gcol

Found this quote from one Edward Franklin ("Digital Philosophy", whatever that is) on Crackpot Theories: "Every good physicist must have a crackpot detector to keep himself or herself from wasting time on crackpot theories. Nevertheless, almost all physicists spend almost all of their time working on wrong theories in the hope that they will eventually find a correct theory, or at least, an important wrong theory. Witness Pauli’s famous remark, “That theory is worthless, it isn’t even wrong.” All of the wrong theories that physicists respect fall into a certain set of accepted classes; they are all trying to mine in fields where pay dirt is found from time to time". So if all you smarty ar*se guys who know everything have necer had a crackpot moment, you ain't thinking or tryin'! Roll up, crackpots one and all, you make life more fun and interesting.

Prompted by YT's "pattern recognition" thread, and spotting a possible coincidence, I could deduce a drop in posts coinciding with the recent witch hunt against religious threads. (Unless the religion is, ahem, atheism, of course). I also spy an increasing tendency from the great and good to imply that QM and relativity have all the answers, so why bother with anything else. String theory? That is just idle speculation, because it cannot be proven. Gravity? Who knows. Dont waste study time on it. Can't explain the apparent drop-off in chemistry though. From Wikipedia one gets an unopinionated answer which can be accepted or not, and compared with other sources. This forum seldom provides unequivocal answers, and seems to often officially frown on the sort of speculation one gets in a free discussion. The forum is for (by name) discussion and debate, it is not called science answers. Some would seem to want it to be neither fish nor fowl.

Am I misunderstanding something here? As far as I know, there are no household ware plastics that can be liquefied by heat without destroying them. The process is to heat them just enough, below degradation temperature, until they are just soft enough to be injected into a mould using high pressure. The only one I have come accross that is liquid at room temp is called, I think, something like 'plastisol', used in the printing trade and for cold dip coating/moulding (similar to making candles). This material actually hardens/cures when heat is applied. I have also heard of a "hobby" resin used for encapsulating flowers, insects, whatever for things like pendant jewellery. I speak from both distant memory and recent practical experience in dealing with the plastic moulding industry. If I am wrong, someone please put me right.

In my experience, it is rather the norm for full original spec cables and connectors to be depopulated for cost saving where the specific use does not require all signals. Open any RS232 or SCART connector and see the redundant connections. In my modem days, it was the norm for serial connectors to have only a handful of pins fitted. Same applies to video cables.

All the world is crackpot, except me and thee, and even thee is a bit cracked. If anyone thinks all their ideas, opinions, beliefs and theories are as sound as a bell, they sure are in a tiny minority, possibly of one. Those who have never had a crackpot moment should get out more and smell the roses.

Pangloss: If You want a seconder for your "advocacy", count me in.I would be an advocate for the devil if I thought he had been victimised unfairly and given a bum deal. All hypocritical fundamentalist pressure groups offend me intensely. As an atheist denies all Gods, so should a reasonable and even-handed person shout for fairplay.

Nice one, Albie, but unless it works like one-way glass, I would not volunteer for lookout duty: Captain to lookout: "There is an iceberg warning, keep your eyes peeled". Lookout to captain "What icebergs? cant see a damn thing through this plasmonic fog, can't see sh**t". Or even "captain to phalanx, inbound exocet bearing green 045, lock on target". "You must be joking, cant even zap a seagull through this murk". Perhaps "Hey, Abdullah, there's a cloud of that plasmonic stuff on the horizon" "Must be a damn Yank, lob a heatseaking missile into it". How about "Ooops, crunch smash gurgle gurgle, did not see you there, assumed our radar was on the blink". Loads of laughs.

I have a perfect pet. It does not smell, is completely undemanding, cheap to feed, can be left unattended for long long periods and is never disobedient. It is also house-trained ab initio and there are no vets bills, and its hair does not fall out. It is a rock. Ideal.

I suggest there is insufficient data to answer the question, all chemicals having a different propensity to react violently at different temperatures. The knowledge and experience of the experimenter should be taken into account. What was the ambient temperature of the lab for example. I will take a cynical guess and say he did it, the result was "unfortunate", and he is seeking a statistical excuse!

Give the man a break, he was in his cups, blotto, stoned. We should all be thankful there's not a man with notebook and pen ready to take down all the things we blurt out in moments of stress and inebriation. He is only an actor after all, it's not as if he could ever be a politician, not even a mayor in California.... er, what am I saying! I don't in any way condone his words, but I give him a couple of "freedom of speech" brownie points for questioning the unquestionable

Chinese Love: Congratulations, by almost any of the definitions for paranormal, you are it personified. Look in a mirror, hear yourself talking, you are there already, O enlightened one!

But you have two brains, you dont need two legs.

I like the uptight stance, it makes me taller than most dogs, and I dont have to wear shoes on my hands. Ever tried wearing shoes on your hands? not easy to pick your nose. Saves on trouser material, too.

Aha, hoist with my own petard, methinks. As an aside, completely off topic, and with Castro rumoured to be about to pop his clogs, do you think the Yanks will be allowed to smoke Havanahs?

So it is, and so it has (yawn). Sorry to be dismissive, YT, but as we will never know the data on which the threat is based, we will never know if they are just whistling in the wind to justify another intelligence budget uplift, or to support more invasion of privacy and rights eroding legislation. I wish I was less sanguine about it, but having been exposed to so much spin, opportunism and hidden agendas over my lifetime, I feel quite justified.

1. I took it as a given that the slug would have to acquire potential energy by working it against gravity. I was just imagining that all the gravitically stored kinetic energy would be converted to electrical work. 2. Must be a magnet? I was thinking of eddy currents induced, tiny effect at first, by the local domains caused by molecular dipoles, Where any imbalance might result in the slug becoming uniformly magnetised by the time it came (momentarily) to rest. Certainly easier and quicker to start with a magnet though.

If I suggested it wasjust for the pusuit of profit, would that be too simplistic and cynical? I think not. Sometimes the producers guess the mindset of the mass (profitable) of consumers wrongly, (no tears from me).

[/u] Probably. If it is programmed with the garbage of the human mindset, you are bound to get garbage decisions. Just normal politics, really.

Nah mate, its cos we tinks americanisms is lazyisms, init, know what I mean? Nuf probs over the centuries wiv celtic, norse, anglosaxon, latin, french, dutch, erse, cockney and bangladeshi and some wot ive forgot already. I mean, they wos proper talk to begin wiv, wosn't they. American? Thats rubbish to begin wiv, innit, do us a favour.

I presume all parts of the body that have a use -by date of about 100 years would be similarly affected. Which parts of your body would you sacrifice to keep your brain going?

I would be proud and unashamed to be an AI Luddite. Where do I sign up?

How would you overcome the problem that a capacitor is neither constant voltage nor current? Also, you will find that even 100farad (big!) is nowhere near enough for an AAA