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Is there some kind of rock or metal that used to be thrown away before its utility was discovered, but is now worth more than gold?
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Feb 10, 2013 21:44
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In the UK, do people say "first floor" to describe the second story of a building?
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Feb 10, 2013 21:57
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Lance Streetman posted:In the UK, do people say "first floor" to describe the second story of a building? Yes. You have the ground floor, then the first floor is above that.
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Feb 10, 2013 21:59
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SynthesizerKaiser posted:Is there some kind of rock or metal that used to be thrown away before its utility was discovered, but is now worth more than gold? Is this a riddle?
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Feb 10, 2013 22:05
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In Spanish, is it obligatory to put the inverted question mark (¿) before every question? Can you get away with omitting it? Also, is there a Spanish language thread on the SA forums?
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Feb 10, 2013 22:16
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Sir John Falstaff posted:Does anyone have good suggestions for forcing yourself to maintain good posture while sitting at a computer all day? This wasn't a problem for me when I was younger, or when I could move around more during the day, but now I think it may be doing unpleasant things to my back. Do core exercises, especially the ones that target the large muscles in your back, both upper and lower. In the meantime, tilt your chair far enough forward so that there is no room to slouch comfortably (you want your shoulder blades to stay flat against your back. Rounding your upper back puts pressure on your lower back that can result in pain). It doesn't really take that much work to get your back strong enough to want to stay in the correct position all day. Taking ten minutes to do back exercises once or twice a week is enough.
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Feb 10, 2013 22:22
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Baron Bifford posted:In Spanish, is it obligatory to put the inverted question mark (¿) before every question? Can you get away with omitting it? http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3496976 Yeah, it's in Science, Academics and Languages.
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Feb 10, 2013 22:24
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Affi posted:I hosed up so loving much a couple of days ago. I had a couple of friends over in my brothers apartment while he was away and we got drunk and smoked indoors and it's so loving stupid of me I know but what can I do to get rid of the smell? I've aired it out and i've lit candles and stuff but it still smells a little little bit. I'm going to tell him and ask him to forgive me but I need to do something in the meantime. What can I do? First of all, calm down. Second, burn some food in the oven.
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Feb 10, 2013 22:34
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SynthesizerKaiser posted:Is there some kind of rock or metal that used to be thrown away before its utility was discovered, but is now worth more than gold?
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Feb 10, 2013 22:35
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Baron Bifford posted:Platinum is more valuable than gold, but was only discovered in the 18th century. Doesn't quite work, though, really--I don't think anyone was throwing it out, they just didn't know of it (and by "they," I mean "Western people"--it had been used in South America long before European countries discovered it). Sir John Falstaff fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Feb 11, 2013 |
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Feb 11, 2013 00:02
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Silicon?
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Feb 11, 2013 00:22
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SynthesizerKaiser posted:Is there some kind of rock or metal that used to be thrown away before its utility was discovered, but is now worth more than gold? Aluminium has a bit of the opposite going on if that counts for anything. ~150 years ago before a specific electrolysis method was worked out it was extremely hard to refine and more expensive than gold... And now it's a cheap everyday material. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#History
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Feb 11, 2013 00:26
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tarepanda posted:Silicon? It's not more valuable than gold, though, is it?
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Feb 11, 2013 00:26
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Sir John Falstaff posted:It's not more valuable than gold, though, is it? Depends on how you define valuable. Sure gold will cost you a lot of money; but silicon is the basis for the entire world economy and we'd all be hosed without it. And silicon wafers used to make computer chips can be worth far far more money than gold in the right conditions.
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Feb 11, 2013 00:41
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Vivoviparous posted:First of all, calm down. Am I stupid or will this work?
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Feb 11, 2013 00:51
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SynthesizerKaiser posted:Is there some kind of rock or metal that used to be thrown away before its utility was discovered, but is now worth more than gold? Hafnium is more valuable than gold ounce for ounce according to → http://www.businessinsider.com/9-substances-more-valuable-than-gold-2011-7?op=1 It comes from processing zirconium → http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium#Production Zircon has been known to humans as a pretty rock since the dawn of civilization, but wasn't all that valuable, relatively speaking, until humans figured out how to get hafnium out of it. → http://www.gemstoneeducation.com/Zircon.htm Also see → http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zircon It's still kind of a stretch since zircon only contains 1% to 4% hafnium.
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Feb 11, 2013 00:52
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A processed silicon wafer is worth about $275k/kg (assuming average 200mm wafer is 40g and worth about $11k, 300mm wafers would be similar) but no one was ever "throwing away" a 99.9999999% pure processed silicon wafer. Unprocessed/impure silicon is, well, sand and not worth much at all.
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Feb 11, 2013 00:55
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helopticor posted:The post was already made on Friday. That's why it's "Photoshop Phriday". The images came from the corresponding photoshop thread. Next time make sure that you participate in every photoshop thread by each Friday just in case, I guess. thanks!
