Insanity

For instance, "Ehime reactor age" returns "Did you mean eheim reactor age?" and it gives NO information about Ehime.

Ehime is a nuclear reactor that just came on line in Japan, and I want to know how old it is. I don't want to know anything about "Eheim."

But it's not just this example. Almost EVERY search is wrong. Will they fix this? I notice that a LOT of people are having this problem. I know they're trying to help bad spellers, but they are really annoying everyone else.

When I was young, a person from Sweden taught me some phrases, but I think I remember incorrectly, or I'm spelling them incorrectly, because I can't find them online. Could someone help me with this? What I remember is 1. Gitalis svensk? Do you speak Swedish, and 2. Herr mor du? How are you? For the first one, I couldn't find anything with the Gih sound, though I found "talas." Could you fix my spelling, or the words themselves, if I remember incorrectly?

It was over the neighborhood loudspeaker, and it wasn't "boufuu keiho" or "harou keiho." I know heiho is alarm or warning, but I can't understand the first part of this one. I'm near the water, and it isn't stormy. Can you guess what it might be, or is there a list of common warnings somewhere? I couldn't find anything in the dictionary, but I imagine I'm mishearing it.

I read that Mitt Romney's father was born in Mexico, and that his grandparents were Americans who lived in Mexico. I know there was a group of polygamists who left Utah for Mexico when the regular Mormon church banned polygamy (maybe another group went to Canada?), but I don't know whether his grandparents were part of that group. I'm not looking for Romney bashers, by the way, but would like to understand his roots a little better. Any factual info would be appreciated.

I know we can tap solar energy to power various things, but what about radioactive waste, for example? It is emitting a form of energy. Not considering safety issues, can the energy it's generating be used to do useful work?

Let's see if I can describe this. Right now, I'm looking at two Firefox (latest version) windows with the same information, one big normal one, and one small one (1"x1 1/2"), at the bottom of the page, just above one of the two tabs (maybe they aren't called that) at the bottom of the page. If I move my mouse to be over the other tab, I will see a different small window, showing the contents of that page, while I continue to see this big one. The problem is that if I move my mouse away from both tabs, one of the small windows remains open, blocking my view. It's annoying. What can I do?

The State Department says, "The U.S. Department of State is arranging transportation to safe haven locations in Europe. This assistance will be provided on a reimbursable basis, as required by U.S. law. U.S. citizens who travel on U.S. government–arranged transport will be expected to make their own onward travel plans. We expect initial flights to go into Athens, Istanbul and Nicosia, Cyprus. " I read this to mean that they will help you leave Egypt, but for a price, and then from wherever they send you, you have to pay an additional amount to get home. I don't think this was always the case, but evidently it is now. So how much are people having to pay to get to Athens, Cyprus, or wherever?

If so, how?

What kinds of things do Japanese people usually say in those two minutes?

I have a fairly recent minimal version of Ubuntu on a very old machine. It works okay for most simple tasks. I don't know that much about Linux or Ubuntu, so rather than use a terminal and some command, I'd like a program that recognizes when I put a disk in the floppy drive, and lets me view what's there. Is there such a thing?

I do have an older computer, and this is a minimal installation of Hardy Heron, but everything else works. I thought it was a problem with Firefox, so I replaced it with Epiphany...still crashes every time. I see the website, and see a spinning circle as the video loads, and that's it...gone. Also, watching other videos on the web, like the news, is like watching a slideshow rather than a movie. What's the deal? Video card?, Driver? Wrong software? How do I proceed? Thanks.

I have an old computer that was too slow to use, so I installed a minimal installation of ubuntu from a command line interface. GDM, I think, is the window manager. Everything now works pretty well, and the computer is again usable, but when I click on Quit, I go to the Login screen again, and have to select exit again by clicking on the Options menu to shutdown the computer. Is there any way to click on quit and have the computer shut down without the intermediary step?

Ideally, I just want to turn on the computer, preferably not see all the text as it starts up, just see the login screen, then go to xfce. When I shut down, I just want the computer to shut off. I'm the only person using the computer, by the way. Any ideas?

I know almost nothing about Linux, but I installed a minimal installation of Ubuntu, and I've been trying to find a way to get my printer working. I messed up somehow, and after a download (gutenprint) and cleanup that happened while running an "aptitude" session, I now have no menu for printing at all. I mean, before, I right-clicked the desktop, selected system, then "printing," and then had a window where I could install a new printer. Now, I still have "System," but no link to "Printing." Something I needed was removed, it seems. How do I fix this?

One other question, in case you know... How do I install a downloaded DEB package on my desktop? I can extract it and look inside the package, but I want it to be installed (It's a gutenprint package with driver for my printer...I hope). Thanks.

I really know no chemistry, but fluorine gas is dangerous, and too much fluoride is dangerous. How about fluorite as a crystal? Are there any conditions under which it could be dangerous? In water? In fire?

There are now a number of websites around that post either movies or links to movies. Some of the links are to new movies, which I would imagine is illegal, at least in the USA. What motivates people to do this? Do they get paid in some way, is it a political statement, or what?

So...I just got a new Asus computer, a tiny 700 series wireless notebook. I know zilch about protecting my computer when traveling, but installed Avast for antivirus protection. Whatever I do, it has to be a small program, as the Asus doesn't have a lot of free memory. I installed Firefox and Open Office and Avast. It still runs..not quickly, but it runs. Maybe I already have some security running...WEP or something, but I don't know how to find out if I do or I don't. How can I check, and what else should I do?

Estimates I've seen show the Iraq war costing almost 700 billion up to the end of 2008, we had a 700 billion dollar bailout to help liquidity, and it looks like the stimulus packages to support the economic system will cost hundreds of billions as well. Some of the war has come out of the defense budget, but I think a lot has been postponed for the future. The bailout is supposedly an "investment," with proceeds to be paid to the American people after they are sold for a higher price, but in a recession, a higher price seems unlikely. The stimulus packages? I have no idea.

So...we know we'll pay for it, but how will this come out of our pockets? In inflation, in income taxes, in sales taxes? What's your take on this?

I know you can offset it with a capital loss, but if someone spent enough improving rental property to cause a loss on the property for the year, would that also offset it? If this is possible, what other things might be kinds of "beneficial" capital losses? Thanks

They are listed in Yahoo quotes as different symbols at different prices, but the news for one shows up under the other symbol. Could anybody explain this? Thanks