tomgwyther

I wouldn't usually post the video opinion of another to start a thread, but I feel it does make it clear how myself and many others feel when confronting questions such as "You are rejecting faith." Or "You are rejecting God." The video explains how one persons rejection of another's faith is - at least in part - a rejection of their ego. It describes how disagreeing with a person's faith, or assumptions therein, is not necessarily attacking the individual making the claim. In light of some of the topics discussed recently, I feel it prudent to explain why many members of SFN post as they do.

Not that I have a religious bone in my body, but some of the verses in the King James version of the bible are truley beautiful. I would definitely recommend reading Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu. It's a short book of just 81 verses. you can pick it up, read a few verses in any order and put it down again. A translation of it is available here

if it were my experiment, i would want to establish a sort of base line. That is: the rate at which plants grow unaided. Lets say that Fertilizer 'A' is less effective than fertilizer 'B'. It could be that 'A' performs no better than the control.

I took your survey, but unfortunately missed the last two questions. p.s. I teach Music to 5 - 11 year olds in England. maths and science are more of a hobby. (That's my excuse if I get bad grades!)

Don't we need a control group, grown with no fertilizer or vitamins?

Long shot: Has it anything to do with the saying "Sure as eggs is eggs"?

Looks like someone has tied a small thread around part of an organic cytoskeleton and the photographed it somehow, However, the green bits look crystalline. Curious.

Thanks for the replies guys. Given that nearly every vehicle that travels over 10mph is front end steer, I'll assume that the automotive industry knows what it's doing. Thinking about the inertia of a car, it does in hindsight seem better to have he front end 'pull' the car around a corner rather than having the rear end try to push it off course. p.s if you hear any reports of a Ford Escort crashing backward into a ditch, you can assume it's me!

As the title suggests; would rear wheel steering (in a car) make cornering easier/safer/faster? This question is someting I've been pondering for a while. Having driven front wheel, rear wheel and 4x4 vehicles and sliding them around a bit on public roads for fun whilst no-one's looking, I've often wondered how a car would behave if it were rear wheel steering. Presumably, having the rear wheels drive and steer the car would result in a little over-steer, rather like the effect you get when performing a J-turn in a front wheel drive car. A front wheel drive with rear wheel steer might behave more like a boat or aeroplane with it's rudder turned hard a-port/starboard; or like a hare kicking it's back legs out to turn at a sharp angle. Having had no experience driving a rear-steer vehicle, this topic might well be considered a speculation, but I do have a hunch that rear-steer = better cornering. i.e. that pushing the back end of a car left or right might - in some - way - be better then pulling it in either direction. Anyone have any knowledge or experience of such chassis lay-outs in cars? I'd be interested to know.

520 calories per day seems extremely low, the foods mentioned above seem to be lacking in carbohydrate also, maybe a little more iron wouldn't go a miss. if it were me, I'd add a bit of red meat, bread/pasta and plenty of fluids. I'd also increase the amount of calories to over 3000 because thats how much I burn; but that's just me though I found this on the NHS website: An average man needs around 2,500 calories a day to maintain his weight. For an average woman, that figure is around 2,000 calories a day. These values can vary depending on age and levels of physical activity, among other factors. However, instead of focusing on how many calories you consume each day, to maintain a healthy weight you should: eat a healthy, balanced diet take part in physical activities - for more information, see Live Well: how much exercise? balance the amount of calories you eat with the amount of calories you burn

"Sorry, we don't serve sub-atomic particles in here" A neutrino walks into a bar.

I work in the music U.K industry and this sort of thing come up a lot. Not sure how well it will translate to the realm of science but here goes. Generally speaking it boils down to to things; Can you prove that the work existed with you as the creator at a certain time. And, how far are you willing to go to persue a breach of intellectual property rights. If you did suspect a breach you would need to prove that it was your idea originally. you could take the work which explains you idea to a lawyer who would keep a copy and would be prepared to testify that you were the owner. also you can keep a copy of the work in a bank vault. The bank would keep your details, the details of what was deposited and when it was deposited. You might also try contacting you local/national patent office The UK one is here Also you might wish to consider the effort involved in persuing a case; can you afford the time and money it would cost to challenge someone in court. It's quite hard to stop someone stealing you ideas, but you can put a few safeguards in place. you might also consider drawing up a contract between yourself and the other party which details each others intellectual property. Hope this has been of some help.

