Today I Learned

[jtbell]

Today I learned (or rather, re-learned) that my wristwatch doesn't account for leap years. I had to bump the date back from March 3 to March 2.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Today I learned (or rather, re-learned) that my wristwatch doesn't account for leap years. I had to bump the date back from March 3 to March 2.

Oh, right! I forgot to adjust my sundial!

 

[Hornbein]

Today I learned (or rather, re-learned) that my wristwatch doesn't account for leap years. I had to bump the date back from March 3 to March 2.

It would be easier to wait 14,000 years for it to correct itself. But that's impractical.

 

[Astronuc]

The world's longest scheduled commercial flight.
http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-longest-flight-lands-auckland-060409884.html

The service from Dubai to Auckland covered 14,200 kilometres (8,824 miles), according to industry website airwaysnews.com, pipping Qantas' 13,800-kilometre Sydney-Dallas route launched in 2014.

It said the route was also the longest in duration, with passengers set to spend 17 hours 15 minutes in the air during the return leg from Auckland to Dubai.

Then I have to ask, "Why!?"

 

[rootone]

Amsterdam has a beach, that was a bit surprising.

 

[Hornbein]

The world's longest scheduled commercial flight.
http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-longest-flight-lands-auckland-060409884.html
Then I have to ask, "Why!?"

Would you rather make a stop and sit around in an airport for hours? Not only that, you take the risk of a delay causing a missed connection.

You might layover in a worthwhile place, but airlines don't like that. Often the total cost doubles.

 

[Astronuc]

What's a little corruption?

Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s third-largest oil exporter, with Exxon Mobil Corp. driving production. But no one knows exactly how much oil revenue the country has — President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo refuses to disclose his earnings.

http://www.ozy.com/acumen/the-filthy-rich-spanish-speaking-african-country/63117

Meanwhile - Aubrey McClendon, 56, Ex-Chief of Chesapeake Energy, Dies in Crash a Day After Indictment
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/b...ron-dies-in-crash-a-day-after-indictment.html

He founded Chesapeake Energy and went big into fracking. By many measures he was extraordinarily successful. "But late Tuesday, he was indicted on federal bid-rigging charges accusing him of conspiring to suppress prices for oil and natural gas leases. On Wednesday morning, he died in a crash in Oklahoma City after his car hit a bridge at high speed. Mr. McClendon, 56, was to have appeared in court later in the day."

All police have so far said is that he had ample room to avoid hitting the concrete abutment.

It is too early to tell, but it would seem he may have committed suicide rather than face prosecution.

There is such a thing as too successful.

Under Mr. McClendon’s leadership, Chesapeake and a handful of other companies transformed the face of energy in the United States, turning the country from an energy importer to an exporter and pioneering hydraulic fracturing in newly explored shale fields with ample global financing.

In the end, they produced a glut of natural gas that sent Chesapeake and several other companies to the brink of bankruptcy as gas prices collapsed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/b...onspiracy-in-oil-and-natural-gas-bidding.html

 

[rootone]

It is too early to tell, but it would seem he may have committed suicide rather than face prosecution

or committed suicide for some other reason, failed relationships and hard drug addiction are common.

 

[zoobyshoe]

or committed suicide for some other reason, failed relationships and hard drug addiction are common.

The timing would argue against alternate motivations.

 

[jim hardy]

It is too early to tell, but it would seem he may have committed suicide rather than face prosecution.

2013 Tahoe is reputed to have electric power steering
http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/05/driving-a-pickup-with-electric-power-steering.html

Onstar is hackable
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2015/02/darpa-hacks-a-ninth-gen-impalas-onstar-system-in-new-60-minutes-report/

 

[mfb]

The world's longest scheduled commercial flight.
http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-longest-flight-lands-auckland-060409884.html
Then I have to ask, "Why!?"

To get from Auckland to Dubai.
My longest flights so far were 13 hours - plus three hours at an airport and 1.5 hours for a connecting flight. I would have happily skipped the airport part (to make it worse, the second flight went a bit back - a direct connection would have been shorter than 13 hours).
The 17 hour flight probably replaces something like 13 hours flight, then some hours on an airport, then 5 hours more flight. Okay, you can stay a day somewhere in between, but then you need an additional day.

