Is it time for Random Thoughts - Part 4?

In summary: No, I'm not going to finish that.Some guy tried to sell me eh.. recreational tools today while I was getting groceries.I guess setting up a trashy website was too costly for him, so he just sold them in the frozen foods section at walmart.
  • #1,296
Uhm,
Does anyone have riddles?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #1,297
Your dog is emotionally impaired if it urinates at the sound of a toilet flushing.
 
  • #1,298
Chronos said:
Your dog is emotionally impaired if it urinates at the sound of a toilet flushing.
My toilet flushes at the sound of a dog urinating. Explain that.
 
  • #1,300
zoobyshoe said:
My toilet flushes at the sound of a dog urinating. Explain that.

You installed a pisser for your toilet instead of a clapper for your lights?
Piss on, Piss off...
 
  • #1,301
I was at a cafe earlier and happened to sit near three cops. Outdoor sidewalk seating.

After I heard them talking for a while, I started to hear trends and dynamics that suggested that real cops don't shoot the breeze the way TV cops and cops in novels do. According to this conversation, cops are often very unclear about the proper procedure, protocol, policy. It was an hour and a half anecdote session about how they winged it under various conditions where they didn't feel their course of action was clear. Most interesting.

The other interesting thing is that they seemed completely disinterested in everyone driving or walking by. Like, when a motorcycle went by that was clearly illegally loud, they didn't even seem to notice it. When a gangsta-looking character walked by, again, no comment from them. On the other hand all eyes of the people going by were riveted on them.
 
  • #1,302
Chronos said:
Your dog is emotionally impaired if it urinates at the sound of a toilet flushing.

Who said urinates at the sound of a toilet flushing? My wife does that, especially when the weather is cold.:devil:

The dog hears the toilet flush and goes into the bathroom and drinks out of the toilet. The dog will not drink out of the toilet until after the flush.

It is driving my wife nuts and it is partly my fault. Dog likes to watch me shave, probably because we usually go out for our walk after I shave. One day the dog was sniffing around the potty and I didn't want the mutt to start drinking the water. I flushed the toilet to scare the dog away.

Instead of being scared away Daisy was fascinated by the swirling water. Then daisy dank potty water. Now Daisy will head to one of the bathrooms whenever she hears the flush.
 
  • #1,303
zoobyshoe said:
The other interesting thing is that they seemed completely disinterested in everyone driving or walking by.

When I was in high school, there was a course organized out of school hours by the local police for people who had recently passed their driving test. I don't remember learning much (though being a front seat passenger in a police car with police driving instructor demonstrating how to drive it sideways round corners was fun). But I do remember one of their pieces of advice: "If you want to drive like an idiot, the best time to do it when it's cold, and windy and the rain is bucketing down. Even if we see you, we aren't going to get out of our nice warm car to stop you trying to kill yourself."
 
  • #1,304
  • #1,305
This thread is 2 months old so I'm not bumping it to the top, but I guess we all now how dangerous books can be:

http://jennadoesbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/animated-stitch-book.gif

Given F = ma and that science books possesses quite the amount of mass. It will all depend on the acceleration you entitle your book with.
 
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  • #1,306
That's kind of a bad demonstrative model.
 
  • #1,307
Hi,
I saw a couple of people fighting on facebook, what should I do ?
 
  • #1,308
Medicol said:
Hi,
I saw a couple of people fighting on facebook, what should I do ?
Tell them to not fight in front of the internet kids. It's not healthy for them to watch such scenes. Whishper to them:

Guys, not in front of the kids.

I'm just kidding, I don't know. Anything but joining the fight.
 
  • #1,309
http://www.tickld.com/x/21-actual-analogies-used-by-high-school-students-in-english-essays-8-is-gold

Students are creative.
 
  • #1,310
AlephZero said:
But I do remember one of their pieces of advice: "If you want to drive like an idiot, the best time to do it when it's cold, and windy and the rain is bucketing down. Even if we see you, we aren't going to get out of our nice warm car to stop you trying to kill yourself."
That's the impression I got. Someone would have to do something quite extreme to get them to comment to one another about it while on break. The citizens, however, have the opposite idea. They think the cops are sitting there scrutinizing everyone in the vicinity, just waiting for the slightest infraction to jump upon.
 
