Post secrets you know from your previous/current jobs

[forummm]

Here's a secret that has no right to be a secret: most people in the military and the federal government could never keep a conspiracy a secret. Most of the con theories I hear are so implausible from that angle alone that I just laugh.

Exactly. What are the odds that every single one of the thousands of people involved with the "faked" moon landings kept it secret, up to and including while on their death bed?? That every single one of them that has died in the 45 years since they have happened never told a single person, and never left an "in case of my death" letter??

Read up on Bletchley Park. It's astonishing how long the secret lasted, both generally and in people's personal lives. (Not that I'm a conspiracy nut, but people can keep nationally important secrets for a long time!)

Meh. That's not a conspiracy. I would have guessed that something like this existed. No one is like "OH MY GOD! I can't WAIT to tell people that we spied on our enemies during the war. NO ONE will ever believe it!"

Something like alien landings or faking the moon landing would be a bigger deal--people would be dying to share the dirt.

[rocketpj]

My car is parked at work (Yankee stadium) all hours of the day and night.  My boss and the owner both think I'm pulling 18 hour days, but I'm really not.

Are you George Costanza?

[rocketpj]

If you are planning to hire movers do the following:

1.  Any valuables should be separately shipped with premium shipping.  Better yet take them yourself.  What you must not ever do is put them in a cardboard box that goes onto the truck.  Or worse yet an obvious valuable holding box.  Stuff gets 'lost' and missing all the time, and you might not even notice for awhile in the chaos of the move - and when you do notice you might not even think of the movers. 

2.  Any private/naked type stuff better be packed very well and very inaccessible.

3.  Also, just don't hire movers unless you have no other choice.  Most are honest, hard working folk, but it is a brutal labour job and is not generally hiring from the cream of the labour pool.

[EricL]

Here's a secret that has no right to be a secret: most people in the military and the federal government could never keep a conspiracy a secret. Most of the con theories I hear are so implausible from that angle alone that I just laugh.

Exactly. What are the odds that every single one of the thousands of people involved with the "faked" moon landings kept it secret, up to and including while on their death bed?? That every single one of them that has died in the 45 years since they have happened never told a single person, and never left an "in case of my death" letter??

Read up on Bletchley Park. It's astonishing how long the secret lasted, both generally and in people's personal lives. (Not that I'm a conspiracy nut, but people can keep nationally important secrets for a long time!)

Per what I said in an earlier post, if the secret's dull enough and can actually be tied to national security, it can be kept a long time.  Cosmic level cryptology is only exciting to a narrow selection of geeks.  Add "we may win or lose WWII based on these secrets" and people STFU for a long, long, time. 

I ran into a nut at the farmer's market publicly proclaiming the moon landings faked based on anamolies in the NASA pictures of which she had large copies.  I pointed out these were focus and perspective changes made during development and NASA did not have the technology to make such sophisticated photo faking.  (And I'll add here if they did a bunch of rocket scientists would have done a better job with it.)  When she insisted NASA had photoshop in the early 1970s I broke contact and returned to vegetable shopping.  Maybe someday Neil Armstrong will face punch her.

[forummm]

When she insisted NASA had photoshop in the early 1970s I broke contact and returned to vegetable shopping. 

They totally had Photoshop in the 1970s. Just not any computers that could run it.

[grantmeaname]

Guys.. Just FYI.  Wendy's chili.  It's made from rejected burger meat!  But seriously, at least it's real meat and not filler

That's nothing. My old employer made their chili out of rejected burger filler.

[gluskap]

When you buy cosmetics that claim this or that extract is making you look younger or hair shinier, most likely it is in there at fairy dust levels less than 0.1%.  It's the marketing ingredients that sell the beauty product but the ingredients that actually make it work might be something else entirely that just doesn't sound very cool.

[dragoncar]

Guys.. Just FYI.  Wendy's chili.  It's made from rejected burger meat!  But seriously, at least it's real meat and not filler

That's nothing. My old employer made their chili out of rejected burger filler.

