Twinbird24

Thanks for all the replies so far. I have not even heard of gravitational time dilation up until this point! I'm curious how the Oklo reactor provides evidence that physical constants have not changed for billions of years. The example that was provided regarding distant stars is great, something I could not have thought of. Also, if anyone happens to know of any peer reviewed articles regarding this matter I would love to give them a read! Edit: full disclosure, the reason I originally asked this question was in response to a small discussion that started on Reddit. Click here for the discussion (I am arguing against the God claim). A counterpoint was made that "I'm not confident that time works like you're thinking it does. Time is subject to things like speed/gravity/mass/energy. You can't just set a metronome and count back a number of ticks and pretend that gives a reasonable answer." At this point, no evidence was provided that billions of years ago, things like time (along with any other physical constants) worked much differently than today. However, the scope of the discussion is going beyond what I know, so I'm trying to catch up and fill the gap.

For example, is it possible that time moved slower in the past, and therefore the predicted age of the Earth is actually greater than ~4.5 billion years. Or perhaps the speed of light was different, which would mean things like the distance of stars from our planet are not what they may seem. I've so far encountered no evidence to suggest this, but would just like to open a discussion on it. My background is in Biology so forgive my naïveté in the matter.

Thank you for your replies, it does help add some perspective. In terms of money, I just want to clarify that it's my own money (he's not helping me pay for it). I understand that he wants to see me succeed, and I know he cares for me, I just hate his approach of demanding and expecting rather than encouraging and supporting. I try hard in school, while other times I feel overwhelmed and struggle to understand some concepts, at which point telling me I'm doing bad is only going to make things worse for me. My mom cares about my studies too, but she is far less demanding and less aggressive - my dad is very opinionated and not as supporting of big changes like this. My biggest fear is being told how I'll be ruining my life and/or what a stupid decision I've made, although I'm much happier, and much more excited, motivated etc. about this new career than I ever was about biology and physiotherapy.

I know there's quite a few people on here currently (or previously) enrolled in some kind of post-secondary institution that can relate. I'm receiving a lot of stress from my father. He constantly asks me what my grades are, and at the same time tells me I should be getting high 80's and 90s. Whenever I even mention something below an 80 I get a "you should be spending less time with your girlfriend" or "you should have focused more" or, more recently, "how much money did you spend on this semester?" I answered "about $7000," to which he responds "... money well spent..." It's this negative, non-supporting, judgmental attitude that leads me to constantly lie about my grades and my future potential vocation. Currently I'm expected to be going to physiotherapy school next year, however, I've been very displeased with my biology degree (in terms of interest and future potential work) and have decided to take a one year post grad co-op programming course at a local college (I've been doing computer repair for years and learning web dev for a few months now, and have decided this is what I want to pursue as a future career). I realized my 5 years in bio undergrad would have been a waste of time and money, but I can't change that now (at least the college programs I'm applying to require a degree, so it's useful for that, I suppose). My only "light at the end of the tunnel," if you will, is that I have about 1.5 years to go until I can be working full time and be able to move out, and get away from the constant pressure and stress from my dad. TL;DR: my dad is stressing me out because of uni grades and career expectations, tell me your thoughts

I agree that even once married, you can start to grow away from someone and want divorce (getting married doesn't mean you'll love each other forever). What I'm trying to argue is that living together to "test out" a relationship is a silly idea (if you want to live together then "testing out your relationship" shouldn't be the reason to do so). There are difficult situations to face even once married that won't be solved by first moving in together. If a couple decides to move in together, it should be as a step toward long term commitment, and their goals should be clearly explained to each other. Otherwise they might cohabit for a long time in this "test stage" and have more difficulty splitting up now that they've moved in together. Here's an article I found online that I think reflects my thoughts as well. Just some snippets from the article: "Among young couples who have gone on to marry, those who lived together prior to marriage try to control one another more, they display more anger and verbal aggressiveness, and they tend to escalate more in their disagreements (Cohan & Kleinbaum, 2002)" " Psychologist Galena Kline and her colleagues (2004, p. 316) speculated that “negative interaction patterns may be part of the reason some couples decide to move in together before committing to marriage. These couples may be in love, but may also wish to ‘test’ their relationships because they are having some trouble getting along.”" "Results showed that to the extent people reported a need to test their relationship they also tended to be in conflict-ridden relationships: greater concerns about long-term compatibility went along with more conflict and more harsh words being exchanged."

