Search found 210 matches
- Sat Apr 21, 2018 5:47 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1983: "Clutter"
- Replies: 18
- Views: 1008
Re: 1983: "Clutter"
My sister and I will have a crazy amount of toys and books to clean out of our parents' house at some point. I'm not very materialistic as an adult but still have various things stored on the floor, plus my dining table covered in random stuff. :? I found a copy of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying...
- Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:09 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1982: "Evangelism"
- Replies: 101
- Views: 2524
Re: 1982: "Evangelism"
Sometimes trying to open a banana from the stem end goes very wrong and you end up squashing it etc. to get it open. However, I've never managed to open one from the other end without getting a significant amount of dirt under my fingernails, so stem it is.
- Sat Apr 14, 2018 7:10 am UTC
- Forum: School
- Topic: Justifying the Death Penelty
- Replies: 54
- Views: 1824
Re: Justifying the Death Penelty
Also, is ordering other people to kill equivalent to committing the murder yourself? He's only rumoured to have murdered one person with his own hands: his niece. Yes - ordering a crime to be committed is equivalent to having committed the crime itself (see RICO statutes, 18 U.S.C. ch. 96, ss 1961–...
- Wed Apr 11, 2018 5:14 am UTC
- Forum: School
- Topic: Justifying the Death Penelty
- Replies: 54
- Views: 1824
Re: Justifying the Death Penelty
Mutex wrote:and secondly it costs MORE to execute someone than imprison them for life. The money saved by getting RID of the death penalty could be spent on hospitals etc.
Ah, true, at least in the USA. Not so much other countries with a less rigorous process.
Re: 1980s PCs
Not long after posting this thread I tried to write to the Super Star's hard drive and stuffed it a bit, but the drive doesn't seem to be completely out of action. Plus we can still play games on floppy or maybe find a replacement drive. It had a collection of BASIC games and things which are diffic...
- Tue Apr 10, 2018 2:18 am UTC
- Forum: School
- Topic: Justifying the Death Penelty
- Replies: 54
- Views: 1824
Re: Justifying the Death Penelty
How about going with an example of a "sane" and cold-blooded killer, such as a hitman who mainly just does it for the money? Hitler was (almost?) driven mad by his physical health problems and so on, so not necessarily of sound mind. Also, is ordering other people to kill equivalent to com...
- Tue Apr 03, 2018 11:16 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Are Vitamin Supplements Toxic to Non-Human Animals?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 674
Re: Are Vitamin Supplements Toxic to Non-Human Animals?
No specific knowledge, but given chocolate gives dogs theobromine poisoning (not itself an vitamin/etc, but could have an analogue substance in a 'harmless' bulkifier in a vitimin tablets that is not harmless in the presence of a pet's differing set of native enzymes) and also that excess vitamin-C...
- Sun Apr 01, 2018 8:20 am UTC
- Forum: General
- Topic: Lucky Ten Thousand (TIL)
- Replies: 13359
- Views: 1371305
Re: Lucky Ten Thousand (TIL)
On the topic of words English may or may not have: can anyone thing of an adjective of a person that means they have a good memory? Something akin to "rememberful", but an actual word people use. The closest I can think of is "retentive" but that seems ambiguous out of context a...
- Sat Mar 24, 2018 12:51 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1572: "xkcd Survey"
- Replies: 366
- Views: 103037
Re: 1572: "xkcd Survey"
I sincerely hope xkcd Analytica is making millions off of our data by now.
- Wed Mar 21, 2018 7:41 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1970: "Name Dominoes"
- Replies: 30
- Views: 2770
Re: 1970: "Name Dominoes"
And by extension, Jean, eg. in the case of Jean-Louis "Jack" Kerouac.
I have a bit of an interest in odd diminutives due to a particular website I contribute to. One of the ones that looks silly now is Lol for Laurence / Lawrence / Lowen, as in the case of Lol Coxhill, Lol Tolhurst etc.
