Sorry that I'm replying to this so late, but the fact that you are doing an experiment and EXPECTING specific results shows that you're a poor scientist. The very POINT of an experiment is to get the result, if you already have a result in your head, why are you doing the experiment?

My physics teacher told us this each and every day of class. We are never to enter an experiment with some preformed idea of how it is going to go, because then when we get wildly different results we get confused and do it over and over again, trying to get the 'right' results, which wastes our time and gets us a bad grade for handing in a late lab.

Well,  the reason we perform experiments in University is to develope experimental skills rather than to discover the value of a certain constant. The reason why we expect certain results is because we need to learn to identify sources of systematic errors, and the reason we repeat an experiment a lot if we don't get the expected result, is so that we minimize the random error so that we can make sure that the source of error is mainly systematic.
I agree with what your teacher says though, and I never ever ignore any result I get however ridiculous it is compared to what someone else has writen on a book.

That's your problem, your instrument is inaccurate and your sample size is too small, which makes your first statement false

My sample size was certainly not too small for any experiment. I made sure that the precision was high by repeating the measurements loads of times. lol. And how can you tell that my error came from the inaccuracy of my instruments? Sorry mate but that's a ridiculous statement... it could have been anything.

But hey! this has nothing to do with the topic anymore so I'll ask something that I have been wondering (if someone minds answering):
Does thought and knowledge through time evolve, just like living beings do? or does it develope differently? because if it is the latter, then the future of humans would not depend on the common evolution (or would it?), meaning that the theories of evolution would at best tell us how we have come to be like what we are, but that's about it.... wouldn't it?

because you fucked the experiment up?

To be honest I'm quite a careful scientist. So either huge errors from the apparatus, or I'm dumb shit.
But seriously, like for the simplest 1st year experiment of finding g through a rigid pendulum, I spend 2 whole afternoons and I did the whole measurements 4 times and I kept on getting 10. somthing with an accuracy of about 0.01%. So I figured out that either there was a huge magnetic field under the lab or dunno... gravity is stronger in the lab?

i just want to ask the two of you if you actually understand what science really is, and what the term represents

have you ever experienced or performed real scientific research

because

i honestly believe that you guys are pulling shit out of your ass

and i am in a position to say this

being an individual who worked full time in a microbiology lab for nearly nine months

seriously

you guys really really really really dont have any idea what you're talking about

at all

so please

please

educate yourselves

you are embarrassing yourselves

also twin matrix your rhetoric is horrible

like you really just dont know what it takes to SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND MAKE A FUCKING POINT

What.
I am certainly not a biologist. But I am certainly a physisist and a philosopher (or at least close to that) because that's what I study.
And HEY! Guess what? I've done loads and LOADS of experiments, to find the speed of light, the acceleration of gravity, bolzmann's constant, Planck's constant ect ect.... and guess again what? 80% of the times I've obtained results very different from what I "should", and you know why? Because science is far from being exact at all.
Although I'll give u that regarding that I'm in no possition to talk authoritatively about biology, but I don't think I'm malking a fool of myself, and if I am please point out what is exactly wrong with what I am saying and we'll have a proper debate, becuase to be honest I don't know what to defend with your criticism

go back to school

Why should I, sorry?

There isn't really much to "blindfoldely believe" in science. Science is about making conclusions and hypothesis based on observation and logic. If further observation is made, old theories are rejected or corrected.
Because of this, science is always changing.

In short: Science doesn't even "believe" in itself. Science is about doubt, not about belief.

We could say "believing" in science is the exact opposite of "blindly believing" in anything, because "believing" in science pretty much means accepting you don't know anything, and accepting that everything you think you know could eventually be found to be untrue.

