Forum: Questions and Answers

Dear telemarker: Free the heel, free the mind? Yours in the pins, Muffin

As I was moving to the right while walking on the sidewalk, with another person, who was also moving to the right, headed my way, I began to wonder if Brits move to the left when they see someone headed toward them. I remember when I was a small...

Sarah posted a thread earlier (in chate) from another message board. In it, a young lady was complaining that her boss had taken her aside and told her that she smells foul. She admits that she has a "natural body smell", I imagine because she does...

I got this awesome watch last year for my birthday: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001PC1RS6/ref=asc_df_B001PC1RS6736763/?tag=yahoo-jewelry-20&creative=380333&creativeASIN=B001PC1RS6&linkCode=asn#moreAboutThisProduct But the strap immediately got a...

To preface this question, no I am not stealing anything :) I notice that about half the time I go to Walgreens, I either set off the alarms in the way in or out. What could I be carrying that would set off the alarms if I'm not stealing? Items...

Sorry for the crap title of the thread but I wanted to keep some truth in advertising. If anyone has a better suggestion I will edit that up so it's a bit snazzier. There was the smallest little bit of interest when I said I knew a fair bit...

...for my coursework which is due in tomorrow! :smack I have a variable scope problem which I'm not sure how to resolve. Okay I have code that looks like this (simplified, assume it's within a 'main' function, which is inside a class with the...

I've had them in the fridge for ages. They're now almost three months past their use-by date. They still seem mostly fine - the main body doesn't seem squishy or smell bad or mouldy. But they've sprouted, there's four inch white worm-things coming...

A few months ago, I got this mini-fridge for my 'away' office. It has a wee little freezer compartment. Last week I noticed water on the floor inside the fridge. Upon closer inspection, I notice ice built up on the bottom of the freezer...

Occasionally, if I am eating something particularly savory or acidic, the muscles in the back of my jaw will - well - sort of cringe. Kind of like a little spasm. Why does that happen?

My washing machine died about a month ago. In the interim, the hubby and I have been searching for a new one. We got one. It's a Sears/Kenmore "HE" model; I'm happy about the energy/water efficiency. But I have a good bit of laundry soap left over...

I'd done a thread like this back before this become Mellophant and I thought I'd start a new one for the Ask the Expert forum. I know I'm not the only trans* person on the board, though, so I figured I'd keep the focus on this one less on me and...

I'm not being sexist or mom hating. I'm being serious here. What is it about becoming a mother that suddenly pushes women into being passive aggressive? Is it some cultural thing wherein they feel powerless and this is the only way they can...

From the edge of my backyard, the ground slopes down into a railroad right-of-way, and some previous inhabitants of my house (built 1938) used that slope as their private garbage dump. Now I'm clearing brush from it and becoming closely acquainted...

I accept all responsibility for 'medical advice' given, yadda yadda. I'm on hydrocodone for post-surgical pain. It is, however, giving me violent nausea. If I eat anything, it comes back up. I have been on a babyfood diet since the surgery...

Reason I ask, I'm buying a house. Getting the money was the easy part. I just called the bank, they faxed over some papers, I filled em out and returned, couple hours later they call back to say I'm approved. I am a veteran, and will be using a...

I am at a complete loss here. I never really think of China as still being made up of separate cultures, much less cultures willing to murder each other. Anyone have a handle on what's going on and why it's happening now?

Tried to put this in the Ask the Expert forum, but was blocked. I have lived and breathed cars for most of my 40-plus years, and for the last eight have been paid to write and talk about them. I am an industry pundit, and new-car expert. I...

I know very little about how this works, so bear with me here. This is going to be hyper over simplified, but... The Fed lends money to certain banks that, in turn, lend money to other banks and people and businesses...and whomever needs ...

I just switched from taking a daily packet of vitamins sold under the Nature Made banner (sold at Walgreens) to the Vitamin Shoppe's house-brand Ultimate Male Vitamins. Two interesting notes: I actually feel better taking the new vitamins. Not...

Don't know if anyone cares, but I am driving the Leaf this week, and recently spent some time with the Volt. Happy to answer any questions about either.

Has anyone successfully learned Russian as a second language? I am attempting to do so using the Rosetta Stone software, and whilst I am making decent progress it's not proving much use for me at work. I have gotten all the Cyrillic characters...

So artifex went this morning to get a MMR booster for nursing school, and on the questionnaire, they asked not only her ethnicity, but her religion. Ethnicity I can at least vaguely understand; certain groups are more prone to certain diseases than...

It's played by holding it up to the mouth and blowing into a mouthpiece, and it features what looked like about an octave's worth of piano-style black and white keys. What was this thing?

So by what criteria were the G20 countries selected, and who determined the criteria? I mean, some of the countries, such as the USA and China, are pretty much no-brainers (insert punch line here), but when you get down into the 12-20 range they've...

