The Lounge

At first glance, the pyramids of Giza seem like a spectacular waste of resources. Decades passed, the wealth of a mighty empire, perhaps hundreds of millions of man hours of back breaking labor, and all the ingenuity and education the world then had to offer, all for some tombstones. But then again, they're still there, 5000 years later, still the most massive buildings in the world, attracting throngs of tourists and reminding the entire world of the might of the pharaohs. Everybody knows about the ancient Egyptians. Relatively how many know or care about, say, the Phoenicians? Obviously they weren't worth it within the lifetimes of those who built it. But for th…

Well I am not sure how serious that is to be taken, however it was published in a peer reviewed journal (low impact, but still). Influenza or not influenza: Analysis of a case of high fever that happened 2000 years ago in Biblical time Kam LE Hon email, Pak C Ng email and Ting F Leung email Department of Paediatrics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China Virology Journal

Who is this fiery red-head? Doctor Who's companion of course! She's Karen Gillan, actress on the BBC sci-fi TV show Doctor Who. For more information about this smart, talented, and gorgeous girl from Scotland, take a peek at her official web site or her interactive facebook page. The next Doctor Who episode will air in the UK on Christmas day. I hope you're all having a wonderful evening! Love, One of those Doctor Who Nuts, Among Many

Once born a child doesn't know death, and once someone by definition "dies", the child wouldn't notice this process as death, but rather 'a part of life' - an event that happens during life. Once given education that child will be told about death, or even taught the definition by his/her parents. Does "death" really exist, or only in language? If so, when one by definition "dies" that person really just "lived" and possibly could "live on"? We're all born knowing life, so the definition of "life" isn't required, as once you're born, you sense it -- and know life. You never know death, until you die. So death is only a figment of 'word' and is not relative to pre-educated…

Hey! I'm generally interested in learning science. Especially chemistry and astrology. Does anyone on this site have any books or places where I can learn the basics of each. I didn't gain much experience from school as I focused more on english & maths -- Thanks in advance.

Hi there! I want to do the 40 hour famine this year (for the first time, shamely). Do you need a credit card to do it? How does fasting help the people in need? Where does this money come from? Is it your money? Anybody else doing it?

The concept may not be controversial, but my question may be. Who do you consider the - BEST - and the - WORST - example of Scientist that you are aware of? The answer may be from personal experience, scientific achievements/history, or today's headlines. That does not matter. Give a bit of background (e.g., personal and circumstance, or scientific achievements/historical) and why this is an example of the best Scientist or the opposite. If you had to follow that individual, would you? Or not? and why? Let us discuss, but everyone has a right to input, so let's make sure we respect that right and be nice.

This summer I participated in the STEM program at Penn State Greater Allegheny. Basically we took 5 college classes (2 were credited) and went on field trips to business that relied on engineers. It was my first real taste of doing any engineering, and it was a blast. In our engineering and design class we had two weeks to design a smart home so the elderly could live in them for as long as possible. Our professor owned a company that actually did this, so we had some good leads. I was on the energy group, our job was to research how to power the house with green energy. This ranged from Geothermal heat pumps to using energy efficient toasters. Just thought I'd post …

Is it possible that there is a scientific explanation for everything.

Hey guys, no idea if anyone is into games here but thought I'd see. Me and a mate have been discussing about which is better call of duty modern warfare 2 or battlefield badcompany 2. Personally i think bfbc2 is far better but he doesnt agree...what do people think here?

Here's an interesting site I came across this morning that has a test that purports to measure what's described as one's "risk intelligence," which is described as: The idea is not necessarily to answer the questions correctly, but to see how well you can estimate the probability that your answer would be correct. It seems that this idea is related to the Dunning–Kruger effect, which is the idea that incompetent people have a tendency to overestimate their competence, while the reverse tends to be true for competent people. I scored 66, which was described as average.

Hey guys, I am trying to script a cell block to do this Cell x = Cell y - Cell z IF (cell x = - (integer) IF TRUE then print N/A IF FALSE then Cell y - Cell z My question is how to name the Interger, i thought VAR would work but i guess not I dont want it to refer to a specific negative integer i just the function to read whether it is positive or negative. NVM i got it. decided to go the greater than / less than rout. Though i do wish i knew the term for the variables in the code. ugh. New question now, How do i set conditional formatting? I want some cells to only format to General is a cell is text, If not i want it to format to Time. …

Hi, I have been thinking. It seems to me that infinity (forever) just isn't possible. My reason for this is, couldn't it be that what is perceived as being infinite is actually finite, but the end is beyond perception, thus it appears infinite... something just can't go on forever, because wouldn't it violate physicality of existence, whereby it literally would exceed the very fabric of existence by going on forever. However, i know this brings under the microscope, such things as; that if the universe suddenly began how long has everything been going for etc

In the U.S., I have noticed that bumper stickers are becoming ridiculous, in this man's opinion. In addition to the normal crap, people are advertising bars or parts of a state with three letter bumper stickers and a lot of people have turned their vehicles into mobile epitaphs, showing the name and birth/death dates of someone. Some of the most embarrassing (I am embarrassed that these people are on the same branch of the evolutionary tree that I occupy) are the ones with a cartoon character urinating on something or flipping the bird. Please tell me this is a U.S. phenomena and has not spread overseas.