Mate, again I tell you that there is no logic behind the principle of induction and, although we build logical models to suit the real world, there is no logical conection between our hypothesis and the real occurrences. Once we form a logical hypothesis, we can only "hope" it will help us predict something. And it not always does, and thus we need modify our hypothesis until they have a better chance of describing the real world (although probability is not a good answer to the problem of induction, but I won't get into that).
We can only be certain about rational truths, because following their logic, we find no contradictions. But nature around us is not part of us and therefore does not follow the same basic logic (or we have no knowledge of that logic) therefore we cannot say anything about it with certainty.
I know I am being too sceptical for my own good, but these are concepts that as a scientist you must control, because it is easy to make a mistake and say that because you "by chance" predicted something, will mean that you know (and knew) eveything relating that something.

I believe that the importance of this discovery has absolutely no fucking anything to do with whether creationsims is valid or not.

Many ignorant people believe unconditionally in evolution and all the shit but, don't they realize that its one of the most mysterious and debated procesess in biology ever? there are SOOO many things where evolution is still to be consolidated. I believe that this experiment serves to understand the process better and clarify some of the things that have been debated.

I believe that one of the objects of most debate in the process of evolution is to define what exaclty are the events that determine the prevalence of one genetic trait over other, and when is that evolution leads to developement rather than mere conditioning.... To be honest I haven't been reading a lot about it since I left school so Idk if anything has been agreed but still, I believe these are the most interesting facets of the evolution theory.

And the other thing is ARGHHH WHYYYY WHYYYY I mean, alright... Science is definitely a whole lot better than whatever other faith there is in the world, but WHY DO PEOPLE SO BLINDFOLDEDLY BELIEVE IN IT!!!!! HAVEN'T YOU HEARD ABOUT THE PROBLEM BETWEEN STANDARD MODEL AND GRAVITY/GENERAL RELATIVITY? AND THE WAVE-PARTICLE PHENOMENA PROBLEM? THERE ARE SOOOO MANY PARADOXES THAT SCIENCE HAS NOT YET RESOLVED!!! asdfasdfasdfasdhcbaksdhbckbrywbrkcjhwbhfdcbskdjhfbvkhwberkhgv

Oh, and Intelligent design is stupid, because its not like the wrold is intelligently designed..... its us that understand the world intelligently LOL DUH!

I can't recreate the taste but only remember, like Chesh had said, that it's good, sweet, sour, fishy etc.. Same goes for smells. I know that a fart generally smells bad (except mine which smell of roses) but I can't imagine and 'smell' it in that moment. (Though sometimes if I squeeze really hard I can recreate certain smells).

But smelling something really brings back other memories, such as doing something, being somewhere etc.. I read that smell is the most evocative sense, so no surprise. Also, music is very evocative for me, which I assume is normal.

Another thing which is vaguely related to this is the question of the child that is born without any senses. No sight, hearing, tough, smell or taste. Would the child have any thoughts? The ability to think?
I believe it was Kant who posed the question and studied it, though could be mistaken. I remember reading about it in another book (Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance) so, yeah..

EDIT It was Hume.

I was about to correct that lol. Hume was an empiricist all the way while Kant believed  in the existance of pure rational thoughts.
Its interesting to notice that Hume also believed that every impression from any of the senses, gave us simple ideas of things, and he possed the problem of whether we could create simple ideas out of other simple ideas or not.... which relating to this topic would be like: can we recreate the smell (or taste) of something that we haven't directly perceived in our minds only by trying to combine what we remember of the smell (or taste) of other stuff??

Can I just ask why it would be helpful to have permanent bases in iraq, if right now the US has a full-fledged army and they still can't stop the killings and the chaos and all that?

No, but is actually harder to imagine tastes and smells without relating them to images or sounds.
I guess that just like painters have the ability of clearly creating images in their minds, and musicians have the ability of arranging sounds in their minds; thus cooks probably have the ability to clearly imagine smells and tastes in their heads, and because of this, the people that can do that are mainly cooks, or have a smell/taste related job.

Is yur name from Kubrick's Dr. Stragelove?

To be honest I must say that the only RPG I ever finished gladly (and not just one time, but several) was CT.
 
To me it had everything that a good game needs: an involving storyline, amazing characters (Frog and Magus are awesome), attractive graphics, interesting fights, etc...
Because, to be honest, it is not a particularly hard game and the overall story is not particularly amazing; but still everything is put together SO well that it makes magic.

