Phi for All

! Moderator Note Let me add some more clarification here. If someone calls your idea "completely incorrect" or "nonsense" (and hopefully shows why they think so), that person is attacking your idea, not you. This is NOT against the rules. When you comment on someone's "misguided arrogance", or call them a "self-appointed genius critic", or state that "u [sic] on the other hand lack imagination and mistake regurgitation for intelligence", you are directly attacking that person instead of their ideas, and that IS against the rules.

Yeah, spare parts of AWESOME!!! [/barney]

Are you looking to split the bill or are you looking for an acknowledgement of equality? In other words, if your date offered to split the bill or even pay half, would you accept or would you wave the offer off, content that she had at least offered? If you asked a woman out and she said, "I can't, I had some emergency repairs on my car and I'm completely tapped out for now", would that be enough of an acknowledgement to allow you to pay for the whole date? Also, who asked who out? I think there is a bit (a small bit) of decorum that says you should pay if you're the one asking. Of course, you may be doubly disappointed if, after the date, she doesn't ask you out in return.

I find it interesting that the New English Translation substitutes fried grain for the baked meat in the King James Version (In a pan it shall be made with oil; and when it is baken, thou shalt bring it in: and the baken pieces of the meat offering shalt thou offer for a sweet savour unto the Lord), yet I keep hearing that the Bible has maintained it's integrity even though it's been translated so many times. And I certainly think most Superbowl fans would agree that baked meat beats fry bread any day. What were you thinking, O Lord?

Excellent post, John. And with regards to: ... for my part of that, mea culpa. I disliked what I felt was an unfair representation of the moderation staff and some other members, but in reviewing past involvement with SamBridge (he objected to my moving someone else's thread to Speculations) I think it's really just me he has a problem with. I can certainly accept that as long as he's not casting aspersions on the rest of the site because of it. I've said my piece. Thanks for the input everyone.

Great points. I stand corrected.

You know, I did rely on the media, the state of Texas, the Yale Corporation, the GOP and the US Congress to vet the man's credentials (any single one of those sources wouldn't have sufficed}. Are you saying that without direct observation I was mistakenly relying solely on the opinion of those experts in their respective fields? I don't like the tacit approval that ignoring logical fallacies implies. I don't like seeing you put words in other people's mouths. And when someone makes a statement and you argue using a comparison to an extreme that the original argument didn't intend, you're strawmanning, plain and simple. My logical answer was, "You ignored my stance, that what you're asking for seems like it wouldn't make for a very interesting discussion since it would remove most of the passion that learning seems to thrive on, and you chose instead to claim I meant we should mix opinion and science as we please." It's right there in black and white, and now in red as well. And none of that post used sarcasm. I still haven't asked you to reconsider calling yourself a reader, despite yet another failed attempt.

For the Bible tells me so.

It seems likely it's like Klaynos said, some kind of airing room for keeping things (most likely made of cloth like clothing, linens, etc) from getting damp in the humidity. Or maybe a toasty place to relax after a snowball fight in those brutal Brisbane winters.

The 9ers would probably impale Frank Gore, that just seems like a given. The Ravens could do the same with Bernard Pierce. Then they could burn them.

If these guys can pull this off, they can stockpile those resources off-planet and charge just under what it would cost to boost those resources from Earth (for a while at least, until good old free market competition drives the prices down). And the more they can standardize and use those resources to improve their fleet, the cheaper it'll get. And I love that they're keeping the concept of Fireflies alive. Screw you, FOX Network execs, this is happening and you blew it!

I misinterpreted the "its walls and ceiling fall short of reaching the ceiling of my room by about a meter" bit. Can you see the top of the box? Is it's ceiling just a board with a cutout for the glass or is there a space between the glass and the top of the box? Have you disconnected the wires to the elements? If they're anything like the panel, they're external so you should be able to remove the leads so it doesn't accidentally get turned on and harm your books. I doubt the elements for an airing cupboard would get hot enough to start a fire but you shouldn't take the chance.

So you can use magic to turn water into wine for but for extracting vitamin C you need science? Niiiice. What's this for? What equipment do you have available?

