definitely- deserved a punch I guess. Just looks like more reason why people should stand around and watch others get abused. Defending someone isn't endangering the safety of multiple people. If the cop wanted to do even more collateral damage and whip out pepper spray and hurt more people, its his own responsibility lol

I should emphasize: defending someone by merely seperating and offering no violence to either party
----

Free speech is here too, it just depends on how you word it, if I said "I think you are a fucking piece of shit", the cop can't do anything. But if I just out right say "You are a piece of shit", then it's an insult.

EDIT because I'm not making a new post stating the obvious about your next post:
@DS: Considering that you think a cop would suddenly not be offended/attempt arrest at the use of "I think" + insult rather than just the insult .....yes, that is a semantics argument.

So you're blaming the effect of the cop deciding to use pepper spray, aim badly, and hit innocent people on the girl, all future events that never happened, therefore justifying the punch. "Guiltless authority" principle at it's best. Reminds me of a few military invasion justifications.

Below comment demonstrates the beautiful example of perception that "'authority' = guiltlessness" in our society.

[Assassin]

bitch had it coming....dont resist arrest and act like a cop is being ridiculous for doing his job, however retarded the reasons may be. As far as the cop is concerned, he just seems like a stupid rookie.....handcuff them and get it over with. wtf did you get all that training for if you cant even arrest a girl and have to wrestle with her for 5 min.

[darkshadow]

Anything can be taken as an insult. Refusing to look at someone can be an insult. Come on now. Are you really going to try debate on semantics?


......What? Do I actually have to spell it out for you? Saying something that is insulting to the other party, where the hell are you getting semantics from? "You are a dumb asshole" is an insult, "fuck you, fucking pig" is an insult. I'm not really mentioning subjectivity here.

And if the cops whips out pepperspray, it is his problem...till it lands on some innocent bystander, which makes the girls interferance into endangering the safety.

But yeah the cop was needlessly wrestling her that long, he should've just slammed her on the hood of the car and cuffed her.

[XanBcoo]

It was a messy situation but the officer punched someone in the face. He was enforcing a stupid law that let him arbitrarily pick who he wished to arrest, and when things got heated he reacted childishly. It was an unnecessary escalation of the situation.


bitch had it coming

Why did I even post that link? :(

However true this statement may be,

It's better to just shut up, take the fine and just report the officer, nothing good ever comes from trying to argue the law by breaking more laws.
and however irresponsibly she acted, nothing justifies her getting hit in the face by an officer. I hope he's reprimanded for this, but both the system (and unfortunately public opinion) are on his side. Both parties were at fault, but only one will be seen to have deserved what she got.

Edit: And before someone asks "What is the proper course of action in that situation," I'll answer that I have no idea. I'm not a trained officer, but I am a mature human being and I know that it isn't "Punch her in the face when surrounded by a growing mob of angry people."

[Buffalobiian]

If a cop tries to actually try to arrest someone for saying, say "f*ck off, f*cking pig" then his actions are really nothing other than an emotional response. If you can't handle feeling uncomfortable then you shouldn't be a cop. Look at "don't taze me bro" for instance.

I also highly doubt that the woman said anything threatening towards the police officer. It blows my mind that you think crossing the street at the wrong place (a laughable "offence" in NYC and MOST places in the US)/being rude is a justifiable reason to be arrested?

The problem isn't whether the offence/arrest was justifiable - you deal with that later.

The problem is that the girl pushed a cop while he was dealing with someone else and got punched in the face.



Chances are she was innocently crossing the street when the cop thought "jackpot" when the cop approached her and tried to write her up or arrest her.

Perhaps a wrong choice of words there Sapphi ;)

According to the law's definition of "innocent" anyway.

Edit: And as for "authority".... hate to sound like a broken record, but when the system itself is corrupt then "authority" is nothing but a title. This guy probably failed every rule in the "cop protocol" book and yet people still support his actions because of this title of "authority" that was given to him. Look at people authorizing torture in the Bush administration and shooting up small towns oversees and people still close their eyes and use the default responses of "authority," "responsibility" and "permission". Not saying you think like that Buff but it just makes me mad when "people" turn a blind eye to horrors of the world because of this assumed "right" people have over others to commit such deeds.[/QUOTE]

"Authority" here wasn't talking about the authority to hit her without consequence. "Authority" here was meant that the cop was allowed to make an arrest if he stated a (seemingly legit) reason to you - and that you HAD to comply.


and however irresponsibly she acted, nothing justifies her getting hit in the face by an officer. I hope he's reprimanded for this, but both the system (and unfortunately public opinion) are on his side. Both parties were at fault, but only one will be seen to have deserved what she got.

Edit: And before someone asks "What is the proper course of action in that situation," I'll answer that I have no idea. I'm not a trained officer, but I am a mature human being and I know that it isn't "Punch her in the face when surrounded by a growing mob of angry people."

Personally, I think the "correct" action would have been to point and verbally warn her very harshly - informing her that she would be liable for arrest too if she continued her action (of impeding a police's job).

We don't have a textbook answer for "What should one do when a girl pushes a cop" - putting what "crossing the line" is up to personal interpretation.

A lot of us are debating whether the police is wrong, while the girl was clearly wrong - hence the difference in treatment.

[darkshadow]

EDIT because I'm not making a new post stating the obvious about your next post:
@DS: Considering that you think a cop would suddenly not be offended/attempt arrest at the use of "I think" + insult rather than just the insult .....yes, that is a semantics argument.


Uhm, it's not semantics. I don't know about US laws, but adding "I think" here indiciates Free Speech, because it clarifies you are stating your own subjective opinion, if a cop is offended by that he still can't do anything cause the free speech law rules higher than the "insulting an official in office" law. Leaving out "I think" doesn't clarify anything and makes it "objective", thus giving the officer every right to uphold the law.
No semantics.

And yes getting involved with an officer that is making is struggling while making an arrest, is endangering the safety, especially because of future events that haven't occured yet.

And I didn't justify the punch, I just mentioned that they needlessly broke a bunch of laws.

[The Heretic Azazel]

But yeah the cop was needlessly wrestling her that long, he should've just slammed her on the hood of the car and cuffed her.

I completely agree. And why stop there? Law enforcement should just use stun guns on random people. After all, they will likely commit a crime in the future, right?? Statistically speaking of course.

This presumption that people have no rights just because you personally think they didn't behave properly isn't any good. We hold the police to a higher standard, we have to because they are supposed to be better than the people they arrest. It seems rather clear to me, at least in the southeast U.S. that they will take most anyone these days.

I share Sapphire's disgust with this blind support for law enforcement. These people give the exact same mundane response to these stories, I see it on other forums I visit. There is nothing wrong with questioning law enforcement's ability to effectively execute their duties and it is the only way to oversee their behavior. Now that people everywhere have a camera (which is absolutely and unequivocally their right to use in public) it has become really frightening to see the way some cops act. I want to believe the vast majority are good, but boy do the rotten ones skew perspectives of the good ones.

I'm not overly concerned about cops because I know this country is owned by billion dollar corporations with judges in their back pocket. If you really want to see some fucking evil you have to go all the way to the top.

[Animeniax]

Look at the vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8vS7IrcNfo&feature=fvhl), apparently it's justifiable (and even underreacting) to not only arrest someone for jaywalking of all things (lol) but also punch an innocent woman in the face for trying to separate you from accosting the person. I don't get this "holy-unable-to-sin" status that American society gives government workers and it's quite infuriating.

What would you guys do? Resist arrest too? Video tape it if you saw it being done? Try to break up the fray?

