j_p

Is it that one on Old 66 in Missouri? That's exactly how I feel about alien abductions; but I don't know that I am right about that. I disagree with you and Demosthenes on this; I am willing to believe just about anything is possible, but humans just haven't figure them out yet. Phi expressed this much better than I. Telepathy could be either a vestigal or new ability; unpredictable because humans have no knowledge or skill in using it [a very loose analogy is infants developing motor skills; it takes a while before they can reliably get the spoon to their mouths.] I don't see why time-travel would be anthropocentric; I am assuming that it occurs naturally with small inanimate objects with significant metal content, and that eventually we will discover the mechanism, probably while trying to develop teleportation. I further imagine that strict sanctions will be put in place against it being used for living beings, or, perhaps, that living beings will not survive time-travel or teleportation, which directly contradicts my theory that the alien abductors are time-travellers. Ghosts ... Too many people I know have had strange experiences. I have had mildly strange experiences. Whispy figures in the middle of the night, low moans and other strange sounds, cold spots, sudden sensations of sadness or terror? All the time. I tend to live in old houses with poor insulation. Still, I have seen and felt things, literaly and methaphorically out of the corner of my eye, that keep me from dismissing ghosts. I would say I have never seen evidence of telekinesis, but how would I know? When I manage to catch a falling glass that I was certain I was going to miss, maybe I am somehow pulling the glass into my hand. Maybe telekinesis occurs on this level all the time; the effect is so minor that no-one really notices it. All this being said, when I can not find my keys, do I hold a seance and ask the spirits where they are? Do I stand in the middle of the house and try to pull the keys in my hand? No; that would be silly and probably fruitless. I just putter around until I arrive at that point in time to which my keys have travelled.

Why would the North Atlantic and East Pacific have a lower increase?

Or you could just go without bananas for a few weeks.

No good scientist would ever say, 'That's just not possible', about such phenomena. I know that telepathy occurs. I strongly suspect time-travel occurs. I am willing to believe others on the matter of ghosts. I am open-minded about telekinesis. I think that people who claim to have interacted with aliens must be nuts [because, obviously, the 'aliens' are time travellers]. There is the reality we can measure; there is a reality beyond measurement. And there is a reality we can not measure, yet.

What? Who? Why?! Shouldn't this be a poll?

That type of quiet state is good, particularly if you are drifting in and out of a light sleep. But I think that getting deep sleep is very important, mentally and physically. I've convinced myself that you should see a hypnotist.

I did not misunderstand you. I did not even disagree with you. I told you that you were wrong, and explained why. You might try reading others' posts before you reply to them.

Thank you for the efforts; I wish that more of them were links. Is there a pfc site where most would be available? Could this be added to the Welcome Creationist thread, I wonder? Why not promote the page for the anti-evolutionist themselves? They may find the information instructive. Edited: Or have you already done that? I am not familar with the fora mentioned above.

I'm still reeling from the characterization of Christian Fundamentalism as idolatry, and the Bible as a graven image ... A bit obvious once it's pointed out. Wrong. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: 1. A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena' date=' especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.[/b'] 2. The branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice: a fine musician who had never studied theory. 3. A set of theorems that constitute a systematic view of a branch of mathematics. 4. Abstract reasoning; speculation: a decision based on experience rather than theory. 5. A belief or principle that guides action or assists comprehension or judgment: staked out the house on the theory that criminals usually return to the scene of the crime. 6. An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture. The scientific definition of theory is the first, not the sixth. Modern science is based on observation, and therefore does not accept 'postulates' as the term is generally used, "omething assumed without proof as being self-evident or generally accepted, especially when used as a basis for an argument. "[ibid.] American Heritage Book of English Usage: The words axiom and postulate are synonymous in mathematics. They are statements that are accepted as true in order to study the consequences that follow from them.

The measurement analogous to decibels would be lumens, wouldn't it? T-Nemesis is looking for a unit of measurement for 'how bright' the light is; that is, its intensity, not its color. Sorry, I was wrong; the unit for intesity of light is candela; lumen is flux and lux is illuminance. http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/sipm.html http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/

2.4 + 2.4 = 4.8 Round to one digit.

From experience and observation and a dimmly remembered study about submarines, I would say that five to seven hours is plenty of time for the sleep to be restful. Even four hours should be enough, if you are at least in a quiet state for an hour or two more than that. Psychologically, you should be fine, as long as you keep to a 24 hour cycle. Naps may give you the extra physical rest you need, but typically do not involve the same deep sleep. I have worked the graveyard shift, so, if you want tips on getting your deep sleep during daylight hours, I have a few. Keep the room as dark as possible; use a bedroom on the north side of the house; get dark drapes for the windows. Time your caffeine and sugar intake, and give up nicotine, if necessary. Use drugs to reset your sleep schedule, if that is possible and necessary. Once you reset your clock, falling asleep will be easier. Benadryl worked for me. Do not exercise before your sleep time; eat your heaviest [highest fat] meal before the sleep time. Noise will be the biggest problem; the best counter I ever found was a window fan blowing outward, but even that didn't work alll that well. If there just aren't enough consequtive quiet hours in your house, I can't help; I've never been a good sleeper. Maybe a hypnotist can teach you how to put yourself into a restful sleep.