The Department of Defense wants to know if you would feel comfortable showering with gays. http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/leaked-survey-aims-to-gauge-service-members-reaction-to-gays-in-military/19548214 I've given this some real thought, I have quite a few gay friends, i am quite sure i would enjoy showering with most of them immensely, of course I'm not sure how much the lesbians i know would enjoy showering with me Seriously, we have all showered with people who we have no idea of their sexuality and more than few who we were quite sure were indeed homosexual, no one has offered to have sex with me while showering and i don't expect them too. Why d…

In the last few days, I've heard these two US Govt stories on CNN... The US Coast Guard has waived the chemical dispersants restrictions on British Petroleum 74 times. On July 29, 2010 Congress (House) voted on $7.4 billion aid to 9/11 victims/responders. The bill was defeated due to a unanimous "NO" vote from Repubs. Questions: Any code-breakers in this forum? Are members of the US Govt47 using a Masonic74 gematria74 code of GOD=7_4, 7/4=July 4th? Are members of this forum familiar with the Mason47s and Simple English Gematria? - Brad Watson, Miami, FL

Hi, I was wondering. If you were to move outside of existence, in a hypothetical situation, assuming that beyond the universe, the theoretical multiverse and anything, there is some sort of end, what you probably or expect to see ?

- 4 = (a, b, c, d) , = and then ...X/Y = choice - instinct, one or the others. () = (new set, higher teir) - l) 4 * (5), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, (1), (2), (3), (4). = 52-(34) = (a, b, c, d) = 9x4 set 1 = 5x4 set (2) m) 4000 x chips = (d, e, f ,g) 1000 chip (d) x 4 500 chip (e) x 4 100 chip (f) x 4 50 chip (g) x 4 /n n) 4 players p1 (h) p2 (i) p3 (j) p4 (k) Shuffle (l), 2 x Shuffled (l) /between/ (n) P1 view: 2xRandom - (a, b, c, d) a, b, c, d Game begins P1, X/Y lmao

I have no knowledge what-so-ever of Science. I have wasted my life dreaming. I need to change this, but where do I begin? I want to develop a good general grasp of Chemistry and Physics. I'd like to reach a point where I can contribute intelligently to the discussions on this forum. I am seeking to improve my own self, through knowledge. I would very much enjoy if you could advise me on where to begin on this journey... (Namely which books I should read, which documentaries/videos/lectures I should download or watch). Thank you

There is a technological plight that is rarely seen, it lurks around every corner and in every technological niche. It is government secrecy, one government hiding potential technologies from other governments. It is our clearance for physics for nuclear reactors, it is our classified projects on radar. The technological plight is simply a government influenced curb in the funding and sharing of technological advances because we are bickering and fighting over one piece of land or that we are better than another. How far would our technology be if we would just work together? Instead of fighting over a piece of land here on earth, why not go fight over minirals o…

Just a question: How would an adult think if he/she never was taught academa or word? I presume very dumb. If you see something you like, you think something like "That looks nice" or "I like that" or one of many other word combinations. If you didn't have word, what exactly would you think if you seen something you thought looked nice. Also, would you be able to think in 3D rather than 1D? Is word 1Dimentional thought, seeing as you're basically thinking in lines, from left to right. AFDKGDKOG DfOJG DFJO ___________ _____ ____ That's just a brief example of what I'm getting at.

So i was watching a program about the golden mean, (i dare not spell it lol), and its ratio is considered divine. IMO assigning a "divine" title to a particular sequence that exhibits itself in the natural world is complete ignorance. What i saw when i watched the various examples of the ratio, was that it was in fact just an optimized number. Nature has evolved to reach certain amounts of stuff that work better than others, and this number is evolutions example. Thoughts?

An old expression, "In for a penny, in for a pound". And since my ignorance gets me into more trouble than I can possibly wiggle out of, and not nearly enough apologies to go around, I want to be "nonobjective" as possible in what I'm about to say. But, could Worm Holes and Black Holes be hyper tunnels leading back to "tick 1" and from where our universe first originated?

i wanna help my 13 years old little borther's homeworks. microsoft's encarta softwares are do not match with him. is there any way to learn science for 13 years from home easily?(especially physics & maths)