The first part is probably true, the second part isn't, AFAIK: rats can't throw up. It is physically impossible for them. This is also why they have such a very good memory for what they can and can't eat, and only try a small amount the first time.
Ah, you're right- thanks for clearing that up.
If I could only give you a mod point... I guess I should have done a little research first before posting. But then again, what is a good/. discussion without a few unverified claims from an unqualified source;-) (after all, I'm a plant guy, not an animal expert).
Rats and mice don't eat cables...They chew the insulation off to make their nests...or if it happens to be in their way.
I wish I had a source for this... but I remember reading somewhere that rats are generalist foragers who will try nibbling on just about anything they come across to see if it's edible or not. When they come across a foreign substance (a seed, a fruit, a piece of garbage, a nice shiny cable), they'll try a few bites of it. if it makes them sick, they throw it up and remember not to eat it again- apparently they have very good memory.
This is what makes poisoning them so difficult, and why rat poisons are designed to have a delayed effect. Plastic, on the other hand, won't necessarily make a rat sick in small quantities (it isn't exactly digestible), and new plastic products often "outgas" just enough to produce odors which rats can pick up on. So, when a rat happens across a foreign object with a funky smell (your newly laid cable), it's inclined to take a few nibbles.
I personally know at least one person who cannot tell the difference between most red and green lights. The way that they differentiate between them is by their position... if the top one is lit, it's red. Those sideways-mounted lights that seem to be more common in places like Nebraska present a challenge.
It varies by state. In the US state live in, thankfully, no. They do not go on your license. In another nearby state however, they do.
I believe it has something to do with the fact that in our state, it's considered a civil infraction and not a criminal one, since it is contracted out to a company. In contrast, if an officer sees you run a light and issues a citation in person, it's considered a criminal offense.
I treat "verification questions" as another password. City of birth? gc5f*kmn. Mother's maiden name? r4#dcViop. And so on. Most institutions don't have a problem with it. And if they do, you can still just use a random word. "Okay, okay, my first pet's name was really Albuquerque."
I can only speak from personal experience, but it is a very bad idea to use more than one of the same make/model/batch of hard drives simultaneously because if one goes, the other seems likely to fail as well.
It's happened to me twice... install two identical drives purchased at the same time, a drive fails, and within a short timeframe the other one fails too. One pair was only a month old, and both failed within 48 hours of each other. I suspect that it has something to do with manufacturing tolerances and defects in a particular batch.
I think I remember seeing some sort of study that examined this and concluded that it was more than just coincidence, but, alas, I'm too lazy to look it up.
But it does add up. That's 99 cents per month, or $12 per year, which granted isn't much. But when you add an "FCC" fee, "communications" fee, "we got sued by somebody and are passing the legal expenses onto our customers" fee, and the "just for the heck of it because we can" fee every month, you can be looking at a pretty hefty bill.
That's funny about the Midwest, because here in the rural south I've noticed the opposite. Almost nobody uses Sprint, because once you get more than a few miles from the center of a major city, service is terrible at best. Not even the interstates and major highways have full coverage. The only reason we have Sprint is because we have a family plan, and part of the family spends most of their time in large Midwestern cities (where apparently it works great. But don't all carriers have their best coverage in metro centers?). Sucks for the rest of us, though. But since our contract ended several months ago, we're planning to switch soon (not sure to who).
I think that the bill is your notice. By paying it, you are agreeing to the fee increase.
But the sneaky behavior I've observed my CC company doing lately is this: when they change their terms, they notify you by burying the notice in a colorful envelope which looks like any other piece of junk mail. Inside the envelope are several glossy fliers and advertisements, and oh, by the way, the updated terms for your existing service are enclosed on a single pamphlet which looks at first glance like it could be for one of the services being advertised. But, if you read carefully, you'll see that it's your official notice of the new terms. They're hoping that you'll throw it out without noticing the changes.
TFA says that it provides light for up to 90 minutes. But it uses a capacitor to store charge, so I imagine it could discharge very rapidly under the wrong conditions.
A Circuit Court judge in Queen Anne's County ordered the company to hand over the information. The company appealed, setting up yesterday's argument in Annapolis.
