The Lounge

The company I work for, Cytec, was sold a few days ago ( deal won't be finalized till last quarter, pending regulatory approvals ) to a much larger Belgian company for 5.5 billion, who is interested in our market share of aerospace materials ( resins and composites ) and mining extraction chemicals. Our lone plant in Canada is strictly Phosphines, but a lot of our organo-phosphine derivatives are used in mining metals extraction. The name of this Belgian company, Solvay, sounded somewhat familiar to me. It turns out it was founded by two brothers who patented a process for making caustic soda in the 1860s. By the early 1900s they were sponsoring the famous Solvay Confer…

Finally happened. Result of an ever so delightful combination of sleep deprivation and job stress(moved up a rung). Came to, part way and was almost entirely paralyzed. At first I had the idea that a group of unknown teens were nosily moving around the house. Then that mysterious doctors were going to do an unasked for procedure on me and I was somehow entirely immobilized at their mercy. Seemed to finally grasp what was actually occurring and actually managed to recall my own advice and moved the tips of my fingers. Wasn't much but feeling the fabric beneath them calmed me down and/or I became alert enough so I could pull myself out of it. Have to admit it wa…

I finally finished my latest composition! It's a really beautiful piece of music!!! Enjoy!!!

The OSF has 844,410 total posts, and 72k members. Are we up there in high ranks of "most popular ( ) " or most active science forums? (I also forgot to mention that we have "ME", so that has to boost our rank a few 100 spots ) ~EE

I have found good information and help here, thanks to all. As I am having a bit of trouble "fitting in" (alas my fault), I shall be moving on. Again thanks to all for your time, information, and patience.

In all honesty I don't really see anything good resulting from a $15/hr wage in fast food places...for starters its more than what most starting college graduates make. Secondly, The two main issues I see from this are either: - Increased food prices ---> Less buying of food products ----> Stores closing ----> less fast food jobs - Laying off a sizable amount of workers to cope with higher wage ----> less fast food jobs -your thoughts ~EE

I never floated a thought that this investment would be my nightmare. i studied it before i placed the order. Unfortunately the thing goes opposite. i lost a lot of money. It is a big big blow to me. i began to doubt my judgement. i don't have any confidence now. My brain is clouded. it is so hard to make money and it is even harder to get my loss back. what shall i do ?

The following situation happens to me regularly and makes me go crazy. I don't know if it will make sense but please try to read it and help me. It really makes me go crazy. I was reading an etymology book. One of the chapter's name was "words about common ideas". This started a train of thought. What does "common ideas" refer to? I realized that there can be a lot of ideas. Then I stared asking that how can you classify or organize all ideas? I looked up list of academic disciplines on wikipedia. The way it classifies knowledge is into Humanities, Social Science, Formal Science and Natural Science. On what basis have we classified knowledge like this? Can we do somet…

Hi dear friends! I mentioned elsewhere that the French secret services are my long-time enemies and got questions on that. In threads and subforums about physics it wasn't the proper place to answer, but here I wish to give some explanations, hints, observations, context. As a first reason for spook presence, my father had several jobs where secrecy matters, with clearances delivered by the spooks. As a French officer during the Algerian independence war, he worked at the military intelligence. What he did previously during the Vietnam war, he wouldn't detail. Later he was the deputy military attaché at the embassy in Germany, and then he worked at NATO's operations hea…

I was hoping I could get some advice regarding some choices I'm planning to make. I recently introduced myself in the Introduce Yourself topic but I'll add some more information in order to make my situation more understandable. All kinds of advice is welcome. I'm currently living in Mexico where I recently finished what I consider would be my undergraduate studies in the field of psychology. However I would now like to study neuroscience in the U.S. but I have some questions about that. Is it hard in the US to get any kind of financial aid? Even though I was born in the U.S. and have my citizenship I don't think I qualify as being a resident for a state am I right…

Hello Are you interested in science or you are a scientist? Want to figure out the truth about our Universe? I am a 17 year old from Lithuania who is looking for people around the world to discuss about science and the Universe. Why I am looking for science friends? For a hope to create a better world and to find people that want to know the truth about the Universe. If you are interested, please write to my science forums account.

