Phi for All

Please. It's always helpful to know how far you've gotten.

If you actually ruled the world your military dictatorship would have been established long ago. So are you asking 1) how you would go about ruling the world or 2) what you would do with it once you already ruled it?

Too bad SFN wasn't around during the Clinton administration. I could point to some balancing posts so you'd stop calling me politically correct. I've come a long way in four years since my 4-part "Mask of Terror" story in the Horror Story Thread.

Maybe that's why you don't understand QM.

Cap'n is a big GWB fan-boy. I'm talking posters in his room, commemorative plates on the wall ("Mission Accomplished!"), and even a decoder ring that translates Bushisms into real English. He's a mite touchy when it comes to poking the POTUS.

That *is* simple. Simple-minded, I mean. I can assure you, if radical Islam becomes *all* of Islam, the solution becomes much simpler. It is the moderates that give Islam a humanitarian image with the rest of the world. Lose that image and it will be an easy decision to eliminate the threat *completely*.

Man didn't evolve from monkeys. The fact that creationists have developed a skull so thick that they continue to use this argument despite our insistence that apes and man evolved from a common ancestor is one of the best arguments *for* evolution.

I chose #3. I think of a penguin as a cold creature who sees everything in black and white, lives in fear of unseen predators, is surrounded by other creatures who feel the same way, and who sinks down to his belly often to avoid standing upright all the time. GWB is a really big penguin. A tae kwan do sensei once told me that the advantage an unarmed man has over a man with a gun is that the man with the gun won't think about talking, won't think about using any of his other less deadly but still effective weapons (knees, hands, feet, etc), and will only think about bringing that big gun to bear on his opponent. I think GWB likes guns. I *know* the gun manufacturers love *him*.

Why are you responding to a two-year-old homework question? This kid probably graduated high school by now.

They called them lung, actually (phonetically speaking). And the closest translation was... dragon.

Catch-22: We want to open the door for women ski jumpers but they don't like men opening doors for them.... I do agree that it's silly to stick to outdated ideals. Are they thinking that Olympics popularity will suffer if a woman gets put in traction as opposed to a man?

I agree. This isn't even good speculation. Just claiming something is bs without explaining your reasoning or offering an alternative just sounds like someone who doesn't grasp the concept. I would love to see more grounded speculations come from this sub-forum. I'm tired of the "it's not intuitive to me therefore it's WRONG!" approach. Spice it up or this thread will be closed.

I was speaking for myself. I have to go to specialty stores for all those grains which have become exotic but were once prolific. Most people don't shop at these stores. I used the words "staple grains" to indicate that the vast majority of grain products sold to consumers are made from wheat and corn. I'll try to find some data on it but I'd be willing to bet most people living in the US today have never eaten amaranth, spelt or millet. It's even hard to find rye bread where the main ingredient isn't wheat flour. And quinoa isn't a grass, according to Wikipedia. It says all grains are grasses technically, whereas quinoa is a pseudo-cereal.

Since the alarm bells are now ringing (requests for personal contact with little to no information usually do that) I will ask that you clarify your request to the extent you may do so without giving up your idea. As insane_alien said, programming skills are many and varied in this age of specialization. I'm sure you'll understand.

Did you know that normal healthy soil contains enough nitrogen-fixing bacteria that it shouldn't need extra potassium nitrate? Unfortunately, most large-scale agricultural processes don't use the pure forms of chemicals and they introduce a lot of acids into the soil (sulphuric and hydrochloric) which kill beneficial bacteria and cause fungus and other bacterial diseases, requiring different chems to compensate. Citrus fruit trees yield more abundant fruit when treated with high-nitrogen fertilizers but the fruit has a lower vitamin C content. The growers love it because they make more money and don't really care if the food is less nutritional. I don't think organics are silly.

The entire plant isn't made of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, the most widely used pesticide in the world. I don't think organics are silly.

