DrP

yea - I prefer slight of hand and rate that as the highest form of magic skill - close up slights and vanishes and palms are cool. I am an amateur magician too, and love watching decent pros. I went to a show a few month back and could see some guy hiding stuff and palming stuff... only because I knew what to look for and I sat right at the front and to the side... so he was buggered by the angles (it's why I sat there)... even though I knew what he was doing and how, I still loved it and thought he was amazing... his grand finale - which we all sorta knew was coming, was a MASSIVE rabbit out of his hat. Didn't see it at all until he pulled it out - no idea where he was hiding that big bastard at all (Probably in his coat) - most of his show was card manipulation - pulling them out of the air and vanishing them into his hat. My hands are too small to palm cards unfortunately. Worst tricks for me are where they use a stooge or a camera trick... although it can lead to amazing effects. Chris Angel HAS to use doubles, camera tricks and stooges for sure to get some of his effects... it's too obvious for me even though it looks amazing... I can forgive Dynamo for using stooges because he does some creative stuff... his tattoo removal service is a really good trick - but a little too obvious to me as to how it is done ;-). PS - 'Coin Unique' is my favorite gimmick - I know some pros use it all the time and it can make a total amateur look like a top pro slight of hand ace... people assume you have to have been practicing for years to get the effects you pull with it... but it is totally simple and a complete beginner can look like a pro in 5 mins with it. ;-) Amazing gimmick with 100's of uses and effects possible. don't just vanish a coin with it, that's too plain. you have to invent your own interesting reveals. You are limited only by your imagination with that gimmick. A++

then checkout the link I posted. "Potential difference (voltage)A potential difference, also called voltage, across an electrical component is needed to make a current flow through it. Cells or batteries often provide the potential difference needed."

Of course it's subjective... not everyone likes reggae - I hate it... some love it and listen to nothing else. EDM - Electronic Dance Music..? It has it's moments and there is a time and a place for it. Some (IN MY OPINION) is totally basic, repetitive and rubbish.... some has awesome riffs, beats and melodies that are great to dance and listen too. Depends what you are into. I could argue that Jazz is far superior due to the use of many complex scales, time sigs and improvisory variations on themes... but again, that is just my opinion and it has been shown in studies (will have to look it up if you need citation - I read it somewhere a while back) that most people hate jazz and that it is an acquired taste. How about mixing jazz with Dance music???... I guess we then end up with bands such as 'The Brand New Heavies' - which are scientifically proven to be awesome. Fact. (PS - I was reminded of a tune called 'One Note Samba' from the title of the thread... it is a samba... and it has a melody which uses, pretty much, just one note throughout... although the key changes and, er so does the note from time to time... but it is close).

They might say that dim.... unless they were Mormans or JWs... then the original response would be quite valid. ;-) *Disclaimer - I have actually met some nice JWs and some nice morons too, the above reply was for humour value only*

I've noticed that too (what Phi said) - I have started exercising, running in particular, whilst being very unfit.... and GAINED weight due to increased muscle mass. Also... when looking at weight fluctuations, water intake is important to monitor. You can loose or gain a lot of weight in a day related to the amount of water you drink. Drinking a lot of water is good to stay hydrated.... but the amount in the body can fluctuate with the weather or with how much you take in if it isn't consistent.

Thanks Phi. I think Dimreaper tries to put a case for using these religions as practice for learning love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness etc.. I see where he is coming from in that respect (although don't agree with everything he says). There are things I learnt that I might not have if I had led a different life. We all have life choices and crossroads in life. I would like to see more love and compassion from the world to it's people... without the need to be ordered to give it by some superbeing/power or without accusations of gayness for feeling real agape love for all. The world is improving in my opinion/observation.