As painful as it is to say, in my opinion the best thing to do against an evil government worker is not be violent, so I would have done what the camera person did and get it all on camera (to use as evidence against the person etc.). I've done it before and it looks even worse if the person tries to steal your camera or accost you for it. The woman who got punched by no means deserved it in my opinion, but it's to be expected that she would get punched or worse for trying to defend her friend (which is a horrible truth).

We discussed this in our class on issues in policing. A lot of things were going on in that video. To start, supposedly the officer was stopping someone else for jaywalking at that location and these two women jaywalk by so he stops them too. If a police officer tells you to stop, you don't get to say "that's ok, I'm heading to lunch". So he had every right to restrain the first girl. The second girl who grabs and pushes the cop is technically "assaulting a peace officer". While the closed fist punch is an overreaction by laymens' standards, it is considered appropriate force for an officer in that situation. Looking at the video, it's one cop surrounded by several unfriendlies. A large part of the officer's mindset is to maintain authority and control, and he was clearly losing that so he reacted poorly, but within the law.

We saw the link posted earlier about some states making it illegal to record police officers while they are on duty. This video shows us how it is both beneficial and problematic to allow recording police in action.

[itadakimasu]

Jay walking? I didn't know any of the circumstances surrounding the video. I was curious why he didn't have his lights on and why he was alone...

But given the circumstances I didn't think the punch was too over the top. It probably looks worse than pepper spray or taser which she deserved for interrupting an arrest in progress and pushing the officer.

Would everybody have been fine if he sprayed pepper spray all in her eyes instead of punching her?

[Animeniax]

The punch looks bad, but if you look at it closely it's a pretty weak punch and he lets up before he makes contact with her face. The fact that she didn't crumple to the ground tells us this, or that she can take a punch and should look into women's MMA.

[Sapphire]

The problem isn't whether the offence/arrest was justifiable - you deal with that later.

The problem is that the girl pushed a cop while he was dealing with someone else and got punched in the face.

Perhaps a wrong choice of words there Sapphi ;)

According to the law's definition of "innocent" anyway.


Edit: And as for "authority".... hate to sound like a broken record, but when the system itself is corrupt then "authority" is nothing but a title. This guy probably failed every rule in the "cop protocol" book and yet people still support his actions because of this title of "authority" that was given to him. Look at people authorizing torture in the Bush administration and shooting up small towns oversees and people still close their eyes and use the default responses of "authority," "responsibility" and "permission". Not saying you think like that Buff but it just makes me mad when "people" turn a blind eye to horrors of the world because of this assumed "right" people have over others to commit such deeds.

"Authority" here wasn't talking about the authority to hit her without consequence. "Authority" here was meant that the cop was allowed to make an arrest if he stated a (seemingly legit) reason to you - and that you HAD to comply.

Personally, I think the "correct" action would have been to point and verbally warn her very harshly - informing her that she would be liable for arrest too if she continued her action (of impeding a police's job).

We don't have a textbook answer for "What should one do when a girl pushes a cop" - putting what "crossing the line" is up to personal interpretation.

A lot of us are debating whether the police is wrong, while the girl was clearly wrong - hence the difference in treatment.
Whoa. Suddenly my mind is clear.

So if I see a shop owner kicking a homeless guy in the face for loitering at his store that's justifiable too, right? Because he's guilty, right? I mean, he has the authority to do it on his property and the homeless guy is clearly breaking the law. Well, whether the kick was too much is up to personal interpretation. If he used pepper spray then it would be the homeless guys fault for any collateral damage that happened.

[Animeniax]

Whoa. Suddenly my mind is clear.

So if I see a shop owner kicking a homeless guy in the face for loitering at his store that's justifiable too, right? Because he's guilty, right? I mean, he has the authority to do it on his property and the homeless guy is clearly breaking the law. Well, whether the kick was too much is up to personal interpretation. If he used pepper spray then it would be the homeless guys fault for any collateral damage that happened.

Nope, the shop owner doesn't have the right to use force to stop the homeless guy from loitering at his store. He has the right to call the police to come kick the guy's ass. That's one of the tenets of policing. Citizens grant police the authority to use force to enforce the laws, but relinquish that right themselves.

[Sapphire]

That's the problem, Ani. :/

That perception is what gives police a "holy" status, and allows other forces of government to commit complete and utter travesties unscathed, crimes which no single person could dare get away with.

[Kraco]

I don't believe you'd really like the alternative, Sapphi. For it's anarchy. Unless you are a really violent gang minded person, of course. No internets in anarchy, though. Gangs fighting each other for power and survival have no time for the net.

[Buffalobiian]

Whoa. Suddenly my mind is clear.

So if I see a shop owner kicking a homeless guy in the face for loitering at his store that's justifiable too, right? Because he's guilty, right? I mean, he has the authority to do it on his property and the homeless guy is clearly breaking the law. Well, whether the kick was too much is up to personal interpretation.

Ya, pretty much.

(MY personal interpretation: as per my first post, I base it on how much stern verbal warning was given to the guy. If you've been told to gtfo someone's property and you don't comply - you had it coming.)

[Penner]

Today while i was listening to Kansas' song "Dust in the Wind" (awesome song btw) i decided to check the wiki page to see what bands had made covers of it, and there learned about this list of songs that were deemed "Lyrically Questionable" after the 9/11 attacks in america.

The whole thing is just so retarded it honestly made me laugh.

Here is the list: 2001 Clear Channel memorandum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Clear_Channel_memorandum)

[The Heretic Azazel]

Haha I'm sure Bridge Over Troubled Water is a veritable terrorist anthem.

[Kraco]

Not to mention Armstrong's What A Wonderful World.

[Buffalobiian]

Japanese streets have no name (http://sivers.org/jadr)

I always wondered why no one draws maps here, and everybody draws (often misleading) maps in anime.

So.. what happens when you tear down a building and erect a new one? Does everybody on your block get their numbers shuffled around in chronological order? :S

[darkshadow]

That's pretty interesting.
And:

Japanese intra-block address number is put in clock-wise manner. If a new building appears in between two others, it is given one of its neighbors number.

[depthcharge]

What will I do without my road names?

What everyone else is doing (http://www.squidoo.com/strange_street_names)

[Buffalobiian]

Contrary to the majority of youtube comments, there are some pretty interesting an informative ones:


Actually, this system of addressing goes way deeper than it appears. It is rooted in Japanese culture - the concept of starting with the big picture, and then zooming in to the individual scene (prefecture, city, ward, neighbourhood, neighbourhood subdivision, block, building, apt. # and finally name), is reflected in so many aspects of Japanese society. Family name followed by given name, for example, is more than just convention. You are part of the family first, and an individual second. Company names, such as the Sumitomo Mitsui bank in English, is Mitsui Sumitomo in Japanese. I am Kevin of Osaka, but in Japanese I am Osaka-no Kevin, where the 'no' is the possessive. So, this concept is shown in the grammar of the Japanese language as well.

Ok, maybe I'm looking at this too deeply, but there are just so many examples of this.



Cheers,



I love this. In programming I am always looking for alternate representations of the same data. In graphing terms, we label the edges of a graph while they label the nodes.

Or to visualize this, we would describe a triangle as "this side, that side, and that other side, connected to form a triangle" where they would say "this point, that point, and that other point, connected to form a triangle".

What is not immediately apparent, however, is that while the systems can be considered equivalent, they are not equal. They can be leveraged differently. Our system makes it immediately apparent that 221 Baker Street and 1221 Baker Street are connected, albeit at quite some distance, but hides the fact that 1805 Chapel Street is twenty feet away from 221 Baker. The result? In a lot of US cities we see big streets hatched with tiny "feeder" streets.

