Cerebral Stasis

Unless I'm mistaken, seat belts do not have to be buckled unless there is turbulence or the plane is landing/taking off, so unless they had enough forewarning, it would be useless, and then even if there was enough forewarning for people to return to their seats and buckle in, it would all be based on whether or not the pilot remembered (read: was able to) press the passenger eject button, which then would only kill the passengers unless they were already far below the normal flight height.And then there would be the cost/inconvenience of installing seats that were comfortable, able to be reclined, and still able to drop out of the bottom of a plane...So, true, it may be a good addition, but it would (at least initially) be quite expensive and difficult to add without sacrificing comforts.

Our resources aren't necessarily primitive, since elements don't really become technologically advanced. They may have more or better resources of things that we lack (i.e. Hydrogen-3) that would make certain things (in this case, fusion) more easily accessible. And aside from that, there may be a larger isotope that we haven't discovered yet that would allow for an extremely powerful energy source, but it's a little unlikely. Besides, the kind of elements we have are, as far as we know, universal. And, of course, others may try different material composites and such than we would - different people (and possibly different creatures) think differently.It's a pleasant thought, though.

Heck, all I really care about is the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, maybe National Geographic, a news channel, and maybe G4. For the most part, though, I'd much rather browse the Internet than sit around watching shows on the television.

Hopefully North Korea wouldn't actually try using nukes against China, Japan, or South Korea due to how close the countries are and the risk of international nuclear contamination. As for their nuclear test, I don't quite see the point of dedicating a valuable nuclear weapon to an underground test, unless they really weren't show if it would blow up or not, which wouldn't make much sense to me, since they have already performed one test this year, unless I'm mistaken.

Yeah, that's why I felt the need to clarify that I meant aliens from other countries, not aliens from space.The threat of nuclear war is really not a whole lot more looming now than it was during the Cold War, as far as I can see. Sure, with history at our disposal, we can look back and point out that we never were THAT close to atomic destruction, but at the time the threat was very real, as it is now. I agree, however, with your point that this time around it has much more potential to rise to the point where someone finally pushes the button. At this point, what choice is there? If the USA would immediately disarm every nuke, terrorists will probably attack. If they stand firm, North Korea may attack.

When I think "multiverse", I think of multiple "dimensions" that share the same space as our universe, but all contain different matter (just in a different phase state, as someone from Star Trek would say). It's like a bunch of rooms lined up with no windows or doors - if you look at them from a certain angle, they will all line up and appear to be as one, but they are actually sharing the same plane. None of these "universes" (in this case, the rooms) would be truly aware of the existance of the neighbors unless they were able to punch through the wall from one to another. As odd as it sounds, this would be much more feasable than actually travelling from planet to planet by moving through space, since the distances between dimensions may not be as large as one would think.

Ah, it's like the Cold War all over. The United States is beginning to close itself due to alien threats (alien to the country, that is), while threatening countries are beginning to arm themselves with nukes (or at least going in the right direction). Iran was the ringleadre at first, and now North Korea has announced that they will be performing nuclear missle tests (at an undiscosed time/location) in order to prepare for the "US extreme threat of a nuclear war." Before we know it, we may be regularly seeing "Duck and Cover" instructional videos, stock-piling water and other supplies, and booking a spot in a nearby nuclear fallout shelter. Although the threat may not be as imminent as my wording implies, it is still a very real threat and someting to think about in the future.

Well, the killing of stingrays in an attempt to avenge Steven Irwin's death really is silly, but it's not like they're being wiped out - it was just a few isolated incidents, I believe. Statistically, more people would have died that day of car crashes than did stingrays.

I agree that it sounds hard to believe, especially since China isn't a fully industrialized nation yet, and its economy isn't the best out there. It's hard to say for sure until the circumstances can be duplicated. Here is an article on some of the details concerning the D-T (Deuterium-Tritium) fuel cycle, one of the most currently feasible methods for creating fusion power, as far as we know.

And, as some of you may have heard, there was another shooting in a small Amish community - the third school shooting this week. When did school shootings become so popular that everyone had to do them?

Not bad, looks like it may be interesting. Of course, the jinx about a forum is that in order for it to be fun, you need members, and in order to get members, it needs to be fun.

If you're desperate, you could always make something in a free WYSIWYG web-editor, like the Geocities one, and then compare what you did to the HTML code and learn from there. Of course, with things that are extremely foreign, a tutorial would be much better.

I wouldn't say that, jlhsalip. There are always cases in which violence is the only answer. For example, if you were being chased by someone with a passion to kill you that you did not understand. Some people will NOT bend to diplomacy.

