Airbrush

No, just educate people in the social advantages and tax advantages of having fewer children. Easy and simple solution, nobody gets liquidated. Scientific definition is "carrying capacity". See Wikipedia. "Work towards accommodating...regardless of how big it gets...50B....." is an absurd notion. Environmental pressures will surely be triggered at a sufficiently large population. Better to simply make the advantages of a smaller world population, along with global warming and other environmental degradations painfully obvious to everyone through education. Then people themselves will make a reasonable choice.

Trump reminds me of my boss at my last job. My boss was the owner of the company and a total dictator. Employees were always griping about him behind his back. His nick name was "Chucky" because he was short and walked real fast like the evil doll in Child's Play. Everybody had to agree with everything he said so over the years he became quite delusional about his own importance. Near the end of his term as "boss" there were too many complaints about him including sexual harassment. Then his daughter took over as boss and he was put out to pasture. Trump lived his entire life surrounded by yes-people so he was spoiled by his parents and in business his every whim was accepted as law within his companuy. He is smart but delusional. My prediction is he will lose in a landslide, but we need to stay scared until election day, people need to get out and VOTE, because Trump MAY be our next president. Imagine how hard it will be to listen to his big mouth flapping about anything and everything for the next 4 years.

What, no recent postings about Trump? Anyhow in the news this Friday morning was an 11-year-old boy who asked Pence if his job as VP would be to "soften" what Trump says. How did Pence react to this question? First Pence acted like he could not believe what the boy just asked, so Pence asked the boy to repeat the question (like it was off-base). Then Pence laughed AT the boy along with the crowd like the question was silly. Then Pence answered by NOT answering the question but just stated that he is standing side by side with Trump. Then the mother of the boy said something like "good answer". The news reporter seemed satisfied by the answer and never stated the obvious, that Pence IGNORED the boy's question.

People need to be educated about the dangers of overpopulation. All other social problems and environmental degradation are compounded by larger and larger numbers of people. We are trying to avoid a catastrophic population decline in favor of a gradual reduction in growth until negative growth is achieved. Then the world's population can be gradually reduced to an optimal level determined scientifically and maintained there until population needs to grow again. A nuclear war is the quickest way to population reduction. MAD (mutually assured destruction) is no longer totally operative in a world were a nuclear terrorist has disregard for all human life including their own, the "kill 'em all and let God sort them out" attitude.

Hahaha. You think we haven't noticed that you intentionally used the word "piece" rather than "peace" to remind us Islamic Extremists cut people into pieces? You think so? I thought he was just being sarcastic, not pretending the truck company was really to blame. I agree that it appears like rationalizing his own personal gun arsenal. Waitforufo, do you have a conceal-gun-carry permit? Can anyone without a bad record get a conceal-carry permit in any state?

Why do you keep returning to the absurd idea of truck manufacturers being held accountable? It makes me want to vomit. Any car can cause a lot of deaths and mayhem if the driver intends that. A baseball bat can kill dozens of people in a crowd. In fact almost anything can be used as a deadly weapon if that is your intention. A karate expert can kill dozens of people in a matter of minutes by his bare hands. The important point is the ISIS idea is a very powerful motivator to anyone who has nothing to lose. There are lots and lots of people who have nothing to lose. If such a person believes they will go to heaven by killing anyone, there is no way to stop them. I think blind faith in any religion is stupid and needs to be called out, everyone should be a little agnostic about religion. Just enough doubt about not really going to heaven by killing people. Wake up people, all religions are lies! They don't come from "God" they come from clever men who are good at controlling the masses.

No such "facts" are yet available. You don't know anything about what kind of membership he had in any religion. We are making assumptions. He was probably Muslim by birth but may not have been very devout. He was a petty criminal and he discovered the powerful ISIS message "kill infidels and go straight to heaven" (and enjoy 72 raisins). Your sarcasm is annoying.

Yes. But those "heeding calls to violence" are not necessarily "adherents of the faith". They are not devout Muslims. They are mostly petty criminals who are nominally Muslim by birth who have discovered the allure of the ISIS message that they can go to heaven in spite of what they have done throughout their lives. Just kill infidels and infidels are EVERYONE except those following ISIS, which is an absurd proposition, but delusion is very common among people.

The ISIS message is a very powerful force to oppose. All you need to do to get into heaven, no matter what you did in the past, is to kill infidels and be killed in the process. This appeals to every petty criminal in the world that believes in Islam. This disaffected man from Tunisia had nothing to celebrate that day, his life was probably not ideal, like many other North Africans living in France. He was angry, so why not go to heaven?

What France needs to do is reintegrate their Muslim populations better, like in the USA. That is why France is terrorist target number one. Create soccer leagues for unemployed youths from the Muslim ghettos. "I think terrorists are not intelligent...something or someone that give harms to people cannot be logical...." It is logical in asymmetric warfare. The attack on USA on 9-11-01 was logical. There is a war going on. The terrorists, in their minds, are striking back, to the great satisfaction of their extremist sympathizers.

I'm a proponent of the finite universe hypothesis. I think our universe or big bang was and remains finite in size and is only one of many, maybe an infinite number of big bangs contained within a higher structure called a multiverse which could be infinite in size. Beyond the finite edge of our universe is a realm of no time. It is timeless. Time comes into being only with a big bang. That is when "space" becomes "spacetime". "Spacetime" can be measured through changes it undergoes, but "space" does not change at all so no time exists, yet.

That is a good sign. Does that sign exist there now or are you proposing such a sign? Install these signs spaced every 50 feet of shoreline and also have a 3.5 foot high fence, like the one around the zoo's gorilla exhibit. That should significantly improve safety. Thorn bushes not necessary.

