coquina

A philosopher (danged if I can remember or google out which one) was asked why he believed in God. In paraphrase, he replied, "If I live my life believing in God, and following his commandments, and die, and there is not, I have lost nothing. If I live my life immorally, and die, and learn that heaven is there, but so is hell, I have lost everything." Nobody knows for sure - but if one knows death is imminent, one can hardly be blamed for wanting to hedge one's bets, so to speak.

I'm no neurologist, but as I understand it, there are 2 sets of nerves going to each body part. The "afferent nerves" carry transmissions from the body part to the central nervous system, the efferent nerve carries transmissions from the CNS to the body part. For example, you stick your hand on a hot stove, the afferent nerve sends the message, "Ouch, that's hot!" to the brain, the efferent nerve sends the message from the brain to the muscle to move and jerk the hand away. Suppose you could place your electrodes between the brain and the muscle along the efferent nerves and intercept incoming messages and replace them with something else. It might be relatively easy to stop movement. Getting it started in another direction would be a much more difficult matter, because even minimal movement would involve the coordination of many muscles. I think electric stimulation of the afferent nerves is already used to intercept sensations of pain before it reaches the brain.

Relaxing? Have you ever been offshore and had a 100# tuna hit your line at 50mph while the boat is going 15mph in the opposite direction? Especially when you run into a school and get 4 hits on 4 different rigs. Tuna fishing has been defined as hours of boredom interspersed with minutes of pure panic.

Just because a plane can go MACH 5 doesn't mean it has to do it continuously - get there fast, slow down, drop the bomb, close the door, and SCRAM.

Do they only happen when you are outdoors? Does it matter whether it is sunny, cloudy, day or night? When you close your eyes do you still "see" them? I've seen them sometimes, but usually after I have looked at a bright light, such as a camera flash, thats why I wondered if it happens after you have looked up into a bright, sunny, sky. You can also "see stars", after a bump on the head.

on wearing them? http://www.ukpsychics.com/scorpionqueen.jpg

It's not an element it's an alloy: I have machined parts from this material - it is manufactured in the primary state by "sintering" applying tremendous pressure to metal powder until it becomes solid.

We need to keep our technical skills and our manufacturing skills on the cutting edge. At the present, mass production machine shops all over the country are folding, because companies are opening manufactuing facilities in 3rd world countries. Many, many medical instruments to measure human physiology were developed by NASA. Several years ago, I was called by Harvard Medical School and asked about an instrument we had built which had an end use of analysing some components of blood. The problem was, I knew I had build parts of the instrument, but I didn't know what it would be used for. One of the ways NASA and DOD has of protecting secret projects is to farm out different component parts to different companies, then assemble the parts in house. The drawing might have a name in the title block like Item 15031 for Project "XYZ". You didn't have a clue what you were building or for what purpose it would be used. That was because, at the time, we were in the middle of the Cold War, and it was imperative that the Soviets learn nothing about our designs. Now, NASA is far more open with its spin-offs. I went to a conferance a couple of years ago where they showed a working model of a "carbon-carbon" engine. Carbon is lighter than metal and it doesn't expand or contract under temperature changes and it won't gall (the reason you have to lubricate moving close fitting metal parts.) so it didn't need lubrication. I also saw a system for noise abatement, which I believe has been put into use. They used a mirror image of the sound wave created by noise to block it out. I have recently been hearing ads for Bose headphones, and I think they must use this technology, or something derived from it. We must keep our manufacturing technology on the cutting edge - private companies cannot afford the research and development fees for new products, technology is moving so fast, they can't get their development money back out of sales before the product becomes obsolete. Having NASA or other government scientists do the R&D and then license the patent to a private company makes more sense.

You asked "why" When I did it I ruptured a disk in my back. Both your muscles and your tendons have to stretch out, little by little over a long period of time. You can get to the maximum stretch you have, and hold it there for a few seconds - you will feel your muscles and tendens losening up. As you continue your workouts, you will gradually gain flexibility. If you are already flexible, ballistic stretches might be OK, as long as you don't carry them further than your muscle and tendon can easily move. Also, slow movements are better than fast ones for building muscle strength. For example, toe touches - when you do them fast, in part you use your body's momentum rather than the full strength of your muscles. I do some exercises that use the muscles beyond there normal regions that really help not only in strength, but also in balance and agility. It usually takes me 12 to 16 counts to get through a full range of motion. For example 1. - stand on the first step of a flight of stairs with only your toes on the step. Drop your heels as far down toward the floor as you can. You will feel the pull behind your knees. Hold the stretch for 4 counts. Counts 5-8 move from the lowest you can drop your heel, to as high as you can stand on your toes. Hold that four counts 8 thru 12. Counts 13 thru 16 return your heels to their lowest position. Repeat 10 times. 2. Stand with your feet about a foot apart as tall as you can with your fingers laced together over your head. Bend backwards as far as you can with comfort. Hold for 4 counts, leaving your arms back, raise your head til it is upright (strengthens neck muscles) then bring your arms forward so they are upright to and you are standing as tall as you can - then slowly bend your body over. Think of your back like a string of pearls and bend each vertebra at the time. Do not just bend over at the waist. Try to make your body shaped like a U. Keep your knees straight and bend as far down as you can with comfort. Hold the stretch for 4 counts, then reverse the motion until you are back where you started, bent backwards as comfortably as you can comfortably bend. Put on some slow music. I use "soundscapes" - it is very relaxing. I have some others if you're interested. They're geared to utilitizing as many muscle groups as possible during one exercise.

