Random Questions Thread

I was gonna say. Does that weight include the containers or is it just raw booze? Looking up historical moonshine prices...well, that's all your show, KSPAM.

Freight would be computed on the total weight, including the containers. A new, empty oak barrel (the size — 52 gallons— and the container) weighs about 110 pounds, and holds about 400 pounds of wine, as a starting point.

On the other hand an empty whiskey bottle that holds a fifth (or 750 mL), the standard "whiskey bottle" and the most likely size to ship, weighs about 40 ounces, or 2.5 pounds. this means a gallon of whiskey in fifth bottles will weigh 8 pounds roughly for the whiskey and 12.5 pounds for the bottles or just over 20 pounds/gallon.

edited 15th Aug '14 10:44:26 PM by Madrugada

Can someone give me a scientific reason for silver toxicity in werewolves?

Silver is just poisonous period.

I mean like, abnormally poisonous though. As in, a silver bullet or a silver dagger having the same reaction as someone with bad allergies going into anaphylactic shock after a bee sting.

It could be toxic to some of their cellular processes, though exactly how I'm not sure. Silver's reasonably reactive.

What would it be like to become conscious after a particularly strong punch to the head?

You feel extremely nauseous, and often you throw up. Then there is dizziness, and a really bad headache.

If an integalactic Precursor race interfered with the evolution of humans 100,000 years previously, and they were trying to cover up their presence on Earth, what kind of dead giveaway things would they need to "hide" so to speak from modern archaeologists/biologists/anthropologists, etc?

Conversely, what evidence would be left behind if they decided to just pack up and leave after setting in motion everything?

Best evidence would be garbage.

Candy wrappers and empty soda bottles and other such things left by precursor scientists.

Might sound ridiculous but if you've ever read Roadside Picnic you'll know what's up

edited 18th Aug '14 4:35:51 PM by LeGarcon

I'm not clear what you're asking. Do you mean evidence that they interfered with human evolution? That depends on what you mean by "interfered". If they engaged in some advanced genetic engineering, then there might be some sign of this in human DNA. If all they did was engage in some ordinary breeding, I'm not sure that there would be any evidence of that which we would have the technology to detect. I cant think offhand of any simple difference between domesticated and wild species that could still be detected hundreds of generations later, but I'm not a bio-scientist.

If you meant evidence that aliens had visited the Earth, then what Le Garcon said. Of course, an alien skeleton would be a dead giveaway.

Would the mafia of the 1920s and 1930s have condoned rape or treated it as being another daily occurrence in the criminal underworld, or would they have seen it as distasteful or even worthy of retribution?

The Italian Mafia (both the American and Italian varieties) tended to be rather socially conservative, and gave more than lip service to their Catholicism (and in the US case, patriotism). Above all, they base their power on the support of the general population, which came from a combination of coercion but also being able to provide social services that were unavailable (to immigrants in the US, peasants in Italy) otherwise.

So I dont have any direct historical data, but my guess is a big NO.

That's what I thought, but I wanted to be certain. I mean, Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters is largely exaggerated in how whitewashed it can sometimes make organized crime out to be, but it has to have a basis somewhere, and, well...

edited 19th Aug '14 6:15:10 PM by KSPAM

I would be a bit more of a cynic and say that it depends in part on who the victim is and who the perpetrator is. An outsider messing with the daughter of a Mob Boss or mafia member is probably going to elicit some violent restitution/retribution, either personally by a Papa Wolf or a delegate thereof. A mafia insider messing with someone who isn't so connected is more likely to be sat down and told "That's not right," with perhaps a beating to make the message stick. Again, it probably depends on who that person is in the organization: a low level thug will be more likely to get a beating in a alley, whereas the son of the head of the mafia family is most probably going to be taken to his father, who will probably be doing the berating and possibly beating personally.

I'd say it depends on the head of the family, and previous heads of the family, to determine how exactly it operates, but it is certainly believable that the mafia could have it as a 'thing we will not do' and 'thing we will not allow happen in our domain', both at an individual and "corporate" level.

Also, a quick question of my own: do you think it would be confusing if the main hero and main villain have variants of the same name. Specifically, the hero would use a diminutive, but the villain, who is not known by the characters is referred by his full/formal name.(E.g. Bob vs Bobby or Robert, Sam vs Samuel, Kitty vs. Cathrine etc.)

edited 19th Aug '14 11:57:57 PM by Sharur

Yes, I would find that confusing.

As long as you are capable of explaining it properly I wouldn't see a problem with it.

Okey, question: I have a character who failed miserably in a bravery test because he stopped midway and over thought it. Because of the disappointment he got from his home and the teasing from his friends, he started to take on everything straight on, and rushing through it without looking back.

What would be a good way for his character to change during the story, because just having him "Think more" seems a little unconcrete.

Maybe he could fail some more, enough times for him to start taking notice of the things that made him fail? That's basic pattern recognition, not just 'thinking more'.

Without any advanced equipment such as ultrasound, is there any reasonably clear way for either the mother (a trained midwife herself) or a medical professional to tell if a human, pregnant woman is going to bear twins before she actually gives birth?

edited 20th Aug '14 9:37:37 AM by CrystalGlacia

There would be no way to know for sure, but it might be possible to guess. Here are some simple indicators.

Huh, I guess some of those might function more like foreshadowing, then. That'll do.

Thanks!

I'm trying to make a Mix-and-Match Critter (ears of a wolf, teeth of a shark, etc) with skin almost the consistency of a balloon. Would lamb skin work for that? I tried looking up what animals have skin like latex, and I got a bunch of lambskin condom discussions, so I guess that means I'm on the right track.

I'm afraid you are in the ditch.

First of all, living skin and treated leather can be very different. Second lambskin condoms aren't made from lamb skins, they are sheep intestines.

Could you boil someone alive while simultaneously giving them the cement shoes treatment? Would they live long enough to drown, or would being submerged in boiling water kill them first? What would it look like/feel like from the perspective of the executioner and the victim? Could prolonged boiling ruin a skeleton once it's been stripped of the flesh?

To make a model of it? Hmmm....

Take a look here.

Can someone tell me the specifics of the MS-13/Mara Salvatrucha organizational structure? Do they have "tribes" across their territories that leads to the single most powerful leader of their gang like the Latin Kings? Or something different?