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Assuming the only information you had about the couple was their names, this would have been quite difficult. Notoriously, this was the last era one could simply move interstate (especially to the NT), change one's name, and for all practical purposes, disappear.

If you also knew which city or country town they lived in, you would first have gone to the White Pages in which residential phone numbers, but not street addresses, were listed by surname, initial, and suburb… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 9:03 PM on November 16, 2021

If as you say you're not a high risk investor, what it means is the price to you of what you already have (your ebay estimates) is much higher than the price (in emotional regret) of what you might have: the risk of missing out on any further windfall gain. This kind of investment is definitionally high-risk, it's a single commodity with a tiny market subject to extremes of price variation. Take the money and run.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:57 PM on November 11, 2021

You're right to be critical. It's free-riding; what's wrong about the point of view is her wanting to enjoy the benefit that comes from everyone else getting vaccinated, without wanting to contribute to that collective safety herself.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 9:09 PM on November 10, 2021

How about social impact assessment?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:26 PM on November 10, 2021 marked best answer

This answer comes from a country with an enormous housing boom—in my society there’s now really no way to own one’s own house without being born into housing, it simply can’t be done on wages in one lifetime. If your society is anything like that, in thinking of limits, you should consider your children’s ability to house themselves into their old age.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 1:09 PM on November 9, 2021

I had a wonderful pair of possum-merino socks I got in NZ (that I wore out). Brushtail possums are pretty short-haired animals so there's no getting around mixing with sheep wool. There's a certain, uh, hairiness to it that takes a bit of getting used to, but as for warm—amazing.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 8:13 PM on November 2, 2021

In courts where I am, especially where a case involves a lot of people with the same last name, a magistrate or judge will often say something along the lines of 'I intend to refer to each of the people by their first names, without disrespect intended', and it means exactly that, and is understood as such. The context is avoiding confusion and repetition.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 3:59 PM on October 28, 2021

If you've got access to something like a hot glue gun, you could turn your laptop jack-side-up, fill the jack cavity with a small plug of glue, then once it's cooled, try to remove the whole lot?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:40 PM on October 25, 2021

That's it exactly! Thank you!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 4:35 PM on October 25, 2021

No, because ‘real dollars’ is measured in changes in the prices of various commodities, not wages (because one of the most important things it measures in these datasets is comparative living standards, i.e. what people can and can’t afford).

There’s no fixed relationship between what people earn and what they can actually use that money for, since wages rise and fall. In the US, they’ve fallen very firmly in real terms since 1984.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 1:43 PM on October 21, 2021

I'm a man with greying hair a decade on from where you are. Let me tell you that my experience has been the opposite of what you think it may be; the gross unfairness of our society's beauty standards works very firmly in our favour: people take me more seriously, I am treated with more respect, all through no effort of my own except visibly ageing. As to the general human question of dealing with an awareness of mortality—welcome to the only game in town.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:55 PM on October 18, 2021

Some of these would be tradespeople, as well as campers, because fuel cans are needed to run other engines at worksites (think small generators, petrol saws and cutters, pumps, and so on). Anyone using two-stroke engines does need a jerry can to prepare the oil/fuel mixture.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:11 PM on October 17, 2021

Matthew 7:

‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:12 PM on October 13, 2021

This is one orthodox historical narrative to the history of trade unions in Western countries; a phenomenon where organising started at the shopfloor (an equivalent, older term to your 'grassroots') but as part of growth, became co-opted by the State and legal processes of wage-setting, and by the very success of their negotiating tactics—to the point where a lot of 'organised' trade union activity by the 20thC consisted of central organisations talking down local chapters/branches from… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:24 PM on October 4, 2021

Ahab famously finds the white whale he's looking for, but Moby Dick does include the incident where Pequod meets the ship Rachel, whose captain has lost his son in a whaleboat, and wants the Pequod's help to search:

Hurriedly turning, with averted face, he descended into his cabin, leaving the strange captain transfixed at this unconditional and utter rejection of his so earnest suit. But starting from his enchantment, Gardiner silently hurried to the… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:51 PM on September 27, 2021

For what it's worth, it's in a part of western Sydney where it's monoculturally white; I'd be a bit surprised if it were a character. I was wondering if it might be a band logo or a brand of alcohol.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 11:37 PM on September 22, 2021

Baklava! (this recipe uses 'sugar', but, every baklava I've ever eaten has been honeyed)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:10 PM on September 5, 2021

It’s not a pathetic question! All you can do is slow down. All anyone, whatever their body, can do is slow right down. Altitude is horrible, and the only thing for it is time and acclimatisation.

You should know that oxygenation of the blood, getting oxygen to the muscles and brain and the rest of the body through the lungs, isn’t really related to one’s weight, at all. It’s not at all like smoke inhalation or pollen reaction, where the lungs and breathing are… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:08 AM on August 28, 2021

I cannot give you any advice about the actual things that seem to be distressing you, but to your question—

are there any ways I can consider the situation that will help me actually decide?

