My Friday's night ask me a difficult question thread!

[Random_Australian]

Go on, try it!

Any difficult questions will receive well thought-out answers.

Be serious, and no asking about intentionally way-to-arcane things like "What is time like inside the event horizon of a black hole"

But anyway, any problems at all, no matter how difficult. Tortuous life decision? Want to know why someone does/won't do something? Ask me anything!

Or we can just chat. It is fine by me. Also, you are allowed to ask mind-boggling questions, but be aware that the answer will then appear in the next weeks thread.

****NO ASKING FOR MEDICAL ADVICE****
****NO ASKING FOR FINANCIAL ADVICE****
If you don't know what you want to ask, just tell me something you wish for. Simple.

Current record: 89

[Breeze54]

1. ok...

Did you know it's early Friday morning here? ;)

[Random_Australian]

4. Yes. That is why it is "my Friday's night"

[Ptah]

2. If it's early spring here, is it early fall for you?

How can you tell?

[Random_Australian]

5. No. We don't have fall.

It is Autumn though.

Actually, strangely, I AM in a place where there are four seasons! We can tell it is Autumn because it is no longer so hot.

[opiate69]

3. What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

[Random_Australian]

6. What kind of swallow? An African swallow or a European Swallow?

[Critters2]

7. Are there Outback Steakhouses in Australia? nt

[Random_Australian]

8. If you are referring to the American franchise, then no. Nothing they sell is remotely similar to

what we eat.

[Nicole]

25. Really?

You don't eat steak, chicken, fish, burgers or pasta?

What do you eat??

[Random_Australian]

27. We eat those things, but let me put it this way:

Outback Steakhouse:

Uber-factory farmed steak with lots of additives and stuff served with oil. So unhealthy. And fried onion rings.

Australia:

Actual Aussie steak with actual Aussie vegies, in a country with some incredibly high food standards.


Or in other words:
A meal involving steak that is quite healthy and good for you.

Portions are reasonable, calories not so high. Much, MUCH less fat in part due to a cultural preference for lean meat.

[Nicole]

29. OK

I was wondering. :rofl:

I'm not sure how they cook or serve their food, I've never eaten there.

[qnr]

9. Why are there braille markings on drive-through ATMs?

I think they're purpose made for being drive-through ones, considering the angle everything is at.

[Random_Australian]

10. I've never heard of drive-through ATM's. There are two distinct possibilities:

1) There really are drive through ATM's. In which case I ask you how you are certain that the markings are braille, rather than 'construction' dots.

2) You are complaining subtely about the height and angle of ATM's - that would be a security feature, I think. Means the person obscures the pad better, and it is harded to read from the side.

[qnr]

14. Nope, there really are drive-through ones, at least here in the US.

And it is braille, however, I have walked up and used them on occasion, so I'm sure that that is why they have the markings. In some of the states I've lived in though, I was specifically told I couldn't use them on foot, for insurance reasons.

[Chan790]

11. I know the answer...but I can't tell

because I'm not RA.

[Random_Australian]

12. I'm here to learn. If you've a different answer, please share it.

[Chan790]

13. It's because an act of Congress...

required all ATMs to have braille keypads...and nobody ever thought to amend that act to exclude drive-through ATMs. Seriously.

[Random_Australian]

15. Cool. Thanks for your input - I would never have picked up on your laws.

That law is fair. At least for normal ones.

[qnr]

16. Yeah, I really kind of knew that would end up being the reason. It was just

one of those lighthearted questions, like: "Why does Hawaii have interstate highways?" :)

[Critters2]

18. Puerto Rico has Interstate highways, too

and it isn't even a state itself.

It's a wacky world! :crazy:

[qnr]

20. I wonder if there is an official international highway between Haiti & The Dominican Republic? n/t

[Chan790]

17. How is it possible...

in my 4,000SF house for my bedroom to be 91'F(32.777...'C), the hallway outside my room to be 78'F (25.5'C), and the entire downstairs to be a balmy 64'F(17'C) when I don't have any doors and it's all a single heating zone on my thermostat.

I'm seriously considering sleeping in the backyard where there is a 50/50 chance that I'll die of exposure since it's sub-freezing. (21'F(-6'C))

Edited: To include Celsius temps for you b/c I think y'all use metric.

Edited 2: It's a total distance of maybe 20 feet (6M) in distance on foot.

[Random_Australian]

19. Hmmmmm. A question: How much time do you, or turned on computers,

spend in each of these places? (as in comparitively)

Edit: And what is a single heating zone thermostat?

[Chan790]

21. okay...

that was less than 5 minutes ago. About the amount of same time.

My house (it's not mine really, I don't own it. If I did it'd be a lot smaller and less ostentatious) is large enough that we have different heating zones (3 of them) each with temperature sensors, so that the temperature can be adjusted to different levels in different parts of the house. This is supposed to be the coolest zone at the moment.

There is one computer in my bedroom. None elsewhere.

I'd go sleep in the living room, but my parents are there and they like to walk around naked at 2am. 50 year old naked parents...not fun.

I hate construction...this is a new heater and the HVAC dude isn't going to come back at 3am just because my bedroom is a sauna...particularly because I suspect the reason is that my mom turned up the thermostat because she's cold. She's ill and had to move in with me...and she's always cold, even in July.

Edit: I moved in with grandma who died and left the house to my parents, who then moved in with me b/c my mom is sick and can't be left alone.

