The Lounge

I haven't posted a lot, but I noticed recently that somewhere along the line my profile page says Group: Senior Members. Where did that come from? What's a 'senior member, what the flying moose ears did I do to become one, and what other groups are there on SFN and what do they mean? Thanks..

Is there a thread on what people thought were some of the better science educational toys that they used in their lives? I'm thinking Lego, mechano, chemistry sets, electronic sets, seamonkey's etc? I know some marketing names will differ from nation to nation, but the internet should solve those names. cheers.

Here in Australia we're seeing increasing support for the legalisation of gay/lesbian marriages. I believe one day it will be legalised world wide. But if it does so too would polygamous marriages and perhaps even other forms of marriages between different peoples (as the only thing stopping it now is our Christian roots). My question, even though polygamous marriages have a bad reputation in the developing world (particularly Islamic countries), could it serve a useful purpose in the future (e.g. political ones - to strengthen relationships between different countries) or serve as a better lifestyle choice for certain kinds of people (i.e. consensing adults) in the …

I found this video and the associated project on kickstarter and I wondered what everyone thought about the intersection of research and crowdfunding? Oh, and dinosaurs are always cool! link removed. although they do not have many pledges.

Any good TV shows, documentaries, or movies you know of. I have seen the universe, NOVA, many good universe type shows on the science, history, and discovery channel, how it's made, modern marvels, stephen hawking shows, a show on the history of chemistry, some interesting chemistry shows, many black hole shows, shows on CERN, social sciences(History, anthropology, psychology, autism, antisocial personality disorder, human geography(good one is guns, germs, and steel), dissociative personality disorder, Schizoid personality disorder, Borderline personality disorder, Histrionic personality disorder, neuroscience, sexuality(I have seen movies about that guy whose name star…

Lets guess, what if in 1980 world economies tried investing their monies in india. Then many things changed in india way back then, imported cars, bikes, modern rich lifestyle, walmarts etc etc. Then suddenly there was a indian economic breakdown, many foreign companies which once were lenient in indian markets took away their investments making indian banking system to liquify. Then indian bank accounts were hardly left only a thousand in number. So people with no money started riots on streets and pour their angers on communal reasoning. Then after five years of bankruptcy, indian pm rajeev gandhi took a billion dollars financial loan aid from usa. So things stabiliz…

Does anyone know if the WISE telescope can detect temperature anomalies inside the solar system out to the Ort cloud? I was under the impression it could but lately I've heard that WISE is only good for objects far outside the solar system.

This is something which is struggling me for a while now. If you look in the business world you'll see a lot of people simply playing their position and not revealing too much about them and just trying to play it safe. Though, if somebody comes a long who does not play by their rules they'll all try to isolate him out. Often they'll even bribe other people behind the scenes and try altogether to isolate that newcomer out of the industry. What I mean are those people who are often a bit eccentric, in a way they wear their emotions out, they are independent thinkers and are not afraid to disagree, they often also go against authorities. They are described as troublema…

So, I was just thinking of some chemical terminologies the other day and then it appears to me that some could make great pet names! If I ever get a chinchilla, I'll name it Buckyball. Milimo (mmol) is good too Post some names if you come across any ok? Have fun.

http://www.eastwestcenter.org/news-center/east-west-wire/declining-birth-rates-raising-concerns-in-asia http://chronicle.com/article/After-Decades-of-Expansion/129896/ http://www.prb.org/Articles/2010/koreafertility.aspx http://www.voanews.com/content/taiwan-birth-rate-falls-to-worlds-lowest-challenging-productivity-127933153/167887.html http://www.ipsnews.net/2009/12/south-korea-low-birth-rate-blamed-on-women/ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/opinion/brooks-the-fertility-implosion.html What does everyone think about the population implosion? Will we humans cease to exist as living standards rise and as we receive higher quality education than ever before?

Is it true that showering longer and more often increases the aging process? I know that being immersed in water for long periods of time can wrinkle your skin but after a while your skin naturally unwrinkles back again when you leave the water. My question, if you told yourself that you would never shower again or restrict the amount of time in the shower, would you theoretically have less wrinkles when you get older? ...so yeah, not necessarily aging but would you have less wrinkles when you get older if you showered less?