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Feb 11, 2013 01:13
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Sir John Falstaff posted:Doesn't quite work, though, really--I don't think anyone was throwing it out, they just didn't know of it (and by "they," I mean "Western people"--it had been used in South America long before European countries discovered it). Spanish gold miners in the new world threw it out back in the 1600s. The name comes from Spanish - "plata" is silver, and "platina" is "little silver," because it wasn't real silver, you see. But, the ancient Egyptians used it as a decorative metal, and South American civilizations were using it before the Spanish wrecked the place. So, it's not really a nice poetic metaphor or whatever; it's just another example of conquistadores being stupid assholes.
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Feb 11, 2013 01:24
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SynthesizerKaiser posted:Is there some kind of rock or metal that used to be thrown away before its utility was discovered, but is now worth more than gold? There's some material that I absolutely can't remember that was a by-product of mining something else, or was found in the same ore deposits. Now it's used in electronic manufacturing or something like that. I remember reading about it, but damned if I can remember what it was.
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Feb 11, 2013 02:20
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Crankit posted:I live in the UK and some houses have a bathroom with a toilet but some have the toilet in a seperate room. Was there a period in time when this was a preferred layout? I thought it still was? I've only seen the toilet actually be in the bathroom in places that are too small to have the extra room. This is Australia though. The best layout I've seen is my parents' house, where the toilet, shower and bath are all in different rooms and there's also a sink in the laundry so you can still wash your hands when someone's using the bath. I haven't seen that anywhere else, but if I had full freedom to design a house the way I wanted, that's what I'd do. Lance Streetman posted:In the UK, do people say "first floor" to describe the second story of a building? No. In America people say "second floor" to describe the first storey of a building. 
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Feb 11, 2013 02:51
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In most of Europe, the "first floor" sits above the "ground floor".
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Feb 11, 2013 09:05
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In every Chinese takeway in my city, the chicken fried rice tastes and looks exactly the same. I know this sounds stupid, but I expected there to be at least a little variation between restaurants (different chefs, ingredients, recipes, etc). Are they using the same ingredient packs or something? They don't seem to be part of a chain; they look like mom-and-pop businesses.
Baron Bifford fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Feb 11, 2013 |
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Feb 11, 2013 09:29
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Baron Bifford posted:In every Chinese takeway in my city, the chicken fried rice tastes and looks exactly the same. I know this sounds stupid, but I expected there to be at least a little variation between restaurants (different chefs, ingredients, recipes, etc). Are they using the same ingredient packs or something? Are they chains? I've had it at a number of cities and it's differed a lot. Some have bean sprouts, some don't. Some seem to toss in generic frozen veggies (peas, carrots, corn??), some don't. Ditto for water chestnuts. Even the type/shape of chicken varies.
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Feb 11, 2013 10:19
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Generally, Chinese places get all of their stuff from a distributor that brings them most of what they need. This includes pre-packaged sauces, frozen general tso's chicken and whatnot. There are no "chefs." Just a bunch of underpaid cooks. edit: To tarepanda, all of those variations depend upon what the local distributor has. Some restaurants also may use another vendor for vegetables and a few other things. Barnum Brown Shoes fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Feb 11, 2013 |
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Feb 11, 2013 10:22
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Baron Bifford posted:In every Chinese takeway in my city, the chicken fried rice tastes and looks exactly the same. I know this sounds stupid, but I expected there to be at least a little variation between restaurants (different chefs, ingredients, recipes, etc). Are they using the same ingredient packs or something? Most of these joints in the US at least are effectively franchises of 'Chinese food.' Jack in the Box gets a few distributors bringing them ingredients for a burger just like Chinese places get a few distributors that end up supplying undifferentiated General Tso's. I don't know whether this system is Chinese-only, but I don't figure that most Italian restaurants would use the same suppliers. In Portland I've been to lots of Vietnamese (and Thai) restaurants that have different menus and different recipes, and I've been to lots of groceries there that seem to serve mostly Vietnamese (and Thai) families and restaurant owners. The difference in how restaurant supply chains work might have to do with the difference of whether you have immigrants from country X, or have an actual community of people from country X in your city. You know, like do you have a Chinese guy down the street, or do you have a Chinese neighborhood in the next part of town. Anybody know the name of that recent book which went into the details of Chinese food in America?
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Feb 11, 2013 11:33
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I believe it's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. I recall hearing about this book a couple years back and this is almost definitely it.
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Feb 11, 2013 13:59
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Ok, it looks like I simply must visit my local Chinatown. I have been living a lie since the day I was born.
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Feb 11, 2013 14:39
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Baron Bifford posted:Ok, it looks like I simply must visit my local Chinatown. I have been living a lie since the day I was born. I hope you like chicken foot fried rice and cow-head soup. My first visit to an actual Chinese restaurant was very different from what I was expecting (note: the cow-head soup is an exaggeration). For a question of my own, are there more people on the road these days who leave their hi-beams on all the time? It seems like I'm seeing a lot more really bright headlights these days, but I can think of a few explanations: (1) I'm getting old, and so equally bright lights wash out my vision and make it harder for me to see stuff next to them (does this happen?); (2) the bulbs are getting brighter, so modern low-beams are as bright as hi-beams used to be; (3) there actually are thousands of douchebags who just routinely drive around blinding every other driver on the road because they can't be bothered to flip a switch on their steering column.
