The WTF Thread

[Carol the Dabbler]

10 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I think liquid egg (in cartoons mostly) has existed since forever.

For a long time, yeah.  I'm pretty sure that the cooks in our dormitory cafeteria used something like that.  I wonder if they might even have had pre-fried eggs.

10 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

you guys are aware about fake eggs, right?? Mostly found in China and India, it never cease to amaze me, not in a good way. 

Well, we have a product called "Egg Beaters," which is essentially fake eggs made for people who want to avoid cholesterol.  I believe they're made with real egg whites and some sort of artificial yolk material.  Is that the sort of thing you're talking about?

Egg Beaters were invented during the big cholesterol scare a few decades back, but even now that real eggs are recognize as a good food in moderation, the fakes are still far more popular than seems logical.  For example, I spent a couple of days in the hospital (due to my own stupidity) about five years ago, and even though they had eggs on the breakfast menu, they routinely used "Egg Beaters" instead.  They didn't even keep eggs in the hospital kitchen.  If you wanted them, you had to let the staff know the day before, so they could go to the grocery store.  So I did that, and asked to have them poached, because if they tried to poach an Egg Beater, it would be really obvious!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Something weird is going on here.  Last night around midnight, when Alex was already in bed and I was getting ready to join him, I heard what sounded like a knock on the door:  rap, rap, rap.  I walked to the hallway and heard it again: rap, rap, rap.  Not liking to answer the door myself late at night, I woke Alex, who went to the door, saw no one, fetched his baseball bat, went outside and walked around the house, and still saw no one.  Still a bit rattled, we went to bed.

Today, just before noon, I was sitting in the kitchen and heard the same sound: rap, rap, rap.  I thought it might be someone knocking on the kitchen window, but saw no one.  I went to look out the living room window and heard the same sound again: rap, rap, rap.  This time, Alex was in the living room.  He heard the sound himself and looked out the window but saw no one.  He once more went out and walked around the house, but again saw no one.

We are officially bewildered.  That sort of sound could be made by, say, a loose piece of trim blown by the wind, tapping against the wall of the house -- but that would hardly explain the pattern of three raps, a pause, three more raps, then nothing more.  Could be someone playing a prank -- but why?  Our best guess at present is that, like Edgar Allan Poe [link], we're being visited by a bird -- only in our case, it's more likely to be a mockingbird than a raven.  Unlike most other birds, mockingbirds can be active at any hour, including midnight.

Additional theories, guesses, and conjectures are quite welcome!!!

 

[Caya]

Might want to install a camera trap at the location you think it's coming from, but otherwise I'm all out of ideas, sorry.

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Caya said:

Might want to install a camera trap at the location you think it's coming from....

If this keeps up, we might do something like that.  But it might take a fairly extensive set-up, unless we can narrow down where it's coming from, and/or figure out whether it's all coming from the same spot.

If we lived in town, or otherwise had other houses within a short distance, I'd suspect it might be a prankster.  But the nearest house to ours is a good 250 feet away (half a block in city terms), and the intervening space is mostly tall grass and such, pretty much limiting any intruder to using our driveway.

Y'know, I just had another thought:  It could be a small drone, couldn't it?  In which case, why the heck would anyone want to peer in our windows?  Though if the drone were a new toy, they could simply be experimenting to see what it's possible to do, and I suppose the three taps could be its algorithm for deciding that it can't go any further in that direction.  Has anyone here actually used a drone, and/or have any idea how one goes about using them?

 

[J.P.]

I think you would hear a drone. And I don't think if it could perform "knocking". I'm  almost 100% sure, they all are remote-controlled and someone is watching one way or another.

As for peering in windows… ahm… maybe don't ask.

Maybe you could try something that would usually scare birds?

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, J.P. said:

I think you would hear a drone.

Well, we have extra-thick walls, double-glazed windows, and a ventillation system constantly humming -- so we don't hear a lot of outside noise.  But I'll admit to having no idea what a drone sounds like.

3 hours ago, J.P. said:

I'm  almost 100% sure, they all are remote-controlled and someone is watching one way or another.

