Useful information everyone should know.

[Muad'Dib]

Inspired by this thread. (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=228231)

What useful, practical information do you have that everyone should know?

[stuyguy]

I've posted this tip twice before and it was a hit both times so I'll do it again. Apologies to those who've read it earlier.

When using a pay phone in a noisy situation, cover the mouthpiece -- that's right, the mouthpiece -- with your free hand when you're not talking.

How will this help you hear the other party? Well, the phone is designed to send some of your mouthpiece sound signal (called backtalk, IIRC) into your earpiece; it was made this way so you could literally "hear yourself talk" -- engineers found that if a speaker had no idea how he/she sounded he/she would talk too loudly or softly. But in noisy situations the backtalk mechanism picks up all the ambient clatter and funnels it right into your ear while you're straining to hear the other party. Cover your mouthpiece and the only thing reaching your earpiece is the conversation.

Try it. You'll be amazed.

[Silver Serpentine]

You can buy a plug set for flat tires for about $10.

It comes with a hole cleaner tool (spiraly and ridged) and a plug applicator (a wierd tool - looks like like a screwdriver, but open at the bottom with a gap to hold the plug) and about 5 plugs. Refills are about $3 for 5.

When the set costs $10 to fix 5 flats, and it's usually at least $15 to fix 1 flat, I think that's pretty useful info.

All you have to do is take the tire off (easy), find the place where air is escaping (kind hard, usually need soapy water to look for bubbles coming out from around screws or nails), take out the object, shove the hole cleaner in a few times to scrape it out, put in the plug, put the tire back on, and air it up. Took me about 20minutes when I had a flat.

[The Devil's Grandmother]

Auto-flushing toilets have manual overrides.
Look for the black button on those rare occasions they don’t flush.