Author Archives: sanhei

Real estate website improvements

Almost all real estate websites I have read are missing the essential information about a lease from their search filters. The core info is whether the property is available from a certain date to a certain date, whether the minimum and maximum lease lengths allow a tenancy for the specified term, what is the monthly rent for that term. Some websites specify that information in the description of the property, but do not allow searches based on it. On some websites, the rent doubles when the term is halved, which would be good to know from the start instead of after clicking on a search result.

If the property is only rented to a specific class people, e.g. requires a number of years of good rental history, a certain income level, etc, then it would be good to know this at the start of the search, instead of during the application process.

Almost useless info like hardwood floors, granite countertops, historic building, etc should be removed or relegated to the bottom of the page.

In general, any search website should allow the user to remove specific results (that the user has deemed irrelevant) from future searches, like Craigslist does. Being able to save the search like in Craigslist is also a useful feature.

Arranging a virgin birth in a low-tech way

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Warning: this Christianity- and Christmas-themed post may offend or disgust. The procedure described is unpleasant for the receiver.

Fertilisation of an egg cell requires sperm to reach it, which does not require breaking the hymen. A thin tube, such as a hollow straw or reed, can be inserted through the small opening in the hymen to pump sperm (obtained via male masturbation) into the vagina. The simplest way to pump the sperm is to suck it into the straw with one’s mouth and then blow it out. Another way is with an enema pump (bulb syringe) that can be constructed with primitive technology: a hollow leather ball glued to a reed using resin, tar or bone glue. The seams of the leather ball can be waterproofed with tar. The ball can be made to spring back into shape after squeezing, e.g. by constructing it with wire hoops or springs inside.

Successful fertilisation with the above method likely requires many attempts, because the probability of pregnancy from unprotected sex during the most fertile part of the menstrual cycle is 30%. Sexual activity causes hormonal changes in the female organism that facilitate fertilisation, which a simple reed insertion probably does not, but it may be possible to create similar hormonal changes with an erotic massage.

The above method can be used to arrange a virgin birth in a primitive society. No miracles are required, although a virgin giving birth may be marketed as miraculous.

Modern in vitro fertilisation technology of course expands the range of ways to engineer a virgin birth.

Protecting a wound or burn that needs frequent access

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If it is necessary to put cream on a burn frequently, then a band-aid is inconvenient, because it must be pulled off every time. Also, a band-aid may stick to an oozing wound and reopen it every time it is pulled off. If the damaged skin needs covering, for example because the weather requires thick clothes, then one solution is to stick or tie a small cup-shaped object on top of the wound. Tying is preferable, because removing a stuck object again irritates the damaged area. The edges of the cup should be soft, because these press on the skin (so a plastic bottle cap is a bad idea). One soft-edged approximately cup-shaped object is the eyepiece of swimming goggles.

Swimming goggles protecting wound

The eyepiece is nicely attached to adjustable straps for tying it on with neither too much nor too little pressure. The eyepiece may be flipped over to the side to get access to the damaged skin.

Of course, the location of the wound may cause difficulties in tying swimming goggles on top of it, e.g. on the torso. Even on the arm or the leg, the lengthwise movement of the sleeve or pant leg may push the goggles off, because the strap running around the limb does not resist lengthwise movement well. Then adding some bandages may be necessary.
Overnight, the area under the goggles gets sweaty. To avoid this, small air holes may be drilled in the eyepieces, which of course makes the goggles useless for swimming.

Improvements for hotels

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Commonly in hotels the room keycard has to be inserted into a slot for the lights in the room to turn on. An annoyance occurs when the lights are reset each time the card is removed and re-inserted, such as when leaving and re-entering the room (this problem and most of the subsequently mentioned ones are based on Courtyard by Marriott Chennai, but some are based on other hotels). Typically all the lights turn on and the unnecessary ones have to be turned off one by one. A simple and cheap microcomputer could remember the on-off settings of the lights and keep these until reset. Another similar problem is that the temperature of the AC or heating, as well as the fan speed, gets reset when the keycard is removed from the slot. Thus the AC has to be readjusted after each re-entry.

The keycard should work consistently, not require several attempts to operate the lift or open the room door.

It is a nice touch for a hotel to have a steam room, sauna or jacuzzi next to the fitness centre, but it would be even better if these were in working order and clean. Another nice touch is to provide slippers in the room, but if these are child-sized, then they are not very useful for an adult male. If there are two pairs of slippers in a room, then different-sized pairs would be reasonable and almost as cheap to provide as same-sized ones.

If (free) wifi is advertised, then it would be nice if it was working. Wifi problems can be detected automatically (by wifi-enabled devices placed in the corners of the hotel remotest from the routers) without waiting for annoyed guests to contact the front desk.