If you are asking someone a question, your voice goes up at the end. If you are reading English, you pause slightly after a comma (,) You pause more after a period. (.) Here is a link to Merriam Webster Online. I typed in the word "phonetics" which means how a word is pronounced. If you click on the red microphone, you can hear it spoken. This won't help you with entire sentences, but maybe it will help with individual words. http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=phonetics&x=11&y=20

An experience very similar to daemonstar's. I first hurt my back when I was in my early 20's and worked for a vet. I was lifting a large dog to put him on the table, and had him around the rump and forelegs. His owner wouldn't allow the vet to muzzle him so his head was free. As I started to lift, he snarled and turned his head toward me. I knew he was going to bite me in the face, so in one motion I stood up and threw over 100 lbs of dog over the exam table and into the wall on the far side of the room. I heard my back "pop" too, matter of fact, so did the vets, even over the commotion the dog and its owner was making. They fired me on the spot for throwing the dog. That night I went home and went to lift my daughter out of her crib - my back let go and I was helpless on the floor. My husband worked night shift and found me the next morning. I was treated with painkillers and rest, and it got better, but like Daemon, one wrong move and it would go out again. I had seen several docs - no one could find the problem. Fast forward to 1989 - I had joined a fitness program and was doing a bunch of stretches - (read my reply to "Ballistic Stretches" - this is why I say DON'T) I was too enthusiastic, and suddenly I felt my left leg go numb, it was followed by excrutiating pain. I had herniated the disk - and it was pinching both nerves, the one that feels sensation, and the motor nerve. I couldn't lift my leg. This story has a happy ending. I had the disk repaired surgically. When I woke up in the operating room, the pain was gone. My neurosurgeon came in and said, "By the way, I found out the source of your ongoing pain. You had ruptured a disk sometime in the past, and there was a piece of it floating around in your back - everytime it moved against the nerve, you had pain." He took that out too. I didn't even have any surgical pain. Three days later, I danced at my daughters wedding. It was a slow dance, mind you, but I did dance. I do have arthritis in my lumbar area, which from time to time gets very uncomfortable - I have had a couple of cortesone injections which relieve the pain for about 3 months.

Look here: http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm You can click on each geolocic time period and see where the present continents were at the time. For example, in Precambrian time Antartica was at the equator: http://www.scotese.com/precambr.htm You can also click on the climate section, and see what the temperatures were for each time period.

It can lead to serious injury.

Did you check "lost and found" at the office? The gym teacher should have turned them in there. You're gonna have to stand up to that guy. Do you think he dislikes you because he considers you "geeky". Remember, a lot of coaches (not all, mind you) barely got through school on athletic scholarships. You may intimidate him, because he thinks you are smarter than he is. I had a similar person for an algebra teacher when I was in high school. He was also a coach, and he didn't understand Algebra well enough to teach it. We wised up to what he was doing. The first thing he did was to give an "A" or "F" quiz on the homework from the night before. If you got the answer to one question wrong, it was 50% and you failed the quiz. There were a couple of math whizzes in the class, and he would have one of them put the problems on the board and explain how he got the right answer. At the end of the first semester, 20 kids out of 30 failed the class. We got together and went to the administration and complained and got him fired. Turns out he was unqualified to teach the subject, but had managed to land the job and was hiding out in the school because his number had come up for Viet Nam. If he had been up front with us, rather than arrogant about his ignorance, he would have fared a lot better.

