ZombieTrix 2012

If you have a statement:

A iff B iff C iff D

Is that the same as (A v B v C) iff D?

I'm supposed to find the limit, if it exists. I'm dealing with a sequence, but I'm not sure how to enter the notation here, so I'll say x(sub n+1) and x(sub n).

x(sub n+1) = 1+ sqrt[x(sub n) - 1]

My thinking is that x(sub n) has to be greater than [x(sub n+1)]^2 in order for there not to eventually be imaginary numbers. Or at least x(sub n) > 1 and the function has to be increasing. I don't know where to go with this. Can anyone help?

I mean, he was singing to American soldiers, who are mostly Christian, so wasn't he just pandering in all of that politically correct garbage? Why not just sing "I'll be Home for Christmas"?

I asked this once before and it got deleted probably because someone thought I was trolling, but I do want to know. If the answer is "we don't know," that's cool, but if you can tell me anything about when mammals and cephalopods split, I'd be interested. Thanks.

I'm making a warm blueberry soup today (it tastes rather like blueberry pie filling, but not as sweet, and with a hint of port... and obviously, it's not as thick). What would be a good main dish to go with it? Preferably lactose-free.

I have a cat who has allergies and constantly scratches at her neck. She is on steroids, but I worry about her kidneys. She is an indoor cat, but we do have an indoor/outdoor cat. Usually the one one with the allergies is the aggressor on the rare occasion that there is a kerfuffle. Anyway, cutting her claws doesn't really impede her scratching much. Do you think those claw covers might be a good solution to at least allow the neck to heal?

Because I can hardly even find questions I want to answer... but maybe that's just me. What say you?

I remember being told both that Galileo had been imprisoned and tortured by the Catholic Church and that he had not been condemned by them at all. I just searched the internet and found that Catholic Education Resource Center said that he was in fact imprisoned and tortured and forced to recant. Seems clear enough. But there was also a school in Massachusetts that says: "We know that he faced the Inquisition for publishing and defending that idea. We know that, in the face of opposition from the Church that he loved and the Pope Urban who had been his friend, Galileo recanted his findings." They do not mention torture at all. I researched this and catholic.com backs up what the Massachusetts school said. What is the truth?

http://www.catholic.com/library/Galileo_Controvers...

http://www.catholiceducation.org/article%E2%80%A6

As bettas go, I think mine has had it pretty good. He has a heater, a filter, a nice sized tank with things to swim in and out of. He's bout a year old. I came home from Thanksgiving (on Saturday) and he was looking "green around the gills," and lying on the bottom of the tank. He is still alive, but isn't eating and basically looks dead. Is there anything I can do for him? Unfortunately, I don't have stuff to test for water chemistry. I do use a water conditioner and cleaned his tank a few days before we left for Thanksgiving on Tuesday. (I had a pet sitter for the cat and she fed him while I was gone.) Should I add water conditioner? Change his water? Is there anything I can do to make him more comfortable? I feel bad for him!

I don't understand something:

First of all, I think I once saw someone use ^ to signify that the next number is an exponent. I don't know how to type exponents here, so I've used that.

48y^2-3w^4y^4

3y^4(16-w^4)

3y^4(4-w^2)(4+w^2)

3y^4(2-w)(2+w)(4+w^2)

Why do you not then need to factor (4+w^2) into (2+w)(2+w)?

I think I may have just figured this out on my own, but please let me know if I'm on the right track: is it because we don't know if it's (2+w)^2 or (2-w)^2?

Spiritually speaking, of course.

So they recently discovered that everything in the visible universe is flowing towards this spot about 46b light years away at a rate of 600km/s.

If a photon is headed in that exact same direction, isn't it, in effect, going faster than the speed of light?

And do you feel concerned that your friends might think you were raptured away?

I know you guys don't seem to agree on much, but I'm wondering: what can you identify as things that you have in common?

As I'm sure you all know, a woman recently gave birth to 8 babies that were allegedly conceived using in vitro fertilization. Her doctor had recommended that she abort some of the fetuses to increase the likelihood that the remaining fetus(es) would develop into (a) healthy baby (or babies). She declined, citing God.