Don't even ask about the Taco Bell chili

[AlanStache]

When you buy cosmetics that claim this or that extract is making you look younger or hair shinier, most likely it is in there at fairy dust levels less than 0.1%.  It's the marketing ingredients that sell the beauty product but the ingredients that actually make it work might be something else entirely that just doesn't sound very cool.

My aunt sells cosmetics that she claims to be chemical free.

[Eric]

When you buy cosmetics that claim this or that extract is making you look younger or hair shinier, most likely it is in there at fairy dust levels less than 0.1%.  It's the marketing ingredients that sell the beauty product but the ingredients that actually make it work might be something else entirely that just doesn't sound very cool.

My aunt sells cosmetics that she claims to be chemical free.

Like the Emperor's new clothes?

[Dollar Slice]

My aunt sells cosmetics that she claims to be chemical free.

I guess that's a sort of upside-down version of the food/drink companies that brag about how their product is 100% "real ingredients."

[forummm]

When you buy cosmetics that claim this or that extract is making you look younger or hair shinier, most likely it is in there at fairy dust levels less than 0.1%.  It's the marketing ingredients that sell the beauty product but the ingredients that actually make it work might be something else entirely that just doesn't sound very cool.

My aunt sells cosmetics that she claims to be chemical free.

That seems impossible. Everything is chemicals.

[sol]

When you buy cosmetics that claim this or that extract is making you look younger or hair shinier, most likely it is in there at fairy dust levels less than 0.1%.  It's the marketing ingredients that sell the beauty product but the ingredients that actually make it work might be something else entirely that just doesn't sound very cool.

My aunt sells cosmetics that she claims to be chemical free.

That seems impossible. Everything is chemicals.

That was the joke.

That one, laying there on the floor, dead.

[nobodyspecial]

That seems impossible. Everything is chemicals.

Except arguably a plasma

[dragoncar]

That seems impossible. Everything is chemicals.

Except arguably a plasma

Is light chemicals?  How about gravity? 

[forummm]

That seems impossible. Everything is chemicals.

Except arguably a plasma

Is light chemicals?  How about gravity? 

Good thought exercise. Neither exist without chemicals being somewhere to cause them.

And if a photon travels through outer space without an eye or other sensor to observe it, is it light?

[AlanStache]

When you buy cosmetics that claim this or that extract is making you look younger or hair shinier, most likely it is in there at fairy dust levels less than 0.1%.  It's the marketing ingredients that sell the beauty product but the ingredients that actually make it work might be something else entirely that just doesn't sound very cool.

My aunt sells cosmetics that she claims to be chemical free.

That seems impossible. Everything is chemicals.

That was the joke.

That one, laying there on the floor, dead.

yep, thanks sol. 

My other aunt who has a bio masters and I try to not react when aunt #1 says stuff like that.  And apparently gluten is not natural.  I was somewhat concerned that she would be anti-vax (chemicals/toxins and all) with the grand-baby but was revealed on that front. 

[Spork]

When you buy cosmetics that claim this or that extract is making you look younger or hair shinier, most likely it is in there at fairy dust levels less than 0.1%.  It's the marketing ingredients that sell the beauty product but the ingredients that actually make it work might be something else entirely that just doesn't sound very cool.

My aunt sells cosmetics that she claims to be chemical free.

That seems impossible. Everything is chemicals.

That was the joke.

That one, laying there on the floor, dead.

yep, thanks sol. 

My other aunt who has a bio masters and I try to not react when aunt #1 says stuff like that.  And apparently gluten is not natural.  I was somewhat concerned that she would be anti-vax (chemicals/toxins and all) with the grand-baby but was revealed on that front.

I can guess what she means...  And it is (IMO) a combination of some things that are not-quite true and some things that are theoretical and haven't really been fully proven.

Gluten has obviously been around.  Modern wheat is a pretty newish thing in human diet.  (New being a relative term here.)  By some arguments, this might make it "unnatural."  (But so is grabbing the flower of one plant and cross pollinating it with another.)  There are all sorts of theories based on correlation only as to what that does to you.  I think some are whack-a-doodle and some are "plausible" (but need real study).

