Paarthurnax

hi, i've been prescribed three different meds by my psychiatrist for depression and anxiety; bupropion, fluvoxamine, and clonazepam. the other two haven't taken effect yet, and i'm continuing the prescribed dose, but the clonazepam is just making me feel really sh!tty, more depressed, taking away my motivation, and just phucking me up more. they're 0.5mg tablets, and i've only taken 4 over the course of two days, one in the morning and one at night during that time. is there any harm in abruptly discontinuing use? i know about benzo withdrawals and such, but i'm just wondering if it's dangerous. i don't think it is since i've taken so little over such a short amount of time. just curious. thanks

Hey everybody,

I'm writing a series of science fiction/horror stories, and I need some help regarding electricity. In these stories, there is a group of human/alien hybrids that are significantly more intelligent than human beings, capable of detecting electrical signals produced by all sorts of electronic devices, making them capable of tracking down the people using these devices and killing them. My question is, in what way would a person be able to use an electronic device, yet simultaneously block the presence of its electrical signals in the air? I assume that this would be different for a person using, say, an iPod, and someone using a computer plugged into a wall socket in a house. Do devices exist that can block out the electrical signals of devices in either scenario? Just curious. Thanks for your help.

hey everyone,

this might seem like a rather elementary question for those well acquainted with science, but i'll ask it nonetheless. i am analyzing a poem called "the horses" by Edwin Muir for an essay i'm writing for class, and a few lines in the first stanza have got me wondering, were a nuclear bomb to be detonated within the vicinity of cities or towns obviously not obliterated in the blast, would the resulting radioactivity cause the radios in people's homes to cease functioning? i ask this because muir specifically mentions that the radios stop working, in his descriptive events in the first stanza. what i am wondering is why that would be the case, the actual scientific explanation for why this would cause a disturbance, or whether he simply means that the radios have gone silent because no one is left alive to transmit signals through them. i feel as though, if there were an actual disturbance from the presence of radioactivity, this would be a strong piece of evidence to use to validate my analysis of the poem, but i've looked on wikipedia and elsewhere and can't seem to find a direct link to radioactivity and radios failing as a result (i've also been up all night and am exhausted so i'm not as sharp as i could be at the moment), and so i'm not even certain that this is even a valid point to raise in my essay. can anybody help me out, please? thanks.

when they say the fireball "slammed" into jupiter, is there really anything in that bigass sphere to slam into? do we know what's inside jupiter? is there really any solid surface anywhere in it at all? what's a more likely scenario for what happened to the fireball when it entered jupiter's atmosphere? just curious. thanks

robots nowadays can run, play soccer, have conversation, among many other things. but what qualities do you think are too complex to be emulated in a robot? what traits, despite how advanced robots might become, are strictly human? why?

hey guys, while i'm aware that it was plato who was one of the first to write about atlantis, i'm wondering if there is any speak of this ancient advanced civilization by any of the other ancient groups around the world? graham hancock and a slew of other writers have been discussing this for a long time and i've read much of his literature, but i can't seem to find whether or not the babylonians, maya, egyptians or any others have actual documents or evidence recording specific contact with this mysterious civilization. there is talk about how there are many similarities between the cultures; all built pyramids, all applied complex mathematics, all used enormous stones that could not be moved by people alone, all applied astronomical alignments to their architecture, all mummified their dead, all were downright infatuated with the afterlife. but similarities are just similarities; are there any real documents that have survived the ages that explain more about the atlanteans, or is this simply myth and coincedence? thanks in advance for your insight.

hey guys, i've been reading a book called Supernatural by Graham Hancock and towards the end he begins discussing "junk dna"; how only around 3% of our DNA is used for the maintenance and application of genes, and how we don't fully understand what the rest of it, what scientists call "junk dna", is for. he also starts talking about something called zipf's law, which explains that there is a limit to the amount of symbols, sounds and words that are used in any given language, and that the most common words or symbols will be repeated more than the second most common words, etc. graham explains that zipf's law has been applied to junk DNA, and it has been discovered that there may indeed be some sort of code locked in that mysterious 97%, something that we have yet to decipher. I'm wondering what some of the leading theories are as to what this junk DNA may really be? i'm aware that those who support intelligent design claim that it could be a "hidden message from god", but this is a theory that doesn't really work for me. however, all ideas, thoughts and explanations are accepted here, i'm just fascinated by these facts and would like to know more. thank you.

