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@ OrLevitate To be honest I hadn't even considered the implications of stem cells, which is weird considering I have previously envisioned a future where we can all maintain 'health' via cloned organs/bodies. I can't really see a valid reason for denying cloned organs for anyone. My...

Hello all, It's been a while since I've posted anything but recently an issue has arisen that I would like some insight into. A couple of weeks ago my mother had to visit the hospital with some kidney troubles and I started thinking about the issue of organ donation. I've always agreed...

This seems much like your argument that light doesn't exist.

From what I remember from my university course it has to do with electrons dropping to a lower energy state resulting in the production/emission of a photon, but that was a long time ago and I may be wrong.

Anything can mean anything if you define it to be so. How insightful.

@ k9b4 I don't want to seem rude but aren't you a little sure of yourself? You are claiming a personal theory/idea/belief to be reality yet you offer no sort of reasoning. Anyway, as has already been stated energy and matter are one and the same.

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what your problem is. Human is that which is of the same species as you or I (or anyone else). I think a better question would be 'what is a person'? I once pondered what would be the definition of human in the future and I concluded anything...

'Everything' in this world is connected via a giant 'web' of cause, effect and inter-relatedness. To try and take one job out of the context of this 'web' seems a bit contrived.

I think a lot of people here are mixing up 'bossy people' with leaders. Whilst a leader can lead through bossiness it is probably the worst tool available. Personally, I think most bossy people are control freaks.

How is the 'energy' being given any meaningful form after the death of the organism? It seems to me as though you're proposing that software can run independent of hardware.

I was just reading an article in the local paper about a suicide 'vicitim' and it got me thinking. Are people that commit suicide victims or perpetrators of a 'crime' or both? Obviously another individual can't be the perpetrator else the 'crime' would be murder, yet whenever I hear...

Whilst I was wondering around the net I stumbled upon this 'article' that seemed to describe something about me quite well. http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html It's not that lengthy and it even has a funny cartoon. Anyway, I was wondering how many of...

At the very least I expect them to acknowledge that they are wrong, never use their irrational fears as an excuse and actively try to overcome their reactions. I don't know. Is that expecting too much?

I'm not so sure that it is that simple. A new-born kitten might exhibit seemingly random behaviour but I would hardly consider it capable of being a threat. Yet zoophobes find all animals frightening (unless they are partial zoophobes). Besides, if threat were the issue then I should be able to...

I'll start off by making it clear that I don't suffer from any phobias and thus find it rather difficult to understand them. I do have a tendency to dislike and avoid painful stimuli but I'd hardly classify my responses as phobic. Anyway, recently I started reading about zoophobia and I...

Not sure why people are making things so difficult. Woo-woo in maths is just hilarious. Anyway as has already been pointed out the opposite of 1 is -1.

@ Pyropyro It has since been shown that human brains can regenerate, either naturally or with medical aid. Stem cells are great.

I've always been a fan of the Orsimer (Orcs), and to a lesser extent the Bretons. I always seem to have a Breton Mage and an Orc Battle-mage. Was this thread motivated by the recent release of Elder Scrolls Online?

I'm not sure you are using the word 'awareness' in the correct fashion. By your definition it would seem an electron is 'aware' of its parent nucleus. For the term to remain meaningful in this discussion I think we need decide whether there is a lower limit on the complexity of an object that...

Welcome back. When you say you are an addict what do you actually mean? There are many levels and types of addiction in modern society ranging from the mundane (caffeine, shopping, internet, porn, sex, etc) to the more troublesome (hard drugs, etc). Do you judge addicts in general to...

I'm unsure that it is so easy to tell with an erect penis, unless the guy has lot's and lots of foreskin.

I find the whole notion completely baffling and barbaric. Here in Australia it seems to be a non-issue except in certain migrant communities. I remember when my nephew was a baby and his father wanted him circumcised because "he wanted him to be the same". My ex's sister also wanted him...

I can't find it at the moment but a few weeks ago I watched a TED Talk in which some guy made the claim that intelligence was the ability of a complex system to maximize its potential future outcomes. He even had a rather elegant equation (are equations concrete definitions?).

Because teens are human. All humans that aren't inhibited by social conventions use sex as a form of social currency.

Ignorance by its very nature is bliss. If one is unaware of something one can't worry about it. The only intelligent beings we know of (ourselves) seem to have taken quite some time to have evolved yet in the relatively short time we have been here we have changed our environment on such a...

