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The anecdote at the bottom of the link is pretty freaky. I would not enjoy a similar experience, despite the rather illuminating information that it provides...

The anecdote at the bottom of the link is pretty freaky. I would not enjoy a similar experience, despite the rather illuminating information that it provides...

It's "hear, hear". You sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong.

1. Cecil Adams doesn't lie
2. You can look it up
3. Here's a summary

Maybe we should just move to the confusing world of bra sizes. Could lead to some really awful pickup lines for geeks... "I'm very familiar with DD"

Check out what Cecil has to say.

I'm not going to answer your last question, H., because ultrasonic mosquito repellers all have one thing in common: none of them work. At all.
[snip]
Some ultrasound firms say their products will also repel mice, rats, roaches, bats, fleas, spiders, and the like. The evidence to date suggests these claims are greatly exaggerated. At best they work only when used in conjunction with a concerted anti-pest program involving traps, improved sanitation, elimination of entry points and nesting places, and so on. So don't throw away that flyswatter yet.

The Straight Dope has the full scoop on ultrasonic insect repellents. In short, they're a scam.

.. but they don't work. Back to DEET for me.

Patents are as American as Apple Pie and Baseball as far as I'm concerned.

Actually, patents are as British as spotted dick and cricket. ;)

I'm an American too, but you have to lay credit (or blame) where it is due.

I remember hearing (on 60 Minutes IIRC) that a Pennsylvania judge is questioning fingerprint analysis as legit evidence. I bet Daubert is responsible for that contraversy as well. Wonder how that turned out.

- Americans are the fattest people in the world (on average).
- People who are fat tend to have a smaller penis.
- A small penis usually results in low self-esteem.
- Low self-esteem can be repaired by buying big SUVs, guns or fast computers OR by winning contests. An example of a contest is a sports event, a space race or even a war. Winning a war is probably the strongest boost by virtue of smacking down millions of people at once.

It turns out that one of the greatest warmongers of all time, Napoleon Bonaparte, had a very small penis. Measuring only 4.1 cm (1.6"), it's hardly surprising that the penis caused great malcontent among Napoleon's wives who sooner or later decided to break their vow. This certainly explains why Napoleon decided to spend most of his time away from home, far away from his unfaithful wives, in the presence of men begging for his mercy.

Another example is Hitler who is suspected of having a deformed penis. There are also reports that he had only one testicle. The low self-esteem that resulted from these defects might have resulted in Hitler's plan to conquer half the world. Fortunately, Hitler's testy plans faced his soldiers with insurmountable odds. Coupled with the fact that Hitler didn't have the balls to invade England early in the war, we can conclude that Hitler was an absolute nutcase.

Of course, these facts do lead to some inescapable questions:
- Will Viagra reduce the number of wars fought?
- Should we exempt 'Penis enlargement'-spam from anti-spam laws?
- What is wrong with the genitalia of the man who fought two wars during his first term in office (and seems to be hard at work preparing for another war)?
- Do we need a new poll?:

What is the size of your penis?
o Fighting a war already.
o Just planning.
o Gun nut.
o SUV owner.
o My PC rulez.
o I'm not an American, you insensitive clod.

no, it's not:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_166.html

• potatoes
• pineapple
• pumpkins
• lima beans

You can also thank them for 'inventing' beef jerky. The word 'jerky' actually derives from Quechua 'dzherkhkie'. They would cut their game meat into slabs or sticks, and hang them on mountaintops until they freeze-dried. Useful preservation method, as any camper or hiker will attest.

It's the Aztecs who gave us chocolate (as well as vanilla.) And coffee was first grown in Ethiopia, for that matter...

As for the wheel, both the Incas and Aztecs had the wheel but both saw little use for it. The Incas' terrain was far too mountainous for wheels. And the Aztecs had no draft animals, so they never saw a wheel as useful. See Cecil Adams's column for the lowdown on the wheel...it's useful, but not all-important to ancient civilizations.

SSN didn't use to mean anything, and printed on the card was a reminder that it was not identification.

The Straight Dope on brain usage...

The Straight Dope

They've got a good search engine, and answers to all kinds of interesting questions. I've spent many an evening browsing through the archives...

If you say so. You can count on your hands the number of companies that purchase "please don't use my mark generically" advertisements. While you obviously disagree as to whether Xerox is the poster-child of "at risk" genericide cases, it is apparent by their own conduct that Xerox did not.

I won't take the time to quibble with you on what is obvious to almost every trademark professional: Xerox has always gone to extraordinary lengths, and had to, because they dominated a market by doing an excellent job of promoting their brand during their seminal patent tenure. Examples evidencing this are trivial to find with the simplest Google search.

It's because Islamic countries have become backwards and ignorant.

