Phi for All

The troll has been Bliketized. Carry on. darkkazier, not trying to change your plot, but what if the nuke released the methane, the tsunami is now carrying the released gas towards the mainland, where an oil spill has caught fire and threatens to ignite the methane when the wave reaches shore! Now the question is if the tsunami would push the methane ahead of it or not.

There is a difference in my mind between vulgarity and expletive. Using profanity for it's shock value is vulgar and often covers the fact that the user is drawing attention away from a weak argument. Expletives are only useful when they are occasional. When someone swears all the time it loses its meaning as an emphasis. As Severian said, there is nothing about the words themselves that is bad. It's the intention behind their use that makes them bad.

Ah, but you have our sympathies, Patrick. Summer in New Orleans is like wearing a wet wool blanket to the beach, but without the breeze.

I visited Germany last about eight years ago. One of the things that impressed me most were their strict driving standards. At that time, Germans paid about 2500 marks (US$1400) for a driver's liscence. To pass the test, you had to know the rules of the road and also basic breakdown repair. They have a point system and when you get too many points you simply lose your liscence. Another 2500 marks, please. The result was an extremely courteous German driver, one who erred on the side of caution and was very aware of other drivers on the road (so different from the US, where everyone considers their car to be a private world where no one else exists, except to shout at). Strict? Yes, in some things, the result of which is some of the finest roads and automobiles in the world.

Tbh, when I first joined I used the Ignore list for people who always seemed to post spam. There was never more than one or two people on that list. The rest are all Buddies as far as I'm concerned.

Dave, is this possible? Bettina, have you used the UserCP link at the top of every page to check your Buddy/Ignore Lists? Two clicks gives you both lists. I'm guessing Buddy Lists don't highlight your buddy's posts the way Ignore Lists blank posts frim your Ignore List, am I right?

Touch screen takes my hands away from the keyboard/mouse arrangement, slowing me down. Marks up the screen with fingerprints, too. It might be OK with web browsing or areas where you don't need to type much. But ramp up my monitor size, give me a voice interface and integrate all the software so I can drag in programs as I need them and I'm sold. Maybe a cyberglove to keep my screen clean, too.

Apparently made from cast iron. Looks very interesting.http://www.aga-rayburn.co.uk/Aga.htm

No. I remember reading here at SFN that you never want to mix bleach and ammonia since it creates chloramine which is highly toxic. You could try bleach but dilute it first, maybe a tablespoon or two per pint of warm water. Keep increasing the bleach concentration if that doesn't work. You just don't want to overdo the bleach right away. Definitely a multi-stage process to get it looking right.

Try a wire brush and either alcohol or straight methyl ethyl ketone or benzene. Don't use any ammonia-based cleaners, they don't like each other. You may remove the purple but still have a stain left. I don't know anything about acid stained concrete but these folks were at an architect's convention I attended. Pretty cool looking stuff. Coverup may be your only hope.

Thread closed pending further investigation.

Nutella is a highly addictive, psychoactive substance from Europe used by many for a false feeling of euphoria. http://www.nutellausa.com/start.htm

The first step to correcting a problem is ackowledging that it exists. If you are questioning your sanity it is time to bring in an objective POV. Speak to a trained counselor for that. Personal problems are one thing, but nobody is capable of rational self-exploration into their own sanity. Nobody here knows you well enough to do more than speculate. Speak to a trained counselor.

Let's all remember that this thread is in Evolution, an established scientific branch. Let's also remember that ad hominem is also a logical fallacy; no more name calling, please. Evolution is not interested in spiritual beliefs, neither supporting them nor denying them. Please keep this thread on track, since, if it begins to dip towards spirituality or spontaneous creation without factual evidence to back it up, it will be moved to Religion or Pseudoscience respectively.

The original topic was fairly easily answered and the OP didn't bother to stick around. The rest of the thread has "evolved" into a typical evo vs creo obfuscafest.

They are not. Neutrons have no electrical charge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron

"Blaggers" sounds like it stems from the British term "blackguard" (pronounced blag-ard), a name given to the lower menials of a nobleman's court and came to mean someone who was morally reprehensible.

