The Lounge

“Ya gotta luv this”: http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=51019 Even Buck made a few dollars with this version:

I just received a letter from MIT admissions to the BCS department. They denied me. I'm sad. I'm stuck now with no back up plan. I was going to share my code for the talking machine too (i was going to share it today for the sake of science and the benefit it may have to humanity) but now my heart is aching and I need to determine my own path for survival. It may be the only thing I have. While I was waiting for the letter, alot of people (professors included) suggested that I probably got accepted, so it was a bit of a surprise to me. Anyway, I need to live and pay off my debt somehow. Does anyone have any suggestions? About the program though, it's al…

I kinda called DNA a poi finder Poi- point of interest I want to be a moderator. I'm in.

This is the wildest reef aquarium I have ever seen, it must take many tens of thousands of dollars to operate it a year.

I was debating with my uncle a little while ago, and it eventually culminated in him claiming that science is in many way like a religion (I blatantly disagree with that comparison, by the way), because when a scientific theory becomes widely accepted among the scientific community, it almost becomes scientific dogma, and anyone who proposes a radical new idea is rarely taken seriously because so many scientists will have staked their entire careers on the existing theory. I confess I found this claim to be quite disturbing, because it goes completely counter to everything I believe in about what scientists should do. What does everyone think about this claim? Does it hav…

It's a typical Friday afternoon. I just cannot get my focus. I allow myself to get distracted all the time. The most urgent tasks are really boring, and the cool stuff isn't urgent at all... I don't want to do what is urgent, and I shouldn't be doing what I want to do... and I end up doing very little at all. I am working in a research environment, where individual researchers are allowed a lot of freedom. There is nobody who will check what I am doing - especially not on a Friday... As long as the projects are finished within their allocated time and budget, nobody complains. Still, I cannot escape the feeling that my productivity could be higher, if only I could…

Just ran across this little blurp of photos. But I love the fact such a man actually knew humility in his greatness. http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/49222/11-unserious-photos-albert-einstein

I've watched it 20 times and it still makes me rumble. http://fox8.com/2013/03/12/undercover-jeff-gordon-takes-car-salesman-on-test-drive/

Oh yeah! This is cool...

Is it possible to construct a complete pizza using paint-ball guns?

If intelligent extra-terrestrials needed a single human representative, what kind of person do you believe will be most appropriate for representing the human species as a whole?

I want to fly by pulling upwards on my feet. Please explain how I can achieve that.

An epic moment in my life was when I first said to myself "do you understand that you are standing under.... [something so absolutely humongous and mysterious that it gives you the extreme desire to live when you realize it's there]?" Just a heads up lol

I've been recognizing alot of talk about a TOE and I just want to let you guys know that I have been making concerted efforts to show how bayesian statistics can help us achieve this goal. There is a whole story here which is worth telling, but mostly I've been funding myself. I'm the top dog for this one. If you guys could help by providing me with some funding, then I'm pretty sure we can have a TOE relatively cheap and within a year or so. Or at least have a theory of anything that will, in turn, with the help of many experts, provide us with a TOE.

In recognition of International Women’s Day, I thought we could celebrate female scientists. Women who are influential in science (both historical and contemporary). I’ll start us off with Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin maybe not the most influential or famous but she did great work in astronomy and trod a path for others.

If I gave you guys the code for my language acquiring program, would you incorporate it in the website? I don't have enough storage to see how smart it could get. Also, it would be interesting to see how I can refine the program if I don't have to give birth to it every time I go to use it (meaning that the program will have knowledge and not forget things). Theres plenty of fun to be had here I just want to know if you guys will let me release the first version in a nice intellectual community.

Since we now have a Google+ Community (through which we've already had a Hangout), I was wondering if there is any interest in doing live formal debates in a Hangout.

Hi all, Anyone have any experience of publishing a book? How difficult is it? How much does it cost? Is it better to self publish? Is it easier/cheaper to publish an ebook? Any advice you can give will be gladly received. Thanks

I'm just about to buy these components to build my own computer: CASE - Corsair 800D Full Tower Case CPU - i7-3930K @ 3.20GHz (obviously can be OC'd) GPU - GeForce GTX Titan 6GB GDDR5 RAM - Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 1866MHz HDD1 - Samsung PRO 840 SSD 256GB HDD2 - Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM COOLING - XSPC RayStorm D5 EX360 WaterCooling Kit MONITOR - Dell UltraSharp 27" U2713H 2660x1440 MOTHERBOARD - Asus Rampage IV Extreme Intel X79 (S2011) PSU - Corsair Professional Series 860 W '80 Plus Platinum' So, go ahead and post your current (and/or planned system specs)!

I was just wondering this as I tend to learn more when I teach something to someone, I can be vocal and I prefer that way of learning and when you directly talk with another individual you're constantly learning new stuff as they input to you some new ideas and questions which interest you and push your mind further to learn more. I find I can recall more information this way then what I would be able to if I was answering a question paper. I never learn well from reading from a book, or the internet I never remember what I read. If I was to have a conversation about it, I'd be fine! So, I believe I learn more when I teach something. How about you?

I wonder who here is an active twitter user. What's been your experience? Also, please consider PMing me your @username and I will share mine with you. I'm still a noob, though.

Just another few random questions I wanna throw out there at you all, and they are: What music do you listen to currently? Does it change often? Did you used to enjoy something else, A LOT but it change, and why? Is there any music you haven't listened to because you think it wouldn't be for you? I'm currently enjoying some Hayley Westenra and similar artists along side a lot of remixed music by a YouTube producer. It's soft almost trance like and helps me keep calm when I got lots of papers to get done haha My music doesn't change often, but I do have a huge list or different music I like, I tend to listen to everything and enjoy it in one way or another.…

Next week I take up a position at the Institute of Mathematics within the Polish Academy of Sciences. The position is at the level of an assistant professor and will last for one year. Because of this I may not be on the forums as much as I have been recently. However, I will keep blogging and will blog about my Polish adventure.

Hey, you may remember me, I used to post under Bascule before I ragequit over, politics, or something? Sure. I had a question about Group Theory and Google says this is still the place to be. So hi?

I'm not sure what to say about this except it makes me want to watch star wars again and have these guys at my next party...