Stop all drugs, except for coffee within four hours of waking up [if you try to give up caffiene now, you will have a psychotic break down]. Keep to some regular sleep pattern; either go to bed or get up at the same time every day. Consistency is more important than the amount of sleep. Consistent daily exercise; if you are really exhausted, you can probably do this right before going to bed. Stretch out your muscles when you go to bed and before you get up. Maintain personal hygiene; never think you are too busy to take five minutes for a shower. When you have trouble falling asleep, read paperback editions of late 19th, early 20th century Russian novelists; the combination of small print and complex structure is overwhelming.

I am far more worried about the current Avian flu mutating to allow human to human transmission.

Can you post a link to the bill? Or at least give the number, so we could read it? And did they vote against or did they just not vote for?

I definitely stumbled into my career; I decide to get my science requirements out of the way; then I decided to take a few chemistry courses to round out a biology degree; then I decided to go for the double major because it was only two more courses [that was Inorganic and P-Chem]; finally, on my third job I realized I was a chemist and not a biologist. So' date=' you will take undergraduate courses for six years, eventually get kicked out of school with a multidisplinary degree and your advisor's sigh of relief. Within three years you will be a millionaire best selling author of 'pet-help' books, one of which will be made into a quirky and critically acclaimed independent film. [Don't let Affleck have the lead; go for the little girl from 'Winn-Dixie'.'] Then, after a period of self-destructive behavior [in your case probably not substance-abuse; you'll probably start a wild-life research project in Peru], you will get your life back on track. I suspect you will host a radio call-in program about animals on 'NPR that will be wildly sucessful, and eventually very lucrative. [How the host of an NPR program becomes rich is beyond even my imagination.]

Full Employment for Criminal Defense Attorneys in Florida Act. I am pretty horrified by this, and will probably not consider vacationing in Florida because of it. I am certain that most gun-owners are responsible; I am certain that very few people want to shoot other people often. I am also certain that when one is frightened or angry, one does not make the most rational decisions; I am sure that there is some rational defense of this law, but it strikes me as lunacy.

I do not know of any such studies, and I wonder how they could be conducted. How can one's libido be measured reliably? [No adolescent cracks, please.]

What is her topic?

I am completely confused by your response; I come down on the side of skeptics because those are obviously not picture of ghosts; the lights all have identical trails that are very much what one would expect from pushing down on a button on the top of the camera using slightly too low a shutter speed to compensate for the wrong film. And no, ghosts don't alway have 'mundane' explanations... Most people I know have a ghost story, and the people I know are pretty hard rock; the most convincing aspect of most personally reported 'sightings' is how mundane they are. First, most 'sightings' reported to me are actually 'hearings': footsteps, chairs being sat in, door closings. I've lived in old houses [as well as newer houses], and I will testify that settling does not sound like footsteps. Most experiences are of footsteps, doors and cabinets closing, the very mundane sounds of a living house, when there is no explicable reason for the sounds. Second, most hearings involve practical rooms; bathrooms, kitchens, and bedrooms, in that order. Romantic imagination does not tend toward ghosts that get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom; reported 'hearings' of ghost do.

That would help. Lucaspa disagrees that warfare was the prime cause. I pointed out that the other tribe's genetic material would not be wiped out. I pointed out that, if one is to accept your warfare-as-the-prime-cause premise, running and hiding would be an even more sucessful means of retaining the opportunity to pass on one's genetic material. Lucaspa [and I] pointed out other advantages to good communication skills than making battle-plans; it just occurs to me that communicating during an attack does not particularly favor speech as a means of communication. I'm going to go out a limb here, and propose that a lot of people on this board get really annoyed by gross simplifications of theories of evolutionary mechanisms. Now that's a premise I would love to read an informed debate on. So, all the accomplishments of culture over entire history of humans and proto-humans except war is dismissed as other stuff, as sex. You know, there are other human impulses than war and sex. Take communication; why are we all on this board? Sex? Charmed as I am by some posters, intelligible explanations of plate tectonics do not move me to irrestible passion. To indulge aggressive impulses? Well ... only when I have had a really bad day at work... To carve out virtual territory? Well, there are a few people who might have that impulse. We are all here to just hang out, talk, and pick up a bit of interesting information; to refine our intellectual reality with debate and information. I was going to gone on to discuss other human impulses, but I have convinced myself that the desire to communicate is the defining characteristic of humans, and not a result of mechanistic evolution. War? A perversion of the desire to communicate, to force one's world view on another. Sex? Hell, yes. There is no better form of communication that physical contact.

You're wrong. There are at least two people here open to the possibility that traces of a person can remain after they have left a place and even after they have died. Have I ever seen a ghost? Not to my knowledge; I've never even heard one. Do I expect to ever see a ghost? Nope, not my talent. Do I think that at least half of my friends and acquaintances are delusional nuts? Absolutely not. People see, and even more often hear things. And they [and even I] can feel things. I have been to haunted places, and Gettysburg is one of them. That being said, I come down hard on the side of the skeptics about those pictures.

Um, not really; 'abortion' refers to any pregancy terminated in the first trimester; 'spontaneous abortion' is generally used for abortion that are, well, spontaneous, or of unknown cause. A 'miscarriage' is a pregnancy terminated without living off-spring in the second trimester, IIRC.