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Feb 11, 2013 14:54
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Stupid question: I thought I knew how to download photos here but am having issues with that. Can someone give me a quick tip on how to do that?? I use Flickr as my source. Thanks in advance.
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Feb 11, 2013 15:51
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b0nes posted:Tell me why do women dress sexy to go out and drink at a friends house. Do they expect to meet guys? A friend of mine went to a party where they sat around and drank wine, all while wearing really short skirts and heels. The ratio of women to men was around 10 to 1. Maybe they just want to feel sexy?  Yes, women like to dress up for funsies. Believe it or not, it's not actually always for guys. "Looking sexy" is how we've been socialized to feel good about ourselves, in general. (No we do not want to have a derail on this, btw.)Mescal posted:What is the oldest religion currently practiced? Does the evolution of ideas make this impossible to answer? Hinduism like the other person said, but Zoroastrianism is pretty old too and you might enjoy learning about it because it's much less common. Lizzzk posted:Stupid question: I thought I knew how to download photos here but am having issues with that. Uh. Do you mean how to post photos? Take the image url and put it in tags that look like this [img]url[/img].
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Feb 11, 2013 15:57
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People often get upset when they here about old men marrying young women, like say a 62 year old marrying a 22 year old. Is this sort of revulsion universal in humans? Have there been any societies in history that forbade by law either marriage or sexual relations between adults with great disparity?
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Feb 11, 2013 16:20
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Uh. Do you mean how to post photos? Take the image url and put it in tags that look like this [img]url[/img]. In fact, just Ctrl-V to paste an image URL into a post and it gets those tags automatically. If it's saving pictures onto your computer you're having trouble with, usually right-clicking them and selecting "save image" is all you need to do. If the question is about image hosting, Imgur, TinyPic, xomf or Minus should do what you need.
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Feb 11, 2013 16:23
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Grundulum posted:For a question of my own, are there more people on the road these days who leave their hi-beams on all the time? Halogen headlights are being replaced by HID headlights, and today's halogens are also more efficient and produce more light and less heat than they used to. That might be a small part of it. What you are probably being bothered by is people running HID headlights without proper projectors. They just replace their halogen bulb with a HID one in the stock housing. Since it wasn't meant for that and they aren't properly focusing/projecting the beam, it just throws a bunch of light all over in front of them.
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Feb 11, 2013 16:24
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Tiggum posted:In fact, just Ctrl-V to paste an image URL into a post and it gets those tags automatically. THanks!
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Feb 11, 2013 16:26
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Baron Bifford posted:People often get upset when they here about old men marrying young women, like say a 62 year old marrying a 22 year old. Is this sort of revulsion universal in humans? Have there been any societies in history that forbade by law either marriage or sexual relations between adults with great disparity?
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Feb 11, 2013 17:17
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I manage my biotech company's twitter feed. We do jokes along with serious postings, but it's always that "Jeff Foxworthy Corporate Gig" level of sanitized jokes. Would you say the following tweet is "too racy"? quote:It's Burn Awareness Week! Watch out for hot water and other burn dangers, such as jokes at your mom's expense.
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Feb 11, 2013 17:28
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Tharizdun posted:Would you say the following tweet is "too racy"? I think you are requiring your readers to understand yo mamma jokes and the concept of getting "burned." Try something like: "It's Burn Awareness Week! Watch out for hot water and don't let your Valentine's Day get too hot."
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Feb 11, 2013 17:42
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Runcible Cat posted:Seems to be pretty universally regarded as a subject for mockery rather than legislation. Old men with young wives are often figures of fun in Renaissance and later fiction - Pantaloon is the pantomime version - with their wives' younger admirers and lovers just waiting for grandad to pop his clogs so they can marry the rich young widow.
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Feb 11, 2013 19:37
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Tiggum posted:The best layout I've seen is my parents' house, where the toilet, shower and bath are all in different rooms and there's also a sink in the laundry so you can still wash your hands when someone's using the bath. My peeing in the shower would increase like 1400% if I had to live in a place like that. Affi posted:I hosed up so loving much a couple of days ago. I had a couple of friends over in my brothers apartment while he was away and we got drunk and smoked indoors and it's so loving stupid of me I know but what can I do to get rid of the smell? I've aired it out and i've lit candles and stuff but it still smells a little little bit. I'm going to tell him and ask him to forgive me but I need to do something in the meantime. What can I do? It's in the carpets, furniture, dust, and on the walls. Vacuum everything, scrub everything, Febreeze everything, when your brother asks why it smells like a laundry soap factory tell him you burned a pizza (maybe you should intentionally burn a pizza).
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Feb 11, 2013 19:37
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