sectrix

As far as consumer electronics go, which do you think would cause more wear: power cycles (on, then off) or sheer number of hours used?

I've been mulling this in my head the last few days and can't think of anything definitive. This mostly stems from wondering if I should, say, shut the TV off if I'm going to be gone for 30 minutes, or leave it on so I don't turn it off then on again.

What do you think?

I have a proposal to write for my english class. We need to take a real problem, and come up with a completely off-the-wall solution. Facts, figures, even quotes can be completely made up.

This is something akin to Johnathan Swift's "A modest proposal" where he proposed eating babies to solve the problem of the poor in 18th century Ireland. Totally irrational and tongue in cheek, but he presented logically valid arguments. At the same time he managed to make some real points in his proposal.

I'd like to know what some of you think. So far, I've got:

1)save the environment by killing all the humans

2)end all war by America conquering the world

3)end racism by requiring everyone to paint themselves purple

I'll need a logical argument, even if the facts are false and the proposal misguided.

Ideas as crazy as you can - extra points for funny ones.

A little involved, but bear with me:

I'm considering writing a story. In the story the characters have a need to cross the ocean by ship. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world, so navigational aids like GPS will not be available, nor will there be any kind of maritime policing or regulations to comply with.

From those who know, how difficult is it to pilot (is that even the right verb?) an ocean going vessel? Although I am rather mechanically inclined, I have only a vague idea of how they work. It seems most operations could be carried out from the wheelhouse?

What is the minimum size of a ship to make a trans-oceanic voyage?

I don't mean like plane, train or automobile travel. More like walking or bicycle. Songs conjuring ideas of wilderness, freedom, rough living, away from home, etc.

Quite a bit of detail, but bear with me. I want to include anything that may affect this - cause frankly I'm stumped.

The vehicles are a 97 Expedition and a 98 F150. Expedition has ABS and four wheel disk. F150 has disk/drum and seems to only have ABS on the back, cause I don't see the typical valve body. Only a block with an electrical connection to the rear line on the master cylinder.

The Expedition blew a brake line. The reservoir was run dry. Line was replaced.

The F150 got a full brake job including new calipers and wheel cylinders. The two rear brake lines were also replaced cause they looked kinda flaky.

My dad and I bled brakes for longer then it took to put 'em on. In both cases we couldn't get the pedal to stiffen. Started the car and did the typical push and release at each bleeder valve. From the farthest away wheel we worked our way around. Must have ran a quart and a half of brake fluid through each vehicle. Get a solid stream of clean fluid, no bubbles. The pedal never stiffened, and we went around multiple times. No leaks or wetness anywhere - we can visually see all parts of the lines.

I've bled brakes before on a bunch of other cars, including an 01 Crown Vic, a 97 F150, and the very same Expedition we worked on. My dad has done this probably more times then he can remember. We've never had this problem.

Any ideas?

I'm considering moving soon from the suburbs of Chicago to Hillsboro Indiana. I'm 25, so I plan to work for a year or so then continue my education at Purdue. I'd like to know, what are some of the day-to-day differences between the two? A few things I've thought of and found out: No public indoor smoking in Illinois at all - smoking indoors is allowed in many places in Indiana. No (fun) fireworks in Illinois - most fireworks are legal in Indiana. I'd like to know a few other things: FSCs required in Indiana (obviously I'm a smoker)? What are the state taxes like? Emissions required? Crazy toll prices that you have to get a transponder to avoid (thank you iPass)? Firearms laws? Dry counties? Suburban vs rural living? I've lived next door to the state all of my life and have come to realize I don't know too much about the legal and cultural differences.

So what it's like being a Hoosier?

I've got a Sony kdl 32m3000 LCD TV, about a year out of warranty and the video quality is extremely poor. Sometimes, there are four pink bars and lines over the screen when I turn it on. When I try to use any of the inputs the video is blurry, laggy and over-contrasted.

I've looked around the internet and have seen a few other people complain of this, but with no other information. Any ideas here?

I would assume they are still radioactive at the least...

Did the government build over it? Is it just a wasteland?

Anyone have anything better than an educated guess?

I've got the instrument cluster out already, but the light bulb holders have some goofy mechanism to prevent them from turning accidental. I was able to get out the smaller ones by pinching the clips, but the larger holders are far too rigid. I cant see anything to pinch or push or pull - and if I turn it too hard it will definitely break. Anyone know how to remove these?

I think it was WW1. On Christmas at several areas on the front trenches the fighting stopped and the enemy actually came over and the troops celebrated Christmas together. They smoked and drank and sang. I do think that it was a fantastic occurrence - enemies coming together for something true and good - but would you have participated? I think it would have been a wonderful thing to be a part of but would have confused the whole us-against-them rhetoric. How can you shoot at someone when you find he is another soldier just as miserable and homesick as you? I don't know if I would have wanted any part of it, and if I did I probably would have went AWOL after that.

I got Star Ocean - The Last Hope and I was really enjoying it. Was making solid leveling progress, story started to get interesting, Edge was mackin on Reimi.....then it froze, and I had to repeat four hours of gameplay. Then it froze again. And again. And on the fourth time I broke the disk in half. I was about to beat a boss after a long dungeon with no save points and it froze. Out of the 35 hours I put into it, I had to repeat nearly half of it. Never had this happen with any games, ever (and I even play PC games).

Now that I've gotten that off of my chest, I'm looking to start over with something more fulfilling. I have a few RPGs here I've never really touched, and was wondering which you all think I ought to play. My biggest draw to this genre is story. I love RPGs because its like playing a book. So keeping in mind epic story arcs and characters who you actually become attached to are my favorite elements of RPGs, which should I play? Or do you have a better suggestion of one to buy? (I own PS2 & XBox 360).

- FF IX

- FF Tactics

- FF X

- FF XII

- Mass Effect

- Saga Frontier

- Threads of Fate

(Already played Fallout 3, Morrowind, Oblivion, and FF VII to death.)

I'll be riding Adventure Cycling's Transamerica trail from Virginia to Oregon starting next month. I live near Chicago and I'm having trouble finding a way to get my bike there. Most likely I'll try to find a way to do it through Amtrak. Has anyone had to transport their bike to the east end of this trail before? And how did you do it? Does anyone have any experience bringing a bike on Amtrak? Any expierence with Amtrak Express Shipping? There are no cars with bike racks on the route I'll be taking, and I can get checked baggage only as far as Richmond (trail starts in Yorktown). If I were to take a bus from the train station to Yorktown (Ft. Eustis - Newport News), I would have to get off at Charlottesville instead of Richmond so the bus station is within walking distance (bikes need to be in a box for Greyhound too). Any ideas?

Just curious