Leader Bee

They're really there so that you don't just bring your own lunchbox and sit in the resteraunt using their facilities without paying up. But yes, thats what always crossed my mind when I see them either that or you and your friend pre-plan what you want to eat then just order each others food for yourself.

Anyone ever been to a resteraunt with those signs that say "Please not not eat your own food"?

I work as admin in a large financial services firm. We come accross terms like FSA (Financial Services Authority) and MMR (Mortgage Market Review) rather often but always, ALWAYS I think Food Standard Agency and Measles, Mumps and Rubella.

I

The extinction of dinosaurs on Earth ( Cosmic dust storm that blocked out sunlight for a thousand years )

 

In the history of our solar system the dinosaurs extinction has been a relatively recent event. The time when there were rogue planets flying around space however was billions of years ago, so long ago infact that the planets were still hot and molten from the collection of dust from the suns accretion disk. Long before the earth could even support basic single celled life, never mind complex organisms like the dinosaurs.

The timing just doesn't fit.

No I don't think it is necessarily cross pollination, because that would involve using seperate species to germinate a new plant with the desirable properties. Using pollen from the same species but from plants within that stock that have been selected specifically because of their desireable traits is more what I meant.

and

I don't know if it counts but over time I suppose you could use selective breeding (is that the right term for plants?) to produce a strain with properties you desire - I.E larger/More fruit or something that simply grows faster.

You would of course need examples of these plants to breed into something where these particular properties were more prominent.

Why are you accepting such explanations so quickly?

Since the rotational rate of the Earth is stable, why is weather so capricious? Wouldn't weather have become standard all around the globe, based only on variations caused by physical phenomena like the Coriolis force?

As seen in Jupiters distinct cloud bands?

No, you are correct and this confusion has been down to my poorly worded explanation of the process.

While temperature is one of the main factors in creating wind you'll also find that humidity is a factor too. Storms can last a long time over the ocean and you may have noticed on the news tropical storms being reported for some weeks before they arrive in cities but they only last at most a couple of days once they're over land so topology is also a contributing factor to weather.

Mountains that are high enough are like their own little islands of weather systems too. Wind from regular pressure systems can be forced to rise up their steep sides creating stong winds, clouds, rain and snowstorms.

With a maglev train you only need to supply energy to the vehicle itself right, not the tracks too?

I'd have thought you'd be able to run these mroe efficiently than the current wheeled designs.

Could someone explain to me why amplitude modulated radio stations transmit further distances in the evening? I have read somewhere that there is a change in the atmosphere that allows this at night time

My guess would be that there is no electromagnetic interferrence from the sun but i'm unsure of the specifics of how this really works.

Why doesn't it affect FM transmissions?

Cheers.

Perhaps a question to ask is "Is torture ever effective"? If so, why should it not be used.

It kind of reminds me of how EA hired scientists to write an article on how Tiberium from the command and conquer universe works...

 

I just wish xbox would use blu-rays as well so you don't have to change disks in big games.

I believe this is because Blu-Ray is a Sony developed technology and when the PS3 came out it was one of the cheapest players around. Perhaps Sony wouldnt let Microsoft use the technology or MS just didnt want to pay the licence fee's.

Sony were making a loss on their PS3 hardware as far as i'm aware but the fact they had the cheapest players and an already established target audience (Gamers) they knew they'd have enough units in households to make up for this in Blu-Ray sales later down the line... Partly why HD-DVD failed to become popular from how I understand it, not that it was inferior.

Are you looking to create D2O?

It doesn't work like that. Cheap and easy won't happen and it's why it was there was only one D20 plant in (switzerland?) during WWII - it isn't cheap or easy.

It'd suck if you'd done something really bad, the cops caught you and you ended up like Prometheus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus

I also have a hamster can I do anything without harming it?

I suspect you well get interesting results with an airtight tupperware bowl and perflurocarbons.

Seems to me that the only benefit to alcohol that you pro-alcohol people are providing is that people can socialise better.

Well maybe it's time people learned to talk to each other without having to be drugged and slightly poisoned first.

In my opinion, there is something seriously wrong with a society whose members must drug & poison themselves in order to socialise well.

