Phi for All

While plants would be capable of such an adaptation, I would imagine that the problem with this particular sci-fi plant is that anything that *required* such a large, broad basin for collecting water would be in a very arid region where such a need was critical. The sun beating down on a large surface like that would dry it out fairly quickly, obviating the benefits. Perhaps if the basin were capable of retracting itself during heavy sunshine and waiting until rain begins to fall before opening its water-catching apparatus, it would make more sense. The picture shows only one kind of plant so there doesn't seem to be any competition for water at that height. Is it assumed that the pagoda tree has a root system for the lower portions?

This thread needs to stay on topic.

Find an underground deposit of sulfur, inject some superheated water into it to melt it and force it to the surface. You will get a lot. Or go buy some. I don't think any process to extract sulfur from something else is going to be cheaper or less time consuming than purchasing it from a pharmacy or chem supply.

If the craft is unmanned, I would assume the same sensors that picked up the data on the asteroid would report that to the computer navigator for course correction.

Whoa, STOP! Nick Cage makes fun movies, not always great ones, but he delivers pretty consistent entertainment, with a minimum of off-screen bizzaro antics. I happen to believe that anyone in the entertainment industry, including sports, has a duty to be a role model for kids who idolize them. It's one of the reasons I condone the ridiculous sums of money they can command. Cage has never been arrested, he doesn't trash hotel rooms, and he makes smart investments (like, um, real estate) and that makes him a minority among the Hollywood elite. Cage could have kept his original name and hung on the coattails of his famous director uncle, but he chose to change it and make his own name. He has my respect for that too. His movies suck?! You're crazy! The stuff he's done with Bruckheimer has been fun, I LOVE Next (the concept and his character intrigued me enough to actually buy the movie, and I don't usually buy anything but comedies) and his character pieces, like in Raising Arizona and Red Rock West, were very memorable. He has great comic timing and a rare intensity that's not drug-driven, and many of his improvisations on camera end up in the movies. He's not the most brilliant actor but he's not deserving of this overly critical thread. His hairline?! What's he supposed to do, hair plugs?! Pu-leeeze, I'm glad Nick isn't *that* shallow.

of the episode where they make some outlandish claims about the Mayan 2012 predictions. Why do they have all the disaster and catastrophe pictures flashing in the background, even during parts where they aren't talking about disasters and catastrophes? Several times, their "experts" claim that the sun will be aligned with the galactic "center", rather than the galactic equator. At one point, the narrator, not the experts, claims the sun will actually move "into" the galactic center, implying that the sun will actually *be* the center of the Milky Way. Is this not a gross misrepresentation AND an outlandish claim?

Yeah, that's just wrong, man. They lose all credibility as a source. They could approach it as a "historically, this is what some people believe", but they really don't.

The best part about using the back of the neck is the relative ease in draping the cooling agent around it. Nothing on your hands and feet to impede your work, and it's a stable area that doesn't make a lot of quick movements (especially if you're a cook at Sonic). I think there's a psychological factor at work as well. Keeping the neck and head cool seems to keep our minds off the heat. When you fan yourself in the heat, do you fan your legs or abdomen? No, but when you feel the breeze on your face you seem more aware of the general cooling effort, and the heat seems less oppressive.

Please check some of these other threads where much of the garbage has been discussed and debunked: http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=37628&highlight=2012 http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=37370&highlight=2012 http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=38889&highlight=2012

Can you please cite some sources for this? AFAIK, the US has more lawyers per capita than any other country in the world. Why? How many doctors is too many for Cuba? Who does India and China pump out more skilled work than? What do you consider skilled work?

whitewolf103, I can understand why young people look at "Life" and despair. You think in very compassionate terms about all of humanity, and that's a very moral, selfless, heroic way to view the world. Ultimately, though, you usually only have the power to affect a small portion of the world and the humanity that surrounds you. Don't think of it in terms of shedding light on the world, think of becoming a beacon yourself. If you become what you want everyone else to be, you will illuminate your immediate area, and make things brighter for those around you, and hopefully they, in their turn, will make things shine brighter for everyone near them. Often, young people look at the big picture only and it is very daunting. Writers don't write whole novels, they start with paragraphs and pages, which become chapters, which ultimately become novels. If you sit down to write a novel, you'll fail because it's just too much to do all at once. Write a paragraph and see how you feel then.

What an insult. To Frank Burns, I mean.