There are countless parts which I thought were too good, but I particularly liked when u meet Magus for the first time and you battle him. And then when you are about to defeat it, Lavos comes and ARGHH!!!

I never finished CC because two things about it put me off quite badly:
1) I thought the skills and battle system were kindda dull and pretty random, and I just did not like how there were tons and tons of skills, becuase they kinda lose their identity, but I dunno...
2) I really despised the fact that there were so many characters, because some of them are absolutely random, and don't have an attractive background, and they completely lose their identity; and all that made me think that the developers wanted to make the game very varied, but kindda overlooked those details that made CT such a trademark game (does that make sense?).

Still though, I reckon sooner or later I'll have to get on with it and just finish the game, since so many ppl say is so awesome that I really feel I'm missing out.

You know, when I first saw these photos yesterday, it made me think of a pretty great sci-fi plot.

These guys are living now approximately the same way their ancestors lived ten thousand years ago, almost totally unaware of what the rest of the world has been doing. How funny would it be to find out that the Earth we know is just like one of these tribes, and that without our knowledge there are already other humans out there exploring the galaxy and we are to these others as these un-contacted tribes are to us.

I personally thought that idea for a sci-fi short story Arthur C. Clarkish style would be awesome. Like it came straight into my mind the image of people in spaceships watching the news that "another planet has been found with isolated civilization" lol. Awesome.

Well, one thing I can say is that the US is an enormous country and thus quite unique compared to most of the other developed countries.

Usually the US are blamed for many things which represent the general ideology of only part of the country. But people forget that in these times, US culture has influenced the (especially western) world SO much is not even funny.

I personally disslike many things of the US - the fact that so much of the culture and general knowledge is based on the showbiz; that it is the developed country with the highest rate of gun murder; all the wars that they have provoked with intentions clearly not adherent with their maxims; etc... But on the other side there are so many things about the US I love, for example:
- Films: Thanks to the film industry in the US we get to see ridiculous amounts of films from which there are quite a few which surpass mediocrity, and that's good (if you like films of course)
- Music: No one can object that the US has produced some of the best music in the world, in many genres, and... well, I won't start naming cus I'd take the whole post.
- Arthur Miller: Awesomeness incarnated (or however u spell that). He wrote probably the two best plays ever (not rle... but amongst the ones I like the most): The Death of a Salesman and A View from the Bridge.
- Comics: I wouldn't be here without comics
- New York: I must say that it is in the top ten in my list of awesomest cities of the world.

And yeah...many other things which are awesome from the States that people tend to forget. I personally think that I'll apply for one of the Biggies when I do my Ph.D. cus I believe I'd quite enjoy living in New England or maybe some place with nice weather like San Francisco (?)...

yeah i think most people go without the meat substitutes but i'm not gonna do that, at least not right away. i'll want burgers and sausage every now and then, so i'll get the fake versions sometimes but they do cost a lot so i won't get them all the time.

this is pretty silly. i do like meat, a lot! i dunno where you heard british meat is terrible, cos i get the impression from seeing angus beef burgers in menus all over the world that scottish meat is pretty highly regarded. also i don't know if there are many people who really give a shit about how 'good' the meat is. i mean, it all tastes the same - some steaks can be more SUCCULENT or whatever, but it's not like there is a world of difference between a mcdonalds and a burger from a restaurant. mcdonalds is crappier, but it still basically the same taste.

i'm not swearing off meat cos i don't like it, i don't think anyone does it for that reason at all.

