The Lounge

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?

Here's something I'd like to start doing. Everyday I will post a discussion in which we discuss and share opinions on important figures of past and present. Today's person is Che Guevara, what do you think of him? Che Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat, military theorist, and major figure of the Cuban Revolution. He traveled the world to preach communism to whom he believed to be oppressed peoples. He was captured and later executed in Bolivia by a joint CIA-Bolivian task force. After his death, he became an international symbol of communism. What are your thoughts on Che Guevera, his life, his works…

I think that cell phones shouldn't be banned for truck and bus drivers. I don't think we should descriminate against someone just because they drive a truck. However, I believe that the trucking companies should be allowed to decide whether or not they want to permit their truckers to use cell phones while driving or not.

He shouldn't have been going through his wife's e-mail, but in my opinion this should be more of a moral problem than a criminal problem. In other words, he was in the wrong, but he shouldn't go to jail or go to court over something so stupid.

What are the benefits of having citizenship in multiple nations? Is it in anyway a bad thing? Overall does everyone thing it's a good thing to have? Do you want to have multiple citizenships?

An interesting post from Facebook's staff on Thursday shows statistics on user posts. Facebook looked at about 1 million English-language status updates, filtering them against a collection of 68 keywords and then correlating the data against two factors: User age, and number of friends. This graphic shows the results: Facebook's assessment: Also, I thought this bit was interesting: Makes sense, right? You might have to take a look at some samples to check your algorithm, but you could have the computer remove the names of the samples you pull, so the data stays private. I think it's interesting to see this kind of work being don…

I just got randomly curious, and am wondering whether coca-cola can rot or spoil (when still pressurized inside its container). From what I hear its some pretty nasty stuff and I'm wondering whether anything can live in it. And has anyone ever had some laying around for a long time that they think is spoiled?

NORAD Tracks Santa Update http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2008/norad_santa.html

I don't know who's worse, the terrorists or the dad. I think there are a thousand other ways the father could have handled the situation, all of which would have been better than murdering his own daughter. What do you think of this? Is the father a hero, a villain, or just misunderstood?

Most people in the world disapprove of the concept of school uniforms existing in public schools, despite this, a few individuals (primarily lower-class individuals living in England) approve of the concept. So let's just take a moment and look at the pros and cons of school uniforms. Why school uniforms shouldn't ever exist in public schools: -Students work better when they are able to choose their own attire. -This is one thing that separates public schools from private schools, since private (often religious) schools have them, and public schools don't. If you want your son/daughter to wear a uniform, you send them to a private school, if not, then don't. …

I have a bengal kitten who loves to lounge in high places. I've thought about getting a cat tree, but I really don't find them aesthetically appealing at all. I was wondering if it's possible to plant an indoor tree that is nontoxic to cats and also strong and durable enough for him to lounge in/climb. Does that even exist? He will be about 15-20lbs so it will need to have strong branches. Also, the easier it is to take care of, the better.

I was six years old when I had my best ever Christmas gift. At a few times in my life, I have had nothing. Absolutely nothing. Barely enough to get by on. This was one of those occasions. My father's business had collapsed and the cupboards in the kitchen were getting bare. My mother warned me that there was going to be less food and I did not expect much from Christmas that year. On Christmas day, we had a Christmas tree that had seen better days. Some cheap Christmas lights brought some relief to the grim walls. I woke up without expectation but my mother smiled at me that day, her face revealing lines of sacrifice and ageing before her years. She pointed a…

In my ever constant search, as of yet still not as successful as I would hope, to find my peeps I recently spent some time on some Freenode.net IRC channels. I loaded ##C++, ##C++-social, #Haskel, #Robotics, #physics, #math, #not-math and so on and frequented them for the better part of the last two months. I asked a few questions in #math revolving around first order logic and maybe two questions in ##C++ and whether or not there were any suggested reads from the #robotics club on rubber type EAPs. For the most part I either knew everything about a topic of discussion or nothing and me being a bit clumsy I avoided answering anything that I did know and just kept on ey…

The SFN chat room is a great place to get quick answers for questions. Usually there are several of us in the chat room at any given time. This is an under used feature of these boards and we would like it if some of you new users gave it a shot. There are three ways to get chatting to us, the simple(but not very good way), the slightly more complicated way(but useful and more feature rich way) and the way for those who are blocked by schools or work. Seeing as most of you will just be wanting to ask a quick question and probably not be on that often the simple way will be the best for you. 1/ The Simple Way Click "Chat" on the bar at the top of this page …

I am Ludwik Kowalski, a retired nuclear physicist. Wikipedia will show you the link to my publications, etc.