sabbath

Rocket Man: I find your explanation very interesting. Know of links online regarding/expounding your information? Would really like to read it. Thanks in advance. Cheers, Sabbath

whoa. If you follow what the guys here are telling you, you're really going into the intel comps! The key really is to have a very good research design. Intel has guidelines posted in their website and they usually give this out to participating schools, too. Just make sure you follow the guidelines. Why can't you test on vertebrates? I think intel allows those kind of studies. But they have special guidelines for that. The bacterial assays are easier to comply with. scicop is right. Using "whole" garlic alone won't ensure you with a ticket to intel. Modify...what's the word? umm..innovate your idea into a more comprehensive form. Create a research design, follow the rules, use standards and remember to always quantify. Use quantitative analysis (it's more reliable) and test your data with the appropriate statistics. Intel will judge greatly on the development of your research paper so make sure you have the necessary data, and obtain the skills of making a good paper. Asking for professional help is a very good idea. To the labs you go!

I agree. ADD is "curable" anyway through psychological means and is not really a physical impairment come to think of it. I think genetic modification should focus more on debilitating illnesses that deal more on the physiological disorders rather than psychological ones. For example diseases such as sickle cell anemia, or hereditary development of cancer. In my opinion though, genetic modification should be approached with caution and its effects be studied in the long term. For example complications have arisen due to genetically modified organisms such as corn, etc over long periods of years. These effects were not viewed in the laboratory over short periods of testing. This also raises ethical issues since to test genetic modification, we'll have to use human subjects, or species with as near characteristics as possible.

Don't we sometimes provide animals with the necessary stimuli to act beyond instinct? Don't we ourselves condition animals against their own instincts?

You can try bioassays...but then they're pretty easy so...they're not exactly blue ribbon...we bagged fifth place at our school's intel fair with that kind of investigatory project though.. If you want an easy project try organic/herbal alternatives to antibiotics such as tetracycline or cloramphenicol. Another common experiment done by my classmates were tests on lowering blood glucose level (diabetes, etc) and testing the effect of sapponins, flavonoids etc on mice. Ok I'll try to list down the winning intel projects from our school so far... the general topics anyway. Biodegradable Plastics (Won International in Philadelphia I think) Automatic Rain Alarm of some sort (Not sure if it was an Intel comp, but they won in Japan) Coconut Oil Separation with the use of Papane? Biodiesel (Won School Eliminations vied for Regional Elims...) Lowering the Blood Glucose Level of Mice through intake of Euphorbia extract Bioassay on Pseudomonas with the use of Pomelo Extract as alternative to Antibiotics Styroshell LandMat (styrofoam+seashells for land mat used in landfills to prevent seapage) These are just examples to give you an idea. I've thought on studying plant viruses once but my school doesn't have the necessary equips... What about coming up with a broad spectrum antibiotic that can kill both gram+/gram- bacteria? There are lots of ideas out there. Take your pick.

Wahahahaha! If I didn't know you alice, I'd misunderstand you and say "Whaat? you're lesbian?":D Herme3 I don't know what to say. I can't think up of anything to encourage you. Sometimes, it seems that you're just trying to refute everythin we say. Have some faith. (No religious notions intended) Things may well turn out to be all right in the end. Note that I said may. Have some faith in the possibility that things will turn out to your advantage. Tell yourself that you can do this. *Phone ringing* There goes my real life pulling me back. I'm sorry but I have to go. The best as always to you. Cheers, Sabbath

I guess I'm a computer addict. And it's making me poorer everyday...in terms of finance.

