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Where is a good place to get breakfast near St. Paul's Cathedral in London?

Your Time Machine Sucks — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:47:42 -0800

Where is a good place to get breakfast near St. Paul's Cathedral in London? The hotel breakfast is extra and is priced nonsensically, and who knows if it's any good. Breakfast is a bit of a make-or-break thing for the day's mood while sightseeing and it's also something I like to get inside tips on, so I thought I'd ask if any locals or experienced visitors can steer me right.

I like English breakfasts/cooked breakfast with eggs, toast etc, she likes Continental breakfast, but this isn't a super-rigid thing. It doesn't have to be cheap although it definitely doesn't have to be in any way fancy, just good. Thanks!

What is the difference between an I.S. and a J.H.S., and what does IS stand for?

nonmerci — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:22:47 -0800

This is a stupid question, but can someone please explain to me the difference between an I.S. school and a J.H.S. school in the New York public school system? It seems both schools cater to grades 6, 7 and 8 so I'm curious about the difference in naming and the history of this system of abbreviation. Also, what does I.S. stand for? I know this is a silly question, but I've spent a lot of time googling it and I can't find it, and my curiosity is killing me. I'm sure the answer is obvious, but if you can answer the history dimension that might make the question a little more interesting.*

*question arose after reading this article and wondering what a P.S./I.S. was, and failing repeatedly while trying to search for these terms

Me: 'Logic logic logic.' Mom: 'WHARRGARBL'

kldickson — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:18:14 -0800

Mom's acting weird again, currently wrt my independence in various respects. Long story. Where do I start?

I am a third-year undergrad neurobiology student, currently taking a year off after a disastrous last few semesters. Depression and anxiety, which were the cause of those disastrous last few semesters, were treated, and my grades are tons better (I'm taking two classes right now).

I go to a large public state school half the country away from my folks, and pay about $30000 per year in tuition.

Mom has, for what it's worth, attempted to drive me nuts, and the latest manifestation of her insanity is in the form of not allowing me to go to Europe, in countries that have VASTLY lower crime rates than the United States according to NationMaster, on my own dollar and by myself.

I addressed this in another post, but to make it short, I've actually printed out PAGE AFTER PAGE of NationMaster statistics and she will not budge.

'No!'
'Why?'
'Because I said so.'
'Come on, you've got to have actual REASONING. Besides, I'm 20, not 15; that shit will NOT cut it with me.'
'... You have depression and anxiety!'
'Those were treated.'
'... You can't pay for it! What about your tuition?'
'Provided I contribute, well, most of the money I earn toward tuition, I don't think it's unreasonable to set aside a predetermined amount of money for a trip overseas.'
'*sputter* NO!'
'Unless you give me actual reasoning, I'm going to tell you you're an idiot.'
'NO!'
'You're an idiot. Give me some GOOD reasoning and I'll stop thinking you're an idiot.'

That is essentially how a conversation tonight went. It probably wasn't a good idea to call her an idiot, but 1) I can't unsay it, and 2) I got fed up with the disrespect. I will tell her 'sorry I called you an idiot; at the same time, not having good reasoning is FUCKING IDIOTIC and not telling me the reasoning behind the way you would deal with me in various circumstances is FUCKING IDIOTIC and I feel disrespected.'

Maybe she's trying to tell me to move the fuck out or become completely independent or something (completely non-cognizant of the fact that despite the fact that that would be GREAT, I can't really do that right now because I have to study and a job would detract from my studying).

Moving out is not an option, because of curriculum, tuition, and the fact that I need to get into grad school and want to get into grad school - job will detract from study and I need good grades.

Any suggestions for what I can do, hive mind?

My wireless lan connection is enabled, but i cant turn it on!

freddymetz — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:55:50 -0800

My wireless lan connection is enabled, but i cant turn it on! It seems to be in perfect working order, the only problem is that to turn wifi on, i have to press a soft button above my keyboard.
Since installing windows 7, these buttons don't work (they make a sound when i press them, but they have no function)
http://www.magicdevices.de/produkt-foto/notebook-medion-md96630.jpg
Thats a picture of my laptop (medion md9330S) and the buttons in question.

