Velocity_Boy

The evolution of us homo sapiens to the Pinnacle of this planets food chain probably falls just a tad short of being worthy of labeling it a miracle. Yet....I think most evolutionary biologists and anthropologists would admit that a vast amount of luck was involved. If you took 100 identical scenarios, of our planet in the exact form and with the exact numbers and types of Flora and fauna and climatalogical conditions as it had, say. 200 million years ago....and then set all those replica scenarios in motion again, there's every chance that not in one of those 100 replays would we again enjoy an ascendance to the top. Nor would we outlive and prevail over the two dozen other subspecies of primate bipedal hominids. A full 99% of all the species that ever enjoyed a day of life on this planet are gone. For good. One doesn't transcend all those long odds without a good dose of luck or fortuitous occurrences.

But you don't need the math. Or 500 words or more to prove that it's ludicrous to believe that imagining something is tantamount to conjuring it into reality. I can clearly and concisely and irrefutably prove that claim wrong by asking the claimant one six word question..... "Have you ever imagined flying unaided?" Game...set...match. LOL And of course I could come up with three dozen equally brief and bulletproof questions that would equally damn this pipe dream of bringing vivid imaginings to reality. Itd take about twelve minutes. Or just mentioning past wild things I've imagined that are totally unfeasible. I imagined I walked on to the Boston Red Sox spring training camp and made the team as a 33 year old rookie who never even played high School baseball. I imagined I totally demolished a concrete and steel commercial building with my bare fists. Like the Hulk. When we beging inventing logic and math equations innorder to deal with absurd notions that are unworthy of the time it takes to formulate them, I feel we are giving undeserved consideration and possible credibility to the silly idea. It's overkill. It's a sort of Rube Goldberging, to use an advert I'm not sure exists. Cheers.

I once had a similar school project and made this foot actuated lever that sat on the floor by your fridge. When you needed it you stepped on it and it opened and closed the door for you. Because we all know how physically demanding it is to have to both open AND close the door with your hands and arms! LOL But check out these reminders of what constitutes a simple machine. As you peruse the list look around your house and think of your daily routines. You'll come up with something. Hint...can't go wrong with the old wheel and axle. Or...like mine, a lever activated mechanism. Good luck. https://www.livescience.com/49106-simple-machines.html

Wrong. The recent climate change cycle has been going on for far too brief a time for one to extrapolate it into a one billion years formula! And climate change had zero to do with the OP red giant question.

Pretty comprehensive list, Swanny. I especially am digging #14.

But that linked article offered no proof refuting anything in the documentary I'm speaking of. Indeed...the linked article was written before the doc. The only damning incident mentioned in the article was a letter from Woolsey to Greer that said he embellished a dinner party convo. This is a typical defense response from a guy who has realized he said too much about what he shouldn't have. Or thought he was off record. Politicians do this all the time. Not one of the dozens of testimonials for alien contact in the documentary was mentioned. Either was the doc! Again...until you watch it....you'd do well not to just cut and paste a link from a topic you obviously aren't well informed on. The angry ufologist? Really? One of the primary speakers on Unacknowledged was Richard Doty. His job for the air Force was discrediting legitimate UFO witnesses. Seems the angry ufologist is doing the same. This will be the final time I reply to somebody who had not watched the documentary in question. It's tedious trying to converse with the uninformed. Like asking about a book review from somebody veho hadn't read the book. Useless.

Hey tollua.... I used to have the same model. Or rather....DW did. What you wanna do is press down on and make sure to hold down Power button three times to shut down the machine. This should make the bootstrap program m direct you to the BOOT REPAIR page after 2-3 times of reboot. VB

I believe the link I posted will answer some of your questions. If not....a mere twenty minutes googling reviews on the doc certainly will. As will viewing a couple YouTube clips. I disagree with your last point vehemently. Sometimes there is SO much compelling material in a given presentation that a full viewing IS required. Other than that.....I must stand by my aforementioned policy of not defending Bor discussing Unacknowledged until the person I'm discussing with had viewed it. It's a waste of my time rehashing for somebody not interested enough to devote a mere ninety minutes for info that will likely change the way you view the universe and your place in it. Cheers

