Prometheus

Not a bad idea, just a couple of questions: There are products which perform the same job. I used this one - i thought it was crap: my fingers were much better at finding veins. How would your product perform better? If veins are that hard to find and the patient really needs something then don't faff about with IVs, why not just go for intraosseous instead?

So in very simplistic terms mass and relativistic mass are different concepts? Is relativistic mass a generalisation of classical mass?

So i just learnt that momentum is equal to plank's constant over wavelength,[math] p= \frac{h}{\lambda} [/math], and that this applies to photons. So if photons have momentum why is it said they do not have mass? Has this got something to do with relativistic mass and if so is there any way of understanding it without general relativity (i might be able to cope with special relativity). Cheers.

The argument might work if we limit our options to there either being a single god or not, and a few other assumptions are met. But we actually decide between numerous gods, not just one - many of which promise mutually exclusive infinite rewards and punishments - and other competing ideologies. Essentially there is no limit to the stuff you can make up so the probability of any one particular god or ideology becomes infinitesimal (unless there is actually evidence for a particular god), making any such wager unwise.

I started late in academia. Left school with average GCSEs and no A-levels (not sure what the US equivalents are) and a couple of drug habits to kick. A career in nursing saved me, gave me a chance to get a degree then a masters. Wanted to change career to science so did a more pertinent masters (after 2 years of access courses) and managed to get onto a PhD. Had to work my arse off for years just to get that chance and I'm still no where near as sharp as the younger PhD. students. Certainly wasn't my intelligence that got me through; it was shear tenacity. I'm sure you can do it, the only question is how much do you want it.

Seems to depend on the distribution of fat, whether it is visceral or subcutaneous, with visceral being more metabolically active, especially in terms of cardiovascular risk factors. This study suggests visceral fat and LDL are correlated. Smoking cessation also affects weight gain; good luck

There is evidence that exercise is effective at alleviating depressive symptoms. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674785/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24026850

That there are two types of depression, differentiated by their cause (endogenous or reactive).

Is that actually true? I've often thought it was, but i've been unable to find any papers that verify it. So you're butt ugly? Well, that's not going to change. You might want to learn to live with it, but you could do better and own your ugliness: embrace your intelligence. Be the Imp (do you read/watch Game of Thrones? if not i'd recommend it to you just for this character). Took me decades to learn to be comfortable in my own skin, think it's much the same for many people, but some have it harder so they got to work at it more. Good luck.

OK. I'll again proffer a definition of spirituality as being the search for meaning in one's life. Hopefully that is broad enough to include a lot of the religious elements many people will likely want included while not being so broad as to be meaningless or bleed into areas it need not.

The OU use it for some of their physics modules: i didn't like it. I barely remember it now, but it felt like a hybrid between a gui and a command window interface without doing either well.

Do we really need to? We don't have a strict definition of life, yet we talk about it endlessly. Spirituality ,human construct that it is, would be even harder to pin down. Maybe it's best not to try. Sure it means we can't have well structured debates about it, but isn't that what art and literature are for?

Only as meaningless as Harry Potter. I am informed Harry Potter is extremely meaningful to many people. His existence, or otherwise, is irrelevant to the meaning people find in the stories.

Very much agree with that. We no longer require theism to attempt to explain the physical world: science is doing that much better than religion ever could. But there is another reason man created god: to create meaning in our lives. Whether it's the dangling carrot of heaven or the thought of being part of a divine plan or the unconditional love on offer or something more subtle, theism does bring a lot of meaning and brightness to people's lives. We don't need god to create meaning in our lives, but i don't think this gets adequately communicated to theists: no alternatives are really offered. As science slowly peels back the illusions of theism people feel like all they have left is an empty husk: there is no meaning, feeling forlorn and alone in an uncaring universe. Science offers no consolation, and nor should it, it's a method of discovering how the physical world works: it is not a method for creating meaning for humans. This is manifest in the rise of new age, quantum woo type pseudo-science: people are (unskillfully) attempting to find meaning in the framework imposed by our scientific understandings. Until people are taught how to create meaning in their life within the bounds of science god will be around.

My new favourite song to do science to.

There will come a time in your career when you have to tell an 80 year old, and their relatives, they are going to die. There may also come a time when you have to tell a 9 year old, and their relatives, they are going to die. Which do you imagine will be harder, and why? I've been with many adults as they've died, only one kid (never worked in paeds), so it's hard for me to compare, but i have found that at least some adults are emotionally equipped to face their deaths with equanimity - i'm not sure the same is true of children, given they are generally less emotionally developed. As for the 'I try harder on kids' comment, i do find it unprofessional. If the patient is deemed suitable for surgery, then the best potential outcome must be sought every time, regardless of age. On a side note i think pastoral care for those dying in hospital is appalling, if at all present and is something that requires attention.

That seems to be key: not fearing or anticipating things to be. But there is a danger of becoming 'flabby': stopping doing things in life because whatever comes comes anyway. I imagine it something like playing a game - you try,whole-heartedly, for a certain outcome, but really you're doing it because it is fun; win, lose or draw.

Both i guess. Sometimes people are able to separate but maintain some line of healthy communication. Other times the break has to be clean. I'm just basing this on personal observations, i don't really know any more about than any one else.

Best to find that happy medium.

Not if it's introduced via social media: enough people are willing to surrender anonymity and civil liberties in exchange for convenience and security.

The sagas are the only good bits. Try reading (or maybe watching) the story of Jesus - forget for a while that people believe it really happened and you'll find a fantastic story. (OK, the old testament is a little dry, especially in their original form). Or try Paradise Lost after reading Genesis - who would have thought you could gain such a perspective of the human condition by considering the story from Satan's perspective. I'd also recommend Frankenstein after looking up the Promethean story - adds another nuance Stories are the perfect medium to explore morality and the human condition. I know things like not killing babies seems obvious to us now, but that's only because people have explored these ideas through various (often, though not necessarily, religious) narratives, and handed them down. Kind of like how scientific ideas had to be conceived and refined and passed down, so too has our exploration of morality and of ourselves. Without it, we would be simple apes.

It's possible, if hard, to love someone and still leave them. It's about doing what you think best for all involved. Also, is love just one emotion? I vaguely recall reading in some psychology book that love (or was it happiness?) is actually 8 distinct emotions.

Which brings us round full circle to the core problem of religious institutions: their inability and/or unwillingness to adapt to the changing needs of humanity. While that remains so they are part of the problem when they should be striving to be part of the solution.