The even randomer thread

[Pimlach]

17 hours ago, Eleven said:

The half hitch is a simple hitch knot, where the working end of a line is brought over and under the standing part. Insecure on its own, it is a valuable component of a wide variety of useful and reliable hitches, bends, and knots.

 

14 hours ago, Weave said:

Boy scouts, eh?

Sounds like a Navy man 

[bob_sauve28]

 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/10/28/vietnam-america-halloween-trick-treat/

Holidays are windows into a new culture. When my family arrived in Texas 40 years ago, we learned this firsthand as new immigrants. The adults loved Thanksgiving, a day of gratitude centered on food and family, but for us kids, nothing compared to Halloween, a night of knocking on doors and getting candy, sometimes even a homemade cupcake, almost always offered with a smile.

A year earlier, we had been living in Vietnam, where food was scarce and trust even scarcer under communist rule. Even as children, we knew to be cautious; anyone could be a spy for the government. Yet here, strangers handed out treats, and all I had to do was say a few words, a phrase that didn’t fully make sense.

Other sights and sounds were equally puzzling. Toilet paper draped across trees — what for, and why waste something so precious? And pumpkins carved into jack-o’-lanterns — food used only for decoration? Having lived through severe food shortages under a communist government’s disastrous agricultural collectivization, I couldn’t fathom such extravagance, or that the pumpkins I was familiar with could grow so enormous, meant not to be eaten but simply admired.

But most unsettling were the skeletons. In Vietnam, where ancestor worship is woven into Buddhist culture, the bones of the dead are treated with solemn reverence. A few years after my grandmother died, her remains were exhumed, the bones carefully washed and dried, and reburied in a family plot among other relatives. This second burial was meant to ensure that the dead found a lasting peace and could continue keeping a protective watch over the living.

In America, seeing skeletons dangling from porches, some in silly hats, some dripped with fake blood, horrified me; the idea that they weren’t real and were merely decorations, casually accepted by everyone, was completely baffling.

[shrader]

Is anyone familiar with Diwali? They moved a festival to the park just behind my house this year. The music they’re playing is absurdly loud. There are a couple events out there during the year and nothing has ever come close to this volume level. My kids can’t sleep because it sounds like I’m in an apartment and the people upstairs are having a party. 
 

Is that level of noise typical for a Diwali event? 

[shrader]

I don't think it is even slightly political, but feel free to delete it if it is...

We are rapidly approaching the end of my least favorite time of the year, election sign season.  This morning a new one popped up all over the place that says "No tax hike Mike".  So will Mike raise taxes or not?  I have absolutely no clue from that sign.  Also, who is Mike?

Edited 11 hours ago by shrader

[mjd1001]

2 minutes ago, shrader said:

I don't think it is even slightly political, but feel free to delete it if it is...

We are rapidly approaching the end of my least favorite time of the year, election sign season.  This morning a new one popped up all over the place that says "No tax hike Mike".  So will Mike raise taxes or not?  I have absolutely no clue from that sign.  Also, who is Mike?

I kind of agree with what you're saying in the large picture. I never understood the signs on the front lawn. 

I can't imagine not knowing who I'm going to vote for and then seeing a sign on the front lawn that tells me to vote...that got me thinking... "You know what? That random person who I don't know likes that candidate so that must be the one I'm going to go with!"

I guess the theory I heard is the more signs on the lawn seems to drum up identification or a groundswell of support for a certain candidate. But still... I don't understand how that actually changes someone's mind... Or get someone to vote for them when they weren't going to vote at all. 

It's just more sign pollution... And general pollution when they go flying all over the place on a windy day.

[Weave]

1 hour ago, shrader said:

I don't think it is even slightly political, but feel free to delete it if it is...

We are rapidly approaching the end of my least favorite time of the year, election sign season.  This morning a new one popped up all over the place that says "No tax hike Mike".  So will Mike raise taxes or not?  I have absolutely no clue from that sign.  Also, who is Mike?

Punctuation would help, but that seems to be turning into a lost art.

[shrader]

3 hours ago, Weave said:

Punctuation would help, but that seems to be turning into a lost art.

Does a comma save that one though?  "Say no to" would save it... unless the guy is trying to run with the nickname of no tax hike Mike.  In that case, he needs to try harder on the nickname.

[Taro T]

6 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

I kind of agree with what you're saying in the large picture. I never understood the signs on the front lawn. 

I can't imagine not knowing who I'm going to vote for and then seeing a sign on the front lawn that tells me to vote...that got me thinking... "You know what? That random person who I don't know likes that candidate so that must be the one I'm going to go with!"

I guess the theory I heard is the more signs on the lawn seems to drum up identification or a groundswell of support for a certain candidate. But still... I don't understand how that actually changes someone's mind... Or get someone to vote for them when they weren't going to vote at all. 

It's just more sign pollution... And general pollution when they go flying all over the place on a windy day.

One of our neighbors has signs up every year for the local elections.  Which works well, because if we don't know all of the candidates in the "little" races we can reliably vote for our neighbors' favorites' opponents and end up with someone that will get that particular job done.  Hasn't failed us as a strategy yet.  (Of course, should they someday twig to the fact that people see who they're voting for and do the opposite, they could fake us all out and put up signs for the people they hope to see lose, and end up seeing their folks get in when everybody votes against the candidates with their signs up in their yard.  Doubt they'll ever get to that level of 3D chess.  They seem to have issues with good ol' 2D checkers.)

[Doohickie]

9 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

I kind of agree with what you're saying in the large picture. I never understood the signs on the front lawn. 

I can't imagine not knowing who I'm going to vote for and then seeing a sign on the front lawn that tells me to vote...that got me thinking... "You know what? That random person who I don't know likes that candidate so that must be the one I'm going to go with!"

I guess the theory I heard is the more signs on the lawn seems to drum up identification or a groundswell of support for a certain candidate. But still... I don't understand how that actually changes someone's mind... Or get someone to vote for them when they weren't going to vote at all. 

It's just more sign pollution... And general pollution when they go flying all over the place on a windy day.

It's not so much about changing minds; it's more about encouraging like-minded people to actually vote.

(Taro notwithstanding)