The Lounge

For some reason my Installer Service for Windows XP home (I know, no surprises there, typical Microcrap ) is encountering an error and won't let me install or de-install programs. My comp's not in safe mode. Is there anything I can do to fix it? Is there a file with settings? Or do I need to download something, in which case, where do I go to get what? I'm actually quite desparate.

I thought we might just post here places where you can donate or contribute in some way to the relief effort for Hurricane Katrina victims. Here's the one that's linked to Amazon and Google: American Red Cross/Amazon.com Hurricane Relief http://s1.amazon.com/paypage/PELYGQVJ8Q7IB/103-4951205-6402255 (If that link doesn't work, just go to amazon.com or a9.com and look for a big button at the top.) http://www.google.com

I don't mean to make light of anything, but as I look at this I'm getting an errie sense of "god game gone bad". Maybe I spend too much time playing computer games, I don't know. Before: And after:

I have a question about yellowing rubber. I am a shoe collector mainly jordans. There is a problem with a few shoes with yellowing rubber on certain parts of the shoes. example on the pictures below here are some pictures of what they look like brand new and here is some pictures of what they look like when the rubber is yellowed it has been said that the yellowing is caused by a reaction with oxygen. i was wondering if anyone knows a way to get the yellow out of the rubber. i heard the oxyclean works but have never tried it. if anyone could find an answer to this problem they would be a hero to thousands of shoe collectors.

Hurricane Katrina has gotten me thinking. I wonder if we need to change the way we report on, and warn people about, hurricanes. Science has made vast improvements in prediction, and while that's certainly a good thing, it seems to have lead to misunderstandings amongst reporters and people in general about hurricanes. Here in South Florida the current death toll is up to a whopping eleven people. That's a huge number for a category one hurricane, but what's really staggering about it is that almost all of those deaths came after the hurricane had passed! And the first two came from people driving around during the storm, underestimating its potential. The othe…

Who here has had one? ive had one once, once i realised i was dreming, i was able to partily control the dream(my own actions). why do dreams somtimes look and feel real? ive had one where i heard the people talking, as if they were real.

Well everyone is bitching about the price of gas these days and I guess that's good, but most people are forgetting what higher fuel prices really mean. Go to any store and take a look at all the different products in it. How many do you think where made within a few miles of the store? How many were made within 50 miles of the store? 100 miles? 500 miles? Now take a moment and ponder how these products got to your store. Some may have come from over seas, loaded on large cargo ships, unloaded at ports onto trains, carried across the country, then loaded onto trucks where they were finally unloaded at the store. A lot of fuel goes into this process. Now consi…

Well, um. Don't expect to see me on for a while.. damn caveman (what I call my stepdad) took the computer for no reason, so i'm pretty much limited to the local internet cafe. I'll probably have to work for around five months to save up and buy a kickass computer. Until then.. see ya.

someone asked me what science was and i said the study of everything am I right?

What is a scientist? Is there an empirical way to proving someone is a scientist? Is someone a scientist if they are a beginner or expert? Is a scientist a beginner who is learning science? Is a scientist an expert in the field of science? Is a scientist one who simply likes science? What is a scientist?

If we lived in a world where everything was free, and you didnt need to work in order to get food, a house etc, but things (like litter collection, running hospitals, building new houses etc) still needed to be done, would you still work? Vote for all options that are applicable, and remember to vote for one of the first two options to give an overall stat for the amount of people who would work. Vote is annonymouse, so you can reveal your lasy-ass spongyness without fear of reproach

I wrote this article, and would appreciate it if you guys could sort of fact-check it before I put it in circulation. Might be offensive to some with rigid morals. The facts aren't highly specific and were done from memory, so I'm sure someone will have something to edit. Thanks. There are roughly 6,446,131,400 people in the world. Each one has his or her own unique view of the world, conceptions of what makes it tick, moral structure, etc. What’s to say yours is the right one? Because it makes sense to you? That’s no way to establish objectivity, no matter who you are. What makes sense, then? Well, to borrow the idea from A Devil’s Chaplain by Richard Dawkins,…

Katrina now has winds in excess of 160 mph. She will hit somewhere on the gulf coast - probability is high for New Orleans. Link to "The Weather Channel" http://www.weather.com/newscenter/tropical/ I suspect that this storm will ultimately affect a large part of the eastern US. I remember Camille...in case anyone has any doubt of what a Cat 5 can do.. http://www.geocities.com/hurricanene/hurricanecamille.htm http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/n5ycn/camille.html If you live in the strike zone, I hope you've already left the area. Maybe we can use this thread to keep in touch with one another as the storm progresses.

is it just me or are the weather shows in britain dumbing down quite a lot. i just kind of noticed just now that i haven't seen a single isobar chart on tv for over 3 years. and today, on a whole map of britain there were 3 symbols(one in Wales and 2 in England). Scotland and Ireland were completely missed out. WTF is this all about. I usually use the met office website anyway.

