Ask MetaFilter posts by stavrosthewonderchicken

Tell me about running for mayor in (smalltown) Canada

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:01:24 -0800

Canadian politics: If you were thinking about running for mayor of a small town in Canada, what would you do? How would you prepare? What kinds of research would you do, and where would you find information to help you prepare effectively and do a better job if you were elected? What would you read or study? What problems would you expect to face? Where can you find information (online) about the basics of the Canadian mayoral and city/village council system?

Both hard info and anecdotes are welcome.

Coming and going in Korean and English

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:35:51 -0800

Languages: 'I'm coming' versus 'I'm going' in response to 'Come here!' So one of my students and I were talking about this, and I didn't have a good answer. In English, when your Mom says 'Come here!' the normal response is 'I'm coming'.

In Korean, the response translates directly to 'I'm going'. There's an interesting shift in perspective there (in English, I'm coming to you from your POV, in Korean I'm going over there from my POV), or interesting to me, at least, and one that I can't really explain, even by pulling explanations out of my butt, which is, I admit, my wont sometimes.

It's odd, because given the individual/group-centric cultural tendencies in play, I would have expected the opposite result. I expect that it may just boil down to English's tendency to respond to a question (unless it's 'do') or command using the same verb previously used, but I wonder if there's more happening.

So, yeah, two part question. Anybody have any ideas what's going on here, and for our speakers of other languages, which way do the languages you know express the motion in this situation?

Who's doing Fear and Loathing 2008 (and doing it well)?

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:00:23 -0800

So Hunter S Thompson's dead and I don't really know which writers to turn to, as the American election year gets underway, who can bring the mad skills, the savage wit, and the dedication to cutting through the usual bullshit. Wanna-be gonzo schtick I'm not so excited by; clear, fearless, honest voices for the win! Drug references optional. Your suggestions most welcome. I don't have access to any North American or European print publications, so, for me at least, I'd prefer writers whose work I can get to online.

Thanks!

Native Born requirement for Canada PM?

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:49:27 -0800

In America, you have to be born there to be President. Is there a similar law in Canada? Do you have to be Canadian-born to ever be Prime Minister, or just a citizen?

Good/bad/indifferent time to buy in to China funds?

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:27:11 -0800

Investment timing: what do you think of the timing at the moment for dropping money into China funds, or BRICs? I'm very much on-board and up-to-date on the impending recession (or worse) in America, the ongoing housing collapse, the devaluation of the dollar, and growing credit woes, for what it's worth. I'm also aware of the need to carefully investigate the fee structure of any potential investment. I am fairly risk-adverse, but wanting to diversify and see if I can bring in a little higher average rate of return over the whole portfolio.

The wrinkle here is that the currency I'd be buying in to a fund or funds with would be Korean won. (Let's say, if it's germane, that I'm thinking on the order of the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars, currently making about 6%, basically zero risk.)

The ones I'm looking at (although I am very much aware that 'past results are no guarantee of future performance') have averaged a 60%-100+% return in the past couple of years. Needless to say, that kind of thing is tempting indeed.

Any hard info, links, or just opinions would be most welcome, as I'm still far from fully-versed in this stuff.

Late meal diabetes risk?

stavrosthewonderchicken — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:43:58 -0800

Is there any connection between eating meals close to bedtime and elevated risk of developing diabetes? My wife has been convinced by Korean health TV shows that there's some kind of enormous increase in diabetes onset risk if you eat sooner than several hours before bedtime. I've searched like nuts for any research backup to this, to no avail. I am aware that there is increased diabetes risk for people of Asian descent (amongst other ethnicities), but I'm not in any of the high-risk groups, at least through descent. Any factual help?

Hostile aquisitions and stock prices -- what happens?

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:34:51 -0800

What tends to happen to a large, international company's stock price post-hostile acquisition in the case of the acquired company? Before the fact, their stock price tends to rise, as the acquisition target pumps up its stock price to make the acquisition more difficult and expensive for the predator.

What about afterwards? Is it possible to generalize?

Help me get past L1 support at Paypal. Please?

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 17 May 2007 21:12:48 -0800

Can anyone help me with escalating past first-level support on Paypal? It's an old old story with Paypal, apparently, but I'm almost at the end of my rope. Here's a (long, sorry) synopsis:

I've been using the form on the site for support, as that appears to be the only option other than phone, and I'm not keen about sitting on hold from Korea waiting for phone support.

The problem is a technical one on their end, very clear-cut, and I want to suggest the solution to someone who can actually do something about it rather than deal with more cut and paste stock answers that do not address the issue, from people pretending to be named 'Jason' or 'Michelle' rather than Sandeep or whatever.