I'm currently a Certified Fitness Trainer..and my degree is in psychology..so this baby is right up my alley. As others have said,,,yeah...you CAN raise and lower your heart rate with your thoughts. As far as elevating the BPM...how high you get it really depends upon how adept you are at conjuring excitory thoughts. The trick is that you need to make yourself believe or at least feel as if what you're thinking about.....sex, fighting, being chased down by Freddy Kruger...is really happening. Obviously some of us are more proficient at this than are others. And again, practice will help. Same Dynamics are at work for lowering your BPM. In this case, calm and relaxing thoughts. The old adage about...Going to your Happy Place. LOL. It's been widely reported and verified that Eastern holy men types...or anyone very practiced at sitting meditation...can lower their HR to about 10-15 BPM! But I think there is a caveat to the notion of just becoming really good at calming meditation will drop your HR to half or even less of your normal resting HR. And that is......your overall physical fitness level. Especially your cardio or aerobic level. You probably know that the more elite endurance athletes such as swimmers, runners, cyclists, and triathletes have uber low resting HR s. I believe Michael Phelps s is around 50. So, yeah, like it or not your fit level is gonna play a significant role in how low you can get your HR. As for raising it....not so much. That's more mind dependant. There's a genetic component as well. Done elite endurance athletes who are every bit as fit as a Phelps or a Scott Jurek just cannot get their resting HR below, say, the mid-60s. The heart had it's own organic bioelectric pacemakers that sit stop both upper Chambers. I think they're called AV nodes. Well, those apparently can be effected by good old DNA. In this case, no matter how fit and how good you get started meditation.... Michael Phelps crossed with the dalai llama!...you ain't gonna get down to those crazy low teens or twenty something numbers.

Well..first off I believe you're short changing us earthlings a little with your time scale. Most cosmologists think it's gonna be closer to five to seven billion years before our sun begins expanding into a red giant on it's way to totally incinerating the inner four planets. Unfortunately...it's not gonna be an immediate and painless process, like if you were caught at the epicenter of a nuclear explosion. Nope....any life on Earth during this event will die in inches. Or rather....a little at a time over a three or four decade time window. As the sun's hydrogen nuclear fusion winds down and it's hydrogen fuel supply dwindles, we here on Earth will see the sun's luminosity increase by about 10% a decade. And the ambient temperature will also ramp up accordingly. https://www.livescience.com/32879-what-happens-to-earth-when-sun-dies.html

Hey cats....I have a sort of off da wall, but I think fairly intriguing thought problem for you. We were chatting a little Saturday about terrorists and potential terrorist actions occurring in the US. So maybe some residue from that was on my mind this morning while I was watching the new Netflix reboot of the old Lost In Space TV series. BTW....it's very well done, I think. So....in that series, the Robinsons have this all terrain vehicle that's sorta like a Hummer on steroids. Thing can climb over just about anything. I was enjoying watching this thing do some impressive high speed off roading and thinking...Hey.... that's what I need for driving around here! The city I live in had a truly apocalyptic traffic problem. One of the worst in the entire country. So yeah...just climb over those pesky cars that get in your way. LOL. Well...this in turn made me recall how awesome and adept a tank would be on city roads. Please continue to bear with me...I promise a point is on the horizon here! I drove a Abrams M1A2 for the Army...for 22 mos. in OIF. So I'm all too aware of the destructive capabilities of these wonderful machines of mass destruction that help keep Americans free and strong. And....here's your thought exercise. You get to play Commander of our civil defenses here. Let's say a PTSD ravaged vet went rogue and took an Abrams off base and began raising havoc on the streets of a US city. How would local law enforcement cope? What measures would they take? Would they call the nearby army base for help? Obviously a typical big city police force doesn't posses the requisite fire power or weoponry to terminate the Abrams. Oh...I've seen how some SWAT teams have those little mini tanks....urban assault vehicles. But they're not up to the task, trust me. So what do you do, Commander? Air strike? But remember we're in a US city. The Abrams is now approximately ten miles away from the base. Rolling down a major artery going the wrong way. Rolling over unfortunate cars. And once in awhile loosing a shell from the main gun, or firing off bursts from the sixty Cal. Cannon. Oh...it's Two soldiers in the tank, the dtivervand the loader/gunner. Usually we had a guy for each of those jobs, but let's say in this scenario one soldier is performing both tasks. I think it makes my story a tad more believable if two guys instead of three went postal here. They've taken on some extra ammo, as well. Though local law enforcement probably wouldn't know this. Not at first, anyway. So far...the tank had been rogue for about forty five minutes. We estimate about twenty casualties thus far, with a couple dozen cars crushed, as well as some property damage. A couple roadside structures took fire. A convenience store with gas pumps out front...still on fire... BTW. And a Compass Bank outlet. Both dwellings totaled. So...you pick up your red phone and call......

