Merc

I was wondering why nobody ends the problem this way.

One might argue, "But that would be violence!". True, but what Maduro does *is* violence, if we're to believe the news stories. If somebody is responsible for my children's stomachs aching from hunger, and for them not being able to go to school because of physical weakness, and for me not being able to buy medicine, I'd see this as very violent acts against me and my family and I'd have no compunction about solving the problem in any way possible.

Folks, you all know the spammer who answers almost every question with a chunk of text beginning with "Three big earthquakes will shake the three superpowers ...."

Now,

Let's play a game. Let's pretend this "three big earthquakes" guy is a misunderstood robot, with buggy Artificial Intelligence, who went out of control. (We've seen something similar with Microsoft's AI chatbot turning racist: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/26... ).

Let's compose funny dialogs between this robot and a human. Let's call this robot "Blox" (feel free to pick some other name).

The only rule:

You must base Blox's sentences on text actually found in the "three big earthquakes" treatise!

Let me begin:

======================

Cindy: Hi, Blox!

Blox: Hi!

Cindy: How are you doing?

Blox: Not so well. I'm trying to get rid of a few nanochips in my right hand.

Cindy: Why?

Blox: 'cos if 1000-1500 nanochips are in your right hand, then you can't make proper Orthodox sign of the cross with your *left* hand; last mercy for you then will be to cut the hand off. Say, did you go and see Seraphim of Sarov already?

Cindy: Who?! Wait a sec, I'm going to get a cup of coffee.

[I'll continue the dialog in an "answer". Yahoo doesn't let me type more here.]

Yesterday @Ehrlichmann said Israel had 20 years to survive (that's 2036):

"Sorry to say that it will take about 20 more years of tyranny before the illegal, immoral and unethical state breathes its last evil breath." [1]

This surprised me because I distinctly remember he previously said Israel had only till 2022 to survive.

So, curious as to why @Ehrlichmann decided to grant Israel 14 more years of prosperity, I did some googling.

It turns out that the magic number "20" stems from a post by @DAN:

"According to the CIA report of 2002, it should end by/before 2022" [2]

(@DAN hints that the guys at the CIA got their inspiration from Islamic theology, in which the number 19 holds significance. Go figure why they rounded it up...)

Henceforth @Ehrlichmann seems to recycle this occultish (and fake?) CIA report without adjusting the years too well. E.g., in 2012 @Ehrlichmann said:

"the CIA predicts that Israel will collapse in 16 years." [3]

That would be the year 2028.

And now we arrive at yesterday. Yesterday @Ehrlichmann "reset" the prophecy to start the 20-years count anew!

I wonder what caused him to do this. "Sorry to say that," he begins, as if he got a new piece of information recently, which saddened him.

Would anyone venture to guess what it was?

[1] /question/index?qid=20160...

[2] /question/index?qid=20121...

[3] /question/index?qid=20120...

Background:

There has been a two-day standoff with [mainly] Syrian refugees at Hungary -- they refuse to board trains lest they be taken to refugee camps:

(1) http://goo.gl/hOMqT7 "Behind the riot police 100+ refugees have been corralled. Say they won't be taken to camps."

(2) http://goo.gl/iCgQea "Man and wife with tiny baby throw themselves onto track demanding not to be taken to camps."

Now, this begets a question:

These same people --the Arab nations-- have been preventing Palestinian refugees from settling outside refugee camps, for decades. But they themselves --the non-Palestinians-- don't want to go through refugee camps. Why is that? Why two sets of rules? Why is it imperative that only "Palestinians" be settled, indefinitely, in refugee camps whereas other types of Arabs must not even see a refugee camp?

Let's say I have a cheap room thermometer, the kind that's hanged on the wall.

Can I put it in the refrigerator/freezer to check the temperature there?

I'm asking this because on the Internet one can find thermometers branded as "refrigerator/freezer thermometer". I'd like to understand if it's just a marketing gimmick or whether they have special traits that make them suitable for refrigerator use, traits that a room thermometer doesn't have. I'm talking only about cheap thermometers.

Another question: suppose I open the fridge door to read the temperature on the thermometer within. I guess that the reading won't be accurate because hot air now gets inside. Does a thermometer branded as "refrigerator/freezer thermometer" is less susceptible to this problem? (again, I'm only talking about cheap thermometers.)

I have a question about food thermometers of the "probe" type, those that look like this:

http://m.acurite.com/catalog/product/gallery/id/79...

Do they show room temperature when their probe is free? (Assuming, of course, that their dial contains the appropriate range.)

Or do they only work when the probe is embedded in something?

Somebody has just asked a question about Israeli chocolate. "Hey, I bet there are some funny conspiracy theories involving Israeli chocolate," I told myself, and, indeed, a google search, not surprisingly, left me very satisfied.

But while enjoying a good laugh I recalled something:

Last year Arafat's body was exhumed and his remains were due to have been examined by teams of mighty Russian, French and Swiss scientists to determined if indeed he was poisoned, perchance by the "Entity", as his beloved Palestinian people claimed.

Numerous news outlets throughout the world have educated us about this.

"Some details in Arafat's medical records are not consistent with polonium poisoning," explained François Bochud, director of the Swiss institute that carried out the tests, "[and] the only way to resolve this anomaly would be by testing the body."

I remember the sighs of relief by anti-Israelis here happy for the imminent revelation.

Many months have passed since.

Surely they have the incriminating results by now.

The tests ought to have "resolv[ed] this anomaly," we were promised by scientists.

So, where are the results?

For some mysterious reason I can't find them...