Natural and unnatural really depend on if you consider humans to be part of nature.

[sol]

Natural and unnatural really depend on if you consider humans to be part of nature.

Here's my quick test if I'm ever unsure: if it exists in the universe and its subject to the laws of quantum mechanics or gravity, then it is natural.

Things that natural: gluten, caffeine, genetically engineered organisms, crack, black holes, Craig Venter, Ramses II, Joseph Smith, L.Ron Hubbard.

Things that are supernatural: ESP, ghosts, goblins, flying witches, faeries, Dracula, Santa, Zeus, Allah, Elohim, Xenu.

I find that this definition avoids a lot of confusion.

[nobodyspecial]

Santa's not real ?

[cripzychiken]

Santa's not real ?

yes he's real, but he's also supernatural - that's how he can visit all the kids in a single night.

[Threshkin]

End of year funds for any part of Gov and Military are down right disgusting...use it or loose it! I wonder how much they could save if they allowed a carry over for funds.

Ah yes...that $10,000 hammer from the GSA catalogue. Spent a pretty (useless and unneeded) penny buying crap at the end of the budget year so that our ship's engineering dept budget wouldn't be cut. Chief would give me a catalogue and say "spend Spartana, spend"! I think they had tanks and aircraft carriers you could buy too :-)!

I used to work on the supplier side of this.  The agencies we work with would commonly issue open ended contracts to us with no minimum spend obligation.  If they had money we would get the orders.  From a company perspective we loved FY year end.  From a taxpayer perspective I absolutely hated it.

[Spork]

Natural and unnatural really depend on if you consider humans to be part of nature.

Here's my quick test if I'm ever unsure: if it exists in the universe and its subject to the laws of quantum mechanics or gravity, then it is natural.

Things that natural: gluten, caffeine, genetically engineered organisms, crack, black holes, Craig Venter, Ramses II, Joseph Smith, L.Ron Hubbard.

Things that are supernatural: ESP, ghosts, goblins, flying witches, faeries, Dracula, Santa, Zeus, Allah, Elohim, Xenu.

I find that this definition avoids a lot of confusion.

LOL.  I like that definition.

Which brings to my mind an ad for a new breakfast cereal. Jesus Flakes: Now with all supernatural ingredients

[fartface]

This may be somewhat common knowledge, but I will share anyway.

Private universities do not give out many full scholarships (even to needy students). Instead, they give 50% scholarships to wealthy families (they know people are wealthy because of the FASFA). Then, they are still getting half the revenue. No one pays full price at a private university. The scholarship amount is just a game.

My HS friend and I got accepted to the same colleges; one private, one public. I chose the state school b/c (20 years ago) it cost $~5K/year. She chose the private university because they granted her a 'scholarship'. I asked, "How much is the scholarship?" She told me $5K/year for four years...then I found out it cost $15K/year. So when it was all said and done she STILL paid twice as much as me...for the same degree...oh and she's been a SAHM for the past 10+years.

[trailrated]

Santa's not real ?

yes he's real, but he's also supernatural - that's how he can visit all the kids in a single night.

And eat all those fucking cookies

[BlueHouse]

End of year funds for any part of Gov and Military are down right disgusting...use it or loose it! I wonder how much they could save if they allowed a carry over for funds.

Ah yes...that $10,000 hammer from the GSA catalogue. Spent a pretty (useless and unneeded) penny buying crap at the end of the budget year so that our ship's engineering dept budget wouldn't be cut. Chief would give me a catalogue and say "spend Spartana, spend"! I think they had tanks and aircraft carriers you could buy too :-)!

