The Lounge

Does everyone think its harder to make friends when you're an adult than as a child? I've heard that the friends you make as a child can be life long while those who you make with as an adult will be less meaningful and be more susceptible to wither away as time passes. Also as adulthood approaches, one steadily loses their innocence as they absorb the ways of thinking society has predisposed them to think. Adults hide things, they scheme, they talk behind their friends' backs, they become more malicious and selfish with the preoccupation of accumulating unlimited wealth through long work hours making extra-curricular activities and bonding with those you have met in the …

I was thinking this afternoon about brain transplant's. if and when this feat will be possible, my question is will you become the person who's brain you have? Or be the same person you currently are? Pretty sci-fi i know but worth a debate i feel..

M. Soltysik, one of the leaders of SPUSA (Socialist Party of the USA), was recently interviewed by M. Bonanno, as reported in an OpEdNews article: (link removed) After briefly commenting on that interview, I wrote my own PoEdNews article: (link removed) What follows is a summary of my article. 1) M.S. wants us to discuss socialism without linking it with the USSR, the first socialist country in the world. I objected to this. I think Stalinism must be studied in order to avoid Soviet mistakes and Soviet crimes. 2) Referring to capitalists, M.S. said "fat cats have had fun at the expense of the working class for way too long." What should be done …

Hi there. I am an aspiring Science fiction novelist looking for some help. I was wondering, if anyone would be willing to answer a few questions. I am completely clueless here, but basically the concept is this. Using RFID technology, what are the possibilties regarding synthetic biology? What if Craig Venter's ideas fell into the wrong hands. Worst case scenario, particularly regarding weaponization of this technology. I'm looking for a virus that can be weaponized and implanted unknowingly via RFID's. Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks in advance http://www.spychips.com/blog/2007/02/hitachis_weaponized_rfid_powde.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/science/21cell.…

Hi i have IE 9 and the chatroom does not load inside the window someone HELP. Thanks.

I was reading an article in Retraction Watch about the rise in paper retraction. I was wondering two things really: A.) Do you believe this to be because of stronger self policing, more people lying, etc. http://pmretract.heroku.com/byyear ; a nice graph illustrating the trend from the site B.) Do you think that publications are doing all they should be to make sure their readers know about these retractions. I think it's good more retractions are happening, if only because it shows an attempt to keep people honest. But at the same time the ambiguity with which some of the retractions happen is troubling. If mistakes were made I believe these…

Just wanted to post a quick heads-up that this week's episode of the PBS series "American Experience" is a fascinating look at the feud between 19th century paleontologists Edward Cope and O.C. Marsh. The entire episode is available for viewing online, and runs about an hour. It's quite well done, with the main focus on the personal and professional consequences of their conflict, but also looking at how their discoveries provided some of the earliest critical evidence supporting Darwin's Theory of Evolution, as well as putting American science on the map. It also includes a look at the founding of the US Geological Survey and the political ramifications of funding in …

Hello everyone, I just wanted to introduce you to my blog, it's called Strange Science and it gives you all the latest weird and wonderful science and technology stories that are in the news. The blog is aimed at a very wide audience, allowing anyone with an interest in science to understand the stories. But links are also included to journals and related articles if you wish to find out more. Please come and have a look: http://strange-science.blogspot.com/ I would appreciate any feedback you may have after viewing it!! Thank you Strange Science http://strange-science.blogspot.com/

At the university where I work there is a complex form that has to be filled out for internal bureaucratic purposes. Fifteen years ago it took about 10 minutes to fill it out with a pen, and because the categories and options on the form were always oversimplified with respect to their expectations of how complex and varied reality would be, it was always necessary to write notations outside the boxes provided to make clear to the bureaucrats all the special cases that existed. Now the entire form -- which remains substantively the same -- has been computerized, along with everything else at the university. While it used to be self-evident to all how to fill out the…

Hello everyone, I am looking forward to understanding physics in depth. Unfortunately, I've been screwed by my school system and I'll be taking Pre-Cal in community college(from there I hope to get in a good 4-year). I am in the process of teaching myself Algebra 2. I am almost done. I know basic physics, I know General and Special relativity, and read QED by Feynman. Thats about it. I want to study deep physics and I am really intimidated by the math you guys use because I don't understand it. So I'm processing everything in the Layman, but I want to study deep and pure equations. I was focused heavily on social sciences until I found a "handy physics answers b…

