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MolotovCocktail

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Posts posted by MolotovCocktail

  1. A couple of questions on my HW....

     

     

    1. Is it possible for an open and a closed organ pipe of the same length to produce notes of the same frequency?

     

    and

     

    2. There is this problem in which I have to determine the size of an organ pipe and whether or not it is closed. It has 3 natural frequencies. How do I figure it out (My physics book is hardly understandable, and since I'm in an AP class we never really went over it in any depth...)???

  2. satirical

     

    Do you think comedy can serve a higher purpose? Or maybe you just like poking fun at people. Either way, you seem to enjoy satirical humor. Satire is the use of irony and wit to expose the unethical or just plain ridiculous aspects of society. Satirists come in many forms. There are political critics such as Jon Stewart and Tina Fey, cultural jesters such as Weird Al Yankovic and situational comedians such as Margaret Cho. With satire, you can critique your subject using parody--imitation, exaggeration, fake mustaches, etc. When you are funny, it's easier to share an opinion that is a little controversial. Do you want to influence people? Keep them laughing and they won't know what hit them.

     

     

    303 other people got this result!

    This quiz has been taken 1268 times.

    24% of people had this result.

  3. There are some life forms, especially the ones that live near ocean vents, that utilize chemosynthesis as a way to obtain energy for their cellular functions and life, much like the way surface organisms use photosynthesis for their energy. What chemicals are involved in chemosynthesis? Do they produce sugars like Glucose to be their main source of energy?

  4. I heard this on the science channel, on a documantary called the "Hawking Paradox." This was a side note from the main point of the documentary, and it stated that Hawking had developed a single, elegant theory that summed up everythin in our universe. To do this, he took bits and pieces of other famous equations, such as e=mc^2, and simplified where units cancled, and the equation that he developed when he finished was so simple that you could count the number of variables on one hand.

     

     

    I saw the same show, and I don't remember them talking about any such equation for theory of everything. What they did talk about was whether or not it was even possible, and the many issues regarding the Hawking Paradox, such as the destruction of information. I think the equation you saw was the equation for the Hawking radiation emitted from a black hole.

  5. Why does it have to be in the form of a "trick?" It's just asking for a country that starts with D, an animal that starts with K, and a fruit that starts with O. And surprise surprise, those are the most popular answers (though I certainly doubt it's anywhere near 98% - I'm sure lots of people pick koala and apple, for example.

     

    Realizing I was obviously supposed to pick Denmark, I picked Djibouti, then ibis, then saguaro. So there.

     

    I think its probably because its based only on the choices of a few hundred people living in the United States and extrapolated from there. But yes, once you know the trick, you can probably choose any number you want, and a non-integer one at that!

  6. Giving it all away:

     

    All integral choices lead to 9-5 = "D".

    There are only four countries whose name starts with "D".

    Integers are boring.

    Cougar in the Dominican Republic eating a Raspberry.

     

    1.1 and some others like it lead to 18-5 = "M".

    Nineteen countries start with "M". This choice is quite interesting because of the combinatoric explosion.

    Salamander in the Maldives eating a Rose Apple.

     

    1.11 and some others like it lead to 27-5 = "V".

    Again, only four choices, but one is quite interesting (the smallest country in the world):

    Yak in the Vatican City eating a Kumquat

     

     

    lol, well its clear who's in the top 2 percentile :D ! But yeah I agree with you, I noticed that all integers lead to 9. I tried 6.5 once, but I won't give away what that leads to.

     

    Anyway, I have an Alligator in Dominica eating Raspberries.

  7. This is a simple test. No peaking!!!

     

     

    1. Think of a number from 1 to 10

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    >2. Now, multiply that number by 9

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    >3. If the number is a 2-digit number, add the digits together

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    >4. Now subtract 5 from the result.

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    >5. Determine which letter in the alphabet corresponds to the number you

    >ended up with

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    >(for example: 1=a, 2=b, 3=c,etc.)

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    >6. Think of a country that starts with that letter

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    >7. Remember the last letter of the name of that country

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    >8. Think of the name of an animal that starts with that letter

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    >9. Remember the last letter in the name of that animal

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    >10. Think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter

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    >Now scroll down to find out whether I know what you will thinking !!!

