Recent content by lompocus

Ryan, what will you do when someone welcomes precision orbital bombardment as a humane and cost-efficient way of getting rid of baddies' "equipment" (heh... I fear no one gets the joke)? (I mean using many cheap guided shaped bolts slowly deorbited from low orbit and similar stuff, all in...

I'll jump in here and throw in my own 2 recommendations. Regarding Calculus, you can try this book and slowly work through it over your summer and throughout high school. I no longer have it, so I can't comment on the later parts covering what you would see at the end of your initial college...

Will be a sophomore mechanical engineering major Summer Working part time, possibly full time though that is unlikely (local place in hometown, nothing like an engineering internship or REU, so there's some flexibility); other stuff related to software that, with some luck, I'll be ready to...

I wonder what I'll do. I, and likely a bunch of other people on the boards, have a tough quarter right now (quarter here, so I'm still in school for another month). I find some artistic stuff relaxing, i.e. building some video game engine, visualizing boids performing strange behaviors, etc. I...

When this thing that requires some actual thought and work isn't related to something I'd otherwise have to do anyway? Usually, I tell myself to do it anyway. If it happens to be an extension of whatever I'm doing at the time, I don't mind too much. I tend not to feel burned out if I have to do...

Hmm. This is boring; the OP posed a question the community is unanimously responding "no" to. I'd rather like to hear something horrible and attention-grabbing, like all the horrible things that have happened to people who abuse these drugs! Where are the manically depressed people scrawling...

I was in the 3rd grade, probably very sleepy. The day started normally, and, from the impression I got, ended normally, too. However, I was in a catholic elementary school. The first thing I remember is the teacher marching us off to the church across the street (and I suddenly think I remember...

Others have already mentioned the need to develop agriculture so that a larger population can be supported. Some problems with things as they are now: *Little actual investment and public interest in developing new agri technology (hydro/aeroponics and everything else that's been mentioned)...

I like how, every time they mention diplomatic cables, they make it should like the world is ending... and as if every cable has been released. Maybe this is just me, and I lose interest after the first wave of news stories (all claiming the *entire* set of *insert new scandalous information...

Communicate either with several hundred million spread across the world or a billion focused in two places. I'd pick (and picked up :P... the subtle pun you see there is, sadly, not applicable to me :P:P) the latter, you might prefer the former. However, why not challenge yourself and pick up...

Oh, that is vague... Um... Eh, how about a hint? Is it a documentary about British royalty? (They're always British in every movie, no exception.) In the event I'm not horribly off mark, here's mine: Three (or four, or five including a god-like... alien... time-traveling... thing) kids act out...

The Harmonic Oscillator(s) stuff you can append/change with this name: The 42 Harmonic Oscillators Oscillators in Harmony Another: Chaotic Feedback Loop

Hey, pythagorean, to someone who's really interested in physics/engineering (me), what would you say about a bioengineering-related major in college? I have a passing interest in biology, but that's just because my exposure to the subject has been limited (and, of course, this leads to my lack...

The average person: "Eh, what could possibly happen? Maybe a few billion will be stuck in cyclic poverty and malnutrition, but does that affect me?" Later: "Oh no, I wish I could change everything. However, I cannot. Instead of doing something productive to remedy the situation, I will whine...

Hey, why don't I add a few non-political things to the tech/science shortlist: -Cheap commercial space travel; widely accessible across globe (because, on occasion, cheap and accessible are not mutual... brain is gone today, I am afraid...) -Personal computers as fast as the most powerful modern...