?

I'm looking to buy a laptop for heading off to University in September and don't want to have to cart the charger round with me to recharge it every couple of hours. I'd like a laptop with a battery that could see me through the day.

Alternatively, are there any laptop makers that offer good 'upgrade batteries' (batteries which are sold separately and offer a better lasting charge than the one that comes with the laptop itself).

Thanks in advance

Does excess fat in the body warp the positioning of bones (particularly the skull)? And would only a skull be able to give an idea of someone's weight in a Facial Reconstruction?

This is just some (hopefully) interesting information on why I asked this:

A few months ago in my area, a body was found in the woodland. 6 months later and after worldwide enquiries, he is still unidentified. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotla... BBC News link, http://www.dumfriesandgalloway.police.uk/news/high... Local Police Website]

As the body may have lay decomposing for over a month, Forensic facial reconstruction software was needed and used to create a photo-fit of what this man may have looked like. From what I can gather from programmes such as "History Cold Case", this process only uses the skull of the subject. Looking at the photos released on the Police website, the man's trousers looked rather large, too large to belong to someone with a face as slim as the man in the photo-fit. If some extra weight was added to the photo-fit, his features would change. That's why I asked this question: if the man's features in the photo-fit are wrong because there was no indication of how much he weighed, then it's highly unlikely that he would be recognized.

I have been working making cement on a building site all day. When I had finished all the exposed parts of my skin were dry from the dust. After showering and using a moisturising shampoo, most of this was back to normal, however my hands are sill dry. Does anyone have any tips on what I could use to effectively put the moisture back in my hands?

Since the BBC has come under lots of fire recently (particularly from direct Business rivals including Rupert Murdoch and the Daily Mail). Since, as it is effectively a public-funded organisation, it is in no position to defend itself.

Thus, popular comedian-songwriter Mitch Benn has written this song to show how big a role the corporation plays in our lives.

I was just wondering what the public (who obviously pay the license fee that funds the BBC) thought of this defense?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3q2iZuU5WM&feature...

I am considering studying AI (and software engineering) at university, because I have skills in the necessary areas (maths, computers). But I don't want to study a subject that's going to leave me with very few career prospects.

Can anyone with experience in this field give me any information on where I can take a degree in this subject?

A friend of mine has taken paracetamol to help with a headache but now is feeling hungry.

I'm trying to keep her off salty foods (i think paracetamol affects the liver), but what foods is it safe to eat?

I got several from contacts, that said this:

"Hiya

You might wanna understand not everyone is like you :o

anyway look here..

Get a free e-mail account with Hotmail. Sign-up now."

'anyway look here...' is a link which i didn't click. Several of my friends got exactly the same e-mail, I was just wondering if it was the same with anyone else...

I always thought he was God's son...

All she does is post stupid, illogical questions which she thinks will convert Atheists.

I am not trying to convert you to Atheism, I respect your beliefs.

All I want to know is, do you think she gives you a bad name? And do you dislike her for it?

Think about it:

When you see this question posted on here, you only have my word that I'm a real person. For all you know, this question could be computer-generated.

The same goes for answers:

You know that YOU are a real person, but how do you know that other answers are not computer generated responses? Answering a computer generated question?

When you walk along the pavement, are you moving forward, or is the pavement moving backwards underneath you?

"What time does the station leave the train?" [Einstein]

21/12/2012, the fabled 'End of Time'/Rapture/however you want to refer to it.

What happens after the date is gone by? What happens when we're all still here? How long until the next apocalypse theory?

What are your thoughts?

I know it looks like a lot, but please read it and try to understand...

For Heaven to exist, and be both infinite and eternal, it must exist outside space and time (beyond the Universe). Therefore, there is no physical matter there, as having matter creates mass and gravity, thereby creating space and time. Energy is not made of particles, it is a capacity to work and therefore has no physical mass. So it can exist outside this realm. All good and well so far.

Your soul is contained within your consciousness, so it is not your soul, but your consciousness that goes into heaven. Your consciousness comes from electrical energy in the brain, movement of charged particles around your synapses. It is impossible for this consciousness to exist outside space/time because electrical energy is carried by charged sub-atomic particles which have mass. To take these outside space/time would create mass and gravity, and thereby space and time. The same goes for hell. Therefore, the idea of your soul going to heaven/hell is impossible.

God would also have to have a consciousness in order to use the energy at his disposal in heaven and, as I've just explained, consciousness outside space/time is impossible. Thus God is impossible.

Do you see now?

Has anyone else noticed that whenever something really terrible happens (like the Haiti Earthquake or, less importantly, the Icelandic Volcano), it is inevitably going to be described as an 'Act of God'. Why is it that this term is only used for bad events? Why does God never do any good acts any more?

