The Lounge

As you may or may not know, I have been spending a ridiculous amount of time in the library, more than i do at home almost. (see last thread [thread]38336[/thread]) this time i decided to bring my own sandwich(i've been doing this for a few weeks now but i couldn't get a seat in my usual spot so i was forced into the political section). this has never beeen a problem before when i sit in my normal spot. i know the librarians in the engineering section have seen me munching away on my peanutbutter, bacon and sausage monstrosites before. but the ones down here seem to be taking it a tad too seriously. in short. i've been chucked out. and am now taking refuge in a ve…

This thread is mainly pointing at Blike and Fafalone. How doe one create a Forum based web site? I wish to create one that people who love Fantasy and Japanese Anime can post on. But I don't know how. I admit my ignorance in the subject of computer programming, well, for internet stuff anyways. I ask my supperiors how to allow me to have knowledege on the subject. I will check search engines on the subject, but I think some people here would be able to help me out more. So please, help out an inferior person rise among the mist... I beg of you!!!!!!

I am currently reading a scifi book called Gradisil. Intersting theme - it is about a community of people who live in space habitats in Earth orbit. However, the author just introduced an idea I think would not work, and I would like to hear what others think the implication is. The author suggests a person living in one of the orbiting habitats lowers a 50 km long pipe to the Earth's atmosphere to pump air up. My immediate thought is that this will act as a brake, and slow the movement of the habitat, hence causing it to move into lower and lower orbit, till it finally falls to Earth, burning up. I also wonder about the difficulty in actually pumping air u…

Because we're going to run out of oxygen in 40 years. The aliens said so. http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2009/01/23/03050.html I really don't know what can possibly be said to that, except; Deary, deary me.

Hey all, I have a quick question regarding scientific journals. It's geared towards Biology/Biochemistry/Genetics, but not completely. I've heard that being published in Nature is pretty prestigious. But what about the other Nature journals? E.g. Nature Cell Biology, Nature Methods, Nature Genetics, etc. Is it still good to get published in these? What kind of impact factor is regarded as decent for a journal?

I just had an E-mail from work, announcing it's 'International Women's Day', to commence on the 8th of March. We have Mother's Day, Father's Day even 'Talk like a Pirate Day' (my favourite day.) So if you could propose a day, what would it be ? I can't think of one yet, I suppose we could have, 'I can't think of a day...day.' But that's kinda lame.

Hello, I'm doing a survey on cybernetics for my thesis for school. I would be very pleased if you would fill in my survey, and I thank you in advance for doing so. It's not long, it should barely take two minutes! here's the link: http://www.polldaddy.com/s/0C8FA2CABDD037E8/

I hope the title is fitting... I was wondering if anyone has some favourite geeky, nerdy, science, or sci-fi related bands? (metal or good punk bands get bonus points) To get things rolling, I heard of Warp11 on either the Trekkies or Trekkies2 movie, and they are actually pretty decent. They are a star trek rock band. I'm not much of a crazy trekkie (I wish), but they still made some cool songs. There was also some other klingon death metal band on those Trekkies movies, whose name escapes me. Give me some more gloriously geeky bands, please. edit: I guess I also listen to some HORSE the Band, and their genre of music is kind of known as nintend…

Anyone see Watchmen, the movie based on the seminal graphic novel from Alan Moore? As you may recall I'm a fan of the graphic novel (warning, spoilers!) and was unsurprisingly disappointed by the movie. Director Zack Synder tried to create a painfully loyal "best of" frame-by-frame recreation of the comic. But he couldn't help be Zack Synder. The story doesn't have a lot of action, but when it does, Zack Snyder flips into MUST KICK AS MUCH ASS IN AS LITTLE TIME AS POSSIBLE mode. There's all sorts of gratuitous blood spurts and bone crunching. Anyone here see it? What did you think?

Just curious... since most names are transliterated into Japanese by using katakana, how are East-Asian names, particularly Chinese translated into Japanese? Are Chinese names transliterated by using katakana, using the hanzi as kanji directly (if it exists in both and modified first), any combination of the above or another method?

In case anyone didn't know. I just found it today; it might only recently have been posted. Ok, you may all resume discussion of chocolate types and blue penises.

If you have to pick one, what would you pick?

i need simple software tool to test circular motions or dynamics. i have seen some really higly souped up ones, but i want just a simple animation given inputs such as gravity, radius, speed etc etc. even one without the animation or graphics is fine. could someone recomend a good flexible software for this purpose please. i don't want to have to handle sophisticated CAD software. by the time i'm done learning the software i would have forgotten why i needed it in the first place.

I have a drink idea that I would like to pursue and need help finding a lab to help me develop the formula. Any help or info would be greately appreciated. Thanks for your time

Will science ever create A.I. more intelligent than ourselves?

The original "The Day The Earth Stool Still". Will be aired this coming Thursday December 11th at 8PM Eastern on AMC for those interested.

http://forgetomori.com/2009/ufos/worst-dressed-grays-list/ An amusing compilation of alleged alien abductee's descriptions of extraterrestrial fashion choices, together with totally coincidental similar depictions in popular culture.

Could religion persist. I just cant think of anything that supports why people would be religious anymore, and for what its worth I am basically just asking why are people religious. Not so much in places that lack any form of education, like caves in afghanistan, just so much in parts of the world were people can come to understand the earth is not flat nor made by any particular supernatural whatever. How can religions persist, do people actually need to hold onto a fantasy in order to exist, how can you say anything bad about people that escape problems via drug use? As a matter of fact I think it would be easy to point out religion kills more then drugs, or more then …

In the interest of saving time doing assignments and such on my computer, I was thinking of getting something to help me complete it faster. What I have in mind is: Because I need pencil and paper to write, especially when im drawing diagrams, but when i can type a lot faster than i can write with my hand, not to mention writers cramp. So I was thinking if i could add some sort of peripheral to my computer which basically lets me write on a tablet with a pen, similar to what illustrators use to draw images in photoshop or illustrator. This would allow you to type your words quickly and then draw diagrams using your hand - cutting down the time you spend doing your…

I'm new and this is my first post. I found this site because I am interested in Biofeedback. What forum has posts relative to biofeedback. Thanks. John

Launch Time: 9:20 p.m. EDT Description: Space shuttle Discovery launching on assembly flight 15A, will deliver the fourth starboard truss segment to the International Space Station. Click here http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

Heya, im 17 year old studying at school. Wanted to introduce myself.

can anyone explain what is going on here? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6UTGkC73GE is he using an exothermic reaction or something? the only thing i can think of is that the water contains a slight sodium hydroxide solution which reacts with the aluminium foil.

in blackpowder, why isn't ammonium nitrate used instead of potassium nitrate?

Video A great production from BBC. I had not seen this before so I figured I would post it for others that had not seen it. After I watched this, I downloaded the entire show and was very pleased with the quality, both in content and production value. It was refreshing to see quality graphic work put into an evolution video. **I posted this here so as to make it visible to everybody rather than sticking it in biology as it's more light-weight than I would expect for that forum. Feel free (as I know you would) to move it if deemed necessary.