Okay, I'm sure you're exaggerating the cost, but even so, there are actually reasons for some (not all) of the overpriced stuff.  So, the $400 toilet seat probably wouldn't come out of the catalog.  It would be a custom product that has to fit certain specs.  (rigidity, mass, width, etc).  That toilet seat might have even had to have been assembled in a clean room under strict supervision to avoid contaminants.    I worked on a helicopter contract where in the last few months of developing the first unit, some "minor" changes were made, such as moving an antenna (the antennas already were painted with a paint that met specs, but moving it meant it now had to be green paint vs. white...and the green paint hadn't been tested), and adding a small ladder.  The ladder could be found in Home Depot for $59.00.  Unfortunately, to safely carry the ladder, we had to drill a hole through the aircraft to bolt the ladder in place while flying.  That one little change cost hundreds of hours of engineering design time, not to mention retesting the flight and vibration patterns. 
So, I guess the end result is the same....government customer could not figure out ahead of time what they wanted or needed so they changed design endlessly after products had been built. 

[forummm]

End of year funds for any part of Gov and Military are down right disgusting...use it or loose it! I wonder how much they could save if they allowed a carry over for funds.

Ah yes...that $10,000 hammer from the GSA catalogue. Spent a pretty (useless and unneeded) penny buying crap at the end of the budget year so that our ship's engineering dept budget wouldn't be cut. Chief would give me a catalogue and say "spend Spartana, spend"! I think they had tanks and aircraft carriers you could buy too :-)!

Okay, I'm sure you're exaggerating the cost, but even so, there are actually reasons for some (not all) of the overpriced stuff.  So, the $400 toilet seat probably wouldn't come out of the catalog.  It would be a custom product that has to fit certain specs.  (rigidity, mass, width, etc).  That toilet seat might have even had to have been assembled in a clean room under strict supervision to avoid contaminants.    I worked on a helicopter contract where in the last few months of developing the first unit, some "minor" changes were made, such as moving an antenna (the antennas already were painted with a paint that met specs, but moving it meant it now had to be green paint vs. white...and the green paint hadn't been tested), and adding a small ladder.  The ladder could be found in Home Depot for $59.00.  Unfortunately, to safely carry the ladder, we had to drill a hole through the aircraft to bolt the ladder in place while flying.  That one little change cost hundreds of hours of engineering design time, not to mention retesting the flight and vibration patterns. 
So, I guess the end result is the same....government customer could not figure out ahead of time what they wanted or needed so they changed design endlessly after products had been built. 

At least some of these stories are hoaxes or misunderstandings. For example:
http://www.govexec.com/federal-news/1998/12/the-myth-of-the-600-hammer/5271/

"There never was a $600 hammer," said Steven Kelman, public policy professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. It was, he said, "an accounting artifact."

The military bought the hammer, Kelman explained, bundled into one bulk purchase of many different spare parts. But when the contractors allocated their engineering expenses among the individual spare parts on the list - a bookkeeping exercise that had no effect on the price the Pentagon paid overall - they simply treated every item the same. So the hammer, originally $15, picked up the same amount of research and development overhead - $420 - as each of the highly technical components, recalled retired procurement official LeRoy Haugh. (Later news stories inflated the $435 figure to $600.)

Another example is the toilets. People saw a bill for a commode and thought it meant toilet--but it really meant a desk or dresser.

I'm sure there are somethings that are too expensive, but some of them are myths. But convenient myths for politicians and other people who want to play up the angle that government wastes money.

[nobodyspecial]

US government contracts (at least the ones we dealt with) didn't allow for NRE.
So while we would charge a commercial customer $50K setup/tooling and $50/each for the first 1000, the government would have to be billed $1050/ea for the first 50.

[FIPurpose]

Here's another one: Wendy's chili is made from old ground up burger patties that didn't sell.  Yum!

This is the case with a lot of places and their shredded anything. Like a BBQ chicken sandwich at Famous Daves is just the shredded chicken they hadn't sold initially as a Cajun Chicken sandwich (or whatever).

Worked at Chick-fil-a as a teenager. Chicken Salad Sandwich is yesterday's chicken.

[dragoncar]

Here's another one: Wendy's chili is made from old ground up burger patties that didn't sell.  Yum!