Yes, as I understand it, all of the consumer models are controlled in real-time by someone on the ground.  Either they simply watch the drone directly, or perhaps with fancier models they receive a live transmission of what the drone is seeing, and steer by that.  But I'm guessing that most drones also have some built-in algorithms to deal with things the "pilot" can't quite see, or can't judge the distance of.

3 hours ago, J.P. said:

Maybe you could try something that would usually scare birds?

We don't want the birds to stay away -- we enjoy watching them and hearing them.  But if we do determine that it's a bird tapping on the windows, we might try to dissuade them from getting quite so close!

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 4/26/2021 at 2:43 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Well, we have a product called "Egg Beaters," which is essentially fake eggs made for people who want to avoid cholesterol.  I believe they're made with real egg whites and some sort of artificial yolk material.  Is that the sort of thing you're talking about?

Nope!

I was talking about actual fake eggs, made to resemble real eggs, skin, shell, egg white, yolk and all. It looks like actual thing and was thriving in China and India for a while. If you go to YouTube you should find something about it. Why? Cheaper! Nevermind it's harmful and carcinogenic. Human, right?

 

 

Regarding the sound.. I'm not sure it's drone, but it is suspicious that it always go in regular three raps. Drone usually don't go very far (the common ones).

He plays with simple inexpensive one you can buy freely in the market and it's 1. quite hard to control to precision. 2. not too distant range 3. not quiet, I could hear them even when they are high up above me in the sky  4. if it's night time, it's reasonable to think it would have some lights on it, especially the one with camera.  5. many areas have drone restriction, especially on private property.

It could be something loose like you had guessed. I heard loud bang bang late at night and it was really scary, being alone and foreign. So like Alex, I had baseball bat with me and investigated, apparently some part of the skylight was loose and it was flapping because of wind. The sound itself was quite regular if I remember correctly. Well, we still set up a camera afterwards, it could be really simple nowadays, as long as you have decent wifi connection, you could buy inexpensive IP cam and set it up right away. Most of it have to be indoor though, you can put it at the inside of your window.

 

It could be animal, like you said.

 

Some mysterious sound in my brother's house was explained by some poorly wired electrical circuit in the wall, although it doesn't explain the regularity and the type of raps you describe.

 

My suggestion, invest of simple IP Cam and elaborate samurai sword.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

33 minutes ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I was talking about actual fake eggs, made to resemble real eggs, skin, shell, egg white, yolk and all. It looks like actual thing and was thriving in China and India for a while. If you go to YouTube you should find something about it. Why? Cheaper!

Their hens must have a really terrific union, if realistic-looking/tasting manufactured "eggs" can be sold more cheaply than the real thing!

38 minutes ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Regarding the sound [....] It could be something loose like you had guessed.

I still have no idea, and haven't heard it since those two incidents, even though yesterday was very windy.

A day or two later the neighbors were doing target practice with their guns, and Alex is of the opinion that that's what we had heard before.  But I see a number of problems with that explanation:

1. Those neighbors seem to keep very conservative hours, so I can't imagine they would have been doing target practice when I heard the second rap-rap-rap, at midnight -- in the dark!

2. Once they decide to do target practice, they tend to be at it for quite a while.  I can't imagine them limiting a session to just three little pops unless perhaps the gun had a problem.

3. It didn't sound at all the same to me -- though I suppose it could have been a different type of gun.

So I am officially still bewildered.

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

On 7/3/2021 at 12:23 AM, Carol the Dabbler said:

Their hens must have a really terrific union, if realistic-looking/tasting manufactured "eggs" can be sold more cheaply than the real thing!

If you are curious, you can watch this

I don't remember how to attach video properly (read: lazy).  Added by Carol the Dabbler:  All you needed to do was put the URL there -- not sure why it didn't work for you.

 

The egg thing terrifies me, but I can't say it beats feet boot.

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 7/3/2021 at 7:08 AM, Van Buren Supernova said:

If you are curious, you can watch this

I was, so I did -- creepy!  I would say, why can't people tell the difference by how they taste, but then I remembered this incident:  We get eggs from a family that lets their hens run around the yard all day.  When I scrambled some and served them to a friend, she asked what spice I had used, and I said just a little salt, and she said "But they have taste!"  So I'm guessing that today's supermarket eggs don't have much flavor.  Scary world that we live in!

