?

The best I can describe it is like when you don't realize pressure has built up in your ears until suddenly your ears pop.

I have no sinus pain or sinus pressure that I'm aware of, but all day long I've had this recurring experience of a sensation that my sinuses are relieving pressure. Like they are equalizing in a sort of satisfying way. And then it happens again just a few moments later. This has happened around 80 times today that I've noticed. No sinus discharge or drainage.

I've never heard of anything like this.

Is this normal?

We have Cigna Dental HMO and our dentist was terrible.

We would wait forever in the "lobby" and then be given x-rays even when we insisted we didn't want x-rays after having just had some six months prior at that same office. Then the actual dentist only looked at our teeth for twenty seconds or so. Then we were told to make another appointment because there wasn't enough time to do the cleaning (which is what we were there for in the first place.) And when I asked a question about the difficulty of flossing around the retainer that had been glued in my mouth for more than 20 years the dentist deflected by saying "ask your orthodontist" even though I hadn't HAD an orthodontist for 20 years! He didn't even offer to refer me to one.

We concluded that the dentist must be getting paid "per visit" and "per procedure" because there is no other reason on earth to force x-rays on us and race through the so-called "exam" just to tell us to return another day. We don't have any major teeth or gum problems or anything that would have made a cleaning take excessively long.

Extra trips to the dentist just so the dentist can make more money is b.s.

So we passive aggressively have avoided going to the dentist for almost 3 years because the thought of "being herded like cattle through the x-ray conveyor belt and then sent away when all we really want is an exam and a cleaning" is so aggravating.

Finally I decided enough is enough so I cracked open the book of dentists we can choose from and started calling around and explained how we do NOT want x-rays more often than once a year (unless there is a specific problem requiring an extra x-rays) and almost all of the dental offices said they HAVE to do them that often. That is insane to me. They said that without ever seeing my teeth. I could have perfect darling pearly whites or I could have one fang growing down from the top. How could both situations REQUIRE x-rays every six months?

What say you, Yahoo Answers? Is there any legitimate reason that EVERY dental patient a dental office has ABSOLUTELY NEEDS x-rays every six months? Or is this just how they game my Dental HMO?

Afterword: We finally found a dental office that agrees with our point of view and we just switched our insurance to their office. If all is well we will now be going religiously every six months for exams and cleanings and a maximum of one x-ray per year. :)

I'm completely addicted to the show, but little things are bound to bother me...

>SPOILER<

They hacked off Hirschel's leg with a hatchet? Okay. I suppose that might MIGHT MAYBE keep the bite cooties from spreading, if they do it fast enough.

But WHY is there a hatchet there?

Because that hatchet has been getting used to chop into zombie skulls.

Hello?

Whatever cooties might get into H's system because of a little zombie spit is dangerous, but hacking his leg off with a hatchet that they've been using to kill zombies is just fine?

That's my vote for the worst thing about the show: they are SO not careful about kissing, eating etc when they're all completely covered in zombie gore. They're DRIPPING with zombie blood and still they get all frisky or eat a sandwich or shake hands or whatever.

If there was someone covered in zombie blood anywhere near me I'd freaking freak out until they bathed! I wouldn't start kissing on them!!!

What's your worst thing about the Walking Dead tv show?

Currently I watch "Lost," "Battlestar Galactica," or "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" on DVD while on the treadmill. What else is good to watch?

I have 10 identical batteries in a string and I have each battery's V(open circuit) and each battery's V(during discharge.) I can calculate the resistance of the load during discharge because I have the total string's current during discharge and the total string's voltage during discharge.

For each individual battery can I use :

Conductance = (Vdrop + V open circuit) / (Vdrop X Resistance of Load)

Will this work to give me each individual battery's internal conductance?

This question pretty much asks itself. No more detail necessary.

I've been doing a little research while preparing to get my CA motorcycle license and I've come across many forums with posters advocating "draggin" the rear brake while feathering the throttle in order to pass the test going around the circle.

Does anyone have an idea -based on motorcycle theory- why that would help? I'm scheduled to take the motorcycle safety course next week, and if I pass I'll never have to do the DMV's "lollipop" test, but I'm still curious what it is about dragging that back break that would make a difference on a rider's ability to keep the front wheel inside the lines in the circle. And ideas?

If I had to give my dog to the pound would it be more likely for her to get adopted as a 3 legged dog, than a regular 4 legged dog?

I'm trying to learn guitar. I'm taking the slow boat to China on this one. Taking forever, but making tiny baby steps of progress over the long haul. I'm tempted to get a mandolin. They just seem so fun and playful and I feel like it might inspire me to goof around more often and maybe "unlock" some musical ideas in my brain. I don't only want to learn to play chords on guitar; I'm trying to understand music theory and truly learn the fretboard. Would picking up a mandolin just confuse my brain that is still trying to absorb and understand the notes and scales or would it "break the rut" in my brain? I notice in the mando chord charts a lot of chord shapes are similar to guitar, even though the strings are tuned to different notes.

Thanks for your thoughts!

It seems strange.

I understand letting people in to study at colleges, to visit relatives, to be tourists.

But why the hell would we let people in from Costa Rica or New Zealand to roam around our neighborhoods trying to convert people to their zealot religion?

Um, hello? The damn cult ORIGINATED here.

How exactly does it do the US any good?

I'm so tired of these guys knocking on my door!

