Questions Thread

[Webbo]

I'll go and fetch you a useless teacher from the strikes thread to explain it........

If they'd been any good at their job I wouldn't have to ask.

[Rincewind]

When I use them I just write the sentence then insert the word that looks and sounds right although doing a lot of writing I should be able to give an answer..

The pain affects his ability to walk far since the injury.

The effect of the injury was to reduce his ability to walk far.

I would say it is something like the above. Two sentences, same meaning worded different.

[Rincewind]

You know in an job interview when you inevitably get asked 'what are your weaknesses'?

Well, how do you all answer it?

Genuinely interested to hear how people interpret this!

According to QI that is one of the questions you cannot be asked.

[Webbo]

Quiz question; Name four UK race courses that don't contain the letters r,a,c,e?

[jonthefox]

Quiz question; Name four UK race courses that don't contain the letters r,a,c,e?

Ive got Plumton and windsor so far.

[jonthefox]

Got another...Goodwood.

[AoWW]

Windsor's got an 'r' in it. Huntingdon & Ludlow.

[Rincewind]

Ludlow

[Finnegan]

According to QI that is one of the questions you cannot be asked.

Narh that's not what he said. The ones you can't be asked are all the obvious equal ops ones about smoking, having children, being born in the UK, etc.

That's one you can be asked and they said to avoid saying anything like "oh, my biggest weakness is I'm just too much of a perfectionist!" or something overly gushy because it's very transparent and people see through it. Though they then went on to give an example of a good response as "I tend to get bogged down in detail, although I'm trying to improve" which I sort of took to mean largely the same thing.

[jonthefox]

Windsor's got an 'r' in it. Huntingdon & Ludlow.

I knew i wasnt giving this my full attention.

[Webbo]

Ive got Plumton

Got another...Goodwood.

Huntingdon & Ludlow.

Correct

[jonthefox]

why do cartoon characters only have four fingers?.

[Rincewind]

So some people don't mistake them for real people.

I think my answer to what is your weakness would be 'I am so modest I don't realise how great I am'

Which is partly true. I tend to underplay my strengths or do not recognize them. I don't like to boast yet sometimes you have to. I suppose they have to balance the things after the What are your sterngths? question.

[Webbo]

why do cartoon characters only have four fingers?.

Because Walt Disney wasn't much of an artist and reckoned that 5 fingers looked like a bunch of bananas.

[acooling08]

why do cartoon characters only have four fingers?.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Why+do+cartoon+characters+have+4+fingers%3F

[Alexikokopops]

I have a small emergency on my hands...

As he last part of my personal training course I have to write a twelve week plan for a fictitious client. The actual programme itself isn't a problem and is done but it's handwritten and VERY scruffy.

I have tried typing it into Microsoft Excel but it won't let me press "enter" to get a new line of text.

Like this.

So basically I just added in lots of "spaces" Like that to create new lines of text in each cell but when I print it out all my lovely centred text goes out of sync and all over the place - now I am aware of text wrapping and also have pressed the text alignment - centre.

So my question (finally) is.... How the **** do you press enter and get a new line of text in an individual cell. I have tried pressing Alt+enter but that doesn't work, is there any other settings I need to change?

(apologies for the long boring story)

Like with the parking ticket I'm far too late again, but for future reference I'm pretty sure it's Ctrl + Enter (not Alt + Enter). I use it quite regularly so should know but I think I do it on autopilot

Narh that's not what he said. The ones you can't be asked are all the obvious equal ops ones about smoking, having children, being born in the UK, etc.

That's one you can be asked and they said to avoid saying anything like "oh, my biggest weakness is I'm just too much of a perfectionist!" or something overly gushy because it's very transparent and people see through it. Though they then went on to give an example of a good response as "I tend to get bogged down in detail, although I'm trying to improve" which I sort of took to mean largely the same thing.

I said something along those lines when I was interviewed for my current job and my boss (who interviewed me) has since told me off for getting to bogged down in detail so I figured that I wasn't actually lying. I'm pretty brilliant, all told.

[Stay Positive]

How come insects have got cleverer? When I was a kid, if you drew a ring around them with a biro on a piece of blank white paper, they would become entrapped in the circle and fail to navigate their way out for ages. Nowadays they just stroll brazenly out.

[Webbo]

When foreigners come to this country from places that have a different alphabet than ours, like China or India, who decides how their name should be spelt in English?

Edited 30 December 2011 by Webbo

[jonthefox]

When foreigners come to this country from places that have a different alphabet than ours, like China or India, who decides how their name should be spelt in English?

Ive no idea, but ive always wanted to know how different languages can spell and pronounce place names differently.

For example the french call london londres,and the italians call thier capital roma,whilst we call it rome.

Surely if that what the locals call it, then thats what its called........right?.

[Alexikokopops]

When foreigners come to this country from places that have a different alphabet than ours, like China or India, who decides how their name should be spelt in English?

There are Latin alphabet versions of a lot of the different foreign alphabets (like we know the Greek version of A, B, C etc.) so a translation is done like that. However it isn't always a straight translation, so there's an element of decision by the person themselves I think. That works with things like the Greek, Cyrillic, Hindi, Tamil etc. alphabets. As for Mandarin, Japanese etc. languages (where pictures are word sounds) then I think it's a Latin version of the sound in which there's again a choice by the person (hence you have Chinese people called Chen Tao, Zheng Zhi etc.)

I actually don't know anything about it, and you were probably more asking about who makes the decision (rather than the actual process of how they come up with the name), but I just remember reading a bit about the name confusion with Murali and thought I'd contribute something.

[Alexikokopops]

Ive no idea, but ive always wanted to know how different languages can spell and pronounce place names differently.

For example the french call london londres,and the italians call thier capital roma,whilst we call it rome.

Surely if that what the locals call it, then thats what its called........right?.

My favourite one is Bayern Munich. The German name is Bayern Munchen (from the German word Bayern for Bavaria and Munchen for Munich). Somehow, with the English version, rather than translating both to Bavaria Munich, or leaving it as Bayern Munchen, we've translated half of it to create Bayern Munich.

Oh, and if you want to start calling foreign cities by their local names then good luck with Bangkok:

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit

[jonthefox]

My favourite one is Bayern Munich. The German name is Bayern Munchen (from the German word Bayern for Bavaria and Munchen for Munich). Somehow, with the English version, rather than translating both to Bavaria Munich, or leaving it as Bayern Munchen, we've translated half of it to create Bayern Munich.

Oh, and if you want to start calling foreign cities by their local names then good luck with Bangkok:

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit

Thats our starting 11 if the thais get thier way, isnt it?.

[Asha]

I've wondered why in foreign countries they would say 'Arsenal London (obviously the equivalent of 'London' in their language'), Chelsea London, Fulham London etc as the football teams, but we don't here?

Or London Arsenal, London Chelsea....etc, even

Edited 30 December 2011 by Asha

[AdamN]

When foreigners come to this country from places that have a different alphabet than ours, like China or India, who decides how their name should be spelt in English?

Try this one on for size!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_Gaddafi#Transliteration_of_his_Arabic_name

We got Muammar Gaddafi! Or was it Mou'amar Al-Khadhdhafy?

[acooling08]

How do carnivores survive by just eating protein? Take lions as an example, they don't eat any carbohydrates or vitamins so how do they sustain themselves?