The Lounge

Are we being hit by disasters of biblical proportions? Or is our world based news making us precieve things as such, lots of so called prophets say that divine intervention is causing our planet to lash out at its bad tennants (us), are we getting more disasters now then before and why is this ?

Just wanted to say hi. I'm 16 and in school, and want to know as much as I can about cosmology. That's me in the photo.....I'm gonna look around. Bettina

A guide book for creationists: A DEFINITIVE REPLY TO EVOLUTIONIST PROPAGANDA http://www.harunyahya.com/definitivereply01.php

I just thought I'd throw this out. We can all visualise ourselves falling down an incredibly deep chasm, the feeling of falling to a certain death when we hit the rock hard floor that's waiting at the bottom of the chasm. But we're all falling down a deep chasm all the time, aren't we?? There's no way of stopping the fall and once we hit the bottom we're going to be dead. I tried to do something clever with it to help visualise time dilation. You can mark off every foot in the hole in the ground so you can work out your feet per seconds. We have clocks and watches that we can use to work out our speed through the hole called time too but that gives us our…

Saw this on slashdot, thought it'd be interesting to hear everyone's beliefs. Hopefully this thread won't fill up with religious ideologies, that's not what I'm looking for.

What has happened to natural selection? I don't mean this at all in an evolutionary way, or I would have posted it in a different forum, but... Arg! This is perhaps the time when natural selection / survival of the fittest would do the most good! It's still around in nature, sure - but have we, as a species, progressed too far for our own good? Is cheating evolution really a good thing? Sometimes I wonder... People can be so stupid and destructive sometimes. Maybe we should just make artificial selection. You know, do it ourselves - in a "moral" way - maybe send the people who deserve to stick around to Mars or something, so that they don't have to deal with Earth's probl…

Here's a not so quick-to-answer question. What are the bare minimum requirements for a society/nation to survive? In other words, food, water, etc. What do you guys think? [Edit: Sorry if that's too vague. I don't quite know how else to pose the question. It might be a little less vague if I said, "what are the top ten most important things for a government to supplu its nation and its people," but I'm not necessarily looking for ten, and I'm not necessarily looking for government. What I mean is, throughout history, what are the things that a society/nation (as a whole) could not live without? Not just physical needs, like food, water, and shelter, but …

Im writing a paper as part of Coursework. Im thinking along the lines of Evaporating black holes. Now it needs to be a question aparantley so i thought; Black Hole Evaporation; Hawking Radiation or String Theory? is that correct or are the two the same? can anybody think of any better titles to use?

I'm in a 9th grade and I need to know which subject should I take I have two choices. Commerce and Science.. Which one should I take ? which one of them is more beneficial ? I would really appreciate if you guide me.. Thanks.. - Diesel

I've long been pondering the effectiveness of an alternative system to rockets as a means to get into Earth Orbit. Escape Velocity is generally defined as about 9.0 kilometres per second and is the velocity at which an object will escape the pull of Earth's gravity and obtain orbit. So here's my alternative system. It uses a massive gravitational and magnetic accellerator to throw something into orbit. It would work like this - you have a *VERY* long U-shaped tube that is wide enough to fit a module/projectile within it (Just like this picture). Wound around this tube are many, many electromagnets. Past the electromagnets are fixed magnets. The module (which …

I think quotes are helpful for us to understand the world and be inspired to do the right things. You may create a quotation/take someone else's quotation and post it but please give the credits to those who said them. "Why be a man when you can be a success?" -Bertolt Brecht (1898 - 1956) "Life's like a play;it's not the length but the excellence of acting that matters" -Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid 1-st century AD) "A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward." -Jean Paul Richter (1763 - 1825) "Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you." -G. M. T…

I believe that deja vu is very simple, our brain interprets things not as wholes but as certain emphasized events of observations, like in a song you may only remember parts yuo really like or when yuo see somthing yuo may only remember colours or locations not it all in a perfect scene. So whne we remember things with only few simple things our brain if it see the same set of things it would think you have deja vu not because its the exactly the same situation but close dependent on those very emphasized points that in a similar situation could be remphasized to give the appearence of deja vu.

Does anyone know of a website, similar to this, but on world history? I haven't been able to find a good quality one beside History Channel, but that focuses to much on the United States Possible in Spanish.

I just cannot rationalize the "compitition of the molecules" thing, and i cannot think of how random mutaions can kickstart life, I mean DNA says nothing unless you have a language to speak it in. the probibility problem every other process in nature does not rely on "chance" The accretion of mass into protogalaxies for example, random chance I think not accretion of dust and gas in the solarsystem random chance, again, no, also the ability of mechanical systems(like water in a bathtub) automatically find equalibrium random occurances? no Physics the universe is chock full of examples of things automatically getting more complex, and "finding" equilibrium all o…

when you have a magnet, say 5 inches off the ground, and the magnet weighs 5N. The amount of energy it took to lift lets say is X. Then you slide a nail under it, and gets pulled up. Now, the magnet and nail all togheder have, say 8Newtons, and so it has more potential energy. So when you release them, it drops and more kinetic energy is released than the energy you used to lift the magnet up. Where's the flaw on this? Seems good to me!

my dads school is sending some kids to science olypiads and asked me for suggestions of a motto for the back of their shirts. naturaly i came to sfn for guidance :}

i cant figure out the name of this song i keep hearing on the radio. some of the lyrics are below: "you dont know me but youd like to, why do you think i stood beside you" its a rap song... typing the lyrics into google has yet to yield results..... anyone know the song?

What would Jesus do? Beat the crap out of somebody, of course! Apparently "turning the other cheek" requires use of a crowbar, too, so assault & battery is just as easy.

Hi! Im new to science! My project for school is to find chemicals that break down wood. I tried searching google but it didnt have the specific answers I needed. Any Information or comments are welcome. Thanks a lot John!

A few years back we had some young people from England visiting us while they were vacationing in the southwest USA. They were all planning on moving here because opportunities were limited back home. One was told to go on the dole after public school, but he wasn't interested in that. One of the girls was told to just get married, but she wanted a career of her own. Is the UK really all that bad for opportiunities to attend college? (post high school, or over 18) How does your system work for advanced education and jobs for the younger set?

Yup, I'm back! I quit my job at a body shop, now run my own Company called "Executive Computer Solutions", which I am having legally registred, and am going to college in a year and a half. I'm also looking to buy a dedicated server to get my IDF (http://www.internationaldiscussionforums.net) back up, which my great friend Cap'n Reffsmatt who has stuck by my side since the beginning is going to help me run. So let me get some money, and my sites should be back up! Just wanted to say hi to all you oldies and new people, I'm back!!

Oil will peak during the next decade. I must prepare now to be able to survive. I'm currently looking for a new location to live and learning to make my own food, shelter, water and clothes.

sfn was down for two days and it was driving me crazy... I enjoy reading some old and new posts here...i've checked it to see if it's up everytime i'm on the net...dang..i think i'mma go crazy if it's down forever...

i just wanted to know that is music science? or related? since it has its own theory , language and exprimentation ( rock music was invinted by exprimenting on blues and metal by exprimenting on rock)

Today it seems the center of moral decay and everything liberal and unethical. On the bright side, it is pretty funny (i.e. http://forporn.ytmnd.com/). What future is there for global interconnectivity?