Yes....it is my own personal opinion. Hey! Congrats....you finally got something right on this forum. Keep it up, Charm School. Cheers.

Oh....ya mean theme as in screen settings and the forum's template appearance! When I initially read your OP title I thought you were advocating that we begin addressing darker issues, as in more edgy, controversial, and potentially depressing. Gothic? Maybe like supernatural or paranormal stuff. LOL. Can't see any o' dat woo flying here. But I reckon we do have the Lounge, eh? My wife is on a couple of those paranormal sites. I checked em out once in awhile. Decent entertainment at times. And I can't explain why but it's somehow refreshing to read all these believers in that stuff. They're a friendly bunch. And no unremitting thread of arrogance as I see here. It's the first part of this site. The unrelenting propensity of some of these cats to let you know they know more than you. But I digress. Cheers.

Just so. And the sort of all but useless and low level of application in real world education our kids are getting has worsened since the whole state and federal requirements standards tests were intituted. Talk to any Grade 3 to 12 teacher. They spend virtually all their class time prepping their little darlings for the year end exams. These exams are the determinates for future funding and accreditation. Thus....sort of an important deal! LOL. In a way the teacher's very livelihoods depend on good or at least adequate test scores. To quote my teacher ex-wife.....the whole freaking year is pretty much a prep course for those tests. If we go outside the box from the three Rs we're taking a big risk.

Who's forgetting? We all know about the possible Timothy McVeighs of the world. But last I checked, Al Quaeda and ISIL and Taliban, Hezbollah, et al were not homegrown. You also might wanna read this, Hydra man. http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/features/10560/ I'll see that link and raise you! http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/features/10560/

Who said anything about Hydra? Don't be naive. A state or terrorist faction sponsored actor will one day pull off the event we're speaking of. Mark it. The fact it hadn't occurred yet is both lucky and fortunate for us. And as I told Junky...a nuke device is not required. Also don't put words in my mouth or straw man me, bro. I never hypothesised anything vthat is the sole province of a fictional super villain clan. Grow up. Infrastructure? What are you talking about? https://secure.ucsusa.org/onlineactions/qwrm-C-G0kylfhrYozBh1w2?MS=topnav&_ga=2.239874947.1257589020.1526153112-1318249074.1526153112

Bin laden had that type of money, however. I'm sure ISIS does as well. And as for my football game or Subway scenarios....a nuclear device is not required. A hundred lbs of Semtex or the like would wreak havoc.

Well... yeah, of course. The scenario you described, in which a possible terrorist nuclear attack is carried out on a smaller scale and far less identifiable method....like a suitcase sitting on an NYC subway platform....is what keeps all of our NSA and CIA and Homeland security counter-terrorism guys up at night. And I think most CT guys agree that an ISIS sort of faction would almost certainly have to employ a tactic like that. I've always feared your above mentioned scenario.....small boat, plane...suitcase at an NFL game...way way way (!) More than I have a Putin or a Jong Un unleashing an ICBM. And for the reasons you mentioned. Even someone as batshit crazy as Kim Jong knows that he is not long for this world if he attacks us. He'd be dead with hours. I'm also continually amazed..... flabbergasted, really...that we the US have not been attacked in that manner.....truck nuke bomb, boat, luggage....since 9/11! I recall the following months after 911... I'd be watching the NFL on TV just thinking what a perfect and likely place for some Al quaeda dipshit to place a mini nuke device! I remember thinking how horrific it'd be to see that happen on live TV. And yet,..........here we are some 17 years later. And nothing. Why? An homage to our splendid CT industry? Our vigilant government? Or maybe more fodder for the 911 Insider theorists?

