It is okay! You are concentrating your studies on other things. Besides today they are getting so good with translating programs that you can type it in and (puff) you have it translated in seconds.

If you are studying Spanish then Italian and Portugese should be easy to learn next. There are alot of similiarities in the language pronuncation. Of course you need time to learn a language, interest, and practice!

It seems in today's society many people live a hectic life that offers little time. This makes it difficult to learn at times.

Europeans tend to learn languages quicker because the countries are small in comparison to the United States, which is the third largest country in the world right?

You could drive in one direction a thousand miles and you are still speaking English. Yes okay, maybe Spanish in some parts now.

Now drive a thousand miles in one direction in a European country and you experience a whole new culture, lifestyle, belief system, and of course language.

That being said, it is only natural that we learn languages because we can be exposed to it rather easily.

Also having travelled alot to countries, I had to learn the basics of languages to communicate with the inhabitants.

Thus far I speak 4 fluently, and 3 medicore.

Of course German is my mother language so that doesn't count.

My English was the third language I learned and I plan to improve it each day. What better way to perfect it by living in the country right! I learned alot about American accents that is for sure!

No I am German actually, yet I have a degree in history from Germany and speak alot of languages fluently. I also spent half of my life as a Red Cross Coordinator travelling to alot of countries helping those who are not so fortunate in life. So having seen some of these countries struggles gave me a better idea of what the people endured.

I believe we tend to forget that the Armenians care less of what Bill Clinton's affairs where. They care more about how they can have a country of their own and freedom. They have Clinton and its bipartisan Congress to thank. Afterall they voted to help fight off the genocide at the time.

Sometimes I think America has had freedom for such a long time that I feel many have forgotten what it took to get such freedom. In otherwords, many take it for granted. Armenia is just starting to enjoy their economy and government.

I use to give out food, first aid, blankets, and stuffed animals all over Yugoslavia at the time. So I have seen poverty, hunger, distress, and many war inflicted citizens.



I am happy for them.

Well here on Mingle2, I can't change it anymore. It is too late.

On Wikipedia I can't change it can I? Are you saying I can change the information on a wikipedia website? Interesting!

Yes I guess Wikipedia isn't a good resource to use afterall. If it is that easy to change its information then it can be easily manipulated to individual interests only, regardless if it is true or not.

Not good! I agree.

I am better off just reading out of my Encyclopedias I have sitting on my bookshelves.

I hope one day this will change. That more Americans will improve in education to know where countries are and to understand that each country has a story to tell. By understanding the people in the world is how we can create peace.

I remember that Bush had a problem understanding the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni in one of his speeches. He just threw them all in as one group. There is a difference!

Whatever it is worth, the leaders of a country should be well informed and educated on such matters to prove more effective in foreign policies.

Well I am off topic here anyway, but I just wanted to congratulate the Armenians celeberation.

Have a great day everyone.

The Armenians have had a really harsh history.

They also experienced genocide by the Turkish government. Even though the Turkish government still denies these atrocities, the rest of the world remembers. A terrible part of history and one of the biggest genocides at the time.

In the end the Armenians finally have a country of their own and hopefully they can be left alone to live in peace with its neighboring allies.

We should write a letter to Wikipedia indicating that they should change theory to hypothesis in that first paragraph.

So funny! Dr. Seuss is one of my heroes

You are too sweet! Thank you very much. It is alot of fun to do. I am working on Greece at the moment. I plant to do many countries before I pass away.

I am very happy for the Armenians that they have survived those hard times in war to create a free country. I hope their country will strive and experience great times in the future.

I hope you Americans can recognize that they are chanting your countries name as a thank you tribute in saving endless lives and providing a chance to live in peace again.

War is horrible and genocide is worse! If you have not experienced it then you can only imagine what it could be like. If you have experienced it then you will know exactly the consequences of it and understand it shouldn't be tolerated anywhere in the world!

