Random Thought of the Day

May 22nd, 2018 at 9:19:23 PM permalink
Wizard
Administrator
Member since: Oct 23, 2012
Threads: 239
Posts: 6095
Quote: Wizard
It has not gone unnoticed that Monet's four-month suspension ends this Friday. However, I have a strong suspicion he violated the multiple accounts rule at WoV, again, since the last sentencing. I reserve the right to consider actions at WoV in my admin decisions here, which I'm doing in this case. For the multiple account offense, I'm adding another two months to his sentence. We will revisit this again on June 6.


June 6 is coming up. I suspect Monet has been writing nasty comments about my YouTube videos, but can't prove it. Somebody please remind me to unban Monet here on 6/6. Afterward, I'll keep keeping a close eye on him.
Knowledge is Good -- Emil Faber
May 23rd, 2018 at 9:11:18 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: odiousgambit
Now, today, there often is just the asterisk, but no connecting footnote. Is this ignorance or what is it? I sometimes see it in disclaimers and things you have to agree to in order to use a product. But the asterisk connects to nothing.


I haven't seen that. It is often used to write offensive words without really writing them f**k, and it is heavily used in mathematics for different meanings, but I have never seen one disconnected to any footnote.
May 23rd, 2018 at 9:22:55 AM permalink
JimRockford
Member since: Sep 18, 2015
Threads: 2
Posts: 971
Quote: Pacomartin
I haven't seen that. It is often used to write offensive words without really writing them f**k, and it is heavily used in mathematics for different meanings, but I have never seen one disconnected to any footnote.

I've seen it online and I attribute it to the general sloppiness of the internet. Most often I believe it is in text that was copied and pasted and the footnote got left behind or the footnote was removed in some previous edit but the asterisk was overlooked.
The mind hungers for that on which it feeds.
May 23rd, 2018 at 9:38:05 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Sometimes an asterisk is used but the explanatory reference is effectively hidden somewhere so people are less likely to read it.

Example: Large type: Cars for six hundred dollars.*
Finding the asterisk in much smaller type and faint ink you find "on approved credit" somewhere on the reverse side of the advertisement.
May 25th, 2018 at 6:22:19 PM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18631
Quote:
The White Shark Café is a remote mid-Pacific Ocean area noted as a winter and spring habitat of otherwise coastal great white sharks.
The area, halfway between Baja California and Hawaii, received its unofficial name in 2002 from researchers at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station who were studying the great white shark species using satellite tracking tags.[1] They identified a zone with a radius of approximately 250 kilometres (160 mi) centered at approximately 23.37°N 132.71°W
Coordinates: 23.37°N 132.71°W
.[2]

Although the area had not previously been suspected as a shark habitat, when mapping the satellite tracking data, researchers discovered that members of the species frequently travel to and loiter in the area. The reasons for this behavior have not yet been identified. The area has very little food for the animals; researchers describe it as the shark equivalent of a desert.[1] Since both male and female great whites have been tracked there, one early hypothesis was that mating occurred there. Continued studies have revealed that juvenile sharks also travel to the area, suggesting the trip serves some other purpose.[3]
The sharks tracked to the area came from diverse rookeries along the North American coast. They typically took up to 100 days to arrive, traveling around 1 m/s, during which they make periodic dives as deep as 3,000 feet. While at the Café, they will dive to depths of 1,000 feet as often as once every ten minutes. The purpose of the dives, either along the journey or in the Café area, is unknown.[1]
By 2006, researchers had observed consistent migration and other behavior. Tracking data indicates that white sharks will leave feeding grounds near the coast in winter, travel to the Café, and some may even summer near Hawaii. But many linger in the "desert" where food is assumed to be scarce, often for months, before returning to the coast in time for the elephant seal breeding season (a favored prey). Researchers hope that tracking other species such as tuna may lead to an explanation based on a mobile food source.[4]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Shark_Café
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
May 31st, 2018 at 5:04:28 PM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 154
Posts: 5055
I've mentioned before that there is one element that is always included in a survival story, the true stories, where someone is lost: a plane or helicopter flies very close by, often right overhead, searching for the lost person or people ... they go nuts shouting and their hopes of rescue go sky high, but the searchers just don't see them.

Saw another one today about a guy who got lost in the jungle around the Mayan ruins, and the same thing happened. But this case was so bad he said he could see the people in the copter and details about them like having blond hair. Amazing.
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
May 31st, 2018 at 5:13:06 PM permalink
terapined
Member since: Aug 6, 2014
Threads: 73
Posts: 11786
Quote: Pacomartin
I haven't seen that. It is often used to write offensive words without really writing them f**k, and it is heavily used in mathematics for different meanings, but I have never seen one disconnected to any footnote.

In my travel agent sabre world
an * means - display

Whatever part on a passenger name record or reservation I want to look at
1st entry is always an asterisk that means the display and 2nd entry is what part of the PNR I want displayed
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own - Grateful Dead "Eyes of the World"
May 31st, 2018 at 5:39:30 PM permalink
terapined
Member since: Aug 6, 2014
Threads: 73
Posts: 11786
Watching the spelling bee on ESPN
I watched last year
I find the competition pretty entertaining.
They are spelling words I have never heard of
Amazing
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own - Grateful Dead "Eyes of the World"
June 1st, 2018 at 1:11:39 AM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18631
I wonder if anyone with land near the big active Hawaii volcano would be in the market to sell at a good price?
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
June 1st, 2018 at 7:54:59 AM permalink
beachbumbabs
Member since: Sep 3, 2013
Threads: 6
Posts: 1600
Quote: rxwine
I wonder if anyone with land near the big active Hawaii volcano would be in the market to sell at a good price?


I can probably help you find a realtor there if you are serious. I'm sure there are at least a few interested sellers, but they may have put a halt to transactions while the land is physically moving and growing.

That particular part of the Big Island is also very complicated by purist claims. Purist being my shorthand for Native Hawaiians making claims about the islands being taken by force and not legally belonging to interloper with deeds.

The Southern area has a large concentration of purists (trying to remember what they call themselves ), and much of the land is tied up in these issues being fought. A LOT of the property is actually on 99 year leases, rather than owned by the homeowner.

Here's an excerpt from a scholarly study on it:

Quote:
In Hawai‘i the economics are, perhaps, more critical for h a o l e who con-
tend that Native entitlements like the Hawaiian Homes Act, the Office of
Hawaiian Affairs, and even the private trust of the Kamehameha Schools
unconstitutionally or unfairly entitles a portion of the state’s citizenry on
the basis of race. In a place where over half of the land is held or contro l l e d
by the federal and state governments and fee-simple ownership is rare and
expensive, it is hardly surprising that Americans, unaccustomed to having
their opportunities limited, would question the land entitlements of Native
Hawaiians.


Anyway, there's a large separatist movement among Native Hawaiians (defined as those who occupied the islands before the whites arrived), whether to secede from the US, declare sovereignty return and return the descendents of Hawaiian monarchy to the throne, or some other autonomous configuration.

In many deeds, and supported by the government, only those with Hawaiian blood can own a large amount of the land there. Others (haole) can only lease. So buying there is complicated.
Never doubt a small group of concerned citizens can change the world; it's the only thing ever has