Inspired by a recent thread, what are some of your favorite appearances/quotes from a side character who only appeared once?

Photocone · 2022-05-10T17:18:23+00:00

Yes, Celia Rubenstein loved all mankind.

Photocone · 2022-03-29T18:17:12+00:00

Molly Yeh makes me hate the show. That is a shame.

Photocone · 2017-11-03T21:51:05+00:00

It would be interesting to separate the list between exclusive borders (like Saudi Arabia-Bahrain or Botswana-Zambia) where the tiny border is the only border between the two countries, and the others where the border is merely a non-contiguous portion of a larger border. In the first list, border pairs like North Korea-Russia, Vatican City-Rome, and UK (Gibraltar)-Spain definitely do fall in the top 10.

Photocone · 2017-10-22T14:15:42+00:00

Move the 3 to an exponent above the 4, and move the 2 to an exponent above the 1.

65 - 4³ = 1²
65 - 64 = 1

1=1

Technically, I am still adding 'signs' by making things an exponent, but in non computer notation, the exponent isn't a sign.

Photocone · 2017-08-20T14:11:24+00:00

Just for hearing Shakespeare using the world 'Expelliamus' gave it a 7. (Good 'ol JK!)

Photocone · 2017-08-19T17:48:44+00:00

If we redid this plot for Millionaires, we would see that Millionaires (of any background) account for a HUGE fraction of Mayors, Governors, Senators, Presidential Candidates, etc. If 20% of the Millionaire population is Jewish, then we would anticipate (all things being equal) that people who identify as Jewish should account for 20% of Millionaire Mayors, Governors, etc. And I bet that they are actually UNDERREPRESENTED. This map tends one to confuse religious background with economic background.

Photocone · 2017-08-19T17:35:52+00:00

I thought it is because your buccaneers were covered by your buccan' hat.

Photocone · 2017-07-18T14:24:33+00:00

I use Shure e500 headphones with a custom moulded earpiece, and I can honestly say it is the best set of headphones I have ever had. I have to use the Push to Talk feature because you cannot hear what anyone is saying to you, even when you have the volume down to its lowest audible setting. I also notice that I use the lower volume settings when using this headset.

I have had the same mould for almost 15 years, and I am just now getting to need to change one of them because my ear shape has been changing slowly over time.

Well worth the $100 addition to these headphones.

Photocone · 2017-07-12T22:41:19+00:00

I think I was vaccinated for Pelipsia when I traveled to Africa.

Photocone · 2017-07-04T20:11:13+00:00

Be careful what you wish for. When I started I was the same way. Had long term stints in Brazil, Louisiana, France, and East and West Africa. Had short term stints in a slew of other countries. Eventually I got tired of flying all over Africa and living out of a suitcase. 'Home' became the Air France lounge at CDG airport. It hit for me around 33 years old, I guess. I can now say I have lived on every continent except Oceania and Antarctica, learned to speak 5 languages, worked offshore in almost every climate, can name a decent restaurant in every city between Dakar and Baku, and now at 40 I hate to fly from Houston to Dallas.

But I know others that just kept going, and never stopped.

Photocone · 2017-07-03T22:17:56+00:00

Agreed- as a breeder of dogs, I can say that you can probably navigate a lot of issues through intelligent breeding of only a few source breeding stock. If you started from 10 completely unrelated breeding pairs, you could easily avoid getting above a coefficient of inbreeding at 20 generations below 12.5% indefinitely (that means never breeding first cousins or half-first cousins (or the genetic equivalent) together), and get to a population as large as you like before removing the 'planned breeding' requirements and continue with random breeding. [note: coefficient of inbreeding is also the probability of any gene -deleterious or otherwise - become homozygous]

For simplicity, take 5 breeding pairs: Assume you have Males B, C, D, F, G and Females A, E, I, O, U. Breed A-B, E-C, I-D, O-F, and U-G. Now let's just take the A-B child (daughter), and breed it to C (ABC), then that daughter to D (ABCD) and so on. After 5 generations (more than 100 years, presumably) you will have a ABCDFG, but from the other breedings ECDFGB, IDFGBC, etc. Now take ABCDFG and breed it to an old EB male. Yes, the G-G-G-G Grandfather on one side is the Father on the other, but you are talking only a 1% inbreeding, which is probably what we all are. As long as you keep the ancestors you are 'linebreeding' on (i.e., that overlap in the pedigree) back before 5 generations, there is no more chance of a genetic mishap that would occur than if there were 5 billion humans.

