Heaven: When Google Fails You: The 2018 General Question Thread

jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
edited January 16 in Limbo
Ask away! With all the great minds here on the Ship, we can figure out almost anything!
Here is the previous thread.
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  • For some reason, I can't think where I read, or came across, a Short Story along the following lines, or something like:

    An old, illiterate, peasant lady, somewhere in 19thC Europe (Austria? Bavaria?) shows a traveller at an alpine Inn a piece of paper, on which is some music, composed and written down especially for her many, many years before, when she was a young Fraulein, by a charming young man, who happened to stay briefly at that same Inn.

    The young man signed the manuscript....

    ....W. A. Mozart

    Does this ring any bells?

    IJ
  • Sounds interesting. A bit like some things in the novel "Lost Horizon".
  • BF--

    Check out The Prague Sonata, by Bradford Morrow. Not Switzerland, but has to do with elderly woman and a mysterious Mozart manuscript.

    Good luck!
  • I read it too (where?) But AFAIR Mozart overheard the girl singing with a very fine voice in the courtyard of an inn where he was staying and she was a servant. He encouraged her to travel to see someone (who?) Who would help her get started as a professional singer, but i don't think she did. The music referred to her as a bird.
  • Yes, LC, that sounds a bit more like it. AFAIR, it was a short story, but I like the sound of Morrow's novel, and will seek it out.

    I don't think that was the story I was thinking of, but thanks to GK for the suggestion!

    IJ
  • Just to add that a copy of The Prague Sonata is on its way to the Palace, courtesy of my kind friend, Mr. Abe Books.

    Thanks again - sounds like a good read!

    IJ
  • Many years ago our porch was painted on the inside in dark green. The owners before us then papered it in anagylpta and painted it pale blue. We painted over the pale blue at least six years ago, maybe more - it's now an imaginative magnolia.

    We are getting a line of dark green oozing slightly out from below the light switch. There's not much, but surely paint that old shouldn't be oozing at all?

    The light switch is a row of three switches - outside light, inside porch light, hallway light. We haven't had any problems, none of the bulbs have gone. Do we need to get an electrician to check out the switch to see why the paint is appearing? Or could it just be that old paint can do this, and the light switch is the only point at which we can see it happening?
  • FirenzeFirenze Heaven Host
    How long ago was the green applied? I had an internal cupboard repainted which probably hadn’t been done in the last 20? 30? (or more) years, and it produced bubbles in the paint, probably due to the acidity of the older paint.
  • LothlorienLothlorien All Saints Host
    My grandmother’s front iron fence had at some time in the distant past been painted with silvafrost. Fifty years later it id probably still bleeding silver. Don’t know what you call it but down here there was Kalsomine, an internal paint. It too bled unless neutralised with some special witches’ brew.
  • Green ooze is a well-known sign of a poltergeist. Is your house built over or in the vicinity of an ancient Indian burial ground?
  • Double-posting for different topic.

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY What sort of meals can I expect to be offered in a restaurant advertising its style as 'modern american'?

    USELESS VERBIAGE The term Modern American strikes me as similar to Modern Australian in a food setting. I am skeptical about the capacity of the Australian phrase to actually impart useful information about a restaurant other than perhaps 'bog standard'. How is it used in America? I suspect that it does have real meaning there, and that the phrase was adapted by Australian restaurateurs who wanted to pick up on our growing sense of national identity in the 1980's.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Shipmate, 8th Day Host
    Simon Toad, it probably contains too much black pepper and bitter-tasting leafy things.

  • Thinking about the Purg topic on disabilities, I decided to find out more.
    I hope this is the right place to ask. I put into Google 'blind tap dancers' and tried several variations of words, but the only link that was even slightly related was something about Oxford and a dancing day with reference to the disabled. Can anyone find anything about a group of tap dancers who are registered blind, please? I was just wondering whether I am unique!!! This is extremely unlikely, of course, and I bet there's someone out there who's over 82 and with less peripheral vision than I have who is a super tap dancer! :)
  • Many years ago our porch was painted on the inside in dark green. The owners before us then papered it in anagylpta and painted it pale blue. We painted over the pale blue at least six years ago, maybe more - it's now an imaginative magnolia.

    We are getting a line of dark green oozing slightly out from below the light switch. There's not much, but surely paint that old shouldn't be oozing at all?
    Are you certain it is paint? Paint generally doesn't turn back liquid. Some can, but require some sort of thinner. Could be biological, but perhaps you have an internal leak and the copper is corroding and oozing?
  • Simon Toad wrote: »
    How is it used in America? I suspect that it does have real meaning there, and that the phrase was adapted by Australian restaurateurs who wanted to pick up on our growing sense of national identity in the 1980's.
    This definition meets my experiences in America.
  • SusanDoris wrote: »
    Can anyone find anything about a group of tap dancers who are registered blind, please? I was just wondering whether I am unique!!!

