The Lounge

My wife asked for an iPod for Christmas. I have heard good things and bad things about iPods. Does anyone here have any first hand experience? What are the pros and cons of ipods compared to different similar MP3 (or whatever) players? Advice please...

i was watching uh, hearing, some commentaries on the movie Back to the Future 2. a part came along where the director mentioned that one of the hover boards in the movie was real. except of course for the rockets, are the hover boards they used in the movie real? has anyone ever heard of these things or has any info?

Nothing is funnier than a stupid criminal, right? There was a case where a burglar fell asleep on the bed, in the house, with the couple whose house he was robbing. It sounds crazy, but it's a true story. The folks at The Smoking Gun are having a funny award for this year's "Stupidest Criminal", so I thought to start a thread here to see if there were any good stories out there that we can submit to their editors (long-shot but hey, you never know!!) In case you want to check it out the show (it's called The Smoking Gun Year End Special), it's going to air next Thursday night, I believe at 10pm. These guys can be pretty hilarious so it's worth taping i…

anyone watch or follow any of the major MMA sports? ive been a longtime fan of the UFC and recently got turned on to Pride FC. both are pretty much the same sport. the main differences are that the UFC uses a cage in the shape of an octogon where as pride uses a traditional ring. the rules are a little different. in ufc, you cant kick a downed opponent. in pride you can. both use a different scoring system. ufc uses the traditional round scoring where pride scores the entire match. other than that, it's pretty much the same. they even use alot of the same fighters. i see many fighters that switch between between their contracts. i think ufc is a little more popular. i…

I have a question regarding our bodies and their longevity. You hear about how some scientists from God-knows-where that say that our brains are capable of memorizing three encylopedia sets, A-Z, something like 7 languages, etc, etc. Now I was wondering, if our brains or minds have so much potential then why aren't our bodies evolved enough to be able to not deteriorate so fast so as to let us reach our full potential mentally. We're only using something like 3 percent of our brain power. Why can't our bodies last longer to let us use the full power of our minds? Anyways just a thought....

Well I've been looking all over the net for some info on transmittance in like light but I keep getting unrelated information about astrophotography and other crap. Anyways let me explain my dilemma. Im a highschool student and for chemistry its mandatory to do a science fair project. For my topic I'm seeing if Hydrogen Ion Concentrations (pH) affect the colourants of fruit juices. I already know that it does. Anyways I made a buffer solution and filled 10 separate beakers with it. I adjusted the pH from 1-10 I added four mL of the buffer to one mL of the fruit juice I did this for a few juices and asked my teacher to use the schools spectrophotometer t…

BWAHAHAH ::runs away laughing::

I've relized that alot of my childhood was based upon lego, paper planes, destroying things and digging holes in my grandmas yard(Mini-Golf) , what ideas can you think up for something Cheap , Fun & Educational for the growing child to do .

HEY....its been a while...well, does anyone know anything about bottle rockets(aka water rockets)? well, i'm in a club for science olympiad for HS and does anyone know how to keep a rocket aloft for the max amt of time w/o using a parachute? also, if you were to glue fins on a bottle all at the same angle, the bottle would spin faster up right? and if it were to fall back down to the ground on its side, the rocket would spin faster...wouldnt that make the rocket fall faster? well, thanks alot....

Is our prison system a revolving door of criminals who arent sorry but just did their time and are back out on the street only knowing what they know crime? Education and methods of rehabilitation are in prisons but arent mandatory and most criminals only learn more crime from other criminals being in jail. We put theives with murderers and pedophiles with gangbangers and expect them to have the same experience in jail ? that seems stupid to me and more costly in the long run why not have a jails for specific crimes and focus on a punishment suited for each particular crime. It would be more expensive at first but when u actualy rehabilitate and make a ex-con function and…

guys, Spring is a good time to do some cleaning. Sayonara3 in not fit to be a moderator. Lets fire him now!