The block-naming strategy emphasises distance over direction. You immediately see that two addresses share a common block, or ward, or city--and this also has an effect on the street layout.

When you get your organization scheme right, it really works. Salt Lake City, Utah, is laid out on a grid, so if you are at "1300 West 10600 South" and you want to get to "700 East 3300 South", you know exactly what direction to go, what streets to take, and about how far you have to go to get there....

But when you get your organization scheme wrong, it really stinks. Take a city that was built on the locality premise, like Boston, and then superimpose the street-names scheme on top of it, you end up with an unnavigable mess in which people still use landmarks to get around.

Sorry for such a long comment, but the takeaway for me here is not only to see if your business models are reversible, but to ask in what ways would reversing the model make things easier--and in what ways would it make things harder?

My opinion after reading the article was that the Japanese block system was completely stupid, but it seems there's a degree of sense behind this.

[complich8]

about 3 years ago I moved from the midwest to the DC suburbs, and experienced a bit of a street layout culture shock.

In the midwest, almost without exception things have a superimposed grid layout. Even in cul-de-sac developments, there's always a grid overlaid, the giant confusing mats of cul-de-sacs are never more than a mile by a mile, always have arterial streets, and always connect to at least one or two big north-south or east-west arterial streets. Sometimes that grid layout is bent around a big landmark like a river or something, but it's always there. Once you get east of the Appalachians, though, that all breaks down.

In most places in the US, odd-numbered highways go north-south and even-numbered highways go east-west. But on the east coast, while that's generally true, you can't assume it's true for the general case of a couple miles. Like, I live near a road that's an even-numbered state highway that goes east-west for about 2 miles, then north for about 2 miles, then east-west for another 4 miles, then northwest-southeast for the rest of it. For any given two mile stretch of it, which way it's going can only be determined via either a compass or the rising or setting sun.

Over 3 years in this environment, I've pretty much made sense of where I go on a day-to-day basis, and the general layout, but whenever I go exploring I'm constantly faced with new challenges to my grid-expectations. Who'd expect that VA-123 is, for 15 miles or so, an east-west street? Or, knowing that, that if you go west on it from Arlington and just keep going, you'll end up 10 miles south of Arlington in Woodbridge?

Natives seem to have no problems with this idea. Midwesterners like myself and one of my roommates seem to have endless trouble figuring out how it all works.

Still, street naming versus block naming ... street naming seems less arbitrary, even if the streets are severely twisty.

[Assertn]

You think that's bad, you should see some of the roads in LA. Have you ever seen 5 or 6-street intersections? How about two roads running parallel, yet at one point trading places with each other? Then of course roads that turn from north/south to east/west and even worse once you get to the hills.

[complich8]

the trading places thing can't happen in this area, because roads virtually never run parallel for more than a mile or so.

North-South to East-West .... yeah, we got that.

poly-intersections: Seven Corners, VA. (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Seven+Corners,+VA&sll=38.885688,-77.212601&sspn=0.046968,0.060253&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Seven+Corners,+Fairfax,+Virginia&ll=38.872191,-77.156103&spn=0.011744,0.015063&t=h&z=16) is a bit bizarre, but it's less a single intersection and more about five acres of tangled intersection mess.

More complicated intersections in DC proper and in a lot of other places around here are handled with traffic circles (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&sll=38.885688,-77.212601&sspn=0.046968,0.060253&ie=UTF8&hq=&ll=38.967634,-77.077171&spn=0.005864,0.007532&t=h&z=17), which is probably the best solution to a 7-way mess.

[depthcharge]

Beltways are present in major metropolitans(those goes east west, north-south then east west and north-south again). I am sure not that many people would complaint about that.
Back to the topic, roads should be designed and named to ensure efficient transportation. The Japanese block by block system isn't any more difficult to use. Read a map, not every foot path is named for your convenience, that's why we have coordinates and tech assisted GPS.

[Assertn]

You mean roundabouts. Which are actually a bit more common in Europe. They're supposed to be more efficient than 4-way stops, too.

[depthcharge]

You mean roundabouts. Which are actually a bit more common in Europe. They're supposed to be more efficient than 4-way stops, too.

As long as the traffic "self-regulate," it should be fine however it can creat a zone that some driver frequently get into fender bender. That said, I like roundabouts, a slow roundabouts is better because it works on a first come first serve basis.

[Buffalobiian]

You mean roundabouts. Which are actually a bit more common in Europe. They're supposed to be more efficient than 4-way stops, too.

They're insanely unfair when some roads are much busier than others though.

When that happens, we often see roundabouts get upgraded to traffic lights so you can actually get out of the smaller streets.

[Animeniax]

The study shows that there were raised levels of testosterone in the subjects who abstained from masturbation for 3 weeks.

If this science was true, wouldn't most priests and monks be ultra-aggressive?

[depthcharge]

Are you saying that majority of priests and monks doesn't masturbate?

How likely is that?

[XanBcoo]

If this science was true, wouldn't most priests and monks be ultra-aggressive?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases

Plus what depthcharge said. It doesn't apply to sex, just masturbation.

[Animeniax]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases

Plus what depthcharge said. It doesn't apply to sex, just masturbation.

I was wondering about the differentiation. Is it ejaculation (via sexual intercourse) that contributes to decreased testosterone or the act of choking the chicken (the mental aspect/shame) that decreases testosterone levels?

One of the tenets of Christianity (probably most major religions) is that masturbation is a sin.

As far as the Catholic pedophiles go, let's not generalize and suggest all men of the cloth are pedos.

[XanBcoo]

I was wondering about the differentiation. Is it ejaculation (via sexual intercourse) that contributes to decreased testosterone or the act of choking the chicken (the mental aspect/shame) that decreases testosterone levels?
Yeah I was wondering that myself. The study doesn't clarify, but seems to make a distinction. The only other study about sexual activity is this Chinese one, that found that after 7 days of abstinence you have a testosterone spike, but after the 8th day it drops back down:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12659241


One of the tenets of Christianity (probably most major religions) is that masturbation is a sin.

As far as the Catholic pedophiles go, let's not generalize and suggest all men of the cloth are pedos.
I wasn't generalizing at all, just pointing out a trend that refutes the notion that a man of the cloth is without sexual desire. To believe that is pretty naive.

[Animeniax]

I know pro fighters will abstain from sex for weeks in advance of a fight, most likely for the added testosterone. So it's most likely ejaculation period (sex or masturbation).

[complich8]

or maybe it's to keep their man-parts from being overly sensitive to sweaty dick-punching (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/7/15/).

[Ryllharu]

...that using a mortar and pestle is really, really hard work.

At last, I have completed the processing of the cayenne peppers I have been growing since April. I have a few tablespoons of cayenne powder, and an equal amount of hot pepper flakes (seeds too of course).

The powder tastes amazing. Nice heat, good flavor. I've got plenty of seeds saved for next year. :D

[Buffalobiian]

I learned that commas are actually used as decimal points in some parts of the world. I have always ignored it as some quirk in font conversion.



