kisai

In my Discworld reading, I am up to Eric, I started reading the mega-webserial Worm, but only a chapter a day.

Actually, I think its because they aren't real world objects. Toys have a distinct quality to them in color and texture that signal that they aren't usual; that they are especially there for the child. Toys are the first vanity possessions of children; the other items that are associated with them are for their well-being: bedding, clothing, utensils, etc.

I should specify that the Canaanite El, and Israelite-Judaic Yaweh, both of which the modern Jewish and Christian and Islamic ideas of God are founded on, are equally as childish and emotional as the Greek gods. The modern concept of God is heavily modified from its origins by centuries of religious philosophers conjecturing aspects of a perfect being which wasn't part of the source material, or even implied by what most of the world consider as gods.

The Epicurean inside of me winces at the thought of a sludge made from soy and some unsaturated fats being mixed with thickeners and water, injected with flavorful yeasts and fungi, and dispensed out of a nozzle in your own home. But its probably coming at some point. I imagine if humanity ever got to teleportation, we'd have already transcended mundane things like eating.

You're metaphorically projecting the plight of mankind onto an archetype and calling it God. Man starts from nothing and has to figure things out unaided. I'm pretty sure most depictions of God have the entity both always existing and omniscient, so it is immune to Man's ignorance. God does not ask questions, nor fret about existentialism. Furthermore, being created does not connote an infusion of meaning. While it is true, again projecting with the metaphor of Man, most things that Man creates has a purpose, but a) It doesn't have to have a purpose and b) Man himself isn't an artifice.

Doubt is a fine state of mind in science[1]. The worst denial in history was the reluctance to accept germ theory, despite presentation of evidence that sanitizing led to wonderful things like decreases in infant mortality. It is important to note that the acceptance of germ theory was a result of hundreds of years of scientists and doctors presenting evidence to the contrary that the believed theory of bad air was the cause of disease, and not political yahoos typing furiously onto forums that they possessed doubts. If you doubt anything, even something controversial as climate science, I salute you. Take those itchy fingers and those doubts and pry open a textbook. Learn as much as you can about the phenomenon. Ask questions. Lots of questions. But also be prepared to learn. [1]I have no idea why people bring up Galileo as a bastion for doubt. The man was a hardcore Catholic and was unable to provide evidence to back up his astronomical theories when asked. Without this evidence, he felt free to ridicule his opponents. He also (surprise, surprise) felt free to accuse other astronomers of seeing things that weren't there, like comets.

If you're asking "Can the prefrontal cortex of the human mind conceive of imaginary concepts", the answer is yes.

I'm quite late. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanakah, Grand Yuletide, and Holidays of Happiness to all!

Just came back from my second viewing. I'm all right with the film. It seems that Abrams was going for a chance to remain true to the material with his own twists, and it seems successful as an introductory film. If the others are just like this one though, I'll be sorely disappointed. I'm not sure why the Dark Side users are so weak, consisting of an emo stripling and an ancient hologram, but then there isn't a powerful Jedi around except for an exiled Luke, so I guess the title is apt. I'm more of a fan of times where there's multiple Jedi and Sith (Old Republic and Clone Wars....yes I like the prequels!) rather than one or two, and it looks like this trilogy won't be catering to my tastes, but oh well.

By all means, please research and bring to light these unknown factors, because Argumentum ad Ignorantiam is insufficient to convince people.

Have you taken any trigonometry yet?

Survival methods (hunger, fear, pain) often circumvent the prefrontal cortex. Even the most simple forms of life that are capable of sense and locomotion will take pains to survive. An amoeba, for instance, will travel towards water of a more neutral pH. Creatures that are self-aware are able to solve problems much, much quicker than waiting for an evolutionary response. It's much quicker to figure out to smash nuts and shellfish with a rock than to evolve a solution that may never come. Self-aware creatures are at a great advantage to surviving.

You already have time in your equation. Just rearrange your algebra so your answer is in seconds.

Slavery and serfdom are complex concepts that depend on agricultural living and land ownership. The human brain evolved during a time when the species were hunter-gatherers, so I don't see how humans had an 'old part of the brain' that depends on enslaving others. When you hunt/gather, every slave you own is another mouth to feed, so you're not really getting ahead of the game. With agriculture, you can translate labor into extra food, so it works out.

You will melt soft plastics by using acetone. A mix of rubbing alcohol and water (50/50) is fine. I use cotton to wipe.

Not really. Thermodynamics was originally conceived in the idea of transferring heat to work, with some waste heat to be dispersed. It was more of an engineering tool to study the performance of engines and cannons. Perhaps if you placed a contact thermometer upon the battery you could show how waste heat was necessarily generated, but the fan is a problem since it will quickly disperse it. Actually, a very easy way to demonstrate thermodynamics is to use rubber bands to propel an object and then note that the rubber bands are much warmer after they perform work.

Hmm.. I don't think you want a Gantt chart. I think you want something like a course syllabus, which is a plan placed forth by an instructor to have the class learn material over the course of a quarter or semester. There are plenty of excellent, free online courses with syllabi online.

Yes, but every super-hero was created after the invention of Morse code and transatlantic communication. However every super-hero does not share a power that allows them to extend their reach. Your theories are failing to exclude predictions.

Magneto was created in the 60's and Plastic Man is from WWII. Neither of them are products of a post-Internet mentality.

Gantt charts. *shudder* that brings me back to my senior design project. The person I assigned to rework it didn't want to do it, so I had to rewrite it myself. Gantt charts are really for project leads to cover their butts when assigning tasks to different team members, or to toss more people at a task that's not going to be completed in time. They don't apply very well to personal learning or projects. If you can't motivate yourself to study or do projects, having a lead yell at you to do it by X deadline isn't going to help. The stick is failing the team or being replaced, the carrot is usually a paycheck or passing grade. Neither apply to the auto-didact.

At least you did not drive into a volcano.

He attempted to start one, but he was arrested. I'm not sure how you can ascribe military certainty to a cult leader from the sticks. His followers were poor folks, not soldiers, with zero chance against the legionnaires. Yeshua did not found Christianity. Paul of Tarsus was the prime driver, and he never met Yeshua, so I'm not certain how a citizen of Judea and a citizen of Cilicia would see eye to eye on things. It would behoove the early Christians to keep a political spitfire's actions on the down low, and instead focus on his homilies and mysticism.

It's really a matter of finding a method of how you study that works best for you rather than how much you study. For example, when studying for engineering courses, most regular methods don't really work for me (doing homework problems, memorizing, etc.) because at some point I get bored and gloss. What really clicked for me was explaining the material to someone else. So I would study with a friend and go over the material with her. She got to get the material broken down and I got to break it down, so it worked for both of us.