Royston

Thanks all for your responses... This is pretty much the conclusion we came to last night, when I discussed the behaviour with my house mates...and as Phi mentioned, due to a public environment the favoured displacement behaviour would be giggling. I've noticed this occurs more when the driver 'beeps', which instantly draws attention to the pedestrian. I guess 'giggling like idiots' is a bit harsh, but it seems quite a strange reaction, as Glider pointed out, ironic.

This isn't really a new observation, but I witnessed this odd behaviour a few days ago on the way back from work...and I'm a little puzzled. I've noticed that some people when crossing a road, and they've narrowly avoided an oncoming car, that they giggle like idiots. So this I guess is just a reaction of relief, 'wow, that was close.' However, I can't recall seeing the same behaviour with other near accident / death situations i.e the immediate reaction is to giggle. I'm probably wrong, I've only witnessed a few close calls (in real life) that would warrant a 'holy crap, I could of died then' but there was certainly no giggling involved. 'Oh, that car nearly broke my spine in five places...tee hee hee hee'

Hmmm, TBH if it happend to me, I'd take it as a compliment that my cooking is so moreish...does she like beer, works for me Your mates really shouldn't let you take the brunt of this though, I think you should have words, get together, and make a group effort to remedy the problem e.g take her out somewhere.

That kind of thing happens in my house all the time, if I were her, I'd say 'go to the shop this instant and buy me some more...if it happens again you can buy me double, if it happens a third time you can buy me triple...' and so on. In our house it depends what's being pinched...I couldn't care less about some things, I mean, it's pretty obvious who done it, it's not as though they can hide in their bedroom for weeks. If it's the last laundry tablet, or something I've been relying on having...that's annoying, in fact I had to write 'buy your own' in the bottom of the box a while ago. Usually it's all quite amicable...'mate, have you knicked my bacon', 'oh, sorry forgot to tell you, here have a beer', 'cool, thanks.' EDIT: In fact if I'm offered a beer, I instantly don't care if my last clove of garlic has gone.

Ummm, I was just throwing some ideas about...I won't be contacting the government to get this enforced. Like you said though, inoccent parties will probably lose out as well, so it's hardly a fair solution. Perhaps they should develop a sensor that detects alcohol on the breath...attached to the drivers head rest, which prevents the car being started if alcohol is detected, and the same happens if you try to remove the device. I havn't the foggiest how such a thing would work, but it might be possible.

I think what you mean to say is, 'a resolution to the singularity problem has been discussed (it's been more than 'discussed' anyway) but with no convincing results'...you need to cite sources if you're going to make claims like the above.

Thanks the tree, I'll give it a proper read tonight...I'm planning to contact Ben Goldacre, nearer the time.

Thanks Grifter, but I think I'll be ok now...just to say thanks everyone for the support and advice, and ummm watch this space.

All they're doing is confiscating car keys...if it results in a scuffle, then the police are called, which would happen anyway. If you're worried about bouncers abusing their new powers, don't many abuse the rights of being a bouncer anyway, so I'm not sure much would change. Unless you had something else in mind. We have a community police project in the UK, where members of the public can volunteer to act as 'bobbies on the beat', they have no powers of arrest, but perhaps something like that for night clubs et.c would be more appropriate.

It would work if they could confiscate 'everybodies' car keys as they left, and whether you were going to drive or not, you'd have no choice but to pick them up in the morning. Or alternatively everyone could be breathalized as they leave, and if they don't pass, then they would have their car keys confiscated. 15 lashes if they refuse

Thankfully no...this thread was started over a year ago I actually can't remember the last time I felt that sensation...perhaps I've broken my spine and I'm blissfully unaware.

That's precisely what I'm looking for (Textpattern), and funnily enough phpbb was what I had in mind for the forums... http://www.phpbb.com/about/features/ Are there any web hosting companies you'd recommend that will fit the needs for phpbb and Textpattern. Thanks for the help, and excuse my ignorance, I'm new to this.