00(11:48:32) ! @Buffalobiian: oh, btw Ark, Krayz said something in the forum
00(11:48:33) ! @Buffalobiian: Metro 2033 for no more than 10,20€ (~15$?) today
15(11:48:45) @Arkangel: ...?
15(11:48:47) @Arkangel: And?
00(11:48:52) ! @Buffalobiian: he used a comma separate the numbers
00(11:48:57) ! @Buffalobiian: is that a european thing?
15(11:49:03) @Arkangel: I dunno
15(11:49:07) @Arkangel: I rarely buy games
15(11:49:17) @Arkangel: Only when they're dirt cheap
00(11:49:21) ! @Buffalobiian: I mean in prices
15(11:49:22) @Arkangel: I got css for 3 euros
00(11:49:31) ! @Buffalobiian: that's meant to be 10 Euros and 20 "cents"
00(11:49:46) ! @Buffalobiian: if you use cents for smaller-than-one-euro increments
00(11:50:09) ! @Buffalobiian: I meant using a comma as a decimal point
00(11:50:13) ! @Buffalobiian: when you talk about money
15(11:50:21) @Arkangel: Oh
00(11:50:23) ! @Buffalobiian: or any other number-ish thing
15(11:50:30) @Arkangel: Usually it's .
15(11:50:35) @Arkangel: , is only used in math
00(11:50:46) ! @Buffalobiian: so . is used when talking about money
00(11:50:52) ! @Buffalobiian: and , is used in math calcs?
15(11:50:52) @Arkangel: Aye
15(11:50:54) @Arkangel: Aye
00(11:51:05) ! @Buffalobiian: and in maths, "," is used as a decimal?
15(11:51:14) @Arkangel: Aye
00(11:51:21) ! @Buffalobiian: okay, followup question
00(11:51:31) ! @Buffalobiian: in maths, if you were to write ONE THOUSAND
00(11:51:42) ! @Buffalobiian: do you write 1000,00
00(11:51:49) ! @Buffalobiian: or 1,000,00
00(11:51:55) ! @Buffalobiian: or 1,000.00
00(11:52:00) ! @Buffalobiian: or 1 000,00
00(11:52:05) ! @Buffalobiian: or 1 00.00
00(11:52:09) ! @Buffalobiian: ./end of question
15(11:52:24) @Arkangel: 1.000,000
00(11:52:33) ! @Buffalobiian: ..
00(11:52:37) ! @Buffalobiian: that's ot one thousand ark
15(11:52:47) @Arkangel: Yes
00(11:52:48) ! @Buffalobiian: unless you're using three decimals
15(11:52:55) @Arkangel: Yes
15(11:53:09) @Arkangel: Why is this so hard to get? >_>
00(11:53:19) ! @Buffalobiian: so the decimal separates the thousand place, and the comma separates the decimal from the ones place?
15(11:53:25) @Arkangel: LolAsutralia does things differently?
00(11:53:32) ! @Buffalobiian: quite so
00(11:53:49) ! @Buffalobiian: we use the . as a decimal point
00(11:53:50) ! @Buffalobiian: ALWAYS
00(11:53:52) ! @Buffalobiian: WITHOUT FAIL
15(11:54:09) @Arkangel: Weirdos
00(11:54:26) ! @Buffalobiian: old-school people will use the comma to separate the thousand from the hundred
00(11:54:36) ! @Buffalobiian: using either 1,000.00
00(11:54:45) ! @Buffalobiian: or 1'000.00
00(11:55:01) ! @Buffalobiian: but the norm these days, as I was taught in school, is just to leave a space
00(11:55:07) ! @Buffalobiian: 1 000.00
00(11:55:12) ! @Buffalobiian: it looks weird in typing
00(11:55:15) ! @Buffalobiian: and no one does it
00(11:55:25) ! @Buffalobiian: but in writing, it looks less "separated"
00(11:55:39) ! @Buffalobiian: the gap is less than that you'd use between words and other numbers
00(11:55:50) ! @Buffalobiian: money follows the same rules as normal math calcs

[Kraco]

A comma is always used as the decimal mark over here. A space is used as the thousands separator.

I reckon it might be hard to notice this variation since most publications in English and the English language part of the net tend to stick to the same format (dot as the decimal mark) to keep things understandable, no matter where the person might be from. If you browsed foreign web sites in their own languages, you'd see the differences.

[Ryllharu]

At least you Europeans format dates properly. mm/dd/yyyy

Oh wait...

/me head explodes.

[Kraco]

At least you Europeans format dates properly. mm/dd/yyyy

You got that right. The stupid mm/dd/yyyy order is something I never use, not even if the expected recipients were used to it, no matter where I type dates. Because it makes no sense whatsoever. With the decimal mark a dot is just as good as a comma; there's absolutely no difference in logical value. But in that mixed date order I fail to see any reason. It's either dd.mm.year or year.mm.dd (or whatever you use to separate them from each other, a dot is used over here - that variation doesn't really bother me at all). It's either from the smallest unit (day) to the largest (year) or from the largest to the smallest if better by year ordering is required (like in folder names).

[Ryllharu]

You got that right. The stupid mm/dd/yyyy order is something I never use, not even if the expected recipients were used to it, no matter where I type dates.We may be one the few countries to use it, but it isn't stupid. It's quite sensible when you think about it.

It's the more common way one verbalizes the date. 02/03/2010 becomes "February 3rd, 2010." The European way is, "The 3rd of February, 2010." It is rarer (and more formalized) to use the latter way in speech.

[Animeniax]

...that using a mortar and pestle is really, really hard work.

At last, I have completed the processing of the cayenne peppers I have been growing since April. I have a few tablespoons of cayenne powder, and an equal amount of hot pepper flakes (seeds too of course).

The powder tastes amazing. Nice heat, good flavor. I've got plenty of seeds saved for next year. :D

Likewise. I accidentally bought coffee beans instead of ground coffee so I have to hand grind with a mortar and pestle every morning (until this bag runs out). It's a pain in the ass, and I can't tell the difference in flavor anyway.

[Kraco]

It's certainly true in spoken language both orders are present, also over here, but there are lots of things that are always done following a fixed way in writing and however suits the speaker and the occasion when spoken aloud. Spoken language is usually less formal than written language (in Finland exceedingly so), and I personally think it's better to consider the written language as the norm, not the other way around, partially because the spoken language changes faster and varies more between regions.

In short, even if you usually say it month first, day second, doesn't mean it should be written in that order as well. However, I don't expect it to ever change. After all, you never got rid of the feet, miles, and pounds either.

[Ryllharu]

After all, you never got rid of the feet, miles, and pounds either.We're not the only one. Great Britain still uses miles, pints, stones, and non-metric threads on fasteners.

[Xelbair]

Well over here is is DD/MM/YYYY in spoken language too.
Months can be either written using Arabic or Roman numbers

[Buffalobiian]

DD/MM/YYYY is the convention here, more commonly shortened to DD/MM/YY.

I personally think saying MM/DD sounds more elegant, but due to the way we write it, I've given up on saying it like that and just say DD of MM like everyone else. Pausing to convert is, to all intents and purposes, rather pointless.

[darkshadow]

We may be one the few countries to use it, but it isn't stupid. It's quite sensible when you think about it.

It's the more common way one verbalizes the date. 02/03/2010 becomes "February 3rd, 2010." The European way is, "The 3rd of February, 2010." It is rarer (and more formalized) to use the latter way in speech.

That's silly, now you are comparing the "European way" to everyone speaking english.
There is no "The DD of MM, YY" in my native language, it's just "3 february 2010". Sounds a bit weird in English, but perfectly fine otherwise, in fact it sounds much much weirder if anyone here would say MM/DD/YY.

Also it is stupid in the sense that MM/DD/YY has a very messed up order of magnitude. It's like having a timer that goes HH/SS/MM.

[Ryllharu]

DS's next issue: Right-hand drive is superior to left-hand drive. Left-hand drive declared inefficient and illogical :rolleyes:

[darkshadow]

You continue to make no sense what so ever.

