Questions of a weird mind

[Douglas]

I don't know, the DHMO name immediately brings Carbon Monoxide to mind as a possibly related chemical for a lot of people due to the commonality of "monoxide" in the two names and its rarity elsewhere, and "everyone" knows how dangerous CO is. Calling it an acid evokes similar automatic "that might be dangerous" associations, but I'm not sure it has as strong an effect as invoking implicit comparison to CO.

Also, the classic web site for it uses DHMO.

[AtomicKitKat]

It's a pretty cool substance, eh? Takes away heat from my skin and doesn't afraid of anybody. Still, I wouldn't advise anybody to do the same with iron products. It's notorious for oxidising them.

[Yora]

Oxidizing is putting it mildly. It can completely eat away big chunks of iron and causes dramatic discolorations in copper.

[Ravens_cry]

I don't know, the DHMO name immediately brings Carbon Monoxide to mind as a possibly related chemical for a lot of people due to the commonality of "monoxide" in the two names and its rarity elsewhere, and "everyone" knows how dangerous CO is. Calling it an acid evokes similar automatic "that might be dangerous" associations, but I'm not sure it has as strong an effect as invoking implicit comparison to CO.

Also, the classic web site for it uses DHMO.

That's another reason not to use it, people might have heard of the substance in that form, so are more alert for it.

[thubby]

thought of another

is there a liquid, stable at normal temperatures, that humans could not float/swim in?
(also, that won't kill/maim on contact would be nice)

[Eldan]

As in, sink, you mean? Human density is not much less than that of water, really. So, anything with a lower density. Probably most vegetable oils, as they swim on water due to their lower density. Pure Ethanol might apply, with a relative density of 0.78 (water is 1).

[Karoht]

That is actually one of the fears that the recent gulf oil spill brought to light. A serious enough oil spill/leak in that area and most of the ships in the area would sink.
Oh yeah, and the disasterous loss of life and all. But hey, save the boats and all.

[Doomboy911]

Hmm let's suppose that dolphins and alligators could exist in the same enviroment which one do you think would win in a fight a pod of dolphins or a pod of alligators?

[Ravens_cry]

Hmm let's suppose that dolphins and alligators could exist in the same enviroment which one do you think would win in a fight a pod of dolphins or a pod of alligators?

Well, there is fresh water dolphins and salt water crocodiles, so it's not completely far fetched.
If the alligators could ambush the dolphins, which is what they do being ambush predators, I'd give it to them. Much, much, nastier dental equipment.
Dolphins do attack sharks, but they generally outnumber them when they do I believe.

[Elemental]

Agreed.
Individually, a fight would go to the alligator.
But dolphins are rarely found on their own.

[Doomboy911]

Hmm I brought it up elsewhere and they said it really depended on the environment as optimal conditions for an alligator or a croc would be something about fifteen deep and murky so they can hide while a dolphin would want something clearer and deeper so it had room to move. Although I'd throw it dolphins the alligator's tactic of dragging them to the bottom of the river and wrestling until they're out of air wouldn''t really work too well. Although I suppose a croc or alligator could just drag the dolphins out onto the ground individually. Now to switch it up Hippos vs. dolphins.

[Yora]

Unless they poke a hippo in the eye, I don't really see how much they could do.
But, well: Dolphins live in environments where they only have to fight if an attacker pursues them.

[Doomboy911]

Which is worst to have a hopeless dream or no dreams at all?

[thubby]

Which is worst to have a hopeless dream or no dreams at all?

i disagree with the premise that a dream can be hopeless.

[Doomboy911]

i disagree with the premise that a dream can be hopeless.

You and me both and yet I came up with the question.

[Coidzor]

Which is worst to have a hopeless dream or no dreams at all?

You can give a dream hope or rise from the ashes after you finally have it dashed. If you have no dreams at all, it's in all probability because one is unable to dream or because one's circumstances have become very, very bad, and there's only so low we can go that we can bounce back from with circumstances, while an inability to dream is unlikely to be remedied, to put it mildly.

[Ravens_cry]

Better to have loved and lost than to have never have loved at all is an aphorism I firmly believe in.
Life is in the trying, the struggle, and with that comes risk, the risk of failing. But if we are to succeed at all, we must take that risk, that leap of faith into the unknown.
Dream the impossible dream; it may not be as impossible as you think.

[inky13112]

No one ever failed to achieve the dream they never had. No one has ever succeeded at a dream that is hopeless.