A lower court actually ruled against the defendant. The decision was appealed on first amendment grounds.
Possibly because evolution requires a molecule that is not too stable.
I'm just speculating here... the basis of evolution is random changes in DNA which result in a phenotype which may confer an advantage to one individual over another. If you have an absolutely error-proof system of DNA replication, you effectively limit evolution. But you don't want too many changes at one time, which would actually be detrimental. The ideal balance is somewhere in between... and it may be that a DNA double-helix with a sugar backbone is the ideal molecule for allowing just the right frequency of random changes for evolution to progress.
To the networks, the news isn't about the news, it's about presenting content that gets a viewer's attention and keeps them there through the commercial break. Therefore stories that don't appeal to the largest possible audience are dropped while sensationalism and gimmicks such as "teasers" become the norm.
I assume you are referring to the morning/evening half hour news programs produced by local TV station affiliates all over the US. Usually they are intended to be locally oriented, in that they are most concerned with reporting on happenings within their particular broadcast area. With few exceptions, items of national or international interest are rebroadcast from other sources such as AP. It's not that these programs are censored, it's just that their focus is not primarily on international events- I've always suspected that this was to keep them from competing with the "nightly news" programs produced by the likes of ABC, NBC, etc.
Now, as for network news shows (think "NBC Nightly News"), I've always been of the opinion that they are too short to report anything more helpful than a brief synopsis of the day's events. This is where I can agree with you that the news definitely feels "censored", where the only stories being run are those which generate the most interest/attract the most viewers... and where even the most important stories are reduced to little more than sound bites and flashy clips that appeal to our collective 15-second attention span.
As for cable news networks, since they have all the airtime they want they should be able to cover more news, right? Nope, wrong. Spend an hour watching the half dozen or so news networks that you get on basic cable, and you begin to notice that they all follow the same format: anchor introduces a news item, we (maybe) get a few video clips and some background information, anchor introduces partisan "expert" guests who take turns arguing about the topic from either a far left or far right viewpoint, anchor cuts them off and gives their own opinion. Commercial break, repeat.
It's a terrible way to report objectively on current events, made even worse by the fact that only the hottest topics are beaten to death ad nauseum while other issues are given virtually no airtime whatsoever.
I'm not sure if it's really limited to the US. After all, when I've traveled in the UK it seemed as if half of the news was of the "entertainment" type: what's happening to some famous star, which actress is getting married, which one is getting a divorce, and so on. In Canada there seems to have been alot of US news lately, to the point that this summer I had more than one Canadian tell me "I'll be glad when your election is over so that we can get on with our own lives." My observation was that by June they were even more sick of hearing about our election than we were.
The article hints at the possibility of bringing back other species, but doesn't elaborate. We have museum specimens of other extinct species such as the passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, and ivory-billed woodpecker, and those are certainly much more recent (all 3 species went extinct within the last century). Doesn't this open up the possibility of bringing back a few of these species, too?
At least over the last two weeks I've noticed a sudden increase in people who either out sick, or are running around the office with suspicious coughs, sniffles, etc. Of course, bring up the possibility of the flu and you are met with adamant denial- "it must just be allergies," "nah, it's way too early for flu season".
So, it was no big surprise to see that the graphs for several midsouth states (Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana) have jumped recently, while other parts of the country (and the US overall) remain fairly level.
Everyone knows Stevens is going to prison. His reelection just serves as a placeholder for the person who's actually going to take the Senate seat in his stead.
...until he gets a full pardon from Bush just before he leaves office. Mark my words, it'll happen...
As if things weren't dificult enough to your average Joe Internet User. Most people have a hard enough time understanding that not all websites end in.com as it is.
Slashdot Mirror
The first part is probably true, the second part isn't, AFAIK: rats can't throw up. It is physically impossible for them. This is also why they have such a very good memory for what they can and can't eat, and only try a small amount the first time.
Ah, you're right- thanks for clearing that up. If I could only give you a mod point... I guess I should have done a little research first before posting. But then again, what is a good /. discussion without a few unverified claims from an unqualified source ;-) (after all, I'm a plant guy, not an animal expert).
Rats and mice don't eat cables...They chew the insulation off to make their nests...or if it happens to be in their way.
