The Lounge

Just saw this ad in speculation section. http://www.animals-in-space.com/ The link takes you to this At the bottom of the page it says; This is a training exercise. No animals will be launched into space. What the ?

I appreciate that, on the whole, a universal cure for cancer would not actually extend the average lifespan by very much - precisely because age is a risk factor for the development of cancer. Acquiring the suite of mutations and number of cell doublings implicated in cancer - not to mention the development of anti-apoptotic, invasive and metastatic phenotypes in cancer cells - takes decades usually. But to claim that, 'in the aggregate, it's not as big an advance as you might think.' Really? Is this guy in his right mind? I can only assume that he has never witnessed the protracted death of a loved one to this disease; has never witnessed their intense physical discomfor…

Simple game we can play. Just post something to do with science or mathematics that can be seen as an innuendo. You should give some link just to prove it is real, so no cheating. The winner gets the satisfaction of having the dirtest mind. I'll enter this (lol) Cox Ring. Now your turn...

Myself: 39 y/o male. 11 yr Military Veteran Education: BS Space Studies - APUS Current Study: MS Space Studies - Aerospace - APUS Location: Vicinity Washington, DC Technology Startup: Electromagnetic Propulsion Engine Uniqueness: Electro magnetism is one of the fundamental forces in the universe. The ability to use this force for propulsion has the potential to yield high thrust for a long duration. A provisional patent has already been submitted to the USPTO. A full utility patent will be submitted. The patent utilizes a unique configuration and application of electromagnets that provide a force onto a reusable magnetically reactive projectile. Th…

Is it possible? I can read a research paper but I have no way of validating it (or often even making sense of it). (Incidentally since papers are peer reviewed, where do those peer reviews reside?) Is there a thick black line drawn somewhere within the super-set of hypotheses and research results to give a neat subset of "mainstream" and "accepted". Or is the line fuzzy and blurred? Is it something that only an expert can really know, and only within a narrow field? And is that ultimately only an opinion anyway? What should a lay person trust? Pop science books? Science journalism? How do YOU recognise something as mainstream? Does it just come with experi…

Do we have any chess addicts here, that either play for fun in their spare time or even play professionally? I quite enjoy the chess myself but I am probably considered a serious player, I study all the openings, traps. My rating is roughly 1900-2000. So who enjoys chess here, have any games you'd like to show me, or even interested in seeing a few of mine? Maybe even challenge me to an online game perhaps?

These films, there are quite a few, fascinate me, I doubt very highly that these are time travelers but they certainly look inexplicable on the surface. I'll post only one such video to see if anyone is interested in debunking this or at least speculating on what it really is.

In case anyone was reading news and made a navy + washington + swansont association. The observatory is miles away from the navy yard.

This is totally awesome: You saw it first on SFN!

Walkers are everywhere! I've put down 20 in the last 30 minutes, almost out of ammunition.... getting dark, looks bad... I can't wait to see WWZ !

I found this interesting so thought I'd share: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/07/son-doong_n_3873341.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular Uploaded the wrong picture, but there's a nice McLaren P1 anyway lol

I'm wondering if theres still a chance that I can moderate. I have all these ideas about things, I've pretty much shared the majority of them by this point. If I have the ability to moderate, I'd like a linguistics section to be available that I can moderate. I'd really love to be involved in this site and I think that I understand the concepts of linguistics more than the average joe. I've also scored extremely high on an iq test and I'm willing to take another one to prove that I'm good for the position. I promise that I will do nothing more than moderate for this particular site, and if I do want to share my ideas, I will seek guidance and revision before I post. I'm a…

So I was reading something about "pyramid power" when I had this idea. Does pyramid power cause time to stop or go backwards, hence the sharpened blades and slower rotting? It reminds me of Tom Brown and Eric Dollard's ideas about Steinmetz, a "time camera", and "ether". And of Thomas Bearden's idea of "time-reversed" waves. Perhaps it could combine with my idea that each thing has its own time.

The documentary, High Tech Low Life, is about two of China's citizen reporters or social commentary bloggers, who risk imprisonment to tell China and the world about government failures and corruption. It gives insight what it is like for some people who live in China. And, it tells us that the workings of the Chinese government are not only mysterious to us outsiders, but also to the Chinese people. The documentary also tells us that social commentary bloggers are ubiquitous and unstoppable, and they are changing the Chinese government and forcing it to be more open. But, they are only at the beginning of a long hard road. High Tech Low Life is on Netflix, or you ca…

My jungle cactus bloomed tonight, they smell wonderful and are almost a foot across....

here you must come up with 1000 facts, make sure to number them ^.^ 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000! 1. the energy in 215 big macs is the same amount of energy that can move a car up to 35 kilometres

I hope the electrics sell. The 80-186 mile range seems like it will suit the European market, where people ride trains much more than in the US.

While browsing Facebook, I came across a link to a very interesting website that has 40 maps that try to help make sense of the world. Although some of the maps are less than interesting, I found that quite a few of them are very intriguing. Enjoy!!!

Science Britannica, Professor Brian Cox, BBC2, starting 18th September, watch it! http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/geniusofinvention/celebrating-invention.html

The biggest list and the biggest dictionary of all time. This list and dictionary are so big that theres absolutely, positively, no chance of even looking at them. Not even a supercomputer could print this list out for you. I shouldn't even mention the dictionary. If you were to look at ONE ENTRY in this dictionary, the best computer in the world would crash. Give me a quantum computer, it will probably still crash just trying to look at these things. I call the list ' knowledge', and I call the dictionary ' time'. Just because knowledge and time are so big doesn't mean that they are not useful though, it just means that we, as humans, will never be able to look at them, …

Man shoots atheist friend over religious disagreement. http://www.examiner.com/article/oakland-man-murders-atheist-after-debating-god-s-existence

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-23962379 From the BBC News Magazine Monitor:

Would it be possible for some of the well connected SFN members to propose NASA the implementation of a strobe light beacon on the International Space Station in such a way to project a cone of perhaps 20 degree colored strobing light downwards as to tell the world its presence overhead during night passes ? It would be very significant, on an insignificant power consumption and perhaps cost, or a harmless green pulsed laser instead. I suggest such as the ISS is discernible to naked eyes with good vision. A light coming from it should be highly discernible too. Would that harm any technological issues?, for the ISS just to tell us, the world... "We are over you…

Although the internet makes educating oneself free, in many cases, the cost of refereed papers is too much for me and many other retired people. I really would like to read Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox, and other papers from time to time, but cannot afford them. Since university salaries and research grants are often paid by governments, it seems to me that I've already paid tax $ for many of them.