This is the case with a lot of places and their shredded anything. Like a BBQ chicken sandwich at Famous Daves is just the shredded chicken they hadn't sold initially as a Cajun Chicken sandwich (or whatever).

Worked at Chick-fil-a as a teenager. Chicken Salad Sandwich is yesterday's chicken.

I've never worked at a Chinese restaurant, but I can almost guarantee the fried rice uses yesterdays rice.

[Spork]

Here's another one: Wendy's chili is made from old ground up burger patties that didn't sell.  Yum!

This is the case with a lot of places and their shredded anything. Like a BBQ chicken sandwich at Famous Daves is just the shredded chicken they hadn't sold initially as a Cajun Chicken sandwich (or whatever).

Worked at Chick-fil-a as a teenager. Chicken Salad Sandwich is yesterday's chicken.

I've never worked at a Chinese restaurant, but I can almost guarantee the fried rice uses yesterdays rice.

Another secret:  At my house, we eat the leftovers, too.

[Bicycle_B]

Here's another one: Wendy's chili is made from old ground up burger patties that didn't sell.  Yum!

Thanks for posting this

It's chilling and said, but much better to know than not know...

[trailrated]

I used to work for a certain payroll service provider and with that we were supposed to spend time at certain banks with the business bankers. We were given enough access to come in, use their computers, walk behind the counters no questions asked.

The craziest part to me was talking to these bankers who would point blank say "yeah, I look through the wealthier clients account and credit card statements sometimes, it is crazy how fast you can tell someone is cheating on their wife...take a look at these transactions."

[regulator]

I used to work for a certain payroll service provider and with that we were supposed to spend time at certain banks with the business bankers. We were given enough access to come in, use their computers, walk behind the counters no questions asked.

The craziest part to me was talking to these bankers who would point blank say "yeah, I look through the wealthier clients account and credit card statements sometimes, it is crazy how fast you can tell someone is cheating on their wife...take a look at these transactions."

Yep.  When I used to read loans to make sure the banks had things correctly graded I would frequently see borrowers' tax returns complete with name, address, SSN, etc.

[Bicycle_B]

Here's another one: Wendy's chili is made from old ground up burger patties that didn't sell.  Yum!

Thanks for posting this

It's chilling and said, but much better to know than not know...

Correction: I was referring to the post about 53% of scientific research articles not having reproducible results, not referring to the  Wendy's chili thing.  Ironically,  my cut and paste in this forum does not appear to be reproducible as inteneded...

[geekette]

Here's another one: Wendy's chili is made from old ground up burger patties that didn't sell.  Yum!

This is the case with a lot of places and their shredded anything. Like a BBQ chicken sandwich at Famous Daves is just the shredded chicken they hadn't sold initially as a Cajun Chicken sandwich (or whatever).

Worked at Chick-fil-a as a teenager. Chicken Salad Sandwich is yesterday's chicken.

I've never worked at a Chinese restaurant, but I can almost guarantee the fried rice uses yesterdays rice.

At our local take out joint, I watch them take rice out of the rice cooker to make fried rice.  If you don't want it fried, they take it out of the same rice cooker and put it straight into the take out container. 

I've still gotten B. cereus food poisoning due to improper holding temperatures.  But they make the best Sesame Chicken. </whine>

[MBot]

As a physician:

1. I realize a lot of us are seen as pill pushers.  But in reality that's what the majority of you that come to the office want.  Diet, exercise, and time can treat most medical conditions.  Yet your blood pressure is still high so we will recommend you take a pill.  On a similar note all my fat patients (well mostly the women patients) all work out longer and with more intensity than me.  That's what they tell me when i'm taking a history anyway.

