Ten oz

I use to believe there was no difference then Bush 43 became president over Al Gore. That sobered me up fast. While neither party represents my positions there are differences between the two. The differeces aren't stark as I wish but they do exist. You asked what Obama has done differently; do you honestly believe McCain/Palin or Romney/Ryan wouldn't have us in another war by now? Look at the events in Egyt, Syria, Ukraine, and Israel. You honesty think Bush/McCain/Romney wouldn't have the U.S. more directly involved? Bush 43 wanted to move on Syria in 05' but Iraq was going too poorly. If Obama has done nothing else at least he ended the two wars and not created any others. Look at the courts and ridiculous rulings like corporation personhood. That came directly from the Federalist Society. Do you think Al Gore would have put federalist Judge on the supreme court like Bush 43 did? Can you imagine what our courts would look like today is McCain/Palin were nominating judges rather than Obama/Biden? As for Gitmo, that is on Congress. Obama has tried but Congress refuses to allow prisoners to have trials in U.S. courts. Closing Gitmo is something Obama can legally do via executive action but transferring the prisoners is not. So he can just release every prisoner and get impeach by Congress or do what he has been doing which is not adding any new prisoners. He also stopped torturing them. Another important thing to consider is that the Executive branch is only a third of the federal govt. Republicans control the other two branches, Congress and the Courts. That balance of power prevents any lone President from diverging too far from the status qou.

this is already happening every midterm election season. Midterms only draw anywhere from 35-38% of elgible voters. Doesn't stop members of Congress from doing what they want. Apathy is exactly why our system doesn't work in my opinion. Sure everyone knows who the President is but the Executive Branch is only a third of the Federal Govt. A lot of people have no idea who represents them in the House or Senate. No idea who sits on the Courts. Many people are also ignorant of what impacts their local govt has on their lives. People often don't pay attention to city, county, and state races. My guess in that more people know who the Mayor of New York City is than who the Mayor of their own cities are.Rather than refusing to vote because we don't like the candidates people should start actually becoming educated about candidates other than the President. Third party voting for example has proven success in local govt races.

@ iNow, great response. You summarized it better than I could've. One area of memory you didn't touch on however is memory bias. How our own point of view and beliefs bias what we remember. It is why my wife remembers that I was "angry" about things I don't recall being angry about,

6 corporations own 90% of the media. Just 30 yrs ago it was 50 corporations. Media isn't just cable news either.http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6 Left-wing media vs right-wing media is a fallacy. All of it is corporate media. As stated in my previous post, Conservatives are corporatists. By conservatives I mean Republicans. Moderate Democrats are as well. In my opinion there is actually no difference between the Democratic party today and the Republican of 30yrs ago. Policy wise Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford would be Democrats today. Even Bush 41 fits more in the Democratic mold. Deregulation of banks the 80's, growing strength of the Federalist Society in our courts (corporations are people), and global free market economics have transformed the current Republican Party. Oddly the Libertarian wing which was once seen as the far right wing of the Republican Party has chosen to stay associated. The tent no longer seems to fit them. Libertarians with their legalize pot, anti world policy, aniti increased local police militarization, and anti lobbyist in Washington views are probably better fit into the left wing of the Democratic party today. The anti corporatists, environmentalists, and anti *nuclearist were driven out of the Democratic party by the Kennedy and Clinton Democrats years ago. *Nuclearist is not a real word.

Desalination is slowly coming to the States. San Diego County in California are putting up a large plant. http://carlsbaddesal.com/

It is all about money. It always is. Desalination is an option. There are many different ways of doing it. We (United States) don't do more of it because it's expensive. Companies rather just suck lakes and rivers dry on the cheap. When they are all dried up we will start desalinazing ocean water.