In reference to logically interpereting the law, I want to know if its possible to use checks wherein the amount specified of the check can be substituted with a mathematical expression like e^(pi*I)+e^(ln(12+sin(pi/2))).

Let's say AI becomes so advanced that they are human-like. Will it ever happen?

swansont seems to have a penchant for awesome quotes, so I think we should have a thread of swansontisms. Here are some of the ones I can think of off the top of my head: Got any more?

Hello SF, this would be my first post on the forums here so I wanted to post my views on human nature, spirituality and hopefully it can raise the eyebrow to think how this influences all of mankind. Hopefully you enjoy it ! Good afternoon, good evening and goodnight, I'm making this post on a very important and not very acknowledged topic, that in my opinion is most likely the one that influences everybody's life to the core of their understanding and perception of themselves, society, the world, and the universe. This topic is that of spirituality, I am not talking about magical force fields around people's bodies or an invisible man in the sky that teaches you ri…

Hello! I was just watching "The Untold History of the United States" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1494191/ by Oliver Stone, and crying for couple of the first episodes, when the people who thought to rule the world, such as truman, bombed and murdered and annihilated hundred thousands of people.. truman, his soul is burning in the hell right now for eternity, claimed that he is "happy to hear of successful nuclear weapon tests"... ?!? 85% of americans according to movie, supported mass murdering of hundred thousands of people?! Are your fathers, mothers, grandpas, grandmas one of these 85% of mass murderers that wanted to annihilate all these h…

Lets say someone invents a perpetual motion engine and it defies all laws of physics. How ticked would you be that we have to rewrite EVERY single law and equation? I would be furious...... (Of course this isn't going to happen but its a good topic for conversation because I'm sitting here at home bored out of my mind.)

Dear Madams and Sirs, please revert with some comments where wire nickel 0.025 mm is used? Several people say it is used in electronics, medicine equipment and other equipment. 1 kg of this wire ~ 227 000 meters. One meter costs from 0.5 to 5 USD on the market. My problem is that I can't find any serious literature about this product, no info in the internet. Maybe you can help me. My friends have 50 kgs in Russia, we can't find a buyer for it ....

I work at an aquatic environmental toxicity laboratory that involves mainly industrial effluent and chemical testing. Organisms we work with include larval fish, water fleas and other small invertebrates. Occasionally there is some R&D work but for the most part, it's the standard routine permit testing going on. So while I've had a fair share of experience setting up and conducting these kinds of toxicity tests, maybe it's good to try new things. I was wondering if anyone had some ideas for or would like to partner in conducting toxicity testing. Oftentimes we have unused, leftover organisms that could otherwise be used for testing. I could setup and conduct th…

A couple days ago while collecting a flathead catfish came up in the net and i brought it home looking to make a pet out of him. He sat for two days on my deck in a kiddie wading pool while i got his tank ready. The tank is a 60 gallon metal framed tank I've kept fish in for over 40 years off and on and in recent years has been a daphnia vat. I drained all the old water out of the tank and refilled it and let it set overnight under aeration, about mid morning i went out and found about a half dozen plums floating at the surface so i removed them and caught the flathead and put him in the tank, a couple hours later he was dead, we are talking about a 10" flathead, h…

Well, it certainly has been quite a while since I've written a new song or made a post in the forum. I wrote this one for a friend as a birthday present. This song is titled, "Inspired", because of all the inspiration I obtained from listening to Mozart, and by talking to my friend, Doreen. This song is for her. Enjoy!!!

I am writing a book. I have the page numbers complete, now all I need to do is fill in the rest......................................................

jeremyjr said that many people claim that butterflies are not animate objects: I thought this was interesting so I asked for some examples. Jeremyjr, quite reasonably, said this would be off topic but would be an interesting subject for a new thread. That will be off topic and somehow we already know what will be presented, the "fun" will be spoiled. But that could be a perfect topic for a separate thread, if I am not suspended again for "bad behavior", people with "authority" are bound to use that "authority" and will not tolerate other people that appear not to "respect" such "authority", the "human" component is inescapable. So here we are...

Saddened to see that greed and power are ruining our planet eg the Amazon being cut down for agriculture. What does the future hold? Will we ever live in a peaceful environment where man and nature naturally cohabit without us doing any more damage to the ecosystem