Royston

The trouble is the contact point doesn't finish the journey until the end points have met. So if hypothetically you had two beams of light, and you sent a message by crossing the two beams at the speed of light, the message won't get there before the two ends have met. Although the contact is travelling a farther distance, than the accumalated distance between the two beams, it's not actually travelling faster than the speed of light....otherwise it would get there before the beams meet at the end. Is that right ?

Bah ! Anyway, I think the comparison was to rugby...rugby players don't wear girly helmets and shoulder pads so big they're more at home in an epsiode of Dallas, it's a real mans sport, where the only protection is your brawn and your wits.

Heh, YT2095 beat me to it...well I don't really go for any particular brand of shampoo, all depends what shop I'm in at the time, what's on offer et.c Maybe it's a particular hair type. I was almost platinum blonde when I was a toddler, then my hair slowly turned brown (round the age of 5 onwards), so that could be something to do with it...but it might not.

@Scientist Hang on, that doesn't make sense...sure, your skin gets used to the sun when you acquirer a tan, but once it fades then your likely to get burnt again. The effect of the sun on my long flowing locks has occured over a number of years. In fact, my nose got fried when I was up in Scotland at the weekend, and I get quite a lot of sun exposure, I travel a lot, and spend quite a lot of time outside. Also your skin cells regenerate, as does your hair, so how is this to do with tolerance. I was really looking for a technical explanation.

I agree, though I thought their performance was very lackluster...they need to wake up a bit, Owen was a dissapointment IMO. I can't see Germany or Ecudaor being very put off by yestardays match. Still, we won ! Which obviously means there's time to rethink their strategy, and think about picking up the pace a bit.

Thanks for the response Scientist.

The Bohr model of the atom which was incredibly accurate to the highest probability of electron position (due to absorption and emmision of photons) proposed later on by the Schrodinger equations. Those two are definetly worth looking into. Schrodinger brought indeterminacy to QM. Look up electron probability clouds. Max Planck is another mile stone physicist in QM, look up joules/hertz and the Planck constant. EDIT: Sorry, misread the OP, I thought you said any physicists contribution to QM, not just Le Broglie's...christ it's hot down here at the moment.

No takers ? I really can't find anything that explains this. Is it to do with the slowing of melanin production, or does the hair build a tolerance to sunlight somehow ?

Personally coffee makes me stressed, and less tolerant of other peoples views...I have roughly 3 small cups a day, usually accompanied with a glass of water to dilute the coffee at work. If I have more than this, I usually find myself thinking about how stupid the person a few desks away from me is, and how much rubbish they talk. It does however make me work quicker, and give me more time to post on here Luckily my 'head of dept' is on holiday, so I can post on here with no restraint for a while...tee hee.

Apart from the complexity of the maths involved, the problem I have with string theory is the amount of energy needed to find the little b*ggers...IIRC it's impossible. I'm not comfortable with something that will never be observed. Something just niggles me, that extra dimension are not needed, and simplicity seems to be the standard of any great theory...it also means the theory is accesible, for people who are not educated in physics. Selfish as it may sound, I just hope that string theory doesn't make a prediction, not to undermine the incredibe amount of work that's gone into it, but my study is heading in the direction of quantum explanations for gravity...so personally, the less interest in this field the better.

Nevermind Amod. Oh come on.

If you win, then you're definitely going into the second round. I support England, though I wasn't filled with too much confidence after the match with Paraguay, but England nearly always come up with a few surprises...we won, so it's all good. As for winning the world cup...who knows. I'm not putting my money on anybody yet.

I think he's one of those actors that's not so much celebrated for his acting skills, but for being brilliantly typecast as the original Batman...which was obviously a spoof. Kinda like William Shatner as Captain Kirk, clearly the acting is abysmal, but it suits the series perfectly. Adam West's acting is so flat, it adds a certain dimension to the original Batman. I havn't watched any of the original series for years, but it was his acting (or lack of) that made the original series so amusing for me...IMO of course. I'm sure he was given the role of Batman intentionally for this reason. EDIT: I think Heretic summed it up better than I did.

Adam West, without question.

Or he doesn't exist...it's a joke.