Is there any other way to turn wifi on?

Ive tried reinstalling the vista drivers and also theres no fn key combination to turn on wifi on my laptop..

Name That Movie

whimsicalnymph — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:20:33 -0800

[Oldmoviefilter]: What is this movie? When I was a girl, I saw a movie that (at the time) I found hilarious. I believe the movie was made in the 1950s, maybe 1940s, in color. A woman has relationship problems because every man she falls in love with becomes wildly successful, then dies a tragic death (or leaves her?)?

Then afterward, the men she tells her woes to invariably fall in love with her, and the pattern repeats. She begins to gain more and more riches as a well-to-do widow (one of her husbands was Gene Kelly, as a beatnik entertainer), but all she wants is the simple life.

Finally she marries a farmer, is happy and pleased...then her farmer husband discovers oil.

What is the name of this movie?

Which camcorders let you turn off all the clever stuff and access the raw video?

handee — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:30:24 -0800

I'm thinking of buying a camcorder. My requirements are slightly unusual: I would like one that does all the "bells and whistles" stuff (image stabilisation, auto light balance, H.264 compression etc). But I also want to be able to turn off all the clever stuff and access the "raw" video. Any recommendations? Hard disk/SD recording is a must, high definition would be good.

Name this children's book and TV series from the 80's

ticktockdoc — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:18:49 -0800

Name this children's book and TV series from the 80's...? It's Lord of the Flies meets Follyfoot. Kinda. Plot: Three (?) children [definitely two boys, maybe a girl too...] are living in their grandfather's/stepfather's/some dude's(?) massive house and estate/lands. For some reason(?) they decide to run away, but instead of actually going anywhere, they instead hide out in the land/forrest of the estate. They manage to hide out there for YEARS, within sight of the massive house all the while. They evade many search parties [something about a hollow tree...?] and it becomes rather Lord of the Flies, with them making clothes out of animals and eventually their escapade ending with one of the boys [dark-haired one] returning home to the big house [can't recall if he rats out the other two]. Maybe the dark-haired kid got sick, so that's why he had to go back...?

This was a book , but was also a TV series shown in the UK in the late 80's with similar production values as 'Famous Five' and 'Follyfoot'. I remember it being full of awesome. The closest I can come to remembering the actual title is: 'The Boys of Brendan Green'. But fruitless Googling and Amazon-ing(?) prove useless.

Programming neophyte looking for a language to start with. Or, what language should I learn to complete these tasks?

monkishies — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:24:00 -0800

What programming language should a neophyte start with to organize his life? Yes, another one of those questions. But I have two specific tasks that I'd like to accomplish and this makes choosing a language really hard for me. Especially since i'm a complete n00bler. I'm a complete virgin to programming other than the little bit of BASIC that was taught to me in High School ages ago. But I REALLY want to learn a programming language. One that I can use as a foundation but more importantly a tool for doing things on/to/with my internet connected PC.

I have two specific tasks that I'd like to start out with for my first programs that I believe will be simple enough for a beginner like me.

1. Organize my horribly disorganized library
---Read through a folder filled with books in .pdf/.chm/.djvu format
---rename the files with their isbn number (queried from somewhere like amazon)
---fill in the "title","subject","author","category","keywords", and "comments" sections under right click on file Properties->Summary (also queried from amazon or the like)
---compress the file
---create a subject/category folder and place the compressed file there

2. Organize ~20mb worth of bookmarks (in multiple .html files)
---Check for duplicate bookmarks in this collection of .html files
----Use the pages content to scrape tag words then input them in the right click on bookmark Properties->"keyword" section and if possible also fill in the "description" area. Delicious to me would be a last resort as it's become a mess with people using tags that often look like gibberish and probably only make sense to their user and/or their own piece of code.

It'd also be nice for these apps to be cross platform (Windows and Linux) but that's an afterthought really.

