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A post of mine from last night on the “Capital Punishment” thread seems to have made its way to the reject bin.
If someone could do any of the following:
a) un-reject it
b) edit it so it meets the site standards, and then post it
c) let me know why it was rejected (it contains two URLs, but they point to seforim and a learning site)
…I’d appreciate it.
(I am only making this request because the post is learning-related)
Going to the Dogs
every answer to this quiz is dog-related in some way
6) Buck is the main character of this early 20th-century novel, set in 19th-century Alaska.
7) The annual Iditarod race commemorates the delivery of life-saving serum to Nome, Alaska by packs of sled dogs, thereby bring an end to the outbreak of this disease.
8) Balto, the most famous of the serum-delivering dogs is memorialized with a statue in this park.
11) Winston Churchill and Orel Hershiser share this nickname.
13) Nipper famously listened for (and to) this.
14) This U.S. President had him as a Buddy.
17) The “Dog Star”.
18) A small tent.
19) A type of three-masted sailing ship.
20) “Searchlight” is Little Willy’s dog in this popular 1980 children’s novel by John Reynolds Gardiner about a dogsled race.
have fun & don’t go barking up the wrong tree
Dr. Pepper-
Thank you for the “how to set up links” offer on the “mazel tov” thread, but (for once) that’s something I already know how to do.
I mostly stopped using hyperlinks and began posting the actual URLs when this site’s stylesheet made hyperlinked text indistinguishable from regular text – this makes the actual link too easy to miss.
The “Whiskey” was a class of Soviet sub – the actual name of the sub that ran aground was the Vodka.
?
* * * * * * * * * * I M P O R T A N T ! ! ! * * * * * * * * * *
You MUST immediately contact everyone on your personal contacts list via any possible means and alert them that your email has been hacked and the message is fraudlent.
Good-hearted people who try to “rescue” their friends have lost thousands of dollars to scammers like this.
Josh31-
I think this is what you are trying to achieve:
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Ok, ok – here’s what you have to do:
1) Put a backtick (the character above the tilde (~) on the first line, followed by a period. The backtick looks a lot like an apostrophe, but it is a different character.
2) Paste your graphic.
3) Put another backtick following your graphic.
That’s it.
Please see these related threads:
(the following thread has recommendations for both Jewish and secular fiction)
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/please-share-recommendations-for-childrens-fiction
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10/22/2010/
R.I.P. /
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=====/I think it’s real.
This is being dan lekaf z’chus – It would be extremly cruel to constantly aggravate another poster if it was simply a prank, and not because he believes what he is posting.
That said, I’m not sure this thread is a good idea.
Two worthy entries in today’s (Fri. Oct. 22, 2010) NY Post:
Sharia law is settling over England — and it smells like bacon.
Beverley’s Snack Shack restaurant was ordered by local town officials to remove its vent fan so the odor of frying pork wouldn’t offend Muslims visiting nearby neighbors.
The Tea Party wouldn’t find many fans in Denmark.
Danes pay the highest taxes in the world — and they couldn’t be happier.
Although nearly half of the country’s GDP goes to the taxman — compared to 25 percent in the United States — a new poll found that 66 percent think the tax rate is just fine and 10 percent would like to see it go up.
Dr. Pepper-
If that was in response to my answer, give yourself credit for teaching an old dog a new trick.
Arf!
Most posts here are not plagiarized
No raunchy ones now bowdlerized
We wrote them fresh
Made the rhymes mesh
For this our efforts should be prized
Dr. Pepper-
I don’t really know the calculation involved, but using this post of yours:
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/the-riddle-thread/page/32#post-153407
…and this explanation of nCr (which I think helped me understand it):
http://www.xtremevbtalk.com/showthread.php?t=112460
I’ll try this:
(8 nCr 3) * ((1/12)^3) * ((11/12)^5)
=
56 * 0.0005787037037037037037037037037037 * 0.64722784850823045267489711934156
=
0.020974976572025986892242036249453
or about a 2% possibility
(fractions derived using the Windows calculator)
Now, here’s homework for the teacher:
1) If the answer is correct but clumsily done, please show the correct way of doing it.
2) If the answer is incorrect, please show where the mistake(s) lie(s).
