The Lounge

Following on from the thread on elective technological augmentation of humans (discussing the Singularity) and other conversations about the social acceptability of merging computers with the human body in the real world, it occured to me to try drawing up a list of the current "scientific bogeymen" that occupy, rightly or wrongly, the public consciousness. Here's what I've got so far: - Human Cloning - Designer Babies - GM food - Embryonic stem cell research - Artificially Intelligent machines at or beyond human equivalence - Nuclear power generation (waste products) Several of these are related, but in the media are generally segregated. I thought of inc…

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/15898729.htm http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/republican-fake-phone-call-scandal.html I normally dont talk politics on this board, but I felt obliged to. The GOP have a wonderful new tactic this year, making automated calls that claim to from a Democrat. They repeat these calls over and over and over again, in the hope that the voter in question will get so pissed off at these "democrat" calls that they wont vote democrat. Awesome. These are just two links I came across, but news of this seems to be spreading, I'm sure you could find more info on it easily on various political blogs or a google search. This sor…

I woke up and it was 6:45. I thought it was the morning and I had just slept all night. I flew out of bed because I hadn't done any homework. After a few confusing minutes I figured out it was still the same day and it was 6:45 PM not AM. I still needed to do homework so I rush downstairs to go do it and I find out that its Friday!!! Man life is good.

I have been reading about the concept of the Technological Singularity, otherwise referred to as the Law of Accelerating Change or perhaps more simply, the Artificial Intelligence revolution. Proponents of this model of the future argue that we will in some way become merged with technology. There are two possible end results: either our own intelligence will be enhanced or augmented or we will simply become semi-autonomous components for greater group intelligences. I don't agree with the assumptions of many of the ideas within this theory, but in this post I would like to focus on one particular aspect as I am interested in peoples reactions to the idea. …

This is an newspaper article from my university papers, and when I read it, I thought it was funny, and it's very true too. [math]\rightarrow[/math]GRINDS MY GEARS By Courtenay Courier One thing that really grinds my gears is those awkward moments as you pass someone on the sidewalk. I don't know why they have to be so difficult and uncomfortable. You're just walking by someone, yet they seem to want to make it weird for you. I just don't understand it. You'll notice if you walk by someone that they either make a point of looking away from you or they glare straight at you, both of which are annoying. Even more so are those people who glare at you, but as yo…

Hey there. Im obviously new to this forum and I was just wondering what the general age was. I'm 15.

Pastor Ted Haggard of New Life Church in Colorado Springs and head of the National Evangelical Association, married and father of 5 kids, has resigned amidst a scandal in which he was accused of soliciting sex by a gay prostitute, who claimed a three year history between the two. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4588998?source=email

I feel its necessary before marriage. If i found out my s/o washed her socks in the sink with urine, thats something i need to know before we wed

I always used to use Google to get to SFN, now even if i do a search for scienceforums.net nothing relevant comes up. The same goes for Yahoo. Why has SFN been bumped of these search engines and how does anyone else find SFN?

If you have any of your 'own' culinary delights to share, post them here. I know for a fact there's some budding chefs on SFN, so if you have any special recipes you've conjured up, however simple, it would be great to hear about them. I'll post a recipe soon, bit busy at the moment.

hello... I'm new member in this forum .... And I'm really wish to be your friend...I'm a girl...My surname is the Luck.... However ...I feel strange in this forum because I do not know any one here...may I find any open-armed here § Greetings

The U-235 isotope article on Wikipedia displays the following article: Link I realized that being the skeptic I am, if a discovery of that magnitude was in the papers today I'd probably think to myself "Yeah right, some pseudoscientists wanting publicity again". I can only wonder what were people's reactions back then, with the war going on and all.

I don't suppose anyone else here listens to Lemon Demon? It's a one man geek rock band. I highly recomend these songs. http://www.lemondemon.com/lemondemon/Word%20Disassociation.mp3 http://www.lemondemon.com/lemondemon/Action%20Movie%20Hero%20Boy.mp3 http://www.lemondemon.com/lemondemon/Kitten%20Is%20Angry.mp3

I just noticed that "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins is currently the #3 best selling book on Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/new-for-you/top-sellers/-/books/all/ref=sv_b_2/102-6972547-7015328 It is currently #8 on the New York Times Bestseller List for hardcover nonfiction. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/002-2663731-6688824?ie=UTF8&docId=239332

This is for people who like chemistry and games. For fifty bucks should I get lots of chemistry stuff or Battlefield 1942 Battlefield 1942

First, I hope that this post doesn’t offend anyone. If the moderators feel that this topic is inappropriate, I won’t mind if they delete it. Today, I made the decision to stop attending church. For several months, I’ve been attending only because I felt like I needed to. It seemed like my family expected me to, and it would be difficult for me to explain why I didn’t want to attend anymore. My parents were surprised when I said that. They instantly started blaming Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, since I had bought their books a few weeks ago. However, I had made my decision long ago with the help of several SFN members. My parents told me that it was my d…

I have a slot 1 pentium3 cpu on an old Brilliant 1 MB. Currently I have an ATI rage graphics card, What is the best card I could use without changing to a DVI monitor oh and using Windows 98?

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=f5f9386c-83ff-4634-9452-eb0d385921ba Now, I'm all for deflating pseudoscience, but I think this guy's assumptions are seriously flawed. He assumes that every time a vampire feeds, a new vampire is created. However, many versions of the story have it that most of the time vampires simply kill their victims, and only rarely create another vampire. Also, it's assumed that all vampires survive and regularly feed until there's literally no food left. I see no reason to assume this, since a)vampires might not actually need to feed at all, and b)if vampires, why not vampire hunters, thinning the herd? As for ghosts, …

Hello buddies!! It has been since June 12, 2006 that I have posted on SFN!! I have been doing good, as I'm taking Mechanical Engineering at University of New Brunswick. (In New Brunswick, Canada). It is keeping me really busy, as I just finished my midterms, but I love it. I also noticed that LaTeX appears as smudges on my laptop. Any resolution(s) to remove it? Thanks and hope to hear from you guys again!

So Im walking home from work and I'm in a good mood,(rare) even singin along to the songs on my mp3 player on the way. Then I get home, open the front door, and right away I see my sliding glass door is open. After frantically checking the apartment to make sure there wasn't still anybody inside I checked out the damage. My ps2 is gone, my DVD rack is empty. And worst of all, the cd wallet I keep all my games and movies in is gone too, bringing the total damage up to probably a couple thousand dollars. And to top it off im about 99% sure it was someone from my apartment complex, so now I feel totally paranoid about getting robbed again. And no there is no p…

The irony mark. Also, the sarcasm mark. My life is changed forever.~

I just wanted to put this out there and get some responses on this 'theory'. by sun, i mean exposure to the sun.

Has anybody seen the web site http://www.laststophell.com? It’s absolutely hilarious to read, but I think the author meant for it to be serious! Here are some of the craziest quotes from the pages of this web site:

http://www.badscience.net/?p=314 (scroll down a bit for the actual essay) I found this one hell of a read. Thoughts, anyone?