    I can find lots of references to a number of individual blind dancers (tap, ballet, jazz, ...) who dance with sighted companies, but couldn't find an entire group of blind dancers.
  • SusanDoris wrote: »
    Can anyone find anything about a group of tap dancers who are registered blind, please? I was just wondering whether I am unique!!!

    I can find lots of references to a number of individual blind dancers (tap, ballet, jazz, ...) who dance with sighted companies, but couldn't find an entire group of blind dancers.
    That would be interesting. Could you please suggest what I should put into google to read about the dancers you mention?
  • Susan--

    I used DuckDuckGo to search, but should be the same with Google. I searched on "tap dancers blind -melon -lemon". I had to filter out a couple of things, but almost everything on the first page of hits is relevant.

    Here are some samples: A legally-blind tap dancer touring in a theater group; a tap school that trains students with visual and other disabilities; and a ballet company of all blind dancers.


    '42nd Street' tour cast includes legally blind dancer, Paramount vet

    Tap Fever Studios Dancers With Disabilities

    Cool info on the woman who founded Tap Fever:
    Larisa was born with severely clubbed feet, and had to wear casts on both legs as an infant. After the casts, she slept with a brace to hold her feet turned out. At age 5, Larisa turned to dance as physical therapy to strengthen her feet/ankles. Although she still had much ankle pain while growing up, Larisa never wanted to stop dancing once she got the “fever” for it!

    Larisa is grateful to offer dance classes in San Diego (Pacific Beach), and dance classes for toddlers, youth, adults, and seniors of ALL abilities. Anyone can dance if given the chance!


    Dancing In The Dark: Ballet For The Blind In Mexico | HuffPost

  • lilbuddha, cheers for that link. I think the restaurant mentioned was suggested by a poster trying to help me out in trip planning on the old ship. Rossweisse, you are also spot on, although at some level the style does seem to have actual meaning and if we are lucky result in a great meal. It has been around so long according to the link that it has probably gone from a real thing to every chef and their sous are cooking it more than once.

    Again, thankyou all. I do prefer to hear this stuff from real people rather than websites I might not trust.

    I have a question about driving from Death Valley to Yosemite in November, but I think I know the answer. I should absolutely not plan a route that might have snow. I have never driven in snow, I have never seen a set of snow chains, I am not good at working out mechanical stuff and to put snow chains on a hire car is probably to break your contract.

    Highway 395, I will drive on you one day. Just not this day.
  • Golden Key

    Many thanks for your help - it all sounds very interesting. I shall enjoy spending some time following your search suggestions tomorrow.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host
    I'm not sure whether this should be here or on the Geeks thread, as it's a bit of both.

    I've been getting adverts on FB for something called a TV box, costing around $100, for streaming TV shows without having to pay for (frankly abysmal) cable services, and I have a few questions - answers in technopeasant, please!

    ● Is it legal?
    ● Is it reliable?
    ● Is it really a one-off payment?
    ● Can you get British TV through it?
    ● How do you make the link between computer and TV if they're in different parts of the house? (We have WiFi).

    Thanks in advance.
  • LothlorienLothlorien All Saints Host
    No idea about your questions , Piglet, but down here, Telstra sent these free to customers renewing contracts etc. One went to my friend with dementia. He has no idea how to hook it up, there were no instructions in box, no mention of money. I discovered that it costs AUD$100 a month. This person has hundreds of DVDs, he could watch a different one each day for a long time without repetition. He won’t throw it out, it puzzles him. I keep warning him about costs . It seems a dodgy way of getting business to me from the country’s main provider of that type of service. He is planning to go to local Testra shop. I hope the people there have some sense and integrity to not sign him up. A pensioner who looks fine until a conversation gets on the way. I am not impressed by their business method.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host
    The advert I saw promised no monthly fee, which was what attracted my attention, but the cynic in me thought "if it looks too good to be true it probably is".
  • aliehsaliehs Shipmate
    And don't please write about NBN and Broadband down here. It's driving me bananas. Telstra more or less patted me on the head, and told me to go away. If you don't want the extras, they don't want to know you. Especially if you have grey hair. They seem to think that you won't be around long enough for it to matter when they disconnect your phone. And what's more , I have to pay double for what I am perfectly happy with now! Rant over. I feel better now.
  • LothlorienLothlorien All Saints Host
    I will join you in the rant. NBN here has been postponed by six months at a time several time over. I don’t want it, it will cost me more and I have had a wonderful ISP the seven years I have been here, only hiccup was when card expired and I forgot to change it so internet went down. Fixed the problem by adding new date and it was back in a minute. IT type sons are unimpressed with what goes these days.
  • Golden Key

