joke_slayer

one of my friends showed me this video and thought it was too cool to not share (explanation http://www.quantumlevitation.com/levitation/The_physics.html ) I skimmed through the science bit, and it doesn't seem too complicated and since then I've basically been trying to think of all the potentials applications for this...... (if only we could find superconductors that work close to room temperature)

Ok. Here is where I find a fault with anyone saying that physical punishment is a 100% no go. Say you have a kid who doesn't know any better than to go and play in the street. You can tell them "No" and put them in "time out" as much as you like, but they won't know why you did it. They don't understand that they become roadkill once they get hit by a car.... Say you give them a spanking instead. They will mentally associate playing in the street with pain, and therefore they will not play in the street. This applies to a a wide variety of situations such as touching the stove, or something of that sort. I disagree, as a parent you would need to explain why you took certain action, and also if simply doing a time-out wouldn't work, confiscating they're toys, and not letting them out to play with their friends would also give this negative association of "playing in the street = bad", it just won't be associated with pain

after reading this topic I got a bit worried by the amount of people that would cause physical harm to their children while spanking and stuff along those lines is one thing (which I disagree with), some people have suggested they would go way beyond that, which I found particularly disturbing after coming across this feature on the BBC yesterday, some people here would probably benefit from having a look at it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15288865 (the last section is the most relevant to this topic) personally I think that a good parent should never resort to causing physical harm to the child (this includes spanking), one does not have to resort to those tactics discipline a child: suitable punishments would imo include a time-out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-out_(parenting) removal of privileges for a certain amount of time (e.g. confiscating his games console or toys for the rest of the day or something) or making the child do extra chores or a combination of these methods this would of course depend on the age of the child, what they did and the seriousness of what they did i.e. younger children may not be able to do chores or if and older child has caused a mess which needs to be cleaned up, a suitable punishment imo would be to make them clean it up. and of course the parent would need to make sure the child understands what he/she did wrong, the parent would need to explain it properly once the child has calmed down another important aspect of parenting is the "conversations" on topics including sex, alcohol, drugs, what to do and not do on the internet and so on and for this type of situation I'd say the best thing to do would be to be open, encourage the child to ask questions and give them an honest answers (though perhaps not in full detail), and DO NOT leave it too late (e.g. waiting for your teenager to come home drunk to have the conversation on alcohol would be leaving it too late) then again I'm only 21 and don't plan on becoming a parent for at least another 8-9 years so I'm probably not a good source for tips on parenting, but this is what I think

Well, after watching 3 of the quarters (overslept and missed most of SA vs Aus), I'd say that they were pretty tense. Wales certainly looked dangerous, scoring 3 tries against the defense that kept Aus tryless, keeping the Irish back row at bay and performing to a very high standard for the full 80 minutes It looks like the Tonga game was the kick up the backside France needed to improve their game, they started of strongly, but then stagnated a bit in the second half, but still managed to come out in front of an uninspiring England who had been underperforming throughout this world cup Seems like Aus got past some of their injury problems, and showed good signs by being able to maintain the narrow winning margin at the end NZ in the end got a comfortable looking scoreboard, but most of those points came late in the game when the Argentinians were tired, or from the many penalties conceded by the Argentinians, opportunities I feel they wouldn't get that many of against the other teams that are left (well depending on which French team turn up). Piri Weepu seems to have had the weight of expectation shifted onto his shoulders now, while Cruden seems to look a lot more comfortable than Slade at 10. Seeing the prediction accuracy I've had so far I don't think I'll bother with them now.... But judging by the teams we have left we should expect 4 great games up ahead

