In What’s the purpose of bags of water hanging in restaurants? Doug says:
I assume you see the problem.
… Shirley that should be refracted.
I live in Korea where they have put an inexplicable twist in the baggie full of water practice.
Instead of using transparent sandwich bags, restaurant owners frequently use those big ugly pink latex dishwashing gloves.
What do you suppose the reason is behind this?
Maybe they think the gloves are prettier…or maybe they just have a lot of them on hand.
And don’t call me Shirley.
Uh, then why are houseflies so fearless when it comes to annoying those big humans who constantly swat at them with big hands and rolled up newspapers? They assume a baggie is a bigger threat than that? Come on!
On a road trip through Nebraska a few summers ago I happened upon this odd practice. The ziploc bags I saw weren’t hanging from anything, they were just lying on the window sills. These particular bags of water were far from effective, as I actually saw a fly land and casually clean itself for five minutes or so on the bag. This may have been due to the bag not being hung, but rather sitting still on the the sill. I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to set up an experiment to find out, but hey…I’m no scientist. Maybe we could look into getting a grant. 
<< Uh, then why are houseflies so fearless when it comes to annoying those big humans who constantly swat at them with big hands and rolled up newspapers? >>
I should wait for Doug to answer, but it seems fairly obvious that flies’ defensive posture is fast movement. They aren’t fearless when you come up to swat at them, they dart around like crazy, rather than sit still.
Goatfin, if the water bags were just sitting on the window ledge, then presumably they weren’t at a good angle to catch the movement of the customers.
as a corollary, I have seen many people put 2-litre plastic bottles full of water on their lawns to stop dogs pooping there.
How would that work? (which it does, BTW, we havent had a dog poop on our lawn at home for 2 or 3 years since my mother started putting out the bottle of water)
If this is the nitpicking thread, I myself was wondering how many beers ol’ Jason had to think he was on an outside patio while looking at bags hanging from the ceiling.
Regarding the OP:
MysterEcks, of all nitpicks I’ve ever seen on this board, that is by far the nitpickiest.
Fiver: that should be “the most nitpicky.”
Why, yes, I amenjoying myself.
Fiver, you obviously haven’t seen some of the physics discussions in this very forum. Figuring an answer that depends on the quantum mechanical uncertainty in dropping a 1 kilogram hammer is a lot nitpickier than pointing out that flies aren’s spiders.
Personally, though, I suspect that Doug originally used the appropriate scientific term, “creepy-crawlies”, and that it was changed by Little Ed.
Quercus said:
If it was an outside patio that was covered, what should he call it? What if it were a building with big open patio windows and half walls, like Joe’s Crab Shack?
If he’s looking up at it from the inside, it’s a ceiling. If he’s looking at it from the outside, it’s a roof.