Yahoo! Answers

Hey Guys,

The other day, during a bout of temporary insanity, I wandered into an antique store. There were old paintings, old furniture, old postcards, old everything. As I walked the aisles, careful not to touch anything, I wondered: What makes something an antique? Is there an accepted definition?

I hit the Web in search of answers. The most widely accepted definition comes from a 1930 U.S. Tariff Act. This particular act defined an “antique” as “works of art…which shall have been produced prior to the year 1830.”

Why 1830? According to OldAndSold.com, “it was about this time that mass production and factory manufacture began to displace the making of individual pieces entirely by hand.”

Of course, that’s not to say that something mass produced can’t be an antique. Ask Yahoo! notes that “an object’s material and design can mean as much as the manufacturing method or date.” Additionally, there are many cases in which something less than a century old, sometimes called a collectible, is worth more than an honest-to-goodness antique.

In other words, the definition of an antique can vary from person to person. There are exceptions, exceptions to those exceptions, and exceptions to the exceptions of the original exceptions. If you’re in the market for something old and expensive, it’s a smart move to ask a trust-worthy expert to appraise the object before you pluck down your hard-earned cash.

Got any tips on how to identify the value of antiques? How can you tell if something is really an antique or just made to look, well, really old? Please leave a comment below!

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Photo by design to forget
Another school year has started, and by now the reality has set in: Summer is over and it’s time to get serious and hit those books. It’s an ideal time to improve study habits that may have gotten a little rusty over the last few months. After all, it takes time to develop good habits, and a fresh school year gives students the opportunity to jump-start their academic identities. Here are some of my tips to help reinvigorate your academic career.

• Get your stuff together: Make sure everything you need is in one place. Nothing will derail a productive study session like interruptions for finding pencils, paper, or that textbook you left who-knows-where. Find a place where you can keep all of your supplies orderly and ready. When I was younger, I had a basket to put my school supplies in. When I was in high school and college, I had a box in the trunk of my car for studying-on-the-go.
• Find a place where you can work comfortably: I like ambient noise when I am working (or studying). Some people need silence-I need a little hustle and bustle going on around me. My ideal study spot is a coffeehouse-preferably with free Wi-Fi. It keeps me steadily caffeinated and occasionally offers just the right kind of temporary diversion.
• Work in short bursts: The “right kind of temporary diversion” I mentioned earlier keeps me from getting overwhelmed. I’ve also found that explaining what I’ve just read to someone else (usually my unwitting study-buddy) helps the information stick more firmly in my memory.
• Eat healthy snacks while you study: The brain consumes about one-third of the calories we consume every day. My hit list includes broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and sugar snap peas. I’m also a big fan of dried fruit (sulfur-free!) and protein bars. I find I’m much more productive if I’m not dreaming of my next meal.
• Get organized: Know what you need to do before you sit down to do it. I love lists, and my favorite thing about lists is checking completed tasks off of them. Keeping track of tasks (whether in list form or otherwise) will also help circumvent any forgetfulness.

What study tips and environments work for you?

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Hey Guys,

Despite the tremendous popularity of big TVs and all things “tech,” many people still love old fashioned board games. After browsing around Yahoo! Answers, I discovered that not only do you like to play board games, some of you also have aspirations of creating one of your own.

A simple search on “board games” within Yahoo! Answers returns over 13,000 results. A good number of those come from folks seeking information on how to break into the industry. Weasel281 aspires to design games in the toy industry and is looking for help getting started. Another community member, Ajaho, has already made his own board game and is looking for tips on getting it published.

Some aspiring designers don’t necessarily want to manufacture the game themselves — they just want to license the idea to an existing company. Anyone who is thinking about making their own game would do well to check out this question from PhillGood_13. He asks, “What are the most important features of a good board game?”

Building off that question, one might also want to ask what makes a successful game so successful. That’s exactly what jculala365 wants to know about Monopoly. What is it about this game that has made it so popular for so long? The thimble, perhaps?

What about you? Do you still play board games? Have you ever tried to make one of your own? What makes a great board game great? Strategy? Simplicity? A bunch of plastic hippos? Please leave a comment and let me know.

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Photo by becstarr
When San Francisco banned plastic shopping bags, I realized I was clueless about the environmental impact of plastics. I had always assumed the numbered code imprinted on plastic containers rated the difficulty of recycling them. But after consulting Answers, I discovered I didn’t know all the details.

Curly explains that numbers 1-7 refer to the types of resin in the plastic. Some resins are more easily recyclable than others, and recycling centers differ on which codes they will accept.

How do you know which codes you can recycle locally? After a little research, I learned that as of a few months ago, virtually all plastics (with the exception of plastic bags, films, and Styrofoam) can be recycled curbside in San Francisco. But every city is different. If your local curbside recycling program accepts only a few types of plastic, several Answers users suggest visiting Earth 911 to find other recycling options in your area.

As whsgreenmom points out, “Most non earth friendly choices are made out of habit and ignorance.” What are some ways to encourage people to think about the environmental impact of the choices they make?

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Hey Guys,

The presidential campaign is heating up. Speeches are getting nastier, the blogs are getting tougher, and the campaign commercials are running about as often as Seinfeld re-runs. One thing that got me wondering–after each campaign ad, one of the two presidential candidates says he “approves this message.” How did this start?

As I quickly learned, candidates don’t do this because they want to–they do it because they have to. The disclaimers are a direct result of the campaign reform laws of 2002 (co-sponsored by John McCain). The goal of the laws, according to an article from CNN, is to keep soft money, the “unlimited and unregulated contributions to national political parties,” out of campaign commercials. Additionally, the statement from each candidate is designed to force candidates to take credit for any commercial mudslinging. Pretty clever.

But does this mean dirty politics are a thing of the past? Of course not! PC Magazine explains that during the 2004 election, the more aggressive rhetoric simply moved from TV and onto the Internet. On the Web, campaign ads aren’t regulated so things can get far more negative.

What are your opinions of campaign ads? Do they have any effect on how you vote? Do you find them informative or irritating? Are you glad that today’s candidates are forced to take credit for what they say in ads? Please leave an approved message below.

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