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    >Are you thinking of a Kangaroo in Denmark eating an Orange?

     

    If not, you're among the 2% of the

    population whose minds are different enough to think of something

    else. 98% of people will answer with kangaroos in Denmark when given this test

  8. The Dinosaurs were the dominant species on the planet for over 160 million years, and were wiped out about 65 million years ago. The one thing I was wondering was how they were able to evolve into such an enormous size in the first place. Another thing I want to know is if they influenced the evolution of other species, such as mammals. Did they also have any significant impact on the environment of the Earth too (much like the microbes did way back when)? One more thing I was wondering was why dinosaurs, or dinosaur-like creatures, did not evolve again?

  9. My source is a Science Channel documentary called "The Hawking Paradox." If anyone would like to vouch for me, that would be great.

     

    The "Hawking Paradox" refers to the apparent destruction of information when it falls into a black hole. The idea behind it is that since light cannot escape a black hole, any information about what falls into it, or the shape of the body itself, is lost. However, since black holes evaporate over time, there has been a debate about whether the information would leak out with it, or if it would be destroyed all together. It is called a paradox because the destruction or loss of that information violates one of the fundamental principles of science, that information cannot be destroyed.

  10. Check this out:

     

    link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070322/sc_livescience/acidsinpopularsodaserodetoothenamel

     

    And this is the article itself

     

     

     

    "Root beer could be the safest soft drink for your teeth, new research suggests, but many other popular diet and sugared sodas are nearly as corrosive to dental enamel as battery acid.

    ADVERTISEMENT

     

    Prolonged exposure to soft drinks can lead to significant enamel loss, even though many people consider soft drinks to be harmless or just worry about their sugar content and the potential for putting on pounds, the study says.

     

    The erosive potential of colas is 10 times that of fruit juices in just the first three minutes of drinking, a study last year showed. The latest research, published in Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) journal General Dentistry, reports that drinking any type of soft drink hurts teeth due to the citric acid and/or phosphoric acid in the beverages.

     

    Non-colas are less acidic than colas overall, the study found, but they erode the teeth more effectively than colas.

     

    "This study simply doesn’t mirror reality," said American Beverage Association spokesperson Tracey Halliday. "The findings cannot be applied to real life situations where people's eating and drinking behaviors are very different and there are many factors at work."

     

    * Nutrition Quiz

     

    5 percent weight loss

     

    The study measured the acidity, or pH, of 20 commercial soft drinks, including Coke, Pepsi, 7 Up and their diet versions, immediately after cans were opened. Then slices of enamel from freshly extracted teeth were weighed before and after being immersed in the soft drinks for 48 hours.

     

    The result was that the teeth immersed in Coke, Pepsi, RC Cola, Squirt, Surge, 7 Up and Diet 7 Up lost more than 5 percent of their weight, according to the report by Poonam Jain of the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine and her colleagues. (Other sodas brought about losses in the enamel weight in the range of 1.6 percent to 5 percent).

     

    AGD spokesman Kenton Ross said that RC Cola was found to be the most acidic soft drink studied, with a pH of 2.387 (the pH scale ranges from 0 to 14 for most liquids, with 0 being the most acidic and 14 being the least acidic—or most alkaline). Cherry Coke was found to be the next most acidic (pH of 2.522), and Coke was the third most acidic soda tested (pH of 2.525).

     

    Battery acid has a pH of 1.0. Pure water at room temperature has a pH of 7.0.

     

    The results show that a soda's acidity is not the whole story when it comes to tooth erosion. The type of acid in the soda, level of soda and calcium content are also factors. Citric acid is the most erosive acid found in soft drinks and is the predominant acid in non-cola drinks.

     

    "The bottom line is that the acidity in all soft drinks is enough to damage your teeth and should be avoided," Ross said in a prepared statement.

     

    * Top 10 Good Foods Gone Bad

     

    Root beer's advantage

     

    Root beer was found to be the least acidic of all soft drinks, with a pH 4.038 for the Mug brand, Jain and her colleagues found. The reason for the reduced acidity is that root beer is often non-carbonated and contains no phosphoric or citric acids.