I tried googling this, but I couldn't find anything...anyway, I was wondering if anybody knew, why my hair no longer gets bleached by the sun. This seems to be age related, a work colleague noticed the same thing, she used to go very blonde in the summer, but now she stays a mousey brown regardless of sun exposure. It seemed to stop happening when I hit my mid-twenties, if that's any help. Any ideas ? EDIT: I realise melanin production slows with age, but why is my hair no longer bleached by the sun when my hair hasn't changed colour.

Yeah, sorry. Not sure what came over me...(dusts self off) enough of being a whiney a*se wipe, just because I've got a lot to get my head round at the moment is a pathetic excuse. This forum is too good to be getting all apathetic and crap, plus I consider a lot of you my friends, so why on earth would I want to shut you out. Mollusc's have survived millions of years, and although regarded as a pest by some, we ain't budging, so tough sh*t. As I'm a firm believer of equilibrium, a bad post can be easily redeemed with a good post, so I'll don my philisophical hat on, have a couple, and talk meta-ethics. Plus I've got a few questions on QM that need addressing. Cheers for the positive comments, shows what a great bunch we have on here...anyway, I'm at work so better keep this short Reverse psychology doesn't work on snails YT2095, thankfully a good sense of humour does.

Well, I've had a grilling about using the internet at work, and my posts in the evening are usually when I've had a couple, or my heads fried from studying, so they're usually pretty lame. In fact my posts have really taken a nose dive recently, I've had a lot to cope with...study, work and other stuff (although they weren't ever particularly inspiring...but hey), thanks all for making it a thoroughly enjoyable year, I've really enjoyed chatting to everyone. I'll probably be back when I've finished my degree (a couple of years or so), so I have something decent to contribute. Good luck to everyone with any plans you have, and hopefully I'll speak to you all in a few years. Bye !

Alice, you should look up the 'founder effect,' with regards to population of another planet. IIRC our brains have shown observable evolutionary change, I can't remember for better or worse, but change nonetheless. EDIT: Actually I'm not sure the founder effect is applicable...sorry, been a few months since I studied evolution.

My only advice, is when you get to the line 'hit me baby' think of hitting Britney square on in the face, and the music grinds to a halt...might not work, but it's a nice thought nevertheless.

The Peon, this may interest you, there's a couple of theories discussed here about why certain tunes get stuck in your head... http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=15551&highlight=song+head

So would anyone eat artificially produced brain dead infants if they tasted of lightly seasoned gammon steak...or would the stigma of them being 'human shaped' prove too much. You can eat monkey in (I think it was Venezuela) that are shaven and look like little people...what's the difference between eating them, and what I've just suggested. What's the difference between eating monkey, and a cow with big lovable eyes. I can't justify eating meat, except I like the taste of it...I have no idea what conditions half the meat I eat was raised in, and I don't think anybody else does...especially when you get a quick meaty snack, I eat peperamis for christ sake.

Please take a look at this new scientist (space) article... http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/mg19025533.900-spotting-the-quantum-tracks-of-gravity-waves.html More info on this arxiv article...the maths looks rather dense, so not sure if any physics experts can clarify the workings behind this theory ? (http://www.arxiv.org/quant-ph/0605135).

I think it was such a powerful dream, because A I was actually convinced this was happening due to my initial surroundings when I awoke being very close to reality, and B that it flowed with a tight narrative, and each time I had to work out whether I was actually awake, dreaming, or if something really spooky was going on and I actually was flitting between alternate realitys...different universes where events had taken a slightly different path. It also had a good climax, when I was in the 1984 scenario, the symbolism of the snail became a crescendo at the end as everything warped into a spiral and took me back to where I belong. Thanks for sharing your dream...I had some nightmarish dreams when I was a kid concerning my parents as well. If your brothers head starts spinning around, that's the time to panic I've had a dream along the lines of waking up and falling asleep, and confusing what was reality and waht was a dream before...but it was absolutely horrific, I may post it later, my internet is playing up at the moment. I know dreams have been discussed quite a bit...but if anyone can top mine, please feel free to post.

How'd you think I felt...it took me a good hour to shake the atmosphere of the dream off...very intense. Still the best dream I think I've had though, in an intense weird kind of way.