2. You know in the movies when someone gets shot and they have to remove the bullet?  In reality
 you don't have to remove the bullet.  Surgeons will if it's there of course.  But it's not absolutely necessary.
3. The dirtiest place we all find in the operating room is the belly button.
4. You know when you flat line?  You don't shock that heart rhythm in real life.
5. Scrubs is the most accurate medical show. 
6.  A medical student graduates at an average of 160k IN educational debt.  My loans range from 6.7 to 8% interest currently.  I dont understand why the rate to buy a house is nearly half that of buying a medical education.
7.  The flu shot doesn't make you sick for the most part.  The virus that's in the vaccine is dead.  It may give you mild upper respiratory symptoms (achyness, mild cough, temperature of less than 100) if your sensitive.  If you are at a high risk of getting the flu howver you should take the vaccine and then go home and take some Tylenol and or motrin/aleve.
# when we prescribe medication we never look at the price of it.  Medical billing is really complicated and we have whole depts dedicated to it.  We barely have enough time to stay up to date in our specialties so we don't spend much time learning the billing.  Tip: take in the walmart $4 dollar drug list with you as that contains many essential medications ask if there is a generic version of the drug that is suitable for you.
#In medical school we all download the free epocrates app which gives us advice on medical dosing.  I've heard it's free because they sell our information to drug companies (ie how many times we look up a drug.  So for example, if a drug rep gives am information lunch or dinner session on a new drug, in the following months they can monitor how many times we look up that drug information on epocrates.  If the numbers start getting lower they will entice us with stuff (free samples, another nice lunch or dinner explaining the benefits of the drug).  I've always found it amazing how easy the time of a doctor can be bought by a steak dinner. 
#we almost always buy generic medications.  You should too.
# don't listen to TV doctors like Dr. Oz.  Good medical advice is boring and should not attract many viewers.  It's like good investment advice.
# doctors have on average 10 years less to invest than the average public with a bachelor's degree (we finish our training early 30s). 
#please don't read an article on your symptoms and then come to our office and try to dictate care.  This goes for patients who work in the health care setting as well (even physicians of other specialties although they're rarely a problem because the know how vast medical knowledge is and how much thrre is to learn).  There is a process of how things are done as proving good health care is a team effort.  If you feel you are the special flower who has it all figured out, please realize you are deviating from the standard (and usually most common treatment which has has success with prior parients).  Proceed at your own risk.

All this was great, but especially this:
"# don't listen to TV doctors like Dr. Oz.  Good medical advice is boring and should not attract many viewers.  It's like good investment advice."

[FIRE me]

From a former job:
Mid grade gasoline (89 octane) is the worst value. Use either regular or premium. Typically, premium has double the deposit fighting detergent additive compared to regular, and mid grade has the same as detergent additive as regular. So with mid grade, all you get for the extra money is a lousy two octane.

Does double detergent really help?  1x detergent isn't good enough?

I would assume that more detergent is better, but I can't actually say it as a fact.

One thing I can say as fact, if you see a tanker truck making a delivery to a gas station, don't fill up there at that time. If the in ground station tanks have any gunk or water laying on the bottom of the tank (water sinks in gasoline) it will get stirred up by the delivery. It sinks back down in about five minutes.

There are filters on the gas pumps, but it is better not risk it getting past the filters and in your car's gas tank.

[FIRE me]

Spot on, sorry if that was confusing.

1. Contractor orders 30 yards of concrete (10 on each truck)
2. Contractor realizes he will finish with 20 yards but 30 yards has already been shipped.
3. Contractor pours out 10 yards from the first truck, pours out 5 yards from the second truck and sends it away (so the homeowner thinks they still need more) pours out 5 yards from the third truck.
4. Three trucks carrying 30 yards only poured out 20 yards
5. Contractor collects money from homeowner to pay us. Homeowner doesn't realize they just covered the contractors $1,400 mistake.

6. Trucks show up at contractor's friends house, and said friend gets free concrete for new patio and driveway.

I actually worked with a guy who told me he got a free (minus the cost of the labor and the forms) driveway and patio this way.

[dragoncar]

Here's another one: Wendy's chili is made from old ground up burger patties that didn't sell.  Yum!

This is the case with a lot of places and their shredded anything. Like a BBQ chicken sandwich at Famous Daves is just the shredded chicken they hadn't sold initially as a Cajun Chicken sandwich (or whatever).