[Eldan]

I never had a dream I had even a remote sense of achieving. I love this world, it is wonderful and beautiful, but whenever I look at the things I truly, really want, I see that I will never have them. I will never discover a new continent. I will never stand on an alien planet. I will never have magic. Or a thousand other things that truly excite me. This real life only offers remote shadows of those dreams, that never really excite me.

[Elemental]

Oh well... One cannot expect the real world to shape up to the expectations of the imagination.
But still, it is pretty awesome, magical and epic in a way explainable by science.

[Coidzor]

No one ever failed to achieve the dream they never had. No one has ever succeeded at a dream that is hopeless.

Well, for the first, they just failed to achieve having dreams at all. For the second, you can't know that, for a given value of "hopeless."

I cannot comprehend a complete human being that does not have some manner of dream or that has not had dreams in the past.

[Matthias2207]

Oh well... One cannot expect the real world to shape up to the expectations of the imagination.

Unless you're Haruhi Suzumiya.

[inky13112]

Well, for the first, they just failed to achieve having dreams at all. For the second, you can't know that, for a given value of "hopeless."

I cannot comprehend a complete human being that does not have some manner of dream or that has not had dreams in the past.

True, everyone has dreams whether they think it or not. But if someone ever achieves a hopeless dream it wasn't really hopeless was it? Semantics I guess.

[Adlan]

True, everyone has dreams whether they think it or not. But if someone ever achieves a hopeless dream it wasn't really hopeless was it? Semantics I guess.

If someone achieves a hopeless dream, then it could still have been considered hopeless, so long as the person believed that the dream was without hope.

On the topic of Dreams, mine is a little less hopeless, I hope. Weird Question: What Jobs for a British Chemistry graduate are their in Canada?


Seriously Weird Question:
Is it Wrong for a person to want to emigrate? Does it imply they hate their old country? Should everyone just stay in their own country and fix the problems there?

[factotum]

Is it Wrong for a person to want to emigrate? Does it imply they hate their old country? Should everyone just stay in their own country and fix the problems there?

What's wrong with it? It means that you prefer some other country than the one an accident of birth or circumstance landed you up in. It no more means you *hate* your original country than it means you hate any other country than the one you're planning to emigrate to.

Of course, this is all with the caveat that you've done the research and know exactly what you're getting into--there are plenty of examples of people who emigrate to what they think will be a better life, but end up coming back to where they started because the new country wasn't quite as awesome as they thought it would be.

[Karoht]

@Immigration/Emmigration
Without touching politics... Hooboy. Here goes.

Nation X can have problems that the individual citizen may not be able to address, cope with, or solve. The individual citizen doesn't have much in the way of options at this point. Stay and tough it out, or leave.

I do not personally begrudge anyone who prefers to leave. Especially given some of the pretty horrible places out there on this planet earth.

It's really not that different than changing jobs. A person might find themselves in a job they hate with no ability to change certain aspects of their employment. So naturally, the person will then look for a better job with better conditions.

[ForzaFiori]

Seriously Weird Question:
Is it Wrong for a person to want to emigrate? Does it imply they hate their old country? Should everyone just stay in their own country and fix the problems there?

I'm in the US, so many of my examples will come from there. I'd imagine there are other examples around the world, however.

I don't think so. For one thing, sometimes people are forced to emigrate - the refuges from political and military unrest. Many of them still love their home country, but just can't live there right now - they have to fix the problem first. For example, the Cuban refugees in Florida, or the large number of SE Asian refugees that came to the US in the 80's and early 90s.

Sometimes another country's culture appeals to someone more than their own. That doesn't mean that they don't love their own country, just that they see another one that they like. Nearly every family in America is here because of this, yet you still see massive amount of pride in where your from - My family has been here for 4 generations, yet we're still proud of the fact that we came from Italy.

Finally, sometimes you emigrate for work, rather than a wish to change nationality. The Chinese that came over during the early to mid 1800s, for instance. My mom and dad nearly moved to Holland (they wouldn't have become citizens, but they would have moved there) for work before I was born.

[Doomboy911]

If I wanted to become a citizen in every part of the world what would I have to do and what could possibly stop me from reaching this goal?

[ForzaFiori]

Some nations don't allow dual citizenship. The USA, for instance, doesn't recognize it.

EDIT: Also, many places make it VERY hard (or impossible) to become a citizen - Australia, New Zealand, most of Europe, etc. Places with bad overcrowding already don't want people flooding in, obviously.

[Eldan]

Some countries don't allow double citizenship: if you want to become a citizen there, you have to give up all other citizenships.