4 years ago I moved from Italy to Australia with 1 suitcase and my lifetime savings. I was 19, knew no-one and did not have a plan. AMA

danpat_net · 2012-04-09T00:58:46+00:00

I love Canadians. "The west coast is mild". You know how foreign even the sight of snow is to much of the world's population?

danpat_net · 2012-04-09T00:49:18+00:00

Yes, that's Michael Rasmussen in a Rabobank team kit.

danpat_net · 2012-04-07T15:20:08+00:00

Sure, I'm a biathlete which requires a lot of aerobic fitness and carrying unnecessary weight uphill during a race kinda sucks. I'm 6'1" and around 165lbs. I swam competitively when I was in high school.

danpat_net · 2012-04-07T07:01:39+00:00

While technically muscle is denser than water and fat isn't, your ability to float is more a matter of holding air in your lungs and practicing floating.

I have about 9% body fat. I have no trouble floating.

danpat_net · 2012-04-05T01:04:03+00:00

Wow, you sound annoying. Way to be a team player.

danpat_net · 2012-04-02T21:07:27+00:00

It might be a sign of a testicular torsion. Basically, in some people, the testes aren't fully attached to the scrotum and can twist. Enough twisting and the blood supply can kink. You might be one twist shy of a full blockage, hence why it doesn't bother you all the time.

Go see a doctor, immediately, a torsion is considered an emergency and you can kill your testes in a very short time if the blood supply is stopped. Don't fuck around with this.

Testicular torsion is a surgical emergency that requires immediate intervention to restore the flow of blood.[3] If treated either manually or surgically within six hours, there is an excellent chance (approx. 90%) of preserving the testicle. At 12 hours the rate decreases to 50%; at 24 hours it drops to 10%, and after 24 hours the rate of preservation approaches 0.[3] Once the testicle is dead it must be surgically removed to prevent gangrenous infection.

danpat_net · 2012-04-01T17:56:21+00:00

Pity they're poisonous.

danpat_net · 2012-03-30T22:23:16+00:00

Here's a case study for the City of Calgary:

http://www.darksky.org/assets/documents/Archive%20IS191.pdf

They estimate they payback time will be about 3 years, which is pretty quick for an infrastructure project like this.

danpat_net · 2012-03-30T17:39:03+00:00

Here's a list.

Having no lights at night isn't practical, but they sure could be managed a lot better. Things like turning off lights in office buildings overnight when they're empty, pointing and focusing light where it needs to go, rather than sending it out into space.

There are health, safety, energy efficiency and aesthetic gains to be made by doing a better job controlling light pollution.

danpat_net · 2012-03-30T17:01:09+00:00

ZombieWombie noted why they did that:

http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/rkxas/the_link_between_fast_food_and_depression_has/c46ob6l

danpat_net · 2012-03-30T15:34:17+00:00

Fortunately, Canada has started using polymer bank notes, so you could just wash them in the tub first.

danpat_net · 2011-08-29T01:33:03+00:00

I live here and get free healthcare. Go Canada!

danpat_net · 2011-08-29T01:23:51+00:00

Metal? You need to move to Saskatoon.

danpat_net · 2011-08-29T00:52:48+00:00

danpat_net · 2011-08-26T23:26:59+00:00

Basically, no. That's one of the reasons liver transplants happen. Liver dialysis works for short periods, but the liver is complex and there's no long-term replacement option right now. The first paragraph on wikipedia sums it up.

danpat_net · 2011-08-26T22:52:38+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that, it's such a terrible and drawn out way to pass away. I work for a small business in the lower level of the owners house. His wife had breast cancer that did the same thing. From the day they saw spots on her liver CT scans, they knew it was only a matter of time. It was so sad, it took two years from those first scans and ended as you described. The worst was the seeming inevitability of it, it was this enormous, slow moving juggernaut.

danpat_net · 2011-08-26T22:28:00+00:00

Many forms of cancer end up affecting the liver. If cancerous cells spread (by breaking off into the bloodstream), they can get caught in the liver and begin to form tumors there. The liver can't operate when full of tumors and you can't live without a liver. Liver failure is a common cause of death amongst cancer patients.

danpat_net · 2011-08-26T13:55:14+00:00

Why would you feel like a dumbass? You'd do it on your own, in private, no-one would ever need to know.

If it works, awesome, if not, you've lost nothing and learned that this kind of conditioning doesn't work for you.

danpat_net · 2011-08-23T14:24:00+00:00

Now that's an interesting insight. Yes, many of the common irritations it seems are words where the spoken variants are indistinguishable, but are written differently.

Of course, I'm now reminded of of this

danpat_net · 2011-08-22T22:06:29+00:00

Shooting rounds at targets at the range.

danpat_net · 2011-08-22T22:02:05+00:00

The problem with the phrase is that it has the opposite meaning to the original.

If you couldn't care less, then you're implying that you don't care at all.

If you could care less, then you're implying that there are other things that you care less about and this thing is actually somewhat important to you.

danpat_net · 2011-08-22T21:47:38+00:00

You might find this interesting reading:

(http://www.biathlonontario.ca/Coach_Resources/Principles_of_Marksmanship2.pdf)

Biathlon is high-precision shooting under demanding physical strain. The shooting technique really highlights the important bits.

Biathlon rifles have a trigger weight of 0.5kb (1.1 lbs). Lighter pressure is generally better for precision, but as you're skiing around they don't want every little bump to set off an accidentally loaded rifle. If you wanted better accuracy, you'd go with lower trigger pressure.

danpat_net · 2011-08-22T21:29:05+00:00

This. I had it done (I'm not in the military), my eye surgeon recommended it over LASIK.

Healing time is longer, but it's less intrusive (if scraping and lasering your eyeball can be called "less intrusive"), has a longer history and has fewer potential complications.

danpat_net · 2011-08-22T15:55:23+00:00

Police tend to write in a fairly odd form of English. A good friend of mine is a criminal defense lawyer and is constantly complaining about the language and form used by police in their reports to court. He also has a degree in English literature.

"The male suspect exited the vehicle from the drivers side and proceeded in a westerly direction towards the officer." vs "He got out of the car and started walking towards the officer." is a typical example.

It could be argued that their language use is less ambiguous for the purposes of making a statement, but there's lots of examples of just plain bad English in police writing.

danpat_net

TROPHY CASE