Now that the pool stages are over, time to check my previous predictions and make predictions for the knockout stages Pool A Actual result: 1 - NZ, 2 - France, 3 - Tonga, 4 - Canada, 5 - Japan NZ were very good and won very convincingly against all who played them, although now Carter is out of the world cup, and this could make a huge difference to the results in the rest of the tournament. A bad French side turned up, and somehow managed to get second even after they lost rather convincingly to Tonga, and didn't play that well against any of the other teams. Tonga came good towards the end of the pool stages after a surprising defeat to Canada that unfortunately stopped them from going through to the quarters. Canada and Japan both seemed greatly improved from last time, but still lagging behind the other teams. Pool B Actual result: 1 - England, 2 - Argentina, 3 - Scotland, 4 - Georgia, 5 - Romania This group was largly underwhelming, England played poorly in 3 of their 4 games, yet somehow managed to come out on top, Argentina were unlucky to lose to England, but lucky to beat Scotland, they seem to have some good new players coming through although there are still a lot of things they need to improve on, entering the 3N will surely help them and make them much more competitive by 2015 or 2019. Scotland were very disappointing, coming within 10 minutes of losing to Romania, getting an unconvincing win against Georgia, and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in their 2 big games mean they are on their way home. Georgia were pretty good, gave both Scotland and Argentina somewhat of a scare (at least before they got tired out towards the end of the game) and played very well against England, dominating the territory in the first half of the game, and are definatly a team to watch out for in future. Romania failed to live up to expectations after pushing Scotland so close in their first game. Pool C Actual result: 1 - Ireland, 2 - Australia, 3 - Italy, 4 - USA, 5 - Russia After a terrible round of warm up games, blighted by poor results and plenty of injuries, Ireland have stumbled onto some amazing form, shocking Australia, and putting in very convincing performances against Russia and Italy. Australia managed a reasonable comfortable second, although they are in a fair bit of trouble, with plent of injuries and a tough path through the knockout stages. Italy were disappointing in that they only seemed capable of playing for the first 40-50minutes of the games, although they played very well during this time, keeping Australia on 6-6 and Ireland on 9-6 at half time, they lost out to fitter teams in the last 30-40 minutes of their games. USA were promising, beating Russia, and giving both Ireland and Italy some trouble. Russia did better than I was expecting, their defence left much to be desired, but they were very promising in attack, managing 3 tries against Italy, and 3 against Australia (which not many teams have done recetly). Pool D Acutual result: 1 - SA, 2 - Wales, 3 - Samoa, 4 - Fiji, 5 - Namibia Surprisingly I was very close to getting this right (about the with of a goal post to be precise). SA played well after an unconvincing win against Wales and made it comfortably through to the final, although they have lost Frans Steyn in the process meaning they are less likely to kick those 60m penalties in tight games, which could cause them some problems. Wales were very good, they were the better team against SA, and were unlucky to lose that game imo, but were pretty convincing after that. Samoa were another very good team, they gave both Wales and SA a scare, and were unlucky to lose the ball so many times while picking and driving less than 5 meters from the tryline, had they managed to get those points they would have made it through to the quarters. Fiji were very disappointing, getting heavy losses against Samoa, Wales and SA. Namibia have shown they they have some promising young talent, but are still a long way away from challanging the established countries. So basically I got none of the pools right overall I was hoping to see some closer matches and a few more upsets after the close games of the first weekend, but generally the games have been entertaining to watch. I am disappointed not to see one of the pacific island nations progress, Samoa was pretty close, and Tonga were even closer. Now for predictions: QF1: Wales vs Ireland This will be a great game I reckon, both teams have a very solid defence (with Ireland slightly in front), a good set of forwards (again Ireland slightly in front), but Wales seem to have better attacking options. It will be a very close game, and I'll say Wales win by less than 7 QF2: France vs England Both of these teams have been disappointing in the pool stages, but England still seem to pull out the results, while France just seem to collapse, will be interesting to see who Lievremont picks at 10, and which French team will show up on the day. If the French team get their act together they should win comfortably. However I don't really see that happening so I'd say England by less than 7 QF3: SA vs Australia Both of these teams have had injury problems, although I'd say Australia have been affected more than South Africa. Quade Cooper will be the key to this game, if he has a good performance Australia could win, however on such a big stage with so much pressure I think it will be more like for him to lose it (much like he did against Ireland) and cost Australia the match SA to win by 7-14 QF4: NZ vs Argentina NZ have breezed through the pool stages, Argentina had considerable, finally getting through with a late try against Scotland. Both teams have had injury problems, but I still don't see Argentina giving NZ too many problems. Even without Carter, New Zealand should still win this comfortably by 20+ points and now for pure speculation SF1: Wales vs England These teams played each other twice in the warm ups, both teams winning one. Since then England have stagnated, while Wales have just kept on growing. England seem to have a habit of pulling results out of nowhere when it really matters, but then again Wales always seem to find an extra gear when they play their big rivals England. I'd say Wales to win by 7-14 SF2: SA vs NZ This will be a titanic struggle, SA trying to become the first team to retain the world cup, while NZ wanting a long overdue victory. In August I would have said NZ would easily win this, however after they lost against SA in the 3N, and now that Carter is out, from what I can tell it will be up to Slade to play 10. From what I have seen of him he still has a long way to go to reach a level similar to that of Carter, he has made a lot of mistakes, and doesn't have a good kicking record at this world cup, which will prove crucial in such a game. Whats even worse for Slade is that he will have so much pressure on his shoulders from the home fans. In my opinion Slade will crack under all the pressure and SA will win by less than 7 3rd place play-off: NZ vs England Considering the mental state of both teams after losing in the semis, this would be a tough one to call. If there wasn't that to consider, NZ should win comfortably, however both teams performance could be negatively affected by their previous result, and probably NZ will be affected worse than England. Even so I'd say NZ by 7-14 Final: Wales vs SA A repeat of the game in the first weekend, where SA won by 1 after Wales narrowly missed a few kicks, without Frans Steyn SA won't be able to punish Welsh indiscipline as much. Whereas the Welsh have kept on improving so far throughout this world cup, and have had important players come back from injury. I'm still not sure PDV will make the right choices when it comes to picking the team for the game. For those reasons I'd say Wales to win by less than 7 (you heard it here first) *note these are my opinions, and my opinions alone* opinions? anyone agree, or think I've gone horribly wrong somewhere?

