What I don't get...

[Buffalobiian]

Expiry dates and manufacturing dates.....

I'm sure I'm not the only one whose ever wondered whether a date printed on certain food items was the manufacturing date or the expiry date.

Logic would dictate that if only one date existed on the packaging, it should be the expiry date, since manufacturing date is possible to track based on batch numbers.

Sometimes though, when you buy a product, go home, then look at the date, you think:

"Heck!....that's the manufactured date, right?"

Is it illegal to sell expired foodstuff (knowingly or not)?

[SorC]

Is it illegal to sell expired foodstuff (knowingly or not)?

Yes it's illegal to sell food that has past it's "use by" date. However many canned products are marked "best before" meaning they don't have an effective "use by" date because of preservatives etc. Meaning that they should stay edible till you open the packaging (Although there's no guarantee).

Also by law (Australian at least) all of this should be clearly marked on the packaging. It shouldn't be possible to confuse any of the three dates mention so far (use by, best before, manufacture).

[Death BOO Z]

Logic would dictate that if only one date existed on the packaging, it should be the expiry date, since manufacturing date is possible to track based on batch numbers.

Logic sucks.


there's always the case that something goes horribly wrong with the machines one day, and the product from that day needs to be called back.
a manufacturing date is easier for the end consumer to find and recognize than a bunch of number who end in the same string.
imagine that you heard in the news that the food company calls back all products from one day, and there are seven different coding for that day, it'd be a mess to remember all them codes.

[itadakimasu]

In the last couple of weeks, gas here dropped to around $2.17 /gallon from around $2.40 a month or so ago. On my way to work I saw that not only did it go up 12 cents from 2-3 days ago to yesterday, but from yesterday to today another 10 cent increase to $2.39.

So i google to see why gas prices are going up and here is a blurb from the article I find on MSNBC...

"While crude demand hasn't rebounded yet, traders have begun to have more faith that consumption will eventually pick up. "
Why should we pay higher gas prices based on what some random douchebags think and not on actual factors like demand? Sorry to the people in europe that pay $2.40 / litre : ) I'm american !

[Buffalobiian]

From what I understand, instead of demand first going up and being reflected in sales, thereby reducing potential profit on the gas sold during the time delay between the demand is realised by the seller, the seller puts up the price in anticipation of the increasing demand to come.

If demand does increase as they predict, then they'll maximise the profit they would have lost if they waited.

They're also betting on demand not dropping off in the meanwhile from the price increase.

As for why you should pay higher gas prices because of what some individual thinks? Well, that individual happens to be the one selling the goods.

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

Long answer short, because he thinks you'll pay for it.

[Assertn]

There's about a month lapse between fluctuations in crude oil prices and refined gas prices you find locally.

[Buffalobiian]

When you load a website and the picture comes out slowly, why is it that it appears blurry at first, then slowly gets more definition before it becomes crystal clear? The entire picture seems to slowly fix itself at the same time, rather than progressively from top to bottom etc.

On the other hand, the banners on gotwoot load pretty fast, and upon refreshing, the new image appears top first, revealing itself down to the bottom, and every step is crystal clear without the need to "fix" the image.

Why does all that happen? In the first case, why doesn't the picture load slowly but perfectly, rather than "fast loading", followed by "fixing"?

[Psyke]

I thought the difference is in the web browsers and how they handle the image files based on their compression types, but I'm not too sure

[darkshadow]

That only happens with FF iirc Buff, and even for that I think you can set it load the images completely. IE8 ( or any IE) is set to do this by default.
It is just a different way of loading images.

[complich8]

to answer that question, you should search for information on jpeg interlacing. "progressive image rendering" might be another informative search... if you feel lucky.

[Buffalobiian]

Ah, thanks for that guys. From the tips, here's the article I found, for those also interested:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000468.html

To clear the matter up a bit further, the article suggests that this is done by whoever made the compressed JPEG, but also mentioned Internet Explorer, as if the browser also plays a part.

Does that mean:

1) JPEG files are all the same. Browsers decide which method to retrieve the image with resulting bandwidth repercussions.



2) JPEG files are encoded in with "progressive" or "interlaced" method. The browser does not have a choice but to download in said method.


OR


3) JPEG files can be encoded in both "progressive" and "interlaced" format. If a browser was downloading an image in "interlaced" format, it can choose to retrieve it "interlaced" or "progressively". Progressive images can only be retrieved progressively

[complich8]

2. Your browser opens a single linear read of the file on the webserver serving it, the webserver feeds your browser a stream of bytes, the browser can either wait until the data's all there before drawing it, or it can render what it's got. If it renders what it's got in-flight, progressive encoded images will load left to right line by line, and interlaced will fade in. If it waits until it's got all the data to render it, the image will just sort of pop into existence.

[Buffalobiian]

Many English dubs for anime sound really over-the-top dramatic. They yell and talk in a distinctively "cartonny" sort of way which is different from TV/movie voices.

Do anime voices sound like that in Japanese to the Japanese?

[Animeniax]

Many English dubs for anime sound really over-the-top dramatic. They yell and talk in a distinctively "cartonny" sort of way which is different from TV/movie voices.

Do anime voices sound like that in Japanese to the Japanese?

I also notice they enunciate in anime and live action shows much better than they do in real life conversation. I imagine it's for the sake of viewers from the different parts of Japan where the dialects and speech patterns (and even words sometimes) differ, but it seems exaggerated and unrealistic at times.

[Assertn]

It's called voice "acting"
There are american cartoons where people talk exaggeratedly as well.

[Archangel]

What I don't get is if Michael Jackson has so many financial troubles, why doesn't he just release another song? It will be multi-platinum and make millions, almost guaranteed. People love his music, even if it's a mediocre effort and more than 10 years past its prime.

totally random topic >_>, but ok, isn't he making a comeback? i think he just released an album with kanye west and will.i.am and such, sure there will be real new stuff down the road.

Awkward~~

[Assertn]

Michael jackson completed a shit ton of songs that he never published, because he wanted his kids to inherit them so they wouldn't be stuck with his debt. He probably would've been shafted by whatever contracts he was under with the music industry if he published them himself.

[XanBcoo]

Many English dubs for anime sound really over-the-top dramatic. They yell and talk in a distinctively "cartonny" sort of way which is different from TV/movie voices.

Do anime voices sound like that in Japanese to the Japanese?

See, there's this one show called Naruto...

[Sapphire]

Does anyone feel a "tinge" like feeling in their blood (in an isolated part of their body) when they feel a strong emotion occasionally?

[Animeniax]

Does anyone feel a "tinge" like feeling in their blood (in an isolated part of their body) when they feel a strong emotion occasionally?

You mean like when my wiener reacts to a hot girl? Or like when my fingers tingle when I almost fall and catch myself.