alt_f13

don't eat the chicken the sell by date is dead wrong you would likely die avoid electronics equal opportunity hiring yeilds poor help

It's really warm enough to melt the gunk in your inner ear? I already have a fever; I should be hot enough! And how do you get the olive oil out when you're done? Pour in some other nasty concoction? Might there be a water based alternative to olive oil? Perhaps something more familliar to the human body... like salt water? Frankly, that part doesn't sound all too appealing...

I had a nightmare just like this a couple days ago...

(I'm sorry if this develops into incoherent babbel by the time I've finished, as I have just taken a slew of drugs I know will nearly have me hallucinating by the end of this.) I've had what I now know to be strep throat since Wed, the 11th. In the morning, what felt like the flu came on in such a way that at 10:00 I was the best I had felt in days and by 10:30 I was naucious, weak, had a sore throat and headache. By 15:30 I was dizzy and had what I can only describe as mental tunnel vision. I left work early on that day and the following two, but did not see a doctor until Friday, the 13th. Luck, it seemed, was not with me, as the doctor diagnosed me with the flu... incorrectly. He seemed very off-handed with me, as if I had been the 20th person complaining of a sore throat and headache etc. etc. to come in that day. I probably had been. By the night, my throat had become so swollen I could barely speak and swallowing became a chore. I checked my tonsils and they were covered in puss and sacks of bacteria, so I knew it had to be strep throat. It was late by that time, so I called the national health line to find out whether it would be prudent for me to visit the emergency room that night, or if I could wait until the following morning and go to a clinic. We determined over the phone that I could wait the night out. So the next morning, this morning, I visited a new clinic and explained the events of the previous day. The doctor checked my throat, and only my throat, said "yep, that's strep" and prescribed me some antibiotics. She also seemed very off-handed with me, except this time, she told me she'd seen four patients already that morning with strep. That's all well and good, but what if mine was the ultra-rare man eating strep, or whatever; either way, that visit was even shorter than my first. Well, by the time I had my prescription in my hand, something else developed. My left ear had become clogged, started hurting, and became nearly inoperable. Not wanting to visit the clinic for a third time in two days, I tried my own brand of home medication. I put my head over a bowl of hot steam and vics vapo-rub, and then stupidly, tried to flush my ear from the inside by filling my mouth with warm water and tilting my head until I could open my eustachian tube to let the water in, not even considering that, had it not been infected with the strep bacteria already, that I might unintentionally be doing it then. Either way, I don't think I succeded. I gave up and visited the clinic again at 19:45. With the new doctor I relayed my story for the second time, including the presciption and days events. She checked my ears, decided the left one was too full of wax to see into, and BEFORE even flushing it to get a better view, chalked my discomfort up to pain being referred from my throat. I said that could not be so, as my throat hurts when I swallow, and my ear hurts when there is an air pressure difference between the inner ear, and outside, as when I burp, cough, yawn or hiccup. She shrugged at me, and waved her hands in the air at some unknown deity of health and well-being professionals, apparently angered that I would dare imply I know more about an aspect of my own body than she. My ears were flushed, slapped with a clean bill of health and I was sent packing, feeling humilliated and betrayed by a health care system our fat, pompous government calls "one of the best in the world." Since then, the condition of my ear has not improved in the slightest, and my other ear now seems to be infected, and will not stop ringing. I am on a great deal of over the counter drugs, without which I would be crying in agony on the ground. I don't know what to do at this point. My hearing is more important to me than life, and I would rather die of anaphylactic shock than lose an ear. I have visited privately owned clinics three times in the past two days, and have been misdiagnosed two of those times. Should I wait it out, and hope the anti-biotics deal with both problems simultaniously, or should I again seek medical advice, from someone else who might misdiagnose and mistreat me? Had I been a less skeptical or more naive indevidual, I would be going on my fifth day of untreated strep throat, and there's a good chance I would have lost my hearing, as while it's beeing treated, the condition is not improving. Had I listened to the first doctor, the bacterial infection would still have spread to my ears. I am sick of clinics and am at my wit's end.

Check these out: http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/%7Edubinski/tflops/ You think you know what's going to happen, but the gravity from the outlying stars changes everything.

I think a section for science media would be a good idea. I've posted a few really cool things to look at and people tend to react positively.

I was on DSL, but we moved while the main local carrier was on strike... so we had to switch to cable. Sucks to be those idiots, because we weren't alone. We got cable before we even got our phone line back, and I am never going to trust that company again. Want to slack off and be a jerk and make lots of money? Join a Canadian union. Work in the transit, school, telephone, forestry, school support staff, waste management and city maintenance industries and go on strike whenever the hell you please. BTW, all that I have mentioned above have affected my immediate area by strike in the past 5 years, many of which more than once. Anyway, that's my rant.

The ruler and camera will do no good, aside from proving the moon doesn't actually change size or distance on a perceptual level. I suppose that is what you are trying to convince yourself of, but doesn't the fact that the moon is actually farther away from you when it is on the horizon prove that? Try and position the moon on a treeline horizon about .5km from you or behind a large (tall) city. That always does it for me. You don't happen to have a summer/winter home do you?

