The Lounge

Today, the reactor went critical!

The end of freedom I am shackled hand and foot spread eagle on the floor of my cell. I ask my jailer everyday to set me free. Finally he compassionately sets me free. For days I am exhilarated with the ability to freely pace about my cell. After a few weeks I begin to beg my jailer to set me free. After weeks he, being a compassionate man, sets me free from my cell. For days I am exhilarated at the freedom to wonder about and speak with other inmates. After several weeks I begin to beg my jailer to free me and finally he relents and releases me from jail. I am overwhelmed with the sense of freedom until I, overcome with hunger and basic needs, seek some…

I would say yes, it is. Each human being learns in a slightly different way (some more than slightly), yet each and every last one of them are channeled through the same academic system. For me, the proof is in the way I learn, which is not exactly the norm. Perhaps I am ADD, or perhaps I am simply an introvert, but I do not learn well in typical classroom settings with homework and papers and the like. Yet I have been forced to go through this system for nearly two decades (from the moment I first entered a classroom when I was four). I learn by reading, then by letting it settle in my brain for a while, then reading some more, and perhaps drawing visual…

Why I don't believe in God: Religion is ignorance, it is just a bunch of B.S. that people believe because some man said there was a god 2000 years ago. People thought the world was flat 2000 years ago also, so if I go sail the oceans will I fall off the earth at some point? I think not. When I was little people told me there was a Santa, but as I grew older due to common sense I knew he was not real, same with god, common sense, he(or her, or whatever people believe it is) is not real. What proof do we have that there is a god? Ok some people claim they have seen god, people also claim they have seen the boogy man, the loch ness monster, the Easter bunny, and one I s…

How Do The Royal Have The Rights To Stick There Nose In Everything, They Don't Work They Have More Money Than Most And For What How Did They Do This, How Can They Say They Own A Country When They Are Jus Humans Like Us. It Jus Doesn't Make Any Sense So What If There Great Great Great Great Sons Managed To Gather Enough Backing Of The People In There Days To Become King, But How Can They Become Royal And Have The Right To Claim The Land Of England When It Is Ours Jus As Much As There's! How Do They Have The Right To Put A Parliment In Control Of The Country, As If It's Theres And They Are Jus Having People Manage It For Them And Reaping All The Benifits When There…

For some odd reason the politics thread is set to private so I am posting this here. As most of you may know today is Ron Paul's day of donations. Nov. 5 For those of you who don't know much about Ron Paul here are some links: http://www.ronpaul2008.com/about/ videos: i think he raised around $2.1 million just today. He wants to try to beat Mitt Romney's record of $3.1 million> just something to think about for those of you who haven't heard of him. check out his ideas, he's got my families/friends votes if he makes it to the cards

Remember the fifth of November.

Some of you new guys don't know how to use some of the tags(or that some even exist), so I'll start off explaining a few. Feel free to add more if I forgot any. One of the most used tags is the quote tag. The quote tag, like all of them, have opening brackets and closing brackets. The quote tag begins with Another one of the most used is the hyperlink tag. without the space(and, no, you don't use the <> signs) then type the words you want to be the link. To close this tag, type [/url ] without the space. Example: SFN Perhaps the most obvious is the image tag. Open the tag with without the space. Example: Common in the physics and mat…

Where does philosophy come from? Western philosophy emerged in the sixth century BC along the Ionian coast. A small group of scientist-philosophers began writing about their attempts to develop “rational” accounts regarding human experience. These early Pre-Socratic thinkers thought that they were dealing with fundamental elements of nature. It is natural for humans to seek knowledge. In the “Metaphysics” Aristotle wrote “All men by nature desire to know”. The attempt to seek knowledge presupposes that the world unfolds in a systematic pattern and that we can gain knowledge of that unfolding. Cognitive science identifies several ideas that seem to come n…

Hey guys, In the spirit of the writer I am attempting to be (and the story I am desperately attempting to write 'realistically', as much as I can), I am looking for Scientific discoveries that were used for the not-intended and *bad* use. Example: Atomic energy --> could bring to a new age in energy production, but --> used as atomic bomb. Any more examples? Please... I've been looking up online, and couldn't find anything (I am not sure *what* to look for, actually).. It would be great great help. And a nice discussion, too, potentially Thanks! ~moo

The word for the day in this camp is clarity. I think Joseph Campbell came close to putting it best. I'll try real hard to keep myself from dominating the boards in my boredom with pointless tripe.

