The Lounge

Hello everyone I've read that it's not uncommon to put the font of front matter (that is, before the main contents) of a document, thesis ... in a smaller size than the main corpus. Now my front matter would be the following stuff, title and cover pages excluded, and in order: Copyright information Signature page Quote Acknowledgements ToC List of symbols and abbreviations List of tables List of figures Preface Abstract Dutch abstract After which Chapter 1 commences. Now, without any doubt, I'll put 1-3, 5-8 in a smaller font (just 1 pt smaller, makes quite a difference). My question is, …

Hello everyone Writing my thesis, I'm talking a lot (and I mean, a damn lot) about values: b-values for diffusion-weighted imaging in MRI, p-values in statistics, T1-values and T2-values in MRI, ... The question here is simple: to hyphen or not to hyphen? (British English) This seems like one of questions for which there exists the least consensus. So I'd love to hear your opinions on this. Should I put a hyphen between the statistic and "value", or not? Thanks! Function

Is it a waste of time trying to get your divers licence if self-driving cars will be available soon?

I'm not talking about radiologists (which I definitely know is not safe from automation) but radiographers. Radiographers are the people who help position the patient onto the scanner and make them feel comfortable and take the images of the patients' inside body using ct/MRI machines etc. What does everyone here think?

I don't normally post sensitive stuff like this but, one of my friends brought this up, and it would be MIND-BLOWING on either side of the aisle. If Trump were to become transgender, would he technically be the first female president?

Did someone 'pulled my leg' a looong time ago telling me these were to detect 'illegal/undisclosed' transportation of radioactive materials ? Or are those only mass detectors, speed detectors, vehicle counters, toll transponders... ?

Other then meeting my Mrs 41 years ago and the birth of our Son, my most unforgetable moment was in 1974, two years before my marriage. I had achieved 15 years service at the company I worked for, being with them from the day I left school and gaining a trade certificate in Fitting/Welding and Machining. I was due for 3 months long service leave and was looking for somewhere different and exciting to do. By chance I came across a small advertisment in a Sydney paper asking for guest crew for a British registered three masted square rigged Barquentine, which was leaving Portsmouth England in December '73 and arriving in Panama in January '74, then sailing across the Pacifi…

Anyone collect or interested in fossils? I find them and also buy them. If you have any then lets see them. I have more stuff, but here are some of the fossils from my collection. I might put more up if anyone wants to see them. A few teeth, Some Trilobites.Some random fossils. Ichthyosaur. And some Megalodon teeth, 4 to 5.5 inches or so.

My son has a house with a garden which has a resident squirrel (garden, not house). He has challenged me to work out why the family has named it Igor. Does anyone have an idea why? There must be some connection which I'm unaware of. All suggestions welcome in helping me to cheat.

Hello It's commonly known that quantities are put in italics, whereas their units aren't. I'm in doubt whether to put "[1H]", being the concentration of hydrogen protons, in italics or not. Would I then put the whole thing in italics? Just the square brackets? Or just the (1)H? [1H] [1H] vs. [1H] [1H] To be honest, whichever one is correct, the last one looks the least frustrating. Thanks; Function

With few working satellites in orbit yet, is the Galileo working today, even with delayed capture, or poor precision, or both ?

Hello everyone A special request for the Brits here: how would you write the words in the title of this thread? I'm writing my thesis in British English: Magnetise vs. magnetize Magnetisation vs. magnetization Remagnetisation vs. remagnetization vs. re-magnetisation vs. re-magnetization Remagnetise vs. remagnetize vs. re-magnetise vs. re-magnetize (and conjugations, e.g. remagnetised etc.) Thanks! Michael

If money and research dollars weren't a limitation, if you could conduct a (serious, or humorous) daring science experiment in any field of science, what would it be on and why?

That gold mined centuries ago since ancient times, the gold from spaniard conquerors, the gold from mines production in all continents. Physically, where is it ? Cannot believe that a substantial amount is in jewelry or museums. The amount of gold produced in say 3000 years, has to be a huge amount. Where is it now ?

