Michael S

I'm only an armchair scientist, but I was just browsing a book about all of the elements on the periodic table and noticed that every single one of the elements past uranium are radioactive. I'm curious as to why this is so. Also, are there any stable (non-radioactive) isotopes of elements that are generally considered radioactive?

I planted four semi-dwarf fruit trees a week ago (two cherry trees and two peach trees) and had been watering them every night, but I noticed yesterday some yellowing of new leaves on the cherry trees and remember reading some time ago that yellowed leaves can be a sign of overwatering and that cherry trees are especially prone to overwatering and/or root rot. I went out today and used an old broom handle to poke holes several inches deep in the soil surrounding the bases of both trees to help provide ventilation in case there was too much moisture in the soil, but now I'm worried that I may already have jeopardized the health of these trees even though I just planted them. I planted three semi-dwarf apple trees three years ago but don't recall problems related to overwatering with the apple trees. Any advice you can offer on the peach and cherry trees would be greatly appreciated.

I'm guessing these are malware. I don't know how gdsmux ended up on my startup menu, and my computer's default page comes up as the MySearchDial homepage instead of my normal page. Any advice would be appreciated.

I frequently visit DrudgeReport.com but am annoyed at the auto-refresh of the browser about every two minutes or so. Is there a way to keep the browser from refreshing automatically?

I've been driving a cab in my small Midwestern town as an independent contractor for a few years, but the company is about to cut all IC positions because they're losing money so that they can pay an hourly rate to drivers who stay on and keep the rest of the money in the company. I enjoy driving but I'm reading the writing on the wall and figure I have about three months left before money will start to get tight, so I'm seriously considering getting my CDL and driving a semi locally or regionally. I've had a hard time finding relatively objective reviews of truck-driving schools and would like advice from any of you who have gone to such school as to which ones are reputable and competent and will help ensure my best job prospects. One suggestion I saw online was to enroll in CDL classes at local colleges, but there are no regular college campuses (not truck-driving schools) within 100 miles that have any CDL classes listed. I don't want to enroll in an actual driving school that sucks and have that negatively affect my job prospects. Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm working on a research project and just trying to find any lists of conservative-leaning newspapers around the U.S.--not necessarily Republican-leaning per se, since the national Republican party doesn't seem friendly to conservatives (if the Tea Party movement is any indication). Google isn't giving me the results I've been hoping for. Any information would be appreciated.

I've been hearing bits and pieces about a proposal being floated by the president to tax charitable donations--an absolutely horrible proposal that will crush charities and give the government more money to waste--but I haven't been able to find any info on what's being proposed. Any links any of you can provide would be appreciated.

I'm sitting here watching the presidential election results trickle in and I'm wondering how in the heck a winner can be projected in any given states when so few precincts are reporting yet. Some of the states that have just closed their polls have less than, say, 2 percent of their precincts reporting but winners in the presidential race are already being projected for those states. How in the world is this possible, with so many votes yet to come?

After Neal Armstrong's death this past week, I got to wondering, can any civilian telescopes make out where any of the moon landing sites are? If so, where can I get one of those telescopes? :)

And I need advice on whether the current wording is sufficient to make it legally binding.

Long story short, I've had three people renting rooms in my house for a while, a mother and daughter (longtime friends and former neighbors) since April and another friend since the end of June. Due to multiple personal commitments coming up, I need the three of them to vacate on or before Nov. 1. The friend who has been in the house since June is planning to leave in October to pursue job prospects in another state (he's finishing his graduate degree this fall), but the mother and daughter have been less than proactive so far in finding other accommodations. The grad student has been paying me $25 a week, but the mother and daughter (or rather, the mother on behalf of herself and her daughter) haven't paid me anything since the mother lost her job a month ago. The daughter is going to be a senior in high school this fall but has not had a job at all this summer. All three of my renters have been buying their own food, and the grad student has also been covering a portion of the utilities since he moved in, although the mother and daughter didn't pay me separately for a portion of the utilities--I just applied their rent toward a portion of the utilities, as they haven't used much water or electricity overall. There was no written agreement drawn up before any of my renters moved in, just the verbal agreement that they would pay $25 each per week and a portion of the utilities. I've not pressed the issue with the mother and daughter over not receiving payment from them since the mother lost her job, as they have been extremely helpful with cleaning and other activities around the house that I've had little time for due to my insane work schedule recently.

Just to make sure that all of us are on the same page about my wanting them to vacate on or before Nov. 1, I'm drawing up a written agreement that each of my renters and I will sign, but since I'm not a lawyer, I wanted to make sure that a document stating "I (their name) intend to vacate (my address) on or before Nov. 1, 2012" will be sufficient so as to be legally binding. I'm not worried about the grad student being out by Nov. 1, I'm worried about the mother and daughter. I figure that giving them 90-ish days notice should be ample time for them to make other living arrangements, and I don't expect them to put up a fight about moving out by then, but just in case, I want to make sure that I've covered my butt legally--not that I'm expecting any sort of liability claim against me if I have to force them out after Nov. 1 nor do I expect problems to escalate to the point of my having to file to evict them, but I'd just like to know if the document I'm drawing up says enough to protect me if evicting them becomes an issue.

