DrP

If I put air in a balloon and throw it off a bridge have I 'thrown air'?... again - I think it's just semantics. Again - semantics - by driving evolution in a different direction to it's natural course you could describe it as 'applying a force' to it, no? Not a literal physical force on an actual physical solid body, obviously... but figuratively maybe? Semantics.

You learn something new every day. I have always thought the word meant the outlet from a sewer... maybe I heard someone describe the sillage from a sewer outlet when I was younger and I took it to mean the sewerage itself... but I guess they were talking about the extended reach of it's stench. hmm... if it is specific to perfume then I am now assuming they were intentionally misusing the word to describe the reach of the scent of the sewer.

Meh - just semantics no?

I saw this recently with a women I was friends with on facebook. She posted something about left and right brain stuff, which I thought had been debunked by recent medical publications that scanned brains doing different things. I thought they found that the left right brain thing is mainly nonsense. She had a brain tumour the other year and the doctor told her that her temporary loss of control on one side was due to the tumour being on the other side of her brain. That may be so - but is isn't proof of the wider left/right brain argument. I pointed it out and linked her to a couple of articles that debunked it and she went off on a tirade at me saying I didn't know what I was talking about and that I shouldn't believe everything I read in papers and that she knew it as a FACT because her surgeon told her. I am an arsehole apparently. I was about to reply to say that I could be wrong about it if her surgeon had told her, although I suspected that the surgeon was talking about the injuries to the left causing motor problems to the right side of the body... which, if true, doesn't change the emotional left/logical right stuff that was recently disproved. I was going to suggest that I was open to change my mind if presented with evidence against what I was saying... alas she blocked me before I could reply. As it goes it was a blessing - I no longer have to put up with her daily relationship updates and her moaning about her ex and her BS daily pages of inspiration quotes... that said - I thought that I had failed as a person here - I failed to communicate with another human being in a manner such that she now hates me and has unfriended me... what can you do? I wanted to be sarky back saying that by typing the word fact in capitol letters doesn't actually make it a fact... but I chose to be as polite as possible... but never got the chance to reply. Cognitive dissonance I suppose.... or IQ with only double figures. I wonder if there is a inverse correlation between the level of outrage expressed towards an opposing opinion and someone's IQ. Difficult to prove.

That may be so - but the rules are rules and it WAS handed away by the defender... which is a penalty and it led to a goal. Bit harsh - but fair enough.

I liked the VAR introduction for the tournament. Although it was a bit harsh on Croatia to concede the penalty like that.... it was clearly a hand ball in the box and the ref missed it. Took about 30 seconds for him to review it on the screen and make a decision. Harsh for them - but right if it was a hand ball. Better than having that sort of thing be hit and miss as to whether the ref sees it or not imo. I wasn't sure it was intentional or not - but what matters is that the ref missed the whole thing and was able to, quickly, go and view it and make a proper decision. You are right - that 2nd Croatia one was a fluke/goalie error for sure.. It came out of nowhere.

When was this - a couple hundred years ago? Most people professed to be Christian at the time - no-one knew any different/better. The advancement in science has come on a lot since then and proven a lot of the bible to be untrue, so most people drop the superstition as the holes in our knowledge shrinks. sorry swansont

How about a fibre optic lens? The camera can stay outside and the very thin fibre optic cable can go through the seal of the door (thinner than a power cable so easier) and be taped to whatever position you want it to be in. ? You can get these optic cable for cameras on the internet pretty easy.

... An article I read a few months back that when they scanned an elephants brain whilst it looked at different objects it suggested that when they look at humans they go all gooey and think we are cute - the same way we look at kittens and puppies. I thought that was lovely.

It isn't a high end one - but not to bad... (Ovation Ultra maybe? I'll check when I get home) - sounds and plays lovely though - great tones and harmonics and superb action. The damage is purely cosmetic, but has to devalue the thing. Got it in a second hand guitar store for £120.00 about 15 to 20 years ago. The pick up had bust... but I got that fixed. Don't plug it in often anyway. Looked it up recently and they go for about 5 or 6 hundred quid! I was thinking about selling it... but with the crack I reckon I'll be lucky to get what I paid for it so I might as well keep it. One of the best guitars I've ever had for a semi acoustic.