Oak-ay, maple you have a point. I wouldn't be very poplar with my neighbors if I didn't cedar dilemma and offer to spruce up their house after my big-ash tree fell on it. Olive my efforts to be neighborly would pine away to nothing and I willow them a big apology.

Speaking as one of those stupid "city people", my neighbors and I usually talk before doing anything that has a direct bearing on each other's property. Sure, indirectly, Matt's crabapples fall onto my lawn and burn a patch of grass if I let them rot there, but my daughter loves to puff dandelion seeds onto his lawn so I just pick up the apples and don't mention that part (I'm sure if I did, I'd hear about something else Matt has to put up with from my side of the fence, and I'd probably have more to say too). Dave, on the other side, has a small granddaughter that loves to throw toys over the fence. I toss them back over and don't say anything because my tree branches hang over into Dave's yard and he doesn't say anything about that when we talk. In the winter, because Matt works early and his wife is just a tiny thing and his kids are too small to help, I generally shovel his sidewalk up to his mailbox. I do the same thing for Dave since his son's in a wheelchair and he's off to work early each morning too. I don't mind because I hope it offsets some of the stuff they don't mention to me that pisses them off about living next door to me. But about something big that directly affects each other, we talk, and we talk at length. Common fences, tree blowdowns, even when we're scheduling renovation work that may start kind of early in the morning, we let each other know. And if I'm going for a load of cedar bark or garden rock, I always ask if they want to go in on it with me. They rarely do, but I ask. Again, I look at it as a neighbor bank, something that will buy me some karma since I'm far from the perfect person to live next door to. But I'm just a stupid city person, so what do I know?

Depends.

"Unexpected results" is not "you dont know the changes you could make". While certainty is not a certainty, from what I've read, genetic engineering is NOT a total roll of the dice. I disagree. I feel "changing cells can always end in a unexpected way" is too generalized a statement. It does not "always" end in an unpredicted outcome. It was my understanding that genetic engineering is *usually* done in smaller, less complicated, more easily predictable steps.

So, do the Dems spend a lot of time and effort denying it or do they turn around and embrace it, with their own spin to it? Since denying it, at best, merely nullifies the Rep efforts, I say embrace it and double your efforts at half the cost. They should minimalize the social equality angle and emphasize what State ownership of some businesses can mean for us, since the taxpayers *are* the State. Use the Green Bay Packers as your example of what happens when the citizens share ownership. Use Amtrak as an example of the kind of profit and positive investment we can make by taking over failing businesses. Above all, remind people that *we* are the government, the State, and that the State sells the businesses back when they can show a profit by doing so.

Old Fashioned Fruit Topping On Pistachio Ice Cream. Otherwise, feel free to order pizza instead, capische?

At least not in the area where bascule and I live:http://www.murraybmwofdenver.com/inventory.aspx?_makef=&_model=&_search=318i+SE&btn_search=Search&_new=true 0 results found on a search for BMW 318i SE at our biggest BMW dealership.

I think a lot of our isolationism comes from the media we're exposed to. It hypes violence on the streets while praising our military firepower and never slows to draw any parallels. Germany has a great many ideas I'd like to see the US adopt. Besides recycling and my favorite, their asphalt paving techniques, they have superior emissions equipment for cars. It used to be that a Porsche imported to the US tested better *before* it was retrofitted with US emissions equipment. Many homes I saw in Germany had gutters that led to a single downspout that ended in a series of catch-barrels so you could use rainwater for your lawn, your garden, or anything you wanted. In the US, we have multiple downspouts that all end on a concrete splashpad that takes it away from the foundation onto our lawns only. So I'd say one of our Achilles Heel's is our short-sightedness when it comes to spending a little extra now to save a lot more later. We're too into cheap and convenient.

Are you familiar with genetic engineering, or the scientific method? It's not exactly a blindfolded, roll-the-dice approach, you know.

Yuck.

Let's stay focused here (admittedly difficult considering the topic). If you're talking about modifying for cannabis traits, why would you want a tree where the leaves are hard to reach? Or where most of the energy goes into the woodiest part of the plant? To genetically modify cannabis, first start with either removing undesirable traits or enhancing desirable ones. Then you can figure out what genes you want to use.

Done. Good luck.

We extend life a bit every day with new discoveries and treatments. Can you define some parameters for your question? Can you perhaps explain what you know about this gene and why you mention it in terms of extending life?