Unfortunately I have no trouble believing that those fake grapes would be popular.  They'd have no seeds or even those little vestigial seeds that you often get in seedless grapes.  And they'd be extra sweet, which seems to be what people like these days.  Add a little grape flavor, and you're all set!  *shudder*

On 7/3/2021 at 7:08 AM, Van Buren Supernova said:

The egg thing terrifies me, but I can't say it beats feet boot.

Bilbo!!!

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

I thought Bilbo's feet are hairy!

I remember reading the casts commenting that they stink. Ewww

 

Regarding egg's taste, I think it's logical that the diet of the chicken itself could affect the taste, colours too. And... maybe the way it lived and killed??

I remember my cousin spat out chicken when I told her that it was killed by a car. (If I remember it correctly, one of my relative who stayed with us at the time accidentally hit someone's chicken with car, the reimbursed them for it. As nice gesture, I suppose, they gave us some of the cooked one. It was a neighbour's that we knew after all.

Anyway, I hadn't eaten the chicken yet, not sure if I did, but my cousin who visited us that day had lunch. I think my brother or someone commented that she (cousin) didn't know where the chicken came from, to which she replied, it doesn't matter, she is fine, nothing would deter her or something like that. Then I chipped in, "Don't worry. It is fine! It was hit by a car, that's all." And she spat it out in shock. My memory is blurry, but I think she finished her chicken, and didn't say anything much to justify her initial shock, and insisted that it's okay.

So, I still don't know, whether it's okay. I don't see anything wrong with it? I mean, if we want to debate where food comes from, it's long story with multiple angles. How they are killed, what kind of hormones kick in etc etc.

Again, I don't remember eating the chicken so I don't remember the taste. But for sure, I don't want to eat anything that I've seen alive, if that makes sense. I remember buying live chicken to be slaughtered at home was a thing for my grandparent's generation, and I remember we had fish that we kept for quite sometimes that ended up on table. Nope.

 

To be back in topic:

This is not exactly what is meant by precision engineering, but......

 

There is never a point in my life that I find clown comforting.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

12 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I thought Bilbo's feet are hairy!

Maybe that photo was taken before puberty?

12 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Regarding egg's taste, I think it's logical that the diet of the chicken itself could affect the taste, colours too.

Definitely.  In fact, some farmers feed their chickens marigold petals to make the yolks more yellow.  That's not cheating, either, because it's lutein that makes egg yolks yellow, and marigold petals are rich in lutein.  As for the flavor of the eggs, I suspect (based on my own experience) that the best-tasting eggs come from hens that get to run around outdoors and catch bugs to eat.

As for the taste of the chicken itself, I'm pretty sure you're right about it being affected by the way the chicken met its end.  Also, if the chicken (or other animal) was in a panic when it died, its meat could presumably pass along the stress hormones to whoever ate it.  Not sure how to avoid that completely (other than not eating meat), but surely some slaughter methods are more traumatic than others (and I doubt that getting hit by a car is the worst).

12 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I remember buying live chicken to be slaughtered at home was a thing for my grandparent's generation

People in our neighborhood (including my mother) raised chickens for both eggs and meat.  Mom finally stopped doing that, and started buying eggs and chicken at the store.  They didn't taste nearly as good.

12 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

To be back in topic:

This is not exactly what is meant by precision engineering, but......

Do you have any idea where that would-be bridge is, or what's the story behind it?

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

19 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Do you have any idea where that would-be bridge is, or what's the story behind it?

That is Choluteca bridge in Honduras.

The interesting thing is, it's not a mistake, but some kind of expensive joke from mother nature.

The bridge is so well built it withstood hurricane Mitch, but the hurricane was so powerful it reroute the river.

 

Stranger things have happened, Sherlock! Such as this!

[Carol the Dabbler]

4 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

The bridge is so well built it withstood hurricane Mitch, but the hurricane was so powerful it reroute the river.

So it might be cheaper to re-reroute the river than to build a new bridge?

 

[J.P.]

Only if you can summon another hurricane.