[XanBcoo]

Also it is stupid in the sense that MM/DD/YY has a very messed up order of magnitude. It's like having a timer that goes HH/SS/MM.
This is what bugs me most about it. I used to get frustrated and confused when I was moving back and forth between England when I was little because of this difference. The DD/MM/YY makes more sense to me, despite the fact that I never use it.

[Ryllharu]

You continue to make no sense what so ever.
Your ability to not comprehend anything other than absolutes continues to baffle me.

I suppose I could have been more blunt and referred to your future graduate thesis on bread buttered on top versus bread buttered on bottom. It's just another inane difference like the comma versus period question that began this whole comparison conversations.

I only refuted Kraco's statement that MM/DD was silly. They're both perfectly valid. One is order of magnitude and the other is traditional English verbal order. It's not a matter of better or worse.

[darkshadow]

My ability to comprehend? Or your silly assumption that I would prefer right-hand drive? ( I don't even know wtf that has to do with the order of magnitute in dates....but whatever.)

Seriously why don't you just at least try to have a normal discussion, instead of silly enigma's that make no sense at all.
Well no, I guess they make sense....to you.

[Buffalobiian]

I learned that a firearm silencer is a pretty misleading name.

This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHWvOd58nxk&NR=1) makes an excellent comparison.

[Kraco]

Yeah, it's for a reason it's called a sound suppressor over here, not a silencer. There're so many things in a firearm causing various sounds. The only silent gun is a gun not fired. Still, guns are damn noisy things in general so if you can make it so somebody a kilometer away won't hear it anymore, it will have its uses.

[Xelbair]

plus add the fact that silencer, or sound suppressor works as fire suppressor - there is no light when you fire the weapon, so it is way harder to find you, even when they heard you.

[Animeniax]

It's also called a flash-suppressor. Plus it removes the typical sound of gunfire so you're not even sure if shots are being fired.

[Psyke]

As far as I know, flash suppressors are usually part of the standard configuration for assaut rifles. It doesn't completely eliminates the flash, but it makes it much less obvious and hence harder to detect. It also doesn't influence the sound at all, since it has no relations to the bolt and the firing mechanism. I've never used a sound suppressor so I'm not sure how helpful it would be.

[Animeniax]

True true, though the silencer also acts to stifle any remaining flash that the built-in flash suppressor allows to escape. Most of the sound from a gun shot comes from the exit of the round from the muzzle (according to wikipedia), so a silencer muffles that, though perhaps you meant the flash suppressor doesn't affect the sound, though I meant a suppressor that suppresses flash and sound.

[Buffalobiian]

Kicking in freestyle isn't about kicking as hard or fast as you can.

http://www.swimsmooth.com/kick.html

I have never paid attention to timing. Kick fast, arms fast.

[Death BOO Z]

today I learned how R2D2 got his name..
I was looking through one of my psychology books, and one of the examples was about a robot who's function was to survive, and it was called robot-relevant-deducer.

obviously, the book was from after the starwars movie came out (although, not by much, the example is from 1984), so I got curios.

long story short: the answer (http://www.slashfilm.com/cool-stuff-how-did-r2-d2-get-his-name/)

[Ryllharu]

Today I learned about ski jumping in the summer.

Slide down a porcelain or plastic track (has nubs on it), and land on wet Astroturf. Pretty clever.

[Buffalobiian]

Exiting out of Private Browsing mode of Firefox erases all of your tracks and data during that session including anything currently stored on the clipboard that was coppied during that session.

Example scenario:

1) Start private browsing
2) Visit banking website or similar
3) Receive a receipt number for the transaction
4) "Copy" the receipt number
5) Exit private browsing mode
6) Paste receipt number in notepad etc

You will find in step 6 that you will paste nothing.

[Buffalobiian]

Look after your drunkies, and they'll look after you.

Two weeks ago I had some girls steal on my at the bottleshop I work at. One of them asked me questions regarding pre-mixed rum in the fridge on one side of the shop. As I turned and helped her, three other girls came in, walked to the other side of the store where the straight spirits were and took off with 2x1L bottles of rum each. A guy I was serving just earlier saw it all happened, and followed them down the streets to this house on his push bike. He then came back and told me the address and what he saw.

Today he dropped by for a purchase and told me that that night they were actually hiding behind some random house because they thought he was some rogue cop with a torch or something. He later followed them silently and told me that they zig zagged their way to the train station shortly afterwards. Sitting down on the opposite platform, he observed that there was an older girl who was directing the group. She sat on the chair on the platform as the other three hid in the shadows while waiting for a train. When the doors opened, the leader blew a whistle to indicate that all was clear, and the entire bunch rushed onboard the train that headed out into the city.

He told me of a similar encounter one time where he witnessed a theft in a liquor store at a different suburb that he used to live in. A week later he saw the same guy at the local train station, chatted him up, got his name and address, went back to the bottle shop and disclosed it all.

Plus the fact that I also had a terminally ill, son-of-a-5th-Dan practitioner promise me he'll kick down the door of whomever I wish (as he's got nothing to lose) when I paid the difference for his purchase, I conclude that it's better to have drunkie friends than drunkie enemies.

True story.

[Kraco]

Hah. That dorobou neko group with such an organization, methods, and theatrics sounds like directly from a manga. But I guess it really helps their thieving ways.

[Buffalobiian]

Hah. That dorobou neko group with such an organization, methods, and theatrics sounds like directly from a manga. But I guess it really helps their thieving ways.

Do add to that, my old store got done in later that week too. This week we had to put up security notices that detail all the security that we have (and don't have, but pretend to have) on our shop front, as well as put up these height stickers to help us estimate the height of the offender as they walk out the door.

[Archangel]

Were the girls hot? If so, all is forgiven

[Death BOO Z]

Plus the fact that I also had a terminally ill, son-of-a-5th-Dan practitioner promise me he'll kick down the door of whomever I wish (as he's got nothing to lose) when I paid the difference for his purchase, I conclude that it's better to have drunkie friends than drunkie enemies.

True story.

is this the same guy you've posted about some weeks ago, and we told you that he was a loose cannon. And that you should distance yourself from him?

[Kraco]

A terminally ill person will do the distancing, in a permanent manner, soon enough himself.

[Buffalobiian]

is this the same guy you've posted about some weeks ago, and we told you that he was a loose cannon. And that you should distance yourself from him?

Yeah, that's him. I don't work over that side of town anymore though.

[enkoujin]

I've been reading about the Game Theory and boy, is it ever both interesting and applicable in everyday life at the same time:

http://www.dklevine.com/general/whatis.htm#General%20equilibrium%20theory

[Buffalobiian]

I've been reading about the Game Theory and boy, is it ever both interesting and applicable in everyday life at the same time:

http://www.dklevine.com/general/whatis.htm#General equilibrium theory (http://www.dklevine.com/general/whatis.htm#General%20equilibrium%20theory)

That bent my mind a bit, especially when it gets onto the Pride-pride stuff. I guess the hardest part for me is to figure out whether the allocations of their numbers make sense.

[Buffalobiian]

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

^ It means: a fear of long words. Props to whoever came up with it. xD

[Nadouku]

If you go to http://www.google.com/ and type in "zerg rush," you get to play a mini-game where a bunch of O's come out of nowhere and chomp down on your search results. It measures your APM and how many you've managed to kill. Pretty neat trivia.

[Buffalobiian]

If you go to http://www.google.com/ and type in "zerg rush," you get to play a mini-game where a bunch of O's come out of nowhere and chomp down on your search results. It measures your APM and how many you've managed to kill. Pretty neat trivia.


