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    1. Standardising tags: "eu" or "europe"?

      Are we using "eu" or "europe" for topics about Europe? I think we need to pick one or the other. I prefer "europe". EDIT The people have spoken, and the vast majority is in favour of "europe" (not...

      Are we using "eu" or "europe" for topics about Europe? I think we need to pick one or the other.

      I prefer "europe".


      EDIT

      The people have spoken, and the vast majority is in favour of "europe" (not "eu") for topics related to continental Europe. Topics related to the European Union itself can be tagged "europe.eu" (as per @nothis' excellent suggestion.

      14 votes
    2. What's an album/artist that you love that you'd never expect yourself to like?

      The best one that comes to mind for me is the album Brother, Sister by Mewithoutyou. I don't really like any other Post-Hardcore album and I really can't get into most other albums by...

      The best one that comes to mind for me is the album Brother, Sister by Mewithoutyou. I don't really like any other Post-Hardcore album and I really can't get into most other albums by Mewithoutyou, but I've probably listened to this one close to a hundred times.

      26 votes
    3. Black Mirror S2 Special "White Christmas" discussion thread

      Previous episode | Index thread | Next episode Black Mirror Season 2 Special - White Christmas Three interconnected tales of technology run amok during the Christmas season are told by two men at...

      Previous episode | Index thread | Next episode

      Black Mirror Season 2 Special - White Christmas

      Three interconnected tales of technology run amok during the Christmas season are told by two men at a remote outpost in a frozen wilderness.

      Black Mirror Netflix link


      Warning: this thread contains spoilers about this episode! If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it and come back to this thread later.

      You can talk about past episodes, but please don't discuss future episodes in this thread!


      If you don't know what to say, here are some questions to get the discussion started:

      • How does the title relate to the episode itself?
      • Are there any similarities between real life events and the episode?
      • Are there any references or easter eggs in the episode, such as references to past episodes?

      Please rate the episode here!


      Sorry (again) for being a bit late with this thread!

      18 votes
    4. Weekly / monthly obscure books topic?

      Edit: Or, preferably, just a "What are you reading this week/month?" sort-of topic, per the suggestion of the commenters. I've just stumpled upon this topic where people shared some "obscure"...

      Edit: Or, preferably, just a "What are you reading this week/month?" sort-of topic, per the suggestion of the commenters.

      I've just stumpled upon this topic where people shared some "obscure" books they've read. I think that that sort of topic would be nice as a recurring feature. Do you share my view? If yes, how would we go about actually doing it?

      11 votes
    5. Is Lovecraft supposed to be scary?

      Starting to read a lot of Lovecraft, and I'm really enjoying it. I've only read like 5 or 6 of his stories (including Call of Cthulhu and The Dunwich Horror as being the famous ones) and I'm...

      Starting to read a lot of Lovecraft, and I'm really enjoying it. I've only read like 5 or 6 of his stories (including Call of Cthulhu and The Dunwich Horror as being the famous ones) and I'm really enjoying it. I think HPL has quickly risen to be among my favourite authors. But I'm not really scared, or terrified by any of his work so far, as I would normally with Horror fiction. Instead, I'm just entertained and fascinated by it. Is this normal? Are you supposed to feel like that with Lovecraft?

      17 votes
    6. Fixing a broken popcorn machine

      Album link So we have had this popcorn machine for ages and just recently it completely stopped working. Being a fan of bigclive on youtube I though why not try fix it and maybe get a sense of how...

      Album link

      So we have had this popcorn machine for ages and just recently it completely stopped working. Being a fan of bigclive on youtube I though why not try fix it and maybe get a sense of how it works.

      The guts

      The insides honestly are pretty underwhelming - both the impeller and heating elements are quite small considering it only takes a few minutes to make a bowl of popcorn.

      Circuit board and Another shot

      Considering how few components there it was not too time-consuming to draw up a diagram. Please excuse the crude drawing.

      From what I can tell it uses a bridge rectifier with a some caps to convert DC and even out the signal - and what looks like two resistors to further drop the voltage to the motor, maybe two offered better cooling? idk why they didn't use one. It's also kind of interesting how they used two separate coils for the heating with one of them in series with the motor, that will drop the voltage right?

      They also have overheating protection here, with a an sefuse and a thermo switch, it actually has the piece of metal and a contact that will bend away when it's hot, I've only seen these in a textbook. Not sure why there are two types of thermo fuses?

      The fault

      Finding the fault ended up being quite easy, the main heating coil that comes off blue wire had melted. A piece of corn, oil, bits of salt or a mixture had found their way in and somehow melted the wire in multiple places. It cut the circuit so not even the motor was working which was my initial though when it stopped. I wound some solid core wire around the two ends, hopefully it will not unfurl or melt in the heat.

      12 votes