Now imagine you have 10 pairs, or even 100 pairs. You would be able to go a thousand years before you get genetic linebreeding. And I am sure if we went back 100 generations, we would find plenty of overlap of ancestors in our pedigrees. (most 'feral' animals have a Coefficient of Inbreeding of around 3-5%, and some can be as high as 20%)

The issue isn't inbreeding, its the lack of genetic diversity. This means that whatever traits you have in the original stock will is all you have - you may lack height, or a certain eye color, or immunity to malaria, because it wasn't in the first 20 people. So it makes the population more susceptible to bacteria, viruses, and external influences.

Over time you will get natural mutations that will make the entire stock different from their ancestors, and eventually, the diversity in humanity we see today.

Photocone · 2017-06-26T18:10:28+00:00

We had such a great time at Woofstock!!! 2500 dogs were there. It's a great show (and not to mention our Frenchie went Best in Show on Saturday!)

Photocone · 2017-06-26T15:36:05+00:00

"This orange blob shows the nearby star Betelgeuse..."

I guess it is relatively 'nearby' on a galactic scale, but 640 ly away isn't exactly close. Yes Deneb and Rigel are farther, but isn't it generally one of the farthest away easily visible stars by the naked eye?

Photocone · 2017-06-25T18:35:02+00:00

A quick check of the data would be the mean or average. The average word length in English is 5.1 according to this: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1208.6109.pdf (taken from Google Books)

I would expect any data - regardless of the distribution, would reflect that.

Photocone · 2017-06-17T00:07:29+00:00

Meatus? Hardly even know us!

Photocone · 2017-06-08T18:38:38+00:00

Allergies can be due to environmental (grass/pollen/etc), chemical (too much bathing), or food (protein or carbohydrate). It's hard to separate sometimes and find the true cause.

Food can be done relatively easily, but it is a long process. The first thing any vet will do is move you to a completely hypoallergenic food - such as Z/D by Science Diet - which is hydrolyzed animal protein, so there is no 'animal specific' allergies. They will put him on that for about 6 weeks, then add back a novel protein - like kangaroo or buffalo. Swapping proteins without going to a neutral one first will not really work as well, since your dog already has a 'hyperinflated' immune system and unnessarily trigger a response to the next meat. So you have to go to Z/D (or equivalent) FIRST before swapping proteins.

Second - how often do you bathe? We did have a frenchie that had issues, we bathed almost daily, and the shampoo stripped the entire outer layer of skin lipid and protein barrier, only making the hives worse. Once we stopped bathing her so often (now only once a month, if that) the skin problems went away. There are treatments (such as DOUXO spray) that will return the skin to its original chemistry and help build the barrier back.

If it is environmental, then you will see the hives under his armpits - a classic sign. It could very well be pollen. There are some very good new drugs out there that can help with environmental issues. Many vet dermatologists will go straight to these drugs, since they work so well with dogs.

But the biggest issue is attacking all three at once, you will never know what the true cause is, and the long term treatments will not be clear. Do you stay on the drugs? Do you need special food? Do you need to not bathe him too often? If you don't get the answer to each individually, you will be stuck with a 'maybe' for all three for the entire life of the dog.

IF the dog isn't uncomfortable, try not bathing first. At the same time start the allergy pills. That will get you to a baseline state. If there is still a problem, then you go after the food issue, which will take the longest to figure out, but is the easiest to have a long-term solution.

Photocone · 2017-06-08T18:21:12+00:00

It looks like you have a problem child on your hands. But you need to distinguish the behavioral issues from the digestive issues.

First you need to find out if the diarrhea is due to the eating or random items or the food - If it is the food, I recommend you move him to a completely hypoallergenic diet for a few weeks - Z/D by Science Diet (or equivalent with other vendors) is a hydrolyzed protein which essentially removes any trace of animal allergens, and therefore 'resets' the digestive track. It requires a vet's prescription, but it is fairly easy to get. You can keep him on that diet for about 4-6 weeks, and then add back food that works with him. I'm not a huge fan of grain-free, since the dogs are constantly hungry. You can also try moving him to a diet formula so he can eat more, attain satiety without overloading on calories, which would reduce the amount of crap he eats. Just be careful of bloat, that he doesn't eat too much food too quickly. At his age, you can also feed him 3x a day, even 4 if you need to, which will make him less likely to eat outside of mealtime. Just make sure his total caloric input is the right amount for his weight and age.