It seems part of what’s going on is the very large scope of things you’re considering all together. Why not give your friends a deadline for your decision to move or not, say ‘I’m thinking about it and I’ll let you know by’ such-and-such a date, and then… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 3:37 PM on August 25, 2021

If a bracket isn’t going to do the job, and it needs to be flexible, then lengths of chain. If you’re worried about corrosion, spray it with silicone or fish oil spray.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 9:01 PM on August 22, 2021

If it's a first aid kit you envisage using on other people, a notepad and a pencil, to take down their details, signs, and symptoms, and a box of nitrile gloves that fit your hands. Not the black coloured mechanics' ones—you can't see blood on black gloves.

The first aid kit in your cabinet is for one of two problems: either when you're dealing with the minor medical problem yourself, or, when you've already called for an ambulance and need to survive until then. For the… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:05 PM on August 15, 2021

Any kind of fresh food, or food in cardboard packets, should go into the fridge or sealable glass/plastic containers. The same goes for bins.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:25 PM on August 14, 2021 marked best answer

Success: I opened the camera inside a dark bag, cut the film and pushed it backwards around the takeup spool (as Lanark suggested), then taped and rolled it back onto a reusable bulk reel (as neckro23 suggested). That job I'm very familiar with, as I use a bulk roller. I've just got the film back today from my processing shop.

Most of the film was unexposed but I got three frames, one of them a baby photo.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 9:32 PM on August 10, 2021

The essential bit of context of anti-psychiatry is that it's historical: in the 1960s and 1970s it was a critique of reductive, biomechanical practices in medicine, and worse, the crimes of involuntary, non-consensual hospitalisation and institutionalisation throughout the West, and worst of all, the mingling of psychiatry and politics in the former USSR and Eastern Bloc countries (where non-consensual practices were used widely on dissidents, and political punishments on the mentally ill).… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:32 PM on August 8, 2021

Is it helping anyone to visit a therapist weekly even though they're stuck in a terrible job, or have unstable housing, or are trapped in an abusive environment?

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: yes, it’s helpful for people to obtain even small assistance in the face of the kind of totalising oppressive society you’re describing, because even if coping strategies might be less than fundamental alteration of conditions—having a coping strategy… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 8:41 PM on August 7, 2021

Yeah what are your expectations? Almost nobody will be a famous or successful painter, even a lot of the painters we recognise as famous died before their fame. But that doesn't mean ordinary people don't buy huge amounts of paint to use, as popular recreation. Doing art isn't just about making an end-product, it's the doing when you learn.

I take pictures. When I started, I was bad; years later, after effort and practice, money and experimentation, honestly—I still… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 9:50 PM on August 1, 2021

Public Enemy's Incident at 66.6 FM uses extensive samples of a talk show criticising them.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:03 PM on July 27, 2021

It's likely 120 format film, shot in a 6x6cm camera. Medium format projectors are rare but not impossible to find on ebay. Good news: if you scan them, they're going to be stunning.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 4:48 PM on July 26, 2021 marked best answer

a 35mm camera, likely behind most of the Kodachrome slides. And not the larger format ones

That's right, a 35mm camera cannot use 120 film. The most common cameras for the 120 film 6x6 format in the late 1960s-early 1970s were twin lens reflex, though there were also quite a few single lens reflex cameras made in that format (the Hasselblad the most famous make). And some viewfinder ones as well—there was a huge variety.

I have a camera that… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 11:44 PM on July 26, 2021 marked best answer

Yes ambivalent is for indecision between two or more valid options, in the same way as ambidextrous people can use either hand. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is ambivalent. (Australia.)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 3:56 PM on July 22, 2021

Apart from anything else, you don't, and can't, know how all the people you're describing feel about their relationships---it's a natural fallacy to see other people partnered and equate that with their happiness. What you're seeing is their presentation of themselves to the world, and that might reflect their interior feelings or it might not. For everyone like you there's someone in a relationship wondering, would I be happier single?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:40 PM on July 20, 2021

I have a needle phobia. I took a reward can of beer to the vaccination centre in my bag, as something to look forward to, then drank it, at 11am, by myself, in a park. It was delicious.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:40 PM on July 17, 2021

If I understand this right this is a tender rather than design work. The firm I work for does these, particularly for government jobs; what's called for is something to show the client a) that a tendering group has all the right disciplines and expertises, with capacity to do the work, b) they know roughly what's involved in terms of scale and purpose, and c) the price. If the government wants to build a bridge, they want to know that the contractors really can build a compliant structure, and… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 4:19 PM on July 15, 2021 marked best answer

The problem isn't switching or clutching/declutching to a cable, because lots of gondola systems already do that at the stops, to slow right down. The problem is equalising weight on the system as a whole so that you don't have far more cars on the up or the down—overtensioning the cable or going beyond the limits of the drive motors. Since you're science-fictioning and you can do whatever the hell you want, why not remove those limits by having extremely high-tensile cable, or vast systems with… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 4:46 PM on July 12, 2021

There are two tests here I think; one is the social-breach test of who should give way and of path etiquette, the other is a test of the conservation of momentum. The second you're probably going to lose regardless of being in the right.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 4:16 PM on July 5, 2021

I train first aid, and it's a required part of our course to tell people about dealing with their own reactions to trauma: 'talk to someone supportive who you trust, soon' is one of the main items.