 

Alcohol should be treated as what it is: an addictive, poisonous, drug.

All the other addictive drugs were immediately banned once their addictiveness was discovered, and yet nicotine and alcohol remain legal even though it is well known that they are poisonous, and addictive.

 

I'm not calling for an immediate ban on alcohol - that would be too extreme.

Alcohol needs to be steadily more and more regulated until it can be banned or until the people using it are using it safely.

 

The dangers of alcohol need to remain an important part of education.

Alcohol advertising needs to banned. Tobacco advertising is banned, and alcohol advertising needs to be banned too.

Alcohol cans and bottles must have large warning labels which clearly label them as poisonous, harmful substances which can kill.

Shock images may need to be used. (As is done with tobacco with pictures of diseased lungs, except it would be diseased livers in the case of alcohol.)

 

Such regulation will make alcohol less attractive and will make alcohol less important to society.

Such regulations do work, as has been shown with tobacco. Such regulations on tobacco have lowered use significantly as shown on graph below:

 

 

 

 

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To those who say "the poison is in the dosage":

Well then, if the poison in the dose, you won't mind drinking this then. It contains cyanide. Don't worry, it's not a fatal dosage.

I agree with your sentiments on alcohol advertisements; Personally I don't like the taste of alcohol (though i'll drink it occcasionally) but it seems a lot of people do, though I feel this is not by choice but by social pressure. I can't help but feel that they're drinking it because they're told it's cool and fun and I think that if the marketing of such drinks were downplayed then perhaps the instances of consumption of alcohol (in excess) would drop.

However, alcohol has uses other than drinking. 40% alcohol + water is a common base for chemical reactions, it's used in cleaning products, paint strippers etc, used in cooking - steak and ale pie anyone?

I know the topic is "how alcohol affects modern society" but I feel I need to mention that once upon a time, alcohol "Mead" was the drink of choice because it was SAFER than water. That being said, water is now treated and is completely safe to drink (some people would argue this I suppose with it being chlorinated) but it's clearly got antibacterial properties and it's useful to have around if youre really stuck - think 3rd world/deprived countries with access to basic equipment, it makes for a good antiseptic and has at least some kind of anesthetic property.

Banning it outright would be ludicrous.

using alcohol in moderation is the key issue here and some people just don't know what that means.

Perhaps the best thing is to introduce a law similar to the speeding laws but how to administer that law? It's not like you can measure somones alcohol consumption just by taking a few pictures of them dancing badly then sending them a fine in the post for being drunk. What about a breatheliser test at the bar and refuse sale to anyone over the limit and limit the number of sales of bottles of wine one could purchase per visit to the shop?

I guess that wouldn't stop people stockpiling the stuff though.

I think It's really down to educating people on the dangers of alcohol rather than making it look like a cool lifestyle choice. Most people are smart enough to make their own decisions given the correct information.

Looks an awful lot like some kind of worm to me.

Old news but perhaps this has some relevence to the discussion?

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/29025/

Dont you think youd just be better off with a pulsejet? They're cheap, easy to make, simple and often have no moving parts depending on whether you decide to go for a valved or valveless design.

Bankruptcy is clearly a "Made up" notion, value is attached to money but as has been mentioned before almost everything has a value. Before the invention of money i'm sure people traded in livestock and crafted items - ceramics/tools etc which would be a perfectly viable economic system should all money be wiped from existence and infact has been used and continues to be used in remote areas.

Take for example remote indian/brazillian tribes with no access to mettalurgy or any kind of minting system; How do they buy things?

I imagine the reason "Money" was invented is because an agreed upon value for each different coin brought some stability to the economy, whereas one cow is not the same as another, hand crafted items will never be the same and differ in value/quality.

Anything can be used as currency should someone attached an agreed upon value to it and thus as USD,GBP and JPY are primary, secondary and tertiary currencies whatever we decide to use afterwards would be the reserve currency

for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_money

Do you think i'm completely stoned/drunk?

Either this or you're struggling to express what your idea is enough for us to understand you.

For this setup the problem would be two fold because as well as piezoeletric plates being expensive and not particularly efficient you'd also need to cover them in a sheet of ice...