    I followed your suggestions and have had a look at the various blind dancers and teaching blind children to tap etc and apart from the fact that it is encouraging to see so much going on, I haven't yet found any registered blind oldies tapping!! I will pursue this quest!
  • Blind dancers: ballet is VERY difficult if you are blind. Pas de Deux work almost impossible unless the choreography is changed.
    Alicia Alonso, the great Cuban dancer danced with failing eyesight in later life but the stage had to be marked with white paint so her placement was accurate. But it did distract, particularly in low lighting in "Giselle" and "Swan Lake." She was a seeing dancer for a great many years before her eyesight started to fail. She was one of the greatest of the post "Ballet Russe" dancers and responsible for setting up the Cuban ballet school which has produced such wonderful dancers that now are all over the world in top ballet companies.
    Placement would be a headache if you are blind. Also you need to use a mirror in practice for body alignment in rehearsal - not impossible but you would need someone with you all the time to correct you. Getting on and off and correct cue placing on stage, I would think would be extremely difficult. Certainly the main classical repertoire would be almost, if not impossible, because of its demands on entrances, exits, alignment on stage etc. Must see what I can find out but never heard of a completely blind ballet company doing the normal repetoire.
    There is a fab small group called "Deaf Men Dancing" and they are great for contemporary - done with counts and eye contact. I've seen them a couple of times.
    And then there are companies such as CanDoCo - absolutely brilliant. A mixture of able bodied and disabled (limbs missing, wheelchairs etc) They are a top professional company in Britain.
    There are also smaller companies of people with learning disabilities: at least one professional group in Britain and in Ipswich, DanceEast had the most wonderful performance group of Downs/Autistic spectrum dancers. They are fab.

    The green leakage from the light switches:
    We had it in our last house. Not paint. It is the old copper wiring that is leaching. Apparently not dangerous but a real nuisance to clean off. We had an electrician to look at it and he said that the wiring would need renewing in the future but it wasn't dangerous or anything.
    So get an electrician to look at it.
  • Google didn't fail me!
    Just discovered that the Royal Ballet now has classes for blind/partially sighted people in London, but these aren't professional classes or professional dancers. There are a number of classes happening to enrich folk with seeing difficulties but haven't come across blind professional groups doing major repertoire. Anyone else has found anything?
  • wild Haggis
    It is very interesting to hear about all that goes on for those with impaired vision to dance. The advantage of tap is that we each have our own space and do not dance as a line or anything! There is a total of 10 members in my group, but usually there are about 7 of us. I allow them short rests but not too long - we are, after all, there to exercise by doing the routines. I find, however, that I have acquired angina, so I might have to sit down myself occasionally! Fortunately, one of the others will take the lead.
  • I'm going to add a whinge about services to older people. The whole NBN thing played merry hell with my mother's nerves, nerves that were worn down by my father's dementia, decline and death and her own health problems. The workers were not being deliberately difficult, as far as I can tell, it was just a difficult process involving different independent contractors who didn't get paid for dealing with people who are not interested in the internet and happy with the existing service. GRRRR.

    Double GRRR for Foxtel, who made it difficult for Mum to cancel the service by putting confusing options to her, and when she finally did cancel the service sent her an extra bill. Mum didn't want to pay that as she knew she was being stooged, I called with her and got it reviewed, they didn't give us the outcome of the review and the next thing she got was a text message from debt collectors. GRRR

    I will give Telstra points for one thing. I went into a Telstra shop with Mum who wanted a better deal on her mobile. We feigned interest in something expensive to get served, and once the Telstra guy got over his disappointment he gave us exactly what we needed and fixed a couple of other issues for Mum to boot. Fair dinkum, if we were a tipping culture I would have palmed that bloke a $50. I was so happy.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    Could anyone recommend a good brand of slippers for women suffering from diabetic neuropathy? Available in the US? Google failed. All the slippers recommended have fuzzy or nubby insoles. Fuzz and bumps irritate my nerve endings. I need ones that are smooth yet cushioned underneath. My mom used to buy wonderful slide slippers that would be perfect. Alas, I don't remember the brand and they might not even be in business anymore. As a diabetic, I shouldn't be running around barefoot.

    Thanks for the help. :smile:
  • Lyda wrote: »
    Could anyone recommend a good brand of slippers for women suffering from diabetic neuropathy? Available in the US? Google failed. All the slippers recommended have fuzzy or nubby insoles. Fuzz and bumps irritate my nerve endings. I need ones that are smooth yet cushioned underneath. My mom used to buy wonderful slide slippers that would be perfect. Alas, I don't remember the brand and they might not even be in business anymore. As a diabetic, I shouldn't be running around barefoot.

