What Is The Best Way To Determine Levelness

How are cranes able to lift heavy loads without toppling?

A timely question.

I was driving through Vancouver today to drop my son at the airport, and we drove under a crane which had its gantry stretching over the street. The crane was not working at the time.

I commented to my son that I thought cranes weren’t to be left parked over streets in case they collapsed. He told me that it is customary to leave cranes unlocked (slew brake not engaged, I looked this up) in order to allow the crane to “weather vane”. This permits them to rotate to present the least amount of surface to winds, to reduce the possibility of collapse from side pressure from the wind.

That doesn’t completely answer your question, but it set me to thinking about how cranes are balanced. If you observe them in operation, you will notice that there is a large counter weight on the opposite end of the crane from the lifting pulleys, frequently massive concrete blocks. As the pulley is moved towards or away from the supporting gantry, the counterweight moves in the opposite direction, in order to maintain vertical equilibrium (balance) between the lifting and the counterweight arms. This is calculated for the load being lifted.

This equilibrium is so well maintained that the force to rotate the crane is low enough the wind will indeed rotate it, the weather vane effect I noted above.

What advice do you wish you'd been given when buying your first home?

Buying a home is a dream of everyone, but it is important to consider some important things in mind while buying your first home.

Hire a Professional Real Estate Agent:- Hiring a professional real estate agent is the first step for buying a home. An agent can send you listings directly from MLS that fit your budget and requirements and you won't waste time looking at active short contingent listings that are under contract.

Check your credit:- Credit score is the most important factors for home buyers when it comes to qualifying for a loan. The measure of credit you're utilizing in respect to your accessible credit limit.The lower the utilization rate, the higher your score will be. Ideally, first-time home buyers would have a considerable measure of acknowledging accessible, for not as much as 33% of it utilized.

Evaluate assets and liabilities:- If you are a first time home buyer, it is important for you to evaluate all the assets and liabilities.You should understand a little bit about monthly cash flow.

Qualify yourself:- As a first-time home buyer, you already know how much you can afford to spend before the mortgage lender tells you how much you qualify for. By calculating debt-to-income ratio and factoring in a down payment, you will have a good idea of what you can afford, both upfront and monthly.

Organize Documents:- When applying for a mortgage, it is important to organize all necessary documents such as 2 recent pay stubs, tax returns and the past 2 months of bank statements.Buying a home can take a long time, but knowing what you need and where to find it can save a lot of time.

Thanks!!

Let's say I don't believe the world is round. How can one prove the world is round to me?

There is not much more plausibility to add to the existing answers. One thing which hasn't been mentioned is that the flat earthers might come up with an attempt to refutation for each rational argument raised. (All it takes is a visit to their forum.)

However, the most blatant inconsistency in their "theories" is their denial of gravity. Flat earthers "explain" the fact that we can stand on a flat earth and not fly off into space is that the terrestrial pizza is accelerating at 1G "upwards". (Whatever that means, upwards relative to what?) The big problem with this "explanation" is that at that acceleration, the pizza would get close to C within a few years, not to mention the relativistic effects associated with such speeds, increase in mass etc.

I won't insist any longer. I just find it sad and worrying that apparently nobody cares about the mental disorders of those people. Or is it all about "freedom of speech" again? Or perhaps they are just taking the mickey out of everybody, including themselves?

Edit:

In fact the ultimate "personal eyewitness proof" is accessible to everybody. Not cheap but way cheaper than to co-opt a mission to outer space. Qantas offers regular flights from Sydney to Johannesburg and to Santiago de Chile, both flying the Southern route across Antarctica. On the flight to Jo'burg they take a more eastern route where you can see the vastness of Antarctica on the left and the Antarctic sea on the right. To Santiago they fly a more western route along the coast of Antarctica where the continent is on the right and the sea on the left. Now looking at the flat earther's model, this is simply impossible on a disk where Antarctica is allegedly the outer rim. Even if you assume that the pilots might also be in on the "conspiracy" and make such nifty manoeuvres as to simulate the eastern vs western flyby of Antarctica, it still won't add up mathematically in terms of flight time and distance on a flat model.

The point is that those flights take about 14 hours and they are nonstop flights. That is impossible on the flat model.

A video from the Sydney - Santiago flight

What do you wish you knew before buying your first house?

There are a lot of good responses already given. I’ll add a few more of my own.

