Kettle

I agree that heroin is, in itself, not a problem per se but the problematic effects of addiction, if it is not controlled, are well evidenced. Let me relay to you a little bit of my personal history. I was merrily walking through London one sunny afternoon, a guy literally jumps me from an alley - puts a hyperdermic needle to my throat, tells me it's infected with AIDS and demands anything I have of value otherwise he'll stick me with it. Naturally I obliged. Police later traced him to a half-way house for heroin addicts. A very traumatic experience (so please don't take advantage of my honesty - thanks). I'm not sure where you live, but here in London heroin is a huge problem - particularly amongst the destitute and homeless. They leave used needles in doorways and have a high rate of infections and overdose. True - they don't have to leave needles lying around etc but, like it or not, they do and someone else puts themselves at risk to clean it up. Here in the UK, there are some inner city areas where needles are regularly left in children's playgrounds, public toilets and public parks - pretty grim. Would these needles be left lying around if these people weren't injecting? The evidence I have for this is from simply living in London and observing the world around me - that's all. If someone else wants to take heroin then fine - just don't put other peope at risk. (Intelligence - why all the personal attacks and insults? I'm just giving an opinion and my own side of the debate - I'm not saying that I'm right and you're wrong )

I just found a couple of links to news stories about the NHS in connection with this thread. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3055630.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2985158.stm

Heroin is a problem. It is a very costly drug and the effects of the "high" diminish each time it is used - the drug user therefore needs more of the drug to get high next time until they eventually end up with a very expensive habit (unless they undergo regular voluntary withdrawal to reduce the cost). Where do they get this money from? You can't support a £100 daily habit with a normal job - that's why so many heroin addicts turn to crime to support their habit (but there is a lucky few who have jobs that pay well enough to support their habit - and they can lead relatively normal lives). There is also the problem of using old or dirty needles to inject the drug - this can spread HIV, hepatitis and a host of other diseases between users. These discarded needles can also injure children, animals and the poor bastards who have to clean them up. Admittedly, heroin does not cause so much internal damage as something like alcohol and the effects of withdrawal are unpleasant, but there is also risk of overdose, disease and, of course, being caught and facing a hefty spell in prison. It's for this reason that the NHS in the UK is proposing to give heroin addicts free hygenic needles and a free heroin-like substance. This is certainly a step in the right direction and may even be a definite solution - remove the cost of the habit, make it hygenic and thereby reduce all of the anti-social and even deadly symptoms that associate use of the drug.

ooooh-kay. It's been a while since I read any Plato but his descriptions of Atlantis certainly indicate (if I remember correctly - feel free to dump any passages in here that suggest otherwise) that he had been there. This is where the idea of Antartica being Atlantis kinda falls down - it was buried under ice long before Plato was writing and, as far as we know, the ancient Greeks were not able to reliably sail so far from the Mediterranean - triremes, although good ships, were certainly not built for such long journeys. We also know the topography of the "land" parts of Antartica and they do not match Plato's description of the concentric rings of land, with an island (with a plain and one small hill) in the centre. The other problem is that Plato used to write considerable volumes on utopian societies - what differentiates his writings on Atlantis from The Republic? Their "tone" is very similar...?

Primitive life is still life - it means that there is another rock out there at least a little bit similar to us. That makes our own existence seem less tenuous. Interstellar travel has other merits as well - observing first hand phenomena that we have only been able to peer at through telescopes, walk on other planets and maybe even establish colonies on them. Imho, whether or not you believe that there's more life out there, space travel is still a very noble quest.