Subway Savings
Subway fares are going up!
On Dec. 30, 2010 subway fares are scheduled to rise from $2.25 to $2.50
The bonus will change as follows:
-A $10.00 or greater amount will be needed to get the bonus (currently $8.00)
-The bonus will be 7% (currently 15%)
A $1.00 fee will be charged when buying a new metrocard.
Unlimited ride cards will be refillable. This allows the MTA to charge the $1.00 fee for new unlimited ride cards, too.
IIRC, an expired or expiring card can be traded in for a new card without the fee.
Here are a few suggestions:
1) Buy several metrocards before the scheduled increases. This will provide you with an instant 8% savings, based on the 15% bonus they currently come with. Also, this gives you several metrocards, just in case you ever need more than one and want to avoid the upcoming $1.00 fee for a new one.
2) Use an online metrocard bonus calculator (Google it) to see what amount should be put on your card for a specific amount of rides without leaving any money over on your card after the last ride.
A couple of caveats:
Moderator-80-
I was going to give a second hint – that the solution can be achieved on a desert island, but not in a desert – however, the answer was posted before I did so.
“Dr. Pepper” actually did try a solution that involved “outside the box” thinking.
There are no external (i.e. environmental) objects needed to solve this one.
Three Canteens
Two men wandering in the desert come upon a trail. In hope of finding help sooner, they decide to split up, each taking half of their remaining water, and to set off in opposite directions.
They have only one 14-cup canteen full of water, and two empty canteens that will hold nine cups and five cups, respectively.
The only way for them to measure water is by pouting water from one canteen into the other until the first is empty or the second is full.
How can they measure seven cups into each of the two larger canteens?
(from a puzzle magazine)
If this topic seems familiar…
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/put-your-sefer-back-on-the-shelf
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Just because winning this award might give him apoplexy.
Moderator-80-
“Choished b’keshairim, I should never be…”
Actually, my first thought was that it was probably someone else who posted it.
But, I had to get a chepeh in – eye yam what eye yam ???
squeak-
“When have the British ever given us Yanks a gift?“
Does Mad Cow count?
Moderator-80-
I like your answer to the “pills” puzzle better than mine.
It’s less messy, and is obviously the correct answer, since it fits the “second-to-last-day” scenario precisely, while mine isn’t specific to that.
minyan gal-
Live and learn – I stand corrected.
Thank you for the info.
Moderator-80–
1) Pour the seven-gallon jug into one of the five gallon jugs until the five-gallon jug is full.
2) Empty the seven-gallon jug into the other five gallon jug. You will now have an empty seven-gallon jug, a full five-gallon jug and a five-gallon jug containing two gallons.
3) Fill the now-empty seven-gallon jug with seawater.
4) Pour seawater from the seven-gallon jug into the five-gallon jug that contains two gallons of oil until the five-gallon jug is full of a water-oil mix. You will now have a seven-gallon jug containing four gallons of seawater, a five-gallon jug full of oil, and a five-gallon jug full of a water-oil mix.
6) Empty the seven-gallon jug containing four gallons of seawater into the now-empty five-gallon jug. You will now have an empty seven-gallon jug, a five-gallon jug full of oil and a five-gallon jug containing four gallons of seawater.
7) Pour oil from the five-gallon jug containing five gallons of oil into the five-gallon jug containing four gallons of seawater until the second jug is topped off with a five-gallon oil-seawater mix. The first jug will now contain four gallons of oil.
if cigarettes you like to toke
question health scares as just a joke
well, heres the answer
they sure cause cancer
don’t let your life go up in smoke
When you race for a subway seat
a dirty trick that can’t be beat
is sneeze and cough
to scare ’em off
and garlic breath’s an added treat
A general named George A. Custer
was arrogant and full of bluster
His Waterloo?
he dissed the Sioux
Now he’s a scalpless injun buster
LAer–
It’s my pleasure ?
I heard this on my car radio about 25 years ago (don’t remember the program), and was literally laughing out loud before the acronym existed.
Poster–
Glad you got a chuckle out of it.
cherrybim–
It has its own tune.
I think youtube has the writer singing it – it’s actually much funnier when you hear his voice and the tune he sings it in.
blueberrymuffin-
Crush the pills into powder, mix the powdered pills thoroughly, and swallow half.
