Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 5:05 am

Given that we are on good terms with the actual homeowner, I would never do such a thing.

My cat however has been told that the birds are full of the meat he likes most, and encouraged to get it.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 5:22 am

Prak_Anima wrote:my cat freaks when he sees cat carriers

Heh, putting food dishes in cat carriers is actually how I taught my cats to not freak at them anymore.

It used to be a huge pain in the ass during the time it took over a year to sell my house since having pets running around the house is a no-no for good house showings. On days when they needed to be caged, we'd delay feeding til near showtime and then they'd happily hop right in since they were used to their food being in cages.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 8:05 am

There's a sinister metaphor for coercive governments in there somewhere. Nobody tell Glenn Beck.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:16 pm

Okay, does anyone know a good general method for coming up with names that have to follow a certain pattern? Especially when I need names that sound like they came from a certain culture. Including the names of places and people. Coming up with names in general is just way harder than it should be and random generators often cover only a very narrow niche.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:35 pm

Pick a real world culture and pillage it for names. The main human culture in my campaign is explicitly psuedogrecian, and it's been pretty easy to pick names.

Jilocasin · Post by **Jilocasin** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 11:36 pm

Ah well I tend to just pick a culture that actually exists and have a big list of names that I just chunk into the fictional culture that I need a cohesive list of names and sounds for. I do that with multiple big lists and also have a grab bag list of semi-random names.

Or course you could construct your own language and go from there, but that's a crazy amount of work.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 1:51 am

I will say that the Con-lang community is very helpful and language construction is pretty damn fun.

Baby name websites are pretty good for this sort of thing. You can list them by nationality, mythology, etc.. The good ones also give you meanings for the names. Those have been my pillage lists in the past.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:28 am

Koumei wrote:Keeping in mind that I'm a bit of a bitch, here is my suggestion:

Apparently the chickens belong, not to the next door neighbour, but someone down the street. Tomorrow I'm going down to said house, and telling them that if they do not keep the chickens on their own fucking property, this is what will happen to them.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:03 am

If you do cook a chicken, invite your neighbour over as a way of making up for the misunderstanding/showing good neighbourly spirit. If you want to be spiteful, also invite the owner.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:29 am

Well, tomorrow I'm going to try being tactful. "Hey, your chickens are crapping on our porch and stealing my cat's food, can you please keep them on your property?" I'll give them a few days grace period, but if the chickens return more than three times, it escalates to "keep your fucking chickens in your yard, otherwise they'll replace the catfood they stole."

ModelCitizen · Post by **ModelCitizen** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:51 pm

Does anyone have a link or something to reliable information about Kickstarter campaigns? Success rates per dollar amount of goal, consequences of failure, amount of advertising / name recognition you need to have a reasonable chance of getting funding, that sort of thing. The internet has lead me to believe that Kickstarter is some kind of free money fountain and I'm calling bullshit, but I have a project in development that is exactly the kind of thing Kickstarter was designed for and definitely needs the funding.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:07 pm

I'm pretty sure it's free to try, with no consequence for failing to meet your target. Just, uh, make sure your incentives don't cost more than the amount paid to obtain them. Also, if the project ends up not happening after you get the money, you will need to calm the backers down yourself.

That said, Kickstarter is basically only a free money fountain if your problem is that you have a lot of people who would like to buy something from you but lack anything to sell them just yet. I dunno if there's actual studies on how much recognition is needed for it to work. I would suggest putting one up and seeing what happens.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:37 pm

I remember hearing that only half of all kickstarter projects meet their goal, but I have absolutely nothing to back that up.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 8:00 pm

Kickstarter.

Hicks · Post by **Hicks** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:45 pm

Is there a greater mass of hydrogen in a liter of liquid water than in a liter of liquid hydrogen? If so, how much more?

angelfromanotherpin · Post by **angelfromanotherpin** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:59 pm

Okay, liquid hydrogen masses 4.23 lbs/cubic foot, and water masses 62.4 lbs/cubic foot. (Not at the same temperature, obviously, but at industrial standard temperatures for each)

So how much of that water mass is hydrogen?

