Flareon

I agree. I'd pay to hear advice like that.

Early detection is key to good health. The doctor sounds like he is trying to get to the bottom of things right away. Sandi, I wish for your daughter and you the bestest outcome ever possible.

That makes great sense to me. Sometimes the simplest answers are the best ones.

No, the example means that you could then watch a news segment about a rapist and not have a crying fit. The concept would be desensitization, not understanding. Behavior modication (perhaps even supplemented by cognitive shaping) is one of the most effective (and least invasive I might add) treatments there are. You shouldn't reject a suggestion without at least considering it.

That was certainly worth my time reading. Thanks for helping to bring my attention to it, though. I found it interesting. Is Meucat going to be returning? I wanted to ask him some things...

::Points to my previous post:: I laughed didn't I?

LOL... Now I definitely KNOW you have absolutely nothing valid to say.

I'm sure there is a good reason, but lye? On fibers? Why?

Might as well buy new pants!

I get them frequently (argh). But I dislike Firefox after it took all my favorites and hid them from me after I upgraded my machine.

Na metal dunked into H2O... Not as sophisticated as those already mentioned, but just as fun.

Soundwaves or waves on a rope? For the former you would need to be in denser material than our atmosphere. Underwater for example, or glass which would be even faster. The denser the medium, the faster the sound travels. For the rope, I would recommend decreasing the mass per length (rope density) and increasing the tension.

That's exactly what I mean by 'luck.' The environment (variably temperate to chilly climate, abundant shorelines, mountainous terrain, etc...) has much to do with the fate of nature rather than human control. By luck, I didn't mean that Europeans blindly stumbled upon inventions ("Hey look, an aquaduct!") But by existing in a kind of environment that fueled it ('necessity is the mother of invention'), they were ripe for the developing of new technology.

Mokele, I totally agree (obviously). Finally some sanity.

If you want to resort to such a overly simple and frankly, dumb example of cause and effect, that's your perogative. I'm sure you can recall the famous ice cream sales and crime correlation. Don't you know that there are theoretically infinite alternative hypotheses? And please do not use the phrase "reasonable sense" when talking about science. That's a sure path to error.

Oscar Wilde is my favorite source of witticisms. I took these from the internet. A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her. Oscar Wilde Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing. Oscar Wilde Biography lends to death a new terror. Oscar Wilde Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde I am not young enough to know everything. Oscar Wilde Illusion is the first of all pleasures. Oscar Wilde One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation. Oscar Wilde One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards. Oscar Wilde Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. Oscar Wilde Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow. Oscar Wilde The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for. Oscar Wilde The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Oscar Wilde Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. Oscar Wilde

Thanks for the link, Swansont.

Technological advancement is a marathon, not a race; there have been societies more advanced before the time of European leadership, and there will be societies more advanced after. Maybe in the future the world will even become a global homogenized society much like the futures depicted in the Star Treks , where no single continent, race, or society will lead the technological progress. To answer the original question: what do I attribute Europe's (relatively recent) success? I would say 99% dumb luck and 1% inspired vision.

That's an interesting way to look at it. I have a question: becuase nuclear decay is governed by probability, could there be a slight (and this may be a very tiny number) chance that one could witness (under certain lab conditions) the natural decay of a H atom, if the latter part of your statement is true?

I think more waves would reach the other end be a certain time, but the waves themselves will not move faster.

I'm impressed. Are you good at solving in anagrams in particular? I personally can't do them well at all. I think there may be a system involved in solving them, I'm not sure.

Oh, really? Well, try solving this one: ABOLITIONISM is an anagram of what 12 letter word? P.S. I don't want to put you on the spot, so I'll be the first to admit that I couldn't get it.

You have made some valid points but I'm going to have disagree vehemently with you on that one. No googol bits of descriptive data will ever lead to a causal conclusion (this is one of the canons of science), only a correlation. One MUST conduct an experiment in order to determine cause and effect. Only by understanding these can one obtain the power of prediction. Science is NOTHING if one can not predict the behavior of nature. I'm actually quite surprised that you say experimentation is not essential to science.

Actually the Japanese have been no where near as advanced as China. Their success in technology and in the global market is a relatively recent phenomenon. One could also argue that that a large proportion of Japanese culture has been transmitted there from China.