  • #1,312
zoobyshoe said:
I was at a cafe earlier and happened to sit near three cops. Outdoor sidewalk seating.

After I heard them talking for a while, I started to hear trends and dynamics that suggested that real cops don't shoot the breeze the way TV cops and cops in novels do. According to this conversation, cops are often very unclear about the proper procedure, protocol, policy. It was an hour and a half anecdote session about how they winged it under various conditions where they didn't feel their course of action was clear. Most interesting.

The other interesting thing is that they seemed completely disinterested in everyone driving or walking by. Like, when a motorcycle went by that was clearly illegally loud, they didn't even seem to notice it. When a gangsta-looking character walked by, again, no comment from them. On the other hand all eyes of the people going by were riveted on them.

Did the cops go for the clichéd doughnuts and sugary pastry? I remember the joke about Beverly Hills cops snacking on tofu and drinking a glass of Merlot during their breaks.

The strangest situations with cops that I remember (no joke) is one where a cop driving by slowly just called the attention of this guy walking by, who was just minding his business, to ask him: what are you looking at? Why were you staring at me back there? I thought there may be some hidden cameras or something like that, but no, it was real. Someone told me they had been lowering the standards to become a cop --no kidding. I guess the new standards were something like: do you have a face? Good!, welcome to the force (the other force).
 
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  • #1,313
WWGD said:
Did the cops go for the clichéd doughnuts and sugary pastry? I remember the joke about Beverly Hills cops snacking on tofu and drinking a glass of Merlot during their breaks.
In my experience, cops like that don't exist in San Diego. The average cop looks much more health and fitness conscious than the old stereotyped cop. It's quite rare to see a gut on a cop here.
 
  • #1,314
zoobyshoe said:
In my experience, cops like that don't exist in San Diego. The average cop looks much more health and fitness conscious than the old stereotyped cop. It's quite rare to see a gut on a cop here.

I have the impression people who live in places with year-long good weather (or, more precisely, places with light winters) tend to be in better shape than those who are not; I know it is true for L.A, San Diego, Miami. Maybe it has to see both with the additional options for outdoors exercising and with the fact that one cannot hide one's bad shape when wearing lighter clothes; a bunch of sweaters and a winter jacket distort one's shape, but you can't hide rolls of fat when wearing a t-shirt (let alone at the beach). In Late winter there are actual Gym ads in here telling one to "get in shape for summer"; I guess that is what they are referring to.
 
  • #1,315
WWGD said:
I have the impression people who live in places with year-long good weather (or, more precisely, places with light winters) tend to be in better shape than those who are not; I know it is true for L.A, San Diego, Miami. Maybe it has to see both with the additional options for outdoors exercising and with the fact that one cannot hide one's bad shape when wearing lighter clothes; a bunch of sweaters and a winter jacket distort one's shape, but you can't hide rolls of fat when wearing a t-shirt (let alone at the beach). In Late winter there are actual Gym ads in here telling one to "get in shape for summer"; I guess that is what they are referring to.
There is certainly something to what you say. The actual beach communities here, places that are within walking distance of the ocean, seem to be peopled with the very fittest of human specimens. I think there's an unwritten law you aren't allowed to move there unless you meet certain hotness criteria. At any rate, the people who move there are more than likely planning on exposing their physiques at the beaches and feel they must have something to show.
 
  • #1,316
A city water supply pipe broke across the street from the Newtonian Cafe, and a huge geyser of water was spraying up and all over a street lamp. I was thinking that was an electrocution waiting to happen. But I didn't wait around.
 
  • #1,317
zoobyshoe said:
A city water supply pipe broke across the street from the Newtonian Cafe, and a huge geyser of water was spraying up and all over a street lamp. I was thinking that was an electrocution waiting to happen. But I didn't wait around.

And with the drought you're having down there, it must be heartbreaking to see all that nice, clean water just going down the gutter :frown:.
 
  • #1,318
lisab said:
And with the drought you're having down there, it must be heartbreaking to see all that nice, clean water just going down the gutter :frown:.
Yeah, everyone was commenting about that irony.
 
  • #1,320
I wonder if a water exchange/pipeline , like oil pipelines, moving water between parts of the country, is a feasible project. Tho the southwest would benefit much more than other regions. I mean there is at times,
flooding in one region and extreme droughts elsewhere.
 
