Questions answered by Mr Craig Brownell
(Expert Rank: 8710)  |
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What if my dad dies and there is no will. My mom has already passed on. Will my dad's unadopted step son inherit anything? |
| Question found in Wills |
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The correct answer will depend on where your father lived. In most U.S. states, the estate of an unmarried/widowed intestate decedent is distributed on a "per stirpes" basis after the final debts of the decedent are resolved. That is "by the steps of descendancy". Percentages are assigned to succeeding generations. Blood and adopted children share equally. Other relatives (siblings, former spouses, etc.) have no claim. If a child has preceded the decedent in death, the blood and adopted children of that child will equally divide that child's bequest. And so on, and so on. If your father never legally adopted the step-son, he has no legitimate claim to any portion of the estate, even if his mother (who predeceased your father) might otherwise have had a claim. |
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How long should it take for hot water from a baxi 105he boiler to come through to the taps from a distance of around 5 metres? |
| Question found in Home & Garden In General |
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| If delay is a problem, you can do what cruise lines do on their ships. Run a line PAST the tap so hot water is always circulating from the boiler. When you open the tap, you will have hot water almost instantaneously. This may increase your costs to provide hot water, but it will almost eliminate any delay at the tap. |
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Is recycling the answer to the problem of waste disposal? |
| Question found in Alternative In General |
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Recycling may be PART of the answer, but the question is not as much of a problem as might be implied. Most of the answer rests in common sense. Many items can be recycled, many cannot. Simple garbage may consist of food waste, packaging, broken dishes, old clothes/shoes, toys, used medical waste and many other items. Some of these can be recycled, some cannot. Much food waste is disposed of via sanitary sewage (garbage disposals, toilets, etc.) and, equally often, in ordinary refuse (for landfills, etc.). Either way, its life expectancy is very short. It will return to nature in very short order (frequently, less than one year). Some packaging, cans, bottles, etc. can and probably should be recycled. Unfortunately, some have lobbied legislatures and city councils, so their services are mandatory. We MUST recycle or suffer legal penalties. We also PAY to have our recycling picked up. The people collecting recycled goods make money from this. Nice work if you can get it: the government makes it illegal for its citizens not to pay you to pick up items they don't want so you can sell them to other businesses. Where do I sign up? Old clothing, shoes, etc. could and should be donated to organizations that will recycle them to those less fortunate. Eventually, these and other wastes end up disposed of in landfills or other "dumping". In many cases, some of these wastes will break down and return to nature, albeit more slowly than environmental whackos would prefer that we tolerate. Please consider that ALL of these products had to originate from Earth. Their disposal in landfills might constitute a temporary "unnatural concentration" in that particular area, but they have merely been combined into other products and moved from their places of origin. They are not inherently "unnatural" unless they have been imported from another planet. If recycling can be accomplished, it is a worthy goal. If it cannot, "dumping" is merely a relocation of used resources from their place of origin on earth to their current resting place in the earth. Management of where these items are dumped (stored for posterity) is a problem of esthetics and long-term land use more than one of environmentalism. Imagine the archaeological finds scientists 10,000 years from now will discover when they locate where we dumped our garbage. That's what archaeologists are doing now to learn about civilizations from 10,000 years ago. We don't chastise ancient man for his lack of environmentalism, we praise him for leaving us clues about his lifestyles. It's not indiscriminate dumping, it's future archaeological treasure! Yeah! That's the ticket! Undissolved plastic Barbie and Ken dolls will likely lead to all manner of speculation regarding what 20th Century men and women probably looked like. Personally, I'm not all that excited to think that 120th Century archaeologists will think that all 20th Century women were built like a ceramic defecatorium and 20th Century men had no genitals. When they consider all of the surviving 20th Century documents concerning test tube babies, it will likely lead them to inaccurate conclusions. |
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How can I see all my questions asked before (and my answers) collected together? |
| Question found in Miscellaneous |
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On the right side of your Simply Explained screen (once logged in), you will see three "bubbles" labeled FIND, ASK and ANSWER. Below them are several hot links. Click on "Your Previously Asked Questions" and it should take you where you want to go. Comments :  Ok, meanwhile I found it. The problem is that in the main page this link is not visible after logging in. First I have to click on "Search by Categories"Thanks, anyway 
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I booked a catering hall for my wedding next year but the facility will not be able to hold all my guests. I had to cancel. I'm already loosing my deposit. Why do I have to pay an extra 500 dollars for the vendors who haven't provided services ? He says it's because he pays them up front and he loses money but is this ethical or even legal ? |
| Question found in Consumer Law |
