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Nope.

Geographical convenience has more to do with the success of coffee shops than anything else. Starbucks is popular because it has lots of shops where there are lots of people.

We've got a handful of people barely outside the earths atmosphere.

Money, mostly. Afters the collapse of the soviet space program, there was little motivation to advance towards the big symbolic goals. We went for an approach seen as better value, sending lots of little probes rather than put all our effort and money into sending a handful of people.

I think the only way that space will be colonised in the near future is if we decide it is economical to mine asteroids, primarily for rare-earths, but that would depend on the presence of these elements in asteroids at high enough levels.

Anywhere that isn't starbucks. I don't like the prices or the attitude of the place. I've never been to a tim horntons

Water boils at 100C. It doesn't "break apart". Whether you put a glass of water in an oven, a microwave, or just place it in the sun, the same thing will happen to it. The hot spots can damage cells enough to kill you, but the changes are no different to what occurs during normal cooking. And I...

Browning is caused by the food oxidising. Food in the microwave doesn't brown simply because it isn't at a high temperature for long enough to react with oxygen. And as for you mention of microwaves destroying water molecules, that is wrong. It takes a huge amount of energy to destroy water...

Although conductive metals like copper tend to be diamagnetic and orient themselves opposite to applied fields. Iron cobalt and nickel are the only ferromagnetic materials elements at room temperature, due to the spacing between atoms falling into the window where it can occur. Coincidently...

Don't forget it has to be your right hand. I've been meaning to look into the quantum side to magnetism for a while, I study magnetism on my course but it's focused more on the materials and their properties than on magnetism itself.

Magnetic fields are due to motion of electrons. Every electron has a tiny magnetic field, but in a piece of metal the motion of electrons is random so there is no overall field. When you pass an electric current through the piece of metal, you force the electrons to move. The electrons are...

He should be in a small white padded box.

You mean the German poop-shelf toilet.

From wikipedia, an analysis of correlation between MBTI and the big five If you can find it, there is a lot of statistical information like this out there.

This drummer is a genius it's best to skip to about 1:00 YouTube - this drummer is at the wrong gig

It isn't a case of getting deep enough that it can't be dug up, it's a case of being too deep for contamination of the water table. Ground is built up through collection of sediments blown or washed from hills and mountains, and from the growth and decay of plant matter.

There's always the possibility of poor management over the decades, or in poorer countries where they just don't bother trying. With things like this, it's fine if everything is done right, but something going wrong is always a possibility. Although I'm personally not very concerned that...

The problem is that even if a plastic is completely toxin free, it can still degrade into toxic chemicals. And anyway, even though there are some relatively safe plastics about, they aren't good for everything, a huge amount of effort and money is being put into better plastics, but without many...

The space isn't really an issue as plastic bags will only be a tiny fraction of the material in a landfill. The packaging of the food that went into the bags is probably more of an issue. And it depends on the conditions and the material, but bio-degradable plastics take more like months to...

Yes, plastic bottles are recycled into fibres for carpets and things. Plastic bags can't be recycled into high value products because they're so thin that they degrade readily and pick up contamination. They're often recycled into large items such as car bumpers or bins. It isn't conclusive...

I didn't know that, very interesting. Though what is the stability of the underlay over a few hundred years?

First of all, if all plastic bags ended up in landfill, there would be no problems like animals being choked or drains clogging. These are problems due to improper disposal, they are not unavoidable consequences of using plastic bags. Plastic bags now are being made incredibly thin, the energy...

I can't cope without at least one working timepiece in my vicinity. I usually have absolutely no idea what the date is, but I'm a bit obsessive about the time of day. I have 3 working clocks in my room, all radio controlled. I only have two working watches though, and the strap of one of them is...

What does it mean? What does it do?

My grammar is poor sometimes, but there's a difference between bad grammar and ungood grammar. My problems with grammar arise from problems aligning my internal syntax to rules.

My calendar was still on january during february, and when it got to march I flipped the calendar onto february so that the page wasn't wasted. Actually I've just noticed it's still on april.

I'd try the mind games route. Brainwashed or not, a 5 year old kid is still only 5 years old, the "big and scary" card would probably have a decent chance of working.

For me, the feeling lasts until I open my mouth.

Probably so he'll know what not to do. I have a new hat.

It isn't a question of rules. Just a quick glance should tell anyone that this place is almost entirely in english, so it is a basic courtesy to at least just ask if anyone else speaks portugese first. Using another language is fine, what isn't fine is showing no concern for being understood...

General forum etiquette is to actually read a forum before you post in it.

If gamma rays are affecting it chances are that we would have noticed something odd with decay rates around nuclear reactors. Other types of radiation are probably also variable enough that we would have noticed a variation in decay rates by now. My moneys on neutrinos. Do you expect...

We need protein to live, not for it's calorific value. Our bodies are constantly breaking down old cells and need protein to replace them. If you have higher muscle mass you need more protein in your diet just to maintain it. And whenever you exercise vigorously a lot of muscle gets broken down...

I agree with this. Someone I used to work with was a go-karter, and he was tiny and thin, but he said he was big compared to a lot of people he competed against.

Si and sport still go together well. Se people play sport in "real time", they make decisions as they go and react immediately to new situations. Si people play sport from memory, rather than enjoying the thrill of the action, they enjoy the familiarity of something they do regularly. They...

Too late, I've already introduced insanity wolf to cookie cat.

I have a friend at uni with Exactly the same problem. Except he's in denial that it's a problem.

And they have less wheels

If this is true it would have implications on atomic clocks perhaps. I'm not sure of the maths, but does it make sense that the correlation to the rotation of the suns core could be due to shifts in the suns gravity slowing time, and the correlation with the seasons due to a variation in the...

If you want to be a good gamer, stick with just one game for as long as possible. To compete good you need a few hundred hours of playing a game. A good screen and a good mouse help too.

I may have a go at some guitar or keyboard stuff. I haven't really played for years but I intend to get round to something this summer.

I just used to enjoy using cheats to get money, and then building big houses. I've always been a fan of simcity though.

A major problem with the study of mental health and the pharmaceutical industry is the arbitrary definitions used to measure the effect of drugs. There is no empirical method of proving how well drugs treat these sorts of conditions. The method used instead is in the form of fairly subjective...

I would argue that a lot of the social side to it is it being an "ice breaker". It's not so much that people start smoking because their friends do, but people start smoking to get into new groups.

I find autopilot mode is an Si thing in general.

Although I have found some other scientific papers investigating the claim which actually found that smoking can raise the risk of alzheimers

Observation.

No this isn't about philosophy, it is about language. I've always found it strange how in the English language we use the word "it" sometimes. We say things like "it is raining". what does the "it" refer to? The word it is defined as referring to a specific, but it is often used where there is...