     

    A 2006 study reported that orange juice and sports drinks also reduce the surface hardness of tooth enamel, but a cola reduced more—the dentin, surface enamel and two additional dental components. (Dental erosion refers to the action of acid on the entire tooth surface. Cavities and tooth decay tend to hit targeted areas, such as pits, grooves and spots where teeth are adjacent).

     

    In the past 40 years, many Americans have swapped nutrient-dense milk for sodas and other beverages that are mostly bereft of nutrients. In 1966, Americans drank, on average, 20 gallons of soft drinks and 33 gallons of milk. In 2003, Americans drank an average of 46 gallons of soft drinks and 22 gallons of milk. Milk contains minerals, proteins, vitamins and, most importantly, calcium.

     

    * 10 Easy Paths to Self Destruction

     

    Study shortcomings

     

    No one swishes soda in their mouth for two full days, as was the case with the study, but the corrosive effect of soda starts nearly immediately, Jain's research points out, and increases with time.

     

    Richard Adamson, a scientific consultant to the American Beverage Association, called the study "unrealistic," pointing out, among other things, that toothbrushing was not factored in.

     

    "The most protective factor you have in your mouth is saliva, which has both a diluting and a buffering effect," Adamson told LiveScience. "Of course, you're not going to mirror reality (with the new study)."

     

    "There are many foods which are as important as soft drinks in oral health and dental hygiene," Adamson said. "Fruit and fruit juices and cider and food such as pickles and salad dressing and wine—those are just as important in regards to general erosion as soft drinks. There is no single food or beverage that is responsible for dental erosion. There are numerous factors. The thing is to enjoy everything in moderation."

     

    Ross recommends that consumers drink soda through a straw, if at all, as that reduces the teeth's exposure to the beverage. One way to reduce soda intake, he suggested, is to drink it only with meals."

  11. There are well established theories for the proximate mechanisms of depression, however, the ultimate (evolved, basically) mechanisms are not yet well established. Traits generally don't evolve without purpose, and hence to better understand depression it would serve psychologists a great benefit to understand the reasons for why depression might have developed in humans. Your analysis of depression provides excellent examples of the proximate mechanisms that are involved in depression, yet the analysis begs the question posed by an evolutionary perspective on depression: why would we evolve depression when it seems to be a highly maladaptive trait that should have been selected against in previous generations. From an evolutionary perspective their should have been an adaptive function of such a common trait to occur in a population.

     

     

    Modern psychology is obviously heavily based on statistical data, but it is also based on proximate explanations of behaviors. These two concepts are not mutually exclusive. Thus I don't understand what you are trying to get at.

     

    Again, see Tinbergen's excellent discussions on applying theories of evolution in the behavioral sciences (he won a Nobel Prize for his work in evolution after all, and his theories are widely used in evolutionary psychology).

     

    Are you familiar with evolutionary psychology at all? My post makes a clear distinction in the differences between evolutionary psychology and traditional psychology. Depression was used as an example of an evolutionary perspective on a "disease" frequently discussed in traditional psychology. What I posted was a brief discussion of using theories of evolution in psychology for anyone who wasn't familar with the field of evolutionary psychology (you obviously).

     

     

    I am familiar with it. I realize that it was a misunderstanding on my part. It's just that when I first read it I only focused on the individual paragraphs rather than putting it all together (typical asperger thinking lol). Nothing against you, just a misunderstanding on my part.

     

    But yes, I agree with you. I do notice that modern psychology doesn't really focus on why we have these negative emotions and traits, such as depression, in the first place.

     

    I am afraid that my knowledge of evolutionary psychology is quite limited to be honest with you. But on the subject on depression, I would have to say, and just remember that this is what I think, that depression probably evolved as a reaction to pain. The type of pain, of course, would be psychological. I liken it to be similar to a scar, or what happens after some major physical trauma like a blow to the head or the breaking of a bone.