Well, the thing is that I haven't heard that british meat is terrible... I've tasted it. To be honest and fair, is not like all british meat is horrible. But good quality meat is ridiculously expensive and hard to find, that's the problem.
And you are soooooooooooooooooooooo wrong when you say that all the meat tastes the same... Succulent is just a way to cook it. But there's a hell of a difference in meat... A HELL! Of course if for you meat is burgers then you don't really know what good meat is since burgers (and specially if from Mcdonalds) are just partly made out of meat.
However the world of meat is very varied. The cow in itself already has different kinds of meats that taste different and should be cooked differently: The Sirloins, the plate, the brisket, the shanks, etc...
I mean, I agree with you that people don't give a shit about meat because.... why would they? But thenif you really tasted the different good meats and all, you'd give it a second chance.
I'm not saying that you're swearing off meat cus u don't like it... I'm saying that you're swearing it off because you don't like it enough lol....

Anyway... And btw England has one of the highest rates of people that doesn't eat red meat in the western world (in the eastern world hindus can't eat red meat).

playing barre chords with your thumb in no way risks injury, nor does it prevent you from playing them the correct way when the situation arises!

there is no wrong or right way to play guitar, christ.

It can actually injure your hand. Well, unless you have huge hands like Hendrix or Vai.
I particularly do not have huge hands, and I played with my thumb over the neck for a long time; I did chords with the thumb and all the shit, and since I played a lot, at some point I got tendinitis (or however you call it in english).
I was told by the doctor that it was probably because I wasn't playing right. This made me mad, so after some months, when my hand had healed, I started serious lessons of classical and electric guitar, and I must say that just then (after playing for about 3 years) I learned to play the guitar.
Just simple things like always pressing the strings with the very tip of your fingers, or keeping the thumb in the centre of the back of the neck can give you such versatility and agility in playing is insane.
I mean, I still use the thumb to make chords sometimes, but only when I am playing stuff by SRV or like John Lee Hooker, cus they have some thumb fretting techniques and stuff, but in general I never put my thumb in strings.
I would advice you that if you wanna take guitar seriously, learn first how to play properly with proper technique, and then once you have mastered the guitar well enough (you feel comfortable playing; it feels natural) move on to your own technique (what would feel even more comfortable).

i saw that dream theater show last night...it was probably the biggest musical disappointment of my life. three was just goofy, i don't know what they were doing but the singer shouldnt make noises like that, between the buried and me, i like their music, but seeing them live really made me realize how much of a NOVELTY act they are. i didn't really enjoy it. opeth ruled, they put on an incredible show


then i saw dream theater.

oh lord.

they have this big screen projector, which plays this footage they found packed in boxes from 1992. shitty, shitty cg with shit like, A BURNING HEART FLOATING OVER A BED. it looked like an awful adventure game that noone has heard of

they kept showing pictures of their album covers mixed with this awful cg which made it seem like an infomercial. james labrie looked like a huge faggot and he definitely sounded like one. it dawned on me completely that no matter how much i used to like this band, and no matter how well these dudes play they will never write good songs. mr. petruccis tone was honestly awful and mr rudess had this fucking TERRIBLE synth piano that sounded like a preset in the first version of logic. it was one of the most embarrassing things i've seen adult men do. my friend and i made a pact to never listen to dream theater again. it won't be hard.
oh dear...

edit: did you see the same show as me? lol

There's never been a lot to expect from DT with their pseudo progressive rock.... or was it progressive metal?

Alright, I'll give you my personal account of vegetarianism.

For 17 years I lived in Chile: that country next to Agentina; enclosed by mountains on one side and the sea on the other. There I met tons of people, just like anybody else who lives his life in a single place for many many years would do. Out of all the people I met there, those who were vegetarians were no more than about 3.
Now, I find myself in England. Having lived here for about 6 months and meeting just about the average amount of people that anybody meets in his fresher's year in Uni (which is, of course, less than all the people you have met so far in your life), I find myself knowing about 15 people which are vegetarian.

Now, a little bit of common knowledge: Chile, as well as Argentina, is broadly knwon for the quality of its meat.  Both countries have optimal conditions for the breeding of bovines, and therefore the final product is very good. Because of this, it is part of the culture to eat loads of meat (and very good meat).+

As a strong supporter of determinism and psychological egoism then, I think that the rate of vegetarians in countries like England and the USA is bigger because they have not tried (or are not used to) good quality meat, and therefore their percieved well-being obtained from following their moral values is higher than their percieved well-being from eating meat, thus motivating them to choose the vegetarian ways. Or in other words, they do not like meat enough to not stop eating it. The meat in your country is generally so shit that you don't give a damn not eating it anymore.

