The Lounge

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.

I'm watching Apocalypto (directed by Mel Gibson) now and it seems pretty barbaric/violent/savage. At least with how its depicted, shown and portrayed. This has got me wondering, what exactly is the most barbaric society/civilisation which as ever lived/existed?

Im kind of new to science. But I've been playing guitar off and on for thirtyish years. Im just curios if there are others.

When you look at a clock and its hands are turning to the right you say this is clockwise. From the clock's perspective though, its hands are turning counterclockwise. Why?

Here's the list of most amazing natural phenomenon in the world. As We know, There's a lot of natural phenomenon happen around us. But I guess We're sometime still says that some natural phenomenons is amazing. So here's the natural phenomenon happen around the world and I guess You will say It's the most amazing natural phenomenon around the world. 10. Ice Circles Ice circle is extremely rare phenomenon happen in cold water. The great circle can be found in Scandinavian and North America, and the latest one happen in the UK, in January 2009. Ice Circles 9. Red Tides A natural phenomena occurs because gathering of microorganisms in the coastal area fro…

I'm interested in non-religious criticisms of evolution theory. I welcome comments to my initial post in the Speculation forum: http://bit.ly/hjuS1T

Is it hard to become one? Would it be easy if you constantly travelled overseas to different countries? I'm interested in learning Mandarin, Arabic and pretty much the other major languages spoken in Asia (e.g. Russian, Japanese, Korean). I am already conversational in Indonesian. Though I learnt Indonesian by accident while living in Indonesia while I was younger. I have no interest in Indonesian and I think it more of as an extension of English due to the large similarities. I also have no interest in learning European languages as these are all predominantly similar to English and less interesting as well. I am considering learning Mandarin next year, maybe at uni…

What football team do you guys support. By football I mean soccer for our American friends. I support Watford.

The mystery religions of the Ancient World all claimed to transmit some secret knowledge of the nature of the universe to their initiates, and in the late 16th and early 17th centuries the interest in secret organizations able to impart esoteric knowledge to their members revived with such groups as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians. It seems probable to me that estoeric knowledge of any value could not remain secret for long, since some initiates of any group privy to it would seek to profit from using or revealing their knowledge in the public sphere. But I'm just wondering, does anyone know of any secret societies in existence today which in fact do have esote…

So I've recently thought of something unusual that happens to me when I try to bring up a mental picture of someone. I can usually get a pretty good idea of what they look like if I know them very well, but if I think about an actual picture of them on facebook or something, I can get a much more vivid picture. I can see details a lot more clearly. Is there any explanation for this discrepancy in clarity? Has anyone else experienced this? Also, I put this in The Lounge because I didn't know where to put it. If a mod has a better idea of what category this falls into, I would be thankful for them moving it for me.

Right. Winter break is coming. It's a month long. I have a few books to read, a few things to fix on SFN, a poetry generator to fix up, but nothing that'll occupy me full time for the entire break. So. What should I do? Give me a: Book to read Thingy to build Hobby to start Program to program Book to write I have limited access to transportation (family car) and a small budget. Make a suggestion and have the satisfaction of knowing you've determined how I stave off boredom-inspired insanity!

A fantastic Diagram be David mcCandless, putting all the billions of dollars spent on this and that into beautiful perspective. It really gives you an idea of how much things cost relative to each other. Enjoy

Come on then, is any science fans in here a fan of Jean Claude Van Damme? If so check: Van Damme Rap He was created in either the lab or by a higher force so you should all love him.

Hello, everyone, i want to find a apad tablet pc, basically what i want is a tablet that can browse web and play flash... 7inch screen and it will be perfect if it have a multitouch screen, android 2.1 or 2.2 OS and i want to be able to use skype and video calls. Of course, i need one have a front camera, coz i need to chat with my customers online sometimes, and the battery life would be at least last 3 hours, also android market be installed. I have searched online and found a 7 inch one with android 2.1 seems can meets my requirements, and specs with that apad android are as follows: Processor: Telechip 8902,CPU 800MHZ O/S: Android 2.1 Memory/Hard disk:…

I want to know which countries have sweatshop factories. Are there any websites out there which provide this information? What can we do in the Western World to remove these horrific working places? Also, would abolishing sweatshop factories do more good than harm?

So I was in my local McDonald's the other night. Almost everyone ahead of me who was(were?) dining-in ordered a medium or large drink. So I glance over at the fountain machine that says, "Free Refills for Dine-In customers." I then glance back at the 1.90 price tag on the drink. I just don't understand it. Why order a more expensive, larger size when the refills are free? This question consumes me. I personally don't give a damn about my exergy-centric final in a few days. Please remedy this. Also, why get ice? The drink is already cold. You're only maximizing their profit, and minimizing your drinking enjoyment.

I hear that China's becoming a superpower nation now. They have a strong economy and there will be many employment opportunities in the future over there that haven't even existed now. I think most of these are in the financial sector and are business type jobs but I am curious to know whether there will be many employment opportunities for people with science/medical knowledge. If so, what will they be? What will they involve?

I'm putting this in The Lounge because I don't really have any comment besides, "look at these awesome crows," but I'll move it to biology if people have more intelligent things to say. (Sorry about the URLs, forum software won't let me embed this many videos.) Anyway, here is a crow making a tool, bending a wire into a hook and using it to retrieve out of reach food: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fijuwTeoBt8&feature=related Here is a crow using three different tools in sequence, using a short stick to retrieve a medium stick, then the medium to retrieve a long stick, then the long stick to retrieve some food: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE4BT8QSgZk Here is …

Applying for jobs as extensively as I did in the days before the email and the internet came on board in the early 1990s, became an activity, for me, that sometimes resembled a dry-wretch. Four to five thousand job applications from 1957 to 2007 has been a lot of applications! At least since the mid-1990s, a few clicks of one’s personal electronic-computer system and some aspect of life’s game could go on or could come to a quick end over a set of wires under the ground, the electronic world of cyberspace. During that half-century of job-hunting years I applied, as I say, for some four to five thousand jobs, an average of two a week for each of all those years! This i…

Just in case you need it. I've had them in my favorites for quite a while now. http://askabiologist.asu.edu/contact/askaquestion http://www.askthephysicist.com/ http://walrus.wr.usg...sk-a-geologist/ http://www.theboston...870/detail.html http://www.windows2u..._space/ask.html http://www.askascien...-bin/aas/add.py http://imagine.gsfc....astronomer.html Cool space photos http://antwrp.gsfc.n...archivepix.html

Hi guys, I'm wondering what career path I should go for engineering or medicine. Now I know it isn't reccomended to ask on the forums about which field to get into, but, I need some guidance. I both like engineering and medicine equally. Which jobs would have better job oppurtunities for me? Comparison of Salaries? Etc. I'm nearing to a time in life, where I have to decide what career path to follow. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

i ask a question to anyone interested in voicing an idea. do you think it is possible to have a minor society in todays world totaly self sufficient, free from an economy and who's sole purpose is to attain knowlage and technology?