assassin_696

Now that it's past his birthday this thread might die, but I find it ridiculous that we should have to debate whether or not one of the pioneers of modern science deserves a thread honouring his 200th birthday. So any further petty minded debate to that effect (Sly Wizard) can clear off.

Happy birthday Charlie old boy! Thanks for the wonderful ideas and perspective on life.

Young Man Blues - The Who Live At Leeds, fantastic album.

Since it seems like most of my single friends are conveniently on holiday, and the ones left are obligated to take their girlfriends out I'll probably just be at home. Inevitably a few of us single ones left might cluster together to drink to our sorrows (but heavier wallets).

Anorexia is an eating disorder, not just a low weight. There's nothing unhealthy about being skinny, so if he's just wanting to keep fit then bulking isn't an issue. But obviously if he's wanting to gain weight then weightlifting with a protein heavy diet is the way to go.

Sounds like you've got a pretty fast metabolism, so realistically you're not going to be bulking up that much until you hit your twenties, although your body might change. But if you're really serious about building muscle (and you still can, even with a very fast teenager's metabolism) then you've got to follow a pretty serious lifting routine. Split routine, two to three body parts every 48 hours, lots of protein. http://www.animalpak.com/ is pretty good for motivation articles and no-nonesense advice. But if you just want to keep in shape, lift weights alongside cardio. Rowing machines are great for cardio and a good muscle workout as well. Circuit training (or hill spring training) is the toughest cardio stuff you can do. I'm not a fan of jogging, it's not bad but I think your body adapts to the monotony of it. When you're lifting weights aim for about 10-12 reps and focus your workouts around the big three, bench, squats and deadlifts to build a solid core strength. I'd say unless you really want to aspire to a bodybuilder's physique, leave all that kind of serious stuff like creatine, protein shakes and no cardio to one side. If you just want to stay healthy you can get stronger without neglecting cardio.

How old are you?

To be fair, this wasn't a very well written or intelliget critique of feminism. It's mostly just setting up lots of strawmen or using extreme views to represent a whole movement. And simply pasting somebody's (self-inflated) opinions here isn't particularly good topic material, but I want to see where you go with this.

This should be in the Music and Movies forum, but I don't think it's a particularly good idea for a topic. Locked.

This is probably better suited in The Gallery, but since you've already created a new topic there i'll just lock this one. For anyone wanting to give advice in the new thread, it's here. Locked.

I just want to say that I really admire your tenacity, and wish you the best of luck with getting to 500. Oh wai...

Unrecognisable and almost completely unpredictable.

I absolutely agree that a many-angled approach is needed to fully understand things. I'm fully in favour of objective religious education being provided alongside every other subject at school. You can't understand so much of history without understanding religion, and vice versa. I also somewhat agree that science and religion can co-exist. Although the philosophy of taking something on faith and empirical proof are fundamentally at odds I don't think that means that science and religion taken as a whole are incompatible. Having an appreciation of multiple disciplines informs your understanding of others. Both sides of the debate are foolish to dimiss any incompatibilities between their worldviews and only seek confirmation bias.

Violin Concerto, 2nd Movement - Philip Glass I love this piece of music, it has a very sombre but exciting quality.

I like this quote a lot, and although I'm not accusing you of the misrepresentation that the Marx quote often gets I think it's worth quoting the passage from which it comes in full: I think the subtle difference is that Einstein is talking about how religion and science are often asking the same questions, and that kind of questioning probably comes from the same place within us. The faith that Einstein talks of isn't one of dogma or historical texts, it's more a sense of awe and wonder at the world guided by reason and the scientific method. These common goals of religion and science I admire, but Einstein's views on organised religion and personal gods are much less favourable.

Put well. Natural selection is an incredibly complicated process in the first place, so trying to model the future of an entire species based on only two traits that are either one or the other is very simplistic. Secondly, cowardice and bravery are unlikely to be traits exclusively coded for in genes. Many acts of bravery or cowardice are likely to be affected by external factors, such as who the person is with and who the person is defending/not defending. Of course that's not to say that during the initial hundreds of generations of human existence people who struck the right balance between running away when necessary and defending their land/family when necessary won't have preferentially been selected for, but to apply that reasoning to the relatively few (and decreasing all the time) generations of human's that have fought wars is naive.

Blood Bank - Bon Iver Seems to fit the snowy mood.

Unfortunately it looks like my school will be back open again tomorrow, had a great couple of days though. Perfect timing with finishing exams on Friday as well. People always bemoan how the country grinds to a halt on days like this, and how much it costs the economy. I find them quite interesting, and a break from the normal routine. Snow, for a few days, is quite fun.

I think it's very hard to assess whether or not religion has been of overall benefit to society. My hunch is that it hasn't, a lot of suffering has been caused by religion but I suspect that a lot of the good done might have been done without religion anyway. But there's no denying that religion can be of fantastic benefit to some people on an individual level (finding faith and hope) and on a larger scale through charities. Basically, I think it'd be nice if people didn't need religion to do good things but as long as they are doing good things their motive doesn't particularly bother me.

Perform a hypothesis test with a high significance level.

Why, when you look in a mirror, are you left-right inverted/flipped but not top-bottom?

Just a little puzzle: EDIT: Sorry, didn't see that pureprayer had posted this earlier.

We've had this debate before, and it's not particularly constructive or well done this time. Locked.

Two favourites of mine. [hide=Sonnet 116 - Shakespeare]Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.[/hide] [hide=The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock - T.S. Eliot]LET us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats 5 Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question 10 Oh, do not ask, What is it? Let us go and make our visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, 15 The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, 20 And seeing that it was a soft October night, Curled once about the house, and fell asleep. And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; 25 There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; 30 Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea. In the room the women come and go 35 Talking of Michelangelo. And indeed there will be time To wonder, Do I dare? and, Do I dare? Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair 40 [They will say: How his hair is growing thin!] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin [They will say: But how his arms and legs are thin!] Do I dare 45 Disturb the universe? In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, 50 I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume? And I have known the eyes already, known them all 55 The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, Then how should I begin To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways? 60 And how should I presume? And I have known the arms already, known them all Arms that are braceleted and white and bare [but in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!] It is perfume from a dress 65 That makes me so digress? Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. And should I then presume? And how should I begin? . . . . . Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets 70 And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? I should have been a pair of ragged claws Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. . . . . . And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! 75 Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep tired or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? 80 But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head [grown slightly bald] brought in upon a platter, I am no prophetand heres no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, 85 And in short, I was afraid. And would it have been worth it, after all, After the cups, the marmalade, the tea, Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me, Would it have been worth while, 90 To have bitten off the matter with a smile, To have squeezed the universe into a ball To roll it toward some overwhelming question, To say: I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all 95 If one, settling a pillow by her head, Should say: That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all. And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, 100 After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor And this, and so much more? It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: 105 Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all. . . . . . 110 No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, 115 Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous Almost, at times, the Fool. I grow old I grow old 120 I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. 125 I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown 130 Till human voices wake us, and we drown.[/hide]

I think the new Bruce Springsteen album is fantastic.