The Lounge

Hey, boredom kicks in and thus a thread is born... Ok so here's the problem. The general idea most people have is that if there is this ever-loving god then no matter what I do I will be with him if he is real when I die. I mean, how could a God that loves us so and is all-powerful let us suffer in hell. Well this is where it gets tricky. Buddism has no God. Hinduism has Millions and Christianity has 1 god who is in the form of the holy trinity (father, son, holy spirit). How can believing in No God get you to a single God and how can millions of gods get you to one God. Now this is not a debate about who's religion is correct so don't critisize me about it. I am open…

Hi, I first of all would like to ask for your comment on the difference between Mchem and BSc and secondly your opinion which is better. Thnx

flash global environment clip - only the facts http://www.metacafe.com/watch/627119/global_environment/

I guess this may be considered a minor issue but I decided to post it anyway. The other day, me and my 2 of my flatmates were looking in our fridge when we noticed one of our other flatmates had left some chocolate cornflakes in their(my other 2 flatmates draw). They decided to take one each, and just pretend that if someone asked they would say they thought it was each other's. In the process I decided I would have a piece too, justifying myself by thinking that I didn't take it out of the fridge, and I was having what was already taken. it was delicious btw:-) . However, I am also pretty much incapable of lying, as I cannot do it(in the long run I guess its a good t…

Not sure where to put this, so I'd thought I would put this here. In about 10 days I'm going to present to a Teacher's Workshop about Asperger's Syndrome and Autism. I'm organizing this with my case manager at the school, but I am largely hosting it. Since this is a science site, I was wondering if you could help me out by giving me any up to date research or suggestions, etc. Thanks!

My mum asked, "If an ant is blown off a table, does it undergo large impact when it hits the ground? Does it die?" Does it? o_O

To kick a minority? While reading the smoking thread I realised that the major anti arguments boiled down to 6 points about smokers; 1. They are dirty. 2. They smell bad. (different) 3. They are diseased. 4. If you hang around them, you will get sick. 5. They are obviously less intelligent than normal folk. 6. Their behaviour should be modified by force (if need be) so they don't "Pose a Danger" to the rest of society. It seemed to me I'd heard these arguments before. Pick any maligned minority from history and you find the exact same comments. They were once used to describe "Blacks" and "Curry Munchers", even to justify apartheit, now it's smokers. …

Tick tock...tick tock...Have you ever thought what happens at 5 PM everyday? If you were in space, listening to the earth with a giant stethoscope, you could hear approximately one third of the men and women who are in the same time zone, push back their chairs as they finish work for the day. The discerning diaphragm might also pick up the familiar sound of MS Windows shutting down, the keys turning in their mortice as the doors are locked for the final time. The spying eye high in space would suddenly see an entire longitude plunge into darkness as the office lights are turned off. The stethoscope would pick up the cheery babble of people as they said …

I'm planning on setting up a 'bad scientific journalism' website...I'll try and think of a catchier name than that. The idea is to post an article from a mainstream source such as the BBC, and sift the facts from the crap. I'll then forward the contributions to the guilty party, and hopefully they'll issue a statement on the errors in said article. I'll obviously need some experts involved et.c but do you think it's a good idea...is such a thing needed, or are there already plenty of action groups that deal with this. Any ideas or input to my project would be very much appreciated.

I wander around the internet a lot, and am on a few different forums and other places, but where are you guys? What forums do you visit? Do you have a blog? Do you belong to some online community?

a good friend of mine asked this:

Why do we always talk about colonizing Mars? Why not Venus? Mars is a little dirtball of a planet with bugger all atmosphere (except at Jullagg's Bar on a Saturday night ). What it does have is 98% CO2. It has low gravity and no water to boot, generally a nothing planet. Venus OTOH has a good thick atmosphere, is a better size and there seems to be a lot of water in the clouds. Yes, it's harder to get to, is bloody hot and has phenomenal storms due to the runaway greenhouse effect. But I've always wondered what would happen if we dumped 100 tons or so of nice photosynthetic bacteria into the atmosphere and waited. The CO2 gets converted, the greenhouse breaks…

Well, my last day of high school (or secondary, for all you foreigners ) is tomorrow! That's followed by an AP test Thursday, but after that, I'm out - then graduation, then on to Cleveland for Uni in the fall! I've been waiting for this moment for the past 3 years. 9th grade / freshman year, I just didn't know any better. Yippee!!!! *Insert Childish glee*

When did Google ads get annoying animated ads? eww...