An electric kettle in the room is good for making tea, but placing glasses next to the kettle invites an absent-minded person to pour hot water into these, which cracks them.

The carpet should not shed hair that sticks to socks and anything else it comes into contact with (by floating in the air for example).

The fitness centres in hotels are typically less than 25 square metres. It is possible to choose machines and weights for a small room in such a way that cardio and all major muscle groups can be trained, but hotels seem to choose the machines randomly, e.g. three ellipticals and a stair stepper, but no rowing machine. Or two quadriceps training machines (leg extension and leg press), but no hamstring training machine (prone leg curl). This is despite the fact that quads are easy to train without a machine (do squats with or without weights), but hamstrings difficult.

A common problem in hotels is street noise in the room, which may be expensive to fix if the hotel construction quality is bad. One hotel in which the room was quiet despite a busy street outside was Sheraton New Delhi. A possible reason for its quietness was that the windows had two layers of packet glass, consisting of two or three layers each.

Hotel breakfasts should have a list of ingredients next to each dish, not just the name of the dish, especially when the name is unfamiliar to most visitors, e.g. the name is in the local language for a traditional ethnic dish. The list of ingredients would be especially helpful to people with food allergies, but the non-allergic would also benefit – it is easier to choose with more info. The ingredients in the list should be ordered, starting with the ones that constitute the largest percentage of the dish.

The arrangement of dishes at buffet meals should make it logistically convenient to get food, i.e. movement to and from the dishes should be unrestricted (no closely placed tables blocking the way) and similar foods should be located together. Sometimes hotels make strange food placement choices, for example I have seen soups and meat dishes alternate. Rydges on Swanston in Melbourne placed all the dishes in a small recess off the dining area, so there was a traffic jam of people trying to get into and out of that nook with their plates.

Made-to-order (live cooking) dishes at buffet meals could be prepared and distributed faster if their order system was computerised and the eaters could order the dishes from their smartphones. Peak demand time can be predicted and the cooking started in advance to speed up the delivery of the dishes. Such just-in-time production has economies of scale, so is especially easy for larger buffets.

The hotel room logistics are often strange, e.g. a narrow corridor leading from the door to the room, with wardrobes built into the side of the corridor. The doors of said wardrobes open outward, blocking the corridor. On the other hand, in the Chennai Marriott bathroom the shower stall and the the toilet were behind the same sliding door. To access the toilet, the door had to slide in front of the shower, and to access the shower, the door closed off the toilet. This would be annoying if two or more people stayed in that suite and tried to use the shower and toilet simultaneously, because both could not be behind a closed door at the same time.

Another logistical problem in both hotels and apartments is a toilet door that opens inward. When the toilet is small, the door almost hits the pot, making it difficult to maneuver around the door for entry and exit. Some toilets are so tiny that when sitting on the pot, the knees touch the opposite wall. In this case, it would be better to place the pot diagonally so the knees fit in a corner.

Two doors at the ends of a short corridor that both open into the corridor are impossible to open at the same time, which lengthens the time of passing through both doors.

Some hotels want to show how modern they are by replacing light switches with small touchscreens with LED backlighting. The little LED lights are numerous enough to somewhat light up the room when the ceiling and other lights are turned off. For sleeping, it would be good to be able to turn off the LED lights of the touchscreens.

If a motion detector turns on the light, then being able to switch off the motion detector and the light would be preferable. Sometimes the light is unnecessary, such as during the day with curtains open. The sudden bright light may also be annoying, for example when visiting the bathroom at night.

Hotel beds are usually short, so people over 180cm have their feet over the edge, unless they lie diagonally. Luckily hotel beds are usually wide, so their diagonal is significantly longer than the long side.

