Phi for All

Perhaps this is the reason we can be so timid about change. Upset the apple cart and you may end up selling apples from a cart. You're not the only one. I doubt anything else would have brought us out of the depression as quickly. It can't work now because, imo, too much of the war dollar is netted by megacorps who have straddled the stream and nudged out competition that would've helped spread the contracts out over a much broader range of businesses.

In business, how hard do you listen to competitors who are telling you NOT to sell to a potential client? In the case of a brothel, the wife is a direct competitor. I also doubt anybody would be allowed to see a prostitute who hadn't already paid for the privilege, so it would be pretty costly for the wife who wanted to cover all the bases.

Moved to General Physics from Suggestions, Comments and Support.

We don't mind members who have links in their signatures to other sites, but this is a discussion forum, so please don't start threads with the sole purpose of advertising your site. Thread closed.

Like bascule, I wish at least one of these politicians would take it on himself to reconstruct the public's knowledge of nuclear power. No one is willing to risk being the guy in favor of radiation. Unfortunately, how realistic Gore's goal is is in direct proportion to how quickly and how bad it gets. What the public wants is a bandaid that would keep us slaves to oil for the next decade. What we need is for things to get so bad so quickly that we have no choice but to focus on the problem worldwide. If things were desperate enough, we could bring *so much* global effort to bear that 10 years would be plenty of time to restructure, imo.

With US football in mind, my first thought was, "You've tried to score but failed. Time to punt."

I think this is how modern day intellectualism *looks*. There is so much that needs repair in the US that it's easy to let our "handyman's perspective" take over. We have a great system but it's still a system and so it needs maintenance on a regular basis. We should acknowledge what is working well but more often it's just easier to notice the kinks. Perhaps part of the problem is that complex concepts carry different interpretations. In my family, we were discussing "respect" and I came to find out it had wildly differing meanings between the three of us. Now imagine how hundreds of millions of Americans define "liberal", "conservative", "progressive", "patriotic", "left" and "right". We argue these concepts when it's our interpretations that keep us from being on the same page. I'd like to see "intellectualism" be synonymous with "smartness". No more wars without effective goals and exit strategies, no more subsidies that promote lazy market practices, no more killing a great future because it competes with a profitable present. And above all, we need to keep sight of what does work so we can finally admit that the baby is cleaner and healthier than we think, but this bathwater is dirty and it's GOT TO GO.

As a scientific thesis, the argument is poorly supported, thus making it's secondary aim, that of driving readers to LookChem, equally poor. Since chenhongxia has registered multiple accounts to spam for the site, the violations are now too numerous to allow their continued existence. No hard feelings. Have an apple.

Because smart people like cash!

Congratulations to all the winners! Remember, the people who voted for you are extremely smart and know what they're talking about!

It seems much more responsive. /me likes the new server. Keep Cap'n Refsmmat away from it!

Welcome to my world. I have bits of plays, passages from books, sonnets, comedy routines, commercials, movies and even disconnected telephone numbers sloshing around in there. Some were part of work I did 20 years ago, some were memorized 35 years ago, some were seen on TV 40 years ago. There are a lot of useful things. I can't spell "encyclopedia" without Jiminy Cricket's song from the Mickey Mouse Club running through my head, but I always get it right (shut up, UK-people). But much of it is total trash like the 800# from a company I worked for that's been out of business for 10 years. I think my subconscious is predicting we'll somehow get involved in an uber trivia game and all the crap will make my brain and I rich.

That's the one. Strange, it's in my May 2008 issue. I thought you'd need a subscription or I'd have searched for it myself.

I haven't finished the article yet, but from what I recall it's a matter of the rate of the process; too slow and the cells clog with detritus, too fast and the cell literally eats itself. I'm not sure they know quite yet what causes the rate to fluctuate or malfunction. I know they are looking into ways to enhance and inhibit the process to combat cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases. One drug, rapamycin, is looking promising for Huntington's patients. They use it now to stop the rejection of transplants and they've noticed that it stimulates autophagy and may clear up the protein aggregates that Huntington's patients exhibit.

