The Lounge

With Commander Mark Kelly and Pilot Ken Ham at the controls, space shuttle Discovery descended to a smooth landing at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The STS-124 crew concluded their successful assembly mission to the International Space Station when the shuttle landed at 11:15 a.m. EDT.

AnemicPsyche is no more.

Did neanderthals really disapear, or did they just breed with modern humans to the point where they were one and the same once again. I read that scientists found a skeleton of a neanderthal that had modern human characteristics??? Also i dont think that neanderthals were a dim species compared to modern humans. They buried their dead with ritual, which is evidence of culture. I think that if your of european descent you probably have a bit of neandethal in your genes, but hey thats just my own personal thought.

I don't actually read much sci-fi. But I'm reading the The Gap series and Donaldson continually refers to "tach" and "tard". I have no earthly idea what these are supposed to mean, and he offers no definition, so I'm guessing I'm supposed to know this already. Anyone have any ideas on what tach and tard are supposed to be? Here's an exerpt for some context: In addition, the interaction of those elements was ruled by the gap drive's hysteresis transducer, which controlled the extent to which the drive's effect lagged behind its cause: too much lag, and the ship never went into tach; too little, and the ship never resumed tard. As a result, tiny fluctuat…

Anyone have a few months to spare? You can apparently help NASA by searching high resolution images to find the wreckage of the failed Mars Polar Lander. http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13884-volunteers-asked-to-help-find-dead-spacecraft-on-mars.html So, get to it.

importend study: Office Worker Goes Insane 2nd angle Security camera footage: wonder if Limbough asked him to come in on saturday's

Does anyone else see the signs of a north american union that is going to form, or am i just crazy?

Well, I think it is now clear that gas prices in the United States will only be going up from now on, not down. Up here in my native state of NH it is $3.90 at the pump currently, and $4 per gallon is not that far off. I've been reading reports that gas prices in California are beginning to reach $5 per gallon, and I'm sure that soon that will be the case here in the Northeast. Though it is not yet that high, these prices are already starting to really become quite painful for many people with our big fat gas guzzling cars. In my area, there is no light rail, no bus, etc. Gas prices are already high enough to make my father start taking his bike to work rather then hi…

On being dead.

Hi folks. I'm a first year Law student (18 years old)with a basic high school background in Science. Over time, science has begun to interest me more and more. I'm also interested in things that are rather rare. I was curious as to whether anyone here has come across scientific areas or sub catagories that recieve very little attention. Perhaps a discovery made twenty years ago most have forgotton (concidering how quickly new knowledge is added to the mix). I can't help thinking that somewhere out there in the darkest corner of the Library, hidden in a book that hasn't been opened in 50 years, is a scientific discovery that would help answer some of todays questio…

I am writing this out of a sense of frustration. Just saw my doctor (actually, he was away and I got stuck with a locum). I suffer from gout - thankfully very mild. Here are a couple of facts about gout. 1. Epidemiologists have found that four standard cups of coffee per day correlate negatively with gout incidence. 2. One of the more effective gout reduction methods is to drink lots of water - 8 large glasses per day. Well, I have this quirk - I hate the taste of water. I like to add something. Scotch is best, but 8 glasses of water per day liberally flavoured with scotch might have undesirable side effects! Instead, I have trained myself to tak…

Your postal forum here says: In definition of content ''science topics that frequently come under discussion Discuss life, work, school, anything '' Question Caps, Are you destroying the truth so that no man can seek it? Or are you destrying the man, so no one can seek it? >> Or better yet, are you ignoring what i said, so you can have some kind of authorative, because you implicitely informed the i should contact you about the things which i have wrong, not what i might have wrong, and as far as i undertstand, you are no autharative in such an area. As for the others who believe they are, they are dillusioned by grandure of wisdom, that re…

''Locked, because this is not up for negotiation or discussion.'' Or how about common logic sense. IF (Which i never) started the contradictory arguement, so in normal procedure with thoughts involved, i showed that there should be no biased theory. Then i am blamed for causing this so called ''flame-war'', when not only was it started by someone else, it was equally contributed to by other members...\\ /// so, yeh, it is for discussion, or are you going to a non-liberal?

