Royston

You're not kidding, I really should of checked the credibility of the site I posted, thanks for the link, Herme3. Thanks for a more detailed explanation, Bascule.

The band formerly know as [math]\Phi \,[/math] The Claps Colostomy Chaos RadiometricHead

My sincere apologies, for this...

18 inches ! Dammit, I'm sure you can't get rashes that big in the UK...I might start a hampaign.

This was moved from another thread, 'Do you have a new theory', but seems more appropriate here, please see below... It's funny you mention this, I'm approaching the end of my course and the last block concentrates on cosmology and universal processes, so there's a lot of focus on particle physics as well. The book was printed in 1998, and I've come across quite a few examples that to me, seem rather outdated, and not the accepted view. Although it's obviously not the fault of the university that techniques change, and new data is found on a daily basis, it's quite odd being taught a subject where I'm having to correct what I'm being taught. Most of my pre-knowledge has come from SFN Does this become a problem in full time university degrees...are there any instances where a whole topic has been scrapped half way through, because it's become debunked. Or is the concencus always...'but of course this is subject to change', and the agenda is sustained, whether it's worth learning that particular topic or not.

Stitches with no anesthetic was quite painful, the hospital thought I was still drunk...I wasn't. When I was a kid, I was on a roundabout...this was before they had that rubber matting, or wood chips incase you fell off. My Dad was spinning it and didn't realize I'd come off, but my reaction was to hang, so my body was dragged along the concrete, there was a lot of blood. (I'm sure I've posted that somewhere before.) Another time was just after a hernia operation, got home, went to bed, woke up during the night throwing up and where my stomach was contracting it was pulling on the stitches (the ones that are like transparent masking tape.) I was heaving for a good half an hour, and my poor ex was in a frenzy, trying to help.

Gunther von Hagen was responsible for the first televised autopsy, it was shown here in the UK on Channel 4. When I first saw his work, I couldn't decide whether it was purely for shock value, but after watching a documentary of his life, it's pretty clear that wasn't his intention. It has raised a lot of controversy, especially IIRC using a pregnant woman as one of his exhibits. His exhibit was also held in London, a couple of years ago.

Well I guess you're describing delusional behaviour. I just see the majority of so-called crackpots on here as thinking they've stumbled across something, with no solid foundation to prove it. Though with people that are adamant that they are correct, regardless of what others say, they're probably suffering from feelings of grandeur, perhaps. I think it's a hard thing to pin down. If somebody is genuinely misguided, and wants to spend the rest of their life proving something without using the already established, and accepted methods, then that's probably verging more on stupidity and ignorance rather than madness. However, if they believe that nobody else in the world understands them, unless they're wearing a tinfoil hat...to reflect the government controlled radio waves of obedience, then they're most probably barking. I guess there's many, many reasons that could lead to such behaviour. I don't think asking a crackpot what drives them, is going to be met with a rational answer though. I know you asked the question, but what do reckon could be the cause of obsessive mindless blathering.

I'm definetly going to keep an eye out for some Peameal. I guess going back to the bacon question, it's the same reason why you don't get a whole range of German sausage in a restaurant in Guatemala...if there's no demand, there's no supply. I guess the thick, foot long bacon in Oz is ideal for BBQ's...not meaning to stereotype. Just struck me as a little odd at first.

I guess authors like Von Daniken, and Terrence Mckenna don't help, I'm sure there's loads more examples. I think the problem is that people jump in head first sometimes, before getting educated properly. I personally think it's healthy to explore new ideas, but getting attached and not listening to reason, when you have A. no evidence for your idea or B. mountains of counter evidence debunking your idea, then move on. If you have an idea that's outside of science, then I think everyone is within their right to express it, and discuss it, but rattling on like it's a truth is not going to get you anywhere. I think there's a lot of people that just don't realise the amount of work that goes into a scientific theory, and the minds behind it. Sure, there's a lot of people that can grasp the 'concept' of say relativity, if they saw the maths that lead to the theory, I think they'd go cold.

