General Questions Thread

[FateAnomaly]

They are just loaded with sugar. Drinking them daily just make a person fat.

[TinyRedLeaf]

What about caffeine then? Have studies been done to test whether it causes long-term damage to health?

Because, after all, caffeine is usually the key ingredient in the "energy drinks" I consume, ie, coffee, tea or Red Bull (it gives you wings!).

[felix]

You do become dependent so you can take that as a long term "damage to your health".

[oompa loompa]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

What about caffeine then? Have studies been done to test whether it causes long-term damage to health?

Because, after all, caffeine is usually the key ingredient in the "energy drinks" I consume, ie, coffee, tea or Red Bull (it gives you wings!).

Well, Wikipedia has quite a large list of supposed long term-side effects from caffeine - but most of the snippets state that studies have been somewhat inconclusive. There are more 'proven' side effects to caffeine, such as anxiety/sleep disorders, and stunting growth in children - but you might have to check those sources yourself, Wikipedia isn't always the most reliable. Most other things I've read say the same thing, its always ' Tests on caffeine indicate ( or something of the sort)' rather than 'A series of tests have conclusively proven'. It is physically addictive though, and I guess that should be enough of a drawback to stop a person from excessive use. Still, I don't think a cup or two ( or maybe three ) of coffee everyday will do anything to you, ever.


I guess I can attest to the anxiety/sleep problems, as well as it causing some rather nasty acidity on occasion. Still, those are short-term effects. Despite all the bad publicity caffeine gets, I'm fairly clueless as to what the long term side-effects really are. I'm going to agree with what Ledgem said though, everything in moderation.

[TinyRedLeaf]

I presume I've inherited my mother's "immunity" to caffeine then. I consume copious amounts of coffee at work (once as many as five cups a day) and yet am not addicted to it -- I get by fine without caffeine during weekends, for example, when I'm not at work. No withdrawal symptoms or cravings to speak of.

Come to think of it, caffeine has become something of a placebo -- I get along fine without it, but I like the taste of it anyway. The same for Red Bull -- I blame national service for that. I consumed barrels of it in order to dig trenches through three days and two nights. Thereafter, the "energy drink" ceased to have an effect on me, but I continue to consume it because I like how it tastes.

As for my mum, she claims that she can't go to bed without having at least one cuppa a day.

[Clarste]

Caffeine is pretty stupid. Most people who regularly drink lots of coffee or energy drinks actually have absolutely no effect from it, because the body is compensating for it. So they have to drink coffee to feel "normal" and are otherwise more tired than anyone else. Even before withdrawal symptoms come into play, this is a pointless addiction that does nothing but hurt your wallet and control your schedules (you need access to caffeine at regular intervals, etc). I don't think the long-term effects are particularly unhealthy compared to other things, but it doesn't seem to have any advantages either, so...

[Clarste]

Oh, in response to my own question about alcohol from a few pages back, I recently found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertaster

There's apparently something called a "supertaster" who's tongues have more receptors and they can taste bitterness where other people can't (or more bitterness at least). I'm not sure if I'm one of them, but skimming the list they have on wikipedia I can see a few other things I don't like that other people don't seem to mind. Either way, apparently there is a genetic predisposition to dislike the taste of alcohol.

And coffee, which I guess makes this slightly relevant to the current topic.

[Counterattack]

I have a questionnn.
Is there any player at all that can play .rmvb files AND allows you to make snapshots? And I don't mean printscreens, but snapshots, like in VLC. I really want snapshots ;_;

Edit: Ah, nevermind. I already found one. ♥

[othera]

And 1 more, much more stupid question
In an episode of haruhi, Kyon puts fireworks on the back of his bike, rides and launches them off, Is it possible to actually do this safely? If so what type of fireworks would you use?

[Ledgem]

[QUOTE=othera;2539119And 1 more, much more stupid question
In an episode of haruhi, Kyon puts fireworks on the back of his bike, rides and launches them off, Is it possible to actually do this safely? If so what type of fireworks would you use?[/QUOTE]
Possible yes; good idea, no. There's a good chance that you could be hit and receive burns in the event that you had a faulty firework and/or the firework tipped toward you as you were riding. There's a not-so-silly question to follow that one up with: will your insurance cover such a thing, and if they do, will your coverage rates increase?

Either way, bad idea.

[othera]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Possible yes; good idea, no. There's a good chance that you could be hit and receive burns in the event that you had a faulty firework and/or the firework tipped toward you as you were riding. There's a not-so-silly question to follow that one up with: will your insurance cover such a thing, and if they do, will your coverage rates increase?

Either way, bad idea.

yeah, figured that out myself D:

just wanted to find out if it was possible,

I'm going to laugh if one day I turn on the news and see "And today someone was severely burned by fireworks trying to copy an anime"

[risingstar3110]

New silly question:
Is there anyway to reduce the taskbar thickness in your screen(the one with start up button in the bottom of your screen)?

I really like the Window 7 theme for my window Xp, but it's taskbar was like 1.5 cm thick and looks really annoying. If i increase the resolution for my screen, the thickness of taskbar decrease, but the size of everything decrease as well (i can stand little icons and files, but get on firefox was annoying , since have to "zoom in" for every pages)

Also tried the "auto hide taskbar" and it's really annoying to use....

[felix]

You need to get a skin with a thin one, simple as that.