So my question is this: if you are infertile, isn't in vitro fertilization already going against God's will? If not, why not?

Thanks.

Why would saying something when you're likely delirious with pain make it more believable? I should suddenly believe something ridiculous just because someone said it on their death bed in direct contrast to their previous beliefs and all available evidence?

I'm tired of everyone whining about how re can't this and re can't that. ReCAN! Yes. Re. Can!

So, spiritually speaking, why would you recant?

Does this study make you think any differently about that opinion?

Study: Family behavior key to health of gay youth

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer Lisa Leff, Associated Press Writer – Mon Dec 29, 12:02 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Young gay people whose parents or guardians responded negatively when they revealed their sexual orientation were more likely to attempt suicide, experience severe depression and use drugs than those whose families accepted the news, according to a new study.

The way in which parents or guardians respond to a youth's sexual orientation profoundly influences the child's mental health as an adult, say researchers at San Francisco State University, whose findings appear in Monday's journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Parents love their children and want the best for them," said lead researcher Caitlin Ryan, a social worker who directs the university's Family Acceptance Project. "Now that we have measured all these behaviors, we can see that some of them put youth at extremely high risk and others are wellness-promoting."

Among other findings, the study showed that teens who experienced negative feedback were more than eight times as likely to have attempted suicide, nearly six times as vulnerable to severe depression and more than three times at risk of drug use.

More significantly, Ryan said, ongoing work at San Francisco State suggests that parents who take even baby steps to respond with equanimity instead of rejection can dramatically improve a gay youth's mental health outlook.

One of the most startling findings was that being forbidden to associate with gay peers was as damaging as being physically beaten or verbally abused by their parents in terms of negative feedback, Ryan said.

In the two-part study, Ryan and her colleagues first interviewed 53 families with gay teenagers to identify 106 specific behaviors that could be considered "accepting" or "rejecting." For example, blaming a youth for being bullied at school, shielding him from other relatives or belittling her appearance for not conforming to social expectations fell into the rejecting category.

Next, they surveyed 224 white and Latino gay people between ages 21 and 25 to see which of the behaviors they had experienced growing up. The responses then were matched against the participants' recent histories of severe depression, suicide attempts, substance abuse and unsafe sexual behavior.

While the results might seem intuitive, Ryan said the study, funded by the California Endowment, was the first to establish a link between health problems in gay youths and their home environments.

She has used the information in workshops with parents and other caregivers who have strained relationships with their gay teenagers, and said many were alarmed enough to make immediate changes in their interactions.

Ryan recalled a teenage girl whose mother forced her to date a boy and sent her to live with her grandmother when she learned her daughter was a lesbian. After hearing about the connection between parental attitudes and suicide, the mother stopped arranging the dates with the boy and instead inquired about her daughter's girlfriend.

"She was really concerned," Ryan said. "She saw that her daughter had become increasingly withdrawn and that she was contributing to these feelings of isolation and sadness."

In her paper for the journal Pediatrics, Ryan recommends that medical professionals ask young patients how their families have reacted to their sexual orientations and tell parents that negative reactions may prove harmful even if well-intentioned.

Such conversations are necessary because young people have been coming out at younger ages. Consistent with other studies, the youths in Ryan's study were on average under 11 years old when they first experienced a same-sex attraction, were just over 14 when they realized they were gay and came out to their families before they had turned 16.

Doctors, in a misguided attempt to comfort parents, may tell them a child who isn't sexually active couldn't know if he were gay or not, Ryan said.

"When providers and adults and family members think of gay people, they think of sex. They don't think of emotional attraction or social interaction or spiritual connectedness or deep-rooted psychological feelings," she said.

Sten Vermund, a Vanderbilt University pediatrician who became interested in Ryan's work this summer when she presented her research at the international AIDS conference in Mexico City, agrees that doctors should be encouraged to talk with parents about responding to a child's sexual orientation in a supportive way.

"So many families of children who are gay, bisexual or transgender, particularly families of gay male youth, think that if they are tough on the kid and tell him how unsatisfactory his gay lifestyle is to the family, he will have it knocked out of him," Vermund said.

Vermund said he also was i

That was a happy surprise!