RKMBs Forums .::Important::. off topic and offensive posts The Revenge of Frank Burns.

MISCONCEPTION #5: PLASMA TVS ARE ENGINEERED TO HAVE
THE BEST POSSIBLE PICTURES RIGHT OUT OF THEIR BOXES.

Few people realize that some consumer electronics manufacturers ship their TVs "hot" -- that is, preset to compensate for higher-than-average ambient light levels, like the ones found in most electronics superstores. Most homes are nothing like these harshly-lit retail bazaars, so it is a good idea to take a look at the various PICTURE/CONTRAST settings already built in to your TV and identify the right one for your home, i.e., the one that looks best to you. Reduce contrast until the picture seems a little too dark, then give it some time to get used to it and you will be much happier with the image over time.

You might also try your hand at calibrating the picture yourself, using any one of a number of user-friendly video test discs. See our article on calibrating an HDTV here. A properly calibrated picture will yield more natural coloration and deeper black levels.

MISCONCEPTION #6: PLASMA TVS ARE DIFFICULT TO INSTALL.


The country's love affair with sexy-sleek TVs began with Philips's 2002 "It's Getting Better All the Time" ad campaign, which featured conspicuously wall-hung plasma TVs. Since then, Americans have had it in their minds that plasma displays need to be installed -- either by professionals or intrepid do-it yourselfers. Nothing could be further from the truth. While you can certainly mount your plasma on just about any wall in your house, it is equally as easy not to install your TV at all. No technician necessary. Simply attach your new display to a tabletop stand and place it wherever you want. Even mounting your plasma TV on the living-room wall has gotten easier, with a growing number of consumers opting to go it alone and hang their plasmas themselves. From our statistics gathering, we are finding that between 50 and 60% of plasma display owners choose to install a wall mounted applied plasma TV themselves.

MISCONCEPTION #7: PLASMA TVS GIVE OFF A LOT OF RADIATION.

This rumor just might be the most outlandish of the bunch, especially considering the fact that the monitor you're reading this on -- assuming it is a CRT -- gives off considerably more radiation than a plasma display ever could. While plasma monitors do generate a tiny amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, it is essentially negligible because this radiation extends no more than an inch outward from the screen. Because individual pixels are illuminated, the radiation is "contained" to the pixels themselves. This is not the case with tube-based TVs, which utilize an electron gun that shoots radiated light toward the screen in order to illuminate phosphors thereon. This projects small amounts of radiation sometimes more than 12" outward from the screen. Not to worry: Both plasmas and CRTs comply with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines for TV radiation emissions, which have been in place since 1969.

MISCONCEPTION #8: PLASMA TVS ARE PLAGUED BY PROBLEMS WITH BURN-IN.
Burn-in, or image retention, is the result of a damaged pixel, whose phosphors have been prematurely aged and therefore glow less intensely than those of surrounding pixels. The reason is that the damaged pixel has developed a "memory" of the color information that was repeatedly fed to it, causing it to glow in a static manner for a sustained period of time. This phosphor color information can actually become seared or etched into the plasma-screen glass, and in some rare cases it can become permanent. Once these phosphors are damaged, they cannot produce the same levels of light output as the other phosphors around them do. But pixels do not suffer burn-in singly. Burn-in occurs in the shape of a static image that linger on TV screens -- things like network logos, computer icons, Internet browser frames, etc.

MISCONCEPTION #9: PLASMA TVS ARE EXCESSIVELY FRAGILE THINGS.

Fragile, yes - as two sheets of glass are compressed together to form the plasma display element. While they must be handled with care, the main consideration is keeping them upright. The plasma glass is weighty and can crack if a plasma television when laying face down is jarred or dropped. Aside from that there is nothing really to be concerned about that you would not ordinarily consider.

Bill's Box

Bill and Hillary were married 30 years. When they first got married Bill said, "I am putting a box under the bed. You must promise never to look in it."

In all their 30 years of marriage Hillary never looked.

However, on the afternoon of their 30th anniversary curiosity got the best of her and she lifted the lid and peeked inside. In the box were 3 empty beer cans and $1874.25 in cash. She closed the box and put it back under the bed. Now that she knew what was in the box, she was doubly curious as to why.

That evening they were out for a special dinner. After dinner Hillary could no longer contain her curiosity and she confessed, saying, "I am so sorry. For all these years I kept my promise and never looked into the box under our bed. However today the temptation was too much and I gave in. But now I need to know why do you keep the empty cans in the box?"

Bill thought for a while and said, "I guess after all these years you deserve to know the truth. Whenever I was unfaithful to you I put an empty beer can in the box under the bed to remind myself not to do it again."

