What are some positive or neutral behaviours of the upper class that could be adopted to make a person's class unidentifiable

This is extraordinarily dependent on where one lives. I see from your profile that you're Australian.

Here in the US, consciously adopting upper class affectations makes you look pompous. The tendency here is exactly the opposite: for the upper classes to play down, not for the lower classes to try to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 4:47 PM on July 25, 2008

There has to be an electrical connection along at least two of the edges to grant access to all the rows and columns.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 5:36 AM on July 25, 2008

Establishing a law for proper behavior but leaving out any form of enforcement or punishment doesn't make sense. Even if the old Testament doesn't explicitly include a charter for law enforcement, I think that the people of that time would have assumed it anyway.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:44 PM on July 24, 2008

Lithium batteries these days tend to die in about 3 years, unrelated to usage pattern. It's not a threshold thing; it's a gradual degradation which is caused by the underlying chemistry. Usually at about the three-year point the degradation is sufficient to render the battery useless.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 3:37 PM on July 24, 2008

It should be possible to do that using twelve piped SED calls:

cat sourcefile | sed s/0/0000/ | sed s/1/0001/ | sed s/2/0010/ | ... | sed s/F/1111/ >destfile
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 3:49 PM on July 23, 2008

(It's been 25 years since I did much mucking with Unix; maybe there's something else that has to be in there. Something like sed -c "s/0/0000/" or something like that. My memory is growing dim.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 3:51 PM on July 23, 2008

Class Goat, that sed command line is sick and twisted :-)

Remember the first rule of engineering: a stupid idea that works isn't stupid.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 7:00 PM on July 23, 2008

Oops: ...using twelve piped SED calls...
That would be "sixteen piped SED calls". Anyway, you knew what I meant.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 8:54 PM on July 23, 2008

If you pick the cat up and pet him a lot of the time after he does it, you may be seeing the result of operant conditioning.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 12:10 PM on July 23, 2008 marked best answer

Are the TV shows anything like actual witness/suspect interviews?

Is anything in television drama ever like reality? Not that I've ever noticed.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 10:45 PM on July 22, 2008

Virtually any of the many documentaries hosted by Peter Ustinov should fit your bill nicely.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 6:18 PM on July 21, 2008

Likewise, any of the documentary series hosted by Michael Palin (e.g. "Pole to pole").
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 6:20 PM on July 21, 2008

Burns doesn't talk about himself, and he doesn't narrate his own documentaries anyway.

You haven't heard of Peter Ustinov? My God, man. He was an utterly fascinating man; it's always a pleasure to spend time with him.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 6:45 PM on July 21, 2008

Read through the blog posts of Michael J. Totten and Michael Yon. Both of them have spent a great deal of time in Iraq attached to various units.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 1:56 PM on July 21, 2008

Um, I wonder if you have intestinal parasites? It's pretty rare now in the industrialized world, but it does happen.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 8:49 PM on July 20, 2008

I think what you need to do is learn how to use a hoe. (I'm completely serious about that.) It's fast and efficient. Once you've hoed an area, then you use a garden rake to clear all the grass/weeds out which you cut loose with the hoe.

It's a lot faster and easier than hand-weeding. (That's why the hoe was invented.) But if you've never used one before, you'll probably use it wrong. The goal isn't to cut off the weed at surface level. You want to cut it off well under the surface.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 3:17 PM on July 19, 2008

By the way, it's a lot easier to use a hoe if the soil is dry. When it's wet, the soil sticks to the hoe.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 1:16 PM on July 20, 2008

Any of the series done by David Attenborough should fit your bill nicely. "Life on Earth" and "The Living Planet" are both excellent. The first is a series of shows about different plant or animal groups showing all the places they live and how. The second slices it the other way and concentrates on specific ecosystems.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 1:12 PM on July 20, 2008

And what would be the rationale behind not teaching it?

Amendment I: Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion, or preventing free exercise thereof...

When it comes to primary or secondary school, the entire subject of religion is kryptonite as of a series of important court decisions from about 50 years ago.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 12:58 PM on July 19, 2008

I'm sure that's photoshopped.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:25 AM on July 19, 2008

If you have to buy stock in order to get paid, then effectively he's going to be paying you with your own money for quite a while.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 12:39 PM on July 18, 2008

The most extreme case of strange floor numbering in a casino that I know of is the Rio Suites in Vegas.

It turns out that the number 4 (四 shi ) is considered unlucky by the Japanese. That's because it sounds the same as 死 shi which means "death". There are no floors at the Rio which include the digit "4" in their floor numbers, because they get a lot of Japanese clientele.

Or so I was told... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 6:13 PM on July 17, 2008

There are skyscrapers in San Francisco where entire floors are reserved for counter-weight systems to dampen back and forth movement during earthquakes and wind storms.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:11 PM on July 17, 2008

You may want to deactivate the smoke detector in your apartment. (Don't forget to reactive it when it's all over.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 10:26 PM on July 16, 2008

It would help a lot of we knew what kind of computer you're using, and what operating system, and what browser.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:42 PM on July 16, 2008

Is there a curfew?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 6:52 AM on July 16, 2008

I'm not really sure that's going to be all that easy. If I were a foreign businessman and needed American legal advice, I'd hire an American law firm. Even if it would cost more, it would be worth it. (There are times when "cheaper" is no bargain.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 4:31 PM on July 15, 2008

For some markets they do use more efficient means. NASDAQ has no trading pit; it's all computerized.