Tell me something about yours - alive or dead. I want to tell you about my mother. She was born in 1907, she was 42 when I was born. She was an exceptionally cool and smart lady. Her father was an organist in the UK, she was born in Lancashire moved to Bridge of Allen, Scotland when she was 5, and to Ballymena, Northern Ireland, when she was 10. (If anyone knows about those areas I would like to hear from you.) When she turned 21, she inherited some money from an aunt. Her parents had arranged a marriage for her with a man she didn't like, so she took her money and immigrated to America, where she became a nurse/governess for a child with rhumatoid arthritis. When the child grew older and the family no longer required her services, she took the money she had saved, along with her inheritance, and bought a riding stable. That is where she met my dad. After several years they moved to the rural community in which I still live. OK - this is my favorite "Mom story". The ladies of the neighborhood paid a visit to mom and told her that one of the men was a "peeping tom" - they told mom if she caught him looking in her window, she shouldn't be upset. You have to remember - that this took place in southern Virginia, in the late 40's, prior to air conditioning. No one kept their drapes closed. Mom was asleep (fully attired) and woke to see 2 eyes peering at her through the window. Because of the warnings, she knew who it was, but because my dad worked night shift, she didn't want him to have the idea that she was helpless in the house... so, she pretended she hadn't seen him, walked serenely around the corner to the kitchen, grabbed a loaded shotgun and bolted out the back door. She snuck to the corner where the guy was lurking and fired the shotgun right over his head. He headed for the undeveloped lot next door and cut a 3 foot swath through a blackberry thicket. (Now - I know you Brits ain't got a clue - it's the tightest wound brambles you can imagine - with thorns.) The guy didn't go to work for a week, and never peeped in mom's windows again. Next???

My mother had a seamstress who had a severely disabled child. She was born that way, from anoxia during birth. She was but in an incubator and suffered blindness. She couldn't eat, so they put a gastric tube in her stomach. Her mother and father cared for her 24/7, and she never said so much as "ma ma" or "da da". (The father worked outside the home, the mother became a seamstress so that she could work at home and be available to take care of her daughter.) When the child was 11, the father met someone else and bailed. I guess he paid child support, but he could not live anymore the way he and his wife had lived for over a decade. When my mother died in 2003, the woman was still taking care of the child who was in her teens. Somehow, she had managed to survive without contracting pneumonia or a staph infection. I have lost contact with the woman, but I expect that if the child still lives, she is still caretaking. In my humble opinion, that child should have been allowed to die. She would have, without intervention. The parents should have been told she was still born. She lived, in a vegetative state, but in doing so, she killed her parents.

I've been wearing glasses since I was in 7th grade. The first pair I had were emerald green harliquins - I bet y'all don't even know what they look like. I've tried contacts, but I have a lot of astigmatism, so had to have hard ones, could never get used to them. A couple of years ago, I tried the new soft ones, but I still needed glasses for reading and it took me at least 15' to get them out of my eyes. I opted for rimless trifocals instead. OK I cheated - my avatar doesn't show me wearing my specs.

No, I'm not a writer by profession, but I love to write. Prior to getting on the internet in 1996 the longest thing I had written in 30 years was an invoice or a reply to an RFP - request for proposal. My day job is running a machine shop and programming CNC (computer operated) machine tools. When I write in these forums, I intentionally try to do the best I can, in order to hone my skills. Lance, I was replying to your earlier question "what makes hitting puberty early dangerous" by pointing out that the younger one is when it happens, the less likely one is able to handle it mentally. Errors in judgment can be fatal, not only from aids but from pedophiles invading chatrooms.

http://www2002.stoke.gov.uk/museums/pmag/Nof_website1/species/creepy_crawlies/other/other_images/boatman01pmag.jpg See picture above - is that what the last critter is?

I read in a reputable journal, however I can't find a link to it on the net, that humans hormone levels are at the max when they are 17 - as the onset of puberty begins at earlier ages, it follows that maximum hormone levels will be met at earlier ages also. I might be 55, but I do not have alzheimers. I remember what it was like to be 17 and in the back sheet of a chevy. Common sense goes out the window. As hormone levels maximize at earlier ages, people will not have the age, nor the means (I'm talking real world here - a job, and a means of support) to support the result of indescretion. That's not to mention STD's. It is a case of "what goes around comes around", when I was 17, the guy always had the tell-tale circle of a condom in his wallet - just in case. ( I do remember one guy had the opportunity to use his, and it had dry-rotted). ...but, I digress. The biggest worry was getting pregnant. If you really screwed around a lot, you might get an STD, but an embarassing visit to your GP and a round of antiibiotics cured that. Then came the pill. No worries - free love. (I missed that part, I was already married) Then came aids. Back to square one - carry the condom. Damn, sure enough, what goes around comes around. The first time I am eligable to date in over 30 years, and in the back of my mind I have to be thinking - don't let him near you if he doesn't carry protection. What I'm saying is that some girls are hitting puberty these days at 11. They haven't a clue. When an older guy comes on to them, they are in over their heads before they know it. The same can be true of young men. Not to single you guys out, but Robin Williams made a very astute, if crude comment. "God gave man two heads, but only enough blood to run one at the time." The younger one is when these situations arise, the less likely they will be to have life experiences to tell them "Whoa - stop!!! Am I protecting myself and my partner?"

The yellow one looks like an isopod, also known as a roly-poly, pill bug, wood louse or slater. If you poke them the curl up in a ball. I'll have to think about the other one. The name of something that looks similar is on the tip of my tongue it has something to do with oars or boats. (How's that for scientific - I'll try to find it and come back later).

If you tell someone "Do it like this", they won't like it. However, if you suggest that "you might like to try this method", they will be more receptive.