The Lounge

I guess I'm in a weird mood this morning. Just wondering if morality is conducive to our evolution as a species. If it took this immoral, brutal process of survival of the fittest to evolve to the point we are now - 5 million years and counting, to have bigger brains, higher thought - then why would we question that same process and, in effect, reject it? Isn't morality a defiance of this system? And are we not arrogant and foolish to assume we can ignore this and create societies that embrace 'survival of everyone' and still think we will evolve positively? So, why do we insist on incorporating morality into our survival, effectively ending the very system t…

Objectification of life The human world is filled with meaning, thus the theorist of the human sciences is concerned with causality and meaning, whereas the theorist of the physical world deals almost completely with causality. The human world needs understanding and interpretation, whereas the physical world requires knowledge and explanation. Herein lays the reason why human relationships cannot be intellectually embraced in the same manner as is physical relationships. Dilthey proclaims that the depths of human meaning and understanding are particularly accessible for interpretation in the works of art and literature. He called this work of interpreting t…

why does symbol recognition suck so badly on computers? It seems that everything I write on a tablet like device is misunderstood just because I don't draw the symbols in the same order as other people do.

How were these footprints actually preserved?? Why weren't they washed away by rain and whatnot shortly after they were made? I just wondered.

The European Commission have just announced an agreement whereby English will become the official language of the EU rather than German, which was also considered as a possibility. As part of the negotiations the New Labour Government has conceded that some English spelling has room for improvement and they have accepted a 5 year plan to phase in the new ''Euro-English'' as it will be known. In year 1 ''S'' will replace the soft ''C''. Sertainly, this will make the Sivil Sevants jump for joy. The hard ''C'' will also be dropped in favour of the ''K''. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm i…

I am a social person because I am yours “I am a social person because I am no longer mine: because I am yours.”--Freud One of life’s more urgent problems is learning to set the boundaries of the ego. Such control represents true maturity of character and personality; Sounds simple enough. Anxiety is the universal response of the organism to danger. For the child, anxiety becomes second nature when there is the slightest hint of separation from or abandonment by the mother. Freud’s whole psychoanalytic theory of neurosis is basically a study of how children control anxiety. Human reaction to the environment is delayed and controlled by the ego. Unl…

I want to talk about learning My experience leads me to conclude that there is a world of difference in picking up a fragment of knowledge here and there versus seeking knowledge for an answer to a question of significance. There is a world of difference between taking a stroll in the woods on occasion versus climbing a mountain because you wish to understand what climbing a mountain is about or perhaps you want to understand what it means to accomplish a feat of significance only because you want it and not because there is ‘money in it’. I think that every adult needs to experience the act of intellectual understanding; an act that Carl Sagan describes as “Unde…

Meaning: The Great Truth about Human Nature The great truth of human nature is that wo/man strives for meaning. S/he imposes on raw experience symbolic categories of thought, and does so with conceptual structures of thought. “All human problems are, in the last resort, problems of the soul.”—Otto Rank In the nineteenth century, after two hundred years of opposition paradigms, science faced the dilemma: if we make wo/man to be totally an object of science, to be as this object merely a conglomeration of atoms and wheels then where is there a place for freedom? How can such a collection of mere atoms be happy, and fashion the Good Life? The best thinkers of…

Ok, I get it, "meat is murder." But vegans generally have a strict policy against all animal products too, right? What is the ethical problem with eating, say, organic eggs from free-range chickens? Or similarly with dairy products? I mean, chickens produce eggs, and cows produce milk, no matter what conditions they're under. Also, I was wondering, what's the general consensus on honey? Are the bees being "tortured?" For that matter, what's the policy on eating insects? I'm asking because I figure IMM will have answers (both for herself and for the "vegan community," inasmuch as such a thing exists), but I'm interested in anyone's input.