I realize that Yahoo Answers isn't exactly a source for authoritative legal advice, but figure you guys could point me in a general direction.

I've been a coffee drinker for a very long time and have noticed for a long time that my urine smells like coffee after I drink coffee. But this is the first time I've posted a question online about it. :D So what is it in coffee that is metabolized or not that makes my urine smell like coffee after I drink coffee?

I've been doing a little bit of searching online for forums dedicated to vasectomy info, Q&A, etc., but the only forums I'm coming across look like they're not very active and haven't had any posts in a while. Can you guys recommend the best Q&A-type forums for discussion about vasectomies?

I'm opening myself up for a major flame war, but so be it...

A close relative of mine really has her head in the sand about the damage that Obama has done the past 3+ years and the final nail in the country's coffin that will happen if he is re-elected, but she's really reluctant to vote for Romney, assuming he's the GOP nominee, because she doesn't think she could vote for a Mormon. I've tried to tell her that Romney's religion is a minor detail compared to the permanent damage to our country if Obama gets four more years in office. So what I'm looking for is an article I can give to her and others showing just how bad things will be and how much damage will have been done if Obama is re-elected. Any links to articles would be appreciated.

A few months ago, I had a migraine that lasted more than 24 hours and was debilitating enough that I went to the ER for relief. The headache was so bad that I was vomiting from the pain. I take nortriptylene every night at bedtime as a migraine preventive and it does a very good job of keeping the headaches away, but every so often I get a breakthrough headache that nothing except injections of a powerful anti-inflammatory coupled with (usually) Dilaudid or something similar will make the headache go away. This happens maybe once or twice a year on average, but it's certainly not the norm.

I purchased my own health insurance coverage last fall after losing my previous coverage in April 2011 when I got laid off from my previous job. As part of my medical history, I listed migraines as one of the conditions for which I am being treated. I typically only have one doctor's appointment a year, just to check in with my neurologist to see if my medication needs to be adjusted. I've not needed an adjustment to my medication in nearly four years, so I've seen my neurologist very infrequently. Nonetheless, I take medication every night at bedtime to help prevent migraines.

So a couple weeks ago, I got a notice from my insurance company that one insurance claim for an ER visit last fall was being denied because migraines are a pre-existing condition for me. This is the first time I've ever heard of an ER claim being denied coverage, but quite frankly I felt like I didn't have much choice except to go to the ER because of my headache's severity and duration. I'm in the process of writing a letter to appeal the denial of coverage on the claim, but I'm not sure what approach to take. I was thinking of saying that the migraine I had when I went to the ER wasn't a chronic one per se, as I typically don't have long-lasting migraines, but it was certainly an acute headache that left me essentially debilitated until I went to the ER for treatment. Any advice on how to proceed with this appeal would be greatly appreciated.

This is driving me nuts, so I hope you guys can help me figure it out. Sometimes whenever my computer performs automatic updates, after my computer is rebooted I'll go to restart Firefox and it will sometimes (but not always) pull up my home page instead of the last tabs I had opened. Then I have to go back through the history and look for the pages I had opened before the restart, which is a huge pain in the browser. Sometimes I am given the option to restore my last browsing session, which then reopens the tabs I had up before the reboot, but other times my default page comes up and I have to start the page-by-page search all over again. Is there a way to guarantee that my browser will always give me the option of restoring my last session instead of pulling up my default page instead? Sometimes the default page comes up on reboot, while sometimes I get the option to restore my previous session, and I'm not a happy camper not knowing which one will happen whenever I reboot my computer and/or browser. Any advice you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated.

I've been saving used coffee grounds in a bucket in the kitchen for some time now to help give my garden a head start in a couple months, and I just noticed a bit of mold starting to grow in the grounds. Will the coffee grounds still be safe to add to my garden come springtime?

I've been rotating my Glock 26's magazine once a week, unloading it and loading a different magazine, to keep the springs from "setting" or sticking, which I know has been a problem with semi-auto magazines in the past. But I was just talking to someone who said that with more modern magazines, there is more strain and wear inflicted on the magazine by frequent loading and unloading of ammunition than by keeping a particular magazine loaded at all times. Should I keep on rotating my magazines, or is this not a concern anymore?

I want to make a donation to a certain nonprofit organization but wanted to see first if PayPal still had the "gift" option that doesn't charge the recipient a service fee, but I'm not finding any info on the PayPal website. Is the "gift" option still available?