Um, more inside is your friend.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 12:36 PM on August 29, 2008

About 30 years ago, I got an eardrum broken and didn't know it until it got infected and I lost the hearing in that ear for about a week, and then both ears for another week. (I had just gotten a new job, which I got fired from for being deaf, which was fair, as I was not hearing impaired when they hired me.)
Back then when you broke an eardrum, they picked the scab off with a needle to prevent the hole from closing around the scab and healing with a hole in it. Twice a week. For... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by unrepentanthippie at 2:58 PM on August 28, 2008

Um, I got a window insisting on installing some anti-viral thingie, and the only available button was "accept and install", no X in the corner. It took Task Mangler to get it. This was the first site of the day, so I don't think it was left over from somewhere else.
(Yeah, my definitions are out of date on all the popup killers, but still, it looked like a nasty one, so I thought I'd mention it. I don't like things with no X option on them. You should have the right to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by unrepentanthippie at 10:43 AM on August 23, 2008

FWIW, I (not me, the SO, actually, who is not to be trusted) got something a couple of weeks ago that ate all the previous restore points completely. (To piggyback, anybody else get something like this lately?)

I've had pretty good luck in the past with restore, although I usually have to "restore last good config" first in stubborn cases, then go to the restore point in Windows.

Disclaimer: I'm really good with DOS, my Windows is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 4:14 PM on August 16, 2008

Your local florist would be able to find out if they have organic, pesticide-free ones, and I'd go with a smaller florist. A big shop might not honestly know and could be mistaken, but a smaller shop is unlikely to lie to you if they don't know. Usually the owner deals with the vendor directly in a smaller shop and could find out or order them for you.
The rose water sounds like a good deal though, and carnations are edible if pesticide-free also, as decoration. (I had a kid who... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 1:31 PM on August 16, 2008

Try Sierra Trading Post.
They specialize in small lots, sometimes of odd sizes, and stock comes in and goes out fairly quickly. They do a ton of outdoorwear, and they have a killer search function. Things are only a percentage of the original price, too.
If you don't see what you want, keep checking back. It sounds like the kind of thing they get a lot of.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 4:02 PM on August 14, 2008

It's been a horrible year for Japanese beetles in IL; nobody seems sure why. I started to notice them about 2 months ago, and that's about their normal life span. They may have died of old age. The bad news is, they lay eggs. Yeah, don't use the traps. You attract them from a long ways and only catch a percentage of them in the traps, leaving the survivors free to hold orgies in your garden.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 12:45 AM on August 14, 2008

Thirding Boomshine.

It's pretty, no timing, makes pretty noises that can be disabled, and you can't lose. There are 12 levels, and if you don't make it, you just do the same level until you either make it or get bored, and mostly you can make it. Perfect timewaster.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 1:09 PM on August 13, 2008

Just another thought.
I agree it's the strap and I can remember some kinds of plastic having an oniony undertone to the plastic stink. (Maybe related to whether it's cheap plastic?)
I'd be tempted to remove the strap and just stick in a closed container of dry baking soda a few days. Anything hot seems to run a risk of heat distortion. If it works, you'd probably have to repeat it every so often. It'll probably out gas that smell forever. Replacing it would be ideal,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 1:02 PM on August 13, 2008

Also greatly in favor of the 364 day change, which makes things like this more efficient.
Either way works, but this way all the original history is right there, and those who worked on it the first time are likely to see it again this way, and that's the subset most likely to know something about the problem.
posted to MetaTalk by unrepentanthippie at 9:03 PM on August 12, 2008

I got nothin'.
One of the kids has reported numbers = colors since she was a toddler. We were amazed, but we never questioned her. She's now almost 40, and the same numbers are still the same colors. Her sister, 6 years younger, doesn't see them.
Her parents see nothing. I don't hear the sounds from the dots.
posted to MetaFilter by unrepentanthippie at 5:15 PM on August 7, 2008

An amazing number of folks have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Most of them bounce wildly up and down until the thyroid dies, which is a good thing, as then you can get thyroid replacement thyroid therapy and it's predictable. You get one dosage for the rest of whatever instead of playing whack a mole with it.
I'm a big fan of sea salt, which has all the trace minerals in it, but it does come with iodine added, if you look around.
I saw once somewhere that levothryroxine is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 9:15 PM on July 29, 2008

My kid, who had 10 cats (don't ask), did the experiment with everything on the market,and she reports Anti-Icky Poo is the way to go.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:47 PM on July 28, 2008

Back before they had baby formula, they made it out of condensed milk, water, and Karo syrup. They controlled the kid's regularity by adjusting the amount of syrup. It may only work on babies, it's just a data point.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 7:14 AM on July 22, 2008

Call the insurance company and ask about what your benefits are, and most of the insurance companies use the same deductible for an urgent care center that they do for a doctor's visit. Ask them if you can go to one without a referral from a your PCP (since you don't have one). You can ask who's on the list at the same time, or have them fax you the list, or most of them have the list posted on the web site anyway. Actually, it's likely you can find all this on the web site, except if you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 1:25 PM on July 20, 2008