    On a side note on this, I remember attending a lecture by a guy with Bi-Polar some time ago, and he was talking about his experience with it. He was talking about depression and mental trauma and one thing I found interesting was that when one is depressed, the brain reacts the same way if you were to suffer from some extreme physical pain or damage such as a broken bone.

    Of course, thats my take on it.

     

    One other thing I would like to add to this is that I find that there is a sort of social stigma when one talks about evolutionary psychology, or evolution in general for that matter. My reasoning for this is that it is probably related to the fact that we still tend to cling on to the notion that emotions and various mental processes are separate from an organism, rather than something that is part of the organism as a means for survival. And then of course it further undermines the notion that humans are above the animal kingdom, which is of course not true.

     

    P.S. Do you mind forwarding info on Tinbergen's theories, or provide links?

  12. How do calculators do this? From what I understand, a computer/calculator can only add or subtract, and nothing else. How exactly does it graph polynomials, calculate pi to hundreds of digits, etc.

     

    I know how it does some of the things: e.g. it sums a series when calculating the cos(1), but what does it do when its calculating anything complicated like logarithms?

  13. It's not genetic research that I am against. I'm in full support in that. I'm also in full support of stem cell research.

     

    Its about allowing the general public (who are far less educated and will only think about their own needs) to selectively breed human children, and hence direct the course of human evolution.

  14. How many of you here are familiar with this?

     

    In a nutshell, a designer baby is a genetically engineered human, or more specifically one that has its various features preordained before they were born. We have already mapped out the human genome and we know the genes that make up the various physical traits.

     

    But then the question is, would you want this to happen? After all, by choosing their physical traits, you are in a sense deciding their future, and even their children's future as well. Also, many of the same genes that determine physical traits are also responsible for your brain chemistry, and thus your mental traits for that matter (Grandin 76). This is seen a lot in selective processes of farm animals such as hens. What has happened over the years of selective breeding is that people have been over-breeding for one specific physical trait, such as more meat or a cuter dog, and this is causing all sorts of problems for them psychologically (Grandin 76-8). For instance, in the effort to create the perfect child, how do we know that the physical traits that have been selected will not cause that person to have, say, schizophrenia or an otherwise abnormal personality. Not only that, the role that genes have in a person's personality is far less known. Another thing to keep in mind too is that sex can also be chosen. In nature, your child's sex is randomly chosen by what ever chromosomes the sperm brings into the egg cell. However, since designer babies allow us to choose the person's sex, what may happen is that many people will prefer to have one gender over the other (in our culture and in the vast majority of other ones, there is a preference for boys). Also note that the general public is unaware of the consequences of designer babies too, preferring instant gratification rather than long term nurture.

     

    So, yeah, I really don't think designer babies is a good idea, but what are your thoughts on it???

  15. Ok, I will be honest. This doesn't talk about the implications of evolutionary psychology. It seems to me that you are making a speculation about what you think is the apparent inadequacy of psychology. And also, more than half of your thread talks about your speculations concerning the cause of depression. And I'm not really sure how the last paragraph of yours ties any of this together.

     

    Now that I got that out of the way, I will talk about the issues you put forth.

    About depression, there are already well established theories and reasons for why this occurs, both of them psychological and physiological. While there may be a whole variety of psychological causes for what causes depression to occur, such as anxiety, trauma, mental disorders, etc., depression is also related to physical events in the brain. When you are depressed, there is a chemical imbalance within the brain. Quite literally, your brain chemistry changes when you are depressed. Depression is a physical condition, rather than a state of mind (Source: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/depression.cfm). Many antidepressants that are administered to people who are depressed try to address the chemical imbalance within the brain to ease the symptoms. Also, there are many psychotherapies out there that can help someone in depression too.

     

    And one more thing, modern psychology is heavily based on statistical data.

  16. Do you know the name of this experiment by any chance?

     

    I'm not sure if they gave a name to it, since I don't see one anywhere, but here are a couple of links about it. The study was conducted at the University of South Austrailia.

     

    link: http://www.usyd.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=1028

     

    and this is a thesis by the people who did it

     

    link: http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/rtms.cfm

     

    Just note that it didn't turn them into savants, it just induced in them some of the characteristics associated with savants, such as improved memorization and the like.

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