StringJunky

You were very lucky to to have had such an improbable and resounding first time failure! It must have felt like a sign from the gods that it was not for you...your friend who won the $3000 was the real loser . It probably saved you a lot of lost future bets and family misery. I was not so lucky...my father was an incurable gambler. Your experience does support Insane's point though that we are hard-wired to see patterns. Have you noticed we always see these 'miracles' after the fact and not before? It would be a different ball game if these unlikely events were predicted,

You could define a miracle as any event or series of events that occurs outside the bounds of calculable probability....that means an event/coincidence could occur randomly (without divine intervention) and be miraculous because it did happen despite the odds against.

I think also, even if you could make a perfectly efficient self-sustaining closed loop system where output equals input the instant you try to connect something to it to use some of the energy the efficiency will drop below perfect and you have to top it up with more energy because you are moving the energy ouside of the loop so you could never make a useful machine that is also self-sustaining.

Bugger me...you are right.....gotta go.... http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3942-masturbating-may-protect-against-prostate-cancer.html

I interpret his statement as...the onus is on the giver to try to speak in the language of the receiver so that they may understand...a laudable aspiration.

The simple answer is no. Not sure about cocaine but heroin users I've known reckon about 2 weeks of sustained use will bring about physical dependence. The thing about drug addiction is it's mainly psychological and is brought about sustained regular usage and gradually falling into a mindset and social culture (which reinforces it) that is very difficult to get out of once in. It takes your body two weeks to renormalise it's natural painkillers after cessation of use, that heroin replaces, but it takes months if not years to overcome the psychological dependency (for those few that succeed)...these psychologically induced problems can manifest themselves as physical symptoms and the line between physical and mental dependency can be very blurred but the medical arm of the UK's Social Services Substance Misuse team have told me the physical side is dealt with by the body in about a fortnight for heroin. This is just to give you an idea as to the severity and strength of the psychological part of the addiction equation. It's a hole that's nearly impossible to climb out of so I hope scotched any inkling of practical curiosity you may have.

If your observation is correct then the scope of visibility in diverse conditions could be effectively increased if the depts responsible for roads ran a gloss black line alongside the white one improving safety....might be worth bouncing your idea off The Royal Society For The Prevention Of Accidents.

OK got that. Thanks.

What does the lost mass in a fission reaction turn into if not photons which I have up to now assumed?

To replicate the common real world situation you need to take it whilst drunk and THEN make a judgement. I don't know personally but maybe GBH amplifies the alcohol or vice versa and it is this combination that creates a powerful sedative effect and not on its own. This is not an encouragement for you to try it but something you have obviously not considered in your final analysis. Psychoactive drugs are very person-specific as to how it affects them and you shouldn't make a sweeping general statement like you have from a single data point....it's unscientific and socially irresponsible.

Gravity is not a force like magnetism so it doesn't pull things in really. Space is visualised as being made of a non-substantive material called spacetime which has a geometry described as 'flat' in the absence of mass (first image). Mass causes the local spacetime geometry to curve in towards itself (second image) and light follows this curvature. Gravity is, in effect, curved spacetime or can also be described as a consequence of the interaction between spacetime and mass. http://media.wiley.com/Lux/67/183867.image0.jpg

Yeah, it's a long way off yet but the first step in that direction. Great medical advance though and I'm sure it will help those locked-in inaccessible people previously mentioned.

I agree ...another nail in the coffin of our ever-eroding privacy.

Collectively, not having the will or the wit to surmount the many ethical dilemmas that get in the way of finding a solution all we can do is wear them and let the Earth System and Nature make the 'decisions' for us.

Gravity is a property or consequence of the interaction between Spacetime and Matter. Spacetime tells Matter how to move and Matter tells Spacetime how to bend.

Here's the UK's NICE view on HIFU in .pdf form you might find interesting . They oversee and approve (or not) all clinical treatments here and what circumstances they are allowed to be used in.. http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/11128/31191/31191.pdf http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/11128/31190/31190.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Jupiter Check out the section on vertical structure.

Will is......The mental faculty by which one deliberately chooses or decides upon a course of action: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/will Choice is....The power, right, or liberty to choose; option. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/choice I see no essential difference in the meaning of the two words in the context of my previous post. If you quote somebody it is important to reference your Source (Post 4). It would have been perfectly ok to say (for instance): "I've found an argument that counters your position" and then provided a link to it or pasted it here in a conspicuous manner with a reference note but it's frowned upon to use other peoples words as though they were your own..

Free Will.

Well, the Earth is just a bunch of plain old chemicals and produced living thingies.

Yes, you are right. ...I'm just adding possibilities for him to use or not as he sees fit.

If it doesn't happen in safe mode then I don't think it's a hardware problem...have you done: 1) System Restore to an earlier time, via Safe Mode if necessary? 2) Go into Safe Mode and open a Command window and type: chkdsk c: /r /f then press Enter. Do NOT interrupt it 'til it's finished. 3) Also try in Command window: sfc /scannow Press Enter. Don't interrupt. 4) You could also try Recovery Console by booting up with your disk and there should be some sort of Repair option in it.

Thanks. Your computer has Thermal Overload Protection so it will shutdown automatically and probably without warning if it exceeds a predefined level (mine does in this situation)....if the ambient temperature is not unusually warm and it keeps doing it that's when you should suspect a problem. You could kick this mechanism in unwittingly by blocking the fan vent when it's sat on you or soft furnishings.

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/CPU/CPU%20Temperatures.shtml The temps are maximums...ideally the normal figure wants to be 20c below stated figure according to the above article. Google around for the heat spec on your particular graphics card. You can use Speccy to see what card it is: http://www.filehippo.com/download_speccy The CPU is 51c and GPU is 61c on my laptop. If the cpu hits 70 and the GPU over 80 that's when I get concerned...

Iso propyl alcohol is also used to preserve specimens it would seem and is easier to procure in a high enough concentration and purity than ethanol in th UK. I found it here at 99% purity and reasonably cheap...would this be a good alternative? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IPA-ISOPROPYL-ALCOHOL,-ISOPROPANOL--500ml-min-99%25-pure_W0QQitemZ320434307193QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=128865656547&rvr_id=128865656547&cguid=a0b37eff12a0a0aad5a31e13ffd96325