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/ From the study; What a cunning plan, worthy of Baldrick at his best. Are you feeling paranoid yet? Is there any way to correct the spelling in the thread title? I'm so ashamed.

frost when the temperature is 40°? If frost is frozen water and water freezes at 32°, how can we have frost on the roof when it never got below 40°? I figured one of you guys would have the skinny on that one.....

here: http://www.track-your-partner.com/ use this satelite to mobile phone GPS tracking system to see where your partner is (and doing) before it gets Banned!

Any fans here? I'm an ardent evangelist of the glorious Onion. Really brilliant satire.

My knee jerk response is of course not. But why do some people dislike some vegetables so vehemently? Surely, it is one of those childhood things that just develops and, in most cases, wanes as people get older.

I'm not ordinarily a fan of Dilbert, but I found this hilarious: http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20071031.html

Ok, I don't mind saying I'm just freaking frustrated as hell here. I don't understand why I can't seem to find a book on the story of our constitution. Seems real damn simple to me. But I find books, and I mean hundreds, on everything about that period, or each individual person, or the military conquests and blah blah blah, except for the basic story of the birth of our government. WTF? You know...the federalist papers...continental congresses...the articles of confederation...the debates...and finally the constitution - the basic story of this process and the events that drove it. How obvious is that? Do I have to buy an american history textbook for 100 h…

Perhaps the universe is deterministic. But does that mean we have no Free Will? Yes and No. Yes, if you cling to the vague romanticized version of Free Will which basically amounts to one being able to choose any possible choice. No, if we modify our concept of Free Will to be more realistic. Free Will isn't at odds with determinism. In fact, Free Will depends on at least some level of determinism. Think for a moment about what "you" are. What is consciousness? Who am I? For now, science hasn't come very close to giving us conclusive answers. Yet, perhaps the black box method can help us philosophically. Now, consciousness is like an impenetrable black box; we're not…

Have any of you done any Castorboarding? Castorboards are like skateboards, but completely different. They are really two boards connected by a spring-loaded torsion bar. Instead of having four wheels on trucks, it has one castor(makes you wonder where the name came from, eh?) on each board. So, it looks like a two wheeled skateboard with shopping cart wheels. I thought it would be really hard to use and would seriously injure me, but it was pretty easy. Once I got on(that's really the hardest part), it was pretty easy. I've never snowboarded or skateboarded, but I hear that it is more similar to snowboarding than skateboarding. I have a Ripstik. The only other brand…

Artistic title, no? ANYWAY... I've noticed that this forum is severly lacking any musical discussion or tradings. This is a sin, you all need to repent in order to have salvation. Music is everywhere. Your heartbeat is the bass of your life, your words are the guitar, and your ideas are the lyrics. Listen well, and savor such a glorious thing that has been passed down for literally thousands of years. Now, how about a list to start off? Here are my top ten favorite songs of all freaking time. I would love to see a list of at least five of your favorite songs, I love to see how different people feel about music. 1) Hotel California - The Eagles 2) Sta…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBVmfIUR1DA Angry German kid, fully translated. He is trying to play a video game.....

This was something I was discussing with friends last night, and was prompted by the clip Sisyphus posted recently in GD. I realize this is hardly a new observation, and could possibly be regarded as a stereotype, but this isn't a 'I've noticed Americans do this', but 'what in American culture prompted this behaviour.' That is, a large number of individuals in an audience, on American chat shows, quiz shows, comedy programmes, feel it necessary to shout 'wooooo, yeah' over, well, pretty much anything. I remember this trend spread to the UK in the early 80's (maybe before), I specifically remember my Dad commenting on an audience 'woo-ing' on a game show, this was…

I'm trying to find a magnet that is a spherical shape and has one pole on the outside surface and the other pole on the core. If anyone has found something like this please provide link.

So, i was in my plasticts engineering lecture this morning(10 am) and the lecturer was explaining viscoelasticity to us(fun stuff:rolleyes:) most of the class was a tad hungover(though strangely i wasn't) and i heard the weirdest analogy ever. 'viscoelasticity is like fisting an oversided baked bean tin full of syrup' . naturally it took a bit of time to sink in and ask 'did he really just say that? and it turns out he did. its not normal 10am discussion that. i mean the only real scenarios where that should come up is either if you're high or have some outlandish fetishes. but here i am making a thread of it. what other weird and wacky things have you hear…