Hillary was shocked, but said, "I am very disappointed and saddened but I guess after all those years away from home on the road, temptation does happen and I guess that 3 times is not that bad considering the years." They hugged and made their peace.

A little while later Hillary asked Bill, "Why do you have all that money in the box?"

Bill answered, "Whenever the box filled with empties, I cashed them in."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1869320,00.html

For most of us, New Year's is a day for resolutions. But for Fidel Castro, it marked the culmination of a long-awaited revolution. Fifty years ago on Jan. 1, Castro's Communist revolution swept aside the hated Batista regime. The change was bad news for the U.S.; Castro's regime (and American attempts to eliminated it) prompted the Bay of Pigs debacle, closed off a beautiful country with a vibrant music culture, and — possibly worst of all — triggered a 46-year-old trade embargo that has deprived Americans of Cuba's most prized export: its vaunted cigars.

Though Cuban cigars are perhaps the world's most revered, the stogie probably didn't originate on the island. Cigar smoking first took hold elsewhere in the Americas—exactly where and when remains uncertain. A ceramic pot discovered in Guatemala that dates at least as far back as the 10th century depicts a Mayan puffing on tobacco leaves bound up with string. (The Mayans may also have handed down the object's name: their term for smoking, sikar, likely led to the Spanish cigarro, from which the cigar takes its name.) When Columbus stumbled upon the Americas in 1492, he also discovered tobacco; the New World's natives smoked cylindrical bundles of twisted tobacco leaves wrapped in dried palm or corn husks.

Cuba's fertile land and favorable climate allowed all three types of tobacco leaves used in a cigar — the wrapper, filler and binder — to be harvested on the island, and sailing ships were soon distributing Cuban tobacco from Europe to Asia. Columbus had claimed Cuba for Spain, and the Spanish soon cornered the nascent industry, mandating in the 17th century that all tobacco for export be registered in Seville; they later tightened their stranglehold on the market by forbidding Cuban growers to sell the crop to anyone but them — a monopoly that persisted until 1817.

By then, cigars were exploding in popularity around the world. The U.S. consumed some 300 million cigars by the mid-19th century, and many Cuban cigar-makers migrated to nearby Florida, where Tampa became known as "Cigar City" by the early 20th century. "If I cannot smoke in heaven, then I shall not go," Mark Twain declared. Though the boom was partly lit by the cigar's affordability, they soon become a must-have accessory for debonair gentlemen — men like King Edward VII, who, upon assuming the British throne in 1901, famously announced a break with the smoke-free policies of his mother Queen Victoria by uttering the words: "Gentlemen, you may smoke." Ulysses S. Grant's cigar habit proved his undoing, saddling him with the throat cancer that killed him. And Freud was a chimney: Patients on his couch had to endure not only running commentary about their suppressed Oedipal complexes but the acrid stench from his 20-a-day cigar habit (which ultimately killed him too).

Despite the obvious health risks, cigars remain a fixture of pop culture. An episode of Seinfeld centered around a box of Cubans, while the stogie's famous champions include Michael Jordan, Rush Limbaugh and Lil' Wayne. Politicians dabble too — Arnold Schwarzenegger is a noted fan — although puffing on a Cuban can leave an eggy residue on a pol's face. A year after Tom DeLay thundered that "American consumers will get their fine cigars and their cheap sugar, but at the cost of our national honor," a photo emerged of the former House majority leader sucking on a Hoyo de Monterrey. Washington was also the site of the cigar's most infamous moment: its use as a sexual prop by former President Bill Clinton during a tryst with Monica Lewinsky.

Yet Washington is where cigar-lovers looking to enjoy a smooth Cohiba or Romeo y Julieta — without skirting the law — can look for hope. President-elect Barack Obama has indicated a willingness to discuss with Raul Castro the repeal of bans on Cuban-American travel and remittances—gestures that could ultimately lead to scrapping the trade embargo. For aficionados, that would be a welcome tonic for the grim times ahead. As Evelyn Waugh said, "The most futile and disastrous day seems well spent when it is reviewed through the blue, fragrant smoke of a Havana cigar."

http://www.ehow.com/how_7612696_identify-types-cigars.html

How to Identify Types of Cigars

Cigars come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and styles.
Cigars are made from tightly rolled tobacco leaves. They vary in quality, size, shape, country of origin and type. There are countless varieties of cigars but they can be grouped into categories based on their shapes, seals, lengths and ring sizes. Each type of cigar smokes and tastes differently, so being able to identify types helps you pick the perfect cigar for you. Use a cigar reference guide to help you compare your cigar with others.

