What should the musician wear at a wedding?I'm playing piano at a wedding ceremony for the first time and I'm not exactly sure what it's protocol to wear. When I played (violin) in orchestral groups in high school, it was usually some variation on all black. Not sure if that's the same for a wedding, or if you should dress fancy but match the attire to whatever guests are wearing. I can ask the people whose wedding I am playing at, but at the same time they are paying me so I wanted to phrase it as if I know what I'm doing and what the standard thing is, if that makes sense. This may or may not be relevant, but the ceremony is traditional and will take place in a Presbyterian church. Thanks!
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Does more ice in the shaker make the drink colder faster? Is there more or less dilution per second of shaking? in short, is there any reason I would want to have a particular level of ice in a shaker when making martinis?
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I think we've had a couple of questions specific to language apps in the past. But I got to wondering what particularly good learning apps for grown-up users are out there, regardless of subject. Specifically, apps that are well designed, easy to use but challenging to the appropriate degree, and fun. Pretty graphics are nice too.
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Polyamory as noisy iterated prisoner's dilemma. Not to be confused with strip iterated prisoner's dilemma. Though hey, there's rules for that too.
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Screenshot of the past two years. This is not an aberration, I have been this way since I was 13. There was even one year that I only had 2 periods the whole year. I have never taken the pill, or any contraception. I do not take any medications. I became sexually active in my early 20's. my first time meeting with a gyno was at 32, my current age. I have always worried about my fertility, but I comfort myself saying I am holding onto my eggs for an important time instead of letting them go. Do you know what is wrong with me?
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Can anyone recommend an excellent rheumatologist in the Boston area? Cambridge or Somerville would be ideal, but travel isn't a huge problem.
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Help me find an app like this for Android!http://abeautifulmessapp.com/ I am looking for the closest thing to the app 'A Beautiful Mess' to add fun text, doodles and borders to pictures. I'm having trouble finding something close enough. Thanks in advance.
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Several Hours ago a massive tornado hit the town of Moore Oklahoma. The tornado is now being estimated by some sources to be to be an EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. This means winds at or over 200 mph as well as a damage area of close to 30 square miles. Excellent live coverage is being done by NBC channel 4 and the raw network feed can be seen via the Rawstory website. At least two elementary schools were hit and unfortunately numerous fatalities are expected from the schools. Damage and casualties from this tornado are being compared to the disastrous 1999 Oklahoma tornadoes
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How Far Did PBS Go To Avoid Offending David H. Koch?
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Flickr announces 1TB free for all users.
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Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for The Doors, has died at the age of 74. Not a lot of links. Just a place to share your thoughts, your faves... and to remember.
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I can never use my tablet because the kids are always on it. Where can I buy a budget Android tablet that my kids can use for games and videos.I want something cheap enough that if it gets dropped, spilled on, stepped on, etc, I won't worry too much about it. I've seen some pretty good Chinese tablets. If you were buying a cheap Android tablet that will still play games and videos for kids, what would you buy. I can change language settings, but I'd rather not have to root it. Any form factor is OK, but something 8"+ would be ideal. I know that some sellers of these items are sketchy, and I need it before we leave for vacation soon, so if possible I prefer to buy through a seller I can trust: Ebay, Amazon, NewEgg, TigerDirect, etc. Thanks in advance for your wisdom.
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Over the last ten years, I've put on 10-15 pounds of pure, unadulterated fat. Giving up desert for the next ten years doesn't seem feasible, but my general food intake is fine. I was looking for a healthy but reasonably quick way to loose 10 pounds, and 4 Hour Body was recommended. After six weeks, I am at my exact starting weight. What am I missing, and where should I go from here?I tried this diet with my roommate (R). R and I are ovo-lacto vegetarians who share 19/21 meals every week. We found the 4HB diet relatively easy to follow as eggs, vegetables, beans, and tofu made up the majority of our food before. (Tofu/soy products are technically not allowed, but we are both female and not trying to build 37 pounds of muscle so we decided to ignore that rule.) We have both been very strict about cutting out all fruit, dairy, and grain products. R has been loosing 2-3 pounds a week, and I am at my exact (down to the tenth of a pound) starting weight. My results were in line with my normal weight fluctuation- down a pound here and there, up a pound here and there. According to my body measurements, I may have lost an inch on my hips and half an inch on my waist, but that may be measurement error. I have a post-diet body fat analysis scheduled next week, but given that other metrics show no change, I'm not expecting much. My previous attempt at diet modification was calorie counting. After a week of weighing all my ingredients, adding recipes to calorie counting software, and weighing my servings, I determined that my normal, unmodified diet is hitting carbs/fat/protein ratios reasonably well, contains enough fruits and vegetables, and is about 1700 calories on a normal day. Once I figured that out, I stopped counting. (I did count calories one representative day of 4HB dieting and got 1645 calories.) I spend about 6 hours/week doing some form of physical activity- usually competitive tennis, jogging, weightlifting, yoga, and rock climbing. I enjoy all these activities but don't have time to add any more. If I'm active, the food I'm eating is good, and the portion sizes are ok, what else can I tweak for weight loss?