missed the last couple of games due to university starting again, and its a shame, sounds like SA vs Samoa was a pretty tense game, but I guess it somewhat vindicates my predictions in the first post that both Wales and Samoa would cause SA problems, even though the results weren't quite what I expected looking forward to the final 2 days of the group stages (well less than 2 days, Aus vs Russia about to kick off), particularly to England vs Scotland and Ireland vs Italy I reckon that even though the style of rugby played in those to games will not be the greatest, they will be very close and provide a great finish to the pool stages EDIT: wow France disintegrated in such a spectacular fashion.... well played Tonga

well, Ireland did beat Aus, and Wales were the better team against SA France did seem to improve towards the end of the match, that could have been NZ easing off, or it could have been Trinh-Duc showing why Lievremont shouldn't put a scrum-half at 10, I definately think that starting Trinh-Duc would have tilted the final result a bit more towards France though NZ would still have won it NZ certainly seem to be the best team out there, but assuming there are no major upsets changing the standings in pools C and D, they are going to have a tough route to the final, so its definatly too early to declare them winners

well, at the moment, in an Aus vs SA game, I would back SA. SA might not be as good in attack as Aus, but they have a great defence, and seem to be more likely to make Aus pay for the mistakes they make than the teams they have faced so far. Still a bit early for this talk though, almost have the games in the group stages still to go, and Italy (you can see the bias from a mile away can't you) and Samoa do still have a (small) chance of chance of changing the group results

I think we should be careful, and wait for the other experiments to confirm this result before we go crazy over this by my calculation it could be a miscalculation of a mere 18 meters that could cause this result, and as much as they have checked it, it wouldn't be out of the question that they might have missed something to account for that distance If this is real, it would have massive implications, and it would easily be one of the most important results of the last 100 years, and it could completly revolutionise several branches of physics I guess thats why I'm a bit skeptical, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and if Fermilab and the Japan experiment confirm these measurements, then that would account for extraordinary evidence in my book. But its still a bit early imo

well that was a great game, who said a good game has to have tries =P shame this made it so much more difficult for Italy to get to the quarters, but based on that performance, Ireland could go far South Africa played well, while Fiji was somewhat disappointing Argentina also looked pretty convincing

