Phi for All

I don't feel particularly obligated to defend my actions as a Moderator here at SFN. I do feel our membership has a right to well-moderated threads which pursue scientific topics. Our purpose here is not to censor, but to make sure that the information posted at SFN is consistently worthwhile and doesn't waste our membership's valuable reading time. Some people join and we find out pretty quickly that they are inconsistent with that purpose. They are warned several times before banning takes place. That is something that is done privately for the most part. Some of the warnings are posted in the threads to highlight anti-policy behavior. I think it's great that Johnny5 has a friend like you, Thomas Kirby, who will defend him against all criticism. Johnny5 certainly had some good posts here. He was civil for the most part and that probably accounts for his longevity. He also showed some fairly disturbing tendencies as well. I know you'd like to think his ideas were all ground-breaking and earth-shattering. Here is an excerpt from his last communication with us: The majority of our membership are very level-headed and some of the smartest people I know. I like reading all their posts I can. Science is predicated on the basis that nothing is sacred and all of our Experts, Moderators and Admins are well aware that one of our own posters could well be the next Einstein. Why wouldn't we want to encourage that? But some parts of science have been proven to the point of near-positive certainty. It was some of those points that Johnny5 consistently refused to ackowledge, even after multiple people pointed them out. Thomas Kirby, you should know that I was just the Moderator on board at the time it was decided to finally put an end to Johnny5's account. It had been discussed by every Mod, Admin and Expert we have and the consensus was that Johnny5 was a crackpot who was always going to be a liability to the membership. If you are a disciple of his, he is currently posting over at Sciforums, where he has proclaimed himself the most brilliant physicist that ever lived. We wish him luck with that.

Enough. This thread was designed to show one member how to save time and space in his postings and has gone on now for 3 pages. Once again we have tied up a Resident expert's valuable time to solve the problems of a member who seems to relish being a problem. This is not what we're here for.

Let's not forget swamp cooling. A fan behind a porous padding which is moistened by a recirculating pump. Cool and no ice to melt. Humidifies dry air too. Go swamp!

Everyone wants to be in it but no one wants to animate it. We are looking for anyone who can do flash animation (simple South Park-type, the cheesier the better). Without that we are dead in the water. I'd even settle for a comic strip setup, with dialogue balloons so we don't have to do sound or animation. But we still need an artist who can draw simple characters, maybe only from the waist up, wearing t-shirts with their names on them and wielding various weapon-like devices.

Our new tourism marketing campaign: "The United States. Deep water, shallow people."

Fear of lost control is very common. Please see a professional. Did you or your parents choose not to pursue a corrective course when you were diagnosed with OCD? My daughter had control issues when she was 3 years old. It was leading towards OCD-like behavior and ADD symptoms as well. We did some unconventional sensory integration work with a unique clinic in Boulder, CO. Her behavior has improved dramatically. atm is right, though. Without knowing you, all the advice in the world is meaningless, except to let you know you are not alone and that others care about you. Please go see a professional. At thirteen years old, you've got a lot going on right now and your fears needs to be addressed.

Are you trying to be funny here? So how did the exam go? Did you pass? Better one, better two?

This is a big part of the problem I see with media hype. You, like so many others, are lumping an 18-year-old girl, boozing it up and making out till 2am with strange men in a foreign country, with a 9-year-old girl abducted from her bedroom by a child molesting murderer. Both are terrible crimes but I can't help pointing out the not-so-fine line between them. I'm not saying violence was the necessary outcome in both cases, but in the former case much could have been done to prevent it. Yet it becomes another in a seemingly endless line of predator crimes paraded before us on the nightly news, and too many people think it is becoming the norm. It's Jerry Springer-esque hype trying to make it seem like the whackos are taking over, and it's driving the United States farther and farther from unity. My point was not to detract from a community's right to know where repeat offenders live. I merely wanted to show that the media unfairly influences the public's perception of their safety when it comes to passing legislation of the kind Pangloss has brought to our attention.

Perhaps in the end it is our own morbid curiosity that is at fault, but I feel that the media plays up each and every child abduction case on a national stage. If the child is being sought nationally, or the suspect is still at large and authorities are hunting for them, I can see the reasons for such coverage. More often than not, as with most of the recent cases, the police know the boundaries of the search and they are quite small. Why then the constant media blitz? Rather than being a lesson to keep better care of our children, I think this type of attention actually encourages copycats and those who crave the limelight. And worse, it makes everyone distrustful and overly sensitive to dangers that are being over-dramatized to boost ratings. The stories are awful. I feel very sorry for the victims. As I stated earlier, I think crimes involving such helpless victims should carry an extra penalty due to their impact and the seemingly wasted efforts toward rehabilitation. But again, the media is capable of focusing on each occurence as it happens all over the country, with the random assurances of probability you get when dealing with hundreds of millions of people. They make it seem like it's happening every day with more and more frequency. And if it is becoming more prevalent, I think we have the media to blame for giving some of these sickos the attention they crave.

There is no doubt that an aware parent makes a safer environment for their children. But the media is guilty of pandering to the shock mentality that is so prevalent in the US these days. And the danger to all of us overshadows the danger just to our children, imo, because fearmongering drives us further apart as communities, making us distrust even our own neighbors. It is one thing to be cautious and aware, it is completely different to be suspicious and distrustful to the point of unstable, explosive paranoia. It's not just stories about abductions that the media distorts. I was in San Francisco last weekend and a native there told me how the national press exaggerated the whole Loma Prieta earthquake there in 1989. I remember seeing the Bay Bridge shaking and a section collapse. I also saw fires seemingly raging across the city. There were a total of 22 fires but most were extinguished before the media showed up. What they showed us was three houses on fire in a single neighborhood, shot from all possible angles to make it look like different homes, and then aired every 20 minutes on national television. It kept people riveted to their TVs and it kept ratings at peak dollar for longer than necessary. It was also a complete distortion. They had things under control very rapidly for such a major earthquake. But stories about efficient city systems doing their jobs effectively don't sell as well.