Is not the concept of a 'Null hypothesis' already part of the scientific method? More commonly referred to as a counter hypothesis. For example: I could hypothesize that if I let go of an object I'm holding, it will hover in the air. The corresponding counter-hypothesis could be that it will fall to the ground. The enormous amount of experimental data available shows us that the Counter hypothesis is true. in this instance, hypothesis and counter-hypothesis are interchangeable. More recently, scientists at CERN have data which suggests sub-atomic particles traveling faster than the speed of light, when current scientific understanding says that this is impossible. The hypothesis that stuff is traveling at this speed would indeed be considered a counter - or null - hypothesis to the universal constant. Scientists from all over the world are studying the data to see of noise or chance could be involved. Null hypotheses are being investigated all the time.

I just typed 'Science Anthem' into Youtube, with some rather pleasing results. They're a bit cheesy, but the sentiment is wonderful. here are some of them. p.s. I've not composed an original score for a while now, not since i did this thing for NBC. I'm tempted to put something together using the lyrics from the above videos.

Good interpretation I thought. The things I have are quite transitory, they could (and have) disappeared from time to time.

Maslow's hierarchy: Interesting stuff. I've got the top two layers; the bottom three, well only about 50%. Is that a good or a bad thing?

Have a look at some 'Theo Jansen' mechanisms. they might be fun Here are a few links: My link My link

Definitely Homosapien, possibly Peru or nearby. Could you ask your parents?

The idea that the earth orbits the sun, and that species evolve via natural selection are both good ideas who's prevalence was hampered by religious dogma of the time, as was pointed out by iNow. In modern times; the use of contraception to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases is - in my opinion - a good idea. But the church discourages it's use, especially among poorer communities. It would be a causative fallacy to say the 'Religion equals poverty'. More likely it is the case, that wealth enables people to educate themselves in a broader view of the world which leads to a disbelief in religious ideas. However, the religious dogma which is imposed on the poor and blamelessly illiterate peoples of the world, demonstratively serves to keep them in such a state... For purposes one can only guess at.

Is there a specific question you wish to ask; or topic you wish to discuss?

I heard about it on BBC news today. Whilst they were talking about it, the words 'nuclear weapons' and 'Regime change' were uttered. As of a few days ago; According to the western media, North Korea - although claiming to have a functioning nuclear capability - does not actually posses such weapons. Then when they mentioned regime change, I just had to laugh. I'm just gonn a sit back a watch the 'Western liars and criminals VS Eastern despots and nut-jobs propaganda wars'. Best reality TV show there is!

I use Propellerhead reason a lot also. The patches are pretty good too. As someone who started in analogue studios, all the interfaces are easy and intuitive. there's also propellerhead Re-cord for recording audio. not particularly sophisticated but great for putting down ideas. there are also loads of free open-source midi software packages to down load, I've used them on Linux, there's likely some distros for mac as well. The studio co-run uses Cakewalk's Sonar. into which we plug-in DXI synths etc for midi track; not cheap though.

A degree in anything is always a leg-up on the employment ladder, as it shows commitment, intelligence and and forward thinking determination. A degree from a university like Oxford; even more so. Moreover, if you're anything like me you're likely to gain as much of a foothold in your desired field from the people you meet/network with as you will from the degree certificate you gain at the end.

Maybe not an all-out war, but a few carefully targeted hits. On a slightly different note, and at the risk of controversy: I sometime wonder would the reaction would have been if the 9/11 hijackers had ignored New York and instead hit the IRS and the Federal Reserve.

AKAIK, the spinal chord and nervous system starts to develop first, then other tissues develop at the same time as each other.