how ignorant are you?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Katkeeper

My lawn is a disaster! I have tons of weeds, one of which was so prolific 2 years ago that I had a severe allergic reaction to its pollen after making the mistake of cutting the lawn while the weeds were producing in quantity. Do you think the world of plants was getting back at me for my inattention and abuse of their members?

I have actually put an organic weed suppressant on the lawn this Spring. We'll see waht happens. Organic fertilizer is next, apparently. I am getting advice from a friend who has gone this route. I don't want to encourage the lawn too much, but I do want a little grass in with the weeds.

I can't read people, not even a little. So I try to be nice to everyone and hope the good'uns I've been good to will clue me in when I'm going to get rolled. Its a system but not much of one.

(I think you can substitute Euro for Gyro)

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Katkeeper

My lawn is a disaster! SNIP Do you think the world of plants was getting back at me for my inattention and abuse of their members?

Reward...they're all green.

[LCanal]

Buy an organic sheep or goat.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by LCanal

Buy an organic sheep or goat.

I guess every thread turns to sex sooner or later.

[Guyute]

I still have no FUCKING clue how a solenoid works, or why we use them over a switch, even tho my Uncle ran a dealership's body shop for 20 years and explained it to me probably 20 times...it makes no sense.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Guyute

I still have no FUCKING clue how a solenoid works, or why we use them over a switch, even tho my Uncle ran a dealership's body shop for 20 years and explained it to me probably 20 times...it makes no sense.

Running electricity through a coil produces magnetism which moves a piece of metal.

A solenoid produces mechanical force (movement) and a switch does not.

[Troubleshooter]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

A solenoid produces mechanical force (movement) and a switch does not.

Ok smartass, tell him how a starter on an engine works...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Troubleshooter

Ok smartass, tell him how a starter on an engine works...

even tho my Uncle ran a dealership's body shop for 20 years and explained it to me probably 20 times

I think that is what's confusing him. Of the zillion uses for a solenoid, the starter solenoid on a car is the one that replicates a switch.
OK, the starter needs lots of amperage so the cable(wire) from the battery to the starter is huge and kept as short a possible to minimize resistance losses. Therefore the switch is down between the battery and starter and you can't reach it, in fact you'd have to get out and open the hood then reach way down in the grimey bits to flip the switch.
More gooder to park your butt behind the wheel and let the solenoid flip the switch for you. Yeah, the solenoid is electrically operated but that's a little bitty wire that can be as long as you want. OK?

[Murphonian Logic]

Like most people, the older I get, the more I realize how ignorant I am. I do know some things. The vast majority of my brain is allocated to pop culture references, song lyrics, and sex. I've learned that I read much more than most people; and I'm constantly surprised how many people I meet who equate reading with a root canal with no anesthesia. THis brings me to the vast wasteland of what I don't know:

I'm endlessly using words I've been reading for years and butchering the pronunciation.
I understand money, but math ended for me in the 9th grade. In college I was in "Remedial Math 050". They called me the white guy; and I made some cool friends who also thought algebra was pointless and annoying.
The stock market. All I know is my 401k has been tanking for years.
I utterly fail to understand the mass market appeal of DMB.
Until I was about 27, I was sure "approximately" meant "exactly precisely" Oops.
I know eights of an inch, half inch, quarter inch, but if you point to 5/8th's of an inch on a ruler I can't help ya. I generally hold the "stupid end" of the tape measure when working with anyone less retarded than myself.
I sell computer hardware, and some of the "techs" I talk to baffle me daily.
I live in a house with 2 cats and I don't understand their appeal. All they do is meow for food, for attention, cover my house with cat fur and make at least one room smell really bad. Ugh.

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by Murphonian Logic

I utterly fail to understand the mass market appeal of DMB.

Dave Matthews Band, Wolf.

this user obviously has an inverted obsession with Dave Matthews. I suspect that he wants to sleep with him. but that's just my opinion.

[wolf]

I don't know what DMB is.

There was a period of about 20 years in my life in which I "balanced" my checkbook by deposting money and not writing it in the checkbook so I had an automatic buffer against bouncing checks. My secretary explained the whole concept of balancing for me, and a trick I could use to start over without simply opening a new account at a different bank and closing out the account that I have been not managing for the last 20 years. I liked my bank just fine. I just didn't know how much money was in my account.

I didn't know that solenoids were used in anything other than pinball machines.

I don't know what solenoids are used for in pinball machines, but I know they are in there, and are part of what makes pinball fun and exciting.

I could have taken Ken Jennings. No sweat. Just so long as there weren't any categories requiring knowledge of music recorded since 1992.

[Catwoman]

Tonchi do you have any deep-seated problems from discussing Ulysses at the age of 5?

[Tonchi]

Originally Posted by Catwoman

Tonchi do you have any deep-seated problems from discussing Ulysses at the age of 5?

See? You're assuming immediately that Ulysses means the Joyce novel, you ADULT you

For me at that age, it was an exciting epic of the Trojan war, where guys ran around in really cool costumes, like Brad Pitt recently brought to our attention, and all this beautiful stuff was still buried in the sand out there somewhere and when I grew up I wanted to go discover it. I still remember vividly when Life Magazine released the first photos of the excavation of the (assumed) Tomb of Midas. But discussing it with anybody else was impossible, so I just read and read and read. When I wrote my Senior Thesis in High School it was about Cliff Dwellers of the American Southwest. I'll never forget the look on my teacher's face, she was considered one of the most refined and educated people in our town (and a bona fide Southern Belle) and all she could say was "I never even knew this existed. However did you get interested in THAT?" That's why I loved college. When you keep climbing up the educational ladder, all of a sudden people who have the same interests as you do show up, rising from the stew of "normal" people that you were all lost in before.

OK, but about the novel, I never knew how the name was correctly pronounced until I was 18. The book was gibberish, a total waste of the time it took to read it. Then last year there was an article in one of my magazines, I think it was Smithsonian, that Ulysses is a masterpiece of language containing puns and codes which would do the Kabbalah proud. But even so, I'm not interested in reading it again (got enough from Ulysses for Dummies on the web)

[BrianR]

I do not understand anyone remotely female.

I cannot keep any plant other than weeds alive. Why they should remain alive and even thrive when I cannot keep a simple geranium alive for more than a week is beyond me too.

I no longer understand how my computer works. I understand this is a function of my advancing years.

I simply cannot make and use dough. I can cook anything else, but not dough, yeast or otherwise. I always burn it or it comes out tasteless. Yecch!

I am currently being outsmarted by a squirrel.

The list goes on but there's a message size limit here.

Brian

[Catwoman]

Stamped with what? Laquered with what? What is this mysterious substance that makes sounds? And while we're on the subject, how do the tape players/CD lasers interpret this information?

If you can answer these questions I will stand on you one night.