2013 Tahoe is reputed to have electric power steering
http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/05/driving-a-pickup-with-electric-power-steering.html

There are cars driven with joysticks (like those used for computer games) already. Mainly for disabled people, I think, but apparently it works very well.

 

[davenn]

Today I learned ...

Dress whites vs dress blues?
They are seasonal, with the white uniform worn in summer and the blue in winter

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xlp1/v/t1.0-9/12799292_915201871927797_1804319214450464339_n.jpg?oh=b2364c95b365cad78c52d6af5ac93d80&oe=5759FBC9&__gda__=1465600219_4e43f8c6b10d3eaa400ef5876a126e4fDave

 

[zoobyshoe]

That poster reminds me of a Jack Nicholson line from the movie, The Last Detail. Those familiar will know what I'm talking about.

 

[davenn]

That poster reminds me of a Jack Nicholson line from the movie, The Last Detail. Those familiar will know what I'm talking about.

Don't think I have seen that one

 

[zoobyshoe]

Don't think I have seen that one

YouTube has the scene I mean, but I can't link to it due to bad language.

 

[davenn]

YouTube has the scene I mean, but I can't link to it due to bad language.

dang, Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid are so young !

 

[zoobyshoe]

dang, Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid are so young !

Right? It's disorienting.

 

[Astronuc]

2013 Tahoe is reputed to have electric power steering

Aubrey McClendon’s car will tell whether he killed himself
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/aubrey-mcclendon-s-car-will-tell-if-he-killed-himself-182023313.html

Vehicles, by contrast, don’t contain a box, per se. The data is captured by an airbag control module, which is more like a chip. All modern vehicles have such chips, but the data captured varies by manufacturer. And the modules aren’t fireproof, either. Many are made of aluminum; the one in a 2013 Tahoe is made of plastic.

Police have already said he was traveling well above the 40-mile-per-hour speed limit on the road, and that he had a chance to steer away from the bridge but didn’t. Other circumstantial evidence, such as a lack of prominent skid marks close to the bridge, also suggests suicide. “I’d say he aimed for that bridge support,” says Rusty Haight, director of the Collision Safety Institute in San Diego, who has examined photos and videos of the crash. “He was going into that bridge support. It’s the only thing in the area.”

 

[Psinter]

Today I learned how to make a funny smiley:


Result: http://imgur.com/jqpONKv

 

[davenn]

Today I learned how to make a funny smiley:


Result: http://imgur.com/jqpONKv

awesome :) well done

 

[Psinter]

awesome :) well done

Thanks!

 

[Jonathan Scott]

Today I learned yet again that Microsoft's "upgrades" aren't necessarily upwards compatible, and can be much worse than the version they replace.

In this case, opening old Publisher 2007 stuff in Publisher 2016 results in a somewhat messed up layout due to spacing changes, and various old options are simply ignored (for example converting pictures to grayscale). However, the most exasperating thing is that even in new documents the character spacing goes wrong if the text changes between regular, bold, italic or bold-italic within a line, in that the spacing for the whole line assumes whichever style was in effect for the first character in the output line. So, for example, if a line starts with regular text, any bold-italic text in the same line has characters which touch or even overlap! I have found a seriously time-wasting workaround, which is that if the normal space before the style change is replaced with a non-breaking space (Ctrl-Shift-Space) then the spacing correctly reflects the new style. However, that then messes up things if you need to change anything later because it prevents a line break between the words.

 

[jim hardy]

Wordperfect showed you the control characters.
For some reason that's anathema to Microsoft. So they killed Wordperfect.

My opinion- Prince of Mediocrity .
http://phoozer.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/how-much-money-does-bill-gates-have.jpg

Does any of their new stuff show control codes?

I got so frustrated with Word's invisible characters changing things on me that i went to local junkshop and bought a grocery sack full of mice for a dollar . When it got too much i'd just smash one.

 

[Hornbein]

they killed Wordperfect.

