Random Thought Thread

[InfestedKerrigan]

2 minutes ago, WestRider said:

I forgot to mention, it is just the verses and you have to be 6 doses in. The chorus doesn't fit until the bass drops. But yeah. It's a long strange trip it's been.

You sure you ain't talking DSotR?

[Ish]

Just about everything written in iambic heptameter (fourteen syllables and seven iambic feet per meter) can easily be read in common meter: four lines which alternate between iambic tetrameter (four feet per line) and iambic trimeter (three feet ), with each foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable; and an 8/6/8/6 syllable count.  Iambic heptameter is really common in a lot of Sixties and Seventies television theme songs, common meter is common (get it) to a lot of medieval ballads, and both crop up a lot in those poetry classics you were supposed to have read in freshman English, but didn't...

One line has four iambic feet.
The next has only three. 
And then the pattern will repeat 
And rhyme, as you can see.

Since common meter texts abound, 
Tune-swapping is a breeze. 
You'll see examples float around, 
Including each of these:

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this tropic port,
aboard this tiny ship.

Because I could not stop for Death
He kindly stopped for me
The Carriage held but just Ourselves
And Immortality.

There is a house in New Orleans,
They call the rising sun.
And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl,
And God, I know I'm one.

I wanna be the very best.
Like no one ever was!
To catch them is my real test.
To train them is my cause!

O beautiful for spacious skies, 
For amber waves of grain, 
For purple mountain majesties 
Above the fruited plain! 

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

[InfestedKerrigan]

Next, you'll tell me most top songs consist of the same chord progression. 

[Ish]

What's really fun is to use the Four Chords of Pop to play a song in the Common Meter. 

[InfestedKerrigan]

John Oliver will be a perfect Zazu.

[Ish]

On 5/14/2015 at 4:57 PM, WestRider said:

Technically, we are all half centaur.

All of us are half centaur on the upper half. A lucky few of us have a bit of the centaur’s lower half too. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Ish said:

All of us are half centaur on the upper half. A lucky few of us have a bit of the centaur’s lower half too. 

You quoted westrider's comment from 2015...lol

[WestRider]

55 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

You quoted westrider's comment from 2015...lol

It's one for the ages.

[Munkie]

If ever there's a DIY cloning kit, it should be called "Make Yourself at Home."

[WestRider]

Plunging Fire, noun.
1: Attacking from a high angle to hit the weaker top armour of a target.
2: A clear sign that it's time to give up on the DIY approach and just call a real plumber.

[Guest]

Used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took...

[Guest]

Does fog affect the amount of breathable air?

[Duckman]

2 hours ago, paxmiles said:

Does fog affect the amount of breathable air?

Fog is just water vapor at a specific temperature so no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog

[Ish]

The debate I’ve been having all week with my children: Is a taco a sandwich? 

[WestRider]

1 hour ago, Ish said:

The debate I’ve been having all week with my children: Is a taco a sandwich? 

I'd say yes. A while back, I had the realization that the only difference between a quesadilla and a grilled cheese sandwich is the kind of bread used.

[Duckman]

Does a taco shell count as bread though?  I'd be more inclined to call it a special case of nachos.

[Ish]

11 minutes ago, Duckman said:

Does a taco shell count as bread though?  I'd be more inclined to call it a special case of nachos.

Crunchy or soft? Because a soft taco is definitely a sandwich.

[WestRider]

51 minutes ago, Duckman said:

Does a taco shell count as bread though?  I'd be more inclined to call it a special case of nachos.

It's unleavened bread, but still bread. The only difference between a soft and crunchy tortilla is how it's cooked.

[Ish]

Well, one is more commonly made of corn and the other more commonly of wheat... But you can find examples of the other easily enough. 

 

[Munkie]

11 hours ago, Duckman said:

Fog is just water vapor at a specific temperature so no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog

While that's true, it's also not. Fog is a product of still air. I grew up on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington and once we had no air movement for a week. Solid fog, day in and out. By the end they were advising lighting no fires because the smoke wouldn't go anywhere.

It looked like fog, was fog but also a big ol' soupy mess of lung gunk.

So no, fog won't affect air quality, but it can be a herald of bad air quality.

[WestRider]

9 hours ago, Munkie said:

While that's true, it's also not. Fog is a product of still air. I grew up on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington and once we had no air movement for a week. Solid fog, day in and out. By the end they were advising lighting no fires because the smoke wouldn't go anywhere.

It looked like fog, was fog but also a big ol' soupy mess of lung gunk.

So no, fog won't affect air quality, but it can be a herald of bad air quality.

I got the impression Pax was asking less about air pollution as such, and more along the lines of "Can you drown in sufficiently foggy air?", which is a no.

[Guest]

21 hours ago, Duckman said:

Fog is just water vapor at a specific temperature so no.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog

Maybe I worded the question badly.

If a single breath contains X volume, seems like a single breath that includes more water in that X would include less breathable air due to that volume being occupied by water. It would be slight, but your body would have to breath in more breaths in order to obtain the same amount of air they'd normally obtain in less breaths. So should, logically, be harder to breath fog than it would be to breath in dryer air. Does this seem right?

[WestRider]

5 minutes ago, paxmiles said:

Maybe I worded the question badly.

If a single breath contains X volume, seems like a single breath that includes more water in that X would include less breathable air due to that volume being occupied by water. It would be slight, but your body would have to breath in more breaths in order to obtain the same amount of air they'd normally obtain in less breaths. So should, logically, be harder to breath fog than it would be to breath in dryer air. Does this seem right?

In general, it does get a bit harder to breathe when the humidity reaches a certain point. But whether or not the temperature will let the water vapour be visible at that humidity level (i.e. whether or not it's actually foggy) is irrelevant.

[Ish]

Given the fact that a “normal” breath contains about 80% Nitrogen, 18% Oxygen, and about 2% being a melange of Argon, Carbon dioxide, Neon, Helium, Methane, Krypton, Hydrogen, and Xenon... Most of what we inhale isn’t what we actually “breath,” so the gases of no use to our body gets exhaled right away. 

I’d reckon that an increase in the amount of water vapor in the air isn’t going to have any statistically significant effect on a normal respiratory system. People with compromised respiratory systems probably struggle with it... But I’d imagine that it’s probably a minimal risk.  

I’ve seen “smog warnings” and “smoke warnings” before, but never “fog warnings.”

(And before anyone brings it up, the infamously fatal “London Fog” of the Victorian Era and the Post-War years was not actually fog.)

[Duckman]

Munkie's comments above are about the tings that also get into the air during a bad fog.  The truth of the matter though is that fog doesn't require still air.  It requires a specific temperature that allows the water vapor to become visible.  Personally I really like mornings where fog comes up from a lake or river before burning off or being blown apart/away...  Makes for really gorgeous sunrises without being a harbinger of still air which can lead to all sorts of air quality issues.

Regarding compromised respiratory systems, it's a toss up.  They recommend dry climes for some problems and moist climes for others as long as you can avoid the other pollutants.  The key is to remember that fog does not include the other particulates which *can* be an issue for folks and that's why my original answer was what it was.  Fog itself is not an issue as your body handles water vapor just fine and in many cases actually likes it.