There is an elephant on the loo! - Page 17

[sneekula]

Hi, i'm schoooler

I’m new to the forum and just saying hello.

Good grief, the forum is going nuts!

[GrimJack]

You can roll-start your manual transmission car in reverse.
It constantly surprises me that people do not even see it as possible - I just helped a couple guys start their car, they were trying to push it forward but that was slightly uphill so they were going to turn it around; when I explained how easy rolling it backwards was, they were skeptical but it pop-started so fast I fell on my face (in my youth I would have rolled to my feet but being old and slow and laughing too hard, I needed help up).
I roll-started my old Corolla for 9 months by rolling it backwards because I could put my back to the door frame, push, and hop in to start it. The gear ratio in reverse is even lower than that in first so it actually starts easier in reverse.

[Ene Uran]

You can roll-start your manual transmission car in reverse.
It constantly surprises me that people do not even see it as possible - I just helped a couple guys start their car, they were trying to push it forward but that was slightly uphill so they were going to turn it around; when I explained how easy rolling it backwards was, they were skeptical but it pop-started so fast I fell on my face (in my youth I would have rolled to my feet but being old and slow and laughing too hard, I needed help up).
I roll-started my old Corolla for 9 months by rolling it backwards because I could put my back to the door frame, push, and hop in to start it. The gear ratio in reverse is even lower than that in first so it actually starts easier in reverse.

What happens if you accidentally put it in first gear?

Peanuts are an ingredient of dynamite

oh, i remember the movie, MOST WANTED. i think peanut butter has something to do with the bombing scene.

[Robdale]

Generally, we breathe thru one side of our nose. But, exactly after every 1 1/2 hr our breathing process changes to other side of the nose.

[GrimJack]

Generally, we breathe thru one side of our nose. But, exactly after every 1 1/2 hr our breathing process changes to other side of the nose.

Where did you pick this up? It seems counter-intuitive.

And, right now, when I close my eyes and pay attention to my breathing, I feel can feel the air moving through both nostrils.

I am going to have to vote bogus on this.

[GrimJack]

What happens if you accidentally put it in first gear?

The same thing as if you were to put it into reverse when trying to roll start forward - nothing; but it is pretty difficult to do as they are usually at opposite ends of the pattern - in my Corolla, it was 1st upper left and reverse lower right

[GrimJack]

I would love to see that tested :D

They gotta come up with something when industrial accidents happen - tests were performed, studies were done, life went on but with no pinky.

[GrimJack]

The movie "Birds" by Hitchcock was based on an actual incident in a nearby beach-side town.

The birds are thought to have been poisoned by domaic acid; algae blooms produce the neurotoxin and it climbs the food chain.

[Thinka]

... you would lose about 60% of the strength of your grip.

How does one calculate this? The "60% strength of grip" I mean?

[vegaseat]

The movie "Birds" by Hitchcock was based on an actual incident in a nearby beach-side town.

The birds are thought to have been poisoned by domaic acid; algae blooms produce the neurotoxin and it climbs the food chain.

True, but the birds weren't attacking people, they were just flying into things. Hitchcock made something more interesting out of this.

Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's movie, Psycho, which actually took 7 days to shoot.

[GrimJack]

How does one calculate this? The "60% strength of grip" I mean?

Well, I am unable to grab the original discussion as it was a PBS series and not so easily inserted into this format; so the technical version goes:

This study evaluated the flexor digitorum profundus quadriga effect by mimicking stiffness of one finger and observing its effect on the strengths of the other three fingers of the same hand. Thermoplastic wedges were used to simulate mild, moderate and severe stiffness of each finger and the individual strengths of each finger during power grip were measured using a digit-gripTM dynamometer in ten healthy adult volunteers. Middle, ring, and little fingers strength diminished significantly (P < 0.05) when each of the other fingers, including the index, was stiffened. Index finger strength was largely unaffected by simulated stiffness of the other fingers. The degree of simulated stiffness influenced the strength of the other fingers, but there was considerable intersubject variability, suggesting that the significance of the quadriga effect varies between individuals. An anatomical basis for our findings is suggested.

then

The doubling of the grip force induced complex changes of
the both normal and tangential digit forces (Figure 1). After
grip force doubled, the percentages of the individual finger’s
contribution to the grip force at all torque values changed
(Figure 2) although the changes were minimal at the zero
torque. The contribution of antagonist fingers (fingers
producing moments in the direction of the external torque)
increased (e.g. during supination efforts of 460.6 Nmm, the
contribution of the little finger changed from 6% to 13%, see
Figure 2). The doubling of the grip force also affected the
percentage contribution of the normal and tangential forces
into the total moment production: the contribution of the
moment of the tangential forces increased (e.g. during
supination efforts of 460.6 Nmm, the contribution of the little
finger changed from 38% to 55%).