Most definitely a forum...it'll be split into the main scientific faculties, with a thread per article under debate (or more to the point scrutiny) there will be no room for personal opinion, anecdotes et.c, it's primarily a filter of information i.e all media tactics to sensationalize, or display bias and more importantly any misinformation will be removed, and the amended article with references et.c will be stuck in a separate sub-forum for proof reading. Once the article is complete it'll be sent off, and I'll have yet another sub-forum on any feedback we receive, so the process can be improved. Thanks, I'll stick it on my list. I'm undecided on which CMS, though I'll be starting on an open source / free one (for the time being) and more than likely PHP, I need to keep cost down to a minimum, and I have a friend who's fluent in PHP...which I'm not. Not incredibly professional I know, but it's a start. Advertising, and content are the main issues...I just need basic admin capabilities. The site is very specific in it's intentions, so that in itself should reduce the amount of trolling et.c it would just mean an instant ban anyway, all that will be made clear in the rules / regulations et.c

Just to redeem myself, the slight discrepancy between the lunar and solar cycles is why we have a 'calendar' blue moon.

Sorry about that everyone

Thanks again The Tree, I'll look into it.

Rofl, Australians won't witness this event, because it's this particular gravitational field that keeps the earth upright.

Has this been pinpointed to a recent event e.g volcanic eruption. For anyone interested, the absorption of radiation projected from the moon is thought to be the cause of this, rather than scattering, and the blue effect is only achieved by dust particles of a certain size. Unless anyone knows of any other explanations.

For mathematics, mathworld is hard to beat... http://mathworld.wolfram.com/

That's interesting, and another reason why sensationalism is not only potentially dangerous for science, but could possibly, if what you say is true, maybe at a point that it's becoming irreversible. The media can't 'up its figures' unless an article is newsworthy, which in turn requires the article to be sensationalized. If the public is barraged with sensationalized scientific articles, television programmes et.c then if the problem is remedied, this could incite even less public interest...just for the simple fact, it's dull unless you understand the details. Just to take another spin on the argument, and fueling my idea to start tackling the media / science discrepancy (possibly just a pipe dream for now) I found this article... http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WilliamRusher/2007/05/17/the_problem_of_junk_science&Comments=true This is too general IMO, and it entirely depends on the topic in hand...why deliberately look for a contradiction in certain instances, should we just confuse the 'non-scientific' public even further. See bold...the non-scientist shouldn't be afraid to contradict, but they should know why certain information can't be contradicted. Since when is science just formed on opinions...the media can report an opposing 'point of view' if the article is 'just an opinion'. I'm not familiar with Townhall...is this a bias website, I haven’t had time to have a proper browse. Any thoughts on the content of this article ? Going back to the dangers of nuclear power, I found it hard to get an impartial view of the severity of the problem...if anyone knows of a good source, I'd be very interested.

McDonalds TV ads are as mentally damaging, as the food is physically damaging. That's not strictly true, but the child repelling Ronald McDonald is clearly a negative.

Just so you know, it's a joke from Shaun of the Dead.

Awesome, thanks for that, this really does raise an eyebrow...

Agreed, this is something I should really look up myself...but what I was after were specifics i.e this action group was started due to this misinformation from the media, which caused disruption or delays to this area of science. Also if research is hampered in one country, was it still progressing in another, and how severe was this delay / disruption globally, with that in mind...I'm presuming that's quite hard to gauge.

Thanks, in principle it should work...the key to its success will be the level of knowledge of the members coupled with good referencing, i.e. any amendments will have to have a number of sources for reference...and no, citing something like wiki won't be acceptable, peer reviewed articles only, and referenced in the same manner as a science article. That's something I'll compose afterwards when all information is gathered and is ready to be submitted to the offending magazine / television company. There are two concerns, one is the amount of time I can put into the project, (I'm a very busy person) the other is the actual scientific knowledge I possess, which is really why I need experts I can trust (like the experts on here) anyone caught trying to air their own ideas to get media attention will get an instant ban...so it's highly important that I can trust not only the information I'm submitting, but the people who have provided me with this information, as it's likely I won't have access to a majority of peer reviewed articles. Anyway, I'm going to give it a crack, but the website won't be available anytime soon, it'll probably be several months away until I get everything on the site, air tight, as it were. I'll let you all know when it's up and running. EDIT: Just to add, as I said before, any suggestions prior to its launch would be very appreciated.