Seriously, what is wrong with these people that feel the need to eat an animal whilst it is still alive? I think they must be suffering from some form of psychopathy. Has anyone here ever knowingly eaten living animals (swallowing a fly doesn't count)?

I've known since my schooling days that the easiest way for me to understand a complicated concept in maths was for me to try and explain it to a third party. Recently I also came to the realization that I find it so much easier to correct or improve something rather than create something from...

I've found that some guys are too embarrassed to shake (enough) and they are the ones that stink of piss. 'OMG, he's playing with himself'.

I apologise in advance if people find this question to be crass or disgusting but I feel it is quite valid. This question specifically relates to the inconsistencies present in most people's thought processes. So, if you were to (somehow) have some faeces splashed on your leg would you be...

@ Howitzer I've probably been doing a poor job of describing my thoughts/feelings regarding this. I'll try and expand on it. For me shallow can refer to many aspects of gameplay or design. Some examples would be; - A closed-world. Linear progression sucks. - Repeating assets. NPC's and...

I dislike mind-games due to their often intended uses. It can be a tool like any other. When the intent is silly social positioning then it is just a waste of effort (because I believe social positioning is a waste of time and effort).

It's not that I find the games to have changed so much but rather my expectations of them as I've become older and more jaded. If anything I find most modern games to be of superior quality (due to increases in available technology). Having said that most modern games are released in an...

If you want complexity in ship design then I can't really recommend DW as it's ship design is limited to adding components with weight and energy requirements to certain hull classes (escort, frigate, etc). However, in most aspects it is the best 4X game I've played. The civilian trade...

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before. Maybe I've even mentioned this on here before (my memory is refusing to work at the moment). For the last few years I have been finding it very hard to really enjoy pretty much any game I have played. They all seem so shallow. If not at first...

After a recent desire to get back into some good old space based 4X games I found StarDrive but quickly found it to be shallow in all but ship design. Then I discovered Distant Worlds (with expansions) and I couldn't believe I had never heard of it before. It has now become my favoured...

From everything I have learnt human intelligence seems to be the result of numerous inter-connected things. A few of these are; - We began cooking our food which gave us access to more energy. - We domesticated wild animals, specifically the dog. - We developed a language complex enough to...

Spot on. It's all just tricks of the brain.

How much of all of this is based on arrogance and conceit? Most of the mistakes made by our ancestors (and many people alive today) are based on our tendencies to anthropomorphise events and their causes. I'm sorry, but I hardly see such explanations as the only or best explanations and can't...

Well, this will teach me to write silly posts when I'm sick and medicated. :)

I've often heard people pronounce adobe with a stress on the 'e'. Why is this so? Wouldn't it be a silent 'e' as in abode? I've tried some Google searches but I can't seem to find the reason. At first I thought it was just the company name which was pronounced as such but the same...

I've read the whole thread and I have to say I can't really understand the need to have temp banned Janus. Sure, he may have been a bit adversarial but he's not the first to have been so. Besides, this feels to much like ganging up on the new guy. Having said all of that I'm in no position to...

After having spent some time googling this silliness I've come to the conclusion that I may be slightly wrong (in terms of convention). http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_hand_grip_rule#Direction_associated_with_a_rotation However, having to look something up to explain a mnemonic...

7/9 Intellect You are 66% knowledgable and 88% intellectual.

I was doing a quick google before bed-time for alternative terms for clockwise and anti-clockwise and I have yet to find anything. I wonder how people described rotation before we had clocks. Would it have been compass directions?

@ Hawkeye I think you are missing the point. That only works if your point of reference on the screw (or the hand) is at the 'top' edge. Otherwise it could well rotating to the top, bottom or left. It is entirely relatively to the reference point you are using and the mnemonic doesn't...

@ Minuend My hand doesn't move laterally when I am tightening/loosening a screw or bolt. It twists.

@ redbaron The same confusion applies to the hand. It doesn't matter what is turning. Something that is rotating clockwise is moving both left and right.

I think there are too many exceptions for it to be a proper mnemonic. - Gas fittings. - Lawn Mower blades ( mostly anything that rotates will be tightened in the opposing direction). - Head bolts on some engines. - Some electronics casings (don't get me started on crazy triangular screw...

Here in Australia all gas fittings are 'reverse thread'. I've known a few people to break their bbq fittings.

What bugs me about that phrase is that it isn't very specific. Right and left from which perspective? Clockwise is right from the top yet left from the bottom but nowhere in that phrase is such specified. Interestingly enough I know it as anti-clockwise as opposed to counter-clockwise. I...