[yezhanquan]

Why do the English names of some countries sound so different from how the locals call themselves? For example, Japanese call their country "Nihon" (compared to Japan), while Germans call their land "Deutchland" (as compared to Germany)? China vs. Zhong Guo? (this one linked to the Ching/Qing?)

[Irenicus]

Specific historical circumstances. Google should get on to most of them. Though, as always, etymologies are highly difficult to validate and all these should be considered theories.

Deutschland came from an old High German word; while Germania, the Latin root for the English "Germany," is, well Latin. Roman. The root of the term "Germania" is unknown, but presumably Gallic in origin.

China is from "Cin," as the Italian Marco Polo called that country. The word originated apparently from the dynastic name "Qin," or even before. The Chinese obviously called themselves the "Middle Kingdom."

Marco Polo borrowed a Chinese term for Japan which he wrote as "Cipangu," though apparently it was the Portuguese who brought it to Europe who borrowed a similar word from the Malays who borrowed the same Chinese source. Nippon is what the Japanese called their own land of the "sun's origin."

Etc., etc.

Countries don't always call each other by what they call themselves, and familiar if "erroneous" terms stick if mutated sometimes beyond recognition. Ancient travellers, geographers, sailors, and merchants weren't the most academic of authors, and ethnocentrism and different conceptual ideas (Middle Kingdom vs. Qin, for example) play their roles.

Etymologists: I don't envy them.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Specific historical circumstances. Google should get on to most of them. Though, as always, etymologies are highly difficult to validate and all these should be considered theories.

Deutschland came from an old High German word; while Germania, the Latin root for the English "Germany," is, well Latin. Roman. The root of the term "Germania" is unknown, but presumably Gallic in origin.

China is from "Cin," as the Italian Marco Polo called that country. The word originated apparently from the dynastic name "Qin," or even before. The Chinese obviously called themselves the "Middle Kingdom."

Marco Polo borrowed a Chinese term for Japan which he wrote as "Cipangu," though apparently it was the Portuguese who brought it to Europe who borrowed a similar word from the Malays who borrowed the same Chinese source. Nippon is what the Japanese called their own land of the "sun's origin."

Etc., etc.

Countries don't always call each other by what they call themselves, and familiar if "erroneous" terms stick if mutated sometimes beyond recognition. Ancient travellers, geographers, sailors, and merchants weren't the most academic of authors, and ethnocentrism and different conceptual ideas (Middle Kingdom vs. Qin, for example) play their roles.

Etymologists: I don't envy them.

In the same subject, i thought China was called "China" due to back to before 16th century, when the country was known in Europe through trade, and was famous for their china(Chinese ceramics) goods?
It's more like urban legend through....


PS: thank Cats, i am trying to befriend with that taskbar (its nice colour is too much for me to give up)... we unexpectedly get along quite well so far xD


Edit: a question just pop up in my head: a TV channel corporation pay some money to a program owner(e.g. animation studio) so it can show this program on its channel, right?

[Saleh]

Yes, they generally pay the copyright holder a licensing fee unless they have some other arrangement with them. Broadcasting Companies earn most of their money from advertising, advertisement contract generally have viewership rating clause so a broadcasting company can be picky about airing series with low viewership rating (at worstcase scenario studio could end up paying broadcasting company for airing their show).

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Specific historical circumstances. Google should get on to most of them. Though, as always, etymologies are highly difficult to validate and all these should be considered theories.

Deutschland came from an old High German word; while Germania, the Latin root for the English "Germany," is, well Latin. Roman. The root of the term "Germania" is unknown, but presumably Gallic in origin.

China is from "Cin," as the Italian Marco Polo called that country. The word originated apparently from the dynastic name "Qin," or even before. The Chinese obviously called themselves the "Middle Kingdom."

Marco Polo borrowed a Chinese term for Japan which he wrote as "Cipangu," though apparently it was the Portuguese who brought it to Europe who borrowed a similar word from the Malays who borrowed the same Chinese source. Nippon is what the Japanese called their own land of the "sun's origin."

Etc., etc.

Countries don't always call each other by what they call themselves, and familiar if "erroneous" terms stick if mutated sometimes beyond recognition. Ancient travellers, geographers, sailors, and merchants weren't the most academic of authors, and ethnocentrism and different conceptual ideas (Middle Kingdom vs. Qin, for example) play their roles.

Etymologists: I don't envy them.

Well, in Chinese, we call Japan "Ri Ben", which also means "sun's origin". Germany becomes "De Yi Zhi" (Deutschland?) or "De Guo" for usual uses.

[izmosmolnar]

That's not really a silly question, but I'm wondering how is it possible to embed youtube videos directly in HQ here on the AS forum? (Ergo without the need that the viewer has to click on the HQ icon.) What sort of command one has to write to achieve that?

I tried these already and all of them were unsuccessful (the spaces between the brackets are deliberate): [youtubehq]youtubevalue[/youtubehq]; [hqyoutube]value[/hqyoutube]; [youtubehq2]value[/youtubehq2]; [youtube ]value&hl=en&fs=1&ap=%2526fmt%3D18[/youtube]; [youtube ]value&ap=%2526fmt%3D18[/youtube]; [flash=http://www.youtube.com/v/value&ap=%2526fmt%3D18]width=425 height=350[/flash]; Copypasting directly the link obviously failed, and several others I can't remember.
Or is the command to do that blocked?

[Cub-Sama]

This is a serious questions, I keep hearing people say bad things about browsing 4chan but when I go on there myself to check what people are talking about I dont see anything bad I mean I dont get it what is so bad about 4chan?