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From some minor checking on a new employee, I have seen a large discrepancy in pay - which is not surprising. Can I ask for a raise? How do I ask for a raise? Will I get fired? Should I just look for new work like I'm already doing?I am currently looking for a new job, as my job really doesn't pay me at all what I should get paid. I am also not full time, and a w-9 employee. I have been at my job for over a year and a half. I have a large title and most of the responsibility as it is a very small company. (Me, my boss, a few online workers.) I am very, completely, extremely underpaid, however I need the money. I get $XX.50 per hour, which is about a third of what I should get paid, if not less. I am to work up to 25 hours a week. My boss just hired an online helper, in my field, for 10 hours a week. I am happy for the help as there is too much to handle and I don't get enough hours or resources for one of our large clients. I have access to this online work staff, as I manage most of them, and through curiosity I clicked on the terms of their agreement, which is nearly double what I get paid. I knew she would be getting paid more, as I started this job while in college, however now I have my degree, and the jobs I am qualified for are anywhere from $30k to $50+K a year. (I make.. well.. much much much less than that.) Therefore, with her working 10 hours a week, and me working 20-25 hours a week, at the end of the month she will make only a few hundred dollars less than I do for the entire month, with me doing over twice the amount of work. So here's the scoop: 1) She may be more qualified than I am, however I couldn't find specifics as far is her resume. I also didn't see education, whereas I have my bachelor's degree. 2) I kind of snooped - barely - to see her pay, but I also manage other employees and discuss their pay on the same website. It's not a stretch to let my boss know I saw it or looked, I can easily say I was looking through her experience or what they discussed for her work. 3) She may be more specialized in certain areas, whereas I have a broad experience, along with the fact that I personally handle all clients and manage all workers. I will also be managing this new worker - who gets paid more than me. I am sure that other specialized workers like our graphic designer get paid much more than I do, but that is pretty standard and they also don't have regular work. This employee will have a maximum of 10 hours a week, and will most likely have enough work to fill that time. Again I am completely not surprised that she gets paid more, as I get paid nothing for my position. So my questions: 1) Can I ask for a raised based on her pay? Or should I ask based on the market value of my job? -The market value of my job is most likely more money than she is getting paid per hour. 2) Is there a way to ask without the possibility of being fired or having to quit? Should I bring it up at all or just continue to look for a new job? -I will look for a new job no matter what I'm getting paid at this one, but more money is always helpful and can help me find a new job faster. -I am unsure if I can walk away from this job. I will have to discuss our budget with my husbad, however some money is better than no money while I am looking for a new job. Therefore I am unsure if I can even ask for fear of getting canned and completely losing my income, which again, I need. 3) Would asking for a small raise increase my chances of staying there and getting the raise? (I would be okay with a few dollars, even though it's clearly still completely unfair - but again I need the money.) -New job prospects are a little thin at the moment as I am currently looking for places to carpool with my husband, or we may get a rental car if I get hired somewhere further from his job. My husband is also looking for a job with higher pay, if he finds one before I find work, I could easily threaten to leave this job for higher pay. Otherwise we may not have enough money to pay the bills each month with our current situation. I don't have a contract. I never ended up signing a non-compete, non-disclosure somehow. My payment terms aren't on paper other than something I asked for to apply for my apartment. I will monitor this and if try to answer followups if I missed something. I think I got it covered though.
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I have long lusted after a Channel Island Bush Poppy (dendromecon harfordii) but can never find the plant at any of our local native plant nurseries here in Los Angeles. I ordered seeds and have found conflicting information about how to start it from seed. I received a packet of seeds and a pink slip of paper that contained the same chemicals released in brush fire conditions. The instructions said to soak the paper with the seeds for 24 hours and then sow. No more information than that.One website says to plant in 3" coir pots with equal parts sand/peat/compost and then put in fridge to vernalize. Other website says to sow directly but germination will take 6-8 weeks. Do I really have to wait 6-8 weeks to see seedlings pop through? I couldn't do the vernalization due to having a tiny fridge. After soaking the seeds (they did swell and split open), I put them in coir pots with a thin layer of sand covering the seeds and covered the tray with a clear piece of plastic. They're out in a shady part of the yard. Have I done this right? I know the seeds are challenging to start but I want to know how long to keep the seeds moist with my spray bottle before giving up. Is a shady part of the yard correct? I am a novice gardener, so please hold my hand and use plain English! :)
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26F have been seeing 30M about 1x a week for almost three months with no conversations about what it is. His actions suggest that his interest level is moderate but not high, my interest level is high but that has not been expressed, though the last few times I have been the one to initiate plans. Most recently, he suggested an alternate plan to my invitation, but feeling frusterated, I never responded. Not sure what action I should take from here... am I wrong to think he will contact me again if his interest level is higher than I percieve? Or wrong to go radio silent when he has never done the same to me?
