Phi for All

Some of the best (and least costly) pranks for cars are: 1. Banana in the tailpipe 2. Limburger cheese on the manifold (no cheese substitutes, please, it's the smell of limburger as it heats that does the job). 3. Toothpaste on the steering wheel (facing away from the driver). 4. Tie a few soda cans to the front bumper so they drag under the car as you pull away (variation on the wedding prank).

I've seen some teasers like this before. As long as the first and last letters are in place, your mind defrags the middle part pretty quickly.

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." Groucho Marx

Creationists will try to confuse things even more if you use titles like Origin of the Species to defend evolution. Darwin was merely accumulating facts, he was not trying to disprove creationism. Yes, stop arguing. There's no point to it. Creationists feel they must disprove evolution for them to be right. Evolution doesn't have to disprove anything. There are heaps and mounds and mountains of data that support its ongoing theory. More is being compiled every day. The only argument I give to creationists is this: Which is truly more magnificent and awe-inspiring, an impatient god who just waves his hands and poofs everything into existence exactly as it is inside a week, or a god who starts off with a cooling rock and has the infinite forbearance and wisdom to wait billions of years for his plans to come to fruition?

Winning smile, Tokyo-smashing tail and waist-length sideburns would be my top guesses.

Make him work it off by actually doing some of his own homework. We typically try not to provide the actual answers in Homework Help, just a few bumps in the right direction. It aids in the learning process, we find. You know, give a man a fish, feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish....

This is the one I didn't want to mention, because it's use is so prevalent in the US and it is prescribed as a knee-jerk reaction to so many learning disorders. As I've mentioned in other threads, when my daughter had some problems in preschool, ADD began to be mentioned as a possible problem. Immediately her social worker began to suggest Ritalin. Neither my wife nor I wanted to leap into medication for a 5-year-old, so we explored other avenues, settling on an innovative, drug-free sensory-integration therapy that has done wonders for our daughter. We found out that the social worker, a woman in her early 30s, had been taking Ritalin from an early age. This was a woman who couldn't remember appointments, phoned my wife to tell her some information and then told her the same information when she saw her later the same day. She loved her Ritalin and I'm not saying it was responsible for making her the walking cluster of chaos she was, but I certainly was glad we didn't leap onto her pill-addled bandwagon the way she had advised. For some, the medication route is advisable. But I still say get a proper diagnosis from a trusted physician and even then get a second opinion before slaving yourself to the pills. It may seem like the easiest course, but easy always has a heavy price to pay.

It wasn't a fan. The guy asked for an interview and had a microphone in his hand. When he asked Cruise a question he pointed the fake microphone at him and when Cruise started speaking the microphone squirted water in his face. It was part of a new comedy show for the Beeb and they caught Cruise in a bad mood. He lost it at the guy, calling him a jerk and generally making two asses instead of one. Could have been funny but I think the buildup was wrong, the guy probably squirted him too early in the interview and gave the impression of being a heckler. Better to ask several questions, gain his confidence and then let him have it. Timing, people. The readiness is all.

The loopie doth protest too much, methinks.

And I thought the OFU on your sweatshirt stood for Ohio Free University. I'll bet you were their favorite tufted, scaly lizard-monster at U of Cinn!

Indeed. Except posts in General Discussion aren't included in post counts.

There are medications for Attention Deficit Disorder and hyperactivity. See your doctor for a proper diagnosis and prescription.

Even if it existed, no one here is in a position to prescribe it. Over the counter remedies exist, but are not proven to be effective. Don't you think if they worked that everyone would take them? Try listening and applying what is said to you, think about how it affects you, make it personal. Your mind may be wandering because you see nothing valid in what you are learning. Everything is valid when applied to you.

Which would be here, and here, and here.

Your obvious knowledge and the fact that your thread didn't start out, "hey ppl, n00b here!" earned you a reprieve on the introductory thread. Welcome and enjoy.

Tbh, the best thing about it is the fact that a "sciency" movie has been so popular and stayed in the theaters so long. For so many people to go out and see a movie that tries to explain quantum physics (even partially) at a mainstream multiplex theater is quite an accomplishment, imo.

My biggest fear is that there could be a cheap potential for independent energy (such as photovoltaic solar) that may never be researched because there is too little profit involved. How can companies make a hideous profit by selling you a product that runs off the sun? These days it's all about monthly charges, or selling you an inexpensive system that costs a fortune to maintain (like water purification systems: $30 for the tank, $10/month for filters!). As the population grows the profit base grows. The powers-that-be are unlikely to want to let go of that to allow us independent energy sources on a wide basis.

I wondered about the music thing as well. What if you played a heavy metal song about gratitude and love (assuming there is such a thing)? What if you played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but changed the words to "Boy I really hate your guts"? Is it the music or the sentiment behind the music? I also would like to believe in the photos. The rest of the science in the movie seems to support the idea that our mental state affects our body in so many ways.

I have a Zatoichi sword cane with a ninja-to blade. It is pretty cool but I get the feeling it would get me into the most trouble if I ever took it out with me in public. It is so obviously an attempt at concealment. And because I know it's really a sword, I can't imagine anyone else not knowing.

I would like to know if he's gotten anyone else to review his experiments to see if they could be repeated. It sounds like he's done some extensive work. I haven't seen his site yet.

E-bay might have something cheaper, but the price in your link is one of the best I've seen. Remember it's all from United Cutlery, who had to pay big bucks for the right to use the LOTR names, photos, etc. It's not going to get too much cheaper soon, especially since it's still hot property.

Until we get to another planet or some asteroids to mine more resources. I realize I sound pretty flip about this, but truly you're not alone. While I do think that corporate interests have more immediate needs to meet, I do believe there are enough forward thinkers to hopefully balance them out. It really isn't in a mega-corporattion's best interest to use eveything up. They usually just want to make it scarcer so they can charge more. Fortunately enough, there are people who want to live high up and people like you who want to live at ground level. Diversity saves us in the long run. It is why we don't all wear the same clothing or drive the same car. Why am I glad some people drive Hummers? So I don't have to. I think if you master geothermal technology to the point of harnessing lava, your energy concerns just got solved. Vent the heat into cities that float on the water or lie under the water. It may not be your cup of tea but with 10 or 15 billion people around it's bound to suit some. I can sure believe that. Let's not let big corporate lobbyists prod politicians into relaxing environmental standards. Get out the vote and let them know that we need to stop crapping where we live.

Go off-planet. ... yet. If we did nothing about the oxygen loss. You answer your own question here. This won't happen overnight. Keep pioneering new ways of doing things, making things, always with an eye towards the future. I think the biggest obstacle to overcome is the tendency to milk the last drop of money out of certain processes before moving on to the next. We can easily miss the next new technology by not properly funding it's early research.

I love this movie (in fact I own it). As far as experiencing anything they profess, I think we experience it every day. Especially with regards to the way we view ourselves and others. Negative people tend to attract negative things. If you are looking for the positive in life, you will find it. I have long believed in parallel universes of possibility. As far as being capable of accessing them, I don't think we can ever know while we are in these bodies. I think the movie is trying to tell us that the way we perceive our world is much more important than we think. Just as particles in wave state change when they are observed, so our observations can be changed by the way we perceive the objects made up of those particles.