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Rob is exactly correct. One year in advance, this is neither ethical nor legal unless your contract provided for such a contingency. If there are no provisions in your contract regarding other vendors, the facility cannot, lawfully, charge you for arrangements they allege to have made "in anticipation". Especially, one year in advance. Weddings being subject to many, MANY last-minute changes, no reasonable person in the industry can successfully claim anything as "final" until within 90 days of the event. Even then, it is speculative at best. We "booked" our caterer many months in advance, but they did not even ask for a deposit until 60 days before the wedding. If any arrangements were made, they were on the basis of the facility's "anticipation" of business. If not provided in your rental agreement, those arrangements were premature (at best) on their part and you should have NO liability this far in advance. In fact, if you have actual written bills for such (ask for them in writing BEFORE proceeding), you may have cause of action and receive a full refund of your deposit on the basis of fraudulent business practices. In the absence of a contract that permits, no business can charge for "lost profits" when said profits were only anticipated and no agreement provided for them. Especially so far in advance of the event. |
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My house is just 4 years old and I made some mistakes when planning the kitchen and it is too expensive to do it over completely. I was wondering if you had any ideas how I could improve it without spending too much----my mistakes are: a large island in the middle of the room with the sink on one side (not in the island) and the stove on the other (a lot of walking), white corian counter tops and white cabinets and white appliances. (too much white) I have wood floors and they are beautiful (a nice contrast with the white cabinets. My concerns are: too much white and walking around the island from the sink to the stove. Do you have any suggestions as to how I could improve these conditions? |
| Question found in Home & Garden In General |
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The "best" kitchen plans are practical. The focal point of any efficient kitchen is a triangle between the sink, stove and refrigerator with minimal steps in between. If you can rearrange to make this possible, the rest is all eye-appeal. The kitchen is a working room. It can also be a showplace. If you design it with function foremost, it will have some natural eye-appeal because it makes sense. Colors should draw the eye towards food preparation, not towards the walls. Nicely patterned wallpaper is fine, white counters and cabinets are O.K., too. Now, place BRIGHTLY-colored jars of pasta, condiments, etc. on the counters. The walls frame the picture, now give the visitor's eye something distinctive upon which to focus. Jars of peppers in oil, pasta, etc. |
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You are a phlebotomist for a community lab, you travel from the hospital to the lab, you finished drawing blood and your headed back to the lab, you get a cell phone call that the hospital needs a complete cbc and electrolyte drawn STAT do you go back to the ER or do you go drop off the current blood samples? |
| Question found in Education In General |
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When I was a medic, STAT meant immediately. Do not pass GO, do not collect $200. Heh. Of course, the lab (employer) may have specific rules governing how its people are to deal with requests such as this and those rules may involve its contract terms with the requesting ER. It will also depend on whether you already have STAT samples in your possession and your relative proximity to the lab vs. the ER. |
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Why do some countries drive on the left instead of the right like we do in the USA? Also why is the voltage different? |
| Question found in Miscellaneous |
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I do not know if this is historically accurate, but rather reasoned from a self-defense standpoint. While traveling, one did not always know the person traveling towards them on the road. As a side note, the military "salute" is an outgrowth of lifting one's helmet visor for recognition. Otherwise, follow the logic: Driving on the left comes from medieval England. When approaching an oncoming person, it was advisable to have one's sword arm (right) closest to the oncomer in the event one must defend themselves. This is accomplished by "driving" (riding on horseback) on the left side of the road. When the American colonies were forming, firearms were more commonly carried for defense (as opposed to swords). It being difficult to aim a musket at someone on your right, driving on the right side of the road was more practical. You don't have to "buy" this, but it's fun to speculate a little. |
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I have recently installed a new Buck Stove fireplace insert to replace the old one I had for 25 years. The new one has a catalytic converter in the top of it. Several friends have told me that using this option creates a lot of creosote in the chimney from choking the fire down so much and have advised me to remove the catalyst and use the stove as I did the old one without one. What should I do? |
| Question found in Home & Garden In General |
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Creosote is most often caused by pine oils and tars from burning softwoods (evergreens, etc.), although, it can and does build up from other sources as well. You should consult with the people who sold the insert or other wood-burning stove professionals. Chimney cleaning services can be a great source of information as well. They have to clean it out, so they may know the best ways to avoid it. |
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Why does the moon look extremely large at certain times in the night sky, and tiny at other times? I'm not convinced that this is merely an optical illusion. |
| Question found in Space & Astronomy |
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The first answer wasn't bad, but only explains the moon's apparent color (harvest moon, etc.). Next time, compare the size of the moon near the horizon to a fingernail at arm's length. Check again when the moon is at its zenith. Same size relative to the same fingernail. The illusion is because near the horizon, there are familiar objects (trees, buildings, etc.) against which to compare the moon and they aren't near the moon at its zenith. |
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