I've noticed a curious thing @lilly wrote in an answer of hers yesterday in which she educated us on how evil Israel is:

"there is a five year jail sentence for trying to convert a Jew into a Christian. don't take my word for it though - read what whistle blower Jack Bernstein wrote (Jack was shot by Mossad for writing this)"

( http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylv=3?qid... )

=

This certainly piqued my interest! I googled a bit to find out about "Jack" and his demise.

Many, many sites speak of his assassination by the Mossad.[1][2][3]

According to David Duke, "Jack" was killed by the Mossad in the '80s.

Which is interesting, because his book on Amazon was published in 2007 and then again in 2012. Interestingly, the 2012 book was co authored by a fellow named "Albert Einstein".[4]

Interestingly too, the Mossad seems to have assassinated any mention of "Jack" on Wikipedia.

So, I wonder: how was he able to write a book after being dead for 20 years? And, a bonus question: how can a communist country (according to the alleged "Jack"'s alleged words) be racist?

[1] http://fightingforliberty.ning.com/group/library/f...

[2] http://northerntruthseeker.blogspot.co.il/2009/07/...

[3] http://www.grandestrategy.com/2009/07/remembering-...

[4] http://www.amazon.com/American-Israel-Benjamin-Fre... (click on "& 3 more" to see Einstein's name)

Some anti-Israel people here claim the Palestinians don't target civilians with their rockets but shoot "at random". Others also add that these rockets are just "fireworks". A Palestinian official even claimed "these rockets do not have explosive heads".[1]

There's a little problem with this "humane rockets" story: the rocket warheads used by the Palestinians contain not just explosives. It's what called an "anti-personnel" munition: it contains many small metal fragments that are released with the explosion and are SPECIFICALLY INTENDED to maximize the harm to humans.

These fragments are effectively small sharp bullets --bearing high kinetic energy by the explosion-- and can penetrate human tissue easily.

Here are some pictures of Israeli houses damaged by rockets:

tinyurl.com/d8u96p2

tinyurl.com/cq74q8a

tinyurl.com/cxy9npn

You can clearly see the effect of the fragments on the walls.

The Palestinians use metal fragments in their "usual" man-delivered bombs as well. The recent bomb in the Tel Aviv bus (21-November) too contained metal fragments (such improvised bombs usually contain nails, screws, etc. More professional bombs (as in their rockets) contains metal balls, sharp arrows, chopped steel pieces, etc. BTW, in the pictures you see the fragments concentrated in a disc shape: professional warheads are designed to spread them perpendicular to the rocket body in order to make them more lethal: that's where people are likely to be found.)

The Palestinians could use warheads without fragments (or remove them), but they choose not to. In the past Hamas used rockets without these fragments in order to increase the rockets range (by decreasing their weight), but now with their ever improving rockets they don't have to.

[1] youtube.com/watch?v=jSUSoPrICqQ (seek to position 00:52; Unfortunately she was not corrected by the anchor.)

An acquaintance of mine was in a convention and the organizers gave away bottles with the company's URL printed on them.

On the underside there was a sticker with "Made in China" and some item ID. I typed the item ID into google and found the bottle:

http://www.stran.com/blog/promotional-products/kin...

Now, I'm curious. What's so special about this bottle?

Why should I put a drink in this bottle, which costs (to the buyer) 4.75$, if I can use an ordinary soft-drink bottle which costs nothing? Is it the "BPA free" thing? But, suppose I replace the soft-drink bottle once in a while, wouldn't that solve the problem?

I've noticed the following scenario:

I've answered a question. Some minutes afterwards I conclude that my answer isn't good enough. So I delete it. Later I compose a better answer, but the "Answer Question" button is gone for me. I'm no longer allowed to answer that question.

I feel it's not fair.

I guess I know why this happens: in the Yahoo database it's recorded that my answer was deleted. Yahoo assumes that's because it was offensive. So I'm not allowed to "offend" anymore.

But this is wrong in my case.

What are your thoughts on this?

I have three baby bottles. They're the same size. They are identical except one is darker (in tint) than the other two. (And I believe among the other two one is a bit darker than the other.)

I've noticed that tiny numbers are etched in the plastic. Each bottle has a different number:

1b

1c

2c

What does this mean?

And what does the slightly darker color mean?

When I listen to some (classical) music, played by one instrument, there's some weird sound in the background, as of "breathing", or of moving shoes' soles back and forth on the floor.

Examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoXrMOsnRVo (Cello. You hear the soles?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ZQpNgmqPM (Piano. Here it sounds more like crying.)

Can you tell me what's this tune, at 0:44 (that is, starting at second 44)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekIaucirO10&NR=1

I'm sure it's Bach, but I don't remember what composition.

I'm relatively new to classical music. The last piece I "worked on" was a Bach sarabande (BWV1008).

Anyways, I've just stumbled upon a web-page for a DVD called "Seven Easy Pieces for Classical Guitar":

http://www.amazon.com/DVD-Classical-Guitar-Seven-E...

And it says there, "Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous Sarabande is an intriguingly lovely baroque piece". Which sarabande are they talking about? I gather Bach has several sarabandes. So which is the "famous" one?

It there any grammar mistake in the sentence "I'm sorry it took two weeks"?

Because I've just typed it into google and I get only 6 results. I expected to find thousands.

We had a jar full of some spice in the freezer.

We took it out (of the freezer) to thaw (still inside the closed jar).

After a while, the jar broke!

Why?

I've read that water expands when freezed. So the jar should have broken when inside the freezer, not when taken out!

And how do I know, just by looking at the jar, if the pressure was from outside or from inside? (the jar is still "intact").