No worries - I'm from the UK. Yesterday I was talking about a German post doc in the football thread and you confused him with me I think.

I guess you would go with the flow there, yea. lol. You beat me to that. If you use that line of argument to believe in god then why not every other single piece of mythical claptrap out there? They are all just as credible and all have the same amount of evidence. It is a little like hypnosis I suppose... when I was 3 years I would pray at Sunday school. We would close our eyes and the lady would pray and we would picture Jesus writing our names into the book of life... It was quite beautiful, the lady was lovely.... none of that makes it true though. People used to say I was brain washed and I just didn't believe it... now I think I was. Not out of any ill intention from the old lady - she was lovely... she had been mislead too and had not had the 40 years of modern life that I now have. Things were different even then - we knew a lot less.

Welllll to play advocate for a second... there IS evidence... it just isn't very good and doesn't stand up to any scientific scrutiny. I have seen some 'miraculous' things. I have witnessed some AMAZING coincidences which at the time I though evidence for god. I still can't explain what the holy ghost is.. it is 'something' which I used to believe to be the spirit of god... but now I think it just a state of mind and body. I think that the placebo effect can help people shake off illness quicker and heal better (this is seen in drug trials) - this is to do with belief that you have something that will work (even if you have nothing).... so 'something' is going on in our bodies which is influenced by the mind. Problem is that we do not know what that is and people jump to so many spurious conclusions to explain it... they think that their prayers or their sugar cube medicine has cured them... when they have just gotten better through believing they will get better... so there is 'something' in believing and positive thinking for sure... but what is it? It certainly isn't holistic healing, chackra energy or a mighty god at work... it is what ever causes the mechanism for the placebo effect - which we can't explain fully as far as I know. It has to be some connection between mind and body that we do not yet under stand. Sorry for the long speculation. At the end of the day you have to be honest with yourself. The god thing is clearly nonsense (as it is laid out in the books from centuries ago anyway)... and just nonsense that isn't so clear when you get sucked into it. I know first hand how easy it is to get sucked into believing it. It seems so dumb when you are out of it... but I do understand how people believe it when faced with certain things. I haven't had a chance to fully watch the below as I am at work and couldn't find the vid I wanted to share. In the one I watched he gives as total atheist a spiritual experience and she breaks down in tears and commits her life to god... then he explains how he tricked her with psychological processes and helps her to take a positive strength from what she learnt. idk if it is in the below vid but I think it is on a similar theme - I'll watch it properly when I get home:

so we just ignore reality and make our own stuff up? I don't get it. What I wrote or the religious belief? If religion then It makes sense sure... but it has no grounds in reality beyond that of peoples' delusions. Sure, if it makes you happy and floats you boat then you can believe what ever you like... but you can't claim it is reality when there is no evidence for it and plenty of evidence contradicting it. Are you interested in science and working out how the complexities of nature and the universe works? Or do you want to just blindly accept what is written in an out of date 2000 year old book which has made many claims that have been proven wrong by modern science?. Science updates it's text books all the time when new evidence come to light through investigation and experimentation.

I dropped my Ovation onto a concrete step last month when the strap came of the button.... it was pretty old and had a few scratches... I used to use it as a kick about guitar because I got it dirt cheap and it didn't seem to matter much. Recently though I checked the price of it and, er, I can't use it as a kick about any more... I had some bits repaired and decided to treat it with respect... I've had it 15 years at least... now there is a nasty split in the nut from the drop and I am gutted! Still plays nice - I guess it can go back to being a kick about. Wish I had been keeping it in any type of case Bloody physicists! lol.