Worked at Chick-fil-a as a teenager. Chicken Salad Sandwich is yesterday's chicken.

I've never worked at a Chinese restaurant, but I can almost guarantee the fried rice uses yesterdays rice.

At our local take out joint, I watch them take rice out of the rice cooker to make fried rice.  If you don't want it fried, they take it out of the same rice cooker and put it straight into the take out container. 

I've still gotten B. cereus food poisoning due to improper holding temperatures.  But they make the best Sesame Chicken. </whine>

This place is immediately suspect.  I bet they are really Italian.

Spot on, sorry if that was confusing.

1. Contractor orders 30 yards of concrete (10 on each truck)
2. Contractor realizes he will finish with 20 yards but 30 yards has already been shipped.
3. Contractor pours out 10 yards from the first truck, pours out 5 yards from the second truck and sends it away (so the homeowner thinks they still need more) pours out 5 yards from the third truck.
4. Three trucks carrying 30 yards only poured out 20 yards
5. Contractor collects money from homeowner to pay us. Homeowner doesn't realize they just covered the contractors $1,400 mistake.

6. Trucks show up at contractor's friends house, and said friend gets free concrete for new patio and driveway.

I actually worked with a guy who told me he got a free (minus the cost of the labor and the forms) driveway and patio this way.

This is probably the worst once, since the author is complicit in grand theft.

[Dicey]

Here's another one: Wendy's chili is made from old ground up burger patties that didn't sell.  Yum!

This is the case with a lot of places and their shredded anything. Like a BBQ chicken sandwich at Famous Daves is just the shredded chicken they hadn't sold initially as a Cajun Chicken sandwich (or whatever).

Worked at Chick-fil-a as a teenager. Chicken Salad Sandwich is yesterday's chicken.

I've never worked at a Chinese restaurant, but I can almost guarantee the fried rice uses yesterdays rice.

Another secret:  At my house, we eat the leftovers, too.

Touche, Spork.

[BlueHouse]

ETA: Of course you can always go to the GSA auction website and buy yourself a nice Blackhawk helicopter or 2, they even have a listing for the space shuttle and Hubble Telescope but looks like they have already been bought. I'm really not kidding - those things are on their auction site. http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/?sl=91QSCI15271601

Spartans, if you can find it again, please provide link to Hubble. It's the 25th anniversary and I've been attending weekly lectures by the astronomers who solved the problems and made startling discoveries, so I'm hooked.  it must be heavily discounted by now ;)

[Jack]

ETA: Of course you can always go to the GSA auction website and buy yourself a nice Blackhawk helicopter or 2, they even have a listing for the space shuttle and Hubble Telescope but looks like they have already been bought. I'm really not kidding - those things are on their auction site. http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/?sl=91QSCI15271601

Spartans, if you can find it again, please provide link to Hubble. It's the 25th anniversary and I've been attending weekly lectures by the astronomers who solved the problems and made startling discoveries, so I'm hooked.  it must be heavily discounted by now ;)

The Hubble Space Telescope is like a timeshare: sure, they'll sell it to you cheap, but then they get you on the maintenance!

[MrsStubble]

Employees of the little orange bank in the US that got bought by the big company are closing their accounts because the prospects on the horizon are grim.

[forummm]

ETA: Of course you can always go to the GSA auction website and buy yourself a nice Blackhawk helicopter or 2, they even have a listing for the space shuttle and Hubble Telescope but looks like they have already been bought. I'm really not kidding - those things are on their auction site. http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/?sl=91QSCI15271601

Spartans, if you can find it again, please provide link to Hubble. It's the 25th anniversary and I've been attending weekly lectures by the astronomers who solved the problems and made startling discoveries, so I'm hooked.  it must be heavily discounted by now ;)

The Hubble Space Telescope is like a timeshare: sure, they'll sell it to you cheap, but then they get you on the maintenance!

No, it's the shipping and handling that will bust your budget.

[GuitarStv]

When she insisted NASA had photoshop in the early 1970s I broke contact and returned to vegetable shopping. 