The age of monopoly has returned.

 

[Sophia]

Meet Marian Kotleba.

In yesterday's elections his party gained 8,05% votes and thus became 4th of unbelievable 9 parties who will make it into the Slovak parliament (most of them gaining around 6-8%).
Party named We Are Family with a leader who has 9 children with 8 women got 6.6%
For the first time in 26 years of democracy, Christian democrats will not be in the parliament.Time to use this emoji

Copyright @Psinter

 

[Hornbein]

Which party got your vote?

 

[Sophia]

Which party got your vote?

I voted for a capitalist party that protects rights of minorities. I am a socialist but I decided for this party because the leader is a very fine person who was not involved in any scandal in 20 years. He always speaks about his wife with love and they adopted an orphan girl. So in this case I took into consideration character, not a political programme.

 

[Hornbein]

I voted for a capitalist party that protects rights of minorities.

Which one? I'm partial to the Ordinary People And Independent Personalities party. I don't know what they stand for, but I like the name.

 

[Sophia]

Which one? I'm partial to the Ordinary People And Independent Personalities party. I don't know what they stand for, but I like the name.

They are called bridge- hid.
The party that you mention doesn't have any solutions at all. All they do is criticise, gossip and argue. They will not be able to form a coalition with anyone.
Everyone is talking about early elections now and options that the constitution offers for this kind of critical situation. According to analytics, it is almost impossible to create a stable government in this situation. It's very probable that the state will collapse during our presidency of the EU which will begin in summer.
The only hope is that winning Smer will be able to find at least 3 coalition partners but possible candidates refuse to cooperate with each other.
Exciting!

 

[Hornbein]

T
The party that you mention doesn't have any solutions at all. All they do is criticise, gossip and argue. They will not be able to form a coalition with anyone.

Shades of Austria-Hungary!

Surely that how one would expect Ordinary People And Independent Personalities to behave. So at least they have truth in advertising.

They say that Bridge represents Magyar/Slovak cooperation. Is that so?

It seems to me that two partners for Smer would do it, for a total of three.

What is Network all about? Is it just a name?

 

[Sophia]

Shades of Austria-Hungary!

Surely that how one would expect Ordinary People And Independent Personalities to behave. So at least they have truth in advertising.

They say that Bridge represents Magyar/Slovak cooperation. Is that so?

It seems to me that two partners for Smer would do it, for a total of three.

What is Network all about? Is it just a name?

The problem is that anyone can have their own party. It was a result of post communist euphoria. If you can gain 10, 000 signatures hooray you have a party! And if you get 5%in elections you are in the parliament.
That's how We are family got there. The leader has absolutely no experience. In politics, he's just a local celebrity famous for having a new mother for his children every year. He makes a child, buys the mother a luxurious apartment and car, than leaves her and finds another woman. I guess people voted for him as a form of protest against the mainstream. But the thing is that yesterday he said that he doesn't wish to form a government. He will not form a coalition with anyone and will stay in the opposition.
The Network started as a promising project but it turned out that leader Prochazka is the same as all other politicians. What's more, he did not rule out cooperation with Fico and that's why he got a bad result.
In order to form a government, coalition must have at least 50% of votes together. Number 2 SAS will never accept Smer as a partner. No one will accept Nazi Kotleba. Most-hid can't work with nationalist SNS.
Common people could be with Network in theory, but they always argue so that would not last for long
So the situation is rather complicated.
They have 30 days to find a solution. As far as I understand, there will be another elections if they can't do it

 

[zoobyshoe]

Maybe you should start a party, Sophia.

 

[Sophia]

Maybe you should start a party, Sophia.

A brilliant idea! What about free pizza, 6 months of paid holiday and compulsory course in Advanced Physics for everyone? Would you vote for me?

 

[zoobyshoe]

A brilliant idea! What about free pizza, 6 months of paid holiday and compulsory course in Advanced Physics for everyone? Would you vote for me?

Well, it was all good till you got to "compulsory."

 

[Sophia]

Well, it was all good till you got to "compulsory."

You're right. I wouldn't be able to pass it myself lol