Years ago, my mother was the farthest of 5 young girls standing under a tree that got hit by lightning. She was the only one who did not have permanent damage. The oldest girl, closest to the tree, lost the sight in one eye. My mother had lost touch with her of course, and got an address from the book left over from a ghost town reunion in the area, wrote to her, and a month later the lady hopped out of a car in front of Mom's house for a visit.
Apparently, in her late 80's, she... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by unrepentanthippie at 9:57 AM on July 13, 2008

White used to be managers/engineers/superintendants, and "safety guys".
Just FYI, stickers or paint used to be an OSHA violation, because it could hide cracks.
I think OSHA is all but gone, (along with safety guys) but it's just something to think about.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:10 AM on July 11, 2008

Clicked too fast.
It's a good idea to have a different color of some kind if you don't hang out on jobs much, because they'll try to keep you from getting killed. (It slows down the job.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:12 AM on July 11, 2008

I know of at least one guy who lost 100 lbs, and didn't need the CPAP, and pretty much whipped diabetes too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 5:52 AM on July 7, 2008

I used to do a little safety and you'd be amazed at what some idiots will do. My concern, if I worked for the company that made them, would be that it would get fired and need replacements, and some idiot would figure out a way to bypass the mechanism, change the blade, and "get this job back on the road". The first rule of safety is, you never run out of idiots.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:34 PM on June 28, 2008

Twice I sent objects to Greer SC, priority mail, and both times it took a month to get there. This may be specific to Greer; all post offices are different. But if it needs to be there Tuesday, I'd spend the money. If it would be nice if it got there Tuesday/Wednesday priority might be good enough. (Our local PO is so bad that apparently it's famous throughout the system. Life is a crapshoot.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 4:39 PM on June 27, 2008

I think "largely vegetarian" or "almost vegetarian" or something along those lines.

What you said was in response to a question you weren't expecting, and I can't find fault with saying "vegetarian" as a quick response. Do I think you need to become an actual vegetarian to make this not a lie? No, of course not. (My morality allows me to tell a lie only when the truth would be more harmful than a small lie, or oversimplification. This... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 5:42 PM on June 25, 2008

If you had recently lifted anything heavy with a less-than-empty bladder before this showed up, you should tell whoever you see. That's free, unsolicited advice from an ultra-sound technician, who said she sees a lot of Bad Things caused by that. If this does not apply, never mind.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 5:19 PM on June 21, 2008

All I know about it is what I read here, but everything I've seen here says if you have to use pepper spray, beat a hasty retreat, because it smells good to eat to a bear after it's gotten on foliage in the area. I didn't see that mentioned much, but it sounds like good advice, from others who know more than I do.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 5:11 PM on June 21, 2008

The trick to garbage bags is tape it or rubber band it in one place, and then do it again, above a towel around your leg. You can never get it completely waterproof, but the towel will catch the drips.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 7:00 AM on June 20, 2008

Second the epoxy or some kind of coating. Once removed, the teeth dry out and split in a fairly short time.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:53 AM on June 17, 2008

Knew a guy who ripped off 40 year old wallpaper and found a note on the wall with the date and "Never again!" under it.

I lived in a house for 10 years and always wondered why there were very narrow but very long straight creases randomly in the drywall. When we moved out and got the appliances away from the wall, it said Fuck in drywall mud in letters 6 feet high.
posted to MetaFilter by unrepentanthippie at 7:11 AM on June 3, 2008

.
posted to MetaFilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:42 AM on June 3, 2008

CKmtl:
I believe that's caused by an obstructed bile duct, and is called "greasy feces". Without bile, the grease doesn't get digested and it causes the thing to float.
IANAD, just wish I had managed to forget some of that biology over the years.
posted to MetaFilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:11 AM on June 3, 2008

No dial tone from inside and busy signal from the outside could be a dead short or the line has lost the ground. But yeah, the first thing to do is disco everything and start checking with one single line phone. If the phone company comes out, the first thing they will do is blame whatever's plugged into the system, so you want to get everything off before you call them (if you do). They only have to give you a dial tone to the network interface, which is the new name for the demarc. That's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 9:10 AM on April 20, 2008

Should have previewed, slow typist.
Yeah, what he said.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 9:12 AM on April 20, 2008

No need to be embarrassed or apologize whatsoever.
It was a very weird problem, and all the answers were great, and some day, somebody will go looking for the answer to something similar, find this thread, and will figure out their problem without even having to post a question.
You were looking for a local problem, as were we all, and nobody would have suspected that the telco themselves created the problem. (We all sort of assume that the signal they provide to the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 11:45 AM on May 17, 2008

Back in the day, most of those knobs were made of Melmac (tm), which was a special kind of plastic that would eventually dry out and become brittle, then crack into 2 halves and fall off.
Melmac was also used for the heat resistant handles on pans that went on the stove, and the heat would make it dry out faster, so they always cracked at the base, closest to the heat source, and then fall off.
Melmac was the first kind of "plastic" to be widely used... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:42 AM on May 14, 2008

aramaic is perfectly correct; the brown stuff was Bakelite, and that's what I get for trying to remember the 50's without enough caffeine. It wa a while back. Sorry.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 5:46 PM on May 14, 2008