Personally, I could not live without eating meat. Even if is this shitty English meat, if I didn't eat any meat I'd feel sick. Well, I wouldn't feel sick, but I'd feel that I havn't eaten properly and that I am still hungry in a strange way. I know that eating loads of meat is not that healthy and shit, but as long as I am still young and slim, I don't care.

Anyway, I understand tho why you have stopped eating meat; and although I'd recomend you to go to Chile and eat a proper barbeque and then reconsider, I also would recomend you to eat loads of hummus and avocado, because they're fucking awesome and they're vegetarian shit.

Troll or not troll, the best advice I can give to you when life steps on you with his fucking big and heavy foot, is to watch Monty Python on YouTube and have a good time laughing your ass out.ñ

Oh yeah! Funk!

I LOVE funk, its fucking awesome.
Although I don't really kno that much funky stuff since I started listening to it recently as well, I can recomend you specially the following bands (oh and btw, specially their 60-70 stuff):

Tower of Power:
Absolute awesomeness. Just listen to Squib Cakes and you'll get your mind blown away by some of the most catchy brass passages (and the guitar solo is also rle cool). I think they don't need a lot of presentation, since as soon as you listen to them, u'll understand what they're about. I must alert you that their stuff towards the 80s was quite crap just as almost every other funk band that tried to remain in the charts during the 80s.
Albums from these guys I'd recomend are:

- Tower of Power: The third one. Simply good... I mean what else can I say? a good combination of good riffs and catchy songs. And also very kindda soul/funk which in my oppinion is better than the more popular kind of dance/funk

- Back to Oakland: Their fourth one. A bit different from the last one in some respects but nevertheless awesome. I repeat that Squib Cakes is one of the best songs ever.

The albums before these 2 are also of very good quality.

Kool & the Gang:
A bit more inclined towards the dance funk area and still awesome. Some of their songs are rle famous like Hollywood Swingin'. In my oppinion some of their songs have the best funk brass passages ever writen... Rle skilled brass players.
I can't rle think of any albums cus to tell u the truth I don't have any by them; just a best hits one. But amongst the songs I rle like are for example: NT, Love the Life you Live and Open Sesamme.

And... well, those two are my favourites at the moment but there are SOO many good Funk bands that I'd recomend, for example: Funkadelic, Sly and the family Stone, James Brown, etc...
So yeah, hope that helps ​... Although that's just counting the 60-70s funk, cus then there's modern funk, and latin funk which are fucking awesome as well, but those bands listed before are kindda an introduction ​.

Hey, since there is a Canadian GW meet in the work I thought I'd try my luck/get my paedo on at seeing if anyone is interested in a meet in the UK?

I am 20/M/ - Bristol based most of the time and it's pretty easy for me to get to London etc.

I'm  based in Brizzle too
I say Bristol is a nice place...............................

I didn't think this film was bad at all! I think that there are a couple of good aspects about the film, or at least that I found interesting:

1) It does a good job portraying the teen age and how teenagers are impetuous, unrespectful and believe they're always in the right. I might sound like an old man, but I really feel identified with the character in these aspects, because I was similar when I was younger lol.

2)Although I don't believe Jason Bateman is a very good actor, I thought his character is very well done in the sence that it really represents the kind of people that are lost in their lives, and whose wants sometimes clash with the expectations of society, which leads them to do rushed things................ (can somebody understand that?)

3) I really believe that Ellen Page does an OUTSTANDING work in this film. Many people might say its really annoying and stuff, but I believe its hard to negate her acting is very well done.

Well yeah. That's it. Although, to be sincere, if you want to me to say what film I thought was the best of 2007, I would say The Life of the Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (wich was released in 2007 in non-geraman speaking countries). Now that was a film I thought was ABSOLUTELY Beatiful and I would recomend to everybody.