During these two months, I found there are far fewer threads interesting and I did a little effort on replying posts. What are everybody doing? You guys seem to be absolutely bored and annoyed.

i use my computer most days for quite a while each day - it has 512MB of RAM (with a 2.53GHz proccessor) and ive been thinking of buying another 512MB giving me a total of 1024MB which should give me nice speeds. alternatively i could buy (for a similar price) a 512MB MP3 player (which also doubles up as a USB key, or USB stick or whatever YOU call the USB device which plugs into the USB port and takes the data off it!) i currently have a minidisk... advantage of an MP3 would be that its smaller, cheaper, so i dont have to worry so much about safety and the fact that its a USB key. however with the RAM i would use it everyday - i have CDs for data transfer and…

me and a friend have been fighting over this one she says im closed minded (and im not) just cause i know ghosts dæmons etc don’t exist that’s just what i think she says they do i have looked into it i have tried to find out why things call her name and grab her etc from no where i came to the conclusion that its just her mind and spasms (grabbing) she is calling me closed minded and its very insulting she on the other hand wont listen to anything i have to say explaining it then she gets upset when i say that she is being ignorant can someone elaborate on this for us?

here's proof http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=40081

I'm curious about the difference between strategy and tactics.What do we mean when we say that someone is good tactican but a bad strategist? Vice versa too. can anyone help me? By the way, can anybody explain the above in chess too?

http://www.pointlessfun.com/spirals.html'>http://www.pointlessfun.com/spirals.html http://www.pointlessfun.com/colortest.html'>http://www.pointlessfun.com/colortest.html http://www.pointlessfun.com/crooked.html'>http://www.pointlessfun.com/crooked.html http://www.pointlessfun.com/rotatingrings.html'>http://www.pointlessfun.com/rotatingrings.html http://www.pointlessfun.com/impossible.html'>http://www.pointlessfun.com/impossible.html http://www.pointlessfun.com/checkershadow.html'>http://www.pointlessfun.com/checkershadow.html http://www.pointlessfun.com/ My friend sent me these. I liked rotating rings and color test the best.

Ophiolite's comment in the "pointless fun" thread got me thinking. How often do we rate the reliability of a witness by what we believe? Without worrying about the existance or not of things, an experiment. You are now a Police Officer interviewing a witness about a robbery. The witness tells you that the offender was 190 cm tall, dark hair, pale complexion, etc., in fact the whole box and dice. You'd be thinking something like "A good observer, accurate and concise." You would have no doubt (or very little) that the person saw what they said they saw. And you would go looking for the man who fits the description. This would be a major prosecution point the …

My Top Ten List (and favourite actors in each movie): 1)(tie) The Godfather (1,2,3,) & 2001:A Space Odysey-Marlon Brando & Douglas Rain 2)Goodfellas-Robert De Niro 3)Pulp Fiction-Samuel L. Jackson 4)(tie) Contact & Pi-Sean Gullette & Jodie Foster 5)Alien-Sigourney Weaver 6)Eraserhead-Jack Nance 7)Cube-Andrew Miller 8)The Shawshank Redemption-Tim Robbins 9)Krull-Ken Marshall 10)Lord of the Rings (first)-Ian McKellen Updated List (in no order):: Yojimbo Ran 2001 Cube Krull Shawshank LOTR Pi Contact Eraserhead The Great Dictator Contact the godfather The seven samurai Goodfellas Pulpficti…

Has anyone else heard that they're making a Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy Movie? I heard this from someone, but I don't know if it's true.

Has anyone ever used graphcalc, or any other open source graphical calculator for windows or linux, if so what did you think of it? Cheers

Inspired by the NewScientist article of 100 scientific things to do before you die, I want to see what you all come up with.

I am a non-smoker who cant understand why people willingly inhale smoke? Alcohol I can see in moderation cause it does no serious harm if not abused, but how can even 1 cigarette be anything but bad? From what studies show it is a addictive toxic drug (nicotine) and can kill if enough get in your body. I even read that smoking has a negetive effect on your genes inside your organs not letting them grow and heal properly and it simply is a quicker way to die and bad health. I know some people smoke and say its their right but it is the provider (tobaco comany) that is at fault, they are responsible for countless early deaths and the only punishment they get is some of thei…

We are having a disagreement about the fact I maintain that in an electrically heated home, during the winter months you may as well leave lights on if you want to because the energy from the lights will contribute to the total heat of the room the same as electrical resistive heaters. Ie, if a vessel (home/room) would need say 2000 w of elect heaters on to maintain 70 degrees. I say you would get the same amt of heat from 10- 200 watt bulbs,.or a hundred 20 watt florescent ones,.. 4-500w clothes irons or a 2000W motor. My partner says that in the case of the bulbs that the light energy is lost but I will guess that and light (or more infrared emissions) hit objects in th…

Anyone here buy the New Scientist magazine? Are there any other good ones?