I hope there's a cyanide pill or a pistol stored at the base.

I notice there's no light switch top or bottom, either...

Most people who have problems with building codes don't understand them. They're pretty much a minimal "new construction" standard.

As a homeowner, you're welcome to rig up electrocuting showers, incineration chamber basement bedrooms, sewage gas spewing sinks and toxic mold cultivating additions. You just don't have the right to recover insurance damages when these "improvements" reap what they've sown.

@29:

As an evolutionary biologist, you have to recognize that natural selection is the most well misunderstood scientific concept out there...

Good luck!

More recent studies implicate solubilized carbohydrates in childhood obesity.

The general argument is this:

When you consume a given number of calories from, say, an orange, you get a certain level of satiation.

When you consume the same amount of calories from orange juice, orange soda pop or orange gatorade, you get less satiation. Less satiation = more room for other food = more overall calories consumed.

Limiting the availability of juices and soft drinks, gave the most dramatic results in reducing childhood weight.

I can't remember (and I don't have a Lancet subscription here at the house), but I believe this was the article:

Relation between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity: a prospective, observational analysis.

The Lancet, Volume 357, Issue 9255, Pages 505-508

D. Ludwig, K. Peterson, S. Gortmaker

Sounds like cybersquatting to me.

I think most people would feel violated finding out that someone has used their identity to address a website, politician or no.

Oxalic acid would have accomplished the same goal, and it's a milder oxidizing agent to boot. Wood finishers discovered this a long time ago - a conc. oxalic acid solution will oxidize the blue/black iron stains from wood (the stains themselves are coordination complexes of tannic acid and iron) without discoloring ("bleaching") the wood substrate. If you go to a real hardware store, you can usually find solid oxalic acid - the big box stores just sell the ca. 10% aqueous solution as "deck cleaner." A slurry is easier to handle, so you can either mix the solid in with a minimum of water, or let the liquid solution sit out until most of the water has evaporated.

In either case, you're not actually removing the coloring agent (ink, or iron complex), you're just changing the oxidation state of the metal to one which is colorless.

I can almost guarantee that the plastic doll is much more brittle now - free radical oxidations are extremely aggressive.

-t

I want to know what Ted Baxter ever did to get a building named after him?

I have this issue... FF Annual #3

The best part?

Jack Kirby's autograph on page 1!

It's kind of sad it's just been sitting in storage for over 25 years...

Oh yeah, the bathrooms are on the other side.

The "hawk/falcon" screech is the call of a Red-tailed Hawk.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Red-tailed_Hawk.html#sound

Now you know.

-t

"precious and very useful fingers"

I dispute that characterization and offer Exhibit A as depicted above.

"Folding" plywood is relatively straightforward. Here's two options:

1. Use a bendable plywood (like wigglewood or an equivalent) http://www.interiorproducts.com and then laminate (glue) a layer of veneer over the surface to lock it into place. You can buy peel and stick veneers for a variety of common woods.

2. Laminate from scratch around a form. http://www.vacuum-press.com/works.html

Plywood is a laminated product, so the second option is basically making your own plywood.

Of course, you could try steambending... but that's tough and some folks might object to the reference.

I get blank stares when I refer to steampunk. Instead, I just call it "Brazil" inspired.

-t