Recently someone I know moved in with their significant other after only 5-6 months of dating. Personally, I thought this was way too soon, but ultimately it's their choice and non of my business ;p I just want some more discussion on the idea of moving in with a significant other and more importantly what you think of moving in with them under the idea of "testing your compatibility" (the main reason said couple moved in together). In my opinion, if you're moving in with someone to test how well you'll get along in marriage or in long term cohabitation then you shouldn't even move in together because it's a big risk. If you end up not wanting to be with the other person, one of you will have to move out, move all your belongings, and figure out what to do with the current lease/ house payments. It makes more sense to me to move in together if you're truly happy being with each other and committed to staying together, otherwise it seems useless and risky to essentially be someone's test wife or test husband while you decide whether or not you're compatible. What do you guys think of testing a relationship by moving in together, is it a good idea?

It's been quite an interesting debate to say the least An update about the paper: it was submitted several weeks ago, my grade for it has not been disclosed so unfortunately I cannot share it with you, but my estimate is around a 70%. Thanks for all the feedback everyone gave.

I've always been told to wear socks when walking around the house bare-foot because I'm going to get sick - even when I'm standing on carpeted area. I've always walked around the house bare-foot, and even outside sometimes and never had any problems with it, yet I'm still told it's not a good idea. Is there any evidence to prove this idea that cold feet will cause you to get sick? From my personal experience this has never been the case.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I greatly appreciate it. We were told specifically not to have a cover page, table of contents, or any kind of prologue - just to start with the introduction and go from there, otherwise it's a good suggestion. I'm in the process of looking for sentences that start with "this" and perhaps fixing it. While I re-read my paper, hopefully I'll be able to find the part I quoted without parenthesis and the word I made up ;p I've fixed the run on sentence, thank you for pointing that out. I realized that the paper was retracted form the journal, however, I've decided to keep it only in my introduction because of the bold statements it makes about the negative effects of GMC. So essentially it's just a hook to keep the reader interested in reader the rest of the paper. Oops ;p It's not a thesis/ dissertation, just an undergrad paper.

Hey, I wrote a paper briefly describing the affects of genetically modified crop (GMC) on the environment. I've attached the paper. If anyone is interested they can download it and read it over and then let me know what they think about it (i.e. does it need any corrections?). Thanks. paper_GMC.doc

Bear hunting (or just hunting in general) can be a very controversial topic, I was just trying to come up with some kind of example of something that is not very debatable but I guess that wasn't really a good example then I really like all those topics you suggested, I'd honestly like to write about all of them! No. 1 seems really interesting though, I think I will switch my topic to GM foods and their environmental impact, from a quick Google search I've already found a few good articles, this topic could definitely make for some interesting debate Thank you for the reply!

Hey everyone, I'm looking for debatable topics on conservation biology. For example, "The effects of auto gas emissions on global climate change." The only criteria are that the topic must be debatable (i.e. not a one-sided fact, like "how hunting bears decreases their population," this probably wouldn't spark discussion or require critical thinking) and it must somehow relate to conservation biology. This is for a paper I'm writing, I'm just looking for suggestions or inspiration for choosing a topic and any relevant information you might want to share. Right now, I think that this might be a really good/ interesting question: "Is the introduction non-indigenous species an affective method of pest control?" This would be an example of why it's not: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toad_Day_Out This page lists examples of successful "importation" (species introduction) events: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_pest_control#Importation Let me know what you think of this topic and if you have any relevant articles or other interesting suggestions or information you want to share, thank you!

I am not 100% of the answers to the following questions: Q1. This photograph is characteristic of which major biome? Arctictundra Coniferous forest Temperate forest Desert Q2. Which biome has a plant community dominated by grasses and a climate characterized by an intermediate amount of rainfall, warm summers and cold winters? Arctic tundra Temperate grassland Tropical savanna grassland Desert For (1) I think the answer is temperate forest (not a dessert or tundra obviously, and doesn't contain coniferous) and for (2) which is the one I'm having trouble with, I think the answer is temperate grassland (desserts don't have grass, the arctic tundra would have little rainfall and cold all year round with little, if any, vegetation, while a tropical grassland wouldn't have very cold winters). Thanks.

Thanks for all the information and feedback

Can eating hot food (by this I mean high temperature, NOT spicy) cause upset stomach? I'm asking this because I've been told after eating a "hot" meal to drink lots of water because the hot food may upset my stomach... I've never had an upset stomach from eating hot food so I'm not sure why or how it could even cause any problems with my stomach (the food isn't too hot to begin with as I'm able to chew it and swallow it without pain).