@ Dekan, I am far more cynical about what motivates Conservatives than you are. Concerns over welfare have little to do with immigration policy IMO. The United States like most other wealthy countries use a steady flow of immigrant works to supplement industry with wages low workers. Immigration policy in a sense, IMO, is a form of corporate welfare. In wealthy middle east countries like UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia supplement their work force with immigrants from places Pakistan and India. In the United States we supplement the labor force with people from Central and South America. Disenfranchising immigrants by Keeping them from having citizenship or worker visa. It prevents them from having the rights or protection under law. Conservatism is really just a form or corperatism. They hide behind false debates as a means of pushing their own agendas. For example; Everyone knows climate change is real. United States, Russia, Canada, China, and so on are all battle for rights to the resources becoming availible in the north as a result of climate change. While battle over rights, moving assets north, and fielding contracts and bids from corperations Conservative politicians take to the podium and claim climate science in incomplete. They bold face lie because there is too much profit in maintaining the status qou. I don't think conservatism is a mild form of insanity. However I do think it is driven by anger and greed. Two things which history has proven to be very strong motivators.

Good stuff.

Sure you can add one to the speed of light but the number would be a fictitious one as it isn't possible. Knowledge references real things right?

Good post!There is difference between "impossible to measure or calculate" and the mathematical meanings of "greater than any assignable quantity or countable number"; "able to be continued indefinitely". I feel like this discussion has treated it all the same. As humans we are finite. Both in numbers and mortality. Knowledge is a human concept which in my opinion makes it as finite as we are. While it is true that knowledge is beyond our ability to measure or calculate; it is also true that we don't have all the variables. We can not account for future knowledge. It is not provably because it is greater than any assignable number or continues indefinitely. The math example posters are using of 1 + 1 = 2 and that repeats indefinitely doesnt work in my opinion. How do we know it continues forever? Just as speed has an upper limit perhaps numbers do as well? Again, not having the information to assign or measure doesn't automatically equal infinity.

So there only needs to be a benefit to an action. Intelligence and curiosity are not necessary for exploration or rather dramatically expanding ones habitat? That I am aware of there are no birds which fly higher and higher. All life on earth has evolved per earth's characteristics though. Another planet may have useful chemicals or mineral in its upper atomesohere that provides life there a reason to fly ever higher? What if another planet had life but then lost it atomesohere. Life there then survived moving underground. Like fish once took short forays on to land to grab resources this underground life may have done the same. Short forays above ground subjected to no atomesohere conditions. Could they have then evolved the ability to move off world? If there planet had moons and large debris rings containing resources.

I think most truly religious, or rather humblely religious, people already see it as sinful. In my opinion the problem is that many people who claim to be religious do so as a form of culture expression. Their true faith is to the way of life they are accustomed. Race, language, economis, politics, and so on playing a larger role than any written scriptures. Asking people to change cultural things like driving less and using public transportation more somehow gets twisted into challanges of faith. It is bizarre.

High intelligence give us high curiosity? Very interesting statement. The more I think about it the less clear I become that high, intelligence, or curiosity really even exist outside of human perception. Did high levels of curiosity drive the first amphibious creatures to evolve? Surely dry land was foriegn to those creatures as space may seem to us? A fish out of water dies. They can't breathe air and even if they could navigating would not be possible. Yet they left the ocean all ths same. Developed lungs and muscles to manipulate their fins. It may sound like science fiction but much like fish left the ocean could life naturally evolve to leave a planet? Perhaps if the planet had a ring of resource rich material? Like birds driving under the water for fish or like seals who evolved thick fat deposits to handle the cold could life on another planet have evolved to burst out into orbit to collect ferrous metals or what not then return back to their planet? Perhaps these questions seem silly. Your post just got me thinking for a moment.

In my opinion intelligence is not something we can easily define in a way that allows it to broadly apply throughout the universe. Finding life similar to our own would be easiest but we have no way of calculating if it would be the most likely. As to your question about insects attaining technology; they do problem solve and many colony insects build structures. Is a Beehive a technology achievement? What about honey. Is honey proof or a form of insect agriculture/farming? "University of Sydney have shown that the humble ant is not only capable of solving difficult mathematical problems, but is even able to do what few computer algorithms can - adapt the optimal solution to fit a changing problem." http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=6165

Lets apply proportionality to your example. Hamas does not pose a threat to all the world. Hamas isn't killing millions of people all over the world. Hamas isn't more or as militarily powerful as its enemies. Even to that; war stopped when the Germany surrendered. Germany was allowed a seat back at the table and today is again a powerful country. Whom in Gaza would Israel like to wave a white flag? Which Hamas "leader" can end this by executive order? After that shall Palistine be a soveriegn state with its own military and a seat on UN counsels?