Now, I know this might sound like a tall order for a complete neophyte but I believe the first program that I've outlined above could be easy enough to complete for someone like me.

So, what should it be? Perl, Python, C, C++, something else? Maybe someone out there knows of a *free ware/beggar ware/Open Source* program that does what I desperately need to get done? Please impart your collective wisdom unto me, AskMeFi! I beg you!

Is there a place on the internets that I can get an idea of what my records are worth.

citybuddha — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:52:21 -0800

Is there a place on the internets that I can get an idea of what my records are worth. I have a large collection of vinyl I am thinking of selling. Many are obscure new wave stuff from the 70's and eighties. I am looking for a site or two I can use to get an idea of what they are worth individually.
I have some tasty CDs as well
Gotta a suggestion?

[There is rockets.] vs [There are rockets.]

Quarter Pincher — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:34:52 -0800

GrammarFilter: True/False -- The following sentence can be grammatically correct. There's rockets. A friendly argument ensued after repeatedly remarking, "There's rockets," whilst playing Halo 3, referring to the rocket launcher containing rockets lying on the ground for someone to retrieve if desired. The context of the statement referred to an implied singular container of multiple rockets, as opposed to multiple bundles or specifically multiple rockets.

I, the English degree holder, am being kindheartedly informed second hand, through a bluff-caller whose father is a former English teacher, that a sentence may not possess verb disagreement for an implied singular object and may agree only with the actual available object by which to modify. It is my assertion that the verb modifies to that which specifically the speaker is referring, not according to which the hearer presumes the verb to modify.

The imperitive statement, "Go to the store," contains an implied, "(You shall) go to the store."

Likewise, "There is rockets," contains an implied, "There is (a rocket launcher containing) rockets."

As a side note, I also suggested that There refers specifically (as I, the speaker, intended it to be) to a singular location containing said rockets. It might be restated to report that, "That location contains rockets," whereas the verb still does not agree with rockets, as rockets is not the intended object.

The Truth is in Here

Secretariat — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:25:18 -0800

I need a name for my X-files themed blog. Last Christmas, we got the boxed set of all seasons of the X-files. Mr. Secretariat and I have been dutifully watching this show every night, and we're nearing the end. We know we're going to make a blog discussing the merits and failings of each episode-- we just don't know what to call it. Although this blog will be a deadly serious undertaking, I am looking for a light-hearted name. Hopefully it would evoke the purpose of the blog, as well as the X-Files. For example:

Trust NoBlog
Hurf Durf X-files Watcher
The Redux Files

Looking after a 1996 BMW 318is?

gttommy — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:38:51 -0800

Looking after a '96 BMW 318is? I just bought a 1.9L 1996 BMW 318i coupe (208 000 kms) and would like advice on maintaining this particular model. As this isn't a Toyota, I'm concerned about it breaking down, based on my general impression of non-Japanese cars.

I've already done some researching and thankfully it seems pre-1996 318 models had certain, model-specific problems. So perhaps advice on just maintenance and prevention tips for BMW cars would suffice.

Like Starship Troopers meets Gordon Frohman!

chrominance — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:00:48 -0800

BookFilter: I read an odd science fiction book when I was younger, but then it got lost in a move long ago and ever since I've been wondering what it was. It's especially strange because I don't know how we got the book in the first place—a random book sale? Garage sale? Someone gave us a box of old books? Who knows. Anyways, here's what I remember:

It's a vaguely satirical book about war.
At the beginning of the novel a recruiter comes to the podunk town where the protagonist lives, and convinces Our Hero that the space navy is the place for him. The recruiter may or may not have only one arm.
At some point Our Hero, lured into the navy by thoughts of fame and fortune, finds himself pressed into service as a bottom-of-the-barrel combat grunt—I think he gets crammed into the rear turret of some giant spaceship or something. The gleaming starship enters a giant battle, and most of its crew dies due to big explosions and laser fire and stuff—but not Our Hero, who manages to survive mainly because no one's bothered to shoot out his tiny little gun turret. He is promptly promoted, showered with medals, and declared a hero.
Fresh off all this success, Our Hero goes on shore leave on some distant paradise planet, but because he's still basically the podunk backwater kid from the beginning of the story, he manages to a) lose all his medals, b) all his ID, and c) any record that he was a soldier. Hijinks ensue.
I don't remember much about the rest (and there is quite a bit more), except that at the end Our Hero goes to other backwater planets as a recruiter himself. He may or may not have one arm at this point—I seem to remember the book making a point of Our Hero being similar in every way to the recruiter that conscripted him at the beginning of the novel.

If I don't find this book, at least I've provided you with a vaguely amusing summary! But any hints you might have about the identity of this novel would be greatly appreciated!

What is this strange device?

rawredmeat — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:49:03 -0800

What is this device? Some sort of sewing gadget? We found it at a dump, and my girlfriend was intrigued, so we bought it (for ten cents), but want to know what it is! It seems to have some sort of fibrous strands on some of the metal loops, but otherwise, we have no idea. Any input would be appreciated!

What is the term for that phenomenon?

lazaruslong — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 11:44:52 -0800

What is it called when a brand name becomes so ubiquitous that it becomes a descriptor for the action or item itself, e.g. Xerox and Kleenex? Is there a word that describes that phenomenon? For example, the term xerox has been used to often to describe photocopying something that it has become a term for photocopying itself. What is this called?

Is It Legal - Desperately Seeking This Britcom

catcatwomanman — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:02:30 -0800

I am desperately seeking a copy of the UK sitcom "Is It Legal?" - an insanely hilarious tv show from 1995-98. Does anyone know where I can get a copy of all three seasons? I've been searching on the net every few months for over 5 years. I've tried Google. I've tried ebay. I even emailed the show's production company a few years ago (never heard back). The show was never released on DVD or VHS and I haven't seen it picked up by BBC America. The cast included Imelda Staunton and Kate Isitt among others, though my favorite is by far Richard Lumdsen. I live in the US and would happily trade or buy a good copy of any of the seasons or all 3. More about the show at the BBC Comedy Guide. Any help will be much appreciated!!! (triple exclamation marks to prove I'm sincere)

Luxury Car or Practical Car?

mam — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:38:22 -0800

Should I buy a luxury car or a practical car? Help me make a decision!! I'm a 27 year old female. I'm single and have no kids. I want to get a luxury car (nothing ridiculous, probably a BMW 325 or IS 250) but I'm wondering if I will regret buying it, as I don't really NEED it... but I just want it. I feel like because I don't have any obligations today, and I can afford it, why not treat myself? However, the practical side of me says I don't really need it and I would be fine driving a practical car (i.e. Camry - although I don't like that it's such a "parents" car) as long as it gets me from point A to point B. I don't want to lease or buy used as I plan to keep this car until it breaks down!

I would like to hear from those who have had similar experiences and whether you are happy/regretted your decision. Hindsight is always 20/20!

Is Sicily a good place to go scuba diving?

gentle — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 17:58:02 -0800

Is Sicily a good place to go scuba diving? One source says that the Mediterranean "has largely been fished out through over zealous spear fishing." I went to Mallorca last year and while the water was wonderful, it was almost devoid of life, mostly empty sea, which seems to confirm the overfishing claim; I saw a lot more of interest while snorkeling by the beach. I like as much colour as possible in my diving experiences. Would I expect to have more fun in the Canary Islands or in the Adriatic?

I suspect the diving might better elsewhere. But I have been to Mallorca and the Canaries before, and I'm tired of being up to my knees in flabby German tourists, rows of souvenir shops all selling the exact same plastic crap, and endless imitation-Italian restaurants selling, well, the same plastic crap. I thought I might treat myself to a little culture and history this time.

I can't find much information about Sicily as a diving location. Can you recommend a good site? What are good diving locations, and what diving centres do you recommend (or recommend against)? What should I expect to pay?