I wish I had a source for this... but I remember reading somewhere that rats are generalist foragers who will try nibbling on just about anything they come across to see if it's edible or not. When they come across a foreign substance (a seed, a fruit, a piece of garbage, a nice shiny cable), they'll try a few bites of it. if it makes them sick, they throw it up and remember not to eat it again- apparently they have very good memory.
This is what makes poisoning them so difficult, and why rat poisons are designed to have a delayed effect. Plastic, on the other hand, won't necessarily make a rat sick in small quantities (it isn't exactly digestible), and new plastic products often "outgas" just enough to produce odors which rats can pick up on. So, when a rat happens across a foreign object with a funky smell (your newly laid cable), it's inclined to take a few nibbles.
The what would colorblind people do?
I personally know at least one person who cannot tell the difference between most red and green lights. The way that they differentiate between them is by their position... if the top one is lit, it's red. Those sideways-mounted lights that seem to be more common in places like Nebraska present a challenge.
It varies by state. In the US state live in, thankfully, no. They do not go on your license. In another nearby state however, they do.
I believe it has something to do with the fact that in our state, it's considered a civil infraction and not a criminal one, since it is contracted out to a company. In contrast, if an officer sees you run a light and issues a citation in person, it's considered a criminal offense.
Indeed. I have a nagging suspicion that this whole topic was posted exclusively for the anti-Microsoft jokes.
I treat "verification questions" as another password. City of birth? gc5f*kmn. Mother's maiden name? r4#dcViop. And so on. Most institutions don't have a problem with it. And if they do, you can still just use a random word. "Okay, okay, my first pet's name was really Albuquerque."
I can only speak from personal experience, but it is a very bad idea to use more than one of the same make/model/batch of hard drives simultaneously because if one goes, the other seems likely to fail as well.
It's happened to me twice... install two identical drives purchased at the same time, a drive fails, and within a short timeframe the other one fails too. One pair was only a month old, and both failed within 48 hours of each other. I suspect that it has something to do with manufacturing tolerances and defects in a particular batch.
I think I remember seeing some sort of study that examined this and concluded that it was more than just coincidence, but, alas, I'm too lazy to look it up.
...still use their encyclopedia on my laptop as a mobile solution.
There are ways to browse wikipedia offline, too.
/. post and thought I'd share)
(disclaimer: I haven't tried this. I just heard about it the other day in another
They must be using Verizon Math.
But it does add up. That's 99 cents per month, or $12 per year, which granted isn't much. But when you add an "FCC" fee, "communications" fee, "we got sued by somebody and are passing the legal expenses onto our customers" fee, and the "just for the heck of it because we can" fee every month, you can be looking at a pretty hefty bill.
That's funny about the Midwest, because here in the rural south I've noticed the opposite. Almost nobody uses Sprint, because once you get more than a few miles from the center of a major city, service is terrible at best. Not even the interstates and major highways have full coverage. The only reason we have Sprint is because we have a family plan, and part of the family spends most of their time in large Midwestern cities (where apparently it works great. But don't all carriers have their best coverage in metro centers?). Sucks for the rest of us, though. But since our contract ended several months ago, we're planning to switch soon (not sure to who).
I think that the bill is your notice. By paying it, you are agreeing to the fee increase.
But the sneaky behavior I've observed my CC company doing lately is this: when they change their terms, they notify you by burying the notice in a colorful envelope which looks like any other piece of junk mail. Inside the envelope are several glossy fliers and advertisements, and oh, by the way, the updated terms for your existing service are enclosed on a single pamphlet which looks at first glance like it could be for one of the services being advertised. But, if you read carefully, you'll see that it's your official notice of the new terms. They're hoping that you'll throw it out without noticing the changes.
But if Microsoft had published this kind of data on users downloading habits, this would have been published under YRO.
Well, yeah, after all in that case publishing it under "Linux" wouldn't make much sense. ;-)
The rest of us have cable and satellite TV.
...or no TV at all ;)
how quickly does it self-discharge?
TFA says that it provides light for up to 90 minutes. But it uses a capacitor to store charge, so I imagine it could discharge very rapidly under the wrong conditions.
