The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXVIII

[sophie]

Wow! I'm a sleep-breather too.

Does any/everybody see any graphic difference between these letters on their browser?

Ö/ö Ō/ō Õ/õ​

Currently I do, but on some fonts the three letterforms look the same.

majuscule-O-diaeresis, minuscule-o-diaeresis, majuscule-O-macron, minuscule-o-macron, majuscule-O-tilde, minuscule-o-tilde

 

[Takhisis]

Good. Here they show. But sometimes on Wikipedia they don't, which can be problematic.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Neither. I think the recommended technique for breathing at rest is diaphragmatic breathing. You deliberately breathe out by pulling in the stomach, and then let the breath inhale naturally without making any effort at all.

That's what I meant, is it better to breath by having the stomach move or by having the chest move? Everything I read says moving the stomach because it fills all the lungs with air instead of just the top part and that the ribcage isn't supposed to expand that way, but I was told today that it's controversial, and that moving the chest is better.

 

[Borachio]

I think it depends on how energetic you are. If you're at rest, I think it's better to breathe from the lower abdomen (as they say), rather than shallowly breathing from the upper chest.

If you're running full pelt down the road, I don't think it matters what you try and do. Your body is just going to be sucking in as much air as it can, however it can do it.

But for the argumentative people (who seem to inhabit your world) I'd just link them to the wiki page on Pranayama and leave them to it.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

That won't work, they don't trust the internet. One phrase I heard them describe themselves is "internet Luddite".

 

[Borachio]

Well, a book on the subject it is, then.

Actually, if this is the same group of people you usually refer to, I don't think I'd be having any more to do with them.

They sound like a totally crazy argumentative bunch of probably Christian fundamentalists.

 

[Arakhor]

It seems like their sole goals in life are to confuse Chukchi and provide discussion on the Internet.

 

[bhsup]

What is "Nats" in the context used in this article? I am guessing it is something so well known that it didn't need an explanation for a UK audience. See bolded part of quote.

Flights disrupted after computer failure at UK control centre << As a courtesy, I am not correcting the misspelling of center in the headline.

Passengers are facing widespread flight disruption after a computer failure at the UK's air traffic control centre.

Nats said it was in the process of returning to normal operations after a "technical problem" at its Swanwick control centre caused delays and grounded some flights.

 

[Samson]

What is "Nats" in the context used in this article? I am guessing it is something so well known that it didn't need an explanation for a UK audience. See bolded part of quote.

Flights disrupted after computer failure at UK control centre << As a courtesy, I am not correcting the misspelling of center in the headline.

It is the company that runs the UK air traffic control. I THINK it is "National Air Traffic Service" but there web site quite well avoids mentioning what is actually stands for.

 

[bhsup]

Hehe. Okay, it makes me feel better knowing the people of nats don't even know. Thanks.

 

[Arakhor]

Maybe you should have a word with Noah Webster about the spelling issue.

 

[Borachio]

What is "Nats" in the context used in this article? I am guessing it is something so well known that it didn't need an explanation for a UK audience. See bolded part of quote.

Flights disrupted after computer failure at UK control centre << As a courtesy, I am not correcting the misspelling of center centre (SP -1) in the headline.

Well, I had no idea what it meant either.

But further down in the article, we have:

It comes a year after a telephone glitch at the Hampshire control room caused huge disruption - one of a number of technical hitches to hit the part-privatised Nation Air Traffic Services since the centre opened in 2002.

 

[bhsup]

Weird. I don't recall that line before. I hate it when online articles are updated without any indication. They should add that at the end with "updated content added HH:SS"

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

What is the name of that circumbinary solar system that had a subdwarf B (sdB) star and a red M dwarf star in an extremely close orbit and the sdB star was so hot and bright the telescopes observing them saw the sdB's starlight literally reflecting off the M dwarf*?

Google fails me, as always.

(* Indicated by a specific pattern of brightness variations during their orbits, I believe)

 

[Takhisis]

I don't know that.




*AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGHGHHHHHHH*

 

[shadowplay]

What's the furry pink stuff that started growing on my apple bran muffles?

 

[Civ'ed]

Why is Papua New Guinea considered Oceania, while West Papua is considered Asia? Is it just a desire to say "oh yeah europe has a land connection with oceania?"

 

[The_J]

What's the furry pink stuff that started growing on my apple bran muffles?

Fungi come in all different colours, and they're often fluffy.
Most likely an Aspergillus or Penicillum (and no, also the latter one doesn't make it healthy ^^).
For more specificity you need to go to someone with a lab *shrugs*.

 

[madviking]

Why is Papua New Guinea considered Oceania, while West Papua is considered Asia? Is it just a desire to say "oh yeah europe has a land connection with oceania?"

white people not understanding stuff

 

[cybrxkhan]

How offensive is "tranny"? Some people on the totally sensible PI forums were arguing about it, but I suppose it better to come to the more civilized folks here to ask. Someone said it was equivalent to the n-word, while others were saying it is more akin to saying Catholic priests = pedophiles or calling Irishmen ginger drunkards.

Why is Papua New Guinea considered Oceania, while West Papua is considered Asia? Is it just a desire to say "oh yeah europe has a land connection with oceania?"

The western part of is part of Indonesa which is considered part of Asia, and the eastern part was once connected with Australia if I remember correctly.

So basically it boils down to...

white people not understanding stuff

Yeah.