OK, seriously.
People are very aware of what they look like, but there are usually many factors that can result in weight gain:
-Having kids.
-Stress.
-No time to exercise.
-No time to prepare healthy meals.
-Exhaustion.
A concerned and helpful husband can:
-Set up time to go walking together.
-Watch the kids occasionally, so she can go to the gym, or use a home treadmill.
-Housekeep occasionally, for the same reason.
-Help prepare and shop for healthier foods.
-Be encouraging instead of critical.
-Diet together.
Grow, Mrs Goldfarb
by Allan Sherman
Grow, Mrs. Goldfarb, fatter, fatter
Pile the potatoes on your platter
Listen to me, ’cause I’m your hubby
I just adore you plump and chubby
I got a letter from the state, Dear
You’re gonna need a license plate, Dear
My little elephant joke come true
Chew, Mrs. Goldfarb, chew!
There is so much more of you,
More to adore of you,
‘Cause you’re not slender
In your white dress, you’re a doll,
Big as the Taj Mahal,
In all its splendor
When you’re in department stores,
Don’t use revolving doors,
You might get stuck, Dear
When you use the telephone,
Go in the booth alone,
And lots of luck, Dear
You had for breakfast: two pounds bacon,
Three dozen eggs, one coffee cake, and
Then you had something really awful,
Four kippered herrings on a waffle
Nine English muffins, one baked apple,
Boston cream pie, Philadelphia scrapple
Seventeen bowls of Crispy Crunch
Then you said, “What’s for lunch?”
Sweetheart, you are giant size
You are Lane Bryant size,
My darling Myrtle
Last Thanksgiving I was thrilled
You ate so much, you killed
Your living girdle
Have another dozen shrimp,
My lovely little blimp
Don’t count a calorie
I have just received a stub
I owe the Diner’s Club
A whole year’s salary
Eat, Mrs. Goldfarb, daily, nightly
Eat, though your chair is bending slightly
Love of my life, I’m glad I found you,
Each day I take a walk around you
I can’t forget when we got married
Over the threshold I got carried
No other bride would be so sweet
Eat, Mrs. Goldfarb, Eat!
blueberrymuffin-
The following mail address is copied from a fund-raising ad on another frum news site:
Pidyon Shvuyim Fund
53 Olympia Lane
Monsey NY 10952
The CR’s really busy, so this moved down quickly.
Here’s a “bump” to the top, just in case this was missed.
Dr. Pepper-
Hmmm… – that’s a possibility I hadn’t thought of (a mark at the two-gallon line of one of the five-gallon jugs). But, the answer is no – you have no way of marking the jugs, be it a scratch, dent, stain, etc.
Here’s a hint – environmentalists won’t like the solution.
blueberrymuffin-
Hi.
I may be missing something, but based on your question, it doesn’t seem to matter which day it is – just take one from each jar.
Dr.Pepper-
That British couple wasn’t entirely off-base, but they were probably confusing two separate stories.
The old London Bridge was disassembled and shipped in pieces to the U.S.
It was reassembled, and now stands in the Arizona desert as a tourist attraction.
John Roebling was German born, but was living in the U.S. for quite a while when the Brooklyn Bridge was designed.
He died before its construction started, and his son, Washington, took over.
Washington Roebling was disabled by the bends early in the bridge’s construction, and the majority of the work was overseen by Washington’s wife.
The bridge is actually overbuilt – the diagonal suspension cables that descend from the towers to the bridge’s deck aren’t needed, but they were added because of fears that the vertical cables which descend from the four main suspension cables wouldn’t provide enough support.
I read somewhere (don’t remember where) that this is the only suspension bridge with both vertical and diagonal cables.
The bridge used to carry both trolley and subway traffic, but the tracks were removed in 1940.
=======================================
On Chol Hamoed Sukos, we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge.
We noticed the building you described with the “curved walls”.
It’s quite striking – it looks like melting wax or chocolate flowing.
Make no mis-steak
You are on a desert island with a barbecue grill, a raw steak, matches, and a full seven-gallon jug of fuel.
