The Lounge

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?

Hi, I dont know a great deal about ge foods and wondering if it is the answer to feeding the hungry. What are your thoughts about this? Would appreciate any opinions Thanks

WARNING!!! YOU MUST READ THIS!!! Klaxon, the internet Chicken Little, raises the alarm for each and every paranoid conspiracy theory, Federal Big-Brother scheme, internet hoax, and latest computer virus. No black helicopter alert is so ludicrous, no urban legend so implausible, that he will not pass it along as accepted fact (in ALL CAPS with multiple exclamation marks). Congratulations, you are recipient 16,747 of today's Urban Myth. CAUTION: Often Klaxon knowingly posts false alarms to foment mischief. So I've been noticing about 2 or 3 of these "peak oil" alarmists posting here quite regularly. Is anyone else as annoyed with them as I am? They seem to be alleg…

Would most of the scientists artist and mathematicians that where born in northern Italy be of germanic or celtic stock? Like might Galileo be of germanic ethnicity? It is said that germanic people had invaded northern Italy in ancient times and that celtic people had been settled there for a period before rome came into existence.

Okay, think about it. Atoms cannot really be spherical, can they? I mean, what, after all, is a curved line, but a series of straight lines. You cannot create a curved line without first creating a square. So atoms either are squares, or made up of squares. I'm going to go with that they are made up of squares. So, what are these squares that create the atom? Take away a square and what happens? I don't know, I've just been thinking about that...

any comments would be appriciated..... A Mega Tsunami is going to start from a landslide in the canary islands....rip across the atlantic....and level the first 30 miles of the entire eastern seaboard of the United States.....this wave is going to cause the earth to become unbalanced and the shere weight and force of this wave (600 trillion joules of kenetic energy) will force the plates of the earth to shift suddenly and the Super Volcano that is YellowStone will errupt....sending 2500 cubic kilometers of ash and gasses into the stratusphere. which will cause a volcanic winter and it will only spare about 2% of life on this planet.......global temps will drop between 5-…

Im 14 and me and my friend are obbsesed with the force from star wars and were discussing the possibilites of this. We finally thought of using electromagnets to turn the magnets (possibly in a glove) to attract repel and to turn off completly. Is it possible to do do sumthing like say pick up a fork a meter away with an electromagnet this small or do something crazy like flip a car:-p and if this isnt possible can someone think of something else to help us with this problem. Also do gloves that can get you to climb up vertical walls exist?