It's too bad you don't like dogs herme3. I think they're the best. Maybe your parents' dog is socially inept, too. Mine are very empathic and friendly dogs. And they have very varied personalities. They're not just dogs to me. They're sort of my friends, too. Ok we're in twilight zone now. And I know I just sounded pathetic but well...let's just forget I said that and move on. Two more days. What should you do? To be honest I haven't the foggiest. Remember that little story I told a few posts back? Well I wanted my friendship with whoever that person was to remain the same. I wanted the friendship back even though he successfully ruined it by telling people off blah blah blah. Well some of the ruining was my fault too. I acknowledge that but anyway...I tried to make a connection again after a long while. After a very very long while wherein I had immersed myself with school work and took on duties and responsibilities at school just so I didn't have to always be in the classroom with nothing to do and having all the time in the world to think. Think. Think about him. Think about me. Think about how crappy it all was. But I digress. I tried to reach out again. There was this crappy recollection for the graduating students. And though some people may think its stupid, I told him he was special. That's all. Bow. But it really was stupid of me to think that I would get the "same old same old" friendship back. I didn't. But at least now we can talk to each other instead of the way we used to pretend we didn't see each other before. Or the uneasiness when we were in the same room. We can at least joke at each other now. Yeah, I tried with jokes too. But don't force it if you can't. At least the crowd I go in know how corny my jokes can get so they relatively ignore it and are so kind to laugh at the rare instances when I do crack a really fun one. But if you're not a natural at it, and they don't know you for a joke cracker, kindly ignore this suggestion. Don't people generally talk about the weather when they begin a conversation with someone they don't know? Well, I've noticed this with adults anyway. I just sit there (for ex, in a waiting room) and person A exclaims about how bad the weather is, typhoon X causing so much damage on wherever. Person B readily responds and shares about his take on the ravaging storm. Then after a short exchange on the weather and how the rainy season has come, person A opens a new topic of conversation. Why don't you begin about exclaiming about the weather then? (This is evident proof that I've totally run out of ideas!) herme3: It's sunny today, isn't it? Girlofherme3'sdreams: That's the worst pick up line I've ever heard. Sabbath: *rolls on the floor laughing* hee-haw Sabbath: *kneels* Forgive me herme3. I am truly sorry. alice forced me to do it. She has her hands at my throat right now. Gack!

How much do they cost?

As people should. The only problem is when they get caught up in that ideology and see no other as reasonable or correct as that ideology and lose their rationality and become dogmatic, take for example Al Qaeda.

Well being young, I really have no strong attachments to this world so if I do die I just want to die and that's all. I actually think I'd be pretty happy if I finally die rather than live all over again. It would be interesting to see what the future is like though, if human civilization has gotten any better at being human, but it's not that tempting for me to try out and get vitrified. With present technology I think it's way impossible to happen yet. But add a decade or so I think it would be somewhat possible and actually safe to undergo. The reanimation process though may well be way ahead in the future, and I think the first people they reanimate may well have brain damage and some physiological aberrations.

I know many will have a violent/negative reaction to what I am going to say but...I am actually entertaining the possibility that the 9/11 attacks were staged or taken into action to further American campaigns in the middle east. It gave justification (at least to Bush's administration) for USA to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. I will be careful to say however, that it might have something to do with the rich oil reserves that are present in the said countries. This angle may be farfetched but it may be possible nonetheless. It may also be that the Bush administration saw an opening and took advantage of the situation to further American interests in the Middle East. So to answer the OP on this line of thinking, I think the reason why there hasn't been another 9/11 is because there hasn't been any need for it. The recipe for an all-out attack against terrorism has already been laid out. The US can now play Universal Police and attack any nation they think has WOMD. And they'll find justification for it.

May I ask what the said ideology Al Qaeda is standing up for?

Genecks has something there. TimbaLanD it was explained in the net that though children are most likely to exhibit such behavior the most positive action that the parent can do is to tell his/her child that hurting himself is not good or that it would do the child harm. I think it would be best if as adults (or young adult in my case) we prevent this behavior from children. I for one (as I learned from my mother) and my twin alice (not her real name) never exhibited such behavior when we were children. Neither did my brother. Some of my friends claimed to be tantrum throwers some weren't. We've actually discussed this quite often. I know of someone though who's really bright and an achiever (he's top of our batch, consistent class honor, etc) and he used to bang his head when he was young. My point is that just because a child bangs his head doesn't mean there's something wrong with him. Not yet, in my opinion anyway. But as explained children do this as a way of getting what they want. It can be a form of manipulation especially in the case of younger toddlers, say babies and children around 0-5 years of age. Some older children may exhibit this way into preschool and preteen age because they have been conditioned to do so. If they see that they get what they want when they throw a tantrum and hurt themselves, then the tantrum becomes advantageous for them, hence the specific behavior. Children are smart, even babies. They can manipulate us, especially parents who have a soft side for their children. But as Genecks said there can also be a different underlying cause especially in an older age group. I think that behavior such as banging the head may also be signs of emotional or mental confusion/disturbance in children. If for example this is their reaction towards failure or disappointment when they commit mistakes, I find this reaction disturbing. I do not find it normal for anyone, even children, to hurt themselves when they fail at something. This is short of self-mutilation. The best thing to do I think is to tell/teach children from a very young age that banging his/her head is wrong. And if he/she does this to get what he/she wants, the parent/adult must stand firm and refuse to be manipulated. Another preventive measure is to not let any situation arise in which the child sees it necessary to bang his/her head. That is how my mom raised us. She scheduled our eating time, play time, learning time, everything. We didn't grow hungry and have to wait for our food. There was no need for crying. If we did, it surely was because of something else and she would see to what was bothering us. The basic necessities were provided for. Food was there, toys, play, attention. We knew that crying would not get us anywhere if we wanted something (note the want and not the need). If we wanted something we told her. If we could afford it, she'd buy it for us. If we couldn't she'd explain why not. There were no tantrums, no head-banging. I can't exactly say I'm a well-balanced person psychologically. But what I know is that I can't blame any of my idiosyncrasies because of my childhood. To sum it up I say prevent children from banging their head, whether most children do it or not, or even if some people will claim it as normal. It's just not good for their health and it might prevent the development of far more serious psychological disorders.