The steak should be slow-cooked for exactly four hours in order to achieve maximum barbecue flavor without overcooking.
Fortunately, you know that each gallon of fuel burns for exactly one hour, and you have two empty five-gallon jugs.
How do you measure exactly four gallons of fuel?
(asked previously here in a significantly more verbose story)
Ben Torah-
BP Totty-
The way we do things is based on (among other things) my personal library experiences as a child, teen and young adult.
A parent should know their own child(ren), and based on their age and personality decide what is or isn’t appropriate as well as which harchakos are needed.
Ben Torah-
Hi.
“ICOT: How do you know what your kids read in the library (and don’t bring home)?“
There are two ways of reading your question:
1) Do I trust jr. not to deliberately read inappropriate stuff in the library, thereby bypassing parental scrutiny? Yes, I do.
When I was a kid, the yeshiva would regularly take us on class trips to the library.
I read literally thousands of books, both fiction and non-fiction.
The type of “alternative lifestyle” books that “aries2756” references didn’t exist in those days, and society overall was “cleaner”.
My kids are allowed to go to the library and borrow books, but I check them when they get home.
They are not allowed to use the library’s computers.
We also have a “home library” consisting of hundreds of books that I bought as a kid or great books I remembered from my childhood that were purchased from ebay.
We also buy “frum” books – the selection and quality of those is much better and more extensive than it was years ago.
The books are fiction (adventure, humor, sci-fi, etc.) and non-fiction (historical, science, trivia, reference, how-to, etc.) – both Jewish and secular.
It is up to the parents to decide what is appropriate for their kids.
The CR’s a stage for many a battle
At the drop of a hat the sabers may rattle
But I have a svora
Avoid loshon hora
And let’s just stick with some meaningless prattle.
Please replace the following sentence in the “Fire it up!” puzzle:
…with this one…
“-You have a functional watch, so you know that at exactly 10:00 PM the pirates disappear, and at exactly 2:00 AM they reappear.”
When posting your pictures on a public site make sure that you aren’t sharing your personal information as well.
Digital photos can reveal your location, raise privacy fears
Skim through the photos on Flickr or Photobucket, and you’ll find pictures of cats pawing at living-room sofas, children playing in backyards and mothers gardening at home.
Dig a little deeper, and you can unearth the exact locations of many of those homes, embedded in data within the pictures.
Images often contain a bundle of information and various traces left by digital cameras or photo manipulation software.
This data, called Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF), is a key tool for many professionals. It can detail whether the photographer used a flash, which digital effects were applied to a picture and when the photo was taken.
EXIF can also contain the precise GPS coordinates for where a photo was taken. This information is readily accessible and can be plugged into software such as Google Maps — leading some security and photography experts to express concerns about amateurs unknowingly disclosing private information, such as the location of their home.
“What could go wrong with that?” Roger Thompson, the chief research officer for digital security firm AVG, said sarcastically.
Thomas Hawk, an active Flickr user and the former chief executive of competing photo site Zooomr, said EXIF is an important part of his archival process. But he has also used that data to track down someone who was harassing him online and managed to coerce an apology, he said.
“I don’t geotag any pictures to my house,” Hawk said on the phone last week. “I think it’s a huge concern. I think a lot of people don’t realize or recognize what’s in all of the EXIF data that they’re publishing.”
Most gadgets ignore the geotagging component of EXIF because relatively few cameras contain the GPS chips needed to tag them. However, many smartphones, such as those from Apple and Google’s Android system, let users employ this feature.
Apple’s and Google’s systems ask each user once or a few times for permission to access their location in order to provide additional services. If they click “OK” on that popup, every photo they take is tagged with GPS coordinates.
Smartphones are fast becoming the camera of choice for many people. Cameras on newer phones have come to rival dedicated point-and-shoots, and many smartphone owners carry them just about everywhere. Smartphone sales have increased 50 percent since last year, according to a report by research firm Gartner.
Millions of images are uploaded to Facebook using the company’s iPhone, Android and BlackBerry applications. The iPhone 3G is the most popular shooter among photographers on Yahoo’s Flickr website, according to a report on that site.
