Random Question Thread.

[Metah]

Don't forget pirating lol

[Bagel]

How many celebrities and other awesome people has 2008 actually killed?

2008 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Zhais]

This is just what you need. YouTube - 5 Guys in a Limo (better audio)

awesome

[Elesirdur]

Don't forget pirating lol

True enough. That's now an activity that was once relegated to people who took to sunshine like an albino vampire, but the switch from insular Usenet file-sharing circles to easy-to-use bittorrents (not to mention the dramatic rise in high-speed Internet access and computers that can play big video files adequately) has made not paying for a movie at all even easier.

I was only speaking in my earlier post about the Western perspective. I know cinema is still alive and well in places like India and China, but with the rise of their new technologically-savvy middle class see similar results as we have in the West?

[Dimmauk]

2008 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I didn't see Le'roi Moore from DMB on that list.

[Korietsu]

So how about this for starters.
I never understood the concept of pulling the hammer on a gun back before shooting it in movies and TV. This is usually done in a 'threatening' scene. Ive never shot a handgun before, just shotguns, but im fairly sure when you pull the trigger on a handgun, the hammer pulls itself back >.> I think ive seen this many times and it's developed into a pet peeve of mine.

Is there any technical reason for pulling the hammer back first, or is it simply just for 'show'?

Generally depends on the action of the gun. Generally you see the hammer pulled back on revolvers, or where someone has just unholstered a gun. If the gun has a round in the chamber, there's no need to rack the slide so that you have the gun ready to fire, you pull back the hammer to cock the gun, and then it requires only one action on the trigger pull, whereas if its uncocked with a DA gun, the first part cocks the gun, second drops the hammer on the round. I'm sure someone can correct me if im wrong though =o.

[Woozie]

How do I get rid of these charity telemarketers? I donated 20 dollars to breast cancer(save the boobs), and now every fucking charity in the world is spamming my phone.

Ask to be put on their "do not call" list. Their lists is different than telemarketers who try to sell things, so if you're already on the list from a salesman, it doesn't mean you're on the list for charity or non-profit organizations. I don't know if all the charities lists are connected or if you'll have to ask each one that calls you to put on theirs.

[Korietsu]

Where did the tradition to make music albums come on on Tuesdays come from?


Is being able to sight-play music important for piano? I can play a song after I work on it a few times but I can't sight read at all whatsoever. My teacher makes it look easy. He plays anything he sees for the first time like it's nothing and I want to learn to do that x_x

Movies/music/games on tuesday has been around probably because of shipping problems / MPAA/RIAA mandates, and that the movies on tuesday was done with every company that produced movies ever. Very rarely are movies released to the public for personal ownership on dates other than tuesday.

For music, sight reading comes over time, and after a while it's natural. However, if you plan to preform/play on short notice for events, its important. Otherwise like most other musicians, you'll run through it multiple times till you have it memorized. Percussion is one where sight reading/ad-lib is important because you affect everyone else. Piano you've generally seen the music beforehand, or recognize the key/tune so that you know which chord combination/cadence to play.

[Byrd]

2008 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mostly unrelated, but this is a fascinating list:

List of unusual deaths - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Dimmauk]

Mostly unrelated, but this is a fascinating list:

List of unusual deaths - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2008: David Phyall, 50, the last resident in a block of flats due to be demolished in Bishopstoke, near Southampton, Hampshire, UK, cut his own head off with a chainsaw to highlight the 'injustice' of being asked to move out. He plugged an electric chainsaw into the mains and attached a timer to the socket. He then wrapped sellotape around the machine's trigger to secure it in the 'on' position, tied the handle of the saw to a table leg to hold it steady, and rested the saw on his neck and waited for the timer to go off

I LOL'd @ his last name.

2005: Kenneth Pinyan ('Mr. Hands') of Gig Harbor, Washington died of acute peritonitis after submitting to anal intercourse with a stallion. Pinyan had had sex with a horse before. Pinyan delayed his visit to the hospital for several hours out of reluctance to admit what happened. The case led to the criminalization of bestiality in Washington. His story was recounted in the 2007 documentary film Zoo.