And if you wait a little longer, the come back with a message. :)

[Buffalobiian]

I learned that passwords used to lock Excel spreadsheets and perhaps other microsoft document files are very easily hacked.

I downloaded a file that required a password, so I fed it through my password-cracking software. The key was generated instantly without the usual bruteforcing procedure that would be required for things such as rar files.

It was a long (20-30?) alphabetical key that didn't consist of intelligible words, so the conclusion must be that the file type has a weakness somewhere.

Lesson: If important, lock the file in an archive instead of passwording.

[fahoumh]

Yesterday I learned how to operate a rotary tiller attachment for a tractor, which I learned to drive a few weeks ago. It was a lot more fun than I bet most people would imagine.

[Animeniax]

You mean like a full-size farm tractor? What are you learning that for exactly, to take over the family farm?

Today I learned that Russell Crowe played the lead psycho skinhead in the movie Romper Stomper from 1992.

1309

[fahoumh]

Yeah, it's a proper farm tractor. I was helping my cousin with his farming.

[Animeniax]

I wish I knew my extended family better. My parents kept us isolated from cousins and uncles/aunts and extended family members. Kind of sucks not knowing more family.

I just returned from a visit to my newborn niece... I thought the experience could be life-altering, but really it just affirmed a realization that I don't want kids. I love kids, but there's just so much to worry about and so much of your life you have to give up to care for them, and I don't think I can make that sacrifice.

[fahoumh]

Sometimes you're better off not knowing them...there's a LOT of drama, gossip, headache, etc. that comes with associating with them.

[Animeniax]

True, even in the limited contact with and what little info we get about relatives in my family is usually gossipy and in-fighting. Still, it'd be nice to have a built-in friend in the family who isn't too close for comfort (like a brother) but not a complete stranger either. Cousins are perfect for that.

[Buffalobiian]

My laptop under normal usage uses less power than my halogen desk lamp (6-8W vs 15W respectively). Power-saving features ftw!

Oh, and that Persia is what we call Iran nowadays.

[enkoujin]

TIL that if you reverse an air conditioner (the process and mechanics), it becomes a heater.

Additionally, people in past history, and up until this point, have been unintentionally patenting and trying to scam investors by producing inventions which violate both the first and second laws of thermodynamics (i.e., heat physics) called PPM:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_motion

[Death BOO Z]

I have a book somewhere about perpetual machines through the ages... quite interesting topic.
from what I remember of the book, you can't patent a Perpetual motion machine as such (they don't allow it), but you can patent a design and write it as something else, even if it doesn't work. according to the book, the IP office doesn't care whether what you're patenting works, they just want to make sure it's unique.

[Uchiha Barles]

Today I learned what crowd-sourcing is, and a very interesting application that demonstrates how powerful the concept is when applied inventively:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20108763-10391704.html

Basically, in 10 days, puzzle gamers managed to find the most chemically stable protein structure for an HIV protease that 10 years of scientific research and sophisticated computer analysis could not.

[Animeniax]

That's pretty awesome, using the brain power so many spend on online games to actually accomplish something more than the quick fix entertainment they were looking for. I know so many people who spend waaaay too much time playing online flash games.

[Buffalobiian]

For users of the latest version of winamp:

If you have a song in the now-playing list
Then close winamp
Delete the song file
Attempt to re-open winamp

It will crash. I have not been able to open it any other way other than placing the file back into the directory so that winamp sees the file upon start-up.

I reproduced the problem two times, and I'm pretty sure that it will happen as long as that song is first to load. It doesn't matter if you turned off winamp when it was half-way through the song, or if you had all tasks stopped before turning off.

So yeah... guess that's something to look out for.

[Kraco]

Maybe if you opened a playlist with Winamp, it would get over it?

[Buffalobiian]

Maybe if you opened a playlist with Winamp, it would get over it?

Open a playlist?

Well, I hadn't thought about this, but if you openned a playlist file (eg .m3u) or a double-clicked a new song, it could possibly get over it, yes. It overrides previous lists after all.

But if you mean open winamp, then click a drop-down for a previous playlist to use, then it would work. The program crashes immediately upon execution. You only get a "do you want to send dump" message

[Kraco]

Well, I hadn't thought about this, but if you openned a playlist file (eg .m3u) or a double-clicked a new song, it could possibly get over it, yes. It overrides previous lists after all.

This is what I meant. Open a playlist by file association, so that the program would replace the existing, crash inducing list with the good one.

[Ryllharu]

Or, just maybe...you could use a program that's better than winamp. Of which there are many.

Ones that are made to scan your library and update themselves accordingly.

[Archangel]

I use WMP, don't need nothing else >_>

[Kraco]

Ones that are made to scan your library and update themselves accordingly.

One reason he's using it is for the possibility of bitstreaming the material untampered by Windows to his DAC. If memory serves, Bill also tried the similar method of bypassing Windows audio in Foobar, but he said it sounded different. Though I could be remembering wrong.

[Animeniax]

I get the sense that Buffalobiian is a loyal kind of guy, that includes loyalty to the companies he supports and the software he uses. Winamp has been around almost since the inception of MP3s. It's a good media app, and constantly improving. No reason to ditch it for what is obviously a bug. A google search might even provide a solution for it, or a way to report it to Nullsoft to fix it.

[Buffalobiian]

Or, just maybe...you could use a program that's better than winamp. Of which there are many.

Ones that are made to scan your library and update themselves accordingly.

Winamp scans and updates my library automatically. The song in question was outside of the library, which I simply added to the queue by itself.

Kraco remembered correctly. The other day I used ASIO output on Foobar vs Winamp to listen for any differences they may have. To my surprise, I discerned that they indeed sounded different, with Foobar having a more solid, heavier sound while winamp's had an airier, more open quality. I know both players use different mp3-codecs for playback, but I'm not sure if the same applies for WAV files (I'm assuming FLAC rips into .wav before it gets played?). It could also be the ASIO plugins that differ. Foobar allows me to control the volume digitally while winamp doesn't, which suggests that Foobar in ASIO output could be capable of bit-perfect playback, but is not guaranteed.

Or it could all be placebo.

[Buffalobiian]

I had to go to the grocery store today to buy some fruit, and decided to feel a little classy as I walked past the cheese section. After a few minutes of looking at words I don't recognise, I ended up picking a block of camembert to take home.

It smelled moderately strong, and oddly familiar. It didn't take too long to figure it out though - it smelled like corpses.

More specifically, anatomy specimens that I use at university. I don't know if it's the mould (we have to spray the specimens with anti-fungals to prevent mould growth) or something else, but the aroma is identical, as far as I'm able to differentiate.

And if you have such images on your mind while you taste the cheese and have the flavour flood your senses with +1000% intensity as you mouth the soft with your tongue.. it can actually make you a little sick.

So for anyone who wants to know what dissections are like, open up some images and grab some camembert.

(I'm still keen on cheese, but I don't think I can finish this block. Damn inanimate object.. I underestimated you.)


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



edit: Ah.. so back then I was on to something after all.


Today in anatomy wet lab we were discussing the GIT. As the tutor talked about the small intestines I felt really hungry.

Later I went home and took out a slice of cheese. As I ate that piece of cheese I had images of cadavers pop into my head.

[Animeniax]

Some of the more pungent cheeses turn me off as well, and I don't need to know the chemical or biological methods for creating them to make me sick when eating them. I'd say stick to a nice smoked gouda. I stopped buying and eating blocks of gourmet cheese because of their high fat content and price, though I enjoyed them a lot when I did eat them.

