Phi for All

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.

There have been enough studies to determine there is no "them".

I completely agree, and I was just thinking about this the other day. Jordanian and Lebanese immigrants to Mexico blended shawarma style techniques with local ingredients and spices to form a trombo (pork roast and bacon blended and triple chili-spiced, topped with a mound of pineapple rings) and cooked in an upright broiler. Slice off some of the meat and pineapple into a small tortilla, add some finely chopped cilantro, salsa, and raw onion and you have Tacos al Pastor. I would tear down a wall to get these done right by Mexicans from the Middle East.

Twisting fibers together to form threads not only makes the thread stronger in thickness, it transfers stress more efficiently since the sides of the thread compresses when the ends are pulled. The average bed sheet has about a million twists of fiber. Source: Why the Wheel is Round by Steven Vogel

steveupson has been suspended for a week for continued hijacking of threads. Remember folks, tangents are often important enough for their own threads. If it's not in the opening post, think about starting a different thread about it.

Air Between the Notes has been banned permanently for continued preaching, and using the same refuted arguments for everything, ad infinitum. "Science is a religion" is too weak to support more than one discussion.

mohamed777 has been banned as a sockpuppet of farolero, giordano bruno, strangelove, & Hipaso. Next is a spam report to IPBoard, so he won't be able to register on any forum that uses the software. If only he'd been this persistent studying....

Whoa, almost as torturous as the real thing! What I'd like to see is how he'd handle the incident where Bush II had a shoe thrown at him. Bush dodged, but would Donald duck?

farolero has been added for six months. Posts that don't make sense waste everyone's precious time. Too many people asking what you're on about. Let's get it together, mod queue folks. Posts that make sense get approved!