Recently, a new type of posts has appeared on our forum. People who sign up for the forum, and then write a post which contains nearly no information. I have seen enough to say that it's a trend (although I did no statistical analysis to prove that it's actually a trend). Typical posts are: By a member who has a total post count of 2: By a member who only wrote this, and never returned to our forum: What's the point of this? Are these spam posts in which the mods have just deleted a URL (if so, why not the whole post)? Am I missing the purpose of this spam? Or are these just Chinese / Indian kids of 10 years old who got an assignment from their Eng…

How does everyone usually plan their overseas holidays? What processes/activities does everyone actually do when they plan? How do you avoid disasters? Generally, is it difficult to plan your first and following overseas holidays? How much of your overseas holidays do you plan? Does everyone usually plan where they want to go each day that they spend and what they and their family do? How much time is a sufficient amount when it comes to planning holidays? If you go on holidays and you don't plan, is it likely that you will not enjoy your holidays? Is it essential to try to learn the native language of the country you're visiting? How good at the language must you be to b…

Since offers of aid have already arrived from the USA and the EU, I presume it's hit the world media. Toowoomba was hit yesterday by flash flooding; As of 12.30 PM local time (GMT +10) we have 8 dead and 72 missing. Our dams are at 173% capacity and the flood waters haven't got to them yet. The water is coming from the west and is estimated to peak at 18 metres at Ipswich. The CBD of Brisbane is being evacuated and 30 suburbs are on flood warning "High" alert. Highways to the north are cut and evacuation orders for some areas were issued some 20 minutes ago. The orders were quite literally "Get out. Take nothing. Just run". Civillian, Military and even…

So we operate a staff at scienceforums dot net email address for official contact. As of right now, it has 8654 junk mail messages sitting around, and I was going to start deleting when I noticed this beautiful email: Best email ever.

Do you think you have done something of benefit to others that possibly nobody else has ever done? In my case I ran a course to prepare a group of students for a recognised academic qualification. At the end of the course I sat down with my students and sat the same exam with them because I didn't have the qualification myself. That has to be unusual! I am glad ,and at the time was not a little relieved, to find when the results came through that I had passed! The course was run in 1974. The exam was for the UK General Certificate in Education at "O" level, the subject Electricity/Electronics. I was serving at R.A.F. Gan in the Maldives at the time and had been …

How do you spend your time on the internet ?!

Here is airport that alleges that Israel shot down a UFO over a Nuclear power plant, should have known if anyone was going to get one it would be the Israelis... http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/6125190/israel_shoots_down_ufo_over_nuclear.html Of course they claim it was a balloon, B)

In what ways has the world significantly changed in the last few decades? I've noticed where I come from we've had better and more entertaining advertisements and movies have better special effects but in my opinion the story telling has gotten worse. But in terms of the world's economy, health care, poverty and living standards has the world become a much properous and better place to live in the last few decades? What exactly has changed and what changes are going to be made as we head into the future?

Introduction This essay is written as a homework assignment at the Memoir Writing Workshop for Senior Citizens (Tenafly, New Jersey). The workshop is conducted by Lucile Lichtblau. I am the author of a FREE on-line book, entitled: "Diary of a Former Communist: Thoughts, Feelings, Reality," at http://csam.montclai...life/intro.html It is an autobiography illustrating my evolution from one extreme to another--from a devoted Stalinist to an active anti-communist. This testimony is based on a diary I kept between 1946 and 2004 (in the USSR, Poland, France and the USA).The homework consists of describing a single fragment of my life in a short self-standing es…

Wow....just wow...good idea or bad?

The 'electric universe' is not rejected by EVERYONE because of us not being open minded; it's just simply wrong and goes against almost every area of science.

I am sure this has been discussed before, but being new, can somebody explain why some members are quarks, molecules, protists etc. Are there any criteria one must meet in order to become something? And what influences the Reputation of a member (Neutral, Good etc), is it according to how many posts one makes, or what. Just curious.

In the Philosophy / Religion forum an interesting link to a quiz was posted, you can find it here: http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/53853-god-game/ and the link to the quiz is here: http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/god.php I cannot yet post anything in on this forum, which is a bit frustrating (and I do not want to hurry to make up for 50 posts either) so I post it here, with my own reaction. I'm curious how atheists defend their "rational position", because it seems to me that an atheist can always bend the idea of rationalism to his advantage if he wants. I am also well aware that not all atheists do that - it is more common among strong atheists as far a…

Whether we know it or not, some of us (yours truly included) belong in one of these catagories, at least on occasion. No replies necessary, I plead illiteracy. http://1just4fun.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/best-of-jay-leno-jaywalking/

They can grow organs from a patients own stem cells now correct? if so then why isn't the process becoming commonplace? The organs that are grown from the patients stem cells aren't rejected because they are the bodies own tissue. Is there still research being done in the field?