The shoreline is called a "beach" but there are no swimming signs. The word "beach" is an invitation for people from Nebraska to go for a hike in one foot deep water at night. It should not be like a beach and it should have beware of alligator signs.

Australian resort beaches have shark netting, why cannot an artificial lagoon in a Florida resort not have alligator netting?

Are you saying that nothing has never existed? Do you think the universe is more likely finite or infinite? If it is finite, do you think the big bang may be just one of many that exist within some higher order of structure? There might even be clusters and super-clusters of big bangs, beyond which is another higher structure.

This is so similar to the zoo tragedy that I will comment on it here. See the breaking news about the "Disney World Alligator Attack". Again I have 2 things to say: (1) thorn-bush barriers, (2) leashes. If a lake frequented by tourists is known to occasionally contain deadly alligators, then the establishment has a responsibility to keep tourists and alligators separate. It is hard to keep gators out of ALL marshland in that area, but why didn't Disney plan and build some kind of alligator nets to keep most of the gators out? Also, why anyone with a brain in their head plan "beaches" around such areas with ONLY signs saying no swimming or wading? Plant thorn bushes to keep kids away from the water! And parents would be wise to strap their tiny tots into a harness and attach a leash to their back so they have a chance to save their life in an instant. That is especially if you are wading in the water at night with your 2-year-old, in an alligator area, in spite of NO SWIMMING signs. Duuuhhhhh.

Maybe this is not the only "incident". Did someone search all breaches by kids of zoo barriers to all dangerous animal exhibits at all zoos? It seems to me that risk is only for the history of that one exhibit. The new horizontal beam is smooth and rounded, an invitation for people to rest their hands and arms on it. For a little boy it is an invitation to climb over it. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is that once over the fence there are bushes (which are easy to penetrate) that actually CONCEAL the hazard which is a 15-foot drop into a shallow mote. Maybe the little boy told him mom he wanted to get closer to the gorilla because the bushes actually concealed from the child the hazard? Maybe he thought there was a bridge or stairway beyond the bushes. Those bushes could be the hazard. Why would anyone plan an exhibit like that and NOT use thorn bushes as a practical, cheep barrier? Because stupidity is often the norm in this world. Just get used to it.

Your "personal take" is very similar to mine, and I've never heard anyone discuss it. "Space-time" seems to me to have originated at the big bang. Before the big bang was something similar to space-time, but time did not exist yet. Before the big bang we had "space", after the big bang we have "space-time". I also have issues with the word "infinite". It seems like a hurdle for the big bang to occur at all, and for the big bang to result in an infinite universe is a second hurdle. It still seems to me that the big bang, or our universe, is just another finite structure above galaxy superclusters. The multiverse would be the set of all big bangs extending out to infinity. But then maybe the multiverse is only the next higher finite structure, beyond which is unknowable.

Thank you very much Mr. StringJunky!

For the first time since I started posting on the science forms I have lost the ability to quote other posters or even copy and paste. Has anyone ever experienced that problem?

The zoo apparently installed a temporary barrier that was far safer (it had jagged wooden vertical pickets) than the permanent new barrier they installed at the gorilla den. The new barrier is 42 inches high and still very easy for a small child to climb over. The plants are plain to view, some kind of delicate bushes that little boys routinely play inside of and are very easy to penetrate. They don't want to spend on installing thorn bushes that would discourage a child, or even an adult, from visiting the gorillas up close. Whomever has been inspecting the gorilla exhibit and declaring it safe was mistaken. It's never been safe and it still is not. But an incident like this will never happen again because most parents are now aware of what happened and will be watching their kids very close around the gorilla den and anywhere else dangerous but accessible to kids. But what about other dangerous animal exhibits in the zoo? Are they as easy for a kid to access? Sorry I can't copy and paste anymore. And when I try to quote someone all I get is the reply window without any quote. Anyone ever have that problem? Maybe I can figure out what went wrong.

Interstellar, or intergalactic, or intersupercluster space is probably not absolutely nothing. It is something that only seems like nothing.

Thanks to "thatsneakyguy" who posted above the illustration of the exhibit barrier cross section. It shows a fence 3' high but you cannot tell how easy it would be to pass under the bar. Anyone know what kind of fence it is? Did the child climb over or slip through the fence? It is set back from the 15' drop by ONLY 4'. I propose they might consider a set-back more than only 4', more like 8'. I saw video of bushes the child penetrated between the fence and the pit. Those are easy to penetrate!!!! Zoo management, get a brain in your head and replace those bushes with some that are just as lush and green, but thick with thorns. There are many varieties of draught-resistant thorn bushes. With some thorn bushes you don't even notice the thorns until you get close enough to see them. Rose bushes? A recent news story shows the zoo put up another 4' wooden fence in front of the 3' fence with vertical posts close enough together to prevent a kid from slipping through and jagged top to make it difficult to climb over. Good work zoo, maybe you don't need bushes with thorns.

The zoo did the right thing to shoot the gorilla. The mother feels terribly guilty about what happened. There must be a way to child-proof a barrier like that. How can you build a 3-foot barrier that will deter a child? Have bushes with thorns that prick anyone that tries to cross them but cause no serious injury. What kind of bushes did they have? Child-friendly bushes? Duhhhhhhh? Or as someone suggested an alarm that goes off when you pass a trip laser light. That would immediately alert everyone nearby. There must be harnesses with leashes that parents can hook up to their tiny tots so they don't get kidnapped as well as fall into the gorilla's den. Even surfers wear leashes.

The more I hear about this gorilla getting shot and killed because a 3-year-old was able to climb into the enclosure, the more absurd it seems that it would even be possible for an infant to get in. If an INFANT could get in, then a crazy but agile adult person would have an EASY time getting in there to cause trouble. The zoo seems terribly guilty to not make such a dangerous place less easy to access for anyone. What do you think?