"Need a New Drug"
"Codeine"
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:58 AM on May 14, 2008

Many factors involved, but most states are a little more touchy about drug offenses than some other kinds of legal problems.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:37 AM on May 12, 2008

I asked them to stop sending them and they do, but it seems like I have to call them every year, as eventually they start coming again.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:32 AM on May 12, 2008

Carbon tet has been outlawed in the US for decades, because on some sensitive people, even one exposure can kill your liver.
I'd suggest other solvents, like rubbing alcohol, first. There's no way of knowing if you are sensitive until your liver just fails.
(My father used to always use a pump full of the stuff to dry out the car's electrical system when it had drowned out, until it was banned. Then he had a heck of a time disposing of it. That was about the 60's.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 4:44 PM on May 11, 2008

If you go with the in apt washer option, you can hang stuff on plastic hangers (to prevent rust stains) and hang it on the shower curtain rod. The trick to it is to stick a floor fan in the bathroom and blow it towards the laundry. Assuming you don't stuff too much in one load, it can dry by morning, or the next evening at most. If it isn't dry by morning, you want to turn the hangers around backwards so the fan hits the other side.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 3:53 PM on May 11, 2008

For bonus points, nothing will shrink if dried this way.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 3:54 PM on May 11, 2008

It's been around forever. I've seen it with the punchline, "You're right, there is a difference."
My grandmather had a plate or something when I was a kid that had this on it, and I think it was vintage, if not antique, at that time and that must have been 50 years ago.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 5:33 AM on April 22, 2008

When you start flossing (you are going to, aren't you?) if your gums bleed a little, take some Vitamin C. It makes the capillaries less fragile and will help that, which is sort of alarming, if you're easily alarmed, and I think we've established that.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 8:15 PM on April 20, 2008

My kid, formerly of Seatle, would mention that when the wind comes up, you turn them on for a while, (or one cycle if they shut off by thermostat) because the wind will knock the trees into the power lines and you're going to lose power, but if you run them once before it dies, you probably will still be sort of comfy when they fix the power lines.

Anything that glows red hot, I'd be dubious about leaving unattended, but if the room is warm when you go to bed, it'll... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 8:03 PM on April 20, 2008

Depending completely on your age (or that of your passengers), reading glasses.
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 7:17 PM on April 20, 2008

Northern IL, slept through it.
Several years ago, there was one about halfway between Chicago & The River, which nobody slept through. The entire town went out in the streets in their jammies, all "WTF"? Fortunately, the Regional Distribution Center for Former Californians had provided one per block, who informed the locals, "It's an earthquake; go back to bed". Some of the locals were not quite right for some time after, however.
Some years... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by unrepentanthippie at 10:06 AM on April 19, 2008

I've owned a lot of refrigerators in my life, and almost all of them seem to keep the odors out of the fridge better than the freezer. (My theory is that there is some sort of odor control system in the fridge that doesn't reach to the freezer. Many of them brag of this feature, and you'd think it involves some kinda activated carbon thing, but I don't know.) Whatever it is, it doesn't work very well in the freezer.
I have used a flat container of baking soda with a large surface... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 7:00 PM on April 18, 2008

A similar story, not related, just similar.
I learned to read at maybe 4, (about 1951 or 52). and we used to visit Grandma out of state. Grandma had a lifetime supply of Reader's Digests, stacked in large piles behnd the coal oil stove,which kept one room warm. (It was not a bedroom.) When we visited, I taught myself to read them, because they were much higher levels and more interesting than what we had in school.
There was one wonderful story, of a flyer who was... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by unrepentanthippie at 9:11 PM on April 10, 2008

Many years after they invented the internet, I did Google some sites about landing without a parachute, and I found several of them. (Within the last 5 years.)
I never found my story, but I did find that every such site had notes about there being many other similar stories, and not of all of them had any details available. Apparently, there are many other such stories that are not well documented, and I never found my exact story on the 'net. Having seen the scars and heard this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by unrepentanthippie at 7:09 PM on April 16, 2008

Do not do anything that might personally identify you, yourself. This person is obviously violent, and you want to avoid becoming a target yourself. People get murdered in domestic violence situations, and you don't want to place yourself in harm's way.
Call the police if you hear sounds of domestic violence, and yes, logging it would be a good idea. You can decide later if you want to come forward with it, should the occasion arise, but that way you'll have it. If you happen to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 6:43 PM on April 16, 2008

Just list it like it was any other job and if the question comes up - which it may well based on what you've said about this guy's current notoriety - then you just say something like, "Yeah, I worked there. That was before all this happened. Then the opportunity at MostRecentJob came up, and it was more in line with my career ambitions so I took it." I wouldn't even suggest that you had suspicions about the place if you don't have to.

I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by unrepentanthippie at 3:22 PM on April 12, 2008