    Thanks for the help. :smile:

    I recommend Daniel Green "Meg" slippers -- no fuzz or bumps.

  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    edited March 2018
    OMG. The Daniel Green "Dormie" slipper looks just like my mom's slippers. Thank you! Thank you, Pigwidgeon! :joy:

    Maybe I'll get both kinds. :wink:
  • LothlorienLothlorien All Saints Host
    Over five years I have bought three pairs of shoes, a apiar of sandals and a very comfortable slipper in style of a boot with zip up sides from cosyfeet. They have not been cheap with postage and conversion to AUD$$. However, the five yeart old shoes still look like new after a great deal of wear and the newer are fine too. I don’t know about slippers from there although I have a pair, not worn much. Sizing seems true. The shoes I have are all similar but different colours, Mary Jane style. Good value as these alllook like new.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    The shoes look very nice, Lothlorian. But I'm a little leery about their width. I've gotten wide shoes before and I tended to swim in them even if they were adjustable. But I do like shoes and slippers with velcro adjustments since I have a bit of a high arch. I will peruse the site for possibilities. Thanks for the tip.
  • BroJamesBroJames Shipmate
    Some time ago on the old ship someone posted a link to this image, which I think comes from a chapel in France. Can anyone help me with details. I don't seem to be getting anywhere with Google
  • RicardusRicardus Shipmate
    Is there a reason - other than the obvious one - why women's athletics costumes often have bare midriffs and men's don't?
  • Men feel the cold more than women. Honest.....
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    edited March 2018
    Hmhmm, yeah... :wink:

    They also don't want to wear girlie clothes. I'm surprised men in track don't just go shirtless.
    Oh, right, the cold...
  • BroJames wrote: »
    Some time ago on the old ship someone posted a link to this image, which I think comes from a chapel in France. Can anyone help me with details. I don't seem to be getting anywhere with Google

    That's a beautiful crucifix BroJames. I can't answer your question, but you have lifted me spirit with your post so thankyou.
  • Ricardus wrote: »
    Is there a reason - other than the obvious one - why women's athletics costumes often have bare midriffs and men's don't?

    I can't cite the study, because I learned of it at a conference, but apparently there was a study into the health benefits of exercise during adolescence, which aimed to measure the improved health of people in their 20s and 30s, who had been competitive athletes in their teens. The researchers were astonished to discover that female athletes who had worn "sexy" outfits as young teens (mostly trampolinists) had poorer health in their 20s and 30s than those who had been teenage couch potatoes.
  • ClimacusClimacus Shipmate
    edited March 2018
    Was that a Google Reverse Image search you tried for the crucifix? I don't seem able to do one on my mobile... If you haven't tried it, it may help.
  • Climacus wrote: »
    Was that a Google Reverse Image search you tried for the crucifix? I don't seem able to do one on my mobile... If you haven't tried it, it may help.

    I just tried that and all it came up with was that it was a wall!
  • BroJamesBroJames Shipmate
    Me too. Also I tried cropping the image just to focus on the area where the cross is, but also didn't get anywhere with it.
  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    Macarius and I were in St James' Park today, watching the swans. There were a few black swans amongst them and we wondered whether black and white swans could interbreed?

    We fell to discussing that if they did, the offspring might look like bar codes, which would make swan upping much easier. That leads to my second question, does the Queen own black swans as well as white ones?

    MMM
  • According to The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds:
    Do black and white swans interbreed? As a general rule, no. Mute and black swans won’t breed or hybridise, although as with everything, there are always exceptions to this rule!
  • RossweisseRossweisse Shipmate, 8th Day Host
    No, the Queen doesn't own the black swans, which are Australian imports. In fact, that's why there are black swans in Britain: Other people want to own swans, too, but she's got a lock on the white ones.

  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    Ah, many thanks, Pigwidgeon and Rossweisse!

    MMM
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    edited May 2018
    My tastebuds are in mourning. Christchurch has always relied on water from aquifers and it has been one of the things about living here that I have valued. When I visit other places in NZ I always come home and appreciate the difference.

    Now, due to the possibility some wells are contaminated, chlorine has been added to the water supply. It can be both smelt and tasted. :anguished: I realise this is necessary, but it is truly revolting.

    I have been told that if water is run into a container and left on the bench overnight that the chlorine will somehow evaporate off. I tried this and it did seem to make a difference, but I'm not sure if it was a kind of placebo effect.

    Could anyone who know more about the chemistry of this please comment?
  • BroJamesBroJames Shipmate
    It is true that the chlorine will evaporate out of the water. You might want to put a net cover over the container to prevent contamination by e.g. insects falling in
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