Which neighborhoods don't have children somewhere? I didn't understand the first sentence at all, and the second one sounds like liberals don't mind when the helpless are killed. I'm unsure why you quoted part of my post for this (and I would appreciate it if you credited the quotes from multiple posters). My point was the knee-jerk legislation, which actually has very little to do with sex offenders, and more to do with a media-whipped public. How would you feel if you'd supposedly paid your debt to society, decided to turn over a new leaf and yet found that legally you couldn't live where you wanted to? I guess if someone really wanted to commit a crime they had shown a proclivity for, proximity to the victim is not necessarily an issue. They would probably just case their victims from a moving vehicle. I personally think that sex offenses involving children should be dealt with in the harshest manner possible. It's not enough that someone who is attracted to pre-pubescent children and can't control themselves be given a standard prison sentence. Most pedophiles can control themselves. When they cross that line, I'm afraid there is no redemption. As for the teens, my heart goes out to them, but teens are a bit more capable of defending themselves than children are. They can stay in groups and shouldn't be as easily led astray. An 18-year-old girl traveling in Aruba who goes out drinking alone till 2 am with locals she just met? I'm not saying she deserved to meet with foul play, but this is hardly an good example of what Floridians are up in arms about, but it still feeds their outrage as if it happened in their neighborhood. I think this reaction has been fueled by a media that makes money when they tell us about every abduction across a country of 300 million people. They make it seem like it's everywhere.

It's a good thing this wasn't posted in the Maths forums. Dave would ban you all. Callipygous is right.

I see it as the society of their time doing the retro thing and reviving the old west pioneer spirit as they venture out into the galaxy. It's more realistic than everyone having a totally futuristic look. In the 2-hour pilot episode, I enjoyed seeing Kaley with one of those old fold-up lawn chairs that haven't changed since the 60's. Nice to know some designs can't be improved upon. And I love that they can swear in Chinese and get their meaning across. Although most of the time what they say is kind of wierd like, "Bad news ass-crack!"

My best friend bought me the DVDs for my birthday and I am SO hooked! Serenity the movie is coming out soon (all the pre-screenings sell out minutes after the tickets go on sale). I so hope someone picks Firefly up again for production before the cast gets too involved in other work. It needs to be developed for a few more seasons. That would be shiny!

Recent science fiction books thread Another thread about favorite sci-fi books Perhaps this thread should be about sci-fi stories we'd like to see, or books we'd like made into movies. What do you think, Arcadia?

This is typical of a frightened public. Not to say they aren't justified in their fears, but their legislative reaction can be very damaging in the long run. It reminds me of when, several years ago, the Baltimore media found out that their needle-exchange program was being exploited by some street entrepreneurs. They found that the "bring an old needle in, get a new one" system was being used by a few scroungers to collect hundreds of needles for exchange. The fresh needles were then sold by the scroungers to the drug-users for a dollar each. The public thought that was just awful, not what the programs was for at all. What they failed to realize was that these scroungers were reaching people who never would have found the will to exchange their needles without the scroungers. The program was a success because of the scroungers. But the public almost messed the whole thing up with their knee-jerk reactions. Later the needle program went on to use these scroungers to inform the drug community of clinics and other programs available to them, and the aims of all the programs were better met because of it. I don't know what the solution is for Florida, but I doubt any real good will come of this 2500-foot rule. I'll bet it costs the state a bundle in litigation.

Moving this to a better location. General Discussion is not the place for this.

If you can see near and far very well with both eyes, your glasses must be lost somewhere in between. Seriously, look around where you keep the case. Start looking in a spiral pattern using your left eye, and as the spiral gets wider, switch to your right eye. If you haven't passed out after 10 minutes, you should stumble across your glasses. Then put them in the case and staple it to your forhead. WARNING: This may make you look even more like Andy Warhol.

You can't drive without them, right? So they have to be where you last drove to. Are you sure you checked everywhere in the bathroom? On top of the towel rack? What about over by the scented candle your mom loves but your dad thinks is too big?

Check the top of your head. Or in the bathroom. I never liked those glasses anyway. They make you look like Andy Warhol.

More data, please. What is the goal? What types of things force you to change your plans? Sometimes we have ideas we think are great but aren't in the long run. If forces conspire to keep you from completing a goal, perhaps you should rethink your plan. Ask yourself, "If changing my mind about it is so easy, is this goal really that important to me?" Some goals are hard to achieve and require lots of extra effort. This makes it all the sweeter when we finally do achieve them. Almost nothing really worth having falls in your lap with no effort. And if, after all your hard work, you still can't achieve it, at least you'll know it wasn't for lack of trying. One of the worst things in life is regret at not having taken a chance on something you really wanted. Hindsight will eat you alive if you're too timid. Most things are not as one-time-shot as we think. You gotta keep plugging.

I'm sure the creationists are busy figuring a way around this as we speak.

See the latest in one of our News threads containing a Reuters story: http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11911

Just buy a solid color T-shirt and a bottle of that 3D craft paint and have someone with great cursive handwriting write: Sleek Freakin' Geek It'll be one of a kind.

You didn't say if it was your dominant hand and you didn't mention which sport. Dominant hand, baseball/golf/tennis = your humped Off-hand, soccer/swimming/track = silver medal