Comic for Wednesday, Jan 18, 2023

[Darth Fluffy 338]

Comic for Wednesday, Jan 18, 2023

Magus appears to be trying to hide himself. Apparently he has zero transformation nor illusion spells with which to do so.

Noah is probably telling Diane to much detail about things that don't concern her.

Adrian was deputized by the Agency being run by the man who tried to have him deported to Russia. I wonder if they'll meet again. He frankly should have demanded an apology and an acknowledgement, 'Yes, you belong here', before his cooperation, and maybe he did. Seems likely that at least a basic understanding to that effect in in play.

Large bagel sign behind him might weakly suggest NYC metro area. Probably not.

Hmm, did Magus 'rob' the money he acquired from Sirleck? Maybe not, Sirleck would have willed it to his next intended host, which would have been Magus. But he did defraud the state out of inheritance taxes by using Sirleck's account(s) directly.

 

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,619]

When will we get to the story of Magnus & Rhonda?

[Darth Fluffy 338]

4 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

When will we get to the story of Magnus & Rhonda?

Magnus is stuck in another universe, and asks Rhonda for assistance. The Beach Boys sang a song about it. Ellniot, Ellnen, Tendd, Sanra, Sunsan, Junstin, Nanasne, and Anshley are there to see him off.

 

Meanwhile, in the Christmas universe, E''iot and Ash'ey go on a double date with E''en and Nanase.    (No L)

 

[mlooney 3,594]

52 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Meanwhile, in the Christmas universe, E''iot and Ash'ey go on a double date with E''en and Nanase.    (No L)

 

/me stand in the corner and think about what you did!  Your getting a whole new page!

[Darth Fluffy 338]

2 minutes ago, mlooney said:

/me stand in the corner and think about what you did!  Your getting a whole new page!

Interesting factoid, there was a round home downtown, appeared to be built buy owner out of cinder blocks. A very small home, but it probably had walls inside, and thus corners. Still, at least conceptually, the interior would be a cool place to say "Go stand in the corner" to a kid.

I could use a good page. Will he need a separate account to herald my arrival?

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,619]

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Interesting factoid, there was a round home downtown, appeared to be built buy owner out of cinder blocks. A very small home

My grandfather once owned an old train round house.  The Rail Road built a new line & didn't need the old  roundhouse anymore.  They sold it for scrap to someone who salvaged what he wanted & sold it for scrap to someone else.  Grandpa was 5th or 6th in the sequence, so he never intended to keep it.  Still it might have been nice to have a house where you rode a massive turntable from room to room

[mlooney 3,594]

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I could use a good page. Will he need a separate account to herald my arrival?

No, just a heading and a cross reference on the body of the old page. 

[Darth Fluffy 338]

5 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

My grandfather once owned an old train round house.  The Rail Road built a new line & didn't need the old  roundhouse anymore.  They sold it for scrap to someone who salvaged what he wanted & sold it for scrap to someone else.  Grandpa was 5th or 6th in the sequence, so he never intended to keep it.  Still it might have been nice to have a house where you rode a massive turntable from room to room

Those were built because steam locomotives required constant maintenance. I did not know that until I visited the North Carolina Transportation Museum, which is primarily about railroads, and talks about how often steam engines had to be torn apart and have the boiler pipes replaced. The reason diesel took over so quickly is it had a much longer period of working before it needed to be rebuilt. After the steam era passed, the roundhouses were no longer needed.

I don't have numbers, but my impression from photos and such is that any moment something like half of a given carrier's steam engines were being rebuilt. This is during the 20th century. I think the really early steam engines, like Civil War era, lasted longer by virtue of having a significantly cooler fire, wood vs coal. Water sources should have made a big difference, so I'm guessing that certain routes that had problematic water, more corrosive, would have needed more maintenance. Before my time, so I don't really know, and I've never seen it written up, other than NCTM discussing 'lots of maintenance' and 'frequently rebuilding the boilers'.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Darth Fluffy
fix typo

[Darth Fluffy 338]

20 minutes ago, mlooney said:

No, just a heading and a cross reference on the body of the old page. 

I'm not recalling where his body ended up. I'll check the headstones. Does it have to be a cross reference, or would a crescent reference or a Star of David suffice? (or a plate of spaghetti with meatballs?)

[mlooney 3,594]

/me  You just like getting entries, don't you...  More on your new page.

[Darth Fluffy 338]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

/me  You just like getting entries, don't you...  More on your new page.

Well, yes, of course, I'm trying to beat my high score.

[ijuin 594]

In this case, a high score is like a high score in golf—better performance is reflected in getting as few marks as possible.

[mlooney 3,594]

1 hour ago, ijuin said:

In this case, a high score is like a high score in golf—better performance is reflected in getting as few marks as possible.

While that is what /me thinks, I suspect that isn't what the various people with pages in The Book think, but I could be wrong.

[Darth Fluffy 338]

Golf

[ChronosCat 158]

7 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Interesting factoid, there was a round home downtown, appeared to be built buy owner out of cinder blocks. A very small home, but it probably had walls inside, and thus corners. Still, at least conceptually, the interior would be a cool place to say "Go stand in the corner" to a kid.

6 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

My grandfather once owned an old train round house.  The Rail Road built a new line & didn't need the old  roundhouse anymore.  They sold it for scrap to someone who salvaged what he wanted & sold it for scrap to someone else.  Grandpa was 5th or 6th in the sequence, so he never intended to keep it.  Still it might have been nice to have a house where you rode a massive turntable from room to room

When I was a kid, an Uncle & Aunt of mine (and their three kids) lived in a geodesic dome. I always thought it was kind of neat, but I know fitting furniture that normally goes against a wall in was a challenge for them.

 

[Darth Fluffy 338]

'... and he built a crooked house ...' (spoiler)

Sorry, I could not locate the text online.

[mlooney 3,594]

16 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

When I was a kid, an Uncle & Aunt of mine (and their three kids) lived in a geodesic dome. I always thought it was kind of neat, but I know fitting furniture that normally goes against a wall in was a challenge for them.

 

Plus they leak more than a traditional roofed house will.

[Darth Fluffy 338]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

Plus they leak more than a traditional roofed house will.

My first reaction to that was, "That doesn't make sense. It's just a different structure with more angles, traditional materials should work."

Then I put some thought in to it, and, yes, I think you're right.

A good portion of them are kit homes, built by owner. The kits, if they included roofing, probably shipped a cheap option. Cheap roofing material does not hold up over the years (in fact, roofing is rated in lifetime). Built by owner might tend toward cutting corners anyway.

Then there's the roof joints, where different angles meet. These tend to be weak places in the roof that the materials are not ideally suited for, and a dome has a lot of them.

The upper part of the dome seems slightly less accessible than a peaked roof.

If the do it yourself builder is inexperienced, they might not properly seal any protrusions through the roof. Even if they are experienced in construction, this will have some curve balls. In fact, years down the road, when you need a new roof, if you want a professional roofer to do the job, they are likely to face situations they are unfamiliar with.

I am curious, how did you happen to know that? Have you owned one? Known others who have?

[mlooney 3,594]

Known people that had them, plus read in various "alternate living" sources.  It's considered the major draw back of dome houses.

https://mygeodome.com/how-to-seal-a-geodesic-dome-to-prevent-leaks/

One of the first hits on google search "geodesic dome leaking.

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

I was told the same, once, by a guy who was planning to specialize in building dome houses. He though he had a fix.

[mlooney 3,594]

3 hours ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

I was told the same, once, by a guy who was planning to specialize in building dome houses. He though he had a fix.

The link I provided talks about some fixes and tries to sell one.