tim.tdj

Hi Swasont Thank you very much for your reply. You have made a very good point and to be honest, I have actually already asked myself the same question you have asked. During this thread, I have actually been doing a certain amount of devil's advocacy. For the sake of the poll, I started this thread from an impartial position. I will now declare that I personally believe that change is actually real at the fundamental level. It seems so far that nobody who has voted in the poll or who has commented in this thread disagrees with this position. I wonder if this will change. Some people reading this thread may be aware that the scientist, Lee Smolin, unlike a lot of his colleagues, believes that change is real at the fundamental level.

Hi Eise Thank you very much for your reply. I can very much see why you don't think the question makes much sense. It certainly won't make much sense to anyone who has not heard of the the concept of the "Spacetime Block Universe". A lot of physicists these days believe that the past, the present and the future all simultaneously coexist together prewritten in the Spacetime Block and that the change we perceive is just an illusion as we pass through the Spacetime Block. I personally have my doubts about this concept so I am wondering what other people think. Hence this thread and poll.

Hi Koti Thank you very much for your reply. Some people would argue that even if entropy is greater at greater values of t, this does not mean that the 4D system is itself changing. It would just mean that the 4D system has an entropy gradient.

Hi Everyone I have a poll for you. It is inspired by Albert Einstein's concept of a "Spacetime Block". Kind regards Tim

Hi Peter I am an open-minded person so I am not flatly rejecting anything. I know that I might be wrong and other people might be right. Disagreement is not the same as rejection. I am happy to agree to disagree. You say that I am "taking the moral high ground". Do I think I am better than other people? I don't know. However, I know that I try very hard to be the best that I can be and I don't do this so that I can be better than other people. I think that everyone should try to be the best that they can be so that we are all equally at the top. Some people may be scared of being the best that they can be because they may be scared of being a "tall poppy". I think that this is a rather toxic concept.

Interesting question. To be honest, I don't want to fill my head with that sort of horrible imagery and I suspect that there will be more of it to come and there are plenty of other things to watch so I don't think I will.

Hi Phi for All You have made some very interesting points and thank you very much for that. I fully appreciate those points. Basically, as I mentioned in my previous post in slightly different words. I do not know how many people enjoy watching torture. However, those people who do enjoy watching it (regardless of how many or how few they are) have something wrong with them. I don't care who the victim is. Torture is always wrong.

Do you think others are enjoying the torture? That they like what's being done? I think you're mistaken. And I'm sorry, but I think it's deeply wrong to feel this way about people who aren't exactly like you. Hi Everyone Thank you very much for your replies. I thank that some very interesting points have been made. Phi for Ali, I think you have misinterpreted me. To be honest, I simply don't know to what extent others are enjoying the torture. That is partly why I made this posting so that I could get a better idea of this. As for your second point, I will requote myself fuller than you quoted me: Firstly, note that I said "in this regard". Obviously, I do not think that there is something wrong with people who are not like me in every way. I will now pick apart what I said into its components: 1. "The only emotional response I have towards torture is deep horror and the feeling that my blood has become very cold in a very unpleasant way." Do I think there is something wrong with people who are not like this? Yes I do. 2. "I am not in any way whatsoever entertained by it." Firstly, my definition of "entertained" simply means made happy so I do indeed think that there is something wrong with people who are made happy by watching torture. However I don't think that there is anything wrong with people who feel that they have been educated or informed by watching torture.