[Van Buren Supernova]

10 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

So it might be cheaper to re-reroute the river than to build a new bridge?

Actually I found myselft almost drooling dumbfoundly (?) this morning trying to think about how a hurricane shifted a river. 

Shifting it manually,,, yeah it's possible with a lot of retaining wall maybe and all crazy efforts I don't think it's worth while.

9 hours ago, J.P. said:

Only if you can summon another hurricane.

With correct and updated GPS.

Gasp.. maybe it's not the GPS fault that it was known to send people into river.

Maybe the river shifted! Geez, I will make less fun of it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

11 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

Gasp.. maybe it's not the GPS fault that it was known to send people into river.

Maybe the river shifted! Geez, I will make less fun of it.

Y'know, I never thought of that!  Maybe GPS didn't use to know about our road because it didn't really exist yet!  Maybe we were merely imagining it!      This could change everything....

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

I have just found out that there is such thing as 'folly of two', a type of delusion that are shared/transmitted to other person, mostly someone that is very close to them like family member.

It is terrifying and there are cases when family went hiding or on the run for years because they believe some one was out to get them. 

I think the inability to differentiate what is real and not is one of the most terrifying thing, and that's when you rely on someone close to you to help, but that is not the case in this shared psychotic disorder, which makes it more terrifying.

[Carol the Dabbler]

22 hours ago, Van Buren Supernova said:

I have just found out that there is such thing as 'folly of two',

It sounds more impressive in French:  folie à deux (which is what it's usually called by English speakers).

Judging by a quick scan of the Wikipedia article [here], it's not a particularly common phenomenon, occurring mostly in dominant/submissive relationships.

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

Did you guys read the news about Pennsylvania train?

Seriously, it drives me so mad.

Basically, a woman was rape and everyone just watched, they didn't bother to call for help and I heard some even whipped out their phone to record it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

We'll, thank goodness a train employee finally noticed and called 911, so they were able to catch the guy in the act.  Plus the whole thing was recorded by security cameras, so there's no doubt of what he did.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/riders-watched-woman-was-raped-septa-train-no-one-called-n1281695

Sadly, this sounds like another case of people not wanting to "get involved."  The cell-phone part is a new wrinkle, but that's presumably just because they didn't have camera phones decades ago.

 

[J.P.]

Let me guess: people didn't hesitate to film it, did they?

[Carol the Dabbler]

24 minutes ago, J.P. said:

Let me guess: people didn't hesitate to film it, did they?

Well, as VBS mentioned, the security footage showed a number of people holding up their cell phones, apparently either photographing or filming the rape.  But as of the report I read, none of them have yet come forward, possibly because the initial word was that they might be prosecuted for failure to report a crime.  Now they're saying that's unlikely, and they're looking for those other passengers.  I'm sure we'll be hearing more about this.

Of course it's possible that it didn't occur to those cell-phone users that they could call 911 from a moving train (those of us who grew up in the look-for-a-pay-phone era have probably made similar unconscious assumptions).  And perhaps they were intending to present their recorded evidence when they reported the crime to police at the next stop.  But then the authorities stepped in, due to being alerted by said train employee, and they figured -- well, why get involved.

 

[Van Buren Supernova]

It is a plot of a fiction that never seems this close to reality, but it is.

This is more than Bystander Effect. I can't imagine being there, I'd be scared but hopefully, I think,  I would do something. Maybe not something easy and smart like calling for help, but stupidly trying to fight the guy or stab him with a pen or something. I can't imagine the heartbreak of the victim.

Spoiler box is the fiction and episode.

Black Mirror, White Bear.[/spoiler}

[Carol the Dabbler]

We got a notice from the IRS (the federal tax people) today, informing us that 1) they have not yet received our tax return that was due this past April, and 2) we have a credit with them.

Thing is, the amount of the credit is precisely the amount of the check that we mailed to them in April, in the same envelope with our return.

I am sorely tempted to write them a rather snide letter to that effect.  But I won't.  *sigh*  This snafu isn't the fault of the lackey in charge of reading letters, so I'll just send them a copy of the return, as requested.  With a cover letter that calmly points out the facts above.