Phi for All

kfburke39@gmail.com has been banned because civility is too important to us to allow them to stay.

interested has been suspended for 2 weeks for blatant thread hijacks, and ignoring multiple moderator notes. Don't say we didn't say we didn't warn you.

A good project for a bearded Amish carpenter father with some interesting wood scraps is a Chinese checkerboard. I've seen them put together with seven different kinds of wood. I never got around to making one but always wanted to.

No shame in reduce, reuse, recycle. I look at manufacturer's dumpsters like a salad bar. I can sample small bits without the large investment of a specific meal. It might be harder to do these days, with added security and legal liability concerns.

There are a LOT of furniture manufacturers in the south. Have you ever seen if Lifestyle Furnishing in High Point (they're the #3 manufacturer in the US) has a manufacturing plant you could get scraps from? There used to be a place in Denver on our Furniture Row that would pretend you weren't diving in their dumpster.

I wish I was a better woodworker. I'm more of a practical crafter than a hobbyist, and I like to make things rather than buy them when I can. I'm putting the finishing touches on a double bathroom countertop I made with small river stones embedded in resin that sets up looking like water. It's a cool effect, and it's turning out well. I have a lot of saws and joiners and drill presses and sanders, but I don't have the room to have them all up in their own place at all times, so projects take me longer than they should, and I don't get enough time to just mess around gaining skill. It's really cool that you want to go old school with this. I knew a guy that made tables and chairs without hardware, also did gorgeous woodcarving. If you go full Amish, be careful with the beard around drills. Here's my tip: since you're using chisels and hand planes, you don't need premium pieces of wood all the time. Start collecting scraps from anyplace you can, and look for grains, colors, and textures that attract you. I have a hunk of purpleheart wood I found somewhere as scrap, and I keep hoping to make something cool out of it.

Dalo has been suspended for a week for repeated soapboxing over some basic misconceptions. We hope he'll take this time to read his threads again to see where the membership has offered very good advice and explanations.

Nice, very subtle. Reminds me of some of the Yiddish jokes I've heard, where the punch line is very low-key. A man goes to visit his aged father and finds him in front of the television. Son: "Hey Poppa, what're you doing?" Dad: "Watching basketball." Son: "What's the score?" Dad: "86 to 82." Son: "Who's winning?" Dad: "86."

Congratulations! Remember, you only need to situate the things you'll use until the baby can unstrap her/himself from the bouncy seat. Those months will be your basic training, and the challenges most likely won't outpace your experience. Once the child is mobile, however, they will knock over every thing you've situated and you'll need a completely new plan. Think of us as a Retreat for Reason, and welcome.

Dave Moore has been banned for running out of basic civility quickly, and assuming his stompey boots are the right footwear for all occasions. Many other websites will welcome his brusque, not-here-to-learn manner, I'm sure.

scherado has been banned for multiple instances of rule-breaking in his quest to become the Troll King. We apologize that his interruption in the normal rational discourse was all noise and no signal whatsoever. Roger Dynamic Motion has been banned, NOT for incessant hijacking and almost daily irrationality, but for failing to respond to requests for clarity, EVER. Discussion requires that we express our ideas so others can understand. We wish him good luck with his ideas, whatever they were supposed to be.

There are situations as above where differences in gender between humans change the outcome (although it's not consistent - not every professionally trained man can outfight every professionally trained woman). There are situations where it makes no difference at all. In sports, I think ethics are next to impossible to judge with so much competition around. Extreme winning tactics and fair play are not always compatible. But women regularly beat men in equestrian sports, long-distance swimming, rock-climbing, motor sports, and most gymnastics. The sport makes all the difference. Tailor it to showcase strength and speed and it will feature the strongest and fastest.

Handy andy has been banned for ignoring the rules repeatedly, and for threatening to continue as long as he's here. Officially, SFN officially doesn't deal with intellectual terrorists.

Since this has nothing to do with fiber twisting, I'll assume it's a weird and very poor response to the title of the late Steven Vogel's book, Why the Wheel is Round. I highly suggest you read it and add to your knowledge.

The data is tight and the conclusions firm. I'm convinced enough to move on to an alpha-test of a new procedure I'm calling Smart Sex. I'll go to great lengths to help improve cognitive function, no matter how hard on me it is.

We are equally agreeable to JohnLesser 's request to be banned.

If you can say that without smiling, you have a good pucker face.

The vegan version is made from sea salt and ocean plastic....

JohnLesser has been suspended for a week for his caustic combination of trolling while soapboxing. We need evidence if you're going to make anti-mainstream claims, it's in the rules. Without that, it's just your word against all those that have mountains of it.

Terry Pratchett had substitious, for people who believe in things that are true that most people don't believe (like "sometimes things just happen").

Wicked Witch has been banned as a sockpuppet of zbigniew.modrzejewski.

Remember that anybody studying empathic ability is going to be looking for behavior that is way beyond what would be considered normal sensitivity to the feelings of others. If they can't document this extraordinary behavior, if it can't be measured repeatedly in a meaningful way, there's no article to write. When they do find evidence, even if it runs against mainstream science, it must be considered and explained. Here's a good example. People have long held that certain charms can affect the outcome of competitive activities (and lots of rational scientists insist luck is an illusion), so psychologists at the U of Cologne devised an experiment that tested this, and found there was an effect outside what would be considered normal. It's not luck really, but it seems that in situations where a lot of confidence can benefit, a lucky charm actually can increase your chances of success in a measurable way. Perhaps you could undertake your own study on empaths with this perspective. Perhaps people who believe they're superempathic are more confident and successful at using the standard share of empathy we all have.

The best thing would be to understand what empathy really is. People can be empathic for sure, and here's a test for that devised by the University of Cambridge. Empathy is just the ability to see things from another's perspective, and if you do it right, you can't help but feel a bit the same. But that's a far cry from the kind of supernatural sensitivity you mentioned the empath you know told you he could manifest. When that sort of thing is tested for, it's never repeatable, and any variations from statistical normal are explainable through natural means. Earlier, he might have heard loud voices downstairs, now there's silence, he imagines them brooding angrily, empathizes with it, then goes downstairs and sees his roommates scowling at one another. Let me ask you this, have you ever found what you're looking for, an article reviewing the tests, for something else supernatural, like telekinesis, or telepathy? Have you ever found a study saying "We tested x people and found that nobody could guess which card would come up next in a deck better than a certain range of normal capabilities"?

You need to understand that science doesn't attempt to *prove* anything. The only thing we can do is offer explanations, based on observation and testing, supported with evidence, to explain various phenomena. Empathic ability of the kind you mention has been tested and lacks any evidence to suggest there is more there than a normal statistical range of sensitivity. If evidence had been found, studies and experiments to suggest a hypothesis regarding empaths could be put forward. Without some kind of testable, repeatable evidence, you can't have any kind of hypothesis or theory. Science really has no stance on empaths. What you describe as an empath is supernatural, and outside what science is focused on.

You can't prove they don't exist. You can only gather evidence to support an explanation that there's something more than normal heightened empathy going on. And there is none.