How to Identify Types of Cigars

Determine the shape of the cigar. Evaluate if the cigar has rounded or blunt tips, a torpedo or barrel shape and if the cigar is the same on both ends. Use a chart such as Cigar Choice Guide's "Cigar Types" to help you.

How to Identify Types of Cigars

Measure the length of the cigar. This will help you to narrow in further on the cigar type. Cigars typically range from 4 to 8 inches. Once you've measured the cigar, compare your findings with a reference guide, such as Cigar Info Guide's "Cigar Shapes And Cigar Ring Size Made Easy."

How to Identify Types of Cigars

Measure the diameter of the cigar by wrapping the tape around the thickest part of the cigar. Ring size is measured in 64th's of an inch, so determine ring size by multiplying the cigar's diameter by 64. For example, if the cigar diameter is 3/4-inch, its ring size is 48. Compare your ring size findings with those in your reference guide.

Two friends were playing golf when one pulled out a cigar but he did not have a lighter so he asked his friend if he had one.
“I sure do,” he replied and reached into his golf bag and pulled out a 12 inch Bic lighter.
“Wow!” said his friend, “Where did you get that monster?”
“I got it from my genie.”
“You have a genie?” he asked. “Yes, he is right here in my golf bag.”
“Could I see him?”
He opened his golf bag and out popped the genie. The friend turned to the genie and said,
“I am a good friend of your master. Will you grant me one wish?”
“Yes I will,” the genie said.
“I wish for a million bucks!”
The genie hopped back into the golf bag and left him standing there waiting for his wish to be delivered.
Suddenly the sky began to darken and the sound of a million ducks flying overhead was heard.
The friend turned to his golfing partner, “I asked for a million bucks not ducks!”
“I forgot to tell you the genie is hard of hearing. Do you really think I asked him for a 12 inch Bic?”

A guy traveling through the prairies of the USA stopped at a small town and went to a bar. He stood at the end of the bar, ordered a drink, and lit up a cigar.
As he sipped his drink, he stood there quietly blowing smoke rings.
After he blew nine or ten smoke rings into the air, an angry American Indian stomped up to him and said, “One more remark like that and I’ll smash your face in!”

A man and a blonde who just met are having sex, when they finish the man rolls over to grab a cigar from the nightstand drawer. Before he grabs one he figures that it would be rude to start smoking without offering to the woman as well. So he rolls back over before lighting up and asks, “Do you smoke after sex?” “I don’t know,” says the woman with a worried look on her face, “I’ve never checked.”
Comment by Kirk on May 13, 2009 @ 8:49 am

Reasons Why Cigars Are Better Than Sex

• You can GET cigars.

• You can safely have cigars while you are driving.

• You can make cigars last as long as you want them to.

• You can have cigars even in front of your mother.

• Two people of the same sex can have cigars without being called nasty names.
• The word “commitment” doesn’t scare off cigars.

• You can have cigars on top of your workbench/desk during working hours without upsetting your co-workers.

• You can ask a stranger for a cigar without getting your face slapped.

• You don’t get hairs in your mouth with cigars.

• With cigars there’s no need to fake it.

• Cigars don’t make you pregnant.

• You can have cigars at any time of the month.

• Good cigars are easy to find.

• You can have as many kinds of cigars as you can handle.

A man walks into a dimly lit bar and the bartender asks him “Why is the front of your shirt all bloody”
His customer answers in a slurred voice “My wife caught me with another woman and cut off my penis.”
“Oh come on” replies the bartender.
The customer then says “If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you.”
He proceeds to rifle through his suitcase and pulls out this long thin thing and lays it on the bar.
The bartender bends down and looks closely and says “Why this is just a cigar”.
The customer looks puzzled and says “I have it here somewhere” and proceeds to fumble through his other pockets and comes up with another long thin thing and placing it on the bar, and says “See that”.
The bartender again inspects it closely and says “You asshole that’s just another cigar.”
Now the customer staggers backward and steadies himself, leaning on the bar and with awareness in his shaky voice says “Son of a bitch, I must have smoked it!”

A guy traveling through the prairies of the USA stopped at a small town and went to a bar. He stood at the end of the bar, ordered a drink, and lit up a cigar.
As he sipped his drink, he stood there quietly blowing smoke rings.
After he blew nine or ten smoke rings into the air, an angry American Indian stomped up to him and said, “One more remark like that and I’ll smash your face in!”

Hurricanes are giant, spiraling tropical storms that can pack wind speeds of over 160 miles (257 kilometers) an hour and unleash more than 2.4 trillion gallons (9 trillion liters) of rain a day. These same tropical storms are known as cyclones in the northern Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, and as typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean.

