The Lounge

Being a native Dutch speaker who also speaks German I can say with certainity that the English language spoken today is markedly different than other West Germanic languages - both in grammar and phonology. The biggest difference, however, is the large amount of Romance vocabulary, mostly of Norman and French orgin. In all other Germanic languages the percentage of words of Germanic origin are around 75-80%, in English it's only about 30%. Vocabulary aside, how much of today's English distinguishing features - lack of V2 word order, ridiculous number of analytic tenses, disappearance of infinitive marker (-en/e/a) and the predominant plural marker being -s instead of …

Weeeeee!!!!!!! http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/brain *gasp* Hit the play button, and it goes Immortal on you!

Any lawyers out there? What's the practical difference between how civil and common law systems work nowdays? Modern publications mention an ongoing convergence between these two with common law countries codifying their law by issuing more statues and civil law systems becoming a bit more common law-like through increasing the importance of court decisions. Is there any lawyer who could express an opinion about that? Besides that, how hard would it be for someone who operates within the continental legal framework to adjust to English law for example?

I'm bored out of my tiny mind with the double slit. Can't we do something else for Christmas?

I could imagine that 3D printing could be scaled up in speeds of "write-unwrite" to 60 hz, which would offer a 3D video . Materials are made with a compression algorithm to simplify background info, concentrating on active elements which would require the most data. This could allow a "circular fishtank" arcitechure to upcoming television...

Three German students surprise a homeless guy See Buy bread to some homeless today..

It's available on Netflix and is quite good.

I lost my mother at the relatively tender age of 67 a few years ago. I lost my 24 year old son 3 months ago unexpectedly. I am struggling to cope with the grief and my moods are rollercoasting like a teenager. At least my mother had a reasonably good run but aged 24? How have others coped with grief? Can things get any worse?

I apologies.. Arete and CharonY as well as the moderating staff and I also like to apologies to swansont from the physics forum. I'm from a confrontational culture and it's finals week so I've been a little stressed out in general. With that said, I respect you guys' expertise, knowledge, experience, and do realize my own inexperience and ignorance. Though I feel as though I have good things to say and I get all worked up when I think that one of you guys' has misinterpreted or misunderstood my point.

A related question must be answered to know the answer in the Topic of this post. What are the limits to energy storage in super capacitors, especially energy density and energy/mass. If the energy density and energy/mass are similar or better than liquid fuels, then I believe it is possible; otherwise, not. The electric charge could power a laser to heat air inside a jet engine, or some unspecified working fluid inside a rocket engine to create propulsion. The difference between jet and rocket is simply the rocket must carry the working fluid, instead of it being air. For example, a rocket might carry water which would be vaporized by a laser in the combustion chambe…

On every science board and physics-related video comments section, there is invariably a plethora of crackpots willing to endlessly spew their personal brand of buzzword-salad. They usually have virtually no math, physics, or even general science knowledge. They usually think they're smarter than everyone else. Attempting to correct them is like arguing with a wall. And they're always talking about physics. If there's crackpottery around, you can bet it's physics-related. But why is this? My guess would be that some of it is because of popsci books and documentaries that romanticize "the elusive quest for the theory of everything." That would explain the people who se…

I don't hold a degree of anything, but I'm interested to know at what age did you guys attain your first 4 year degree?

Finally, the last composition of the year, and my new years resolution to write more music has been fulfilled as this is my seventh song this year. This piece is an orchestration of a song my brother and I play on guitar that we named "Forged by Destiny". Although this rendition isn't exactly how we play it on guitar, I'm sure you'll enjoy the song nonetheless!

What is it that creates the thrill? I first saw Star Wars in 1977 as a young child with my mum and a few friends and whilst I really enjoyed it I wouldn't say it left that much of an impression on me - I prefered Superman, Smokey and the Bandit; even more - my elder brothers took me to see Close Encounters which terrified and fascinated me and had a life long impression on me. But I watch that trailer above and when that music from John Williams cuts in I feel a frisson of terror, excitement and anticipation - literally the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It's silly and somehow atavistic - but magnificent and inspiring; are we all so easily manipulated? …

This is my new 75 gallon set up, old tank new rocks and bogwood. It contains pink lipped shiners, chubs, black banded sunfish and the yellow bullhead is seen exploring his new digs. I caught all the fish my self in my home state of NC.

Don't worry about seeming like a Plumber. I now of at least one room unexplored and now unknown. The plane I got about half drawn some people decided I was trying to use hydraulics in the cold of space. It was a huge electrical trunk line. To the world where the world seems to have gears, too. I will need that one, too. Bob L. Petersen

Hey, my parents want to know what I want for Christmas and I can't really think of anything. The only thing that came to mind is a book called "How to prove it: A Structured Approach" so do you guys have any ideas along those lines. I'm a high school senior and my interests are in Computers, Quantum mechanics, and Artificial intelligence. I was also thinking about asking for a mechanical keyboard so recommendations on that would be great.

Back in the 1990s and 2000s we had space operas like Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and Babylon 5. Why don't we see space opera shows on TV anymore? Did the network execs decide the genre was dead? Did people lose interest in space travel? Why is this genre dead on TV? If the genre does not appeal to anyone anymore what can be done to revitalize the genre? What can be done to make the genre more relatable? Do you think this genre should be revived? Either way I think we need more epic space battles and political intrigue on TV. It was long thought that fantasy was a genre once thought reserved for geeks but Game of Thrones has garnered a huge audience. Perhaps a…

quick question This paper was free, but they've moved it behind the pay gate. Why might they have done this? Can pedophiles be reached for primary prevention of child sexual abuse? First results of the Berlin Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14789940903174188 I've linked to this paper to show that underage preferences are inversely related to adult-oriented preferences, with most of their convenience sample consisting of primary or exclusive-type pedophiles.

When ever my girlfriend or my friends ask me a scientific question, and I ACTUALLY explain the answer they tend to get annoyed and/or distracted. Sometimes they say I "talk just to hear myself talk" or that I "go on and on and on", but I'm just trying to illustrate the actual scientific reason behind the answer, and in return they get frustrated. I imagine I'm not the only person ever to have this problem? ~thoughts? ~EE

http://www.livescience.com/48922-theory-of-relativity-in-real-life.html?google_editors_picks=true I thought this was really interesting. This forum cites GPS frequently as "tangible evidence of Relativity working", but it might be good to have 7 more in the holster here...

Hi, I'm a 4th year phd student and I've found that I have increasingly lost interest in working in science. Things are going relatively well for me, I have a great relationship with my advisor who is happy with me, I have published a couple of papers (just recently even got some coverage in the news) and I have been offered a postdoc position. My personal and family life is also satisfactory, no complaints there. My problem is that I have lost interest in doing scientific research, and so am not sure whether I should continue after my phD. I have seen other people talking about lack of motivation online, but usually they complain about frustration with their pr…

Just came across this short " 6 min fantasy film" dedicated to the rosetta mission. Collaboration Platige image and ESA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqwBXYn9E_M#t=313 When man becomes god, or at least on the way.

Came across these nano sculptures, http://www.jontyhurwitz.com/nano Smallest human sculpture to date. 80x100x20 microns.