It doesn't feel like 10 years I was 11 at the time, and I remember the day very clearly, we were in the process of moving to another country, so we had gone there to sort some things out before heading back home to pack, we were due to fly home that evening Was at a friends house playing some old school videogames so I didn't pay much attention to it first, but as the afternoon progressed I realized what was actually happening. By late afternoon/evening I was in front of the tv with my family, I didn't really understand what was happening, except that the tv was just continously showing clips of the second plane hitting the wtc, and knowing that in a few hours I would be on board a plane, I was absolutely terrified. In Europe flights were not cancelled, however there were very strict security measures, all flights were delayed as there were massive queues to go through security and as I recall no one was allowed any hand luggage. While waiting for boarding, everyone crowded around the tv in the departure lounge. The actual flight was the tensest few hours in my life. I will never forget that day, it was a horrible crime that changed the world for the worse It caused 2 wars in which thousands of allied troops were killed and many more injures, not to mention the hundred thousand+, Iraqi and Afghani civillians and police killed. My thoughts go to all those who have died and those who have lost friends and loved ones to the attacks and to the wars that followed there are days where we remember other wars and such events, there is remembrance day, VE day, VJ day etc. the difference is that 9/11 was only 10 years ago, and therefore I immagine a large majority of the users of this forum still remember it, as opposed to the other events I have listed

Wales vs SA was a great game, Wales played really well much better than the boks, but I get the feeling that the ref made some terrible decision towards the end of the game Going to be really interesting to see the rest of the games between SA, Wales, Fiji and Samoa At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see Wales in the semis at least Speaking on the other games Italy really impressed me in the first half against Australia, Semenzato (scrum half) was very good and it certainly looks like we have finally found a good scrum half. Shame Italy disintegrated in the second half, was expecting their fitness to be higher and not ship quite so many points, but I'd say they are capable of beating Ireland and make it to the quarters Ireland got a decent win over USA, but I'm not too sure about how well they played, I think USA did play pretty well (while their fitness lasted at least), and definatly deserved that try at the end, I reckon they might give Italy some trouble, but I suspect the only win they could get will be against Russia And wtf is up with all these missed kicks

I agree, that game was a tad disappointing, especially after the other 3 games that were on today, neither side played well, but Argentina probably deserved the win more Tonga vs New Zealand I didn't find particularly entertaining, NZ played well for the first half and it was a totally one sided affair, second half was a bit more competitive, althought I'm not sure if thats down to NZ slowing down or Tonga playing well Scotland vs Romania was an entertaining game, Scotland made a lot of errors, while the Romanian forwards were immense and caused Scotland a lot of problems, gutted for them letting those 2 tries past at the end, they deserved a better scoreline, if not a win Fiji vs Namibia was closer than what I expected, both teams played an adventurous style of rugby that is good to watch, shame that Namibia in particular made so many handling errors, or the game could have been much closer, while the Namibian 10 definatly has some good kicking boots France vs Japan was a lot closer than what I expected, was great to see Japan keeping France honest for a good 70 minutes, shame they allowed the French to score 3 tries in the last 10 minutes, they most definatly deserved a better scoreline Looking forward to the games tomorrow (and hope Italy can somehow manage and upset)

well I live in England University will start in a couple of weeks, so watching the latter parts of the group stages will be tricky and I'll be cheering for Italy all the way =P

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/tournamentrules/index.html i short, the two top teams move on from each group, using the point system Win - 4 points Draw - 2 points Loss - 0 points 4 or more tries - 1 point Loss by 7 points or less - 1 point and with these teams taking part in quarterfinals thus QF 1 - Winner pool C v Runner up pool D QF 2 - Winner pool B v Runner up pool A QF 3 - Winner pool D v Runner up pool C QF 4 - Winner pool A v Runner up pool B and then semifinals SF 1 - Winner QF1 v Winner QF2 SF 2 - Winner QF3 v Winner QF4

for some reason that just reminded me of this article I saw a while ago, thought it might interest some people here http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html