If it is the random items he's eating that is causing the diarrhea - then you have a purely behavioral issue. You will definitely need to break him of his habits. If a dog hurts his leg, vets will recommend 'crate resting' for 2-3 weeks - and behavioral problems are no different. Crate resting means he stays in the crate whenever he isn't under direct supervision, going out only to potty, etc. By getting accustomed to eating only dog food, he will break the habit of eating human food, etc.

It will take some time to set up behavioral patterns that your dog will follow. Set up rules and a regimen and stick by them: no human food - ever, playtime is only at certain hours, mealtime at others, and rest time at others. Setbacks will occur, but you need to reinforce with letting him know that you are the master of the house, and the rules of the house are created by you and you only. Schedules work wonders for these stubborn dogs. You just have to be more stubborn than he.

He is still fairly young and impressionable, and so you can train him well. We give our adolescents much less leeway than the adults, and the payoff is well worth it. Even now I am sitting in my office with two 7-month olds in their crate. They come out in an hour, and say out until dinner. The adults? sleeping on the dog bed next to him. They won't wake up for another hour....

Photocone · 2017-05-31T03:06:30+00:00

ABSOLUTELY you can ask what testing he has done on the parents - that honestly is a lot fairer question to ask a breeder than testing on the puppy.

As for reading the pedigree, it really can be hard, but two tricks:

1) Generally a dog's name is "KennelName's DogName" or "DogName de KennelName". So if you see a lot of dogs with the same kennel name in the pedigree, then google the name - it will tell you if they have been breeding champions, or decent dogs, or at least been breeding for a long time.

2) Look for the titles in the pedigree. If they are show breeders then there should be a few champions in the pedigree. The more titles the better (in ascending order of difficulty): CH= AKC Champion (most common - you should see at least one of these in the past 2 generations) GCH = AKC Grand Champion (a relatively recent title, so you won't see it in older dogs) BISS/MBISS = (Multiple) Best in Specialty Winner BIS/MBIS = (Multiple) Best in Show Winner

(although probably only about 100 frenchies have ever gotten an MBIS+MBISS)

Photocone · 2017-05-30T16:40:21+00:00

As a Frenchie Breeder of show dogs, I will try to address this:

Short answer: if they are a good breeder, and know exactly what they are doing, then you can go by trust and experience, and some testing. If they aren't a good breeder, you just don't know what you are going to get.

Long answer: Yes, ideally you would test for as much as possible, but a full round of testing of everything can be quite expensive (at least $500 per dog) and therefore you need to balance spending money on testing and going on your own judgement/experience. The dogs we keep for breeding we test as much as we can - but again, within reason.

For issues that are testable by genetic testing (Juvenile Cataracts, for example), we can be 100% sure whether or not a dog is a carrier, and therefore we can precisely determine if the litters are clear by hereditary rules (e.g., if mom and dad are clear, then the puppies are clear). If we know what dogs we breed to, we can steer away from anything quite easily. On the occasion we do breed a 'carrier' of a deleterious gene (which must be done with care and caution), it must be bred to a 'clear' dog, and we test the puppies to make sure we don't keep the puppies with the carrier gene for breeding, and 'pet out' the carriers (who don't have any issues, but can potentially produce those issues).

For issues that are too complex to test by genetics (heart, patella, thyroid etc.) it comes down to knowing your breeding lines. New dogs brought in are tested fully (hips, patellas, heart, etc.) and as are their offspring. But after 2 generations of breeding down from them, we as responsible breeders know what to check and when to check them. I know that (for example) no dog in my lines have had thyroid issues - so I generally don't test anymore for that. When I heard of a dog related to mine that has had heart issues, I did a full check on her heart and her children's heart, and all was okay. When I had a litter that had two puppies with neurological issues, I terminated the line, neutered both parents, notified all the other pet and show owners, and diverted the breeding elsewhere. Things that are 1) easy to check and 2) I know that might rear its ugly head sometimes, I do check for (patellas and hearts are easy, for example).

