Longhornmaniac8

Best office in the world.

Well that's going to make for some good meme fodder.

Agreed. They also have some damn good craft cocktails. Certainly not in the same league as Texas BBQ, but it was enjoyable for sure.

A guy citing Spencer/Christy's work as the end-all, be-all of temperature records and criticizing others for making adjustments is just laughably hilarious. And then citing an article by Bjorn fucking Lomborg as an accurate authority on, well, anything. I should say he's great at being a contrarian. And then citing one single response to one of the 10 peer-reviewed papers that find >90% consensus among climate scientists as if it refutes it. It's really funny when people like @Thetexashammer pretend they know what they're talking about because they've done a little internet sleuthing. He's so stupid he doesn't even know what he doesn't know. The cognitive dissonance is astounding.

FIFY

I see she committed to Arizona.

Tuscany in January was amazing. All the beauty, no crowds. Temperatures were in the low-mid 50s, which is a perfect walking-around temperature with a jacket. Not a cloud in the sky the 5 days I was there.

Well?

I do. I've got it on right next to this game.

Lol at them misspelling Pat McAfee's name. Good start to the season, ESPN.

oobe?

Ha, I was there, too, in the third world Terminal E, when that storm came through. There's nothing you can do; they own your ass. Just apply some lube before you leave.

My favorite time was when I went to Popeye's drive through and we didn't move for 20 minutes. Then I went inside to find out they were out of chicken. A chicken restaurant...was out of chicken. Simply stunning.

I'll say it. I don't care who's playing, I'm happy to have college football back.

Nice! Something you might not think about, but the plane will feel more nimble/agile without your instructor in there. I've seen students have a tendency to pull a little too hard on the flare because they're not used to the lighter weight. Have fun! Be nervous, that's totally fine! Take a second to compose yourself before you call for taxi. It's a fun, exhilarating experience, and something comparatively few people get to say they've ever done.

Did you like the movie Eurotrip? If so, MUFC is the only real choice. If not, you suck.

McDonald's biscuits have turned into such a letdown ever since they went to all day breakfast. They used to be so good, and now they're just chewy balls of disappointment.

One of my friends used to instruct there and knew her. Sad stuff.

That's true. Both are right around the corner from my house. Honestly, it's a testament to Noble Pig that they survived that original location; it's just awful.

The internet is a better place having you policing it. Thanks. Especially when it comes to mega-threads that people don't have the time, nor the patience, to read.

Anyone been? Just finishing up here. Slams and goes really hard. Definitely belongs in the upper echelon of Austin BBQ places. It's owned by the same people that own Noble Sandwich Co, and is in the same location at 620 and Lake Creek as the original Noble Pig. The moist brisket is fantastic, as is the turkey (brined in a hefeweizen brine) and the jalapeño popper sausage (and I'm not normally a sausage guy). They're open Wed-Sunday, and as of 1:45 today (Sunday), I think I heard them say they're on their last brisket. No line.

Disappointed to see so much Trinity talk, but almost no Southwestern talk. It's everything Trinity is in a smaller, (slightly) cheaper package. I loved my time there.

Photos are all about using the light to the best of your ability. As the triangle above shows, you basically have three things at your disposal. Aperture: How much your lens is open. F-stops are a fraction, so an F-Stop of 3.5 is really 1/3.5. Put a different way, the bigger the number, the smaller the opening on the lens. Your aperture is how you control depth-of-field. You pay a light "tax" to stretch your depth-of-field. Play around with the manual mode on your camera to see how it all works. At a given setting, closing the aperture (increasing the F-stop) will bring more of the background into focus, but you'll see the image getting darker as you do it. Shutter Speed: This one is more self-explanatory. Your camera lets light in on the sensor for however much time the shutter is open. The darker it is, the longer the shutter has to be open to let enough light in to compose the same picture vis-a-vis a brighter environment. Like the aperture, you pay a "tax," this time in the form of blur, to keep the shutter open longer. Artistically, this may be a desirable effect. You can dial back the shutter speed to show motion of an object. A great example and easy way to test this would be with some sort of waterfall or flowing water. Take a photo with a really fast shutter speed and the water will appear to be frozen. Start lowering the shutter speed and the water will have moved a noticeable amount in the time the shutter is open, thereby creating motion blur. ISO: This is your only way to "create" artificial light. As with everything, there's a "tax" you pay. ISO essentially brightens the pixels, making the entire image brighter. But it does this indiscriminately, so past a certain point, pixels you don't want brightened (such as a dark sky etc...) will also get brightened. So, how do you use each of these? Well, let's say you're taking a photo of someone in the shade, with a sunny background. You want both to be in focus. This isn't necessarily the easiest shot to compose and make it look natural, but here's a couple of thoughts: Firstly, if you want both the foreground and background to be in focus, that instantly clues you in that you need a large f-stop (small aperture). Just how small is largely dependent on your camera and how much light you do have available. So now you've got your depth-of-field taken care of, but you've reduced your amount of available light, and in a shady foreground, you've got a problem. The sunny background can handle a narrowing aperture since it has ample light available. So we need more light in the foreground, and our only* options are ISO or shutter speed. Depending on what you're shooting, you might be able to reduce the shutter speed to get more light on the foreground subject, and/or increase the ISO. Either would put "light" on your foreground subject, but it's going to do the same to the well-lit background, resulting in an overexposed, potentially washed-out background. *So what do we do? Well, most cameras will have a flash. This is a perfect time to use it. A flash will dramatically increase light close to the camera, while doing nothing for the distant background. In doing so, you've effectively "balanced" the light situation. You're at a light deficit in the foreground until you use the flash, which won't affect the already well-lit background. Depending on the camera, you can change the power of the flash to get the right amount of light.

Fair enough. It was really meant to be the "'royal' y"all" anyway. People that wouldn't know good science from bad if it kicked them in the ass. Speaking of terrific scientific minds, I'm still waiting for @mop to dazzle us with updates to his predictions from a few years about about sea ice extent.

I'm going to disagree with this in part. The premise is there, but there are a couple of things to consider going forward: -If two airlines in the same alliance, you don't have to worry. Someone is responsible and they will work together to get you there. -Even if they're not, and they're bought using separate tickets, almost every airline has what's called a "flat tire rule," which would certainly be applicable for situations like this. It would take something truly extraordinary for them to make you buy a new ticket. Where are you going, @conVINCEd? And when?