Hey, the arms industry isn't *stealing* from anybody. Our representatives are buying and they're selling. The real problem with the arms industry is we don't know how they go about stimulating the market when business is slow. Peacetime sucks for them. If the seller wants the buyer to increase purchases, the seller needs to control how quickly the buyer depletes his inventory. Everybody else has a plan so what's theirs?

The gist of what I've read so far is that autophagy (aw-TOF-a-jee) is the process cells use to keep the cytoplasm tidy, and when this process is delayed or becomes inefficient then debris clogs the cells and problems occur, depending on where the cells are located. With Alzheimers, a pigment called ceroid builds up inside neurites and that, coupled with accumulation of lipofuscin during normal aging, causes swelling in the neurites and amyloid plaque forms outside the swollen area, leading to neuron damage. The article hints that a properly functioning autoghagy system could prolong life by retarding the aging process. It sounds a lot like the "clean-as-you-go" philosophy I'm trying to adopt at my house, where you clean up in little bits throughout the day so you don't have to do a major clean on the weekends.

There is a great article on Autophagy in the May 2008 Scientific American. It suggests that many diseases, including Alzheimers, are a breakdown in the autophagy process that normally keeps cells clean of debris from unused proteins and other products. I just started reading it last night and it immediately fascinated me. It could be a real breakthrough in cellular strategies in medicine.

I'm not really looking for primacy here, I'm looking for clear protocols. A request from one branch should be honored for what it is by another branch. I fully expect equivocation from Rove were he to show up (beating around the Bush is his job). The fact that he's not even showing up is what's unsettling and it seems very disrespectful of the process and of Congress. I want Rove to show up to tell Congress he can't answer their questions. If I want to be an informed player, I need to know what cards are supposed to be facing up for all to see, and why one player wants them in his pocket.

Which is the really weird part, since you'd think that someone arguing against Theory X *knows* that they are outside accepted science. Why do they think they can fix science without using science? Crackpots at SFN have some fundamental attributes everyone keeps pointing out: 1) They lack rigor and confuse "idea" with "theory" because of it, 2) They have trouble with certain concepts and, rather than work harder towards understanding, they just assume the concept is flawed and stop learning, 3) They never attribute a lack of math to a lack of understanding theories in physics, 4) They assume that any theory which is incomplete is attributable to lazy, hidebound adherence to accepted thinking and can only be completed by "thinking outside the box" (ironic that, given #1-3). I know there are other criteria but these seem to be the ones we face the most in Speculations. How can we approach these "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" in a more helpful way?

Unacceptable fallacious logic. Flaming infraction issued. Let's keep it civil here, Taktiq. Resorting to personal attacks usually means you're losing the argument. You're way better than this.

Good question. Since dreams are filled with imagery gleaned from the senses, I would tend to say no. But the human mind is capable of adapting when sensory input is impaired. If thought is occurring in the mind of an individual who has no sensory input, it's possible for that thought to translate itself into dreams. I just can't imagine what those dreams would be like, since I can't even imagine what thoughts would occur to a brain with a complete lack of stimulus.

I think the kind of damage to the nervous system that would disable the tactile sense completely would make it unlikely that a fetus would come to full term. That said, while not probable it could be possible.

Schumer effectively yelled "Fire!" in a crowded theater and should be dealt with similarly. If he had an ulterior motive that was politically based, then I say off with his head.

And it seems pretty obvious that the White House couldn't care less what we suspect. If there's nothing to hide but Bush's privacy penchant, then his actions tell me he's disconnected from what's important to us. This is one of his legacies, imo; he was so caught up with "need-to-know" that he forgot we need to know. Maybe not with regards to Congress, but it sure lowers my approval of both Bush and Congress. ♫ I've got a feeling I'm not the only one. ♪ Very telling that the White House goes from, "This trip was scheduled a long time ago" to, "You know, he's not required to show up". This is one of the problems with our politics today. If you elect someone who knows the system, you're going to get people who also know how to play the system. It's more than a bit unsettling that *anyone* could ignore the US Congress in this way.