The Lounge

A TechTV story this morning was about whether or not air bags should be placed on airplanes. Currently, only 3 airlines have planes with airbags and they only have them in the front where the person could hit their head on a wall. If the U.S. were to require air bags on planes, it would cost about $100,000 PER PLANE! What do you think?

When will petroleum engineers become redundant due to low oil recovery because of depleting amounts of oil throughout the world? At what year will getting a degree in petroleum engineering be not worth it? A close friend of mine is interested in become a petroleum engineer and I am asking here because I am curious too, if anyone knows or has any ideas...

I was looking at some of the plates from Robert Hooke's Micrographia today, and thinking about how beautiful some of the imaging in science is. I really enjoy Hooke's drawings--The Flea is really worth a look. I also like the Mandelbrot set (who doesn't? I know I'm unoriginal.) So I was wondering, inspired by the Book Talk forum, what are some of your favorite images from science? Photos, drawings, figures, x-rays? I'll bet there are some great ones.

Here in Germany the word corruption is strictly used for bribe. Though in the IT world it is common to say "corrupted file", and I'm asking myself how the definition of this word started? I've looked the word up and I've read about bribe and morally rotten, now I'm wondering does the "moral" part in that word play a huge role? If yes, then maybe, saying "corrupted file" is not correct?

Thought some of you might be interested in this. Darwin's personal library is being put online. Here's a link.

Basically the question I asked myself was : Where did the concept/idea / shape etc.. of the flying saucer originally come from ( in popular culture )i.e. did we first see them in the sky (as per the Keith Arnold sighting in 1947) ? [we also seem to assume that because of their aerial performance capabilities that they must come from space and be of extra terrestrial origin - They could actually be from earth and simply be new technology [black technology being tested by governments - and there is much that they don't want us to know - this idea already has great credibility ]. I don't necessarily hold with the idea that UFOs/saucers are actually extra or int…

This is so awesome I had to share it, fantastic RC Star Ship Enterprise video!

Did you observe the total lunar eclipse? It was amazing! What do you say?

Does anyone know if you can get flamabel gases in a ball mill, milling Platinum and Gold

Which foreign language is most beneficial to learn for an Australian? Are there any Australians on SFN (I think I've only ever spotted two )? Anybody got an ideas? If you could learn any language in the world which language would it be?

Hi friends, I am new to engineering and I've taken a electronics and communication branch. Whenever i study the subjects, i feel a bit annoying in the derivations parts, especially the communication subjects such as antennas, em waves etc. Please provide me some web links for illustrative explanations for the weird topics such as Fourier transform, frequency,time and space domains, signal to noise ratio, time domain and frequency domain analysis etc. I want link clearly explaining these concepts and many other(if available). and i am sick of googling these things as i land on many websites that doesn't suit my mind. Thanks.

Google is driving me nuts ( I know short trip for me) when I try to type in a search before i can get more than 3 or 4 letters typed in it goes with what it "thinks" I am going to type and gives me suggestions that have nothing to do with what I am typing and google more often than not takes me to some topic that has nothing to do with what I want to look up! What gives? has bing driven google over the edge?

My name is ryan im from south england and im 20 years old i currently run a creation vs evolution debate forum i love to hear people opinons about this ver important subject i learn soo much from it everyday Happy posting people

So my dad gave me this bayonet right. and i was wondering if it was illegal to take it with me when i go fishing in the summer (i live in Georgia but fish in Michigan (family live there)). all in all -is it legal to carry in public -can i take it on a plane if i have it in a suit case -can i have it in a car if i drive to Michigan please input answers if you know them here are some pics of the blade i have

Outside of debates about what really constitutes an addiction or not, let's just assume that all forms of excessive usage of pleasure-inducers is addiction. In that case, which addictions do you think would be considered more unattractive than others? Is a sober chain-smoker less attractive than an alcoholic non-smoker or vice-versa? Is a healthy non-user sex addict (think Tiger Woods) more attractive than a smoking, drinking, drug-user who is faithfully committed to monogamy? Is food-addiction and obesity preferable in a partner to other forms of addiction? What about obsessive-compulsive cleaning or other work (OCD) addiction? should this topic be for the lou…

I find myself quite frequently using google all day every day with out exception, And it seems all information needed for everyday activities, issues, questions, thoughts, directions anything literly can be found using this search engine. To my understanding this is not the end of google as we know it but as the web continues to expand everyday the more content thats added the information appeares to be endless. Can this in turn help people learn faster? and can this have any possible negitive effects on people, society or anything?

Do*s Cen***sh*p **ss yo* O**?

Sorry to bother you and gate crash in on your community. Although I realize I am new here and what I am asking may be a bit much, I hope you will get behind me in my attempt to obtain seeding funds. My name is Andrew James Latham, a current masters student from the University of Auckland and a budding cognitive neuroscientist. For my PHD I want to start up a research program dedicated to looking at the cognitive and neural correlates of religiosity, morality and most importantly the interaction between them. While this is huge area it is one that I want to carry on with and become (hope to, if optimism is too much) a world leader in. AMP is currently running 'Do …

There are all these jokes about how awesome Chuck Norris is and how strong he is even though Bruce Lee is way cooler. I decided to take a poll about what people really thought about the two. P.S. Please choose Bruce Lee

Okay, lately there's been a lot of fear-mongering going on here in Europe involving the religion Islam and of the people who follow this faith. I am wondering whether anybody here knows what's the best way to counteract Islamophobia in our modern western society? It's a serious problem here and it has sparked fear and caused people to act/behave violently towards minority groups. What can governments do to help stop it? Are they doing enough to stop it? Will Islamophobia ever stop? I feel as though there is too much fear-mongering going on in our Western society from global warming to Halal meat. Anybody got any ideas?

Which languages are predominantely taught in US highchools? In Australia, both in elementary and highschool, Chinese, Japanese, Indoesian, Italian, French are most commonly taught. In USA schools is it just Spanish and French which are prioritised?

Just curious. It's one of my major hobbies so most forums I go on I break the ice with this question

With the countless ways of how to die, and its the only sure thing we all will do one day sooner or later. Was wondering what is your preferred way? In your sleep? Going all out? best place? with loved ones? old?

Or is this all just some silly propaganda stuff?

Would someone be able to give me the name of (or link(s)) to mac software which allows the free downloading of music..