[FuzzySlippers]

22. Well, of course your mom is cold if she walks around naked.

Tell her to put some clothes on. :shrug:

[Chan790]

24. I tried tellin her that...

months ago. Does she listen? Nope, she jacks up the thermostat another 5-degrees. I'm glad I don't pay the oil bill.

[Random_Australian]

23. Ok, here are two ideas. I'm not familiar with thermostats, so tell me if

something doesn't gel.

Idea #1: Your thermostat is not working properly, if it is suposedly the dominant thing in terms of temperature.

Idea #2: Heat from your computer (which is quite a bit) and from you (which again, is quite a bit) is heating up your room.

Until just recently I lived in a place that is very similar to that, but with no "thermostat" - the idea we always followed was to have no computer, as little electrical as possible, and no YOU in your room until it is time to go to bed.

Idea #3: If the no-doors thing meant that all the zones are connected, then simply open two windows, one on each side of the whole shabang, which will cool the whole thing. This will only work when outside is not too cool.

Idea #4: House building. If the first three are wrong, I've more ideas. :)

[Chan790]

26. hmmm...

1.) possibly. It's a new system.
2.) I doubt it. That's almost 30 degrees. It's like going from early spring to the hottest part of summer in less than 10M.
3.) It's all in one zone...and somebody will kill me for opening the windows and letting their #%$%% heat out.
4.) No, It's alright. I'm venting because I can't sleep b/c it's too $%%$%$ hot...yet I'm the only one who has to work tomorrow.

[Random_Australian]

28. I have a solution, I think.

1) Get a fan. A pedestal fan.

2) Put it in your room, pointing out.

The temperatures will become similar, unless your heating also acts as cooling.

FWIW, if there is no air movement, then 30 degrees F is possible. You'd need the air to be very still though, thus the fan idea.

[YankeyMCC]

30. Why do people hesitate over giving medical and financial

advice but not moral advice when morality is so much more of a core issue and can do so much more harm if it's bad advice and is followed?

[Random_Australian]

31. Simple - advice means "give someone something to think about" in my book.

Basically, it is easier for someone to work out what will happen to them if they do this or that; furthermore they have their own set of morals already.

When it comes to medical advice, no-one has ANY, ANY idea what will happen.

So while it sounds worse, it really isn't.

:)

[YankeyMCC]

32. Ummm...

RA I don't mean to sound argumentative but that seems awfully backwards to me.

No-one has any idea of what will happen with Medical advice ? There is such a thing as medical science and even much useful folk wisdom born out of millennia of human experience with our own bodies. Moral advice is much more murky.

And many people Don't give much thought to their own moral codes, they either don't spend time on it at all or just accept what was passed down to them. Meaning they're much more susceptible to bad moral advice than with advice around something more concrete and knowable like medical or financial advice.

I think the answer is more along the lines of everyone thinks they can be expert at morals and bad advice can go unnoticed or be vague enough for the advice give to avoid immediate responsibility in contrast to bad financial or medical advice which can have immediate and easily attributable bad results.

[Random_Australian]

33. Don't worry about sounding argumentative. I'm an R/T veteran.

"No-one has any idea of what will happen with Medical advice ?"

Let me put this into example form:

1) Someone says "the normal dose of my meds, is 40mg per day. The prescription says for me to only take 20 mg per day. Is the prescription wrong?"

2) A response is "It's fine, take the normal dose"

(Except all more in depth)

Does medical science know what will happen? Yes.

Does the average person know what will happen? Nope.

So was Skinner's idea to say "no medical advice at any time on DU" a good idea? Yep.

For financial, it is because I hate financial things.

"Meaning they're much more susceptible to bad moral advice "

Wrong idea about advice - you merely present some options that you have thought of and some expected consequences.

"I think the answer is more along the lines of everyone thinks they can be expert at morals and bad advice can go unnoticed or be vague enough for the advice give to avoid immediate responsibility in contrast to bad financial or medical advice which can have immediate and easily attributable bad results."

Me? Avoid responsibility? Freak no. Freak no. I'll argue that if A is true, then B is also true. Most 'advice' is simply trying to get people to understand each other. (At least the advice I give - I'm most careful about that)

Or in other words, problems without good answers will have the immediate consequences of not solving the problem.

Furthermore, I'm a rather blunt person. I'm not going to give ambiguous advice. Well, except when it registers in the readers brain it might be, but I always try to talk over more in order to prevent things wrong bieng anything other than plain solutions to complex problems.

[YankeyMCC]

34. I wasn't intending to point to you specifically RA

more in general. You hear this kind of thing all the time people feeling free to dole out advice on morals and ethics but not on concrete issues like medical and financial decisions.

Perhaps the average citizen doesn't know what medical science does but they're much more likely to know enough or at least know where to go for more detailed information than they are about morals which they will just try and "divine" or turn to a friend who has no more training or education on ethics or morals than they do.

It may not be adequate but at least there is an attempt to teach people about science and health and finances but there's not even the attempt to teach people about morals, ethics or philosophy in general - at least in this country. Even the religious schools that I'm familiar with teach ritual and dogma not the philosophical view or school that might be associated with the religion.

So no matter how good your intentions it isn't uncommon for people take advice as a proxy decision...letting someone else make the decision for them and acting on that.

I understand Skinner's medical advice policy and it's the prudent thing to do because there could be real legal and potentially immediate harmful consequences. I'm just talking in generalities about how society seems to underestimate the impact of bad moral decisions and how free we are with our moral advice particularly with the general lack of training and education on the subject - again in this country at least - perhaps other countries do a better job educating or at least trying to educate the general public on philosophy, ethics and morals.