Here's the problem: Paypal (no doubt at the behest of the Korean government) recently started requiring a Korean national ID number to make withdrawals to a Korean bank. This is a recent change.

Problem is (and is the same with many sites in Korea, which often require the ID# to register) that the verification algorithm they use (which was no doubt also supplied by the Korean gov't) does not recognize the format of the ID# of non-Korean residents' (like me), which is a little different. Yay.

So my first support request was about that.

The suggested solution from support: use my wife's ID number.

I entered her ID#, which verified OK, but when I got to the final withdrawal confirmation step, Paypal warned in BIG LETTERS that the transaction would fail if the account identifiers at the bank and at Paypal did not match exactly. Right. I stopped the transaction before confirmation.

Next support request outlined the problem. Their next response made no sense whatsoever and didn't address the issue. Par for the course, apparently.

So I figured OK, why not make a new Paypal account for my wife, transfer funds to that one, then she could withdraw to one of her accounts, yay all done and no problems because all the names and IDs would match up fine with the bank.

Problem: once a Korean national ID number is in Paypal's database, anywhere, for any user, even if you delete an account and make a new one, you can never use it again. Even if, as I say, it's not being used by a live account. Other problem: there's no way to edit, delete or otherwise see or alter a Korean National ID# that is registered against an account once it's been used (even without final confirmation being clicked) against a withdrawal transaction.

So now I've got my wife's ID number against my account (and there is no interface to change or delete it) and can't use it. I can't add my own ID, even if it worked (which it doesn't, which started all this), because there's no interface to do so.

I can't add my wife's correct ID to her account either, because the system says it's being used by someone else (me), even if I delete my account and register another brand new one (that is, it's perpetually in the database).

So: I can't get any kind of acknowledgement or comprehension of the issue out of first line support, it seems, and the solution is dead simple. Some UI is needed for editing of Korean National ID numbers, or failing that, I just want the IDs they've irrevocably registered (without anywhere saying that's how it works) against my and my wife's accounts deleted, so I can enter the correct ones.

TL/DR version: Anybody got any ideas how I can get past the L1 support to someone who can help? I just want to explain all this, and it's gotten to the point where I can't in their 1000-character-limit textbox, and their frontline support doesn't seem to be able to understand the issue or provide any kind of solution anyway.

(And yes, I know PAYPAL SCUKS!!1! and all that, but it was my only option in this situation, and I just want to get my funds out of there until they improve the situation for users (and particularly non-Korean users) in Korea.)

Back to the gym with a bad back

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 20:49:22 -0800

Can anyone offer advice for going back to the gym after a back injury and six months of downtime? I hurt my back at the gym more than six months ago. It turns out I had some long-term damage to three discs in my lower back due to compression, and that contributed to the eventual blowout. There is no rupture, but there is some disc compression.

Unfortunately none of the doctors or therapists I was seeing for a while after I blew my back out speaks any English, and so I have nobody to ask about advice for getting back into shape now that I'm itching to do so. I've gained back a fair bit of weight in the last six months (from my more-or-less optimal weight of about 95kg back up to about 110kg -- I'm not obese, but I am a large lad all 'round), and I want to get back into fighting trim, and strengthen my back and core muscles. I'll be heading back to the gym in a few weeks -- planning for three sessions a week, 90 minutes or so, probably, with some walking/hiking on the weekends.

I had been going to the gym regularly for a couple of years before the injury and had gotten into the best shape of my life, so I'm reasonably familiar with the equipment and gear.

Advice for things to do, and things to avoid, in terms of equipment or exercises, as I get back into it? I'll take all advice with a grain of salt of course, since I know most of you aren't doctors, but will take all advice with thanks.

Modal verbs can versus could

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 18:20:35 -0800

English grammar: 'could be Xing' versus 'can be Xing' -- how can we explain why one is correct and one isn't? (Somebody fire up the languagehat signal!)

I'm trying to figure out a reasonably succinct structural way explain why one of these is just fine, but one isn't.

We're using modals here to express probability or guessing. Scenario: you call your wife at home, but there's no answer. You guess that she might be in the bathroom, and express it by saying "She could be taking a shower." I say this is correct.

Saying "She can be taking a shower" in this situation, I call incorrect, but I can't seem to hit on any plausible explanation for why, other than that it's just common usage. That's a good enough answer, perhaps, but I'd like to actually understand what's happening here, structurally. It could be that my brain is just wobbly today, and I'll figure it out as soon as I post this, but it's driving me a bit nuts.