I am not sure what would qualify as "witnessed god" but I know and have known many people who claim a variety of supernatural impressions or interactions that they insist are proof of God. I don't waste my time asking them anything.

False Dichotomy - The fallacy of false dichotomy is committed when the arguer claims that his conclusion is one of only two options, when in fact there are other possibilities. The arguer then goes on to show that the 'only other option' is clearly outrageous, and so his preferred conclusion must be embraced. Hamas is a terror organization. They are grade A bad guys. I am not arguing otherwise. However everyone being killed are not members of Hamas and regardless of Hamas' call for the destruction of Israel they lack the fire power to destory Israel. Meanwhile Israel has the power to destory Gaza when ever they are ready. Israel is in a superior position of power regardless of how evil Hamas is. This whole debate is like a use of force police video where an unarmed criminal, who has been cornered after commiting a crime, gets beat senseless by well equipped police officers; they taser him, pepper spray, hits him with night sticks, but still the criminal crawls and says obscenities so the beating continues. The whole time the several small children stand just off to the side watching in horror. If only the criminal would stop resisting via empty obscenities and weak physical movements the police could stop pounding him into the dirt? Why won't the criminal just stop. Israel is killing Palistinians at a rate of something like 20 to 1 or better. To imply they aren't being allowed to defend themselves is an exaggeration. I agree the world community, NATO specifically, should be more directly involved but Israel ignoring U.N. cease fires and blowing up U.N. facilities in Gaza makes it difficult. Yes, Hamas acted first and Israel was responding. Hamas is a terror organization seeking to instigate violence, of course they acted first. Of course they ignore cease fires. Israel, in my opinion, needs to stop following them down that rabbit whole. Hamas as an organization does not have control over its own members the way Israel has control over its military. No one person or counsel of Palistinians can just say stop. The Israel govt can. It is a huge difference.

As I previously posted you are creating a false dichotomy. There is more than one way to respond for bothsides. Saying that Israel is "responding the only way they know how" relieves them of any responsibility to explore anything else. Israel has responded the same way for decades and it hasn't worked. The only way they know how obviously doesn't work. Smart people learn from past mistakes. Pointing out that Hamas are the bad guys here doesn't make Israel's appoarch anymore successful in hindsight. My point about Israel being the adults here is that they are the ones with the stronger international support, stronger military, better educated citizens, better economy, and the most to lose. I rather see the them, Israel, lead than merely respond to a terrorist influence failed state with nothong to lose. Israel could incinerate Gaza tomorrow if they wanted to. They are in a much stronger position here. With great power comes great responsibility right?

@ Barfbag, I don't believe hydrinos is legit thing. I believe they are taking advantage of excited hydrogen electrons loosing photons to move to a ground state. Electrons can either gain or lose energy in the form of photons to change orbits. However a ground state can not be lowered. "Each orbital has a specific energy associated with it. For an electron to be boosted to an orbital with a higher energy, it must overcome the difference in energy between the orbital it is in, and the orbital to which is is going. This means that it must absorb a photon that contains precisely that amount of energy, or take exactly that amount of energy from another particle in a collision. The illustrations on this page are simplified versions of real atoms, of course. Real atoms, even a relatively simple ones like hydrogen, have many different orbitals, and so there are many possible energies with different initial and final states. When an atom is in an excited state, the electron can drop all the way to the ground state in one go, or stop on the way in an intermediate level." "Electrons do not stay in excited states for very long - they soon return to their ground states, emitting a photon with the same energy as the one that was absorbed." http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/lessons/xray_spectra/background-atoms.html

This is a bit of a false dichotomy. The only way to deal with Hamas isn't to kill their "human shields". Neither killing Hamas militants or their human shields has proven effective. Sure, Hamas is bad. Hamas has blood on their hands. Hamas are instigators but does that mean Israel should just keep killing? Does that mean Israel only has one option which time and experience says doesn't work? Regardless of who is at fault . Regardless of how terrible or evil Hamas may be it is Israel who is more powerful. Israel has the superior military and international support. That makes Israel the adults here.