or rather, how much data is there on the internet?

where did the flame of life begin to rekindle, how and where did it spread, and what lifeforms were some of the ones that survived that epoch?

i've heard several different accounts of what the first instrument was and where music first began, but these all seemed like a matter of personal belief to me. is there any archaeological evidence that indicates where the practice of creating and playing music first began? obviously i believe the first instrument was the human voicebox, but i'm talking more about the first people to actually make instruments and play them together in groups.

astrobiologists have been saying for a long long time that it is likely that we will encounter life on other worlds, albeit mostly mircroscopic. what planet (or moon) do you think is the most likely candidate for harboring life? why?

hey guys, i know there probably won't be many answers to this question cuz it's a very obscure reference, but i'm wondering who were some of the most popular japanese punk bands in the late 80's-early 90's? any insight as to what the scene was like (specifically in osaka and okinawa, but anywhere else in japan is fine too) would be a great help; any fashions, sub.cliques, or momentous events in the scene's development, or anything else you might know. it's reference for a science fiction/ horror story i'm writing, the protagonist is a japanese punk. it's a long and very complicated tale so i'll spare you all the details, but this would be a big help, so i'd appreciate some feedback. thanks

hey guys,

while i'm well aware of the obvious distinctions between these two genres, could it be said that the true difference between them is that sci-fi always strives to explain the nature and functionality of the phenomena the stories describe (creatures, worlds, their abilities, technologies), and fantasy gets away with not really having to? like if i write a science fiction story about an alien planet where there is a species that can manipulate their own genes at will and change their bodies to accomodate themselves through any obstacle they might encounter, is it sort of an "unwritten law" of sci-fi for me to need to explain the way they make that work? i'm certain that it's all a matter of preference and that there will always be harsh criticism, but my main question is regarding whether or not that need for explanations is what distinguishes sci-fi from fantasy? in fantasy literature, the type of ability i described for my hypothetical alien species would be called "magic", avoiding the need to explain its biological, chemical and neurological functionality. i'm just writing a science fiction story and have avoided explaining certain things because i feel like they're a bit beyond my humble little scope of intellectual prowess, and i'm wondering if i'm going to have to make the effort to provide more or less "scientific" explanations to "prove" that these phenomena could really work.

am i on the right track?

PS: thanks in advance for your help, and i apologize if this question is somewhat confusing.

hey there, i'm writing a science fiction story i hope to get published as a book someday, and i had a question. if i talk about companies that exist now (apple, for example) and talk about a futuristic product they might create 80 years from now, do i have to ask permission for that or anything? or are you free to write about whatever you want in a book? thanks in advance for your replies.

let me know how you feel about the state of our world and the status of our species.

is there any type of proof at all for ghosts or haunted houses? and i'm not asking for any type of religious answer whatsoever. i'm aware that the idea of ghosts and the occult stems from the imaginations of overtly religious ancestors, but has there ever been a scientific explanation for what might be going on? perhaps dealing with electromagnetics, or some other unseen and little-known phenomena that could produce "happenings" that would SEEM like the work of spirits? i find myself torn because i adhere quite firmly to science and proof, and yet i cannot deny that i have a profound interest in the occult. i've been looking around online for answers but didn't find anything useful yet. if anyone could help me out, that would be cool. thanks guys.

this might be a really stupid question, but how do you add or remove licenses? i have 4 but i want to make a license for different miis, how would i go about doing that? 10 easy points. thanks.

what mental mechanism is to blame for this phenomenon? why is it such a struggle for most people to be kind and accepting of differences?