exchemist

That's a bit too glib. Politicians have known for decades how to control inflation: Be aware if you are "printing money" and use the central bank interest rate to damp it out. Geoffrey Howe and Thatcher did that in the UK back in the early 80s.

This article gives you some background on the economic situation in Argentina: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm55yv0g0veo The country has for a long time been spending beyond its means and printing money to finance that, while trying to maintain a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. Venezuela is just disastrously badly run, with rampant corruption, inefficiency and capricious decisions by government. Pointless to try to analyse it rationally.

Very good. This nutcase has actually published a book: https://authorfrankdimeglio.blogspot.com/2013/06/author-frank-dimeglio-is-real-agenda-of.html The link is quite funny. After several tirades from Frank, somebody else shows up to ask: "Are you a real person?".😆 And that is the sole comment from anyone other than Frank.

This sort of ill-considered, threatening shit is what we are all going to have to put up with, on a daily basis, for at least the next 4 years. It's terribly wearing. Most of it won't see the light of day, as the Pentagon or whoever will point out it's utterly mad and impractical. But some of it could be Trump's idea of a kind of protection-racket negotiating ploy. Give me something (whatever it may be) and I'll stop threatening to annex part of your territory, kind of thing. Trouble is we don't know what is a ploy and what is just mad or a brain fart. So everyone gets sleepless nights, all the time. What an arsehole. And what's worse, elected by the American people, knowing he's an arsehole.

Vapour pressure of IPA is less than ethanol so should be OK too. I’m not sure what people use meths for nowadays. It used to be used in those glass coffee percolators that had a spirit burner. My grandmother had one. But they went out decades ago.

In the UK the standard material is methylated spirits. This is mainly ethanol but with addition of methanol and methyl violet dye, to make it recognisable and unsuitable to drink. Just keep it in the screw capped bottle you buy it in and it will be safe. The vapour from small amounts of ethanol at room temperature is not going to create an explosive atmosphere. Something like methylated spirits is available in other countries too, I believe.

Surely, if the laws of physics were not the same throughout the cosmos, that would call for an explanation. I’d have thought it is more natural to assume they would be the same, seeing as modern cosmology has the universe expanding, more or less uniformly, from an initial small state. So I’d say they “got everywhere” because “everywhere” grew alongside them - and, actually, under their direction - as the universe expanded. Aren’t you inventing needless problems to solve here?

More Bach arranged for different instruments, this time parts of the C Minor Lute suite played on the harp: There's a certain restful gentleness to the harp version: good to listen to last thing at night.

I suspect it is because American Big Pharma sees there is so much money to be made from cancer drugs. People will pay a lot to keep it at bay and, as the population ages, more people have time to get cancer before they snuff it from something else. So it's lucrative. I notice the UK spends a disproportionate amount compared with others too. But then there are some notable Big Pharma companies based in the UK, too.

I'd be tempted myself to take a more direct approach. First, who deems life to be "impossible" without supernatural intervention, and on what basis? There are many highly complex structures in the universe, both at macro and micro scale, for which we have good models accounting for their formation. Why should life be uniquely different? Is there a logic to this judgement, or is it just the Argument from Personal Incredulity? Such statements are normally made by people without any knowledge of the relevant pre-biotic chemistry, so there is at the very least room to question whether they should think themselves authorities on the matter. Second, science is in fact making a lot of progress in understanding how life may have arisen. So, although abiogenesis is probably the hardest unsolved problem in modern science, it has by no means met a brick wall. There is every reason to have faith that science will in time uncover one or more likely pathways by which life may have arisen. Unlike people promoting a naïve religious agenda, science is patient: the fact we have no answer yet does not mean there won't be one in time.

Thanks. I've now done a bit of investigation on the web and its seems a number of suppliers now only use biodegradable components. Apparently even the glue used to seal the bags can be an issue, as you say. Perhaps this example gives us an insight into just how pervasive plastic materials have become in modern life, and how much attention to detail is required to reverse out all the myriad ways they are, innocently but thoughtlessly, used. Afterthought: I've just had a look at cans (tins) used for food and drink and, yep, they have plastic liners that can leach microplastics too. So before I get too smug about brewing loose leaf tea, as I aways have, I need to pay attention to tinned tuna and sardines, and the tinned anchovies and tomatoes that I use for pasta sauces. The steel for cans used to be coated, electrolytically I presume, with tin to prevent corrosion by the contents, something known as tinplate, hence the British English terms "tin" and "tinned" where N Americans say "can" and "canned". Perhaps we should go back to tinplate.

Heh heh. But, back on topic, where is plastic used in teabags? I thought the casings were made of perforated paper?

OK yes the lips.

Exactly. But the marionettes weren’t electronic. Sometimes you could see the strings. Lady Penelope was apparently based on Sylvia Anderson, the then wife of the series’ creator. Fireball XL5 is one I remember, from when we first got a black and white TV set. Pretty appalling, though the take-off sequence, with the ski jump rail system, was cool.

I recommend buying a teapot and a tea strainer. You'll get less tannin scum in the cups and no leaves in your tea. And it's just classier all round - think Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds. 🙂 Loose leaf tea tastes better in any case, though it take a few minutes to brew. I must say I did not realise there were microplastics in teabags.

Tidal power?

Heh heh.

My thoughts exactly. He’s trying to frogmarch Congress into accepting his technofeudalism. I don’t think they will take kindly to being told what to do by an unelected South African, not even the Republicans. And Trump will hate being upstaged.

Yes, Putin has indeed made threats. My contention is that none of them has had any influence on how the war is being fought. They seem to have been chest-beating stuff, aimed at his domestic audience, with no effect, so far as I can see, on the posture of Ukraine or its supporters in the West. The refusal of NATO members to get into direct confrontation with Russian forces is long-standing NATO policy, not the result of any threats by Putin.

Surely that is because Russia is a nuclear power, rather than because of any nuclear threats it has made, isn’t it?

Nobody is winning anything due to “nuclear threats”. What gives you that idea? The war in Ukraine is conventional ( save for some alleged use of chemical weapons by Russia, which was the justification given by Ukraine for assassinating the general they held responsible, a couple of days ago) all the signs are that it will remain so. Furthermore it is quite idiotic to suggest anybody would start a nuclear war unless certain countries bought their oil.

Well hello and Happy Christmas! Yes, I was one of those who predicted the finger or tab would resist being extracted from between the magnets and that this was the phase of the cycle in which there would need to be a work input to overcome the resistance, which would balance the work output in the other phases. Emmy Noether still rules! 🙂 I tracked you down to the over unity machines forum, but there too the trail had gone cold in mid-September. For some years on these forums it seemed to be a seasonal event for an over-unity (1st Law violation) claim, or a heat-sink-less heat engine(2nd Law violation) claim to pop up around Christmas or New Year. They were often quite fun to disentangle. So as the season approaches I thought I would give your cage a gentle rattle. By the way I haven’t been to Chatham yet, but I’m currently reading the Pickwick Papers, in which much of the early action takes place in the surrounding area. What’s this about olives? Are you somewhere in the Mediterranean, then?

And…the thread has gone very quiet, as predicted…..

Have you successfully heated your kitchen that way, then?

If you can’t do maths, you won’t even understand the laws , or the physical principles, you are trying to talk about. So what hope is there? It will be a case of galloping Dunning-Kruger, won’t it?