May the Armenian children grow up to know their history and learn to not repeat such atrocities (that were done to them) that still are practiced in certain parts of the world.

May there be peace and may we practice it each and everyday.

“A proof is a proof. What kind of proof? It’s a proof. A proof is proof. And when you have a good proof, it’s because it is proven. – Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien

This is alot of reading but I think it is well worth it. It can also create new questions for you perhaps.

Why the LHC?

A few unanswered questions...

The LHC was built to help scientists to answer key unresolved questions in particle physics. The unprecedented energy it achieves may even reveal some unexpected results that no one has ever thought of!

For the past few decades, physicists have been able to describe with increasing detail the fundamental particles that make up the Universe and the interactions between them. This understanding is encapsulated in the Standard Model of particle physics, but it contains gaps and cannot tell us the whole story. To fill in the missing knowledge requires experimental data, and the next big step to achieving this is with LHC.



Newton's unfinished business...

What is mass?

What is the origin of mass? Why do tiny particles weigh the amount they do? Why do some particles have no mass at all? At present, there are no established answers to these questions. The most likely explanation may be found in the Higgs boson, a key undiscovered particle that is essential for the Standard Model to work. First hypothesised in 1964, it has yet to be observed.

The ATLAS and CMS experiments will be actively searching for signs of this elusive particle.


An invisible problem...

What is 96% of the universe made of?

Everything we see in the Universe, from an ant to a galaxy, is made up of ordinary particles. These are collectively referred to as matter, forming 4% of the Universe. Dark matter and dark energy are believed to make up the remaining proportion, but they are incredibly difficult to detect and study, other than through the gravitational forces they exert. Investigating the nature of dark matter and dark energy is one of the biggest challenges today in the fields of particle physics and cosmology.

The ATLAS and CMS experiments will look for supersymmetric particles to test a likely hypothesis for the make-up of dark matter.


Nature's favouritism...

Why is there no more antimatter?

We live in a world of matter – everything in the Universe, including ourselves, is made of matter. Antimatter is like a twin version of matter, but with opposite electric charge. At the birth of the Universe, equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been produced in the Big Bang. But when matter and antimatter particles meet, they annihilate each other, transforming into energy. Somehow, a tiny fraction of matter must have survived to form the Universe we live in today, with hardly any antimatter left. Why does Nature appear to have this bias for matter over antimatter?

The LHCb experiment will be looking for differences between matter and antimatter to help answer this question. Previous experiments have already observed a tiny behavioural difference, but what has been seen so far is not nearly enough to account for the apparent matter–antimatter imbalance in the Universe.



Secrets of the Big Bang

What was matter like within the first second of the Universe’s life?
Matter, from which everything in the Universe is made, is believed to have originated from a dense and hot cocktail of fundamental particles. Today, the ordinary matter of the Universe is made of atoms, which contain a nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, which in turn are made of quarks bound together by other particles called gluons. The bond is very strong, but in the very early Universe conditions would have been too hot and energetic for the gluons to hold the quarks together. Instead, it seems likely that during the first microseconds after the Big Bang the Universe would have contained a very hot and dense mixture of quarks and gluons called quark–gluon plasma.

The ALICE experiment will use the LHC to recreate conditions similar to those just after the Big Bang, in particular to analyse the properties of the quark-gluon plasma.



Hidden worlds…

Do extra dimensions of space really exist?

Einstein showed that the three dimensions of space are related to time. Subsequent theories propose that further hidden dimensions of space may exist; for example, string theory implies that there are additional spatial dimensions yet to be observed. These may become detectable at very high energies, so data from all the detectors will be carefully analysed to look for signs of extra dimensions.

Simply fascinating. I hope the experiments will work. I had to rewind and first find out what LHC is and discovered that it is the largest and most advanced computer in the world that can do so many things for scientists.

For those just starting to enjoy the science world then this would be interesting to read.

The Large Hadron Collider

Our understanding of the Universe is about to change...

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 m underground. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionise our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe.