PM me your address and I'll send it - not sure how well it will travel through the heat to the deepest parts of Africa though. :-/

never eaten a kilo of cheese - lol. I wouldn't do that with the soft squishy stuff! I don't know if I am imagining it, but, if I eat a lot of dry strong cheddar cheese in a day then the next day my balls are always super full and enlarged... almost as if I need whatever is in the cheese to produce extra sperm or something.... oh, god, reading this back is embarrassing, but I am going to post it anyway in the interest of science.. I have often wondered if eating lots of strong cheese in a block boosts my sperm production ... maybe I am lacking in something that cheese provides or something, lol. idk. Basically - if I ate a kilo of cheese (strong cheddar), I'd be busting out of my boxers the next day for sure. Maybe it is psychological, but it seems real to me. Happens more with the strong stuff. PS - I've just looked it up - there is a Daily Mail article that actually says that more than 3 slices of cheese can reduce fertility in a man! Maybe I am imagining it or I'm just a bit odd.... hmm - it also says that female hormones in cheese are 'possibly' to blame... I'm taking it with a pinch of salt, some tomatoes and some lettuce.

Maaate - we've all had that feeling of meeting with God (well, those of us that were religious) - it is easily explainable with psychology/self hypnosis. It isn't proof of god. Being honest... I kinda miss my relationship with God.... I loved him. lol. But it isn't real... it is so obvious when you step out of it. What would you need to hear or see to change your mind? Don't be afraid to be free from the oppression of 'having to believe or punished'.... it's crippling.

My first passing thought/guess would be that the force would be the same.... but the power required to generate that same force could be different due to the difference in air pressure. Obviously g would be slightly effected due to height, but I doubt the effect would be significant next to the air pressure difference.

Yes - I think it more likely that jbilo had something irritate his thumb in real life which caused him to dream about it... (insect bite?, rub burn? chemical from work? who knows). Happens all the time... I once dreamt I was mugged buy 2 men in an alley - they pinned me by the wall and grabbed me by the balls... It hurt! I woke with ball pain... it wasn't the dream causing the pain... it was the pain causing the dream.

A good exercise for that is to get on all fours (doggystyle) and slowly from right forward to right back, rocking slowly back and forth yogically... it can get things moving. ;-) Move as far back and as far forward as you can in a relaxed comfortable manner breathing steadily as you go...

It's in the bible if you are prepared to take just 5% of it... do some weird interpreting of the text and selecting only what fits your narrative. There is no evidence of this... so what that the bible predicts certain things? So did Nostradamus and other people/books.... some came true and some didn't. Just saying 'it's in the bible' doesn't cut it... there are lots of things in the bible... a lot of it terribly and demonstrably wrong.

That's the 5th time we've asked him now to say what it sounded like and for his reasoning in concluding that it was a breaking hair (rather than just shifting wax or an electrical noise). I was genuinely interested in hearing what he has to say, but I am not holding out for an answer, it's like he just ignores any post and just repeats the question.

"EVERYTHING is happening outside of a person, except for the stuff happening inside".... Amazing! The sense of numinous we all feel as that profound statement sinks into our souls is a gift Tar - thank you deeply for that life changing enlightenment.

QUOTE"...old water differs from new water" It doesn't, as we all know. I think he meant the new water levels... which are higher due to higher temperatures bought on by the increase of CO2. That's how I read it anyway, but I have been known to misread stuff. So 'new' water in this context is water that is extra compared to the old levels... which were constant (or there about??) for a very long time. PS - out of interest.... you know that if you change our minds (mine and most others on here) by using actual facts and statistics we/I will thank you for it and congratulate you right?... If you suddenly realise that you are wrong and change your mind on climate change after looking at the data, will you do the same? Or will you just disappear... most disappear... or get banned for soapboxing before they have a chance to realise that they had misinterpreted something. Anyway - peace out.

re your point 2 - no -one is world police (except maybe the UN) - but there was an agreement by many countries that we'd all chip in and try our best to comply for the sake of the world (you know - that place out side of your borders where most of the people live). No-one is policing it, but most are trying to comply and play ball... except for a couple places. Are you saying you just don't care if the rain forests totally go? Although I admit it probably has little to do with NASA.

Have you considered the possibility you may have overlooked something and could be wrong... the discussion between you and Swans about water vapour in particular.. before it started going round in circles I seem to remember (unless I remembered it wrong) that SwansonT said that water vapour was contributing but the levels had been constant (global average I assume) for years. Then you get the rise in CO2 that takes the temp up.... with increased temp comes higher saturation levels and thus more water in the atmosphere and higher temps even still.... cycling round going up.... starting with the CO2 increase. I fail to see what your point is about water vapour. The increased water is from increased temperatures which are from increased CO2. I am no expert and might be wrong... feel free to ridicule me if I have misunderstood it.... or try to correct me. I cannot really defend any position from a point of view of references here, I am repeating what I remember reading (If I understood it correctly).