:-|
Nice going. Now they know exactly who you are and how to find you. Should have used this one instead: :-P
[citation needed]
Here, I'll help you find one. From TFA:
A Circuit Court judge in Queen Anne's County ordered the company to hand over the information. The company appealed, setting up yesterday's argument in Annapolis.
A lower court actually ruled against the defendant. The decision was appealed on first amendment grounds.
Possibly because evolution requires a molecule that is not too stable.
I'm just speculating here... the basis of evolution is random changes in DNA which result in a phenotype which may confer an advantage to one individual over another. If you have an absolutely error-proof system of DNA replication, you effectively limit evolution. But you don't want too many changes at one time, which would actually be detrimental. The ideal balance is somewhere in between... and it may be that a DNA double-helix with a sugar backbone is the ideal molecule for allowing just the right frequency of random changes for evolution to progress.
To the networks, the news isn't about the news, it's about presenting content that gets a viewer's attention and keeps them there through the commercial break. Therefore stories that don't appeal to the largest possible audience are dropped while sensationalism and gimmicks such as "teasers" become the norm.
I assume you are referring to the morning/evening half hour news programs produced by local TV station affiliates all over the US. Usually they are intended to be locally oriented, in that they are most concerned with reporting on happenings within their particular broadcast area. With few exceptions, items of national or international interest are rebroadcast from other sources such as AP. It's not that these programs are censored, it's just that their focus is not primarily on international events- I've always suspected that this was to keep them from competing with the "nightly news" programs produced by the likes of ABC, NBC, etc.
Now, as for network news shows (think "NBC Nightly News"), I've always been of the opinion that they are too short to report anything more helpful than a brief synopsis of the day's events. This is where I can agree with you that the news definitely feels "censored", where the only stories being run are those which generate the most interest/attract the most viewers... and where even the most important stories are reduced to little more than sound bites and flashy clips that appeal to our collective 15-second attention span.
As for cable news networks, since they have all the airtime they want they should be able to cover more news, right? Nope, wrong. Spend an hour watching the half dozen or so news networks that you get on basic cable, and you begin to notice that they all follow the same format: anchor introduces a news item, we (maybe) get a few video clips and some background information, anchor introduces partisan "expert" guests who take turns arguing about the topic from either a far left or far right viewpoint, anchor cuts them off and gives their own opinion. Commercial break, repeat.
It's a terrible way to report objectively on current events, made even worse by the fact that only the hottest topics are beaten to death ad nauseum while other issues are given virtually no airtime whatsoever.
I'm not sure if it's really limited to the US. After all, when I've traveled in the UK it seemed as if half of the news was of the "entertainment" type: what's happening to some famous star, which actress is getting married, which one is getting a divorce, and so on. In Canada there seems to have been alot of US news lately, to the point that this summer I had more than one Canadian tell me "I'll be glad when your election is over so that we can get on with our own lives." My observation was that by June they were even more sick of hearing about our election than we were.
The article hints at the possibility of bringing back other species, but doesn't elaborate. We have museum specimens of other extinct species such as the passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, and ivory-billed woodpecker, and those are certainly much more recent (all 3 species went extinct within the last century). Doesn't this open up the possibility of bringing back a few of these species, too?
At least over the last two weeks I've noticed a sudden increase in people who either out sick, or are running around the office with suspicious coughs, sniffles, etc. Of course, bring up the possibility of the flu and you are met with adamant denial- "it must just be allergies," "nah, it's way too early for flu season".
So, it was no big surprise to see that the graphs for several midsouth states (Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana) have jumped recently, while other parts of the country (and the US overall) remain fairly level.
I confirmed this when I brought one of the signs home and, er, um, NOTHING TO SEE HERE- MOVE ALONG.
Everyone knows Stevens is going to prison. His reelection just serves as a placeholder for the person who's actually going to take the Senate seat in his stead.
...until he gets a full pardon from Bush just before he leaves office. Mark my words, it'll happen...
Even then, assigning a male avatar is probably still a safe bet.
As if things weren't dificult enough to your average Joe Internet User. Most people have a hard enough time understanding that not all websites end in .com as it is.
So, by Verizon Math, $.03 is equal to $3 dollars, right?