Along the lines of recall while eating, whenever I eat hot dogs I can't get the image from the Simpsons out of my mind about the composition of a hot dog. It was the "Lisa the Vegetarian" episode. I'll leave you to look it up if you want so as to not ruin hot dogs for you.

[Animeniax]

Today I learned that some schools no longer teach cursive/script handwriting. Consider my mind blown. Why would they stop teaching that??

[shinta|hikari]

Why not? It's not even useful anymore.

I don't mind it being an optional lesson, but giving it should not be mandatory.

[Animeniax]

You mean it's not useful since people type everything anyway? Your signature is still in cursive isn't it? The kids who told me about this also mentioned folks they knew who couldn't sign their signature in the requisite cursive, so they had relatives write it for them and they just copied it. That seems really weird to me.

It's a big problem in Japan too, the youth aren't learning to write kanji characters as much since their electronic devices generate them, so within 100 years it will be a lost art. I see cursive as the same.

[shinta|hikari]

Why not just teach them how to write signatures?

If that is all it is going to be used for, I don't see the point in forcing people to learn it. People can write in print, after all.

The kanji issue (if true) is a different problem altogether. Cursive is all about style and is usually even harder to understand than normal written text (especially if the person has poor penmanship). Kanji differentiates homonyms, allows the meaning to be derived from the kanji elements, allows for Chinese and Japanese readings of a word, is used in names and makes Japanese text readable without spaces.

What I find to be annoying is how people are starting to suck at spelling just because software automatically corrects spelling errors. If anything, that function should help them in learning the correct spelling for those words.

[Animeniax]

Cursive writing is also a lot faster than block text which is a major consideration of writing. If it is so easily replaced, then kanji can be substituted for a simpler system as well. Japan could just move to a romaji system and remove the confusion between Chinese and Japanese meanings. Kanji is as plagued by poor penmanship as cursive. And similarly, they could just write everything using hiragana/katakana. I don't think this should happen, but I think it's about as tragic as the loss of cursive writing.

As for spelling errors, I think it's a lot like the issue of research with wiki/google. Have a question? Find the answer in 10 seconds with wiki or google. The problem is, you tend to forget the answer just as quickly. In the days before the internet, if you had to look something up from multiple sources or ask others directly to get an answer, you'd remember that answer.

[shinta|hikari]

Did you just notice how many changes you were proposing to the Japanese language just to validate your point?

Using Romaji will make things difficult due to homonyms, not to mention the alphabet is English, not Japanese. They can't use pure hiragana and katakana because Japanese text has no spaces between words.

Exclusive Romaji and Hiragana/Katakana text is also going to be much longer because they simply take more space.

Kanji is also used in typed text, so penmanship affects only a small facet of it.

You simply cannot compare losing cursive to losing kanji. Cursive is being lost due to a lack of practicality, while Kanji is being kept because of practicality. Cursive is a writing style, while Kanji is an integral part of the Japanese language.

[Animeniax]

Kanji is hardly practical. The Japanese like to use it to push the notion that their language is difficult and complex, when it is needlessly so. They need to break from their Chinese forbears and stop using characters derived from them. The language of the future is English anyway.

[shinta|hikari]

I meant keeping Kanji was more practical. Changing it will take too much effort for no real gain.

Kanji is a pain to learn, but it has its purpose, most of which I have mentioned already.

[Animeniax]

Yeah kanji is worthwhile, it's a shame kids aren't learning it as well as they should. I'm still shocked that cursive writing is not being taught at some schools anymore. Only good thing I guess is that I didn't have to lend my class notes out because the guy couldn't read them since they were in cursive. He's a cool guy though so it kind of sucks I couldn't help him out.

[Buffalobiian]

I find it strange that my cursive writing is no faster than the blick writer I sat next to (might be an odd case, and it was a long time ago). But basically I write in cursive because it's cool.

[Xelbair]

most people over here write in cursive - but i don't - because my handwriting is so bad that i could be considered a doctor.

[Animeniax]

most people over here write in cursive - but i don't - because my handwriting is so bad that i could be considered a doctor.

Ha, that's funny. They do tend to scribble prescriptions like they want to punish pharmacists.

My handwriting is a combination of cursive and block lettering mixed together.

[Buffalobiian]

most people over here write in cursive - but i don't - because my handwriting is so bad that i could be considered a doctor.

Hard-to-read-writing is the first thing that I qualified for as far as being a medical professional goes. :p

Today I had a look at sunglasses, and learned that there's essentially a monopoly with huge mark-ups. The company called Luxottica owns nearly everything in the eyewear industry.

Eg. Raybands:

Costs the consumer: $200
Costs the factory: $3


Further readings:
Interview with Luxottica CEO (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57527151/sticker-shock-why-are-glasses-so-expensive/)
Interview with marketting professor (http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/jun/22/why-do-we-pay-hundreds-shades-cost-3-make/)

[Buffalobiian]

Today I learned..

..that Japan has capital punishment.

I never knew that.

[Kraco]

..that Japan has capital punishment.

I never knew that.

... or you wouldn't have visited the country? But you need not worry: They aren't in the habit of executing foreigners, unlike some muslim countries.

[Animeniax]

... or you wouldn't have visited the country? But you need not worry: They aren't in the habit of executing foreigners, unlike some muslim countries.

Foreigners can get away with stuff that locals can't. That's how much the Japanese love foreigners, or at least the idea of them.

[enkoujin]

The concept of thought-terminating cliches. (http://philosophy.thecastsite.com/readings/anonymous2.html)

They are fallacies/arguments used to effectively and immediately disarm another party's arguments in a debate, no matter how valid the other party's arguments are. The thing about them is that other individuals (i.e., the public) are more likely to believe in them as well because of the paradigms that have been structured with our past experiences. Another characteristic of this concept is that you can barely argue against them because they are either general enough to be true or immediately divides issues into black and white.

e.g., A "Calm down; stop being so angry." statement can effectively destroy an argument even if the other person is not even angry because the phrase is associated with the common observation that angry people cannot think clearly. Even if an individual refutes this idea, they have already lost because the topic has already been effectively changed.

The interesting aspect of this concept is that I've been guilty of using these a few times in my life, but I never really thought about its effects consciously until this point.

[Ryllharu]

Want to see it in real time (well, relatively real time)?

Thread (http://forums.gotwoot.net/showthread.php/22475-Should-MFauli-be-banned)

The topic has changed no less than four times.

[enkoujin]

The concept of monkeysphere. (http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html)

The idea that 150 people is the maximum amount of people you keep close to you and also explains why people are assholes to one another.

[Ryllharu]

I wouldn't say it is what makes people assholes to each other. It's more of the reason for detactment in lieu of an emotional response.

People aren't wracked by grief when they are no longer close to the person who died, or they're not ecstatic for someone else when that person has their first child, etc.

[Kraco]

Actually I'm not sure if I've learned anything, so this is more like a question for the Americans. I read earlier on Guru3D an article featuring some screenshots from the next Windows Mobile build. Apparently a Microsoft employee had dropped a phone with the software on a bus, somebody had found it, and immediate sold it on eBay. So, my question is: In the USA, if you find something obviously misplaced in a public place, are you automatically entitled full ownership to the item like this story suggests (although whether a bus owned by a bus company is perfectly public is another question)? If this is true, then how can the law limit this situation so that somebody doesn't simply pick up your bike and sell it when you are visiting a store, for example, or snatch your laptop from a cafeteria table when you turn your back to get a sauce bottle from a neighbouring table? Because it seems to me that if this isn't the case, it doesn't take a Sherlock to find the seller of an eBay item, considering eBay likely doesn't want to be profiled as a black market either.