But the transition from the old way to a new computerized system would be difficult and expensive and could cause problems (bugs!), and the old way works. Why fix what ain't broke?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 4:26 PM on July 15, 2008

In "An Officer and a Gentleman", Louis Gossett Jr played a drill instructor. I saw an interview with him where he said that he really did get into that mode during filming, and as a result was rather difficult to be around on the set.

He also said that the directors gave him a chance to read the script, and he said he wanted to play that role. They said, OK we'll rewrite it to make it more sympathetic. His response was, No, I want to play... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:58 AM on July 15, 2008

This review:

On the downside, as Apple warned, the 3G radio consumes a lot more power than EDGE, leading to a noticeable decline in battery life. I tend to travel a lot and really pushed the battery on my first generation iPhone, but could usually make it through a business day. After a couple of days of testing, it was clear I'll need a portable battery pack to survive my trips with the iPhone 3G. (I ordered the APC UPB10, which looks compact enough to carry in my bag,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:52 PM on July 14, 2008 marked best answer

CNC is right, by the way. If the phone can't find a carrier inside your building, it will burn the battery trying to search for one.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:54 PM on July 14, 2008

Where will you be coming from when you go to Japan? The rules vary depending on your origin.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 6:34 PM on July 13, 2008

Detecting whether the link is down is very easy. Run a continuous "ping" job in a DOS box (I'm assuming Windows here) while you try to use your torrent client. (Pinging Google is a pretty good test.) Make sure the ping has a reasonably long timeout, and see if you lose pings while the torrent is running.

Detecting whether they've throttled bandwidth isn't so simple.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:05 PM on July 12, 2008

Wouldn't enzyme activity in the liver continue to break down ethanol after death? At least for a while?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 4:31 PM on July 12, 2008

A breadwinner should stop thinking about his own self-actualization and start thinking about his family. Forget about which one is better for you. Which one is better for your kids?

Having a regular job is better than consulting for a number of reasons, not least of which is health coverage and company-paid life insurance.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 6:21 PM on July 11, 2008

Pretty much that's right. The only other choice is a passenger liner, and there really aren't any like that anymore. Some cargo ships carry passengers, but not many, and it isn't as cheap as you might think because it takes several days. Fact is, air travel is the only reasonable way to do it. And if you book your tickets sufficiently far in advance, it'll be cheaper than going by ship, not to mention faster and a lot more comfortable.

Why would you not want to fly?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 12:08 AM on July 11, 2008

What I was talking about as "less comfortable" was traveling by cargo ship.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 12:39 AM on July 11, 2008

Not today, but soon, she needs to lawyer up. The guy who set the fire is liable for her loss and she needs to decide whether she wants to sue.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 12:11 AM on July 11, 2008

From the reading I've done, serious addiction (to the point of really causing serious withdrawal) takes daily dosage for 6-9 months.

3 pills isn't enough to cause withdrawal afterwards.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 5:19 PM on July 10, 2008

There's no way to evaluate that. Too many factors are involved, and too many of those are subjective.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 11:03 AM on July 10, 2008

All USB 2.0 compliant devices are supposed to be downward compatible with USB 1.1.

In terms of communications, yes. In terms of power, not necessarily. USB is not just a communications medium, it's also a power connection. USB 2 supports current draw of up to 1.5 amps for battery rechargin. USB 1.1 is limited to 500 mA, and the host has the option of limiting it to 100 mA, which most laptop 1.1 interfaces do.

A lot of USB 2... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:14 PM on July 8, 2008

Battery Charging Specification 1.0: Released in March 2007.
Adds support for dedicated chargers (power supplies with USB connectors), host chargers (USB hosts that can act as chargers) and the No Dead Battery provision which allows devices to temporarily draw 100 mA current after they have been attached. If a USB device is connected to dedicated charger or host charger, maximum current drawn by the device may be as high as 1.5 A. (Note that this document is not distributed with USB 2.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 11:40 PM on July 8, 2008

Fanboy and Fangrrl (note the spelling).

"Otaku" has that meaning in Japan, but in the US fans of anime have co-opted the word, so it can't be used here the way you want to.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 4:50 PM on July 7, 2008

This has a bunch of specific types of fanatic fans.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 12:56 AM on July 8, 2008

The goal is to create a trapped airspace to act as insulation. In double- or triple-paned windows, it's glass that does it. But if it's a rental, that's not really possible for you.

I've seen kits offered which allow you to tape a piece of transparent plastic on the inside of the window frame, in order to create such a trapped volume of air. They aren't very expensive, and they can be removed easily when time comes to move out. The disadvantage is that like any plastic... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 9:27 PM on July 7, 2008

What kind of USB devices do you have? Sometimes a USB handshake timeout can lock up XP on a single-processor computer.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 5:34 PM on July 7, 2008 marked best answer

Most desktop computers are designed to take DIMMs in pairs. The hardware won't run with a single DIMM in.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 8:20 PM on July 7, 2008

You have to have the right attitude here: you are taking a significant risk in order to try to improve the human condition. You are taking a risk in order to help develop a drug that can help people who are sick. You are taking that risk because someone has to do it. If no one does, no new drugs will appear and the people who need those drugs will continue to suffer.

If you're not willing to accept that risk, you shouldn't participate in the program. Let someone else be... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 8:15 PM on July 7, 2008

Lucifer's Hammer.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 4:52 PM on July 7, 2008

Crab fishing in the Bering Strait.

Pay is excellent, conditions are horrible, hours are long. It's also pretty dangerous.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 4:45 PM on July 7, 2008