I have a bit of an interest in odd diminutives due to a particular website I contribute to. One of the ones that looks silly now is Lol for Laurence / Lawrence / Lowen, as in the case of Lol Coxhill, Lol Tolhurst etc.
- Fri Mar 09, 2018 11:03 am UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: Get Out
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2677
Re: Get Out
I was reminded of the bit Key & Peele did on Family Matters. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x34t5ik :lol: :lol: I liked Get Out, though not enough to want to see it again. The sudden switch from "haha what's going on" to "oh, so that's what's going on" was a bit sudden. I ...
- Wed Mar 07, 2018 12:33 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1958: "Self-Driving Issues"
- Replies: 116
- Views: 5742
Re: 1958: "Self-Driving Issues"
TL;DR - If you know a car is going to stop when you step into the street, why not simply step into the street whenever you like? You can already be reasonably sure (at least here) that most human drivers will try to stop for pedestrians, whether or not the pedestrians have legal right-of-way. Physi...
- Wed Mar 07, 2018 9:05 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Nine digit puzzle
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2710
Re: Nine digit puzzle
Almost too challenging for me but got it eventually. I used a bit of dumb trial and error. 381654729 I thought checking for divisibility by 7 would be the snag to rule out a lot of possibilities so I aimed to sort that out much earlier than the linked solution. I put the 5 in place and put 2,4,6,8 i...
- Tue Feb 27, 2018 2:45 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: What are 10 future out of the box technologies/inventions
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2128
Re: What are 10 future out of the box technologies/inventions
:D I used to play with 3D Movie Maker on Win95 so I guess I got a head start. Unfortunately I think I lost my creations. Exactly how it'd work, I'm not sure. The extreme method would be shows and films where under the hood, the actors simply make a variety of expressions, speak every phoneme instead...
- Tue Feb 27, 2018 2:12 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1960: "Code Golf"
- Replies: 25
- Views: 2862
Re: 1960: "Code Golf"
I wonder if Inverse Code Golf would work slightly better. Write a seemingly pointless program and see if anyone can come up with a problem that it solves.
- Mon Feb 19, 2018 3:48 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: What are 10 future out of the box technologies/inventions
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2128
Re: What are 10 future out of the box technologies/inventions
Surfaces that never get dirty or mouldy, perhaps by digesting the dirt somehow (the next step beyond self-healing paint). Seats and furniture that can shrink and expand to accommodate different-sized people or for storage/moving purposes. Swarms of microbots that can do things like shave your face/l...
- Sun Feb 11, 2018 11:56 pm UTC
- Forum: Religious Wars
- Topic: stop walking on the escalators
- Replies: 104
- Views: 28387
Re: stop walking on the escalators
A local rock band here made a song called Escalator about the very issue of people standing still: https://open.spotify.com/track/2D9ZdM1VmQ2t9FfxgeJiDp Escalator etiquette isn't great here in Auckland because of the lack of non-edible subways, but things could improve now that they're building a co...
- Sun Feb 11, 2018 11:42 pm UTC
- Forum: General
- Topic: Can Renesemee catch on?
- Replies: 43
- Views: 2449
Re: Can Renesemee catch on?
What's disturbing is not the name itself, but the fact that parents have managed to spell it so many different ways already (none of which match OP's spelling, funnily enough). My parents considered calling me Christopher, but settled on Paul, partly to save me time and effort. :lol: If I constantly...
- Mon Feb 05, 2018 6:49 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 1951: "Super Bowl Watch Party"
- Replies: 23
- Views: 3123
Re: 1951: "Super Bowl Watch Party"
If you screen it in black and white, it elicits rave reviews from Béla Tarr fans.
- Fri Feb 02, 2018 12:22 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Longest Chess Word
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2348
Re: Longest Chess Word
cabbageheaded (13) gets some usage.
Might be able to form a longer word in German. So far I've seen Gehegedach (10).
