The Lounge

Check out: http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2012/07/04/photoshop-contest-where-have-you-seen-the-higgs/

While watching episodes on net flix last night I realized yet another connection between politics and Star Trek. In the old show the Klingons were supposed to be the Soviet Union not so thinly veiled but i was watching Voyager and realized that the Ferengi are a satirized version of the Republican party! Anyone else notice such comparisons between various races in Star Trek and our reality? I have been trying to figure out who the Romulans are but so far no sure ideas. of course there are many.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_races Of the many of course just a few are described in detail. Vulcans Borg Andorians Betazio…

Hi guys, What are the benefits of having a blog? To those who have blogs, why did you feel the need to make one? How does it benefit you from making one? What do you use your blog for? In real life I sorta have trouble being honest to people and expressing myself. Could starting a blog help in anyway?

I thought it might be entertaining to start a thread where members can share stories of lab or industry experiments gone wrong. I'm posting this in the lounge because I didn't want to limit the discussion to chemistry (physicists, engineers, and biologists causes havoc too sometimes). Feel free to share something from personal experience or any interesting stories you find on the internet. Garage science stories are welcome as well, in which case we won't tell your mother. It's only fair that I start 1) I once tried to pressurize an activated alumina column that I was using to purify a simple mixture. Everything was going fine until suddenly the gas adaptor sh…

Neil Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) the first man on the moon. Neil Armstrong came in peace for all mankind. The coolest guy, ever.

What's up with you guys and pine tables? It seems like everyone is talking about burning them, pouring permanganic acid, piraña bath, sulphuric acid over them... Would anyone care to explain?Someone's signature here read something like: I'm going to paint the table, I'm going to paint it fine, I'm going to use h2so4, because the wood is pine.

Are sesame seeds healthy to eat? What is the nutritional value of sesame seeds for humans and why are they so essential in balanced diet? How have sesame seeds become so popular in so many different bread? I find them a little bit tasteless but was just wondering what everybody here thinks...

When we have just become infected with the common cold why does our mucous change in colour and texture. The colour changes from a more transparent clear colour to a thicker yellow-green colour. Why is this? And how does this happen? Anyone know?

Famed director Tony Scott has jumped from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles in an apparent suicide. Scott was 68. According to media sources, witnesses saw Scott scale the fence, then jump off the 185-foot bridge without hesitation, as onlookers watched in horror. According to an ABC News report, a source close to Scott says that he had been battling inoperable brain cancer, which the media believes could be the motivation leading to the suicide. Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told the NY Daily News, “The autopsy is scheduled for this morning. We might (see a brain issue), but we don’t have anything medically confirmed at this time.” …

This summer I went out cliff-jumping with a couple of friends. The cliffs we went to (known as pulpit rock, located in Lake Placid, New York) had different heights to jump from. There was the 19ft cliff, 24ft, 40ft, 50ft, and 60ft. It got me thinking... what's the maximum safest height to jump from (assuming you land in the water correctly)? I ended up jumping the 50ft after MUCH deliberation, and the impact on the water didn't feel bad at all.

This is a place where u can talk about anything and still be on topic life got you down? do u feel like it owes you 5min of bitching? well this is the place to do it. i will start a scattered thought. i think we are nothing more then headed sheep given the illusion of freedom to intermix in our bar-less cages By Olala ^.^)/

I'm thinking about either renewing my subscription to the New Yorker or giving the Economist a try. I'd only really have time for 1 magazine. What do you all read, if any.

Hi, I'm very interested in Protein Design and would like to read some Papers by Brian Kuhlman, the guy is related to the rosetta@home project and the Foldit videogame. Check this link and see if you have a subscription for the paper THANKS! : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1074552112000798[b] [/b] as you can take from the address, you would need a subscription at sciencedirect (which sadly my university does not provide). thanks in advance!

Here I am again, at the gas pump, trying to figure out why the price just went up thirty cents a gallon in the last month. I'm unhappy about it, and I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Who knows why the price of gasoline skyrockets at any given time.? It seems that the slightest event sends the price of petroleum through the roof. It could be a natural or man made disaster, or a political happening. You would think that, since the first oil crisis of the early 1970s, our society would have been working on solutions to the volatile nature of the petroleum industry. The problem is, the energy industry makes large profits whether the situation in the world i…

Could a copy of the Curiosity Rover be sent to Saturn's moon Titan? Would this be far more difficult to do? I have read, some place, that once you get out of the Earth's gravity well you can go anywhere in the solar system with the same or close to the same amount of energy, time is the factor that changes. Would the Curiosity Rover survive on Titan or is Titan too cold? I know Venus is a hard nut to crack but is the cold of Titan a similar barrier?

Hi everyone. I have started looking for a reference manager software to implement in my workflow and use from now afterwards. I have looked at a few and have been impressed by qiqqa. Do you have any experience/suggestion in this field?

For some odd reason a potential Zombie attack seems to be a big worry in recent times and Hyundai is ahead of the curve with it's new car! http://www.gizmag.com/hyundai-zombie-survival-machine/23064/

just curious which SFN users tend to prefer.

http://ndestories.org/vicki-noratuk/ Go to the link above look at it and comment please if interested? By the way I had a near death experience last August due to total AV heart block, clinically dead for over five minutes? Alan

Anus from Uranus is a friend of mine.... nothing like science fiction R&R

Why do developed countries have lower marriage rates? What are the root causes if there are any? Your speculations please...

Hi all, Hope I'm posting in the right place - feel free to re-direct me to a more appropriate location. One of my long-held ambitions is to see (in person) the launch of a good sized space rocket - say 500kg payload or more. If I was in the US I'm sure I would have already managed to achieve that - being in Australia, there's not too many nearby launches. If anyone has info or options about where I could travel, to see a launch, that would be much appreciated. I guess the ideal would be a location - or multiple nearby locations - that has multiple launches in a shortish space of time, so that a cancelled launch wouldn't be such a big deal. Thanks in a…

Can anyone point out what this is? It's been on my bedroom wall as long as I've lived in this house. Doubt it's that interesting, but I might be able to use it?

Yep that's right, just for you, all the little fun things that people say that you who don't use the chatroom miss out on...

http://bigthink.com/ideafeed/new-software-helps-employers-read-your-emotional-state?