.... but we DO investigate things... we use science to do this. It usually confirms what we believe or we change our belief to better fit the evidence the science throws up. With religion and faith though there is no such check - even when it doesn't work and science points to it being wrong the religious STILL do not change their belief to fit the facts. So - as it was said above and you kind of agreed with - it doesn't matter what we believe the computer still works either way. Same with god - it doesn't matter if we believe or not, it is either there or it isn't.... and there has not been any credible evidence for it beyond word of mouth reports of things that can simply be explained with coincidence or delusion.

Thanks - that is what I was thinking but didn't want to challenge the post as it was very sure of itself. Makes sense an ice cube would cool a dog. They were saying never to give one to a dog in hot weather. They were suggesting that the ice in the dogs tummy would make the dogs insides think it was cold and it would send blood to the stomach to heat it.... and end up over heating the dog which could lead to death. I think maybe someone fed a dog an ice cube somewhere and it died... probably would have dies anyway and had nothing to do with the ice cube. They then jumped to the conclusion that it was the ice that killed it...? Who knows?

Awesome - I just found out that if you type "Come on England" as part of a sentence in a facebook post at the moment, then you get an explosion of footballs on the screen with stars and glitter.... and it then highlights the words in red in your post.

Sorry - must have mistyped... the German post doc jumped on the table to celebrate... not me. I was looking the other way, head in hand, trying not be associated with him.... which was difficult as he was sat at our table.

I don't think that 'weight' would be that relevant. It would have more to do with the 'hardness' of the material and it's ability to distribute the stress of the impact... so a little compressibility but high strength for the outer shell and a soft shock absorbing inner lining. I can't see how the weight would be relevant at all. Sorry - that's all I've got.

Ha ha ha - I watched an England vs Germany game in 1996 in a sports bar with some others and one guy was a post dock from Germany. Germany scored and leapt up onto the table shouting "YEEEEEESSSS!!!", shaking both fists in the air....... only to look around the packed bar of about a hundred or so Brits that were staring at him open mouthed in ABSOLUTE silence. lol. He realised he was the only one cheering, shut up and sat back down rather sheepishly. lol. We just put our heads in our hands. You could have cut the air with a knife for a minute or so before muffled conversations started up and the bar returned to normal.

I can't answer your question as written I am afraid because I do not know the answer. But, the best cases from what I can tell seem to have a very hard exterior with tight fitting, soft, shock absorbing padding on the inside. At a guess - I'd go with hard shell with a tight snug fit into a soft padded interior. The most expensive guitar case I ever bought is like this and it is excellent - you can jump on it or throw it onto a plane and the guitar will be fine inside.

I read an old friend's facebook post yesterday that suggested you should never give a dog an ice cube, ice cream or very cold water in hot weather. It sounded like rubbish to me but I didn't challenge it as I do not know for sure. It sounds like the old wives tale that you should drink a hot drink in hot weather rather than cold. Anyone know if this is true about dogs? I would have thought an ice cube would lover it's temperature. I wouldn't let it eat a bucket of ice though - it's brain would freeze for sure! Sounds like an extension of the old wives tale about hot drinks in warm weather - anyone know for sure?

Although I agree with the sentiment of nearly everything you said- I though the whole Assad thing was debatable.... he was the best of a bad lot and was fighting ISIS. A few years back I thought it was though that he could still be the best of a bad lot, rather than toppling him and putting the rebels in... Even this latest chemical thing is now suspected to have not happened by some and they claim it was an excuse to oust him. Whatever - you are right about the acceptance of Jong-un though... what did talking to him really achieve? He agreed to stop with the nuke - he was supposed to anyway. Any mention of human rights abuses? no. It still all reminds me of that 'Hypernormalisation' video.

I can only assume it was attitude related. People dock you points for rudeness here as well as stubbornly rejecting scientifically accepted things. I gave you +1 for being polite enough to thank Phi for his reply.... although that was generous - politeness should be a given when dealing with strangers surely? Not that we need to explain - but as others have said - it is not a field we have 'experts' in as far as I am aware. My ex used to pay good money to have stripes put in her hair... it was like £60 - £80 or something like that.