Apart from anything else you should treat alarming reactions to an event that alarmed you as completely normal. That is what our bodies do. It is completely to be expected to not be completely OK for a little while, and where 'a little while' will vary from person to person.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 9:11 PM on July 4, 2021 marked best answer

Dan Davies Lying For Money is a book, but journalistic in prose, and it’s superb.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 9:59 PM on June 25, 2021

Consider the built heritage field; I recently answered another asker's question, as did another heritage worker.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:17 PM on June 22, 2021

It's neither SF nor romance, but Dashiell Hammett's detective noir classic Red Harvest, and his other Continental Op stories, really set the grounds of what you're talking about—genre fiction about political structures, machination, manoeuvring and alliances. If a lot of tropes about it seem familiar (the lone figure coming to town and turning opposed blocs against each other, an outsider becoming corrupted by involvement in a place, hardboiled detectives taking on… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:10 PM on June 16, 2021

You're right, and also the Australian Resuscitation Council's recommendations (9.2.7), which guide general community first aid, are similarly broader ('Reaction? Use the injector and call an ambulance') than those of ASCIA's Action Plan for Epipens, and your allergist's. I'd suggest it's either that;

1. Guidelines in the US are closer to the 'community first aid' than 'anaphylaxis plan' point, where people needn't distinguish between mild and severe reactions,… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 5:26 PM on June 8, 2021

I work in heritage, in built environment conservation, in a private firm. It's kind of urban planning, kind of historical research, kind of building design advice. I describe my job as telling architects and engineers what they're allowed to knock down.

I did not finish my doctorate in history but got four years into it; I regret surprisingly little, considering. In the Government department I work with, a good proportion of the heritage specialists have doctorates in… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:45 PM on June 1, 2021

Viktor Shtrum's mother, who has little other part in the novel except as the author of a delivered letter, in Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate. It's a completely devastating piece of writing and characterisation, and of someone's life and death.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:06 PM on May 19, 2021

Also if he’s behaving like this to you, there’s a good chance he behaves like that with other patients
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 12:58 AM on May 17, 2021

I would go to great lengths to get a receipt for the car; that's your proof you actually own it: the finance paperwork is only proof that you took out a loan. As others have said, I'd do it by showing up in person and not leaving without the receipt in your hands.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 10:29 PM on May 16, 2021

'vs' is a colloquial conjunction, it's used to compare two things, typically in shorthand ('Local Sport Team vs. Visiting Sport Team', 'my company's product vs. my competitor's product'). It's doing the same job as conjunctions like 'as opposed to' and 'as against', so you use one or the other, not both.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 8:58 PM on May 13, 2021 marked best answer

I don't think you're quite misunderstanding, but there's a commonly understood meaning shift that's happened. The original, very narrow, definition of 'emotional labour' was the kind of workplace tasks for which a worker was required to carry out displays of emotion—restaurant waiters dependent on tips, in the classic example, having to be happy, but also debt collectors or parking police, having to be stern. It's shifted in the last decade or so to include all those kinds of difficult, tiring,… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:51 PM on May 9, 2021

I don't agree with the notion of trainers or drills or practice—at your daughter's age the only thing that actually matters is whether she likes doing the thing or not. Far better to find a game that she can enjoy, mucking around with a bunch of friends than to have a plan to improve. Does she have a friends group who regularly kick a ball around, ride bikes, throw a frisbee? Play that. Does she regularly watch a sport on TV, look up to specific athletes? Does she like talking about games?… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:17 PM on May 2, 2021

How about the ace of spades? Makes a superb tattoo, it's a hugely popular subject for art. It's the symbol at the centre of the greatest song about mindfulness ever written, stressing the value of being fully present in the moment and rejecting the negative fear of losing:

If you like to gamble, I tell you I'm your man
You win some, lose some, it's all the same to me
The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say
I don't… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 7:43 PM on April 22, 2021

My last period of unemployment was five years ago (in a far better economy), if I got an interview a month I felt I was doing pretty well. More than one a week is superb.

As a matter of psychological advice, though—I always used to find it useful to think of my 'hit rate' for applications as 0%, whether I got an interview, a rejection letter, or nothing, because there's nothing so dispiriting as comparing effort to outcome in this context. When I got work, my 'hit rate'… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 2:18 PM on March 29, 2021

If you assume good faith, and given your mother's age, can you rule out a long- or short-term memory issue?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Fiasco da Gama at 6:39 PM on March 23, 2021