The Atlantic Ocean’s hurricane season peaks from mid-August to late October and averages five to six hurricanes per year.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/hurricane-profile/

Hurricanes begin as tropical disturbances in warm ocean waters with surface temperatures of at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.5 degrees Celsius). These low pressure systems are fed by energy from the warm seas. If a storm achieves wind speeds of 38 miles (61 kilometers) an hour, it becomes known as a tropical depression. A tropical depression becomes a tropical storm, and is given a name, when its sustained wind speeds top 39 miles (63 kilometers) an hour. When a storm’s sustained wind speeds reach 74 miles (119 kilometers) an hour it becomes a hurricane and earns a category rating of 1 to 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Hurricanes are enormous heat engines that generate energy on a staggering scale. They draw heat from warm, moist ocean air and release it through condensation of water vapor in thunderstorms.

Hurricanes spin around a low-pressure center known as the “eye.” Sinking air makes this 20- to 30-mile-wide (32- to 48-kilometer-wide) area notoriously calm. But the eye is surrounded by a circular “eye wall” that hosts the storm’s strongest winds and rain.

These storms bring destruction ashore in many different ways. When a hurricane makes landfall it often produces a devastating storm surge that can reach 20 feet (6 meters) high and extend nearly 100 miles (161 kilometers). Ninety percent of all hurricane deaths result from storm surges.

A hurricane’s high winds are also destructive and may spawn tornadoes. Torrential rains cause further damage by spawning floods and landslides, which may occur many miles inland.

The best defense against a hurricane is an accurate forecast that gives people time to get out of its way. The National Hurricane Center issues hurricane watches for storms that may endanger communities, and hurricane warnings for storms that will make landfall within 24 hours.

http://www.todayshomeowner.com/top-10-hurricane-myths-debunked/


Only coastal areas are at risk from hurricanes.
While the drama of a hurricane crashing into a coastal area makes compelling front page news, the effects are felt far inland. In fact, strong winds, heavy rain, tornadoes, and inland flooding can spread hundreds of miles from the coast, leaving extensive damage and death in their wake. Estimates by the National Hurricane Center of the effects of Tropical Storm Allison on the city of Houston, far removed from where the storm made landfall, is estimated at $4.8 billion

A storm surge is the deadliest part of a hurricane.
A storm surge is a wall of water pushed ashore as the center of a hurricane moves on land. While a storm surge can be deadly, more people die from inland flooding and flash floods of rivers and streams because they underestimate the power of moving water.

The upper floors of an apartment or condominium are a safe place to ride out a storm.
This is called “vertical evacuation,” and it’s a bad idea. Wind speed increases the higher you go, which can blow out window and rip off siding. Plus, rising water could cause structural damage to the lower levels. If that’s not enough, high winds and rising water make rescue nearly impossible.

A powerful hurricane will wipe out my house so why bother preparing?

Yes, there is always the possibility of losing it all in a major storm, but you should still take precautions to minimize damage as much as possible by boarding up windows, removing debris that can be potential projectiles, and trimming dead or dying limbs from trees around your home. These simple actions could mean the difference between a repairable house and a total loss.

Since I have homeowner’s insurance, I don’t need to worry.

Most homeowner’s insurance has a high deductible for hurricane damage and does NOT cover flooding. Check your coverage well before hurricane season begins then supplement it with additional flood insurance if you’re in a flood prone area. A good reference and supplemental coverage program is the National Flood Insurance Program administered by the federal government.

Before a storm, fill bathtubs and sinks to use as drinking water.

While water stored in a bathtub can be used for washing clothes, bathing, or flushing toilets, it’s not considered sanitary enough for drinking. Use bottled water instead.

A mobile home that has ties downs is a safe place to ride out a storm.

Whether a mobile home is tied down or not, it is NEVER a safe place to ride out a hurricane. The general rule is that if a mandatory evacuation is ordered, ALL mobile home residents should head for a shelter.

You should crack the windows during a hurricane or tornado.

A common belief is that opening a window will equalize the pressure and keep your house from exploding during a storm, but studies show that the best way to keep your home safe is to keep the wind out. While no house is airtight, boarding and shuttering up windows and doors is the best protection during a hurricane, especially from flying debris.

Taping up windows will prevent them from breaking.

Tape does little to protect your windows from being destroyed by flying debris, and if they don’t break, the tape will have to be scraped off after the storm. The best protection is to cover the windows with 5/8” plywood or special hurricane shutters.

It will never happen here.

While the path of a hurricane can be hard to predict, nowhere on the Gulf or East Coast is immune as this map from the National Hurricane center illustrates. The best way to protect your life and property is to plan ahead BEFORE a storm forms then heed the warnings and advice of your local emergency management agency. And don’t forget, even if you live inland, it CAN happen to you, too.