First off, only those with morgellons or knowledge of it need reply. I'm just curious as to how many of you are aware of the flat hexagonal crystals associated with this disease or whatever you want to call it. The ones that came out of my skin are identical to others that I've seen around the net. I am simply trying to provide important knowledge involved with this disease, specifically, that these crystals should become the main focus of research into morgellons

I want to become a software developer someday, but I’m having a little issue. When I was 20 years old I got arrested for a misdemeanor and spent a night in jail for it. I’m concerned whether or not I’ll ever get a job in the tech sector since I have a criminal background now. Do I still have a chance of being an developer or am I screwed for life?

In grammar school I learned that it is not proper English to end a sentence with "at", such as in "I don't know where it's at", rather than standard English is "I don't know where it is". Does anyone else ever think saying "where it's at" is an awkward usage? It is very common to hear it, so much so that is now seems standard, but to me sounds uneducated. Didn't those people learn in grammar school that is not appropriate English usage? Do many of you prefer to use "where it's at" than "where it is"? Does anyone else agree "where it's at" sounds wrong? I understand the wide acceptance of the use of double negatives in a sentence, such as in "he doesn't know noth…

I've been getting page changes in minutes. Is it my link or the site? Other pages in my browser are fast.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-41135081 Is this the way forward to future freedom?

This is depressing and I wish I had better news to share, another person I've known commited suicide. He was Dutch, he was in his late 30's, wife, two daughters. He left 2 letters for his family (don't know whats in them) He hung himself at his friends place, seems he planned it well ahead. This is the 3rd guy I've known who killed himself in the last 4 years. All of them had families, no terminal diseases, no serious drug or alcohol problems. Its depressing as hell, what the f is happening, is it "that age" when people go for it or is there a wave of depression hitting people harder than before. This sucks

Seems every culture/nation wants / has developed its own 'dialect' I believe there is an international sign language, at least in intentions. Can a deaf person that only knows a particular variation of sign language from his country, understand a 'decent' amount of international signs to carry a cross conversation ? If such international language was someday a reality; could it bypass spoken languages as a -say chinese- sustain a sign conversation with a -say hebrew- ? And all other cultures permutations, without learning all the involved spoken languages themselves ?

On August 21st of this year a total solar eclipse will cross the United States. Luckily for me my home will be in the path of totality. The path of totality is about 73 miles wide. I am about 20 miles from the center line, and am trying to decide whether or not to move closer to the center line. An advantage of being on the center line includes the fact that at the center totality will last about 160 seconds, while at my home totality will only last about 115 seconds. Disadvantages of traveling to the center line include the traffic, crowds, and an unknown environment. Of course, the crowds could potentially enhance the experience. One thing in particular…

This may seem like a simple question. The obvious answer would be to read more books or to read more news articles. But I often find this to be hard for several reasons, I tend to lose interest in a particular book fairly quickly and I get bored whenever I read a news article in which the context goes over my head, for the latter, I essentially don't get the whole picture due to my gap in knowledge about a specific topic and that makes me lose interest. The most I would do these days is skim over a news articles, and then subsequently realising that I didn't pick up anything at all. I am the kind of person who has huge bursts of energy for a particular thing and refra…

Dear folks Yes I do understand scale ration 1:25 means 1 unit on a map equal to 25 units on a real and scale ration 1:75 means 1 unit on a map equal to 75 units on real Question my Kent tri scale ruler showing first number for ratio 1:25 as 0.5 m (i.e 50 cm, 500 mm) while first reading for ratio 1:75 as 1 m (100 cm, 1000mm) ? My confusion for the ratio 1:25 ruler has 25 small tiny line between 0 and next reading means 25 units right ?? if I multiply 25*25 = 625 why scale reads it as 500 mm or 0.5 m???? Same thing for the ratio 1:75 ruler has 20 small tiny lines between 0 and next reading means 20 units right ?? if I multiply 20*75 = 1500 why do I have 1000 mm …