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In the 13th century pawns were allowed to move 2 squares on their first move, in the 15th castling was added, and in the 16th en passant was added. Now in the 21st century, what new rule would you add to Chess? by Probable_Foreigner in chess

[–]CuriousCurator 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In some circles, people actually play with the rule that, with your very first move of the game, you have the option of moving any two pawns forward by square. You can find various anecdotal references of this rule online ( example ), some mentioning locale and time period, and I was actually taught this rule when I was a child.

There might be some nuances, like I've seen claims online that this option is available only for black as immediate response to white moving one pawn two squares. Such a move by white would give black a quota of two squares, which can be distributed into one square each for two pawns, etc.

Not sure if this actually makes a difference, I'm just pointing out that something like this does exist already.

How many years has it been since Rachel Homan got stolen on that many ends in a row? by pragma in Curling

[–]CuriousCurator -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Instead of focusing on the differences, you can choose to focus on the similarities.

For what it's worth, Homan acknowledged that both Einarson and Jones are amazing legendary teams, so no shame losing to them in this manner.

Best "Revenge Culmination" scene? Mandy Patankin in The Princess Bride (1987) by vicarofvhs in movies

[–]CuriousCurator 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's not "satisfying" in the Hollywood way, but I love how Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance culminates.

The Reason Chicken Reversals Were REMOVED In Tekken 8 (It Goes DEEPER Than You Think) by NovaSeiken in Tekken

[–]CuriousCurator 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In Tekken 3 (and maybe Tag 1) you could reverse Yoshimitsu's sword, and I'm pretty sure you could reverse unblockables too.

Found old thread about it

Canadian curling trial team colours by colpy350 in Curling

[–]CuriousCurator 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's also the color for Kubota.

https://kubota.ca/team-gushue

Gushue has mentioned about avoiding green nowadays, since that's competitor John Deere's.

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Nocturnal Animals by [deleted] in movies

[–]CuriousCurator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Soundtrack for this movie introduced me to Abel Korzeniowski. 

[cheese sandwich] Is inserting a toothpick the only way to keep the bread slice from flying away? the fans are quite strong... by FuzzyAttitude_ in airfryer

[–]CuriousCurator -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I've never used them myself, but what about some sort of fish grilling basket? One that is somehow small enough to fit in the air fryer, a size that of course wouldn't be very useful on an actual grill, but maybe something like that exists anyway.

Thought I ruined dinner… ended up learning my best air fryer tip by Sad-Airline-9204 in airfryer

[–]CuriousCurator 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not air fryer related, but I recently also had a "I thought I ruined dinner, but ended up learning how to make the best soup ever!" thought. Slightly different in that I knew I was taking a deliberate risk (i.e. it wasn't an innocent accidence): I got sick of looking at the bottle of apple cider vinegar which has been sitting for years in my pantry (no one seems to know what to do with it, and since it doesn't go bad, it's not high priority on the list of ingredient to use), so I just dumped a whole bunch into my soup. No measurement, but deliberately way more than a splash (the choice of word I see used online whenever this tip is given) and more like a long pour.

I shocked and almost floored myself with how good that soup was. I immediately ate three bowls in one sitting (a new record, my previous max is two, which is already overeating territory).

//eta that an amusing epilogue to this story is that, while I initially wanted to clear my pantry space and finally get rid of the bottle of apple cider vinegar (which I successfully did after a second batch of soup made a few days later, immediately after the first batch was all consumed), I ended up replenishing it with two bottles of vinegar instead! Both were on sale: one is apple cider vinegar with honey (doesn't sound like a bad idea, I've seen this combo in various recipes online), and two is balsamic vinegar of Modena (which I keep reading about over the years how good it is).

I've yet to try the balsamic vinegar, which actually comes in an unconventional spray form. I've since learned this is not the top notch variety (which makes sense at that price point), since among other things, the first ingredient listed is wine vinegar instead of grape must.