On another level, if you use the 2-handed grip on a Samarai sword

A Samurais Power Is In His Little Finger, Not His Samurai Sword

. I can't seem to find the amputation references (shite, I just saw them somewhere during this search but, screwt - the reference was 2 styles of amputation of the little finger++ should the amputation be at the knuckle where the finger meets the palm or should the amputation remove the little finger all the way to the wrist, turns out the younger the person, the more of the finger you want to keep because the widths of the palm adds a great deal of leverage to the grip.

If you need more info, I will dig deeper and maybe a transcript of the PBS program

[GrimJack]

While researching my answer above, I found this: A Samurai's Power Is In His Little Finger, Not His Samurai Sword

[Thinka]

While researching my answer above, I found this: A Samurai's Power Is In His Little Finger, Not His Samurai Sword

Thank you very much sir, I now have another interesting dinner party topic for conversation :-p.

[Thinka]

"If you feel a reluctant sneeze coming on, look at a bright light and it'll come" - one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard, but is there any truth to it??

[ahihihi...]

folks

[Nick Evan]

"If you feel a reluctant sneeze coming on, look at a bright light and it'll come" - one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard, but is there any truth to it??

This actually works for me. For some reason TL's work better then lightbulbs... Go figure :-/

[Ene Uran]

"If you feel a reluctant sneeze coming on, look at a bright light and it'll come" - one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard, but is there any truth to it??

Vision is one of the most brain intensive task, and I can see how this would mask your will not to sneeze.

Close your eyes, if you want to think!

[GrimJack]

"If you feel a reluctant sneeze coming on, look at a bright light and it'll come" - one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard, but is there any truth to it??

Actually there is quite an interesting correlation in that statement. The extreme of this is called "Photic sneeze reflex". This can be quite a handicap (imagine a fighter pilot breaking out of a cloud into the bright sunshine and sneezing - eyes snap shut, and the next thing you know they're picking him up off the landscape with a rake.
In a study of 460 subjects, 24% sneezed in bright light.

[vegaseat]

Laos is the most bombed country in the world.

[sneekula]

Chile's chain of volcanoes is the second-largest in the world after Indonesia.

[Norbert X]

Lots of people eat dog poop and know one knows why.

[Gerryx1]

Scientists are working on the prospects of makinng diamonds from
peanut butter, by the use excessive pressure nth times greater than that at the centre of the earth. Not a joke.

[sneekula]

Lots of people eat dog poop and know one knows why.

I don't eat it, and don't know anybody that eats it. I do step in it on occasion, that is disgusting enough!

[Gerryx1]

I don't eat it, and don't know anybody that eats it. I do step in it on occasion, that is disgusting enough!

I agree, I don't think that a lot of people would eat dog poop, but it might be no more harmful than some of the stuff the put in their gut.

[sneekula]

The US Consumer Confidence Index has fallen to less than 25%, the lowest ever (well at least since 1967).

The good news is that the sales of US gun manufacturers have shot up! There is still confidence in guns?

[Norbert X]

I was joking when I said people eat dog crap, but it's true?

[Gerryx1]

I was joking when I said people eat dog crap, but it's true?

Of course you were, so was I, but what's wrong with a laugh, except, of course, you have to laugh with the othr side of your face.

[vegaseat]

Our Milky Way galaxy has a black hole at its center that is about 3 million times the mass of the sun.

There's a pretty good correlation between the size of a black hole and the size of the galaxy that it's in.

[GrimJack]

Laos is the most bombed country in the world.

Oh, Yeah! I remember a photo essay about life after the 15 years of carpet bombing; one pic in particular stood out - the walls of the man's house was built entirely from different sized artillery brass!

The Plain of Jars is situated in Xieng Khuang Province in the east of Laos, an area which was clusterbombed beyond oblivion during the war years. There are craters all over the hillsides and unexploded ordnance still being slowly swept out. A roaring trade in post-military scrap metal supplements the incomes of subsistence farmers, and old artillery shells get recycled as troughs for animals, as flowerpots and as decorations to impress naïve young ladies. This is a fragment of the munitions collection at my guesthouse, apparently all gathered in the area.