Avoiding an animal on the road

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When a bike or car heads towards a squirrel, the squirrel first dodges to one side and then runs away in the other direction. Birds fly directly away from the oncoming vehicle, so stay in front of the vehicle for a few seconds. These behaviours are presumably evolutionary adaptations to avoid predators. For example, the squirrel’s dodge probably misleads a predator to alter course in the direction of the dodge. The larger predator then has more difficulty than a small agile squirrel in switching direction to the opposite side of the dodge.
In avoiding vehicles, these escape patterns are counterproductive. A predator tries to collide with the prey, but a vehicle tries to avoid collision. A squirrel’s dodge confuses the driver or cyclist, who then tries to pass the animal on the opposite side of the initial feint, which is exactly the direction the animal ends up running in. The best way to avoid collision may be to just keep going in a straight line and let the animal dodge out of the way. A constant direction and speed is easy to predict, which lets the animal avoid being in the same place at the same time as the vehicle. Keeping one’s course and speed also avoids accident-prone sharp turns and sudden stopping.
If a predator was smart and knew about the dodging behaviour, then it would go opposite the initial dodge. But then the squirrel would benefit from not switching direction. In response to the squirrel just running in one direction, the predator should run in the direction of the squirrel’s initial movement, etc. This game only has a mixed strategy equilibrium where the squirrel randomises its direction and whether it dodges or not, and the predator randomises its response to the squirrel’s initial movement direction. Dodging takes more energy than just running to one side, so the dodge must have a benefit that outweighs the energy cost, which means that the predator must be less successful when the squirrel dodges. Some factor must make it difficult for the predator to swerve opposite the squirrel’s initial direction. For example, if most prey keep running in one direction instead of feinting, then the predator may be on average more successful when following the initial movement of the prey. The cognitive cost of distinguishing squirrels from other prey must be too large to develop a different strategy for chasing squirrels.
The same game describes dribbling in soccer to avoid a defender. It would be interesting to look at data on what proportion of the time the attacker feints to one side and then moves to the other, as opposed to just trying to pass around the defender in the initial movement direction. It is more difficult for both players to switch than to keep moving in one direction, but presumably the player with the ball finds it relatively more complicated than the defender. In this case, to keep the other player indifferent, each player only has to switch direction less than half of the time, but the defender relatively less frequently. If the attacker feints and the defender does not switch direction, then the defender looks clumsy and the attacker a good dribbler. Reputation concerns of soccer players (who are after all entertainers) may make them switch direction more often than a pure winning motive would dictate.
Similarly, soccer players may use flashy moves like scissor kicks more often than is optimal for winning, because the flashiness makes the player popular with fans.

Saving ventilation cost by using the wind

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Most large modern buildings have active ventilation built in, meaning that electric fans drive the air through the building. The airflow direction is usually fixed at construction time. However, if the wind happens to blow from the opposite direction to the ventilation flow, then the fans require extra energy to counter the wind. On the other hand, if the wind agrees with the airflow in the building, then the fans may not need to be run at all. To save electricity, a building could have a wind direction sensor (a weather vane) on the roof connected to a switch that reverses the ventilation fans, so that the fans always pump air in approximately the same direction as the wind. If the wind is strong enough, a wind speed sensor (a small windmill or windsock) on the roof could stop the ventilation fans altogether.
The tradeoff for this adaptive ventilation system is the initial fixed construction cost and the ongoing maintenance of the weather vane, windsock and controller of the fans. All the extra components of the system (relative to the current unidirectional ventilation) are cheap and robust, so the both the fixed cost and the maintenance should be negligible.
Current ventilation systems have differently shaped air inlets and outlets in the rooms, which suggests that the system requires a particular airflow direction. In this case, adaptive ventilation may be much more expensive than the current ones, because the ventilation shafts and air vents need to be doubled. To avoid the need to build twice as many shafts and vents, have just the air inlets and outlets of the whole building switch roles with the wind direction. The rest of the system can remain unidirectional when the valves from the building’s inlet and outlet to the rest of the system switch appropriately. The air inside the building can then move in the opposite direction of the wind some of the time. In this case, the electricity saving is only realised if the building is sufficiently airtight, which is the case for modern highrises that have unopenable windows. If the air is allowed to move through the building independently of the ventilation and the wind is opposite the airflow in the system, then the fans have to overcome the air pressure difference like in the current systems. This wastes electricity.

When to open windows to cool or warm a building

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My uninsulated apartment building went from too cold to too hot in about a week, which is normal in Canberra. People have started to open the windows in the stairwell in addition to their apartment windows. The timing of the opening seems a bit misguided – people open the windows in the morning. During daytime, the air outside is warmer than the air inside the stairwell, but during the night the outside air is colder. To state the obvious: to cool down the building, open the windows for the night and close them for the day. Currently the opposite seems to happen, although I counter this trend by closing the windows in the morning when I notice them open.
In general, if you want the building cooler and the outside air is colder than the inside, then open the windows, but if the outside is warmer, then close them. If you want the building warmer and the outside air is colder than the inside, then close the windows, but if the outside is warmer, then open them. This could easily be automated with temperature sensors outside and inside the building connected to a thermostat and small electric motors opening and closing the windows. Such a system would save some of the heating and cooling costs of the building.
There may be non-temperature reasons to open and close the windows, for example to let smell out of the stairwell or to keep insects from coming in. The second reason is not relevant for my building, because all windows have bugscreens and the exterior doors have a gap an inch wide under them, which the insects can easily use to get in.

