bascule

Tesla had certainly been working on systems which utilized electrostatic induction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_energy_transfer

Martin, what's your take on Lee Smolin's idea that "the world we are imbedded in is nothing but an ever evolving network of relationships" Still reading through this paper...

Net neutrality is a touchy subject. I personally believe that, as common carriers, telcos shouldn't use their networks anticompetatively (i.e. block Skype traffic because it competes with phone/their own VoIP offerings)

Here was the original setup I described: This experiment takes place in three different locations: A, B, and C. Locations A and C are equidistant from B. At B we have a laser which emits a single photon at a time over a given interval. The photon passes through a beam splitter (BS). BS splits the probability in two such that photons have a 50% chance of exiting through either of the two outputs. Both of BS's outputs are connected to down converters (DC) which generate entangled photons. One of each of the outputs of the down converters are directed at locations A and C. At C we redirect the beams coming from B such that they overlap and interfere, provided that the person at A is not using the which path detector (WPD) to observe which path the photons coming out of BS are taking. The idea is that if someone turns on the WPD, then over the course of a few bazillion photons you see a pattern like this on the "screen" at C: Here there's no interference pattern because we're observing which path the photons take through the beam splitter. But if we turn off the WPD, then the probability waves split by BS interfere with each other, and the pattern that's traced out on the screen will look something like this: (note: This image assumes that the probability wave will collapse due to outside interference about 50% of the time) I checked out a book called Superluminal Loopholes in Physics which described a setup more or less like this one, then proceeded to do a lot of math I didn't understand to show why it didn't work. Unfortunately being a layman I have no idea what they were actually doing, but bottom line: it won't work.

I'd call this article "Straining to look through rose colored glasses" Ignoring the situations in Iraq and Iran for a second, we have Pakistan. They're a non-signatory of the NNPT, they possess nuclear weapons, one of their top government officials sold nuclear technologies to Iran and North Korea, and he's been pardoned and sequestered ever since, immune from questioning by the IAEA. While we don't expect Musharraf to go around using nukes willy nilly, who's to say his regime won't be toppled, leaving nuclear weapons in the hands of whomever can successfully stage a coup? In the time since all of this happened, the US has declared Pakistan our "ally in the war on terror." Zuh? The author of the article tries to juxtapose the instability of the region against all the positive change which has been accomplished, making the situational flux (and Iranian nukes) out to be the only negative aspect(s) of the situation (Iranian nukes conveniently omitted from his closing sentence), and attempting to paint every other negative result of US military action as being just about as bad as things were before our military intervention. Anyway, it's a "keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side" interpretation of the situation. Me no likey. I mean, the guy mentions that Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power, then conveniently forgets that and goes on to state "In every case, I think, far messier—but far better—than before September 11" Sorry, the situation in Iran was much better before September 11th... before Pakistan's A.Q. Khan sold them the technology they needed to enrich uranium.

The main Harun Yahya thingy I've checked out is Darwinism Refuted, where I discovered the same old arguments you get from the creationist/ID crowd based on the same old logical fallacies (e.g. appeal to incredulity)

Depends on what type of tuned circuit it's using and what your idea of "modify" actually means. The variable capacitor and coil form a tuned circuit. Modifying them without knowing what you're doing will most likely prevent you from receiving anything. Modifying them while knowing what you're doing will allow you to receive other frequencies within some hard limits regarding the hardware you're using, so again, the answer is: it depends. AM

Okay, I'm going to be a bit biased on this, but... Stay away from MFC. They suck. Like everything Microsoft seems to make, they suffer from horrible bloat. Stay away from the Win32 API unless you have a few months to devote to actually learning it "properly". And by "properly", I mean you wrap it up in a C++ wrapper to make it actually usable (this, BTW, is what Microsoft tried to do, and failed, with MFC) If I were starting a Windows development project nowadays I'd be looking at Qt or wxWindows

I'll be sure to inform Les Claypool

Keep Zappa out of this

I've proposed dividing the country up based on ethnic groups before, but I never had the foresight to consider the oil angle. Oops. Jamming a bunch of different ethnic/cultural groups inside some artificially drawn borders has never seemed to work out, but I don't know how the oil issues could be sensibly resolved.

I live in Boulder which is like, the diametrical opposite of the rest of America. We have an awesome bus system, which I never use because thanks to an extensive system of paths bikes are by far the fastest way to get around town.

Hi, I'm a bass player. So, uhh, obviously I'm biased. Bass kicks ass. I'm about to throw on my headphones (it's 1:30 AM here and I don't want to disturb the roomie) and bust out some badass slap. But here's what I have to say: Bass is closest to the resonant frequency of your internal organs, particularly your heart (literally!). The bass is the most badass heartshaking instrument out there, so in that respect it's obviously intense. When I say that you really need to be part of the live experience, or have a kickass stereo. I don't really have an answer when it comes to bassy headphones, beyond that without the bass you'll feel something missing from the music, but seriously, bass should be experienced live

No way, it makes perfect sense, like Negativeland

Did you know Christopher Lee did the voice of Death in the Discworld cartoon miniseries?

Necormancer has a supernatural ability to bring long-dead forum discussion threads back to life. After having been flogged to death the thread may have been deceased for many years, and bringing it back may have scant relevance to the current topic, yet Necromancer will unexpectedly exhume the thread’s rotting corpse, and strike horror in the forum as its grotesque form lurches into the discussion. The monster, instantly recognized by all who knew it in life, seems at first to breathe and have a pulse, but, alas, it is beyond Necromancer’s skill to fully restore the thread’s original vitality. The hideous apparition may frighten away some of the weaker Warriors or Warriors badly wounded in former battles, but the thread is only a shadow of its former self and very quickly expires.

Our diet sucks. I don't think our lifestyles are particularly stressful compared to countries like, say, Japan. Our healthcare system sucks. It is a combination of problems. When medicine isn't socialized you run into some pretty bad issues regarding inflation of the cost of services.

Fantasy is fun! As for my conjecture, I say the universe ends when consciousness decides it should, so I said we would survive both (or prevent them from happening entirely)

Gah, I meant a fractional factorial, and yes, it probably computes continued fractions...

Isn't there some weird kind of way to calculate pi using a fractional tutorial?

No. What would the advantage be? The idea of a collective consciousness, especially one accessed through some sort of quantum effect, is very much prevolent. I don't ascribe to it at all and personally think it's quite silly.

That's really the point: it's a lot easier for the leaders of these countries to blame their social problems on America rather than trying to solve them.

What "aprofound" paper. There are certainly no multidisciplinary scientists, no, they all have their heads tucked into one little corner and that's the only place they do any thinking! Nobody working on the level of theory? In physics, I would think of an Ed Witten or Lee Smolin... I can't imagine any concept more important than the intrinsic structure of the universe, and that's what they have their heads wrapped around. I don't know much about cell biology/"membrane theory" but this just sounds like the rant of a disgruntled biologist... and by rant I mean he posted an "Abstract" he didn't even bother to spell check. This comes off more like an ostentatious blog post.

I didn't take the test, but I'm quite certain I'm an INTP, with intuition as my strongest attribute