2005: Lee Seung Seop, a 28-year-old South Korean, collapsed of fatigue and died after playing StarCraft for almost 50 consecutive hours in an Internet cafe.

2006: Steve Irwin, a television personality and naturalist known as The Crocodile Hunter, died when his heart was impaled by a short-tail stingray barb

1981: Jeff Dailey, a 19-year-old gamer, became the first known person to die while playing video games. After achieving a score of 16,660 in the arcade game Berzerk, he succumbed to a massive heart attack. A year later, an 18-year-old gamer died after achieving high scores in the same game.

Those caught my eye.

[Woozie]

Mostly unrelated, but this is a fascinating list:

List of unusual deaths - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1998: Every player on the visiting soccer team at a game in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was struck by a fork bolt of lightning, killing them all instantly

What the...I don't know how they pulled it off, but that was definitely some conspiracy. Someone down there has a doomsday device or their hiding Storm from the Xmen or something.

[gandorf]

456 BC: Aeschylus, a Greek playwright, was killed when an eagle dropped a live tortoise on him, mistaking his bald head for a stone. The tortoise survived

207 BC: Chrysippus, a Greek stoic philosopher, is believed to have died of laughter after watching his drunk donkey attempt to eat figs.

lol ^^


okay I got a question. What does orz mean?

[SephYuyX]

Emoticon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Obev]

Is being able to sight-play music important for piano? I can play a song after I work on it a few times but I can't sight read at all whatsoever. My teacher makes it look easy. He plays anything he sees for the first time like it's nothing and I want to learn to do that x_x

Important for any instrument. This supposedly trains your sightreading skills, but I don't really buy it. It's probably because I play double bass, so I have to go through "okay, that note is there on the keyboard, which means it's there on the fingerboard...," but it's a good way of getting used to where everything is. After a few iterations it all comes relatively simply... at least on the keyboard. On double bass I'm still fucked.

[Demisses]

2008: Abigail Taylor, 6, died nine months after her organs were partially sucked out while sitting on a swimming pool drain. She had several organs replaced in surgery but died later due to the incident. [122]
.................................................. ...................................

[Klutz]

456 BC: Aeschylus, a Greek playwright, was killed when an eagle dropped a live tortoise on him, mistaking his bald head for a stone. The tortoise survived

207 BC: Chrysippus, a Greek stoic philosopher, is believed to have died of laughter after watching his drunk donkey attempt to eat figs.

lol ^^


okay I got a question. What does orz mean?

I'm guessing you knew "orz" is not a word, rather a small picture of a man bowing down. Usually this is to signify your submittance to a force greater than you.

Perfect example: In FFXI, if you go into VoS at Lv. 1 and get one-shotted, obviously you got raped. Hence an orz is appropriate bowing down to the significant power difference there is between your level one character and those god awful Velociraptors.

[Klutz]

Intentional double post to seperate my question.

Is it proven that playing video games improves your hand-eye coordination?

[Wintermute]

Intentional double post to seperate my question.

Is it proven that playing video games improves your hand-eye coordination?

"Sort of" seems to be the case.

FHA - Differences in eye-hand motor coordination of video-game users and non-users - Article Summary
Video Games Boost Visual Skills, Study Finds
Surgeons may err less by playing video games - Games - msnbc.com
UNMC Today Headlines - MMI using video games to help develop coordination

[Mizango]

Intentional double post to seperate my question.

Is it proven that playing video games improves your hand-eye coordination?

They have done lots of studies on that, but one thing that I noticed especially from playing RPGs forever is that I have a acute eye for detail, no matter now minute. And I "get that feeling" that something just "isn't right" sometimes when I hear bullshit stories are something not safe for life is about to take place.

[SephYuyX]

Intentional double post to seperate my question.

Is it proven that playing video games improves your hand-eye coordination?

Funny you bring that up, I did a research paper on this not too long ago.
Short answer is yes, video games really do improve hand-eye.

Heres one of my soucres.
Sadandanan, Sunanda, Vicki L. Dryfhout, and Jim P. Sosnowski. "Video Games and Laparoscopic Surgery." Journal of Gynecologic Surgery 24.2 (June 2008): 67-73.
MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

It's a small PDF file, but I got it from a private journal site, so I had to upload it seperatly.