Tenancy Ending Checklist

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Before the final inspection:
Give or receive valid notice of ending tenancy in writing, resolve any dispute about this.
Confirm any arrangements for agent/landlord to access property in writing.
Schedule final inspection.
Disconnect all utilities connected in your name.
Calculate rent payable until end of tenancy and pay that amount.
Cancel direct debit if necessary.
Clean property as needed when compared to incoming condition report.
Arrange for carpet cleaning if necessary.
Remove any additions, alterations you have done to property.
Print 1) bond refund form, 2) move-in condition report (keep a copy), 3) filled or blank move-out condition report, 4) key receipt to take to final inspection. 5) Put the move-in photos and video on a laptop/other device or print them to take to final inspection.

On the day of final inspection or move-out day:
Take photos of meters (date stamped).
Take photos/videos of condition of property and do your own condition report.
Bring the required forms, photos and video to the final inspection. Attend final inspection.
Return keys and get a receipt or sign a photocopy.
Resolve any issues with condition of property.
Sign bond refund form and lodge with Office of Rental Bonds (you or the agent can do this).

Ways in which an eater can get negative calories from food

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There are at least four ways in which an eater may have less energy and nutrients after consuming a food: mechanical, chemical, physical and biological. The mechanical way is that chewing and other parts of digestion take energy, so if a food requires serious mastication and contains few calories, then more energy may be spent than absorbed. This has been claimed for raw celery.
Chemically, one food may react with another in a way that makes one or both of them less digestible. The less effective absorption reduces the nutrients obtained compared to not eating the second reactant. The chemical pathway to inefficient digestion may have multiple steps. For example, ascorbic acid leaches calcium from the body, and calcium is required for the absorption of vitamin D, so eating more citrus fruits may indirectly reduce one’s vitamin D levels.
When calculating the calorie content of food, indigestible fibre is subtracted from carbohydrates before adding up the energy obtained from carbohydrates, fats and proteins. However, if fibre reduces the absorption of calories (in addition to its known reduction of the absorption iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium and phosphorus), then the food’s bioavailable calorie content is less than that obtained by simply subtracting the fibre. To derive the correct calorie content, the fibre should then have negative weight in the calculation, not zero. This difference may explain why in Western countries, a high-fibre diet predicts better health in multiple dimensions in large prospective studies (Nurses’ Health Study, Framingham Heart Study), controlling for calorie intake, lifestyle and many other factors. If the calorie absorption is overestimated for people eating lots of fibre (because the calorie intake is larger than the absorption), then their predicted health based on the too high calorie estimate is worse than their actual health. This is because most people in Western countries overeat, so eating less improves health outcomes. If the predicted health is underestimated, then the high-fibre group looks unusually healthy, which is attributed to the beneficial effects of fibre, but may actually be due to absorbing fewer calories.
A food may chemically break down tissues, e.g. bromelain and papain, from fresh pineapple and papaya respectively, denature meat proteins, so cause mouth sores. Rebuilding the damaged tissue requires the energy and nutrients, the quantity of which may exceed that absorbed from the food.
Chemically causing diarrhea reduces the time that foods (including the laxative agent) spend in the gut, thus reduces nutrient absorption.
Stimulants like caffeine speed up metabolism and cause greater energy expenditure, but may give zero calories themselves, resulting in a net negative caloric balance.
Just like chemical damage, physical injury to the body necessitates spending calories and nutrients for tissue repair. For example, scratchy food (phytoliths, bran) may cause many microscopic wounds to the digestive tract.
Cold food requires the body to spend energy on heating, so if the calorie content is small, then the net energy obtained is is negative. Examples are ice cubes and cold water.
A food substance may physically partially block the absorption of another, for example a gelling agent (methylcellulose, psyllium husks) may turn a juice into a gel in the gut and thereby reduce its absorption. Based on my personal experience, psyllium husks gel liquid feces, thus effectively reducing diarrhea. Mixing psyllium husks with carrot juice and with asparagus powder dissolved in water before consuming them during the same meal results in the excretion of separated faint orange and green gels somewhat distinct from the rest of the feces (photos available upon request, not posted to keep the blog family-friendly). This is suggestive evidence that the gelling agent both kept the juices from mixing in the gut and reduced the absorption of the colourful compounds by keeping the juice in the centre of the gel away from the intestinal wall.
Biologically, a food may reduce the nutrients available to the organism by causing infection, the immune response to which requires energy and depletes the body’s reserves of various substances. Infection may lead to diarrhea, although the mechanism is chemical, namely the toxins excreted by the microbes. Infection with helminths (intestinal worms) that suck blood through the wall of the gut requires the replenishment of blood cells, which uses up calories, protein and iron.
If the food takes a long time to chew or is bulky, then chemical and electrical signals of satiation are sent from the gastrointestinal tract to the the appetite centre of the brain. These signals reduce the desire to eat, thus decrease calorie intake.