Swanson suspended me for: ''graviphoton suspended for three days for a combination of recent violations: flaming, thread hijacking, and plagiarism ______________ Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum'' ...who thread did i hijack? By any chance the thread where i was talking about theories that where contradictory... ... flaming... whatever ... and plagiarism... the true definition of this word, is by taking someone elses work, and claim it as no other than your own. I did not do this, and i expressed it was another scientists work. So in effect, i need to reflect on the fact that other people, even mods contributed…

Following corporate accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and elsewhere several years ago, Congress quickly went to work tightening the regulation of corporate governance. But the Congress yet to acknowledge three of the nation’s most powerful, widely known plaintiffs’ lawyers who have all pled guilty to federal felonies in connection with their corruption of American civil justice system. Melvyn Weiss of the firm formerly known as Milberg Weiss, his former law partner William Lerach, and Mississippi legend Richard Dickie Scruggs each copped to conspiracy charges — Weiss and Lerach for paying a stable of on-call shareholder clients used in trumped-up securities litigatio…

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/business/45-scientists-dump-global-warming-deniers-in-24-hours/1117 We've been over this list before. I can't find the thread This is the one that contained names like Dr. Hugh Jackass. Well anyway, 45 scientists from the list, when contacted, were all "WTF? No way." Here's some examples: Also, this list was happy to accept input from "scientists" whose fields of study are nowhere remotely close to climate scientists (e.g. computer science, food science, astronomy, etc.)

http://forums.enturbulation.org/15-breaking-news/narconon-pays-money-fail-science-journal-publish-study-17003/ http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/browse_thread/thread/372bc3a508d57d10/d472a5766b5dd555?hl=en&lnk=st i'm kinda confused about this story here. but if some scientific journal takes bribes something's gotta happen about that. imo

A few days ago I was walking around and I saw a new watch store. I stared a bit through the window at some of the newer models and I got curious. What do people really prefer? Analog, or Digital, and why? Personally I prefer digital watches, mostly because they're lighter, stronger, less expensive, and while I can read analog fairly quickly, digital is just much faster to read. I do have some friends though who prefer analog, and I'd like to know why people choose one, or the other. So if you care to voice your opinion on the matter go ahead, I'm very curious.

Do scientists travel on planes too much, flying around the world to attend meetings? Check out this video about a scientist who chooses not to fly! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UPlt3yVPwCQ

Has anyone else been following the Firefox Guinness World Record Attempt? I'm gonna put my name down just for the sake of it - plus if it goes through there would be an entry in the world record book that I actually contributed too Anyone else interested?

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-06/worst-jobs-science-2007 Thought this was interesting. Maybe someone here has something that would make this list?

Me and my science "buddy" are building a catapult for science class and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a basic design. (dimensions should be about 3' high and 2' x 3' for a base. All Suggestions are greatly appreciated...

It's about time for some SFN Crackpot Bingo. You can get a card here and an explanation of terms here.

I get the general gist of it, and even studied up on the various theories within on wiki, but there are some things I don't understand: I have seen tables that show the embodied energy for standard things like bricks and sheets of plywood, etc. There seems to be a certain amount of consensus, but I seriously have to wonder if this is because they are all just copying from one source. Does anyone know of a reliable, peer reviewed source that breaks it down further, showing where they get these figures? I need to know, when they calculate, do they account for other factors such as transportation, storage, the amount of waste produced, ease of disassembly and disposa…

Just wondered what everyone's thoughts were about corporal punishment in public school. I've been utterly frustrated with the ineffective disciplinary techniques used by public schools today - which has degenerated to sending them home for a vacation (ususally called suspension), or tattle telling to the parents. Because they are impotent and can only utilize the carrot - no stick to be found. I find myself contemplating military school for my oldest teen, guilty of chronic suspension (well not quite that bad, but this is the 3rd time this year). But then I'm also contemplating the fact that he's not half as outrageous as I was in school. The things the…