The Lounge

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…

While a sea rescue of a shuttle crew is the most complicated, the Mode VIII is just one of several emergency rescue drills conducted regularly at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

I found this strangely funny... thought you might enjoy the concept too http://theybannedme.com/ The forums themselves are predictably crappy, but the concept is amusing. ~moo

Is it really necessery with absolutely everything i say? Its just that it gets tiresome from my behalf, when i want to just talk about the subjects without any other ditsraction. I understand i should have some references, and i will make a point with that. But no offense to mooey, but he's draining the utter crap out me. He quite literally wants a reference to nearly anything i say.

Whenever I reply, my post disappears! What's going on?!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24629066/ http://www.goveg.com/feat/foie/ I have to admit complete ignorance to foie gras prior to this recent removal of the ban. I think this is an easy case of animal cruelty for no good reason if I ever heard of one. If these stories are accurate, dog fighting is better than this, IMO.

A few years ago I needed to buy a piece of microsoft software. I had the part number. Went to MICROSOFT's web site and typed in the MICROSOFT part number into the MICROSOFT searchengine................. about a min later I got back a message saying that what I was looking for did not exist... Hmmm I thought.... lets try google... OK, I went to google and typed in the MICROSOFT part number.... less than 2 seconds later i was directed to a page on the MICROSOFT website showing a picture of the software, a full description and an option to 'buy it now'. Microsoft are apparently offering cash incentives to get people away from google to use their search engine...…

Here's mine: Hey baby, let's go to my place and make an F1 generation hybrid.

I thought swansont, Klaynos and others would enjoy it.