I agree with you Koti. 'Their' claims of abstinence giving you more 'energy' for your life could be psychological, that's all I am saying, like a placebo or a superstition. But.., to play advocate for a second , there might be something to be said if someone who eats a crappy diet, lounges around a lot, doesn't go out and knocks one out 7 or 8 times a day, for them to cut back and abstain for a day or 2 to get some energy back and have time to think about other life issues, get off their asses or backs and cook themselves some decent food. Maybe, when they make these generalisations about people holding back they would be better off targeting the addicts. Many good things done to excess are bad.

Tar, the tests I was thinking of here are where the improvements are very subtle in as system that kicks out a range of results from run to run. It isn't exactly reproducible every time. Therefore we have to do dozens of runs and average the result. Also there are tests that aren't so clear cut. Lets say you add an ingredient to improve 'tastiness' to something - how do you measure 'tastiness'? it is subjective to the people doing the testing, you need to average the results over thousands of tests to ensure the averaging out of peoples spectrum of tastes. I would get others to test the 'tastiness' of something I think I have improved as I wouldn't want my personal bias to influence the results. (this is a little more subjective than tests I am talking about, but just an example). I would also not want to tell the person which one I thought was more tasty either in case it biased their opinion of the 'tastiness' of the product. Maybe tastiness isn't a good example, but it is the first one that came to mind. We do small scale tests in the lab and have to design tests and come up with comparisons between things that can only really be tested on a large scale costing thousands. If we can get some idea of how a system will work before paying for large tests costing 10s of thousands the that is good.

The thing is (imo) - any course of action or abstinence from any habit to focus on some other part of your life which you deem to be more important could help you focus on your goal better. It doesn't mean that the thing you gave up was bad. You have just focused your attention on some other goal. If your goal is to get off sexually then masturbation is cool. If you goal is to go out and succeed at a particular sport then there are all kinds of mental tricks you can pull.... it's like superstition. The fact that someone like Tiger Woods might put his left sock on first works for him like Dumbo's feather. Most boxers abstain from sex weeks before a fight (or they used too).. I think this was proven to be a wives tale (no time to look it up) but it may have helped them mentally - a bit like a placebo. I might try a feather next time, like Dumbo, when I want to 'fly'*, rather than abstaining from sex to see if that works. * - the word 'fly' here could be replaced with any of your goals, like getting a girlfriend, succeeding at work or at a sport or in a life situation... literally anything that you think you will get a benefit from by abstaining from sex/masturbation will probably be benefitted the same way through any other superstition in the same way as any placebo works. (this is speculation but seems feasible - if people report benefits were science denies that there should be benefits then maybe the placebo effect is at work?).

If I am at work and am not sure about something I have tested and found (or wanted) to be good I usually give the test to someone else to repeat for me to see if they get the same result. I sometimes (if it is an additive or something being tested), give someone else the test without telling them what I suspect the outcome to be. I do this to avoid my own bias and also that of the tester.

Read back through the thread carefully and see who starts being an arsehole first. This isn't about science or facts here - this is the first time you and I have ever engaged in a conversation. I have no embarrassment over this puzzle. I'm trying to impress no-one, I'm not the one who is name dropping. I'm not trying to teach you anything, it's just an observation. You come across really angry about stuff - probably because that is synonymous with the kind of fear and loathing bred by right wing propaganda in people that believe it. It's sad.

I don't suppose if anyone really cares about your problem that you got from a book. You probably didn't think it up yourself. There are plenty of problems that I am sure many of the intelligent people here won't be able to solve - so what? No-one cares. I rather suspect no-one wants to put in the effort to play your game - especially if they are going to be insulted for not getting it right. You clearly have your own rigid agenda which you are immovable from. Why are you even here if you do not want to talk or learn science? No-one wants to hear your ignorant angry rants except your brainwashed mates.

'exact' mechanism depends on the level of explanation you want - homework help section suggest school. I don't know what depth they are teaching such things at in your school, so: Start with looking at potential difference. This is from the BBC GCSE website about current and voltage http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_aqa/electricity/circuitsrev5.shtml