National identity could be construed as the stories a nation and it's citizens are brought up on. If this is the case, television has changed our national identities quite a bit. People still read stories to their children, but where 50 years ago the stories were about mostly historical or literary figures and events, at present pop culture has superceded them. I dislike that sitcoms have become our national "stories". Like Pangloss, I appreciate that people like Miyazaki and Rowling are helping to change that. As much as I liked the TV series Friends, I was angry with the episode where two of the characters bought identical apothecary tables from Pottery Barn and had to hide this fact from another character. The catalog got several plugs, the merchandise was shown over and over and Pottery Barn was held up as an icon of popular good taste. It may have been an American story and full of cultural flavor but I also heard Pottery Barn sold a LOT of apothecary tables that week.

It was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. I'm not sure if he was given the right to name it or if Pluto had been pre-chosen as the name of the next planet found in our solar system. His Greek equivalent was Hades, god of the underworld.

The Bible has many simplistic, non-scientific explanations for things. I've always taken it to mean that the shephards and nomads of biblical times would have shook their heads wonderingly if the Bible said "And the Lord God formed man of amino acids and other chemicals using metabolic homeostasis." You know that taking a literal interpretation of the Bible has caused more division than anything else in the Christian faith. The animals may have been created on a different day than Man (the exact day being different between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2), but they were supposedly also created form the ground. Is ground different than dust? Is dust better than ground? Are ribs better than dust?

Glider, is there any cumulative damaging effects to this practice, other than increasing the likliehood of fainting? Also, beware taking showers that hot if you've had any alcohol. This puts additional pressure on the cardiovascular system.

I know experts don't recommend staying in hot tubs or hot springs very long. A local hot springs I know has a pool that is 106 degrees and your not allowed to stay in that more than 5 minutes (after you've been acclimated by soaking in progressively warmer pools before you hit the 106). The hot water causes your cardiovascular system to go into overdrive, your blood vessels dilate, your blood pressure drops, heart rate increases to keep up with the pressure loss, your blood pumps faster, etc. You are also bypassing the normal cooling process of sweating and blood is being pumped to the skin to release heat that can't radiate out because your in hot water. I don't know what damage this can cause but it could be similar to heatstroke. Over the long run, doing this twice a day can't be a safe practice.

You're right, I did not go back far enough in rereading. I apologize. I started the misunderstanding. Let's end the misunderstanding here. Jesus and his followers created Christianity. What has come to be the Catholic Church was the first officially recognized and canonized form of Christianity. It's followers outnumber (however slightly) all other Christian denominations. It was incorrect of hermes3 to claim that what Catholics believe is not what most Christians believe. Can we go on from here?

You're dropping the wrong word! I never said anything about who CREATED Christianity, which is what you're arguing. I said what is now the Catholic Church was the first officially recognized, organized and canonized form of Christianity. I'll say it again, I'm not talking about the creation of Christianity. This must be a misunderstanding on your part. I think I make it very clear when I'm posting as a Moderator and when I'm posting as a member. My "authority here" has not been needed. If I seem belligerent (although, as a Taurus, I prefer your bull-igerent )it's because of two points: 1. You seem determined to misread what I write, even though it's very plain. You target arguments I have not made. In fact, most of the discussions we have had in this and other threads have all been because I tried to clarify or object to a specific point you made. You then proceed to argue all around the point rather than admit you might have exaggerated or misspoke. 2. When I responded to herme3's statement about what the Catholic Church had done and how it didn't reflect what most Christians believed, it was to correct his use of the majority and also because it frustrates me no end to hear one group of Christians talk about how another group of Christians have it all wrong. This is a problem with religions in general, but I find it specifically bothersome among people who believe in the words of Jesus. It is appalling to me the amount of misery and strife that has arisen from discrepancies about what it means to "believeth in Him". The population statistics aren't necessarily gathered from the Churches themselves, which would obviously be tainted. More often it's from census information where people are asked personally which religion they belong to. Arguably, randomness and nature could be God working in mysterious ways, no? I was pointing out that evolution isn't concerned with what is behind the changes in allele frequencies over time, only that they are observable and verifiable. That is an interesting belief system, and I mean that sincerely. It was never my intention to argue what your faith was about, only that you not ascribe to evolution things it has nothing to do with.

Ladybugs. Queen bees. Black widow spiders. And butterlies all seem to have a generally feminine aspect. I agree that, with the planets, their aspect is based on which gods they represented. I'm only familiar with the Greek and Roman appellations. Did other mythologies identify their gods with the planets? (Moved from Theoretical Physics to Astronomy. If the focus continues being simply gender it will move to GD.)