45% efficentcy is considered record break for photovoltaic cells. They are not getting 100%. http://www.engineering.com/ElectronicsDesign/ElectronicsDesignArticles/ArticleID/6501/Record-Breaking-Solar-Cell-Approaches-45-Efficiency.aspx They only want light but they are producing heat which is why a heat exchanger is one of the functions they listed as neccessary. Heat is this case is wasted energy. It isn't collected. They are calculating it as part of what they can produce but it isnt useful if it isn't useable. They are using low volt high amp electrodes. Something like 12k Amps and are producing a lot of heat. That is at a millisecond. Replicate that a hundred times back to back and they probably melt the down their whole lab. They have some serious challenges. Nothing wrong with guys trying to develop new sources of energy.

The concept of God has nothing to do with a finite universe. Nothing is equal to infinity basically as time wouldn't apply to it. Nothing is nothing and remains nothing for eternity. Nothing is never converted into something?Energy is not gain or lost but matter can be transformed. To say our universe is finite is to imply our physics and laws are finite. For example if all the matter in our universe were inside a black hole where our laws no longer apply our universe would essentially have ended. It doesn't mean matter has been destoryed or that nothing exists.

@ Barfbag, from what I have been able to gather Blacklight in only producing millisecond events and then extrapolating out. They use high current at low voltage to produce a millisecond event that they then claim is consistently repeatable over time and the energy from it can be collected at 100%. Photovoltaic cells don't work at even 50% muchless 100% though. As for the heat being produced it takes energy to produce heat and photo cells don't capture heat. My general impression is that they discovered a means of producing a millisecond event that on paper appears to be producing more energy than it takes to create. Problem they are having is that there is not a 100% efficient way to collect that energy, it takes a lot of power to create that event, and they haven't figured out how to keep it going for any truly testable or useable amount of time.

Below are quotes from what I think is a decent article regarding Blacklight Power: "One ten-thousandth of a liter of water produces millions of watts of power. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? Oh, but wait... how do we measure energy density of a substance? Joules per liter, or something equivalent - that is, energy per volume. But Blacklight is quoting energy density as watts per liter. The joule is a unit of energy. Watts are a different unit, a measure of power, A watt is one joule/second." "Gasoline contains, on average, about 11.8 kWh/kg. A milliliter of gasoline weighs about 7/10ths of a gram, compared to the 1 gram weight of a milliter of water; therefore, a kilogram of gasoline should contain around 1400 milliliters. So, let's take 11.8kWh/kg, and convert that to an equivalent measure of energy per milliter: about 8 1/2 kWh/milliliter. How does that compare to hydrinos? Oh, wait... we can't convert those, now can we? Because they're using power density. And the power density of a substance depends not just on how much power you can extract, but how long it takes to extract it." "Here's my guess. Mills has some process where he spikes his generator with 12000 amps, and gets a microsecond burst of energy out. If you can produce 100 joules from one milliliter in 1/1000th of a second, that's a power density of 100,000 joules per milliliter. Suddenly, the amount of power that's being generated isn't so huge - and there, I would guess, is the key to Mills latest scam. If you're hitting your generating apparatus with 12,000 amperes of electric current, and you're producing microsecond burst of energy, it's going to be very easy to produce that energy by consuming something in the apparatus, without that consumption being obvious to an observer who isn't allowed to independently examine the apparatus in detail." http://scientopia.org/blogs/goodmath/2014/01/14/the-latest-update-in-the-hydrino-saga/

I am not sure I understand the question? We impacted them in terms of possibly causing them to go extinct but I don't think that is what you mean.