I quit a couple of months ago because a lot of my favourite activities were being ruined by bots, and rather than addressing the issue jagex was releasing nonsense like vanity/loyalty items, that and maybe now i'll focus more on studies =P

well, after a decent performance in Belgium, Jenson Button came to Manchester today, just thought I'd share one of the pictures I managed to take http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/26/img88892.jpg/

Well, its less than 2 weeks to go till the rugby world cup in New Zealand (so fun time conversions for everyone =P), so I thought i'd start a thread about it for discussions, and maybe to bring it to the attention of people who might not know too much about it. The 20 teams taking part ar divided into 4 groups of 5, with the top 2 teams in each group qualifying for the quarter finals, and the top 3 qualifying for the next world cup in 2015 The groups are as follows: Pool A: New Zealand France Tonga Canada Japan Pool B: Argentina England Scotland Georgia Romania Pool C: Australia Ireland Italy USA Russia Pool D: South Africa Wales Samoa Fiji Namibia And now for my predictions: Pool A I expect New Zealand to win the group, and France to come second, though with the French in rugby you can never be too sure, I wouldn't put it wouldn't surprise me if they either convincingly win against New Zealand, or convincingly lose to Tonga (who have been performing well recently), with Japan 4th and Canada 5th Pool B I'm expecting England to win this group, and based off recent performances, I think Scotland should be able to beat Argentina for second. Georgia should manage 4th, but I would expect them to give at least one of the bigger teams in the group a big scare, if not get an upset win, while Romania should be 5th Pool C Based on recent performance Australia should quite easily win this group. Even though they haven't played well in the build up to the world cup so far, Ireland should still manage to beat Italy to second (although I hope its the other way round, and based on the last encounter between the two sides that is also entirely possible). And USA should come in front of World Cup newcommers Russia Pool D This pool is very difficult to call with 4 teams who have a good chance of making it to the quarters South Africa on paper are the best team in this group, but have been underperforming for a while now. Wales are a good team, they have some very good players and have performed well in the warm up matches, however they face Fiji and Samoa, Wales' two world cup bogey teams. Samoa have performed well recently, including a stunning victory against Australia a couple of months ago and I'd say are perfectly capable of winning against the other teams in the pool on a good day. Fiji are probably the weaker of the 4 sides (again based off recent performance), however it wouldn't surprise me to see them getting through to the next round. Sadly for Namibia I don't see them winning a game, and I feel rather sorry for them since they managed to end up in a pool with 3 teams who have a reputation for being very physical. I'd guess that the final order could be 1-Wales, 2-South Africa, 3-Samoa, 4-Fiji, 5-Namibia, but I wouldn't bet on it. Overall I'm expecting New Zealand and Australia to make it to the final, with New Zealand coming out winners in front of a home crowd (even though they do seem to have become allergic to winning the world cup). Meanwhile I think France will beat Wales in the 3rd place play-off. Any Questions/Criticism/Other stuff to discuss? EDIT: btw official site http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/

Ahmadinejad is just a troll tbh

i suspect thats a troll, i'd immagine it will still get arrested for inciting riots

went to the manchester cleanuo today, was glad to see loads of people there, and a lot of shops opening very proud of manchester on another note haven't heard about any trouble so far tonight *fingers crossed*

I can imagine that. People are getting angrier and angrier about this, if things go bad tonight and continue into tomorrow with no visible police crackdown then people might take things into their own hands. Also the BBC need to stop talking about what happened last night. I want to know what's happening NOW. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_manchester

That couldn't be further from the truth. The students rioting had at least a reason, I was among the peaceful protesters but the rioting was done for a REASON. That reason maybe couldn't justify violence, but it wasn't a bad one. Rioters now are ONLY RIOTING FOR MONEY, FUN AND CHAOS. They're not students, they're underclass teenage thugs who have no worth in this society whatsoever. I don't want them rehabilitated, I want them arrested and taught the word of the law. And I'm a liberal. I concur. i also agree, this is nothing like the student protests

following this on twitter and the bbc http://twitpic.com/63irxw that was not long ago at the arndale apparently and a fair bit of trouble going on in salford as well apparently, i'm not happy -.- from the bbc live feed