The SNP (Scottish National Party) are trying to raise £50,000 to fight the BBC in a court case to prevent the 3rd Election debate (on Thursday, in Manchester) from going ahead.

They think that Alex Salmond (their leader, First Minister of Scotland) should have been allowed on one of the debates to 'reflect Scottish Issues on the National Stage'. The SNP now claim to have raised the money needed so it is likely the action will take place. Here's the stories from each website if you need to know more:

SNP: http://www.snp.org/node/16986

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_20...

Do you agree with the SNP that Salmond should be allowed on the Prime Ministerial Debates? Or do you think Salmond just likes seeing his own face on TV?

(The Welsh Nationalists are also complaining their leader never got on these Debates, but I'm Scottish so Welsh Politics do not affect me directly).

You know the words, but here's some examples:

Nuclear (the big one)

Radiation

Radioactive

Specifically for the LHC:

Accelerator

Black-hole

It seems to me that people pick out these buzz-words and then blow the rest of the story out of all proportion. There was an incident about a year ago where a school was told to switch off it's wi-fi after fears that the radiation would cook children's brains. Radiowaves aren't very dangerous, they have very low energy. Microwaves are more dangerous and yet the same people who were terrified of the wi-fi probably use them every day without a second thought.

The other one is Radiation: Most people are TERRIFIED by that word. Anything associated with Radiation should be banned, apparently.

But think how many lives Americium smoke-detectors save...

How many lives are saved because of radiopharmaceuticals (radioactivity used in medicine)...

The Large Hadron Collider had a court-case launched against it because some people blew the black-hole story out of all proportions. First it was a little black hole, then it was going to swallow the planet, then it was going to turn the Universe inside-out. Crazy or what?

Well, I'm always told that 'Energy is never created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another'. Does this mean that ALL the energy in the universe (from the heat energy of a supernova to the kinetic energy of electrons) was transformed in the Big Bang?

Also, I have another question relating to this:-

Energy is physically nothing, just a capacity to work. Therefore:

Could the Big Bang not just have been a lot of dormant energy becoming mass (by the principle of E=mc^2)? Since the Big Bang (like all actions/events) was a transformation of Energy, and mass is a form of energy. It explains the stumbling block of 'something from nothing', doesn't it?

The super-dense mass (Which I think the quark-gluon plasma that the LHC is looking for) couldn't support all this energy, so it dispersed into matter and dark-matter (since the regular matter couldn't handle all the energy).

One last Question:

If E=mc^2 holds true for nuclear fission and some mass becomes pure energy in the process, does that mean the End of the Universe will be the largest nuclear explosion ever possible? Because all the mass is going to disperse into nothing (and Energy, as I said, is physically nothing)

By the way: I am aware that the more educated in this field may think of my reasoning as entry level troll, but I'm always willing to learn new things and the way I do that best is by coming up with hypotheses and seeing if they are correct by trying to prove them wrong...

So please don't be too harsh.

Thank you for your help

NOTE: The banknotes I'm referring to are the ones with Sir Walter Scott on one side and a picture of a Scottish Landmark (ie. Brig o Doon/Glenfinnan Viaduct/Forth Bridge) on the other.

It's legal tender in the United Kingdom, so why is it that, when handing it over as payment in an English shop, both me and the money get a bemused look from the shop assistant?

I mean, it says 'Bank of Scotland plc promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of [five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred] pounds sterling at it's registered office in Edinburgh', just like any other form of British paper money.

So why isn't it accepted the same way as English Banknotes are accepted in Scotland (Without Question)?

I know that Energy is the thing that makes stuff happen and it's everywhere, but does anyone actually know what it is, what makes it etc.?

Or is this another question that physics doesn't yet know the answer to?

Does freedom of expression not say that, as British Citizens, they are free have their opinions, regardless of what those opinions are?

Why is it that extremists are allowed to publicly say bad things about Britain, but british people aren't allowed to say bad things about others?

Let's face it people, the BNP don't physically hurt anyone (unlike extremists) and they're too small to win a Parliamentary election.

If you don't agree with their views, what's wrong with simply not voting for them: a power granted to you as a citizen of a democracy?

I don't agree with several of their policies, but I let them get on with it because they have that basic human right to express their opinions, and I have the basic human right to think they're wrong.

Or is this country so caught up in the Spiral of Political Correctness and protesting that they can only have opinions that match specific PC criteria?

After the court case by the equality people (Political Correctness Brigade as I call them) the BNP (British National Party) have changed their rules letting ethnic people join, but what happens if no ethnic people want to join?

Will the BNP be threatened with legal action unless they get ethnic people into their party?

Will they then have to force ethnic people into their party against the will of said ethnic people?

Please help me, I'm confused.

Thanks