I think what this would boil down to is: are the nitrifying bacteria in saltwater and freshwater the same or different strains?

My 29 gallon community tank was happy and healthy for around 5 years, then I had to take it down to do some remodeling work. Gave the fish away. The tank sat with water and filter running but no fish for a few weeks (but with some decaying plant roots, still, and other random detritus) and then was drained. It sat dry for a couple days and then was set up again in its new location. I added a betta and he is doing quite well. I'm not worried at all about ammonia bothering him (there's no way this setup could possibly be worse than the cup he was in at the store) and I'm adding Freshwater Biozyme daily according to the directions, plus more food than he needs. (He'll eat some, the rest will feed the filter.)

I'm thinking about adding a bunch of plants once the LFS gets a new shipment, and shortly following that I'm going to introduce a small communities. Most likely some type of tetras.

I'm not in a terrible hurry to put more fish in, but I also feel like it's somewhat ridiculous to assume the tank would need anything close to the cycling time a brand new aquarium would require.

Bacteria are pretty resilient and they reproduce in no time. All I would need to restart this tank quickly and easily would be a tiny population huddled in the corner of the sponge filter and then the population should explode as soon as they got wet again, especially considering there is still some detritus and other stuff slowly decomposing from before.

There is just no way on earth that I killed all my bacteria when the tank sat empty or even dry for a few days.

The betta looks fantastic. Doing quite well.

The Biozyme I'm adding is just because it was cheap to buy and it "can't hurt."

Am I on the right track here?

As I mentioned, I'm not in a terrific hurry to get more fish in there, but adding a school of neon tetras in a week or so would be reasonable, right?

(Yes, I could simply test the parameters, but this is an armchair discussion.)

Having a 40 gallon saltwater tank installed. With internal overflow to sump, skimmer, LED reef lights, pump, and heater. Possibly other stuff in the future, as needed.

We're installing a new circuit from the panel to supply outlets exclusively for this.

How many amps do we need for the circuit breaker? How many sockets/receptacles should we install?

It'll all come off a GFCI, of course.

I drive a 2001 Ford Ranger with manual side windows and the back window doesn't open. Basically if I had to break a window would I be better off ending up needing to repair a side widow, the windshield, or the back window?

I've had a 29 gallon tank in my house for around 10 years and never had any problems. We have hardwood floors originally installed in the 1930's. You might think that means they're old and falling apart, but it seems quite the opposite... the wood is incredibly hard and dense and shows no signs of any kind of failure.

We're about to redo some stuff in the living room and we might move to a larger tank. I estimate the 29 gallon tank weighs around 300 pounds. Sounds like a lot, but I know people who weigh that much and I let them in my house and walk around and we never have problems, even with their weight distributed only on the surface area of their shoe. Seems like a larger tank would still be fine, especially since its weight would be distributed on a larger footprint. Am I on the right track?

What's the right way to figure this out?

Largest tank I'd probably ever get would be 55 or 75 gallons.

I've kept a freshwater community tank for the past 10 years with success in keeping the fish alive and avoiding suspended algae. The fish seem lively and happy. I allow the back wall to stay covered in the brownish algae that grows there and I keep the front and side walls clean. The gravel gets somewhat funky with the brownish algae. Anything I try to plant seems sad and stunted, even though I have a nice thick substrate layered with "planted tank" substrate and sand.

All in all I enjoy the tank, but I'm quite disappointed that the plants don't flourish.

We're redoing the entire living room and giving away the current fish (so they won't die during the renovations) and when we set up the tank again we want to start over again--we'd like something a lot more visually exciting than our somewhat drab (if happy) freshwater community.

We would love to have a beautiful reef tank with some of that incredibly colorful reef life and small brightly colored salty fish.

Of course that could get pricey with new heaters, skimmers, pumps, powerheads, sumps, and livestock, and electricity.

On the other hand we've been extremely impressed with some of the award winning planted freshwater tanks... some of them are so incredible looking like entire forests or scenes from "Avatar." We would be extremely happy with that and a school of neon tetras. But is that an immense amount of work? Would I need to get my hands in there trimming plants every day like a bonsai tree? I know it would require some extra equipment and lighting, but probably not as much as a reef tank... I think?

Which direction should we go here? A considerable amount of upfront money and time investment is to be expected, but we would want a system that would stabilize over time so it would be beautiful but not TOO demanding to maintain.

What do you think?

I'm hoping for a bar or other regular get-together spot to relax and enjoy bluegrass.

If you leave your baby at one of those "safe surrender" sites, wouldn't everyone wonder what happened to your baby? You just tell them, "Oh, yeah, I gave my baby away anonymously."? What's to keep someone who abused or neglected or killed their baby from saying they "safe surrendered" it? Does the father or the grandparents have any rights to get the baby back after it's been surrendered?

I've been told it's the kicking team that decides if the pack/backs will be left/right and the other team matches them. But it seems to me like the receiving team has no reason to match up to the kicking team... The kicker is going to kick it to the pack or backs and it seems like the team in POSESSION of the ball at that point has the advantage if the defending team has mismatched... Why would the team that is about to be in possession bother making sure the team that is about to defend is matched up properly?

I would like Yahoo to shut down their account and any accounts opened from their IP address!

Part of what we agree to when we open our accounts is to not use them for fraudulent purposes. I'd like to see Yahoo enforce that.