Curious, but according to creationists, what is the explaination for dinosaur bones?

I disagree that the chimp is not using tools. Considering two interacting objects, one as a manipulator, and one as being manipulated, I would say the manipulator is always a "tool" in any situation. If not... what would you call it? In the case of the stick in the anthill, the chimp is manipulating the ants with the stick (maybe the ants are walking onto the stick out of their own accord, but let's not be pedantic) and I would consider this to be using a tool. In the case of the dam, the sticks are not tools, but building materials. The dam itself is altering the environment, and should be considered a tool. If an ant collecting stick is not considered a tool, neither should a hammer be.

He's definately right. Since reading this thread I've noticed myself blinking alot more than before when I didn't notice myself blinking. I know that for a fact. If you dissagrea then you are the hacker who is the try and hide the truths from us. SPEEL CH3k IS FOR ALIENZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~~~````1

That doesn't sound right to me. Why are the holes repelling each other? Gravity. That is the be all and end all. So why would a black hole attract a "white hole" when the gravitational situation means they should be repelling, regardless of the mass? There is no reason. What you just said is like saying two repelling magnets would suddenly attract each other because the magnetic force of one of them suddenly grew in strength. Obviously they would just repel each other with greater force.

I don't think the war had much to do with oil at all. It seems to me that investing in technology research would be much more fruitful than investing in a war. Electric cars will be here long after the oil runs dry. Whatever the motives, I'm glad Saddam was taken down. The message needed to be sent that the western world will not stand for the inhumanity inflicted by evil dictatorships. It was proven in Afghanistan, and it was proven in Iraq, and I have little doubt the message will have to be sent again in North Korea. The only country I'm really scared of is China. They are very close to having the world in a strangle hold, in terms of industry and military. If they so chose, they could probably take out the US, assuming the other world powers stayed home. I believe China is the reason the US is still clutching its nuclear capability so tightly. The middle eastern countries are a pittance compared to the tactical capabilities of the worlds largest country. [edit] For interest's sake, check this out. Look at how many young people die compared to the other countries. http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/population/country.php?FILE=CH&NAME=China%3C%2Foption%3E

If that's true, they must have had it when the Bible came out. [edit] I'm referring to religion as being the opiate of the masses etc. back before TV was invented.

One could. You can also say it does, but that doesn't make it true. We are not yet at a level where we can say with the greatest degree of certainty what happenned at the beginning, or even if there was one. We believe we might have a good idea. And just because space-time *may* have been a singularity, isn't to say a singularity is not possible in any other circumstance, regardless of what you believe.

It was a pickup right? Did it have a gun rack and confederate flag posted up in the back window?

You make it sound as if the US collectively goes out with a torch in one hand and pitch fork in the other after Muslims. There have been far more innocent muslims killed by the insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq than by the USA, civilian crimes and military action combined. Frankly, if the rest of the planet wakes the hell up and acknowleges what is going on, things will end much more quickly, and with fewer lives lost. What I am really sick of is hearing sympathy for these terrorists from Muslims where I live. It's not uncommon either, especially from the older folk. I can only stare on in astonishment when I hear something about how they "faced American oppression for so long," or how "they stand up for muslims." People like that should get back on the plane, and hope it doesn't get blown out of the sky by their heros on the way back from the free world. That reminds me of that fat preacher with the claw hand, condemning infidels in England. If it's so bad, how come he or his followers are there? I just don't understand how these people can put so much effort into hurting other people and put none into actually fixing the problems.

Lucky bastard. I bet it's just like those beer commercials.

hard-core. Is the reply page still the old layout, or is it just me?

Interestingly enough, in Star Wars II, the lightning comes before the thunder on the water planet scenes. It was great for effect, though it might have been the only bit of (apparently) accurate science actually used in the whole film. Funny how that works.

That's what I was going for. One for each topic would be good. I see it growing rather quickly if it were to take off.

Star Trek humanoids were all "seeded from the same DNA." I don't know what that does about breeding, but it explains the appearance (i guess). And ST: Enterprise sufficiently explains why all the aliens can understand each other. It's the random sciency jibberish that gets me, common words that sound technological when put together like "phase inducer" and "flux emitter." WTF are those supposed to be anyway? [edit] ST uses an electronic universal translator, though I think Klingons are supposed to be able to speak English fine (for the non-trekkie nitpickers on the forum.)

It would be really helpful to have a highly moderated resource section on SFN... perhaps something along the lines of the News forum. It would be nice to have internet resources listed in categories... or even post resources as stickies in each forum. Perhaps an open sticky, to which all members can contribute, but with the first post containing the cream of the crop links. Resouces could include studies, lists of papers, information sites like PBS, sites asking for public contribution like SETI@H, University and R&D research teams like fermilab and science news websites. It would be nice to have a comprehensive list of resources from people in the know rather than having to sift through all the garbage that the internet tends to spew. Links to papers would be particularly nice though.

Yah, flash games don't generally have characters... I was totally kidding about being the hero. And I don't have much time to work on a game, but I can donate music or work on a short sound track. I can do some pretty cool particles though, for enemies and such, or design a frontend, but I don't have hours and hours to work on principal programming.