Berakd, I'm not doubting your expertise, but you must keep in mind that those principles you were taught, although true in all cases that we have come across so far, are still just theories and may be completely wrong. Until we can prove one way or another in this case, the burden of proof is on those who claim the free energy, but it is also on the Laws of Thermodynamics. Scientific laws/theories are always being tested, and this is just another test.

It's possible, although it has not yet been confirmed. The less electromagnetic field that forms around a power line, the better. The fields would not only waste energy in and of themselves, but would also interfere with nearby power lines. High-voltage cables are heavily shielded to prevent energy loss in this way, although once again, it is possible.

As of the righting of this, the situation constitutes one armed gunman who has 4 hostages and, allegedly, an explosive device. Due to this, two schools have been shut down and evacuated. Holding up schools is getting popular - everyone's doin' it. More info.

Aeon, although data can be "zipped" by compressing, or "optimizing" the language in which the data is being transferred, solid matter wouldn't work that way. You couldn't have less matter and then make more out of it when you go there.One of the only ways that scientists think one could "travel faster than light" would be to travel through another dimension in which two points are connected. For example, imagine a cloth that's folded in half. In order to reach the other side, you would have to travel first up to the crease, and then back down, but if you could punch a hole through the cloth and go through the ripple, the distance would be but a fraction. That's the concept with which scientists primarily consider faster-than-light travel in space possible, and as far as we know, it's the most likely (and practically only possible) option.

Making a robot look and move human-like isn't the difficulty - making it think and act human-like is. The way to create a human-like robot is to create a program that compiles senses into a learning matrix that is able to dispose of useless information and store/compile useful information, like a baby's brain does. Of course, then you'd end up with an artificial human - it would think like it was taught, just like any person would. A pointless endeavor, except it would have a longer lifespan than a human would, thus making it a monument of sorts. That way, we can carry on our disgusting culture and freakish habits to another generation of evolution.

I hadn't yet heard about this. This is why religions are dangerous. First they divide, then they argue, then they insult, then they fight, then they drag the rest of the world into it.

Personally, I think that schools should be gender-specific and that children should be divided depending upon their ability to learn, meaning the smarter people will be put ahead and the slower ones held back. Of course, that's what schools are SUPPOSED to do, but don't.

That's nothing new. Sex has been publicized for thousands of years. It just seems worse now because new technologies make it easier to hear of all the stories.

I'm a big fan of philosophy and morals. Society couldn't exist without them, but religion is taking it a bit too far. Philosophies and morals keep societies together and bring about peace. Religions break people apart and cause wars. It's not worth it.

He IS a fable. He's just a very old fable that a lot of people believe in. What's the worst that could happen? They could be ugly creatures bent on conquest. We'd have a lot in common. Even if there is other life, the chances of us meeting in this gigantic galaxy are astronomical (excuse the pun). Of course, it's possible, and it may have happened, but WE may never meet THEM. If there's any meeting that will be done, I'm sure that it will take a far more intelligent form of life than we humans to initiate it.

The ideas would make for some great science fiction, but since, as has been said, sound needs particles to vibrate, it wouldn't work in space. As for the light thing, I don't really see how one would make a ship move by opposing gravitational forces with light. Is this just for an anti-gravity drive, or is it to actually move through space?

As far as we know it cannot come from nowhere, and there is enough evidence that we could probably say that it is impossible for it to come from "nowhere." However, it may seem to come from nowhere by simply being diverted from a source that we are unaware of and/or are unable to detect. This is a crude example, but if there was a battery that was in another dimension and was unable to be felt/seen/detected, but when put into contact with wires, would be able to power a device by having electrons jump the interdimensional gap, it would appear as if the power was coming from nowhere, while there would be a perfectly logical source, just not one we could detect. I'm not saying that the device proposed by Steorn is some kind of interdimensional battery, because it isn't, but my point is that there may be energy sources that are unable to be detected but can nevertheless be tapped, resulting in what would appear to be free energy. As for antimatter, I wouldn't count on it. True, it would create large amounts of energy if one could combine matter and antimatter, but antimatter is extremely difficult and expensive to create. It's just not practical. According to this article, running at optimal production speed, it would take two billion years to produce one gram of antihydrogen. Also, as the article says, it is difficult to store. Magnetic storage would require gigantic amounts of energy, which would be extremely expensive, difficult, and dangerous to maintain. With fusion, even if it could be used as a major power source for homes, it wouldn't solve every problem. A reactor small enough to fit in a vehicle would be extremely expensive and difficult to develop. Beyond that, one small enough to replace batteries would take decades upon decades of development. It's not the end-all cure to the energy crisis.