Yes, well will someone be willing to do voiceovers? How about music and sound effects? They're fairly short, not intended to be sold for profit, and indeed they are more of a Comic-Cartoon hybrid, but maybe someone will fine interest: http://members.aol.com/umliak/myhomepage/inall2.gif http://members.aol.com/umliak/myhomepage/masterliadvice2.gif

Hi everyone! I was just reading the "Hall Of Shame" thread, and I was thinking it would be nice to have a "Hall Of Good People". I think you should post the names of people that seem really intelligent, or have been good friends to you. I really haven't made any friends here yet, but I was talking to Radiohead, Yourdadonapogos, and Lenale in the chatroom. They all seem like really nice people.

some people have contributed a lot to the quality and/or interest of SFN, over an extended period too---I like it that Janus keeps showing up and contributing consistently, and doing a share of keeping order. but mainly want to acknowledge the physics-quality and interest Janus adds Happy birthday Janus! also I see it is the birthday of a guy whose name I can't spell who brought in something interesting written at least partly in Middle English, and who seems to know a lot of chemistry (all of which is to the good). Name sounds Celtic. Happy birthday to him to. Also Bettina, even though it isnt her birthday, because she comes up with unusual things people…

I'm interested in hearing peoples slang / dialect for their region and if possible where and why the phrase was coined... Where I grew up, getting a ride on the back of someones bike was called a backy...in a neighbouring town it was called a buggy...and in the midlands it was referred to as a croggy ??? Huge groups of kids that hang out in shopping centres wearing hoodies and cheap tracksuits are referred to as chav's / townies and locally to myself binners. Whilst growing up we referred to them as 'bus stop blaggers' as strangely enough they hung around bus stops being generally abusive to passers by. Krustys for right-on new age traveller types and pikeys…

Did you guys hear that news: scientist have successfully cultivate artificial meats by a tiny single cell of mammals and so on. So that means even vegetarians can try on those foods in near future. This thing not only solve the problem of people needing food all over world but also we will eat the foods that are unlikely illed. Because while those scientists cultivate those food, they can change the substances in there. And meat is often the reason that causes some diseases in our bodies; once those foods have been genetically modified and created as artificial food, we can eat as many meats as we want without worrying how many animals will be "extinct." That is…

My reason for joining this forum thus far is I was hoping to get a recommendation for a local school in Denver or Boulder or Colorado that has a inspirational teacher.. be it doing new work related to the field or just a good general environment.. I'm wanting to do research into energy.. and so basically these fields apply Energy, Biology, Chemistry If you've got no one to recommend, if you can point me in the right direction on the internet for personal information; thanks..

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/?t=archives&date=2005-08-27 Ctrl alt delete is my favorite comic, and is, I believe very popular with many, many others.

At the risk of attracting much scorn, and being aware of my lowly lepton status, I think this post is needed. Your opinion is not science. I am very new to this forum, but the amount of times I’ve already read, "I think....", "I don't think....", "I don't agree with...." is astonishing. Last time I checked this was a science forum, where people discuss, and hopefully learn about, science. Saying that you don't believe in relativity, or that the universe just "ends" are perfectly fine thing to say but unfortunately have nothing to do with science. Science is about making observations of nature in order to understand how the universe works. There are some things wh…

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New "Intelligent Falling" Theory (from The Onion) I'm such a bastard....

Some may call it a tale of beauty and the beast. But Sam, a 14-year-old pedigreed Chinese crested, and a three-time champ in the World's Ugliest Dog Contest, is the dog of Susie Lockheed's dreams.... Source: http://www.davesdaily.com/out.php?id=8490&url=http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/custom/fringe/sfl-816uglydog,0,4048583.story?track=mostemailedlink It looks like the infamous chupacabra has been found! Seriously though, living with that thing would give me nightmares!

This show is a really cool HBO style series that deals with Biotechnology, Bioterrorism and Cloning. Coolest of all is the Extended Reality Online game that runs in tandem with the show. To top it all off ReGenesis is the first dramatic series to have synchronized Podcasts. Check out the extended reality blog or see the Press Release below. BLOG: http://extendreality.blogspot.com/ PRESS: Global Television to premiere acclaimed drama series ReGenesis on August 29 (TORONTO – Monday, August 15, 2005) Season I of ReGenesis will premiere Monday, August 29 on the Global Television Network following the two-hour premiere of Prison Break (except in…