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Anthony Moore, known as Romanthony, has died at age 46. Romanthony provided legendary vocals for Daft Punk's Discovery. The album opens with his voice, and closes with it. He helped shape the sound of house music in the early nineties and his influence is still heard in electronic music today. .
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Picture here. The flowers give off a mild, sweet smell and are kinda sticky at the white, hollow ends. The shells on the left open into halves, and those halves are divided in half, so I doubt they are nutshells (unless those nuts come pre-cut into quarters). This all came from a tree with wide green leaves, here in the southeast USA. That's all I remember about it. Any ideas what tree this might be? Any help would be appreciated!
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59 marvelous photographs taken between 1903 and 1920 by Frédéric Boissonnas (1858-1946), a franco-Swiss photographer who loved Greece. This is him being hauled up to the Meteora monastery in a net. Boissonnas was also a mountaineer and was the first to scale Mt. Olympus successfully in 1913. During the first 30 years of the 20th century he became the most influential photographer in Greece, between the two World Wars. Traveling extensively, landscapes, everyday people and life in Greece were photographed in detail for the first time. Captions in English for those who do not have Google page Translate: 1. Athens, Plaka, 1920 2. Parthenon, 1908 3. Sheep under the Acropolis, 1903 4. View of the Acropolis from the thiseio, 1920 5. Street, Athens Athena, 1920 6. Athens, Ermou 1920 7. Kifissia, 1920 8. Andritsena market, 1903 9. Andritsena, interior house, 1903 10. Men in the way of Andritsainas 1903 11. Crete, smooth, 1911 12. Crete, home interior, 1911 13. Crete, the brothers Mandaka village Laki 1911 14. Crete, interior house in village of Lakki, 1911 15. The picking of the olives in Crete Prevelis, 1911 16. Crete, courtyard house, 1919 17. Meteora, Magadha, 1908 18. Meteora, climb FRED BOISSONNAS with basket, 1908 19. Zemeno Corinth family priest 1903 20. Zemeno Corinth, Fred and Daniel clink glasses with the drivers of their animals, 1903 21. Family at Zemeno Corinth, 1903 22. Zemeno Corinth, the family of the priest 1913 23. Extreme, courtyards 1903 24. Dale Arcadia, 1903 25. Athos, the Great Lavra, 1929 26. Athos monastery of Vatopedi, 1929 27. Itinerary to Mount Athos, 1928-1930 28. Itinerary to Mount Athos, 1928-1930 29. Kerkyra on super, 1903 30. Gastoyri Corfu, the source of the Empress Elizabeth, 1903 31. Celebrations in Corfu Gastoyri, 1903 32. Olympus, the "Pantheon", 1914 33. Olympus camp fodder, 1914 34. KOKKINOPOULOU, minor, 1913 35. Shepherds at the top of Parnassus, 1903 36. Amorgos, women, 1911 37. Mill on Maroneia 1911 38. Ios, the grave of Homer 1918 39. Edessa, 1908 40. Musty Kastoria, inside the mansion, 1911 41. Macedonia, winnowing, 1911 42. Macedonia, sentry outpost in 1913 43. Men and dogs in the street Ioannina Preveza, 1913 44. Delvinaki Ioannina notables 1913 45. Kavalari Zagoria, lad, 1913 46. Metsovo, 1913 47. Metsovo, on tap, 1913 48. Baya (Gardens) Zagoria woman 1913 49. Konitsa Mesogefyra, 1913 50. Mesogefyra Konitsas, villagers 1913 51. Ioannina, the lake with the castle, 1913 52. The bridge of Arta, 1913 53. Parga, 1913 54. Paramithia, butchers, 1913 55. Paramithia 1913 56. Paramithia house Riga, 1913 57. Castri Preveza Priest in war-ravaged church, 1913 58. Filiates, country, 1913 59. Filiates, country, 1913 More photographs by Fred Boissonnas in the Corbis archive | in Wikimedia Commons | in Luminous Lint | on Corfu Benitses | VM designblog Global | on FaceBook. A collection of his work to be viewed in real life can be found at the Photography Museum of Thessaloniki Not a single car in sight.
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Huge jackpot lotteries in the USA, like Powerball and Mega Millions, offer the jackpot as either an annuity for the total amount of the prize, or a lump sum for a reduced amount. It seems that the vast majority of the winners pick the lump sum over the annuity. Which to me just makes no sense at all.I'm wondering why that is. Now, I'm extremely naive when it comes to annuities and taxes and the like, but wouldn't one want a steady income for the next 26 years or so? Because especially when the jackpots get huge, you still are getting millions of dollars a year. So why not just pick the annuity and have that constant income stream?