I was watching Simpsons last night, and Homer orders the smiley face breakfast, with a bacon smile, he then asks for an additional bacon moustache and a bacon hat and bacon sideburns... This sparked a memory, when I ordered bacon with my breakfast in Mexico, and in fact most of the countries in Central and South America (and in the supermarkets), all we got was streaky bacon. In Australia you can get rashes that are nearly a foot long, as well as middle back, streaky, a whole myriad of different bacon. The same in the UK, except for the foot long rashes I found at Coles in Oz. In the States, I ordered bagels, Philadelphia and bacon, lo and behold we got streaky bacon, though I should of checked out the bacon selection at the local supermarket, just to be sure. I'm abit confused where all the other bacon is going in other countries, why do you just get streaky bacon (if that actually is the case). The foot long rashes would be ideal in the UK, home of the full English breakfast. Streaky bacon really is inferior, it's practically half fat half meat, but it appears it's the only choice in some countries...is there any reason behind this ?

I think it's incredibly sad how many rocks you see abandoned, on beaches, left in gardens, even on the side of mountains. A rock is for life, not just for Christmas.

Heh, never heard that one.

Definetly chameleons. Their eyes move independantly to one another, they've got incredibly long tongues that can catch insects from a distance (twice the length of their body IIRC), they also change colour due to temperature, and as a form of communication. They are the only lizards with 'zygodactyle' feet, and they really do look like they're from another planet, which I like. I've heard of sail bunnies...aren't they road kill frisbees, or something.

Well if your in Kent, then London is an obvious choice...perhaps check out the museums, galleries, and of course general sight seeing. On the south coast, I guess Brighton, which is where I live near could be worth a look, but it has been dubbed 'London by the sea' and I'd personally opt for London if you're strapped for time, Brighton is very unique in a pretentious kind of way. I'd recommend taking a jaunt up the South Downs as well, the weather here has been great, so a walk in the English countryside perhaps. I'll try and think of some other places that aren't too far from where you're staying. I'm guessing your talking of Sandwich in Kent, (which is a medieval village) I don't know of any other places in the UK called Sandwich.

Sorry about that, I was on the sauce last night

I couldn't agree more. Using kids as a means to enforce equal rights for adults is just plain wrong, whatever way you look at it. Also, society as a 'whole' is still not used to the idea of gay marriage, let alone adoption (if adults need time to adjust to such change, then kids doubly so.) I'm not saying it's right that society should need time, but that's the way it is. Adoption coming into force so soon is poor judgement IMO. There maybe a point when it's perfectly acceptable, but it's not now, I live near the gay capital of Britain and I can tell you there's many people that really aren't liberal towards the gay community...at all. If it still isn't accepted wholly in a city where it's an integral part of the culture, then it certainly won't be accepted elsewhere. It's been rushed into, without any thought for the kids involved.

My sentiments exactly, plus, have you ever tried tieing a shoelace with shoes on your hands, and what about tieing the shoelaces on the shoes on your hands !?! No wonder we walk upright.

Look up carbon emissions into the atmosphere, of which the amazon has 90 billion tonnes. I've read a few related articles and the hurricane season and deforestation appear to be the main contenders of the drought. I was wondering with a worst case scenario, what a possible solution to this would be, presuming there wasn't much time to incorporate a viable solution.

Well we won't. However the effect of global warming is clearly not going to help matters, if not next year, then which year. I think it's the scale, and the speed of which the loss of the amazon could have on the world which is most alarming. It's not something we can tackle by slowly taking measures to reduce emissions of compounds et.c I see it more as a very stark 'heads up' that more problems are arising due to our energy consumption...rather big problems at that.

This looks awesome, by using photographs from the web, it's now possible to construct three dimensional images to explore, please check out the video below... http://labs.live.com/photosynth/videodemo.html

A study in the amazon rainforest, which started back in 2002, has been observing the effects of a simulated drought by restricting rainfall on a given area. After one year the effects were minimal, after two years the roots of the trees grew to absorb water found deeper in the ground, however after a successive third year of drought the forest could no longer cope. Many plants died and obviously released carbon leading to the production of CO2 in the atmosphere. Next year will be the second successive year of drought for the amazon, and if the trend of hot weather continues the effects could be devastating, it's quite apparent the amount of carbon held in such a vast forest. According to this report the amazon faces forest fires and desertification, starting as early as next year, please see the article below... http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=6016&method=full

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I personally think benefits should only be applicable to 'partnerships' that have a child under their care. To slowly introduce benefits to suitable partners, where a line is impossible to draw on what is exceptable should be abolished. Why should somebody who doesn't believe in marriage, but leads a married life lose out...what exactly does the result of benefits boil down to ?