[Ryllharu]

Receipt of stolen property is illegal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receipt_of_stolen_property#United_States). If you know the seller didn't own it (which would be pretty obvious here), taking ownership of it is a federal crime.

Now you can argue the value of a prototype like that is in excess of $5000, and I assume that is the route that the more famous scenario took of Apple's iPhone prototype that ended up in the hands of a Gizmodo editor, but there isn't a "finders keepers" law, full ownership (incl. right to resell) is not granted.

But IANAL, I'm sure there are some subtleties here and there that I'm missing.

If it doesn't fall under that law or there is no intent to sell, then I guess that's up to an individual's moral code.

edit: The proper avenue is Lost and Found. If it isn't claimed by a certain period of time, the finder can claim it as their own. Individual jurisdictions apply.

[Kraco]

So, in other words the person finding and then promptly selling the phone did it knowing he could be tracked down and prosecuted (assuming the whole thing isn't a big fake story and the screenshots straight from Photoshop). Well, I guess it's even sadder to know that the world is full of that sort of people, and it's no joke when the cops say that most criminals are simply stupid and thus get caught eventually.

[Death BOO Z]

no. what they say is that most criminals who are caught are stupid.
small-time crime doesn't pay well - if you've got the brainz and you live in a crap stiuation, you'd do better the high road.
but if you're smart and were born to the right folks... the sky is the limit, and it's just immoral, not illegal.

[Animeniax]

This came up recently in my life when a package was accidentally delivered to the wrong address. From what I was told, it was a criminal act to keep and open the package if it is not addressed to you. I imagine it's the same for any property that comes into your possession that doesn't belong to you. You cannot use it or sell it legally simply because you have possession of it.

[Animeniax]

Recently started watching Friday Night Lights. It's mostly "pretty people with problems" but what I didn't like is that the high schoolers looked too old for their age, which makes sense since they are mostly 20 somethings playing 17 and 18 year olds. Today I was flipping channels and saw a 7-on-7 high school touch football tournament on ESPN and the guys were frickin' huge. The top rated HIGH SCHOOL running back is 6'1" 232lbs.

A frickin' high schooler is that big and probably hasn't finished growing. People complain about all the hormones and chems the food industry injects into our food but I say let them do it. We'll evolve the human race into giants for the betterment of the species.

[Animeniax]

I've been reading more about the Survivorman/Grylls feud as I watched recent marathon runs of Survivorman on Discovery. I support Stroud's skills and show and consider Grylls' show to be frivolous Hollywood bullshit. But I just realized that supporting Stroud over Grylls makes me an old fogey because most younger folks prefer Grylls' flashiness and entertainment value over Stroud's real expertise and countrified demeanor.

[Ryllharu]

That the wait times for checkout at Autozone stores always suck.

Thankfully, there's always an Advanced Auto Parts across the street.

[Buffalobiian]

Today I learned (or so it seems, I can't scientifically verify) that a high(er) end sound system may improve the sound of lossy encodes more than lossless ones. This contrasts with the common (and true?) perception that a high fidelity system brings out the flaws in recordings. I think that statement applies more to physical/mastering flaws.

I was playing around with lossy codecs today because the AAC-LC encode from Freac (an audio conversion program) sounded worse than anticipated. I spent a good few hours playing with some LAME mp3 settings as well as the output from a handful of AAC encoders. I was having much more difficulty telling the difference between themselves compared to my brother's less-hifi speakers. On my set, I was trying to tell how they were different. On his speakers, I could hear the difference - the headache was deciding on which type of distortion I could deal with better.

I think what happens is that the low-fidelity (but not complete rubbish) system's non-flat frequency response thwarts the psychoacoustic masking techniques employed by the codecs when they try to make artefacts "inaudible".

[Kraco]

I think what happens is that the low-fidelity (but not complete rubbish) system's non-flat frequency response thwarts the psychoacoustic masking techniques employed by the codecs when they try to make artefacts "inaudible".

Assuming anybody has ever even done any real research for the development of the less than Bill-level audio equipment, it wouldn't really surprise me if they were meant to play well only lossless and mp3. That is, they would only deal well with good ol' mp3's psychoacoustic masking techniques. After all, it would cost money to run multiple tests with all manner of less used formats, not to mention to put the test results to use, and chances are nobody would notice a thing. After all, the people who would notice are already getting better equipment for a reason.

[Ryllharu]

Today I remembered that Bill is still, "I can hear the bit loss in the cable. This is why I only use 14 AWG!" crazy.

On a barely-related note, I'm obsessed with the inhale sounds on most of my music lately. It's very...interesting, disturbingly bewitching. It's especially interesting on singers who do it very little, because they generally have proper breath control. That means they're doing it intentionally, or recovering/preparing from a truly belted out segment. They're generally covered by the music on more rock/pop tracks, but the other music styles make it easier to pick up.

I guess higher quality audio equipment helps you detect the subtle ones better.

[poopdeville]

That I can pass the Society of Actuaries exam on probability. I learned this by passing it.

I use lamp cord, but I do have a decent set of speakers and a Denon amp.

[Animeniax]

Is that one of the battery of tests that you have to pass to get your actuarial license/cert?

[poopdeville]

Yup. 5 to go. I have like 5 years of experience as an analyst/statistician, so I think I can get an entry level job with one under my belt. If I get that lucky, the insurance company will pay for me to take the rest (and even give me 10 weeks time off for it every year).

[Animeniax]

Nice. I knew some actuarial scientists in school. They said those tests are a bitch, and each failed the first one they took. So congrats on passing the first one.

[Death BOO Z]

congrats!
at first I didn't understand that you were replying to other posts, and I thought that you said you used a lamp cord to pass the exam.

[poopdeville]

Nice. I knew some actuarial scientists in school. They said those tests are a bitch, and each failed the first one they took. So congrats on passing the first one.

This one wasn't so bad, but then again I failed it when I took it the first time (two years ago). Mostly, I was out of practice doing calculus then. I'm sure I would have passed if I had done it right out of school. This time, I made and memorized about 1000 flash cards and bought a subscription for a month's worth of practice tests.

[Buffalobiian]

I learned today that you can play on consoles with keyboards and mice via adapters.

I feel like I missed out.

[Animeniax]

I learned today that you can play on consoles with keyboards and mice via adapters.

I feel like I missed out.

I set up my PC on the big screen for Sleeping Dogs. Using the keyboard and mouse from the couch was bad for the back.

[Ryllharu]

That not everything in geology happens slowly (or results in a large number of deaths when it doesn't).


http://youtu.be/yAZ1V_DJKV8


Exfoliation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exfoliation_joint)!

[Animeniax]

That not everything in geology happens slowly (or results in a large number of deaths when it doesn't).

Exfoliation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exfoliation_joint)!Cool, seen those all over Enchanted Rock in Texas, never knew how they formed. Always wondered if there was any danger of them rapidly sliding off the rock face, but that doesn't appear to happen with such geological features.

[Xelbair]

Interesting, but it fits into what i know of geology/geoengineering - shit either happens really slowly.... or lightning fast.

[Ryllharu]

The important bit is that when it happens lightning fast, people don't always get hurt or die.

[Buffalobiian]

Never use hot water with protein shakes.

It turns into a solid, clumpy, rubbery plastic.

Guys who relax in hot showers may be familiar with this texture. Imagine eating 250mls of it.

I couldn't do it.

[shinta|hikari]

Why did you use hot water in a shake in the first place?