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My laptop overheated, I took it to get cleaned, now it's having Internet connectivity issues. I think the repair place may be at fault. What do I do now?I have a Packard Bell Easynote TJ68 laptop that I purchased (in the UK) in September 2010. It's a little slow, but runs decently. I noticed that it had started to overheat in recent months, and on Friday, it got so hot it shut itself down. On Saturday, I took it to the local laptop repair place to have the dust cleaned out. I got it back, and it's not overheating - yay! But now there's another problem - the Internet connection isn't as strong and keeps dropping out. I have a wireless Internet connection and used to have full bars - now there's only one or two. My computer will connect to the Internet, but the connection crashes several times an hour, and it doesn't come back if I wait - I have to restart the computer. I've tried another router and the same issues happen. I've also checked my phone and my flatmate's laptop and their connections are fine. So I think it has to be something that was done at the repair place. I found this question which looks very relevant. But since I'm not entirely sure what happened, and this is an independent place rather than an authorized repair carried out under warranty, I don't know how to go about this. Other complication: the owner of the shop was pretty rude to me for no reason when I took my laptop in, so I really want to make sure I know what I'm doing when I walk in there so I don't just get shouted at and fall to pieces as I tend to get anxious in these sorts of situations. I'd really appreciate any advice.
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"In the past inequality in South Africa was largely defined along race lines. It has become increasingly defined by inequality within population groups as the gap between rich and poor within each group has increased substantially." Is this what's led the BBC to report a growing sense of insecurity among poor (chiefly Afrikaans-speaking) whites? Or are they just blatantly misreading the statistics? The Australian Protectionist Party last year went so far as to call for the ree-stablishment of sanctions against the South African government for the "increasing disadvantage and persecution" of Afrikaans speakers and other white minorities, not only for the color of their skin but for their language - and the perceived persecution of Afrikaans culture and language has been the cause of past violence.
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Why do I keep dreaming about my ex? YANM Psych etc.So this has now been going on for long enough that I'm asking a Mefi, not necessarily for an explanation, but simply some suggestions and perhaps recommendations of how to pursue this further. My first serious relationship lasted for 9 years, the last two of which was spent in a different country. After we broke up, there was the usual period of re-adjustment, but we remain close friends and visit one another regularly with our new respective partners. After the relationship ended, I was single for about 2 years before getting involved with someone else. My current partner and I have now been together for almost five years. Here's the thing: I continuously have dreams involving my former partner. Sometimes we are just doing stuff together, other times it's a dream where it is slowly becoming apparent to me that she is breaking up with me (which was the case in real life – she was the active agent in bringing the relationship to an end). Neither of us harbor feelings of getting back together. We understand one another on a very deep level, and that's what has enabled us to stay close friends. But we have fundamentally different views about some things, and that was what ultimately brought the relationship to an end. I'm – for lack of a better term – a Jungian in terms things like dream analysis and the subconscious. My ex-partner in question is a clinical psychologist, so I have some knowledge of psychology; I've done extensive CBT in coping with an anxiety disorder (not sure how that may factor, or if at all, but thought I'd mention it). I have for a long time been actively involved in processes of self-realisation. I know that these dreams mean something, perhaps archetypically, though it feels like I'm being hampered in discovering what in some way. The likelihood is that there may be aspects of myself I see in her that I'm unable to resolve for some reason. But it's come to the point where I'm really starting to get frustrated with trying to connect to this part of my subconscious and establishing a point of investigating this further. I'm not looking for some kind of diagnosis; I'm simply keen on hearing any feedback/recommendations (including for reading material) that you may think I might find useful. I guess I would call myself a spiritual individual (I like to refer to myself as a 'scientific mystic'). Oh, and I'm a gay girl, if that means anything (so yes, all my relationships have been with women, just to clarify).
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Mefites, can you help me come up with a quick and dirty way to download the text of all the comments and posts from a given Facebook Fan page? I'm trying to do a word cloud visualization of our Facebook presence. Thanks.
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Someone asked me this this morning, and I have no idea so I thought I would throw it out to the green.I was asked: "In every insurance application I have ever filled out, there is a question about cigarette smoking, and smokers are charged higher rates to reflect the higher rates of related health issues. How do insurance companies test for smoking? I am sure insurance companies have ways to figure out if you've lied on the application so they can find a reason to deny your claims, but what are they? Are there ways to get around the test results as there are with marijuana tests?" For the record I am not encouraging anyone to smoke, or to commit insurance fraud by lying about smoking - I am wondering about this because I have never thought of it myself before today. Thanks!
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