The Oregon Scientific let's you set a manual temperature (I never use the presets), and it will go off when that is reached. Actually, it warns you when it is five degrees below that it is "Almost done", then again when it hits the target temperature. You could then increase it to your final temperature and it will go off again when it reaches that. I can't speak for the Maverick, but it probably has similar features.

I've been using this one and really like it: http://www.amazon.com/Oregon-Scientific-AW131-Wireless-Thermometer/dp/B000RL2ZGO

The Maverick ET-73 is also highly recommended.

I agree, if you aren't used to them in a few hours, something is likely wrong. My father got a new pair of glasses once, and they had accidentally reversed the prescription(Instead of +2.5, it was -2.5 or something like that).

Anonymous wrote:NP here. My halfling rogue's qualifier for whether a dragon is good or bad and therefore needs to be exterminated is directly proportionate to the size of it's hoard.

Sounds like my wife's style. I swear her D&D motto is "Loot the bodies!" And yes, she's looted mine on several occasions, thanks to my notorious luck with dice.

Anonymous wrote:I guess I am a Southerner?? Texan here, and when referring to the geographic area, I prefer to say Texan vs South or Southerner, etc.

Yep, Texan is definitely different from Southern. Of course, I grew up in south Alabama, and we didn't think those idiots in north Alabama really qualified as Southerners either. And don't even get me started on Florida...

He was definitely a great writer, and this news reminded me that I've never gotten around to reading some of his work.(Too many books, too little time)

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? The same way you would address anyone, gender mixed or not:

in person, primarily as "You"

or in emails,
"Hello, everyone"
"Dear team"
"Hi"

Again, I was referring to a professional or formal situation, and none of the examples you give are what I would consider suitable openings for those types of communications. For instance, press announcements are often started with "Ladies and gentlemen of the press..." Graduation speeches start with "Respected professors, fellow students, ladies, and gentlemen..." For those types of communications, in which someone is addressing a group in a more formal environment, what is a suitable alternative?

Anonymous wrote:OP here- wow, I just posted this!

Ladies and gentlemen is completely fine. Female friends who address me and other female friends as "ladies" is totally fine.

I think the problem is that it's often used in situations where I see a tinge of sexism anyway. "Ladies, could you get us some coffee?" kind of things. Or maybe because I am aware of the sexism that more subtly takes place in the workplace I see no need to differentiate between me and the men I work with- yes, we're different because of our genders, but when you start treating me differently when asking me about work stuff I wonder what else is going on.

To be honest, it doesn't sound like the term "ladies" is what you really have the issue with, as much as other actions you've associated with it. If it was instead "Could you get us some coffee?" kinds of things, with no use of the term "ladies", would the situation be any more or less sexist? There's no need to treat genders differently, but I don't expect all forms of address to be completely gender neutral unless there is some other common title used to refer to a group.(Professor, Director, Doctor, Officer, etc.) If no suitable alternative exists, I don't think addressing a group of women as "Ladies" is inherently sexist. However, if I asked most of the ladies I know to get coffee when I was perfectly capable of getting it myself, they would tell me not only where I could find it, but also where I could shove it afterwards

As long as it is used in the same settings that "gentlemen" would be appropriate for a group of men(Such as "Ladies and gentlemen, please rise..."), I don't think there's anything wrong with it, and I'm having a hard time coming up with a suitable alternative to use in the same situation. How else would you address a group of women in a professional or formal situation?

Oh, and "Bless his/her heart" is really just a more polite way of cursing, so it really can't be interpreted to mean anything by itself. Just replace it with your curse word of choice in whatever sentence it was used in. Try it out in the examples given above, and you'll see it works perfectly.

I'm a Southerner myself, born and raised in rural south Alabama. I have no idea what they are talking about. I know people that will do that, yes, but it doesn't have anything to do with what region they grew up in. The standard where I grew up was that if you made an offer, you stood by it. It might not be convenient, and you might wish you hadn't made it, but you still did it. The ones who didn't would be the people frowned upon, not the ones accepting the offer of help.

Now in terms of being polite, I think everyone(Anywhere, not just the south) sometimes says things that may stretch the truth slightly. Not every child is lovely, not every meal was delicious, and so on. However, there's a difference between a polite statement and an offer of assistance. The blunt truth isn't always the best approach in social situations, particularly when dealing with new acquaintances.(We save that for people we know well)

Basically, I think the whole "Southern/Northern" aspect of that thread was very silly and had nothing to do with what was actually going on. Yes, there are regional/cultural/etiquette differences, but you'll find just as many, if not more, differences internally within the South, North, West, Narnia, etc. But no matter how they are dressed up or expressed, the basic behaviors are pretty much the same everywhere.

Not really scary. These types of brushes are extremely common, and considering the number of times that they are used, the number of incidents is trivial. You can find many more instances of people accidentally swallowing parts of steak knifes, forks, and other utensils, so if you are going to worry about something, that's much more likely.

Anonymous wrote:Never got into Mass Effect b/c the first one wasn't released for the PS3. Would I still have a good experience even if I just did the 2nd and 3rd? I really prefer gaming on a console to a PC but I might have to break down to get my bioware fix. Speaking of Bioware, I also loved KOTOR!

There is a continuous story line between all 3 of the ME games, so I wouldn't recommend skipping one. I personally think the first one is the best, although they all had their high and low points. In fact, the first ME might have been the reason I finally broke down and bought a 360. If you did skip it, I would definitely read what happens in the first one. And yes, KOTOR rocked!

I thought the stoned mother leaving the infant on the roof of the car was a shoe-in for parent of the year, but we might have a contender here.

Can you give us some idea of the size, in MB or GB, you would need to back these up? For important files, I would usually recommend some kind of off-site storage, preferably in the cloud, but the amount of space needed will impact the recommendations.