I again had a wonderful dream portal in which i travelled back forth in time to a unknown place. It was like a historic science field museum perhaps pertaining to nazis race. Apart from what we know from history about ressurgence of nazis in 1930s. But my dream seemed of a time like as of 18th century world, at that time there were so many inventions unknown accomplished by nazis. I moved across the museum and there were many robotics, generators like things kept. In a corner, there was a short bike which was very heavy and a nazi german commander said something about it in german. On its right side was a motor attached and the tyres seemed like small airliner jets' wheel…

I have often struggled to define love. For example sometimes I do not know why I do certain things that most people would consider an act of love (I'm sure many people are also find it difficult to define love). This morning whilst driving to work I got a new revelation of what love is. I know that it is a feeling/emotion, but it has never been revealed to me this way: love is a very deeply entrenched, powerful and long lasting mostly desired emotion / feeling which outlasts all other emotions/feelings and overpowers any reasoning. Hatred has the same force as love, but it is mostly undesirable. Most feelings / emotions are well capable of overpowering reasoning, …

Is being childlike a necessary characteristic of great creative and innovative people with great insights? Like Einstein or Leonardo Da Vinci. Michael Gelb - How to think like Da Vinci. I haven't read that book just saw the cover page some years back in a book store which mentioned about the childlike qualities of Da Vinci.

I haven’t been here too long but, my observation is, the average thread doesn’t get much above 20 replies, yet some achieve much, much higher. My question is twofold firstly what thread, apart from “The official introduce yourself” thread, has the largest amount of replies and which of these was the most enjoyable debate?

See? That sabatical ended up being less than a week long. It's my belief that since I now said my piece to whom I was frustrated with then I don't need to bother with it again. Hopefully the forums nature to ingnore errors will be the way to go. That's the rule of thumb I got from all the people here that I've spoken with, who shall remain nameless. Personally I think its a bad mistake. It'd confuse newbies. But I'm not going to take responsibility for others actions so I'll state my piece and leave it alone. I don't have the physical strength to keep making arguments everytime I see them. There are way too many. Plus its easier this way. Best wishes to all, Pete

I wonder if anyone besides me has noticed what appears to be a fairly strong correlation between loving science/math and loving art music ("classical" music, jazz, and so on)? And also, what is your favorite music?

The polar opposite of burying your cat, after it's been run over...

It's all over the news. I'd like to hear what the scientific community thinks about this. http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/30/miami-cannibal-zombie-like-attack-linked-to-powerful-bath-salts-drug/ http://surfky.com/index.php/communities/christian/123-general-news-for-all-sites/15438-miami-zombie-rudy-eugene-killed-by-police-after-eating-mans-face-bath-salts-suspected http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/state/homeless-face-eating-zombie-attack-victim-ronald-poppo-will-require-extensive-treatment

hey guys, okay easy question here. why is it that the most developed countries of the world which have the highest suicide rates? is it because of the absence of religion or other political reason? also, would you (whoever is reading this) consider committing suicide? do you believe in suicide? I have heard also that the smarter (i.e. higher IQ) you are the more likely you are of committing suicide. Is there any truth behind this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88lmVxvRaXU

I thought that the use of Albert Einstein's Image in this political cartoon to be disturbing and inappropriate: See: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/05/16/3244059/jpmorgan.html The image the cartoonist used is clearly derived from a well known portrait of Albert Einstein by Yousuf Karsh: So what are some of the problems that I see this political cartoon's usage of Einstein's image? Einstein was a theoretical physicist, not an experimental chemist. Einstein never wore a white lab coat while working. Einstein was not pre-occupied with money, and never worked for a bank. Einstein was not dumb.

Hi folks, I've decided to take a sabatical from this forum. Just too many rude people around (I just got a rude PM from a moderator whom I never really liked anyway) and don't wish to be around that kind of people so I won't be around for a perhaps long while. There are other forums where the Admit actually admire me. So there are plenty of forums to be of help in. I just don't won't subject myself to the nasty people I've run into here. I made a lot of friends so please feel free to email me. I won't be checking my PMs. Later gators.

Hi you people might had seen the sci-fi movie Ironman?!!! In that movie the computers software seem much better, faster than from jurassic park series movies!!! What if this movie is a true happening but exhaggerated theme of JFK times science projects. The ironman flying suit is said to have been constructed from backyard light weight plastic metal making of an exo skeleton, with an interactive GUI. The exo-skeleton is hyper active, heat resistance and even bullet proof. It is tagged by electrical metal strips charges. Also a core inducing energy is fitted into the chest of the ironman which provides energies to both the human body as well as the exoskeleton suit. …