Cap'n Refsmmat

Or more than two gold ions are colliding. Given that beams are being accelerated at ludicrous speed and collided, I doubt anything would have the resolution to pick up each individual collision. Heck, if you fired two gold ions at each other it'd take an insane machine to even get them to collide head-on. So we're not likely looking at one collision. If you want an answer, ask a physicist working on the project instead of speculating that this means there are EM ropes.

The picture shows the tracks -- i.e. paths -- of particles, not threads. It's just showing that particles moved in those trajectories. Where do you get threads from?

http://www.merck.com/mmhe/index.html is basically a medical guide.

Read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_duplication That should answer a few questions.

And stop taking Motrin. If it's damaging your ears, I'd take temporary pain over permanent hearing loss. But seriously, go back to the doctor. You don't want to risk your hearing over one ear infection.

My router never even requires re-configuration when reset. It fires right back up again the way it was. And I've reset it about twice. Linksys WRT54G. Do you do a lot of torrenting/filesharing/something-like-that-ing? I know some routers can't keep track of that many connections and crap out on filesharing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_and_Kate_Plus_8 Apparently so.

Actually, if you can get the current across your heart somehow (easiest way is through the bloodstream), you can probably die from a 9V battery. I do not, however, intend to try it.

Would one of these do the trick? http://shopping.microbattery.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.910/.f The site claims they're around 5mm wide. You'd have to find the current draw at the given voltage to see if your LED could stay lit (but I'm guessing most LEDs will take very little power), but I doubt you'll find many commercially available batteries smaller than those.

Summer is coming up, and in just a couple of weeks I'll be free of exams and school and all that nonsense and properly graduated from high school. Summer, of course, means lots of spare time that can be well-used without feeling guilty about not studying, and I intend to use it well. Part of my time I intend to spend reading. I've been on a book deficit lately, since I've exhausted most of the books I've found by glancing at the covers at Borders. (I also read very quickly. 1984 took me a day.) What I'd like to do this summer is survey some of the more thought-provoking and interesting literature (fiction and non-fiction) available, in hopes of, you know, expanding my mind and all that jazz. By thought-provoking I mean anything from Nineteen Eighty-Four (O'Brien makes you think a surprising amount about the nature of reality) to The Fabric of the Cosmos (cool physics). My current reading list is just three books long: Island, by Aldous Huxley, since I liked Brave New World and find Huxley's ideas on society to be interesting. The Web of Belief, by W. V. Quine, since blike told me to read it and because it touches on an area of philosophy I find very interesting. The rest of the New Testament, since I haven't finished it yet. So what books would you recommend as the most interesting, most thought-provoking, and most stimulating for someone scientifically and philosophically inclined?

Whoops, sorry. I must have switched up my monitor and the Apple. Regardless, I guess a 13" widescreen with 800 lines seems fairly proportionally right. I'll take a look sometime.

Cool. I'll have to wander down to the Apple Store and take a look.

Speaking of thermal performance, I just cleaned four years worth of dust out of the heatsink of my Dell. That was an impressive load. I'd suggest anyone whose laptop gets a bit too warm looks up the instructions (Dell's service manual explains how to pull the keyboard off to get in) and blast that crap out. On a related note, I am currently pondering options for a laptop to replace this one. A MacBook is one possibility, however: I currently have a 14" 1400x1050 screen, which I think is fairly awesome. The only brand with a 15" screen of similarly awesome resolution is Lenovo (well, unless you look really hard). From what I gather, the MacBook's resolution is a mere 1280x1050 (on a 13" screen, mind you). For those who have used Macs: For a screen that size, does the resolution feel fairly high or just adequate? I've gotten used to my high-res screen of awesome and would rather not downgrade. (Lenovos aren't all that bad, of course. ThinkPads have an awesome reputation and are high on my current list.)

Don't panic.

Better?

The existence of a litter box does not stop my cats from using the outdoors as well. It's just convenient.

All of those schools are, however, very difficult to get into (don't know about California State though). Get yourself one of those college review books -- find the college prep section in your local bookstore and there should be some books like "The 367 Best Colleges" and such that will give brief overviews of different colleges and what they specialize in. You should be able to get an idea of who to investigate from there.

Your Mileage May Vary. I've learned a lot by being around people who ask lots of questions. You might think you know something, but when you have to answer someone else's tough questions you learn it a lot better.

Assuming you wire your batteries in parallel and use expensive lithium nine-volts, I calculate you will be able to draw 2300 amps for roughly nine seconds until the batteries go flat. (If nine-volt batteries can supply that much current that quickly.) Something seems a bit unsustainable here.

Indent Doneskies.

There is a difference between the learning you'll get out of school and the education you'll get in school, and if you want to succeed in college you'll need both. Let me make an example with physics. Out of school, you'd learn big picture stuff -- how relativity works, what inertia is, and all that fun stuff. You'd be able to talk physics really well. But in school you learn the nuts and bolts of it: using equations to solve problems and applying those concepts to real situations. You won't get that out of school unless you have the discipline to force yourself to do practice problems and learn from a textbook. So unless you think you can get both sides without ever taking a class, your education won't be getting in the way.

My edition of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style says that "A writer must not shift his point of view" is the preferred method, because "his/her" and all the other gender-neutral methods either mix plural and singular or sound dumb. I think they may have changed that in later editions though.

I seem to recall a great story in which Houdini had a medium contact his dead sister and began talking to her. Houdini didn't have a sister.

http://www.simons-rock.edu/admission/tuition-and-financial-aid/applying-for-financial-aid/ If you really can't afford it, most colleges will offer you need-based aid. They're no different. It's worth a shot to apply and at least see what sort of money they might offer you. Surely you can get the credits by exam, rather than just getting out of the course?

What exactly did she give you? Is it an online class thing or something else? Most school districts should allow you to get credit by exam by taking the final exams in courses of your choice. You may be able to do that. Alternately, take a look at Simon's Rock College of Bard. They sent me letters when I was a sophomore. They admit students who haven't yet graduated from high school. There may be other places like them, but I only ever received anything from them.