shakes

Yeah, an oldie but a goodie. Drake's equation is purely speculative, but any hypothesizing about exterrestrial life would be. Although scientifically useless it does have a value in that it helps define the parameters of the argument, which is all it was ever meant to do. And it's appealing to layman for it's simplicity.

You could always use the Drake equation, and demonstrate how new findings flush it out a bit. That ought to take up 5-7 minutes.

How is it that the critical density of the universe can drop faster than the actual density? Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedBump. Does it have to do with the fact that critical density is a ratio? Sombody help me out here!

True love is Vulcan. Reason over emotion. Peace born of turmoil.

Nope, never read Twilight, never will. Vampires are too scary. All that blood-sucking. Ew, gross!

If I'm not mistaken the main theory goes that a supernova induced the collapse of an interstellar cloud that ultimately became our solar system, so that all of the matter that comprises the solar system must have come from more than one supernova. How many may be impossible to say. By the way, the earth's core is made of rich, creamy caramel nougat, not molten iron, as many suspect.

I think gonorrhea has that one covered. Kids, use a codom.

I'd re-design knees, elbows, and shoulder joints. Oh, and install wings.

Why bother? The man is clearly insane. Obviously, if all galaxies were orbiting a central point then the red-shift and blue-shift of galaxies would bear this out, which they do not begin to. I'm not even a scientist and I can figure that one out. It would be beautiful and elegant if Galactic Spin was the case, but I would like to ride a pink unicorn in a coat of dragon mail over the rainbow to bathe in a pot of gold crucifixes too. Ain't gonna happen.

Did you know that Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and then fled to a warehouse, and that Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehose and fled to a theater? Coincidence? I think not!

Two nuns are bicycling through the back streets of Rome on a mission to the poor. As it starts to get dark the novice gets anxious and leans over to the older nun. "Sister," she says nevously, "I have to admit I've never come this way before." The older nun responds smiling, "It's the cobblestones."

"Shark Tank!" Take your idea there. Those boobs will buy anything they think they can sell to bigger boobs.

Very interesting articles although the "belief religion" link was painfully dry. I've found through experience that the most effective way to change someone's mind is to make it seem like it was what they always believed anyway. This entails agreeing with them generally but challenging some minor point. Knowing that you agree with them for the most part, they will be more likely to concede a small point. From there you gradually shred there point of view issue by issue until they eventually drink the Kool-Aid.

Not always. When I was in my weapon's track during officer's basic at Ft. Bliss back in the early 80's a fellow officer was accused of cheating on an exam. He underwent an officer's board in which he had the opportunity to challenge the accusation. I attended the board and served as a character witness on his behalf. By the time it was over even I was convinced of his guilt. The board found against him and he was asked to resign his commission. He had the option of remaining in the military as an enlisted E-5 or simply take an honorable discharge. He chose the latter, no questions asked. Surprisingly, he had been on an ROTC scholarship in college, which he was not required to pay back.

Who knows what the future will bring? As we currently understand the universe the prospect of manned interstellar flight is daunting to say the least. We simply lack the technology, but more importantly we lack the motivation. If we could determine with relative certainty that a planet orbiting a nearby star had the necessary conditions for life then we would be much more interested in visiting. If the planet could be found to be suitable for human life, then "gentlemen start your engines." Human ingenuity, when properly motivated, is equal to any challenge the universe has to throw at us, IMHO.

Actually, joining the military wouldn't be a bad idea. With a college degree you would be offered a commission and begin your career as a 2nd Liuetenant. With your research background you could easily avoid a combat arms appointment and spend your entire hitch in the USA. You might even find that you like it.

It's pretty slight, not debilitating in any way. It's really only apparent when I'm nervous or agitated, or when someone mentions Charlize Theron, tehn iy's rally bad,

Greetings, I'm called "Shakes" because I have a benign essential tremor, so my childhood dream of being a waiter or bartender never came to pass. I opted for a military career instead, knocking aircraft from the sky. Now I'm retired and don't have anything left to shoot but the sh... I know next to nothing about science but am fascinated by reading things by people who are much, much smarter than I am. I hope to help out when I can, otherwise I'll remain in the shadows.

Those are good answers but they might be a little heavy for your average ten-year-old. Prof. Louis a. Bloomfield, of the University of Virginia, has a good website that helps kids learn science. http://www.howeverythingworks.org/

For the OP, you might find this of interest, http://www.digipro.com/Trials/moon.html

My thoughts exactly.

Read Gilson.

Well I guess it would depend on whether or not a thought could be considered a "thing." If a thought is a "thing," an object, then it is an object apparently existing without mass but seemingly possessed of energy. How much action is derived from thought? A thought can produce other thoughts, so is a thought organic in nature? And is not "consciousness" the sum total of thought? So is consciousness an organism of sorts; a kind of parasite on the biological creature? These are really philosophical questions, absolutely immeasurable and therefore impossible to define using the scientific method.

From a purely biological viewpoint I would say that the human race is in serious trouble. In the past high intelligence meant successful reproduction. Just look who's having all the babies nowadays.

interesting notion but since the universe may actually be expanding faster than the speed of light I'd have to say that it would not be a fair assumption. As to why C is constant you might have to ask God that question. Good luck getting an answer.