But you did...and rather smugly, I felt....say that Einstein's opus of work and thus his Laws and Theories were merely one guy's opinion. And that for whatever reason, science just decided to jump on his bandwagon. This claim hints that much if not all of science is on a tenuous and maybe even biased...or just plain wrong...footing. Reasons that also explain why what you think about the nature of the universe and its center and outer edges are wrong can be found by anyone with moderate Google skills in about five minutes. Take it from a relative newcomer here, as well as one of the less-hard science savvy guys on this forum...you ain't gonna get far or learn much from these people by strolling in with a chip on your shoulder and immediately denigrating past science greats. Like another member suggested, it's prolly best for all if you just say from the gitgo what you don't like about the current state of science. Or where you think current theories are wrong. Then let them retort and explain. Then digest their answers and try to disprove if you can. And just tell us how you debunked them. That right there is pretty much science. Cheers.

Hey iNow! I like your answer best of all of these. Mainly because it's not just a boring dictionary paste up or memorization. And two, cuz it admits that science and more accurately scientists are usually biased to some degree. Thus, the best science is done with the least degree of bias, assumptions, or personal agenda. Every scientist, since he is a flawed human being, is best with emotions, likes, dislikes, as well as a real....if perhaps covert or subconscious.... preference in his mind how he WANTS the experiment or observation to turn out. Thus....the best of them recognize this and don't let it affect their work. Again...great answer! Thanks. I might use it in the future, giving you full credit!

Yes sir...sorry.

How you can claim Tyson isn't interested in, or even highly adept at communicating science accurately is beyond me. I think he's the best out there for relating cosmological facts and theories to the general public since Carl Sagan. Whom he was mentored by, in fact. His Netflix docs are outstanding. He's a smart man and a skilled speaker, with a great voice to boot. And to me, he never comes across as overly arrogant to where he tends to turn people off, right out of the box, like Kaku or Dawkins. By contrast, a poor communicator or person who cannot or won't explain things but just pastes links all the time would be, in my opinion, a poor communicator as well as someone who just wants to be seen as being right. Just my dos centavos. Wow. You're really lecturing someone on being condescending? Pot.......meet kettle.

Rational? Uh-huh. Ya mean like this batshit crazy stuff? http://www.businessinsider.com/kim-jong-un-quotes-2018-1

Meh...no need to relocate Seoul or take any preemptive protective measures in South Korea. Why? Well.... Kim Jong Un is certainly a bit crazy, but not to the extent where he doesn't know that an artillery barrage on his neighbors and our allies to his south would not spell immediate doom for him and all he holds dear. Such as most of the infrastructure of his shite hole capital city. As well as the lives of at least a few thousand of his country men. All this would happen of course courtesy of massive retaliatory air strikes from us as well as most likely a couple allies. We might even put boots on the ground in the form of a couple special ops teams to make sure we terminate his command. With, yep....extreme prejudice. He's just like his daddy. A hopeless and childish sabre rattler. Whenever he feels he's not getting enough attention or respect. So he sets off a couple test bombs. Or plays war games out where everyone can see him and his braindead automatons. But at heart he's gutless and inept. And I'll never make his country more than it is now. He will forever remain third rate. And also will always be a cartoonish caricature of a hopelessly deluded sociopathic puppet master.

I learned that the Earth's actual magnetic North Pole is located at the southern extremis of our planet in Antarctica. And that..... yeah....the true magnetic South Pole is up very near the geographic North Pole. WTF? I knew the poles flip every few hundred thousand years or so, and even how we discern this fact. And that the Pole flips are not even that high a deal. Other than remaking all those compasses. But how I never knew the noth-pole-is-magnetic south thing is kinda humbling. I learned this from a book I'm reading about our solar system when it mentioned Jupiter having it's magnetic and geographic poles at the same locus. Then the author mentioned us. Wow.