Might be able to form a longer word in German. So far I've seen Gehegedach (10).
- Thu Jan 25, 2018 1:30 am UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: The worst film you've seen
- Replies: 706
- Views: 228661
Re: The worst film you've seen
Haha, I love Kill Bill. It makes sense within its own universe where things are exaggerated (especially the sound effects). I'll agree that most of the cruel characters aren't particularly likeable, and so Vol. 2 isn't as great because of all the talking. But O-Ren Ishii and Gogo Yubari in Vol. 1 ar...
- Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:39 am UTC
- Forum: Mathematics
- Topic: PI - Invention or Discovery
- Replies: 88
- Views: 4659
Re: PI - Invention or Discovery
I propose a third option, neither. Discovery and invention simply split unimportant hairs for semantic and legal purposes. Chimpanzees have been shown to take blades of grass, push them into ant hills and pull out delicious ants. Did it discover or invent this? Doesn't matter, it is a product of th...
- Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:51 pm UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: Twin Peaks Returns : Damn Fine Coffee
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2311
Re: Twin Peaks Returns : Damn Fine Coffee
Continuing spoilers through Ep.8: So... the atomic bomb opened a rift to the Black Lodge (and myriad other dimensions), a spirit thing birthed a plethora of souls, Bob among them, and Mr. Homn and the Fat Lady sent Laura to Earth to save it? Seems about right (although I've seen some...
Re: 1980s PCs
It's BASICA, the version seen here: http://www.os2museum.com/wp/dos/dos-3-3/
1980s PCs
This is our first PC from 1986 when I was 2. Not sure if I should be surprised that its name doesn't return any Google results, but it's a Super Star XT-6 made in Taiwan - an IBM XT clone which no doubt infringed on a patent or two. In a big up yours to third millennium electronics, both it and the ...
- Tue Dec 19, 2017 4:16 pm UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: The worst film you've seen
- Replies: 706
- Views: 228661
Re: The worst film you've seen
It's funny that Shyamalan's other work gets a lot of mentions, because my most hated is The Sixth Sense. Maybe I could've appreciated it a bit as an adult instead of seeing it at about age 16, but it's too late. Seeing it a 2nd time is categorically ineffective, which makes it the antithesis to one'...
- Sun Dec 10, 2017 1:36 am UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: Things you remember watching but can't remember the name of
- Replies: 747
- Views: 236346
Re: Things you remember watching but can't remember the name of
I don't even remember whether this fellow was the main character. I remember him as dark haired but balding and tall, someone deep but nasal voice). I only saw the last part of the film. Dark-haired but balding could be Billy Crystal in Mr. Saturday Night (1992). I haven't seen it though so I don't...
- Wed Dec 06, 2017 1:27 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Escape the Frictionless Circle
- Replies: 156
- Views: 41002
Re: Escape the Frictionless Circle
Im not drawing any momentum from the rope. The momentum of the system is 0, I am not changing that. The energy is being extracted from food. Kick yourself away from the block. You and the block will both move, and then recoil back to each other. When you are at v=0, kick it again. You and the block...
- Mon Dec 04, 2017 9:28 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Escape the Frictionless Circle
- Replies: 156
- Views: 41002
Re: Escape the Frictionless Circle
BlackSails wrote:The rope is massless, but it isnt unstretchable.
Well, the puzzle doesn't mention that it's unstretchable. It also doesn't mention that the rope isn't some sort of wormhole or portal you can just reach into and draw some momentum from.
- Thu Nov 30, 2017 8:43 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Sexual Harrassment Epidemic
- Replies: 538
- Views: 23377
Re: Sexual Harrassment Epidemic
I was thinking about the Hollywood connection, as it seems to me that Hollywood itself has a responsibility for a lot of the problematic social attitudes. I'm thinking in particular of the movie trope (roughly this TVTropes trope ) where the guy suddenly, without warning, grabs and kisses the girl....