As far as I'm aware there are generally 2 schools of thought on this subject. 1- that life is an inevitable biological imperative. 2- that intelligence is just a "fluke". In support of the first theory we have us -humans- and we're just starting to understand the level of intelligence of some primates (chimps) marine mammals (dolphins). The fact that we and chimps share a general physiology (hands, fingers etc) could support your idea that intelligence can only manifest itself in a humanoid but then we have dolphins - who many people believe are more intelligent than chimps - and they do not have the ability to intimately manipulate the world around them as we and other primates do. But, then again, we are all mammals and the seed, as it were, for intelligence may have been embedded in the dolphins before they returned to the oceans. One thing that might be worth considering is that, going back in time a fair bit, we as a species would have had very little advantage over contemporary predators - we're slow, relatively weak and climb badly. A spark of intelligence may have been the only thing that gave us a chance at survival - so we outwit our predators rather than out-run, out-climb or overpower.

The best case for a possible Atlantis location that I've heard so far is (and I apologise for not being able to remember the name) a tiny island to the north of ancient Minoa. It is a partially submerged volcano with the remnants of a central "peak" - a group of geologists believe they can trace back erosion etc and can match the topology pretty closely to Plato's description although they glossed over the Pillars of Hercules a bit.

Just 6 people in the whole society, huh? Their get-togethers must be ...er... a great laugh *coughs*

Indeed I'm still intrigued to know which "ancient culture" herodotus is referring to - are you actually going to spill the beans? Atlantis is very much en vogue at the moment isn't it? A new sci-fi series is being developed around that idea, there's the Disney movie and that guy (the one who's linked all the ancient civilisations all across the globe to Atlantis because if you squint very hard the configuration of their cities looks a little bit like some constellations) still keeps plugging his (tenuous) theory at every available opportunity. Where, geographically, is Atlantis in your theory, herodotus? There has been much speculation (some compelling, some utterly ridiculous) about this and I'd be intrigued to know what your idea is.

Does that include AIDS - that isn't a "surgical case"? If there is a cure for this as you suggest then maybe Albert should let all of the millions of people afflicted with this terminal and incredibly unpleasant disease know.

I wouldn't take anything from the Necronomicon as truth - it was a creation of 1930's horror-writer (and general nutcase) H.P. Lovecraft (note - he's nothing to do with the porn shop in Leicester Square). Lovecraft also thought up a convoluted history for the book including its mad Arab author Abdhl' Al Hazred, a series of supposed translations, it's retrieval from ancient ruins and the fact that it draws heavily from Arabic myths etc, which means that it isn't immediately obvious as a work of fiction.

Yup - that's what I said A brief search on Google revealed a few studies on Hahnemannian homeopathy, perhaps the most positive one being... Boiron Abecassls, Belon (1983). "The Effects of Hahnemannian Potencies of 7c Histaminum and 7c Apis Mellifica upon Basophil Degranulation in Allergic Patients". ..although I couldn't track down anything more than fragmented excerpts.

If someone was able to scientifically prove that homeopathy worked they'd be $1million richer - there's some guy (a magician, I think) who has offered all this money to anyone who can produce conclusive evidence that homeopathy works. To date no one has (as far as I'm aware). The main problem is, is that many scientists have conducted trials into homeopathy and published favourable results but they are then unable to replicate the results when asked to demonstrate the experiment before other scientists and observers. Other trials have been sponsored by companies specialising in homeopathic remedies and so we must obviously be skeptical with regards to their objectivity.

Crop circles come from some guy with a piece of string and a plank tied to one foot. There's nothing mystical or extra-terrestrial about them. I can't believe the USAF has a SIU devoted to this - that's seriously disappointing Edit: That said, it's still very clever - the planning that the people-with-planks do is really quite superb. Check out http://www.circlemakers.org/ for a UK group - they've got an example of a 409-circle design in 1 field

Hi Alexey - just a friendly message to say that it's generally considered bad form to duplicate your posts (and their replies). http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1460

Peter Dunn - there are already several groups researching interplanetary electromagnetic propulsion - there's the Interstellar Propulsion Society plus a few others. You might also be interested in this:- http://www.americanantigravity.com/ It's not really anti-gravity or emp - they developed this thing called the Lifter that they originally thought was anti-gravity but actually works by the movement of ions quite cool though.