I'll be using this thread to post stories about driving around in my 2001 Mustang GT MT. Story 1: Road Rage I was driving up to Sarasota, I'm in the left lane stuck behind traffic doing 10 under the speed limit. A stretch in the right lane opens up, so I shift into it. No sooner than I get fully in the lane and pull past the first car, someone cuts me off to the point where I have to really slam on the brakes hard. My mother is in the car with me, and immediately starts warning me about saying anything to this cretinous jackass. So I shift back into the left lane and go around him, and as I'm passing, I stay true to my word and don't say anything, just giving him the…

I received this picture in an email thats been going around so I don't know if anyone has already seen it but I'd like to show it anyway. "Sometimes the sky itself is the best show in town. On January 26, people from Perth, Australia gathered on a local beach to watch a sky light up with delights near and far. Nearby, fireworks exploded as part of Australia Day celebrations. On the far right, lightning from a thunderstorm flashed in the distance. Near the image center, though, seen through clouds, was the most unusual sight of all: Comet McNaught. The photogenic comet was so bright that it even remained visible though the din of Earthly flashes. Comet McNaught co…

Who watches Heroes? It's amazing! I'm from UK but got the episodes on the shady and they're incredible! There's a Heroes Wiki on the NBC site, but it's not possible to create an account and you need to log in to do anything. So, I thought, people could post their questions, theories etc. here. REMEMBER: any major plot spoilers MUST be put in "hide" brackets - don't spoil it for the majority of the UK - it doesn't start until Feb 19th! I have a quick theory on characters - The little girl who Matt Parkman saves in his first episode - she must have a super power as her father had his brain removed by Sylar so she would carry a mutated gene. Plus, her character hasn…

Could anyone tell me what is `tissue', `organism', organic, organ?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/12/dolphins.sealions.ap/index.html By far the best part: "Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If the animal finds a rogue swimmer, it can clamp the cuff around the person's leg. The individual can then be reeled in for questioning."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz5mvOpCnvI Not me, but I own a big male of that species, and he's just as wonderful. Mokele

Isn't it a little past xmas for the snow logo?

A plane is on a conveyer belt which is turning in the opposite direction to way the plane is pointing. The belt can turn at any speed and we have indestructible tyres and bearings on the plane, could the conveyer belt stop the plane from taking off? I read this on another forum first and have been discussing it for ages so I have posted it here for you lot to have a go. Will it take off?

im doing a science experiment at my school and and im doing will the surface effect how high a tennis ball will bounce im using plastic wood and metal could anyone help me out with what else i should do

why are people so willing to believe one person and their poorly based facts than an established view based on empirical evidence that has withstood scrutiny for decades? what is it about that one person? does he have a bit of esoteric information the entire medical community was unable to discover? why? im asking genuinely. why do people not believe hiv causes aids? if facts blur the edges of reasoning for some people, what hope is there?

What happens when spiders are given small doses of drugs? To know the answer, watch this cool video and I am sure that you would enjoy this is a real funny stuff.hope every one enjoy watching it. watch the video in this link below http://funnivideos.blogspot.com/2007/01/effects-of-drugs-on-spiders-cool-video.html

Hello Can any one tell me the solubility information of diazepam and Temazepam. In what solvents they are freely soluble if so, in what quantities x mg/ mL ?? thanks Sreekanth

When I was travelling, the majority of tea I drank was served with no milk...so when I got back I tried drinking tea (in the UK) without milk, popular tea e.g PG tips. Now I guess you have to dilute regular tea due to it's strength, because the few times I tried this, I wanted to throw up...in fact I did once. So what's the difference in tea that needs to be diluted with milk, with weaker teas. What constitutes the strength of tea...obviously it's not just more caffeine, otherwise I'd chunder if I drank a red bull. Any ideas ?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change published their Fourth Assessment Report today. The report implicates anthropogenic CO2 emissions in its strongest language ever as being primarily responsible for the majority of average temperature increases in the past half century. The report largely provides refinements over previous assessment reports, narrowing the expected minimum and maximum ranges for various predictions with the most likely possibilities increasing across the board (with an expected sea level increase of a half meter over the next 50 years, compared to .2m in the IPCC TAR) It was authored by thousands of scientists in more than a hundred co…

I always thought perfect/absolute pitch was one of those rare abilities where people did extraordinary things. I wasn't sure what, exactly, the ability was, but then again I never really cared. According to wikipedia, "Absolute pitch, or perfect pitch, is "the ability to attach labels to isolated auditory stimuli on the basis of pitch alone" without external reference." That is not only easy, but I know of several people that can do it! In band you play scales all the time to warm up and rehuming the scale is as easy as humming a tune. Every director I've met would sing pitches. "No, up, this note (sings) tah..." And dont actors do warmups like this as well? …

Does anyone know anything about Galileo's beliefs about vision (the mechanics of how we see)? Are there any books or on-line papers that address this subject? I'm particularly interested in his beliefs regarding the relationship between vision and the brain, his beliefs about the relationship between color and light, etc.