Water = H2O (2 hydrogens, 1 oxygen)

(Molecular) Mass of Hydrogen = 1.01
Oxygen = 16.00

Total mass of water = 18.02

So mass of hydrogen is 2.02/18.02
=11.21%

So the mass of the hydrogen in a cubic foot of water is (62.4 lbs*11.21%)=6.99 lbs, which is more than the 4.23 lbs of hydrogen in a cubic foot of liquid hydrogen. Which presumably scales down to the liter proportionately. So, to answer the second part of the question, 60.5% more.

Actual chemists feel free to kick my ass on that.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:09 pm

1 liter of water = 1000 grams of water

(1000 grams water)/(18.015 grams/mole) = 55.5093 moles

55.5093 moles * (6.0221E23) = 3.3428E25 molecules of water

1 liter of liquid hydrogen = 67.8g of hydrogen
67.8g/2.02 grams/mole = 33.564 moles
33.564 * 6.0221E23 = 2.021279E25 molecules

So there is roughly 1.5 times as much hydrogen in a liter of water, as there is in a liter of liquid hydroten

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:18 pm

Liter is a unit of volume. One liter of water has a mass of about one kilogram (density ~1g/cm^3). One liter of liquid hydrogen has a mass of about 0.07 kilograms (density ~0.07g/cm^3). Molecular weight of water is ~18 grams/mole, so we're looking at (1000/18) 55.55 moles of water. In each mole of water there's one mole of H2, so that's 55.55 moles of H2. The atomic weight of Hydrogen is ~2.016 grams/mole, so (55.55 x 2.016) = 112 grams of Hydrogen in each kilogram of water.

Which may seem counterintuitive, until you realize that water is much more dense (1g/cm^3 vs. 0.07g/cm^3) in liquid form than hydrogen.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 9:57 am

What are good ways of dealing with noise and activity around the house? I'm used to living with only one or two other people, all who value peace and quiet, and a dog, who doesn't race around (except for walkies) or bark. Now there are three people in the house other than me as permanent residents, two of which are constantly on the phone (or talking to actual people who are here), and with two televisions on, a dog that makes no noise mostly, and then my stepsister has part-time moved in as she resolves breaking up with her boyfriend... so she uses the phone a lot, and her 2 year old son is constantly making noise. The most troublesome bit is that half this noise happens in the office, the only room with Internet (no wireless).

Seriously, I feel the need to go out for a cigarette, and I don't even smoke.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 10:03 am

When i'm in situations where the house is really noisy I go to coffee shops and walk the dog a lot.

-Username17

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:14 pm

Two suggestions have worked for me in the past. First, if you have a room to yourself and the noise doesn't carry too well, you might try living out of there indefinitely. I've found it's surprisingly doable to spend 95% of my time in a house hiding in a single room. Second, when you're sharing rooms or the building just has thin walls or for some other reason you don't want to go the isolation route, get headphones and a music player and drown it all out. Granted, this might have some longterm consequences for your ears if you keep it up for several years.

Red_Rob · Post by **Red_Rob** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:30 pm

Wireless modems are pretty cheap. If you have a room you can retreat to it might be a worthwile investment.

Or, you could, y'know, ask them to try to keep it down if it's really affecting you. You live there too, your opinions have as much weight as theirs.

Whatever · Post by **Whatever** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:14 pm

I always thought those noise-cancelling headphones were a joke, but I tried a pair a friend had and they honestly do work. Not sure how much they cost, though.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:27 pm

My headphones are $12 stuff I picked up at I think Wal-Mart. They "cancel noise" the same way radio jammers do; by being louder than competing signals.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:42 pm

Yeah, +1 for "Live out of a single room and listen to lots of music. It's what I do.