First, let me pre-emptively say that I will take anything said here as being for informational purposes only, and that I will consult an attorney or other legal expert before making any decisions, yada yada yada. Having said that, I welcome input...

At any temperature, a carbonated beverage gives the inside of your mouth a tingly feeling. It can range from refreshing and pleasant, all the way to unpleasantly intense or even painful. What exactly is causing that?

Anyone have any questions for a random polytheist?* I can't claim to explain things about paganism in general (if such a thing even exists), but I'll do my best to field questions about my beliefs and how I arrived at them. I thought I'd throw...

My Mac iBook G4 is seriously on its last legs. It makes tragic chunka-chunka noises and the battery is dead. This is unsurprising, since it's 6 years old. It's probably not fiscally responsible of me to get another Mac, even though I much prefer...

A question came up elsewhere about which astronomer first applied the term Earth to the planet, as distinct from the material world. Etymology Online gives a rough date, but no details, which makes me a bit suspicious. earth Look up earth at...

Or to quote a recent question that came up in chat: "How many mhos in urine?" Obviously there's quite a lot, given the number of stories of what happens to unsuspecting people when they whizz on electrified fences. I'm just wondering what...

Since normally, vitamin D is supposed to be generated by solar exposure on the skin, I wonder if the local tanning salon could be used to make up the exposure that those of us here in Rochester don't really get? I'd be really reluctant to use...

Because I never upgraded to Vista, I'm going to have to do a clean install on my computer. This means that I'm worried that some of the passwords I've given to Firefox to remember for me may be lost. And I'll never get them back. So I want to...

Does anyone have any experience with a universal remote that can replace an HD cable box' remote, as well as the TV's remote, especially with programmable macros (or even automatic ones) that turn on and off the cable box and the TV at the same...

Basically, the first miracle performed by Christ in any of the gospels is when he turns the water into wine at a wedding celebration. (At the intercession of his mother, actually.) In my Catholic tradition understanding this event highlights a...

I am perplexed by our hot water system. When we moved to our current house a few years ago it had a gas heater, which, for various reasons, we soon changed to an electric one. The guy who installed the first tank managed to damage it, so it...

Anyone here have the ability to help building a web page? I have a website and a discussion forum, and I want to start a new one. I am no computer guy, and I had a lot of help when they were done 5 years ago, but those folks are unavailable to me...

I have a single betta fish who was living in a small 2 gallon tank with a light. Something went wrong with the hood so I decided to replace the whole tank and bought a 1.5 gal. cube with a Whisper filter and light. Got it all set up and the fish...

This afternoon, I went out to check on the mail. I have not opened the mailbox since Saturday, since yesterdy was a holiday, but I most assuredly DID open it Saturday afternoon. It is a typical metal mail box on a wooden post just off my front...

I posted this at the other boards but not getting a lot of response. One of my best friends has gotten involved with a group called the 'Michael Students'. It all sounds very cult-ish to me, and I have definietly noticed HUGE changes in her...

Or, more precisely, the computer shrunk itself sometime overnight. I have a HP Laptop someone gave me, no instruction manual with it. When I shut down last night before bed, everything was just fine. This morning, I booted it up and EVERYTHING on...

I am sollicitous about that pretty thing call'd copyright. I have a book The World's Great Letters, published in 1940 (in the US by Simon & Schuster) which includes the brief letter of Voltaire to Boswell in which he responds to a question on the...

Yesterday at the self-service car wash I heard someone shout "Excuse Me!" and when I looked over, she was waving some sort of sign from her car. She turned it over and I only saw one side of it. All it said was "Thanks," with a smiley face. Then...

The other night I heard what must be the most depressing song about masturbation ever, The Carpenters' "Solitaire", while looking for cheap sunglasses in Rite-Aid. Which got me to wondering why grocery stores play sad songs. Is it just me? Are...

Somewhere yesterday I read about people on the no-fly list who can still buy guns. One of these people even bought "100 pounds of high explosive." That got me thinking. Where does one buy high explosives? What sort of permits would a person in the...

I was in Denver a few months ago; modern, American city. The sign on the shopping cart said that i took the shopping cart out of the parking lot, the wheels would lock up. Sure as shooting when I pushed the cart into the area in front of the...

I am using a Mac at home, but a Windows machine at work. I sometimes type a few words at the office and bring them to the apartment on a flash drive. The Windows machine was set up to use a nice font called "Californian;" it looks good. So I...

I am reading a neato bookAnimals Make Us fully Human. The author attacks a lot of things 'we all know," and so the book is very informative. But at one point she claims that 40% or so of horses (presumably in the modern USA are disposed of as...

I have decided to open a green cemetery. I know it will be easy as I have no background in the cemetery business at all. The idea would be to find a nice field someplace in the countryside. Add a gravel road and a log cabin to serve as a chapel....

As a child my family vacationed in Maine. The tides there are legendary. It was explained to me that the ocean is so wide at that point that .... something something something. OK, so why are tide extreme in one place and not another?