Just a rough guess from the article, it wasn't a short while. I'd say at least a few weeks. Who knows what finally did them in though. A little while without rain could have depleted their water supply. Exposure to the sun could have done it. There wasn't a mention of any makeshift cover. For all we know, a particularly nasty storm could have swept them out to sea. A 1938 report stated that the highest point was 16 feet above low sea level, and nothing is to say that they camped at the highest point. Looking at the island with Google Maps, it appears the sea sweeps across the southern side on a regular basis.

    It would be nice to think they only survived for days. It could have been months. With no real supplies, something as simple as a cut could have been fatal.

    In any case, they didn't survive. That is very unfortunate, as they could have if they had been found in time.

[ducks]

Thanks for the warning! :)

    But can it identify pie? Sometimes I need a computer to determine what kind of pie a pie is. Is it raspberry pie, raspberry cobbler, raspberry rhubarb pie, raspberry jam sandwich, apple pie, apple crumb pie, or apple cobbler. Could it identify doughnuts too? I hate thinking I'm about to eat a Boston cream doughnut, just to find out they put that nasty lemon filling in.

    Voice recognition has already been done.. Dessert identifiers, *that* is the future! Desert identifiers would be useful too, but may be slightly off topic.

I'm pretty sure most of my post wasn't passive aggressive, but hey. I assume you didn't read the my tagline either.

    Sending an anonymous email is real easy. I forget sometimes that there are people who read and write on here that actually don't know how to do simple IT things.

    I've had a few different ones. Two were Sony, and one was another name brand that I can't recall right off. I don't go strictly on reviews, most were impulse buys because I knew I'd be flying. One set, I got at the airport magazine shop, because the one I had with me broke.

    Mostly what I've looked for is pricing, something below about $100, and name brand. As far as design, I look for the full headset that goes all the way around the ear, with good padding.

    You'll always hear yourself, like you said via bone conduction. Opening your mouth will also allow sound to get in, shaking the back of your eardrum via your eustachian tube. It seems the air path through your sinuses seems to absorb sound better. I clench my jaw when I sleep, so I don't end up hearing anything except maybe a grinding sound.

    I frequently have problems with my eustachian tubes. They don't always clear, no matter what I do. I could go the surgical route to correct it, but I doubt I'd find a doctor willing to do it, if I can manage fine with pressure relief ear plugs.

    That's why I blew my left eardrum on one flight. If you've never had the pleasure, I suggest that you avoid it at all costs. It's a unique experience, that I'd wish on no one. Thousands of flights, and only one popped eardrum, now I never board a plane without the earplugs.

    I usually did. They'd jump me first thing when I came in, and right after lunch. I set no expectations of doing anything else for those periods. They'd also grab me on my way to/from bathroom breaks, and visit me in the smoking lounge (i.e., outside) for smoke breaks. I didn't mind discussing work during the smoke breaks, even though the final thing I'd always ask for was to send me an email with their request. I'm big into paper trails. They've covered my ass on more than one occasion.

That's like what I do for flying, or going to the shooting range.

When flying, I frequently need the pressure equalizing ear plugs. I have this aversion to having another eardrum blow out because the cabin pressure changed too quickly. I wear noise cancelling headphones over them, and I'm at peace for the whole flight. I'm usually not listening to anything, it's just the silence I appreciate.

When I'm at the shooting range, when I clench my jaw it tends to lift the shooting earmuffs off just enough for me to hear the loud crack of other people's weapons. A lot of ranges don't allow just earplugs any more.. So I wear the foam earplugs under the earmuffs. People have to shout anyways, but with the little bit of sound I can hear, along with lip reading, I do fine.

    Cube spaces are excellent for various things. You can prepare notes that say "shut up", wad them up, and lob them over the wall without anyone noticing who sent it. When they start getting pissy saying "Who threw the note at me that said shut up?" Everyone else would admit to it.

    If they didn't get the clue, a stockpile of "borrowed" desk items (pens, highlighters, staplers, etc) would start following. It only takes a few staplers to the head for them to realize that they're too being too loud.

    That, or transcribing their not-work-related conversations, and anonymously sending them to their supervisor.

    I've been known to do that. I'd wear noise cancelling headphones, so I don't hear idle chatter, doors opening and closing, phones ringing, or all the rest of the nonsense that is associated with an office. Sometimes I'd have music playing, sometimes I wouldn't.

    One thing I was advised about it though was, occasionally I'd talk to myself a little. Usually a "Hmm", or "ah ha", or even quiet rambling about the problem as I was working through it. Since I couldn't hear myself talk, my internal dialogue would sometimes not be internal.

    I usually managed to quell interruptions by explaining to people that there is a startup time for doing any work. Interruptions reset that time. So if it takes 5 minutes to mentally get back into what I was doing, and they stop by to ask me something every 15 minutes, they've delayed the work they want done by 20 minutes per hour, plus as long as they were talking. I was always clear to let people know when their request was done, so they learned not to interrupt to see if I was done yet.

    They'd also see multiple shells open, all doing something different or pending email responses to complete a task, so their interruptions didn't only hurt task, but others too.

    I thought the US already annexed Canada. Statehood will come later on, when it has a strategic interest. Don't worry, it'll be done properly on paper once we need your fresh water and oil reserves.