For flights that are long enough to matter, trans-Atlantic for example, I always try to schedule the flight so that arrival is early-to-mid morning. That way I have motivation to stay active for the rest of the day and that seems to speed the acclimatization. This can lead to some departure times which are a bit…

I hope that little car in the clip is electric. Otherwise leaving the hatch open is a sure way to load the inside of the vehicle with carbon monoxide. Invariably the owner’s manual will warn agains such exploits.

Hint: if you are so wasted that you can’t find your church key then you don’t really need that beer. Put it down and back away slowly...

That one didn’t bite me but there were enough other bugs introduced in the new version that I had to roll it back on my daily driver. Imagine how hard MS had to work to break sticky notes.

Yeah, I have one. Don’t know if the back room in my basement rates as a ‘data center’ or not but that is where the stainless rolling bakery rack housing my home server and two BOINC client machines live. Having a single monitor at stand-up height, keyboard, and trackball (mice - ugh!) seemed the only rational…

If 50% works for you, fine, but that is not necessarily the magic number. Everything depends on the amount of oats and water and the size and shape of the bowl. I use 3/4c of ‘old fashioned’ oats and 1-1/3c of water plus a bit of salt in a rather large bowl (8" X 3") that flares out quite a bit. For my combination I…

Linseed oil is fine and is even used as a nutritional supplement (flax seed oil) but one needs to watch out for ‘boiled’ linseed oil sold for woodworking purposes since it has a dryer/hardener chemical added to speed polymerization which contains heavy metals. In theory once the oil has polymerized this dangerous…

Two, schmoo. I find that seven accounts serve my needs best. The main checking account is where all incoming money goes automatically but, just as automatically, it is disbursed to external interest-bearing accounts: savings, escrow (which pays for taxes and home insurance and minor repairs), cars (which is accruing…

It certainly does not work for me — it takes me to my ‘home’ page every time which is exactly what I didn’t need.

It seems excessive. Whipping in half-and-half instead of milk and gently cooking in butter (and knowing when to stop cooking) will produce flavorful perfectly moist (but not runny) scrambled eggs. Just remember that, if the eggs seem perfectly cooked in the pan, they will be overcooked on the plate and on the palate.

I went a bit further. You can buy small dial probe thermometers at any HVAC parts shop for a few dollars each. I drilled perfectly-sized holes in both my return duct and supply plenum right at the furnace and inserted the probes of the thermometers into the holes. Now I can see the temperature delta at the furnace at…

So a mixture of 43% ethanol, 57% water and a few microscopic traces of other compounds is somehow not 'chemical'? Damn! I guess I wasted that time in school...

If you go Religious Studies/Theology route and have a show-biz personality and have the scruples of a used-car salesman you could always start your own megachurch yielding unlimited untraceable nontaxable income. Actually, all you need is a sufficiently large flock of unquestioning sheep and you can skip the degree…

I did a major dent repair on my Subaru a couple of years ago using a similar method: instead of boiling water I used an industrial-strength heat gun (very gingerly to avoid blistering the paint). The front of the Subie was pretty sad with the under-bumper area being pushed in so far that the foglight was aimed…

The best solution I've found for trans-Atlantic flights, and it is by no means perfect, consists of 1) a red-eye flight that arrives in the mid-AM hours, 2) a pair of high-attenuation ear plugs, 3) a Xanax [possibly washed down with a Heineken]. Of course even this will not help if you are on a flight with screaming…

I was just thinking that. I've got a nice workshop, a router for the shaping, the ability to make a jig for repeatability, some nice uber-thin plywood, and some veneer to pretty up the outside. All I'd need is a couple of o-rings and I'm sure that they won't be hard to come by.

Patently absurd advice in that it takes nothing beyond gross income into account. What happens if you are a person who keeps cars (nearly) forever? (I am one such - 10 to 15 years is normal for me) What if your disposable income is very low despite a largish gross income?

"...you can print vibrant color on a monotone laser printer"

I guess it comes down to what is an emergency and what is just part of normal everyday life.

When things are going well of a morning, my karma is not in deficit, and the phase of the moon is propitious I find that I can cook three three-minute soft eggs and peel them without breaking. I start them cold, wait until they come to a boil, back off to a bare simmer, and then empty the pan at the three-minute…