Budget at least 10% (preferably 20%) of your monthly mortgage payment to set aside for future repairs and general maintenance. (If you can afford $1500/month, then you should be setting aside $150/month for maintenance and upkeep.)
Figure out what you can afford (create your own realistic budget), don’t go on just what the financing company or real-estate agent suggests. They aren’t the one who will have to pay the bill if money becomes tight.
Your taxes and insurance costs WILL go up. In one area I lived, there was no limit on how much taxes/home valuations good rise in a given year. There was also no connection between market value and taxable value such that there were homes where the taxable value had averaged 5% a year increase for 30+ years. I knew families that were currently paying more in taxes than they did for the original mortgage.
If I were to do it again, I would buy less than I could afford and paid the house off faster.
Location of Dishwasher, shower, toilet in relation to other rooms (especially bedrooms). My kids bedroom is on the other side of the wall from the dishwasher, making it difficult for them to sleep if I run the dishwasher after they are sent to bed. Similarly, the deep freezer in the garage is on the other side of another bedroom and can get loud in the middle of a winter night.
How does the heater/cooler flow through the house. Because of my current layout, my bedroom is receives the first blast of the HVAC. So its the hottest room in the winter and coldest in the summer. I can’t change it much because the other side of the house is reversed.
Actually stand in the bathtub/shower (and look closely to sinks) for hidden damage? (One friend bought a house and found that the bathtub had non-skid stickers in the bathtub strategically placed to hid cracks. Our house had worn porcelain sinks where the damage was hidden behind bleaching.)
Pay attention to the slope of the yard. Will the rain come rushing to your house or move away.

I’m sure there have been more issues that I’ve discovered as a home owner but these are the first ones that come to mind.

What does the foundation of truth contain?

Truth has no foundation. It is the foundation. Of everything. Everything vital to our existence and well-being, that is.

A foundation is the base upon which something rests, is built, and/or is established. And all that is good and beneficial is based on truth, while all that is bad and causes harm is based on lies.

Truth is pure. Truth is just. Truth is beauty. Truth is living.

But truth not only is—truth does. Truth purifies. Truth gives life and every perfect gift. Truth loves.

That’s because ultimate truth is not a what, but a who. Truth is the living, loving, perfect and eternal creator of all things.

What does truth contain? All the things I’ve listed and more: life, love, compassion, beauty, all power, all wisdom, all knowledge, light, and consuming fire.

At the human level, truth is veracity. Here, truth contains reality. It’s something that can be told. Words that align with what occurs—and the true state of things. It’s also being honest and sincere.

There is also a way of truth—that may be lived. And this way draws one ever closer to the ultimate truth, and gives abundant life. It’s likened to building one’s house on a rock, which is a sure foundation.

However, truth is becoming increasingly harder to find and recognize in today’s world. In short, people simply do not love the truth. Rather, they love lies. They love the greatest lie: that the ultimate truth does not exist, and that everyone has their own personal truth.

Why? Because truth always confronts. Truth requires something of us. Truth lays claim over our lives and how we ought to live, and has codified and enumerated laws that dictate the way of truth.

Truth says to us: You are flawed and your flaws will ultimately lead to your destruction and defraud, steal from, and cause harm to others. Let me show you a more excellent way.

The good news is, soon the truth will be known around the globe. Truth will reign on earth. In the end, there will be no more murders, wars, and hatred. There will be no more lying, cheating, and stealing.

The world itself will rest on the foundation of truth.

Why does the world seem flat?

Because it seemingly is flat.

I know you don’t mean why are there no uphills, downhills, valleys and ravines. You mean “flat, ignoring local ups and downs.” Ignoring local ups and downs, it seems flat. Indeed, it nearly is almost perfectly flat.

Instead of checking whether you stepped in a ravine or have to climb steps, a way to check on the more global shape of the surface of the Earth is to find where “down” is. If you know exactly what direction “down” is where you are, you can determine what is “level” where you are, and that doesn’t depend on whether you happen to be facing uphill, or on a cliff, or in the ocean (which is definitely not even looking flat if you are on a beach with waves coming in).

The Earth really seems flat because as you move around, “down” in one place is parallel with “down” nearby. With careful measurements, one can measure that “down” in one place is not parallel with “down” a kilometer away, but is 9/1000th of a degree tilted.

You have to be very, very careful to notice a 9/1000th of a degree shift. It is a little easier if you have a friend and that friend is 3000 kilometers away, as then you would be able to talk with them and notice that “down” for you and “down” for your friend differs by 27 degrees.

9 millionths of a degree for moving one meter? I am going to call that flat. However, in cases where significant distances are involved, you’ll have to go with “almost nearly completely flat, but not entirely.” (According to international standards bodies, “almost nearly completely flat” covers spheres that are 6000 km to 9000 km in radius, so Earth at 6370 km in radius is almost nearly completely flat. And, I just made up that last part.)