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[MrRoboto75]

i learned how figs grow. they are not really fruits but inverted flowers, and pollinated by fig wasps. but because the opening of a fig flower is so narrow the wasp will have their antennae and wings ripped off as they enter the flower. if they enter a female flower, the wasp can no longer leave and just sits alone to die. then the fig consumes the wasp and digests it either wholly or partially, then the fig is snipped off and sent to be eaten by humans.


...HOW MANY WASPS HAVE I EATEN?

We have fig trees in the backyard.  They seem to produce perfectly fine figs without any wasps involved (I'm saying this as figs aren't native to VA, I think).

Although I don't remember the figs ever flowering per se.

[Caz]

We have fig trees in the backyard.  They seem to produce perfectly fine figs without any wasps involved (I'm saying this as figs aren't native to VA, I think).

Although I don't remember the figs ever flowering per se.

the figs are the flowers. i wouldn't be surprised if there were varieties that ripen without pollination though.

[Maximum Spin]

Several varieties are parthenogenic, meaning they do not require pollinators to ripen. This is particularly true of ornamental varieties.

Most varieties are not, including many commercially grown varieties.

It is therefore impossible to tell how many wasps you have eaten.

This is a topic of personal importance to me because I once got to spend weeks arguing this with someone who refused to believe it.

[Tack]

“Figs eat wasps and so do you” is something you’d see on the cover of a sick sad world magazine though.

In other news, I was texting at the table and my friend asks me “are you left handed?” I waved my fork in my other hand and replied ‘my right is for eating, so it picks up the slack’ but he still seemed flabbergasted.
Is being ambitexterous (ha) that rare?

[wierd]

If you cannot write with your left hand, you are not truly ambidextrous.

[IcyTea31]

...HOW MANY WASPS HAVE I EATEN?

You'd be surprised by how many products have insect parts in them, not just figs. Still, insect meat is generally just as edible as vertebrate meat.

[Kagus]

...HOW MANY WASPS HAVE I EATEN?

You'd be surprised by how many products have insect parts in them, not just figs. Still, insect meat is generally just as edible as vertebrate meat.

How can you tell if your rice is infested with rice weevils? The rice looks whiter than it should. I mean, fuck.

It's just one of those things you should try and wrap your head around... we're going to be eating bugs one way or another, best if we're comfortable with the idea.

My mom's somewhat ambidextrous, particularly thanks to a period working on a cruise line when she pinched a nerve and couldn't use her right hand for anything.

The crew being mostly Chinese, that meant she could either learn to eat rice with chopsticks in her left hand, or learn to survive without food. Motivation is all it takes, really.

[Tack]

I think weird is right in that someone is just born ambidextrous and can’t be picked up, much like an ambidextrous person whose skills with their left hand were to degrade from a lack of usage still wouldn’t make them right handed.

But I was talking about a similar situation to your mother. People assumedly learn to be vaguely confident with their off-hands in repetitive tasks right?

[Kagus]

People assumedly learn to be vaguely confident with their off-hands in repetitive tasks right?

repetitive tasks hurr hurr hurr...

But yeah. It can be trained to do stuff, we just start off with a predisposition towards one or the other generally. Just as you can train your pecs to dance, you can train your off-hand to write, flip coins, and even turn on/off light switches on the first try. Just a matter of practice.

The reason your main hand is so good at everything, including specific tasks it's never attempted before, is because it's usually the only one you gave an education to.

[CABL]

I'm an extremely weird left-handed person: I once had scissors for left-handed people, which I literally couldn't use, because it felt super weird and counterintuitive to me. I also game using WASD and a mouse in right hand, and I don't really like using arrow keys. Overall, I use my left hand for jobs that require accuracy and steady hand (handwriting, for example), and right hand for... everything else, or when I need to work with two hands.

[Kagus]

I remember a guy doing beginner guitar classes at school, and he was... Well, he apparently felt better playing left-handed, which is fine enough in and of itself... Except he wanted to play a right-handed guitar. With his left hand.

This would effectively mean he'd need to learn all the chords backwards. Among other things.

[Yoink]

Apparently I was ambidextrous, until I crippled the shit out of my left arm at age six.

[Kagus]

So, Rammstein is having a show in Oslo on August 18th next year. People associated with the band are saying that this is the biggest show they've done yet, which for Rammstein is saying quite a bit.

I thought it might be fun to go, but was a little bit uncertain with regards to price, and also the concept of signing myself up for something that I may really just not want to go and do when the time comes... But eh, I figured I had a little time to think it over before the tickets would get too scarce.

Ticket sales opened at 10 AM yesterday. 25 hours later, they're officially sold out, and are now implementing a waiting list in case of cancellations. I probably should've known better.

EDIT: I'm also mildly leery about just giving my email, name, and phone number to Ticketmaster so that they can definitely not sell it to someone and will absolutely only use it to actually notify me of available tickets should someone cancel. And also this definitely isn't a hype scam they're using to artificially drive demand up or anything.

Being a cynic is rough sometimes.

EDIT2: Checking on things, I was wrong. Ticket sales opened at 10 AM today. They managed to sell out an entire stadium for a concert almost a year ahead of time in just over one hour. Hmm.

[scriver]

plastic in the washer machine, that's just fine

Ok so the other ones I get, but this one, what?

[Kagus]

So it looks like Ticketmaster set up a "ticket line" available from somewhere around 5 AM, so people could line up to reserve and purchase tickets. Lots of people did this.

Except that, come 10 AM, the line simply gets dumped... Or rather, everyone waiting in line still receives the message that they've got a spot in line, and not to refresh the page or log in via a different page (or else they'll potentially lose their slot)... But they never get redirected to the actual ticket sales once they came online.

People were lined up several hours ahead of time, only for the program to simply not respond to anything until well after the tickets were all sold out (which is now looking to be closer to the twenty-thirty minute mark, rather than sixty+). Whereas those who hadn't waited in line could simply login at 10 AM sharp and buy a ticket. While people were in line ahead of them, purportedly waiting to buy tickets of their own.


And now, a few hours later, scalper sites are offering tickets for $1000 and up. Fuck this Ticketmaster bullshit. Rammstein make good music videos, I'll just catch some of those once this debacle is over with...