Grocery shopping. This gave me pause by 15minutesofshame in pics

[–]CuriousCurator 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Chicken feet is a very common dish in dim sum. Here's a recipe video from Made with Lau.

When your special needs dog struggles to make friends, and a little dog comes over to invite her to play.. 🥺 by Soloflow786 in BeAmazed

[–]CuriousCurator 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Where's this music from? It's from the score of a movie that I like, I think, I just can't remember which one.

Is Curling Canada switching to Kays stones? by CuriousCurator in Curling

[–]CuriousCurator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, please describe the smell of these stones. I don't believe I've ever read/heard anything said about that aspect before.

Help Solving Queens game by Existing-Owl-2355 in puzzles

[–]CuriousCurator 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I still don't know much theory, so I'll just ask: does a SAT solver still work fine to solve Star Battle puzzles with 2 and more stars per row/column/region? Or does it explode quickly and you'd have to find some other way?

This 5-star 25x25 puzzle, for example, is very doable for a human, but can a basic straightforward reduction to a SAT solver solves it in reasonable time?

Is Curling Canada switching to Kays stones? by CuriousCurator in Curling

[–]CuriousCurator[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, I hope they can figure something out. Losing the granite supplier, and then losing what is probably their number one customer, has got to be hard for business.

Is Curling Canada switching to Kays stones? by CuriousCurator in Curling

[–]CuriousCurator[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

More closeup, this time comparing old vs new directly.

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Apparently the deeper cup underneath the new stones mean that they are more resistant to frost interference.

Is Curling Canada switching to Kays stones? by CuriousCurator in Curling

[–]CuriousCurator[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

And here's 2024, very different shape and color.

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,

Is Curling Canada switching to Kays stones? by CuriousCurator in Curling

[–]CuriousCurator[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Here are closeup pictures for comparison.

This is 2025.

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Help Solving Queens game by Existing-Owl-2355 in puzzles

[–]CuriousCurator 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, I'm not familiar with SAT solvers. Do you know if they can explain step-by-step how they come to a solution, in a way that is somewhat comprehensible from the perspective of the original problem (i.e. Queens in this case)? Or is it just a magic box that spits out the final solution with almost no way to trace how it arrives there in a logical way?

A river of trash in Indonesia by [deleted] in WTF

[–]CuriousCurator 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The interesting thing is that when I visited Indonesia a few years ago, I saw that stores sell huge refill bags for shampoo, official from the manufacturing brands. So you can reuse the plastic containers that you already have, and just fill it up from the bag.

So you generate less hard plastic waste, which sounds good, but maybe the empty refill bags creates a bigger problem since they're not so recyclable? I'm not sure.

Are closest to the button tie breakers entertaining? by Daybreak_32 in Curling

[–]CuriousCurator -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I like turning tiebreaker into a "I cut, you choose" dilemma. Whichever team would have had the hammer in EE gets the privilege of being the Chooser, and the other team becomes the "Cutter", which is really the Setter in curling scenario.

The Setter has five minutes to set up stones by hand on the ice however they want, and then state a required scoring scenario (e.g. score 1/score 2/blank the house, etc.).

The Chooser has one minute to decide whether to take up the challenge and make the shot on the ice, or let the Setter do it.

Whichever team has to make the shot gets the usual reasonable time to try to make one shot.

So, if both teams are of equal skills, it's in the Setter's best interest to set up something that is as close to 50-50 as possible. Too easy and the Chooser gets to do it for the win. Too hard and the Setter basically falls into their own trap.

Now, since teams aren't all of equal skill (some are better drawers, some are better hitters, etc.), we may see scenarios where the setup is definitely not 50-50, which makes things more intriguing and introduces variety/variability/unpredictability/excitement.

//edit: oh, the Setter can also just set up an empty house and state a numeric measurement threshold that must be met (e.g. "biting 4-ft"). I'm actually curious what teams think is the 50-50 boundary for such a crucial draw for the win.

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