[Off topic]Indeed Glider - one of the things that really gets my blood boiling this days are the "civil liberties" and "human rights" groups who actually protect criminals - what about my right to live in my house without fear of being burgled and Christ knows what else, and having the law on my side if I am a victim of crime. The justice system in this country is severely weighted in favour of the criminal - the law should be there to protect law-abiding peeps like myself, not rapists, burglars, muggers etc.[/off topic] Sorry - rant over

An ridiculous amounts of sugar and other junk in their diets There could be other reasons too - my brother was considered a "wild child" at school. Teachers found it difficult to get him to settle down and pay attention - turns out he was severely dyslexic. It would probably have been diagnosed as ADD in the current climate.

Anyone enjoying any good sci-fi novels at the moment that they can recommend? I've only got 2 on my bookshelf now that I haven't read so I'm in a bit of a panic (usually there are 4 or 5 awaiting my attentions!). I've just read a few of Iain Banks' Culture novels which have generally been quite fun (despite the seemingly obligatory "gross out" sequence - so only read those if you have a strong stomach ). Have also enjoyed Carl Sagan's "Contact", and various short-stories and "Neuromancer" (it had to be done, really, after seeing the Matrix) by William Gibson. Plus I'm a bit of an old school romantic - got plenty of Wells, Bradbury, Asimov, Bester and Wyndham stacked up. Someone recently recommended Lem's "Solaris" to me - anyone else enjoyed it?

This is something that I felt quite strongly against until I became aware of the case of Diane Pretty - she had motor neurone disease and went to court here in the UK to make sure that, if her husband assisted her suicide, he wouldn't be prosecuted. She carefully explained that she faced a, possibly very protracted, future in which her body would be completely unresponsive, although her mind would remain essentially normal. Several disability and human rights groups attacked her decision - but when I really sat down and thought about it and put myself in her position would I really want to live out the rest of my life, immobile, incapable of expressing myself or interacting with my family and loved ones to even the smallest degree whilst they feed my through a tube, and go about all the other unpleasant details of palliative care? No. I don't think that the right-to-die is necessarily right or moral but I do believe that people should be give the choice - there's nothing wrong with not wanting to fight anymore when faced with that inevitability. Edit - that Australian company with the airbags though is just sick imo.

That is just SO strange (yet decidedly cool). So, considering the speeds and distances that have been recorded in quantum entanglement experiments, does anyone think that inter-dimensional travel might be involved (or have I just seen B5 one too many times?). I mean, if you alter the spin of one electron and immediately record an identical change in the other entangled electron, rather than saying that this change has been communicated at faster than light speeds, could you say that this connection exists outside of our dimension? I really hate using the term Dimension - it's so Star Trek

Source: Beeb I thought this might be of interest as I know some people were recently discussing the use of organic materials for processing in computers (sorry - can't find the thread now).

Star Trek has been on a downward spiral ever since TNG imho. Voyager and Enterprise feature too many reworked Next Generation (and even Stargate SG1!) storylines and episodes. Enterprise is truly appalling. Not seen Nemesis yet but Insurrection didn't really do much for me (First Contact was fun though). It's run its course now I think. Either they need to do something truly radically different in the same universe (not *another* series focusing on the command crew) or just completely move on.

If that Simon Wots-his-face is on the judge's panel you should get your wish - that guy is never in a good mood! Maybe suggest to your friend to get some nice high-waister trousers and tuck a polo neck shirt into them

I'm not affiliated with this website but I notice that alot of other forums use them for t-shirts - it might be worth a look if you're seriously considering merchandise. http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/sell/ Basically, you give them a design and they make it available on mugs, t-shirts, mouse mats etc - all free. When they sell it, you take a modest slice of the profits. If you want scienceforums.net to be non-profit then the cash could go to a charity..? Plus I can have my morning coffee in a scienceforums cup Just a thought *shrugs*