They totally had Photoshop in the 1970s. Just not any computers that could run it.

They totally had Photoshop in the 1970s.  It was an actual shop where they developed photos though . . .

[Neustache]

Mrs. Stubble - if the little orange online bank is what I think it is, that's a shame.  I don't have an account there anymore, dropped it when the big company took over. 

[Bob W]

Not sure if this one has been mentioned.   At one time I did finance and insurance at an RV dealer.   We typically made around 2K on the purchase price of a new RV (markup not including interest we paid).   On the financing and extended warranties we often made 3K.   

On the financing it worked like this  ---  You have a 720 credit score and want to put 2k down on a 22 K RV.    I would send your stuff to 3 RV funding banks and receive quotes back.    We would receive bids maybe around 8%.  We would then mark it up to 10%.   On that spread the bank would cut us a check for 1,500. 

Worst part your monthly payment would be around $300 for 20 years on an RV you would use less than 3 days per year after year 3.   And you will be perpetually upside down on it until paid off. 

(the math was terrible on a 20K unit --  You lose 2K per year in depreciation,  4K in payments,  1 K in taxes insurance and upkeep.  If you ever use it your parking fees could be $40 per night or .5K per year.  Throw in another .5K for storage and extra gas.  So your total annual cost is around $8,000 for something you use maybe 10 days per year -- $800 per night!    My wife is math impaired and actually suggested we buy one!    I explained to her the numbers and suggested we might find a very nice cabin or condo for $200 per night.  Or could take 4 weeks of all inclusive vacations for that money.) 

[forummm]

Not sure if this one has been mentioned.   At one time I did finance and insurance at an RV dealer.   We typically made around 2K on the purchase price of a new RV (markup not including interest we paid).   On the financing and extended warranties we often made 3K.   

On the financing it worked like this  ---  You have a 720 credit score and want to put 2k down on a 22 K RV.    I would send your stuff to 3 RV funding banks and receive quotes back.    We would receive bids maybe around 8%.  We would then mark it up to 10%.   On that spread the bank would cut us a check for 1,500. 

Worst part your monthly payment would be around $300 for 20 years on an RV you would use less than 3 days per year after year 3.   And you will be perpetually upside down on it until paid off. 

(the math was terrible on a 20K unit --  You lose 2K per year in depreciation,  4K in payments,  1 K in taxes insurance and upkeep.  If you ever use it your parking fees could be $40 per night or .5K per year.  Throw in another .5K for storage and extra gas.  So your total annual cost is around $8,000 for something you use maybe 10 days per year -- $800 per night!    My wife is math impaired and actually suggested we buy one!    I explained to her the numbers and suggested we might find a very nice cabin or condo for $200 per night.  Or could take 4 weeks of all inclusive vacations for that money.) 

Auto sales has a similar arrangement where the car dealer often makes even more money from the loan and extended warranties than from the sale of the car.

Interesting article about manufactured home industry and loans:
http://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/the-mobile-home-trap-how-a-warren-buffett-empire-preys-on-the-poor/

[geekette]

Here's another one: Wendy's chili is made from old ground up burger patties that didn't sell.  Yum!

This is the case with a lot of places and their shredded anything. Like a BBQ chicken sandwich at Famous Daves is just the shredded chicken they hadn't sold initially as a Cajun Chicken sandwich (or whatever).

Worked at Chick-fil-a as a teenager. Chicken Salad Sandwich is yesterday's chicken.

I've never worked at a Chinese restaurant, but I can almost guarantee the fried rice uses yesterdays rice.

At our local take out joint, I watch them take rice out of the rice cooker to make fried rice.  If you don't want it fried, they take it out of the same rice cooker and put it straight into the take out container. 

I've still gotten B. cereus food poisoning due to improper holding temperatures.  But they make the best Sesame Chicken. </whine>

This place is immediately suspect.  I bet they are really Italian.

Hmmm...  Do Italians generally sit at the register gnawing on fried chicken feet?