RE: your sig - To be fair, apart from Prescott Bush's pseudo-involvement in German industry, he was also the only member of Congress to stand up to Joe McCarthy's HUAC proposal. Not saying he was an angel but he doesn't sound like much of a Nazi sympathiser either.

I also couldn't find any...reputable...sources to back you up. No established newspapers, no college publications or anything close. Certainly not anything cited or researched.

I did, however, find articles that refute you, like this one. Unlike all the other things I read through, this one is well documented and cited.

What you're implying might be true, might not be, but it looks like, according to what information I can find, your story's better off labelled as Propoganda. You're welcome to try to prove me wrong.

Triv

Just read here

See this for a good explaination of the munchies. Turns out that "In 1992 researchers identified the first endocannabinoid" (they occur naturally in the human body).

Yet, the link between smoking plant parts and narcotics like opium is still strong in the public mind, making a political change difficult. Just the other day Bill O'Reilly made the same mistake - someone mentioned legalizing pot and the next thing you know he was blathering about shooting up. Misinformed mouthpieces like that just spout the same old tired party line on the subject w/o reguard to the facts.

For example, it could be simple to build a 'matrix' where the value of PI could be, say, 5

And call this Matrix "Indiana"?

linked

The relevant bits are in the first paragraph. Basically, if we make a black hole with the same mass as a small dog, then the Earth will not get sucked in by it, just as the Earth does not get sucked in by a small dog.

Now that I've written this, I'm not actually sure that it applies to your question, but I got to link to the Straight Dope, anyway.

from the what-exactly-are-kid-gloves dept.

Get the answer at Straight Dope

...and revising their pranks based on pop culture, because the 'universally recognized' smiley face wasn't actually invented until 1963.

Cecil has the right answer instead of this complete conjecture.

The "Third World" was originally used to describe commoners (1st and 2nd world being nobility and clergy).

But the "Third World" as in "Third World Country" was originally used to describe countries that were not capitalist or communist. (basicly countries that had not developed enough to get to that turning point). So certainly there were major issues with living conditions in many communist countries, and still are, the second world is not dead yet by far.

some info
and also some stuff on everything2

You have missed the boat. Take a look at this for an example of profanity in Shakespeare's writing. There is more where that came from although this web link doesn't reference it. Yes, intelligent people DO use profanity. While it's quite admirable that you choose not to, it still doesn't address the fact that some people deserve a good dressing down. For those that do, profanity is a quick and dirty way of getting the job done without sounding pedantic. Believe me, there are plenty of people who deserve worse but are completely incapable of properly responding to a well worded putdown sans profanity.

Regarding your list above, I would say that I fall into the number five category as I am a very generous person to those that need and WANT help regardless of race, religion, sexual preference or gender. But I have no patience for fools who simply want to annoy me. Those would be the people in groups one two and three above. I would say that it all comes down to respect. If someone doesn't respect me, then I will sever the relationship, but not without the sting of some choice profanity *if needed*. The only reason I post anonymously is that I could make it onto someone's friend's list who disagrees with my stance an I would rather not risk losing a friend simply because of an ideological rift. I firmly believe in what I say.

I don't know the name, but I did see it-- that guy does more than copy the official currency. (Note to non-USian readers: it is not illegal to duplicate US currency if you alter the size by a certain amount so as to make it unusable as money to anyone with two brain cells to rub together). Anyway, the artist who does that stuff also makes his own U.S. currency designs and tries to 'spend' them as well.

You might also remember the tale of Emperor Norton of San Francisco, which it would seem from this page was part of the same show. That guy made up his own currency, and freely spent it-- it was accepted by the shopkeepers as though it were the real thing. Apparently authentic Emperor Norton money that has survived to modern times is worth really big bucks these days to collectors.

~Philly

"...when a "Creation Scientist" maintains that it is "possible" the Earth is only thousands of years old..."

...Likewise, a "Creation Scientist" as you put it, is merely using scientific methods to preach his view on where everything comes from every bit as much as the "Evolution Scientist" is using those same methods. And since there is no way to test either hypothesis through the scientific method, it's all still just conjecture, scientifically speaking.

Are you trying to claim that the Earth may ACTUALLY be only 6,000 some odd years old, as many Creationists like to? And that there are no scientific methods to prove otherwise?

So, Captain Crainium, are you trying to tell me that Carbon Dating is just a buncha horse puckey? So where did you get your baccalaureate of the sciences? Wassamatta U?

I figure advertisers will try to embed thier messages in any way they can without causing enough of a backlash, legal or social, to still make a good profit.
We may very well see increased efforts at "target marketing, or profiling
We may also see attempts to incorporate subliminal messaging in the product placement, or product intrusion in our online experiences. Such messages could be placed to prove difficult to directly link to the advertising.
Since, as far as I can tell, subliminal messages are not in themselves illegal, this can be used in advertising. They were banned by the American networks and by the National Association of Broadcasters in June of 1958.
Finally, whether or not submlibinal messages work is still in controversy

Look's like they've been pilfering evil plans from my filing cabinet again!