Just out of curiosity, how many of you just bookmark the forum url (scienceforums.net/forum) instead of going to the main page first? I used to prefer the main page, but I'm beginning to jump right into the forums instead. That's where I end up anyways.

Being a scientist or a studient, have you ever been discriminated by physicists? Why they think they are more intelligent? (I know a lot that aren't ) IF we suppose they are smarter, why they have to be so arrogant?

Well because the staff are so busy, and I'm just a lazy student, I am running the awards this year. They're the same basic format as last year (just a little later), with nominations (this thread) for all the awards and then threads for the final votes. Please read the below carefully, and re-read your post before posting it. In this thread, you are allowed to nominate one member for each of the following six categories: Most Helpful Member: who gives the best answers in the nicest way? Most Knowledgeable Member: who displays the most consistent knowledge in any (or many) fields? Most Interesting Member: who's posts are a must read for their diverse cont…

Has anyone else been monitoring the progress of the Floyd Landis doping hearings via the blog Trust But Verify? They have been maintaining a running transcript of the testimony, and I have found it interesting how science is used (or abused your choice) in the hearings. I also find it interesting how a particularly relevant scientific witness can be overshadowed by an irrelevant "monkey dance" (as it has been called on TBV) from a completely irrelevant but headline grabbing witness.

I was wondering if anybody here might have advice for the best place/method for purchasing carbon offsets. I would imagine that this is an area where there's a lot of cheating and swindling going on. Thanks.

This has probably all ready been done, but its buried so far down the board that I can't find by browsing, so we might as well do another one. Who here actually works in a scientific field? Be honest now. I may wish I was Head of the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology with 3 PhDs, and a D.Sc. from Oxford and but I'm not. But for those of you who aren't presumptuous high school students, give us your field and position, if you will. Education would be interesting too.

This is a tall order. Sadly, I cannot say yes to this question, but I'm close! I'd estimate my home lighting is on the order of 95% compact fluorescent. There are still 4 incandescent bulbs in my house. Two are in my living room in my touch lamps. Sadly, this retro '70s technology includes a built-in rheostat which is incompatible with compact fluorescents. Given the choice between chucking my touch lamps and retaining incandescent bulbs, I chose the latter. But don't worry... these lamps spend 95% of their time off, so no worries. I also have fixtures which are too small for compact fluorescent bulbs. Perhaps I will look into having these replaced in th…

I am reading a beautiful book called "Faster Than the Speed of Light" by Joao Magueijo. It is all here in your face. Page 7: "Most of modern science is done in collaboration." [Colleagues] "would shake their heads, and at best say, "Shut up and don't be stupid..." and on page 9, "I want people to understand the scientific process for what it really is - rigorous, competitive, emotional, and argumentative. It is people endlessly debating each other, often shouting their disagreements." Also, however, there are the Perelmans, and the Diracs. Dirac was somewhat reclusive, keeping to his local scene in France and not attending meetings. Perelman so stunningly said…

I was just looking at some old posts and found this: http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3680 How I laughed. I can't believe anyone would even nearly fall for that. What other mean tricks have we played over the years?

Does anyone know how many moons are there in Solar system at present?

Hi guys, I'm a new member here at scienceforums.net and I would like you to answer this question. It is for my history homework at school: Do you anything about Gustavus III of Sweden?? I don't think many of you will know a lot about him because he is swedish but if anybody can help me, please do!!