As YT said, most vitamin supplements don't stay in the body long enough to be absorbed. You can increase the effectiveness by taking fewer more often, but most people find that a bit arduous (taking six pills throughout the day one at a time instead of two with each of three meals, for instance). As for why they may be necessary now, don't forget that modern agriculture techniques demand that we limit the variety of crops in order to mass produce them for distribution. A hundred years ago there was more variety in the grains we bought. Now wheat and corn have been chosen as the staple grains over amaranth, barley, rye, kamut, millet, oats, quinoa, spelt and many others. What vitamins and minerals are we not getting today that we used to get with a bigger variety? Tapioca used to be a big favorite, but it has fallen out of favor with the rise of instant puddings, which don't have near the nutritional value of tapioca. What vitamins and minerals are we not getting that we used to get before packaging, distribution and shelf-life became such big concerns?

You need yourself an insect wrangler. I'm not sure if this guy's still in the biz, but you should go bug him with your request.

Welcome everyone, to SFN, the voice of reason (or the bran of raisin, I forget which). Have a good time. Don't catch up. We don't believe in pwn language, or text speak, or creationism, or store-brand cheesy crackers. Not necessarily in that order.

If you haven't noticed, some of those non-UK/US universities speak non-English.

Didn't China promise to clean up its act if the IOC awarded the games to Beijing, and didn't the IOC, in turn, promise to monitor China's human rights status? After spending billions it would serve the Chinese right if the IOC went with an alternate site. According to this probably biased site, the US is already slapping China in the "face" by housing and training their Olympics teams... in Japan. Supposedly Beijing is too polluted and its food too suspect for foreign athlete's delicate diets. I wish Norman Albers would have given us some of the info he obviously got hold of. I really don't like the thought of trusting China to clean up its treatment of people and animals and then let them displace and imprison so many of them in order to host the Olympics. I still think having Western reporters in Beijing writing stories about what they see is better than a boycott but I also think what happens with China *after* the Olympics will be the real story. Reporters Without Borders is calling for a boycott of the opening ceremony at the Olympics. This would have the benefit of embarrassing the Chinese and sending a message about their human rights violations without denying the athletes a chance to compete. This would be a good alternative to a total boycott, imo.

I got my notice last week telling me I'll be getting another notice before they send me my economic stimulus check. Honestly, this griped me so bad when it was done last time, just to put a face to the man who's giving you some money... even though it's really your money, part of what you'd get back normally next year. If we aren't in a recession now, postage and printing on two unnecessary notices for every taxpayer should put us over the limit. Stop motive-hunting. Honestly, it's wearying, and it introduces partisanship where it wasn't before. It is possible to detest the direction in which Bush/Cheney have driven this country without hating all Republicans or only supporting Democrats. In fact, I don't know anyone on these boards who is a platform Democrat. I've seen some pretty rabid platform Republicans who support Bush/Cheney even though they continue to push neo-con agendas but I can't recall anyone ever saying the Dems are best no matter who they are.

First, I would like to move this to Psychiatry & Psychology. Second, I would recommend seeing a family counselor. It's difficult to give advice of this nature without seeing firsthand the family in question. I can say that kids need stability when it comes to their parents and your five year old sounds like she thinks love is a finite commodity that can only stretch so far. She gets big-time attention (which seems like love to a child) when she acts out in this violent manner. I would try to turn this outward, give her something she can focus her frustration on besides herself. It sounds like she has a legitimate fear of abandonment and needs to know that she will NEVER be unimportant to you. This is just my take as a father. Perhaps we can get more advice of a professional nature.

I think that's EXACTLY what we're questioning here, Norman Albers, the effectiveness of what you're suggesting. You are assuming a boycott would be effective and we're not. The tidal wave of sentiment is a powerful thing, but it hasn't proven effective with the Chinese. In fact, much like Japan, I think China digs its feet in when it feels the West is dictating to it. China obviously has plans laid for the future of Tibet (China made it a crime to reincarnate without permission from the government, effectively insuring there can be no new Dalai Lama) so to be effective any surge of effort should take this into account. China needs to join the 21st century when it comes to humanitarian actions, but I think it's a mistake to assume the same things motivate them in the same ways. I'd get behind an effort to lead them towards a more civilized treatment of their people but I'm pretty sure boycotting the Olympics is not the right way. The Olympics should be about athletes and athleticism, not politics.

Keep in mind that Earth started as a chunk of molten rock. Much of what came about later was added, like a Universe Soup. Where do you think we got water from if the planet was once too hot for it?