- Wed Nov 29, 2017 5:53 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Sexual Harrassment Epidemic
- Replies: 538
- Views: 23377
Re: Sexual Harrassment Epidemic
CorruptUser wrote:The people that go into politics are the popular, outgoing kids in high school that rarely got rejected for dates
True for the good-looking ones. But some only have the outgoing attribute and had to get into the position of power first to get anywhere.
- Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:58 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Escape the Frictionless Circle
- Replies: 156
- Views: 41002
Re: Escape the Frictionless Circle
I liked this post: @jasondrake: That approach is so much easier: Go to one side of the block. You are probably warmer than the block. You emit radiation roughly isotropically, but the block will absorb some part and emit it isotropically again. In total, you get a bit of net thrust, and you move ...
- Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:06 pm UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: A Fun Math "Puzzle" [Solution]
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1161
Re: A Fun Math "Puzzle" [Solution]
This particular one has been showing up on Facebook a lot in the last few months. Rather than testing maths, it mainly just tests whether people look closely enough at such an irritating post to notice that the symbols in the last line have been altered. I certainly didn't, and it just made it all t...
- Tue Nov 28, 2017 1:53 am UTC
- Forum: Movies and TV Shows
- Topic: Twin Peaks Returns : Damn Fine Coffee
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2311
Re: Twin Peaks Returns : Damn Fine Coffee
I enjoyed S3, but not enough to be jumping to watch it again any time soon. I suppose it was to be expected, but my main gripe is that they just kept piling on the paranormal stuff. In the original series you mainly just had Bob & Mike, the lodges/grove, dreams and visions, the communications re...
- Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:30 am UTC
- Forum: General
- Topic: Sleep-time holodeck experiences
- Replies: 3303
- Views: 618190
Re: Sleep-time holodeck experiences
I've neglected to post my most ridiculous dream from last year here. I dreamt it after I found out I was being made redundant from work, and immediately after a dream about a family member being diagnosed with cancer (albeit curable). It may even be my most epic ever: There was a touristy bar with i...
- Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:12 am UTC
- Forum: Religious Wars
- Topic: Bill Gates regrets
- Replies: 6
- Views: 5003
Re: Bill Gates regrets
If the so-called firmware interrupt was just a reboot, it's hardly missed. Had it taken you into a menu, it might be a different story.
Also, this way we can blame Gates for 'Loss'.
Also, this way we can blame Gates for 'Loss'.
- Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:56 pm UTC
- Forum: General
- Topic: Screw the Nobel Peace Prize--witness Baking Soda!
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1574
Re: Screw the Nobel Peace Prize--witness Baking Soda!
At first I thought the corporation you were trying to defeat was a startup company founded by your underarm bacteria.
- Fri Sep 08, 2017 6:21 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: 538 hats riddle
- Replies: 20
- Views: 3142
Re: 538 hats riddle
SirGabriel's answer assumes that you see who is wearing each hat. No communication rules out the possibility of seeing their faces. However, the puzzle neglects to mention anything that would prevent you from identifying the chosen 3 by height. Or alternatively by their position in the studio relat...
- Fri Sep 08, 2017 1:32 am UTC
- Forum: Logic Puzzles
- Topic: Illustrated Math Function
- Replies: 8
- Views: 5557
Re: Illustrated Math Function
Answer enclosed here for the record: The images were obtained using the polygamma function: y = ψ (x) (1), for x = -1 to 2. The two primates are frowning (negative), giving -2*Apéry's constant. The first missing image could be quite gross considering a log of the number 2...
- Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:25 am UTC
- Forum: Language/Linguistics
- Topic: Use of mythological referents
- Replies: 28
- Views: 3341
Re: Use of mythological referents
Yeah, I thought about "insurmountable" and "arduous" and "hopeless" but it just ain't quite the same meaning. FYI, here's the sentence where I wanted to use it (discussing the practicality of a Maxwell's Demon for sorting particles): The Demon would find that, after a ...