exchemist

But the universe is a closed system, surely? After all, there is nothing "outside" it. So while Schrödinger's remarks make perfect sense, they don't tell you anything about the universe as a whole. The argument you cite about gravity looks wrong to me. No gravitational process reduces net entropy, so far as I can see. I wonder if the author of the Noema article has confused entropy with simple "disorder" in distributions of matter. Entropy is "disorder" of a specific kind, namely disorder in the way energy is distributed. Gravitational attraction may pull things together, but this converts potential energy to kinetic, which ultimately is converted to heat, which dissipates, increasing the disorder in the energy involved. I have never heard of gravity being described as anti-entropic. Do you have a source for that?

If you read your Wiki link, you will see why this c.19th “paradox” does not trouble modern cosmology. According to the current model, the universe is not infinitely old, and so it has not had time to “run down” to thermodynamic “heat death”. So the laws of thermodynamics are fine.

Because the induction will act as a brake on the rotating magnet. Just like regenerative braking on a locomotive or an electric vehicle. The bulb radiates electromagnetic energy, which comes from the kinetic energy of rotation of the magnet. So it will slow down and stop.

I think this is a bit naïve. You seem to be thinking that because Einstein's life, actions and writings were (mostly*) thoughtful and honourable, he displays Christian values. But we see around us every day evidence that many people who consider themselves good Christians support all manner of unworthy causes and actions. One example that springs to mind is the US Evangelical support for Trump, who is quite obviously a thoroughly evil man. So I can't see that the correlation between personal goodness and Christian belief is particularly strong, as rule. *Einstein had affairs while married.

I see the WHO has been at pains to point out this is not another Covid. The disease seems to be contagious, so won’t be passed without physical contact.

Don't neglect ammonia. This is being heavily researched for ships. You can burn it, producing water and nitrogen. Considering planes, it can be stored much more easily than hydrogen as at room temperature it liquefies at a pressure of only 10bar, whereas hydrogen has to be stored as a very highly compressed gas, adding to the weight. Issues to be managed are toxicity of the gas and potential NOx emissions when burnt. Ammonia would be generated from green hydrogen, so in effect it's really just an alternative form of hydrogen that is easier to store.

Britannica disagrees:https://www.britannica.com/science/light As I said earlier in the thread, the term light is not used only to denote a perceived sensation but also to refer to the radiation itself.

In science the term “light” refers to EM radiation in the visible region of the spectrum, not just the sensation we perceive. So light is composed of photons.

This may be one case where being old helps. I’ve been vaccinated against smallpox, which I gather confers some protection.

That’s interesting. So the basic idea is not entirely new, then. I suspect the novelty is the idea of this rolling vortex propagating away from the spreading centre due to this Raleigh-Taylor instability that they have modelled. Perhaps that takes care of the heat flow issue you refer to.

How interesting. Jolly useful if a Russian invites you to tea! Could be interesting to see how much one is exposed to in the streets of Aberdeen, or in the basements of houses in Cornwall. Although, thinking about it, if this thing only detects gamma radiation it might not help in those contexts.

Because you scornfully ask whether EVs have not to be fun to drive, and must be cramped, rough-riding “econoboxes”. You are implying that is what they are like and dismissing them as unattractive on that basis. You have not checked your facts and are merely reciting ill-informed prejudices. There are electric versions of a large number of cars these days and there are some, e.g. models from Tesla, that are luxurious, silent, and offer neck-snapping acceleration.

Being offensive is no substitue for understanding physics. Your attitude is so obnoxious that I don’t see any point in pursuing this bullshit. I’m out.

I would expect salt to draw moisture out of any living cells it comes into contact with by osmosis, killing them. It would thus have some antiseptic action against bacterial cells, but I suppose it would also do some damage to the tissue exposed in the wound. Whether that would materially slow down healing I don't know.

OK so it’s yet another thinly disguised attempt to pour scorn on the change to a non-fossil fuel dependent society. What a tosser you are. There are plenty of high-performance and luxurious EVs, though naturally not built nearly as badly, as unsafe, or handling as diabolically as some of the dreadful American models you mention. Just go on any car maker’s website.

So what?

Yes, this was explained to us before as being something euphemistically termed a "vignette" ad. The idea is it intrudes into what you are trying to do, to force you to cancel it in order to get back to where you were. Bloody rude and irritating: a classic example of Cory Doctorow's concept of enshittification in action: https://doctorow.medium.com/my-mcluhan-lecture-on-enshittification-ea343342b9bc "We’re all living through the enshittocene, a great enshittening, in which the services that matter to us, that we rely on, are turning into giant piles of shit."

That should not amaze you. You have not described the setup very clearly, especially the part concerning the “tether system”, which is where I think your analysis is in error. The capturing of these slugs and redirecting them will create an impulse on the spacecraft that will cancel the recoil due to the railguns (or coilguns - you are not consistent in your use of terms) and create a reaction that will move the spacecraft back again in the opposite direction. But one doesn’t really need to analyse each step since as @swansont points out, applying the principle of conservation of momentum to the whole system tells you there will be no net change in velocity once the cycle is complete. If you think this is wrong or misses the point then I suggest explaining in more detail how this “tether system” is meant to function and we can analyse that, as I feel sure this is where the mistake arises. This business about 20m and 1m is not explained at all - what’s going on?

Yes it isn’t that easy to follow, but the diagrams in Fig 6 help a lot. Take a look at those.

This is not about escarpments adjacent to a rift. It is about elevated plateaux that lie far inland from an opening ocean. If you look at the diagrams it may become clearer.

Can you describe closed loop pulse propulsion in words, perhaps with a diagram? Your description so far raises more questions than answers.

What an extraordinarily narrow-minded and ill-informed post. Do you not realise Einstein lived his whole life in Christian countries? What’s so special about the USA in that respect? And you think “Christian values “ are superior to Jewish values, when some of the most enlightened thinkers have been Jewish? As for being “saved”, do you really imagine Jews and Deists go to Hell? Doesn’t that strike you as a bit ridiculous? Einstein was far too intelligent to have believed anything so absurd. Here, by the way, is a brief account of Einstein’s final days: https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/the-final-days-of-albert-einstein It is clear from this there was no deathbed “conversion”.

It's quite a dense read, and I got stuck for a while because I had not realised the lithosphere is now thought to include rigid mantle that, when it gets old at least, is more dense than the asthenosphere it sits on. There are some good diagrams - and even some videos which I have not watched yet. One report I read suggested this is quite a radical and important piece of work. I have not worked out how this Rayleigh-Taylor instability arises. I looked that up and it seems to be when you have 2 liquid phases with the higher density one above the lower density one. But the "keel" that is peeled off is solid, so I don't quite get it. Unless it gets melted and then is unstable w.r.t. the asthenosphere underneath. I wonder if that's it.

From the clichéd pomposity of the final paragraph, I assume this has been written by a chatbot. 😄 But seriously, are you suggest a large scale ionisation of the cosmos? Electrons carry a charge, and have mass, so if there were free electrons in the intergalactic void we would expect to see some effects from that.

Ah, yes. Of course. As in H G Wells's short story, "Under the Knife". Perhaps you know it.