Speaking of prom...haha! I can remember all that crap all right and the pictures are there to torture and haunt me for-evah! Attendance is required in our JS Prom, both when I was a junior and a senior. There are only 90 senior students around 60% of which were girls. The juniors were around 105 or something and 60% of them were girls. Because the teachers didn't want anybody to be alone on prom night everyone was assigned a partner and since there were too many girls against the boys some girls had to share partners. What a cool prom eh? The best part for me started and ended with the buffet and that was that. Everything else stunk and I had to wear a stupid dress. Plus heels. There's a dress code you see. I would have liked to attend with jeans and sneakers if I could. Tough luck. Then everyone keeps on saying "Watch your etiquette!" Men. I hoped I would get sick. I nearly had a reasonable excuse to miss my senior prom. I'd thought I could go scot free. I had a regional training for feature writers and the training fell on exactly the same date as prom night plus the venue was across the sea. Then it got cancelled. Imagine my disappointment. And of course as usual prom sucked. And I had to dance some waltz. I of course as expected stepped on my partner. (Thank goodness I had apologized in advance). There's not much to miss from prom really. The food's the only consolation you've got. It's not much of a trade if you've got to sit the whole night fidgeting and being uncomfortable. Not at all.

here's another one! http://www.hawaii.edu/medicine/pediatrics/parenting/c07.html

it's evidently not a rare phenomenon: http://www.bloggingbaby.com/2006/04/11/weird-toddler-behavior-why-do-they-hit-themselves/ http://www.drspock.com/faq/0,1511,2640,00.html

My little cousin does the same. I think some kids hurt themselves to get what they want. When they see that this evokes a positive response from those who nurture them, this becomes a habit we are made to witness via tantrums. Mostly it's in the bringing up i.e. how parents deal with their toddlers wants/behavior. But I've also heard of emotionally disturbed kids exhibiting such behavior. Will look it up to make sure.

Ah! How I can relate! I felt the same way, I actually still feel the same way. I've never posted any real life pics of myself over the net, and begged my friends to remove my pic off our class blog pictures. Well I really don't think I'm pretty. That's the truth. No bit of remorse there mind you. But I'm hoping to make up for it in brains. hee-haw! Unless you want plastic surgery and got the dough for it which by the way, I think is absolutely stupid. That's my take on it anyway. By the way, Klaynos I think a letter is COOL. Yep. Even if whatever was written on it was nothing meaningful or deep. But the thought that somebody wrote me a letter and made sure that what it contained was nothing much is heartwarming for me. Yeah I'm crazy. Unfortunately, the girl herme3's is talking about is most probably unlike me, so I guess he'll have to cross writing a letter out of his list. Whew. I'm running out of ideas how to deal with herme3's predicament. We're losing sweat over this one! As cloud says, we're sort of getting nowhere here. But at least herme3 you're open and aware to the fact that there's something you must change for your sake. I think you should at least try out what the guys have been saying out here whether or not you think it would be weird. You've already decided the outcome before it's even happened yet. In your present scenario (too strong a word?) I don't think you have a lot of options left. Try something out. I find that I haven't got much of any worthy advice to tell you, but I will try to come up with the best I can. And I'll be here to listen hearing as your family and we freaks here at sfn are all you've got (according to you though the wording is mine). I'm thinking, why don't you get a dog? It helps me out of my gloom sometimes. This is crazy talk. But think about it. At least you'll get company. And it won't call you a loser, besides.

don't satellites maintain orbital speed so they don't get out of orbit? it's basically gravity and the right acceleration keeping it afloat...umm right?

You need an MD to be accepted as a reliable and genuine neurochemist. Or if you want to get hired.

Aye! I plead guilty.

Oh men...alice I fear you've been watching too many reality tv shows. Stop watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy! Stop watching Ambush Makeover! Stop watching Project Runway! Stop watching America's Next Top Model! I tell you, STOP!!! It shows!