The Lounge

This is funny, great take on the creationists movement gurus. The GCA for 2009 goes to....

Hello there, I'm an avid reader of the forums. I'm confused by the management...is this forum now run by some sort of Scientology company? thanks

I know some of you like to read science fiction and I had the idea of what is the most outrageous or surprising idea in science fiction for a habitat for life that has ever been portrayed in science fiction but is also entirely possible? My vote goes to the smoke ring in the book "The Integral Trees" by Larry Niven life evolving in a weightless environment inside a gas ring around a neutron star. We know gas rings are possible, Titan forms one, admittedly a tenuous one, around it's primary Saturn, but in this book the gas ring is far denser owing to the neutron stars huge gravity well, an oxygen nitrogen atmosphere, small asteroids and rocks orbiting inside the ring,…

So yesterday, I found out my father was going to be sent back to Iraq a week earlier than usual. So I talked to one of my best friends about it.... he implied that I should get over it. So I got angry at him and told that talking to him was a waste of my time. I then signed out of facebook and took one of those "angry naps." When I woke up about an hour later, I felt terrible. I mean, just awful, you know? I shouldn't have snapped at him like that. Plus, now I'm not even sure if he knew what he was implying...So I apolgized to him, but he wasn't back on facebook, which is weird for him, because he usually signs back in around one o' clock, even after we sometimes have a f…

I was pondering today, What will the world look like in 20-50-100-200-500-1000 years. I look back at medevil times and wonder they couldnt have seen what was before them. And even the 1900s people couldnt have imagined all the stuff we have now. What are some possibilitys of todays tomorrow?

So, the rapture is in a little over a week. Is anyone doing anything special for it?

hello, everybody presumably does not be acquainted with or about me, but I recollect you ... I'm with you and I hope that in these times undergo a true family. So decidedly it all later to appeal and demand what next ... regards

I am really enjoying the thread about what is the best school curriculum, but through the history of education, the purpose of education has changed many times, and the purpose of education is not being addressed in the thread about curriculum. Why spend the money to educated anyone?

How effective is social control by means of gossip and reactions to the knowledge gained through gossip? Are people subconsciously prone to behaving in ways that maintain a good reputation or is there a great deal of freedom to behave as you please and enjoy a happy social life regardless of what others say about you to each other?

Ugh, I got a Kindle for my birthday and it is awesome. But now I found a free game on it, so I'll never read another page

what steps to i need to take to get the loan? what steps do i need to take to improve the home? how do i go about leasing out the house?

heloo im a newbie here in forums. im bong fromphilippines im wondering if this reptile family of Gecko????

With all the resources that a corporate network such as CBS has, how is it that while broadcasting the death of the most iconic baddy of the last decade they end up with this @45 seconds I mean this given that a bunch of twelve year olds made , I think the networks need to start hiring twelve year olds! So who is the new bad guy? o.o

How much alcohol do you recommend people to drink? http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/07/safe-level-alcohol-consumption Also, did anybody recently here in the news about the link between alcohol consumption and breast/colon cancer? I think it's unsafe but how can we get rid of this tradition when alcohol is so embedded into our culture? And for the record, I blame Jesus, what the heck was he thinking turning water into wine... ...very irresponsible for him to have done that I think.

Alright so like im cooking some chicken but i have absolutely NO idea what to do to make it tasty, ive got lots of spices and some chopped tomatoes i think. the chicken is actually in the oven right now at 200" , if you guys have any quick recipes to make my chicken breast edible please help me out =D i could write a short list of the spices i have if you want, i cant marinate the chicken now i dont think? after its been in the oven? cheers guys im much obliged if no1 helps me ill just have to take the american way out and cook some fries and throw as much cheese as i can find on it all

Could someone please give me the (scientific) reasoning for this?

The Universe expands at an increasing rate. I observe the night and the stars that shine. I notice how various, complex, and great, And wonder how more there are than mine. With star and planet in sync like clocks, How alike are we to them, how same? The forces governing the large, cosmic rocks Are akin to the forces which give us fame. Could our actions or even our complex behavior Be nothing more than an impending reaction? Does life itself require a grandiose savior, Or is it a simple human misconception? For the matter responsible for even our flaws, Are objectively known to follow universal laws.

Although men can be victims of domestic abuse, typically women become the victims and men the perpetrators. Reaching the point of abuse may be important for many couples as a means of legitimating separation as a need instead of a "mere want" that could be judged as selfish on the part of either or both partners. My question is why do women typically end up as victims and men as perpetrators. Is it merely yet another expression of traditional gender role patters or is there something deeper? Is there maybe something about male/female attitudes toward relationships, commitment, and dealing with challenges that leads to domestic violence and its asymmetries? This is…

It is to the pagan goddess Eostre that I dedicate this thread, in honor of the reason for this holiday which is sadly no longer remembered, and in recognition of the impostor that stands in her stead.

Currently, is there any demand at the moment for astronauts with extensive science knowledge/background to go and work in space? Will there be any increase in demand for it in the near future? When are we expecting more scientists to be sent into space to undertake scientific experiments for the benefit of mankind?

I just found out that my sleepy little town is brimming with geocaches. I found 2 within two blocks today. Anyone else besides swansont geocache?

A friend of mine who is cable and pipe layer discovered this object whilst digging. It's heavy for its size and appears to have copper in it judging by the greenish mottling...possibly a bronzey material: you can see the metal a bit better in the bottom picture It might have had a tang or handle judging by the broken protrusion. It's about 3 inches long and was found in England. Any ideas?

I have had this thought for a long time and figured i would share it with the sf community. Now this is a big WHAT if but what if someday we make alien contact. Rather it be in person or a sort of communication, Would it be readily acceptable in modern society? Will the world accept what has happend and adapt? In 50-100-250 yrs will it be normal to have (alien) friends on face book and the world goverment have (alien) politicians. This seems far fetched i agree but so did some other ideas that were (((impossible))) until now there are jumbo jets in the sky and helicopters. Just wondering if the day would come were sitting on our back porch and...o look at that john... bi…

http://www.spacecruisenews.com/ Could this be the next vacation for the American family? Or will it be a flop? IMPUT please..

Dear Group, I am a researcher in Linguistics from India, and trying to master aspects of machine learning and while doing so I tried to receive some questions on Statistics, and two models I am trying to read Naïve Bayes and HMM. If any one of the learned members of the group, can kindly absolve my queries, I would be grateful enough. I. Some Questions on Statistics: a) Is Θ (theta), -the paramater computed as the probability of the domain of the variable? b) There are various kinds of distributions like binomial, normal, etc. looking at the data how may we decide how would we decide which distributions to fit in? c) …