The Harbaughs better come up with a pretty good prayer to forgive the smell of the Superdome locker rooms at half-time.

I want to be very clear that I'm not an expert. I don't want to be accused of mixing engineering with opinion. The piece of glass in the ceiling may be there to protect a light source from moisture (can you poke up there and check or is the glass clear?). On the other hand, since the walls allow light from another room to enter, it may not be necessary, but I can't think of another reason why you'd need to protect a bulb. The room itself sounds like it was made to dry something. Separate element controls suggest it's not for an all-or-nothing procedure. The walls ending before the ceiling suggests a need for ventilation. You probably get a lot of humidity being on the coast. My first thought was some kind of temperature controlled room for clothing storage, but furs should be stored at between 40-60F degrees and I can't think of any other clothing that would need this kind of treatment.

Pot, kettle, black. I recall having a president in the US recently with a BA in history from Yale and I'm completely convinced he was a fraud. And actually what you're saying is a classic Appeal to Authority as Bignose mentioned, now with a little No True Scotsman thrown in: Person 1 - "No one with a degree from a college would claim something like that." Person 2 - "Actually, I have a Master's degree from Creighton University in Nebraska." Person 1 - "No one with a degree from an Ivy League college would claim something like that." Except I never said that one should mix opinion and science as you please. Never. Not once. You ignored my stance, that what you're asking for seems like it wouldn't make for a very interesting discussion since it would remove most of the passion that learning seems to thrive on, and you chose instead to claim I meant we should mix opinion and science as we please. But I'm NOT going to suggest that you should reconsider calling yourself a reader.

Although Bignose can speak for himself, I can almost guarantee he did NOT mean, "nutcases have degrees therefore degrees don't mean much". What he actually said was "degrees awarded is no guarantee of any kind of knowledge about the field", and that seems like a big difference to me. He's not trashing degrees, he's just saying it's not an infallible measure of expertise. So it seems like you're trying to set up and attack an easier argument, since you'd never find anyone here who would tell you a degree is worthless. I could be wrong though; perhaps you're just adding your personal opinion of what Bignose said. That's another easy argument you've decided to set up and attack instead of what I actually argued. Since trying to defend against strawmen often makes a debater look weak, I often choose sarcasm instead; it tends to point out the absurdity of the strawman position better than anything else, and it shows the rest of the readers that the original argument was quite clear and is simply being either manipulated or misunderstood.

Read your post, no one said, "a degree is worthless" except you. It's a strawman argument. If a moderator here is involved in a discussion, they aren't allowed to moderate that discussion. They're just posting as a member. Nobody here started as a mod, we were members first. We still love discussing things with all the great people here. But thanks for your suggestion. Fantastic! Don't you love the variety on the Web? I think it's great that in your short time here you've found so much that we're doing wrong. I was completely unaware of all this horrible opinion being forced upon the science boards by my fellow mods.

Especially if it's slow cooked for a day and basted with a vinegar-based sauce till it falls off the bones. If only Cain had skipped the grain and fruit and just brought coleslaw instead....

Or would be if someone here had actually said that. Oh, hey, strawman! I get what you're asking for, but it just sounds like a dry lecture or a textbook instead of a discussion with real people. Most of us here acknowledge that, while the scientific method is the best way known to find trustworthy explanations for natural phenomenon as free from bias and emotion as possible, knowledge and passion go together very nicely when it comes to sharing and discussing things within an online community. You should approach a university about your idea though. There are no "formal" science forums the way you describe them (that I've seen); could be because no one's thought of it, could be because not enough people are interested in it. It could be like finding yourself alone on a deserted island; it sounds like a great chance to get away from it all, until you realize how boring it is.

Moses might have assumed that burning bush = barbeque.

Ooooh, are their middle names Qayin and Hevel?

Spoken like a man who often drinks his lunch.

It would seem that if the vessel wasn't hotter than the water, transferring the heat of the flame beneath it, the water wouldn't increase in temperature.

It makes you wonder if the media would even cover a mass shooting at a retirement community.