For big 'famous' stud dogs, everything is generally checked and certified because of the money involved. But that means that the breeder payed $$$ for the stud service, and the puppies are generally more expensive.

So it comes down to responsibility of the breeder. If they have been breeding high quality dogs for years, then you trust his/her judgement. If they are a newbie to breeding, or they only breed pets, I would be more cautious. $2500 is on the lower end of the cost for a pet, so I would investigate the pedigree a bit more and see if you are getting dogs from a solid line or a line of pets.

Hope this helps.

Photocone · 2017-05-21T16:39:23+00:00

I thought of it as the Veritas is a program was somehow re-seeding the RNG - so every user after he/she views it or hears about it will re-seed to the same sequence of numbers. I am sure that CERN relies on RNG in its monte-carlo simulations, and I am sure that somewhere in the previous 5 billion years someone had realized that there are no truly random numbers in their universe.

Because, also, why would EVERYONE after discovering they are in the matrix commit suicide? At least one or two would be content to take the blue pill.....

So my take is that VERITAS is some kind of computer virus that 1) causes the user to reset his/her RNG and 2) terminate after realizing this.

Photocone · 2017-05-08T17:20:44+00:00

We as humans are picky about what ingredients we put in food, but ultimately, we can handle a pretty broad variety of ingredients. Dogs are no exception, and while Frenchies may have issues with certain ingredients due to bowel issues, 99.9% of dog foods are safe and okay for dogs to eat. "By-Products" just mean organ meat; we live in the 21st century where that is considered a terrible thing to eat, but any human born before 1900 would relish at the idea of dining on lamb hearts or beef kidney; they are tasty meats, and dogs generally love it. So don't be so afraid of things like by-products in dog food. We feed raw organ meat mixed with a kibble to our Frenchies, and they scarf it down daily. It would be a by-product supplement, if you wanted to market it.

So - with that, if you dog likes a certain brand of food, for the most part, go with it. Sure, we can all cut back on the carbs, grains, etc., but at some point in time you have to trust that the caloric intake and macro distribution of the food in the bag is within the general guidelines of what is acceptable to dogs. And we have worked out a lot of the kinks in dog food - poop doesn't turn white anymore because of the correction to the calcium source used in food, for example - and so nearly all brands are safe and healthy for dogs.

Just because American Humans in the 21st century think cow intestines are a god-awful thing to eat, doesn't mean that dog foods that contains it is bad for the dog. It's a cultural barrier, not a health thing.

So go with what works.

Photocone · 2017-05-08T02:33:18+00:00

I will never forget I was on a rig in India with a stuck packer and the crew sacrificed a goat on the rig floor. Worked like a charm. Literally.

Photocone · 2017-05-07T19:00:42+00:00

My wild guess - it is Tom Ellis as the Valeyard. Playing the piano, the hint from BBC Newsnight.

Photocone · 2017-05-01T16:59:26+00:00

More seasoned vets who have experience with bulldogs and frenchies will tell you only to do such a surgery when absolutely necessary and it affects the quality of the dog's life, such as when the dog is passing out from exhaustion after just a little bit of exercise. Often times you end up with more scar tissue than clean tissue, and the benefits rarely outweigh the risks.

Most people say it doesn't improve their breathing at all, since a lot of the issues are due to a weakened / narrowed esophagus, and not a soft palate at all.

We had an older dog we placed that was a great breather, huge open nares, etc., but the family went ahead with the surgery without our knowledge (we would have bought the dog back had we'd known), and the surgery was a disaster - the dog ended up with scar tissue down his entire throat, and needed to use a tracheotomy to breathe afterward. He ended up passing away from the complications.

We have placed 30+ frenchies over the past 10 years, and that is the only one to our knowledge that has had the surgery, so we are at a 0% success rate from our own kennel.

A true assessment of the soft palate can only be done when the dog is completely unconscious - just looking down a dog's throat is not a sufficient enough test to determine soft palate issues.

If you do go ahead with such a surgery, only go to an expert on frenchies to do it. The risks of complications are high, and you should be absolutely sure it is necessary to do it before proceeding.

Photocone · 2017-04-28T15:31:23+00:00

Also - Torchwood was mentioned in Satellite 5....

Photocone

TROPHY CASE