bpiguy

In other words, is the marriage valid?

Acme sells widgets for $10. The sales tax rate is 10%. The great Memorial Day sales event features a 20% discount on widgets. Do you pay the tax on $8 or $10?

The Labor Day blowout event features a 20% rebate taken at the register. Do you pay the tax on $10 or $8?

Under what circumstances do you pay the tax on the list price rather than the discounted price?

They're not far apart; there certainly was service once upon a time; and now, because of that short gap, all Michigan passengers headed for the east coast must first go through Chicago, adding a lot of time and expense.

New Orleans is at 90 degrees west longitude. On Saturday, 20 April, sunrise was at 7:04 a.m. and sunset at 7:12 p.m. I understand that the 8-minute difference between daylight and darkness is partially due to the time it takes for the sun's disk to slip below the horizon and partially due to atmospheric refraction. If the sun were a point source of light and the earth had no atmosphere, the times should be 7 a.m and 7 p.m. But why 7:04 and 7:12 rather than 6:56 and 7:04? Why the 8-minute discrepancy there?

The traditional blue moon is the third full moon in a season having four in total. This happens seven times every nineteen years. From Wikipedia, I found that the spring and summer seasons are considerably longer than autumn and winter, and winter, from the solstice to the equinox, is only 88.99 days long. Since three lunar cycles are 3 x 29.53 = 88.59 days, there must be a full moon in the first ten hours (0.40 days) for there to be a February blue moon 59 days later. I calculate (29.53 / 0.4) that this should occur about once every 74 years; 85% of blue moons should be in May (spring) and August (summer). But another website shows quite a few more February blue moons in the 20th and 21st centuries than I'd expect. Why?

Am looking for an answer that mentions equinoxes, solstices, and the lunar month.

Thanks to both Haggesitze and Jeannie, I now understand that "via in ora silvae" translates as "road at the edge of the woods."

For aesthetic reasons, I'm not fond of using the preposition "in" as part of the address sign I'll commission. Suppose my sign reads, "DCCI Via Ora Silvae." Would an ancient Roman, teleported to the present, understand that to mean "701 Edge Wood (or Edgewood) Street?

I think I prefer "DCCI Via Ora Silvae" for my address sign, but I don't want to mangle the Latin grammar. What's your opinion? I'll appreciate.

I'm getting close, and I want to get it right, because I'm going to have a sign made up. As far as I can tell, "via in ora/oram silvae" means "road at (alongside) the edge of the woods," where "silvae" is in the genitive case. I'm still unsure about "ora" versus "oram." Does the Latin "in" require the accusative or ablative, and which is correct -- "ora" or "oram"? Thanks.

Once upon a time (before I lived happily ever after) I took two years of high school Latin, learning about nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative (sp?), and interrogative, but I can't remember it. I want the Latin equivalent of "Edgewood Street" (which may well be the cited phrase), and I'd like to understand the grammar. Thanks.

Best I have so far is "via ora silva." I live on Edgewood Street, and the house number disappeared during construction. I will replace the street number, but it now occurs to me to write the address above the front door using Roman numerals and the Latin version of the street name.

I guess "Edgewood Street" would be "Street at the Edge of the Woods" (or the edge of the forest).

What's the best way to say that in Latin? Would "Via Ora Silva" be correct?

Thanks.

I live on Edgewood Street, and the house number disappeared during construction. I'll put new numbers up, but it occurs to me to put the Roman numerals along with the Latin street name above the front door. I need help with the Latin. Thanks.

The first quarter half moon is almost directly overhead in the Los Angeles area on March 14th. I did some geometry on that, noting that the vernal equinox is approaching (March 20) with a full moon the next day -- very early Easter. The sun is over the Equator.

Are these things related? Maybe it's my imagination, but I don't recall the moon being quite as high in the sky as it is tonight.

Given that the moon passed through earth's shadow in tonight's lunar eclipse, why were the last light before totality and the first light afterwards both on the right side of the moon? I don't think solar eclipses work that way.

Assuming 29.5 days between full moons, I calculated this ought to happen roughly every 236 years. Wikipedia lists several years where February had no full moon, but <none listed> were leap years. Hint: For this to happen, there must be two full moons in <both> January and March ( one or two blue moons, depending on the definition you use).

My Calif. registration expires on March 14, and I plan to move to Michigan in mid-April. If I get new Calif. tags, I pay for a whole year, but I'll have to register it in Michigan by mid-May, I suppose. What's the best thing to do?

It occurs to me that a combined history and geography course on national and state boundaries would be interesting. Some topics might include: Why does Michigan have an Upper Peninsula? How did the "Florida Counties" east of the Mississippi become part of Louisiana? Why is Vermont a state, not combined with New Hampshire, and why was Vermont the 14th state but not the 14th colony? What happened to the Plimoth Colony? What is the Adams-Onis Line? Why is Idaho a state, and why does it have that odd shape? Why is the New York-Connecticut border bent along the Westchester-Fairfield line? Why is there a zigzag at the Cumberland River along the Kentucky-Tennessee border?

I think this stuff is interesting. Any thoughts?

When I went to work today (9/11/2006), I saw the flag at half staff. I asked at the front desk, "Who died?" They said it's at half staff because of 9/11. I said, "But those people died five years ago."

Has the American flag ever been at half staff before due to an anniversary? How about the anniversaries of (a) Pearl Harbor; (b) President Kennedy's assassination; (c) President Lincoln's assassination; (d) Martin Luther King's assassination; (e) the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana; (f) Christ's crucifixion; (g) the sinking of the Titanic; or (h) any other anniversary?

If all these answers are no, then what's different this time?

In 1905, an asker posed this question: "Can matter be transformed into energy?"

One answer said, "No, because both matter and energy are conserved, as basic principles of physics."

Some other guy, named Einstein, wrote a long essay on something called "relativity", containing a formula "e = mc^2", which he says allows matter to be transformed into energy.

No best answer was picked, so it went into voting. After several days, which answer do you think was chosen as best, and why?

Two week mid-October car camping trip beginning and ending in Las Vegas. Cross southern Utah (Zion, Bryce Cyn, N Rim Grand Cyn); go as far into SW Colorado (Rockies) as time permits. Return through northern New Mexico and Arizona.

What kind of weather conditions are we likely to encounter on this circle trip?