"One MILLION dollars!"

I liked Cecil Adams' explanation of the matter.

Rouleaux triangle manhole covers would be more fun.

There's a dark side of the moon - and I'm not talking about the Pink floyd album here. The moon always shows us the same face, and from this you can infer that it makes one rotation around its axis in the same time it makes a rotation around Earth. A coincidence? Nope.

I'll admit I don't know much about this stuff, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was such a relation between the Earth and the Sun. It spring to my mind that maybe the lack of exactitude in the number is caused by our planet's skewed rotation axis. But I'm pulling that right out of my ass. Let's hope that someone more knowledgeable will enlighten us.

It's the default filler text used when someone needs a bit of text, for example for demonstrating a typeface or page layout. See this Straight Dope article for more info.

The Straight Dope on Hitler and gun control

You're forgetting another key advantage to the seller - rebates generate float. Put simply, they hold your money in interest-bearing investments until the point, 6-8 weeks after the purchase, at which you receive and cash the rebate check. This is why, unlike mail/internet orders that also say to allow 6-8 weeks for delivery yet typically are delivered within 10 days, rebate checks invariably take the full 6-8 week period to actually arrive in your mailbox. Also notice how the checks are always drawn on obscure banks in places like Lake Lillian, MN; this gives them an extra day or two of interest while the check waits to be cleared after you deposit it. The Straight Dope goes into this in more detail.

Philosophy students ridicule it too. That's where I heard it. In fact, I've since discovered that it is intentionally ridiculous. As such, it was unfair to call it a classic of metaphysics.

The phrase appears to originate in ridicule of St. Thomas Aquinas. To say that Aquinas was addressing matters of conciousness in general is generous. He wrote in particular about the nature of angels.

Phrase origin at:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_132.html

Thomas Aquinas on _Whether an Angel is Altogether Incorporeal_ at:
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/105001.htm

Perhaps I should have said: "The mockery of metaphysics 'How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?' is the canonical meaningless question." That is less kind to metaphysics than I meant to be, though. My intention was not to insult metaphysics, but to argue that religion does not illuminate science. By using that phrase, I inadvertently insulted those most likely to disagree with me.

I think it's much more approporiate to suggest something that informative and *safe*, like an educational site such as Britney Spears guide to Semiconductor Physics.

I think it's much more approporiate to suggest something that informative and *safe*, like an educational site such as Britney Spears guide to Semiconductor Physics.

I think it's much more approporiate to suggest something that informative and *safe*, like an educational site such as Britney Spears guide to Semiconductor Physics.

I think it's much more approporiate to suggest something that informative and *safe*, like an educational site such as Britney Spears guide to Semiconductor Physics.

True, but let's look at both sites:

E2: Ramen, Mountain Dew, and h4x0r.

Straight Dope: Ramen, Mountain Dew, and h4x0r.

It seems that while E2 gives the information, Straight Dope elaborates. Both are good for reading when work is supposed to be getting done, though.

True, but let's look at both sites:

E2: Ramen, Mountain Dew, and h4x0r.

Straight Dope: Ramen, Mountain Dew, and h4x0r.

It seems that while E2 gives the information, Straight Dope elaborates. Both are good for reading when work is supposed to be getting done, though.

True, but let's look at both sites:

E2: Ramen, Mountain Dew, and h4x0r.

Straight Dope: Ramen, Mountain Dew, and h4x0r.

It seems that while E2 gives the information, Straight Dope elaborates. Both are good for reading when work is supposed to be getting done, though.

Everybody keeps posting about howstuffworks.com, but they all seem to be missing one website that has a massive wealth of information, and discusses nearly everything encompassed by the phrase "useless knowledge":

The Straight Dope

A great site that explains all sorts of stuff that is helpful to kids of all ages, and even goes into some more advanced topics.

The Bush / Nazi connection is weak at best:
StraightDope.com

The Alabama story (ranked #8) was an hoax originated by Mark Boslough, but there was legislation introduced regarding pi in 1897 in the state of Indiana. It never passed. Sources: urban legends and the straight dope.

This is good stuff. Although the experiment used physical access to stress the memory, the theory could be used as an exploit in real situations in ways that the narrow of mind (like me) cannot conceive.

Perhaps this is not a method of practical attack on a machine. But it may be just a matter of creative thinking.

The key take away is to not disallow the possiblity.

Threats you discard as harmless is a logical place for an attacker to begin. Remeber the Maginot line.

About the space bit: not entirely true.