Judging by the abundance of pictures in Flickr’s database that include geolocation data in the EXIF, some smartphone owners aren’t thinking twice about opting into their devices’ GPS feature. Doing so can facilitate useful tools. For example, software like iPhoto and Picasa can group images by location and display them on a map.
But amateur photographers may not realize that this info stays with the image when it’s uploaded to Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa Web Albums and some other photo-sharing services. (Facebook says it strips the EXIF data from all photos to protect its users’ privacy.)
Pictures uploaded to Photobucket by one woman show her children preparing lunch and bathing in a kitchen sink. The location data, which is displayed directly on each photo’s webpage, can be inputted into Google Maps to find a satellite image of her rural home in Edmond, Oklahoma. The woman couldn’t be reached for comment.
“We added EXIF data a few years ago at the request of our users,” Rob Newton, a spokesman for Photobucket, wrote in an e-mail. “To date, we have not received any complaints from users who were previously unaware of the GPS tagging feature.”
Displaying the GPS coordinates on the page can be disabled in a user’s settings panel, Newton noted.
However, anyone could still download the original file using a link on Photobucket and view the location info in Adobe’s Photoshop or in software included with every new Mac and Windows 7 computer.
Flickr’s and Picasa’s pages don’t show the coordinates by default. But the services similarly offer links to access the original files, which can contain EXIF.
“Having the ability to download the original version of photos on Flickr is an important feature for our members,” a Flickr spokeswoman wrote. “However, we help people maintain their privacy by stripping the EXIF data of an image from view on the site and making the default control option to keep this information private.”
Users who don’t want their photos tagged with GPS data can either disable the option on their cameras or run the images through software, such as Photoshop, that can remove the EXIF.
“We realize not everyone wants to share this information with others,” a Google spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail. She notes how to disable GPS tagging, but added: “This is a popular Picasa feature that many people find useful.”
Some photo services, including Facebook, TwitPic and Yfrog, strip EXIF once a file is uploaded and don’t offer a way for users to access the original.
For Yfrog, the lack of EXIF is a byproduct of automatic image optimizations done by the system, not something designed specifically with privacy in mind, Mike Harkey, a spokesman for the ImageShack-owned Yfrog site, wrote in an e-mail.
While Facebook’s system compresses some photos, it doesn’t do so for every one.
“For those that we don’t compress, we still strip out EXIF data,” Facebook spokeswoman Jaime Schopflin wrote in an e-mail. “We do this since users can unintentionally leak sensitive information in EXIF data.”
Thompson, the security expert from AVG, commended these efforts.
“Chalk one up to Facebook for that one,” he said. “One of the alarming things is that every [Facebook] application wants to access your profile and your contacts and your photos. So if they weren’t stripping that [EXIF data], it would be particularly alarming.”
(source: CNN’s tech news site [click for link] )
Fire it up!
Your entire tour group has been shipwrecked and is now stranded on a desert island.
You managed to salvage an oil lamp, and three pots of oil.
One of the pots contains seven gallons of oil, the other two contain five gallons each.
Upon closer inspection, you notice that the seven-gallon pot is full, while the other two are empty.
You would like to light the oil lamp at night to signal passing ships.
Fortunately, your island is close to shipping lanes.
You now know that there is a four-hour window in which the lamp can be lit.
There is always a cruise ship that passes by between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM, and if your lamp is lit when it passes, a rescue helicopter is sure to arrive the next day.
-A gallon of oil burns for exactly one hour.
-If you pour off a smaller amount into a five-gallon pot, you may not have enough fuel to last the full four hours.
What do you need to do in order to end up with exactly four gallons of oil in one of the pots?
Dr. Pepper–
Thank you very much for your detailed explanation of the solution.
blinky–
As per Wikipedia:
“the phrase ‘hoist with one’s own petard’ means to fall into one’s own trap“
(a “petard” was a type of bomb or grenade used a long time ago – it literally means “blown up with one’s own explosive”.)
To wit:
XXXX---has the exact same likelihood of occurring as all of the following possibilities, combined:
XXX-X--
XXX--X-
XXX---X
XXX----Help! I’m being held
In a fortune cookie plant
Forced to write Haiku
Roller coaster rides
Make me violently sick
Please be my seatmate
Perhaps one fine day
I may decide to grow up
(But don’t hold your breath)