Two beams of subatomic particles called 'hadrons' – either protons or lead ions – will travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy with every lap. Physicists will use the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy. Teams of physicists from around the world will analyse the particles created in the collisions using special detectors in a number of experiments dedicated to the LHC.

There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions, but what's for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator, as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe. For decades, the Standard Model of particle physics has served physicists well as a means of understanding the fundamental laws of Nature, but it does not tell the whole story. Only experimental data using the higher energies reached by the LHC can push knowledge forward, challenging those who seek confirmation of established knowledge, and those who dare to dream beyond the paradigm.

Well it looks like we the people have a long ways to go before we will find out how to put man on spaceships that can fly to different galaxies to see other life forms.

Perhaps if this planet would somehow stabilize to the point where there is less wars and more money invested in such projects concerning technological advancement for space travel we can accelerate our chances of knowing more. Of course many are pessimistic to this approach.

Just like the rocket scientist Werner von Braun who wanted to make rockets to fly to the moon and not rockets to blow up countries. I mean I understand he had no other choice at the time with Hitler and Himmler threatening him to make V-2 Rockets to try to win the war, but imagine if this war would have never happened. That Hitler never existed. Could it have been possible that the entire German scientist team of hundreds could have advance further in technology as we know it?

I guess we will never know, but as time goes by, I am sure there will be some scientists coming up with new innovative ideas to advance in space exploration. Yes I know some progress has been made that floats occassionally on the news, yet nothing as significant as for example the first man on the moon that had millions watching at the time.

Overall, I find it fascinating but dissappointing that we haven't accomplished more. Just recently on an interview celeberating 50 years since the first man on the moon, one of the astronauts (partner of Neil Armstrong /forgot name) said that we should be already landing on Mars. He also mentions that we need to invest more to make it happen for we could be much further then we are now on this.

This was a most entertaining read that provided a few chuckles at the process. There are so many people that go through divorces each year. This alone shows that the story will interest alot of readers, because they can relate to the story. Not that I am wishing you to have only divorced people reading your books. I hope all kinds of people of all ages will read them!

What I learned is when one can write stories that can relate to perhaps a readers life then you have them hooked into the story automatically.

Not that I am saying I am a divorced man or anything, but I do know of many who are and can now laugh about it. So I am certain they can relate to the story that you have just written Lex.

Very nice read! Thank you for sharing that with us.

The good old writer's block that many have talked about.

Do you believe them to be true or is it just a lame excuse writers use to not write anymore at the moment?


If you have suffered writer's block then what methods have you used to recreate the interest or perhaps the ideas on what to write to finish a project that you once started?

The first video Metalwing offers is only 2:25 minutes long. That was pleasant! I understand that various universes can be far or very near to us, but we can't know for sure. Some cannot form life because it has too much protons or electrons in them to formulate life. So this means to me that we are lucky to have all the correct amount of elements in our universe to provide life as we know it. It seems like such a delicate process. Although this doesn't answer what created everything, it does show an understanding of how universe are constructed off and how important each element is to form them.

A good question they ask also.

Who lives in the eleventh dimension?

As far I understand on what the video is explaining we can only see 3 dimensions ourselves. My question is how do we know there are 11?

Of course my understanding is limited to all this as it is very new to me. So be patient with my limited knowledge on the subject and if you have time and interest to show your views on the topic then please do.

I see there are two different uraniums on this table you have shown Metalwing. Is it true that one is used for electricity and the other would be for weapon production such a nuclear bomb? Or do they both have the significant same potential for either or?

Or is this chart just to show the Uraniums life span in general and how it will eventually become lead?

The table by the way is very interesting.

I think it would make a great thriller. I am a avid fan of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I have frequently emailed them in the past always asking for advice on how to write. Lincoln Child often replied and gave suggestions. Today they have such a huge fan base that I am lucky to get a email back from them. Nevertheless, their books are very entertaining to me at least.

You should really think about completing that story, unless you already have.