  • #1,321
WWGD said:
I wonder if a water exchange/pipeline , like oil pipelines, moving water between parts of the country, is a feasible project. Tho the southwest would benefit much more than other regions. I mean there is at times,
flooding in one region and extreme droughts elsewhere.

It's been considered -- not so much for water, but for coffee. I encourage you to listen:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5293443

But check the date. It must not have penciled out :biggrin:.
 
  • #1,322
Do you ever wonder why we brush our teeth in the same room we defecate in? (I know this is not true for some countries)
 
  • #1,323
I saw somebody riding (?) a weird bike (?) today. Looked similar to a kid's scooter, scaled up to adult size. Or a bit like a human-powered Segway. Wheels about a foot in diameter, handlebars for steering, nothing to sit on. The "rider" was "standing" on the "pedals" which were actually large diameter cranks similar to a reclining bike(*), mounted almost above the rear wheel.

He seemed to be quite happy riding it at about 30 mph.

(*) "Reclining bike" = something like this:
IMG_8606.JPG
 
  • #1,324
AlephZero said:
I saw somebody riding (?) a weird bike (?) today. Looked similar to a kid's scooter, scaled up to adult size. Or a bit like a human-powered Segway. Wheels about a foot in diameter, handlebars for steering, nothing to sit on. The "rider" was "standing" on the "pedals" which were actually large diameter cranks similar to a reclining bike(*), mounted almost above the rear wheel.
This? http://www.blogcdn.com/green.autoblog.com/media/2009/04/legway_lead.jpg
 
  • #1,325
AlephZero said:
I saw somebody riding (?) a weird bike (?) today. Looked similar to a kid's scooter, scaled up to adult size. Or a bit like a human-powered Segway. Wheels about a foot in diameter, handlebars for steering, nothing to sit on. The "rider" was "standing" on the "pedals" which were actually large diameter cranks similar to a reclining bike(*), mounted almost above the rear wheel.

He seemed to be quite happy riding it at about 30 mph.

In my hometown, whenever I go running, I typically follow the schematic of doing half my run and stopping at a local park, whereat I'll walk around until I'm ready to finish the second half of my run and return home.

One day, I was walking in the park, enjoying the scenery, when I see a ~50 year old man scooting towards me on the reclined bicycle you showed. It's an absurd contraption, and I still can't fully understand the appeal of it. What made it worse was that he gave me this smug, solipsistic smirk as he rode by me, as if I was the odd one for walking in the park, as if it was a major foresight of mine to be in public without my wheeled hammock.
 
  • #1,326
AlephZero said:
I saw somebody riding (?) a weird bike (?) today. Looked similar to a kid's scooter, scaled up to adult size. Or a bit like a human-powered Segway. Wheels about a foot in diameter, handlebars for steering, nothing to sit on. The "rider" was "standing" on the "pedals" which were actually large diameter cranks similar to a reclining bike(*), mounted almost above the rear wheel.

He seemed to be quite happy riding it at about 30 mph.

(*) "Reclining bike" = something like this:
IMG_8606.JPG

For people who aren't sure whether they want to bike or take a nap?
 
  • #1,327
 
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  • #1,328
Borek said:


It looked similar to that, except with pedals (similar to Zooby's segway picture) close to the rear wheel, not the belt drive. And no electric motor.
 
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  • #1,329
AnTiFreeze3 said:
It's an absurd contraption, and I still can't fully understand the appeal of it.

That's probably the appeal. We have a guy at work who rides a similar one. He also uses a monocle on a chain, rather than conventional spectacles.

They are supposed to be more energy efficient than conventional bikes, because of less wind resistance. The only problems are that you can't see where you are going, and motorists etc can't see you. They tend to solve the second problem by having a flag on a pole, which probably increases the wind resistance as well.
 
  • #1,330
AlephZero said:
That's probably the appeal. We have a guy at work who rides a similar one. He also uses a monocle on a chain, rather than conventional spectacles.

They are supposed to be more energy efficient than conventional bikes, because of less wind resistance. The only problems are that you can't see where you are going, and motorists etc can't see you. They tend to solve the second problem by having a flag on a pole, which probably increases the wind resistance as well.

Cars can't see them easily AND their heads are at grill/bumper level. Doesn't seem too smart, IMO.
 

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