Organ pipes are made from a mixture of lead, tin and zinc (at least those that aren't made from wood). They last for centuries vs electronics. Many congregations can no longer afford to maintain their old pipe organs, or they no longer use traditional music in their service and rip them out in order to make room for the band. In some cases an effort is made to find the organ a good home but often, tragically, the pipes are chopped up for scrap metal. If this drives up the price of tin, I could see it causing more destruction of existing pipe organs, and putting the price of new construction out of the reach of congregations.

If my current employer did this, I'd be unemployable. Fortunately a lot of my work can be done by email on a smart phone or consists of staring at the wall thinking through code, which can be done just as easily ( or better) in the bathroom.

I'm a man. I filed a sexual-harassment complaint. Idiots at the office played Rush Limbaugh's homophobic rants all day until I threatened to take the company to court.

What, never heard of "talking to the janitor"? It's actually happened to me. I've been up in the middle of the night trying to fix something, the janitor wandered by and asked what I was doing there, and in the course of explaining it in dumbed-down form, had the lightbulb vision of what was wrong with it.

Interesting. My first question in a job interview is "Does your office have a sexual harassment policy?"

It's never prevented me getting a position.

I've had to invoke it more than once.

Straw man. "The" is normal usage in all cultures. Commenting favourably or unfavourably upon one's personal attributes (eg. sexual orientation, appearance) is not.

If they said something about it and let people know how they felt, and then it continued, that would be grounds for a harrassment complaint.

No, in some workplaces it would be grounds for instant dismissal, outing in the surrounding community followed by death threats or actual violence.

I worked at a firm not long ago that had a manager that was sexist, homophobic and a raging alcoholic. When I checked with co-workers I determined that corporate policy was that it was cost-beneficial to keep him and lose me.

I got hired despite a personality dysfunction (adverse to socialization). I even raised it at the interview. The reply - "You're a boffin. I know how to deal with boffins."

I have been behind the hiring table confronted with candidates with computing science degrees who could write a sorter to beat the band. I don't need them. My operating system has a "sort" command that works just fine. I need someone who actually understands business and systems and how to write code to make these work. These people didn't have a clue.

In the old days of CRT and early HD, dogs couldn't see 60hz or slower raster. 120 hz they can see just fine. Mine get their morning entertainment barking at the dogs on the adoptable dogs show. If we leave them alone, we leave it on the National Geographic channel or whatever's running Dog Whisperer.

My handwriting has been illegible since grade 5. The keyboards on notebooks and laptops are noisy. If I'm careful my typing on the iPad is practically soundless. It's also got a large screen for my tired old eyes.

Up until recently, the teller terminals at my bank ran OS/2, but it was basically just a platform to run terminal sessions to the mainframe. Then they switched over to a browser-based front end to a UNIX back end.

I used to teach in the Junior High system. I was also raised in an authoritarian household. Authoritarians create a virtual reality, surrounding themselves with like-minded people, listening only to media that agrees with their mindset (eg. Fox News) and attending churches whose preaching reinforces this. I call it the "bubble" or the "box". Under no circumstances do they want anything to intrude into their system, hence their constant preoccupation with the school curriculum - little Johnny might hear something that would allow him to actually think and break the bubble.

>it seems most gays are gay because they grew up in strict religious and there oppressive anti sex BS I take it you've missed the entire "born that way" meme. Gays are gay because, well, they're gay. Most go about their lives quietly under the radar. The tragedies we hear about are the ones who are in the public eye due to evangelicalism (especially televangelism) and then run off the rails either because they've been outed or they can't keep up the cognitive dissonance. Others come into the public eye because their lives have become a train wreck because of religion, not because they're gay.

I know they start with the first letter, but get it right. However, both would be interesting and there is prior art, just not affordable or practicable.