Hi Everyone I am beginning to lose count of the times that I have had to stop watching a film or TV series I was enjoying because a dreadful scene of torture came up. Last night it happened while I was watching the second episode of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix. I will not be watching any more of it. Is this really what most people want? The only emotional response I have towards torture is deep horror and the feeling that my blood has become very cold in a very unpleasant way. I am not in any way whatsoever entertained by it. I suspect that there are some people who think I have something wrong with me because of this. Well I don't. I actually believe that anyone who is not exactly like me in this regard has something deeply wrong with them. I would be very grateful for any thoughts about what I have said in this posting. Thank you very much. Kind regards Tim

Hi Everyone Does anyone her know which amino acid stimulates mTOR the least? Thank you very much. Kind regards Tim

Hi John Thank you very much for your reply. I think I should explain that I am actually looking for some sort of filler for a recipe I am hoping to create. Snow would obviously not work in this situation. Kind regards Tim

Hi everyone Can anyone here think of a powder which is non-toxic in high quantities (up to around 400G a day) and which contains less than about 5% of each of net carbs, and protein, and less than about 20% of each of fat and fiber? (This means that at least half of the powder's chemical composition would be of absolutely no macronutrient value at all. This obviously does not preclude micronutrient value.) Thank you very much. Kind regards Tim

Hi As I understand it in perhaps somewhat simplistic terms, cells can be divided into the following two broad types according to how they interact with energy: Type 1. Energy-storage cells such as fat storage cells and liver glycogen storage cells which store energy. Type 2. Energy-using cells such as brain cells and muscle cells which use energy to perform various functions including cell division. I would like to gain some understanding of the differences between how insulin and possibly other hormones interact with different types of cell. I would therefore be very grateful to anyone who can answer the following 14 questions. 01. The two types of cell I have listed above can obviously be further subdivided into lots of different sub-types. Is there an overlap between Type 1 and Type 2 cells? 02. If I understand correctly, insulin acts as a "key" to a "doorway" in each cell which, when open, allows energy (usually in the form of glucose) to enter the cell and that these insulin "keys" respond to various hormonal instructions which depend on various conditions. Am I correct? 03. Am I correct in guessing that insulin is just one out of a range of different "keys" to different types of cell "doorways"? 04. Is insulin required to allow energy into every type of cell or just certain types of cell? If just certain types, which types? 05. I have read that insulin primarily responds to the level of glucose in the blood meaning that if it gets higher than the equilibrium amount, insulin gets activated. Is this correct? 06. What else, if anything, does insulin respond to? 07. When insulin is activated, is there a priority system for which type of cell receives the energy let in by the insulin or is it just randomly allocated? If there is a priority system, how does it work? 08. I am guessing that the "keys" which allow energy out of Type 1 cells in response to the level of glucose in the blood getting lower than the equilibrium amount are not insulin. Am I correct? If yes, what are these "keys"? 09. Is there a priority system for letting energy out of different sub-types of Type 1 cells? If yes, how does it work? 10. Whenever energy is released from liver glycogen storage cells, is it always released in the form of glucose? 11. Whenever energy is released from fat storage cells, is it always released in the form of non-glucose chemicals such as ketones? 12. Do non-glucose energy forms such as ketones require "keys" to be let in to cells? If yes, what are these "keys"? 13. Am I correct that "insulin resistance" is when the "lock" on a cell "doorway" gets broken as a result of overuse? 14. Can a non-glucose energy form such as a ketone get into an insulin resistant cell more easily than glucose? Thank you very much. Kind regards Tim

Hi CharonY Thank you very much for the clarification.

Hi CharonY Thank you very much for your reply. I have managed to find on the Internet the article you referred to and it is rather confusing in places. for example, here is a quote from it: The above graph is Fig. 2A. To me it looks as is there is a clear difference between the two groups so what do you think is meant by what I have quoted from the article?

Hi Everyone A few weeks ago I was watching a documentary on TV in which a doctor said that people with a very low amount of salivary amylase should consume much less starch because it will cause them to have blood sugar spikes. This confused me because I would have thought that if a person has less amylase to convert starch into sugar, they will be able to consume more starch, not less. Does anyone here understand why the doctor said what he said? Thank you very much, Kind regards Tim

Hi DrP and Silvestru, Thank you very much for you replies. Which of the two forms would you say is more healthy? Thank you very much. Kind regards Tim

Hi Everyone Does anyone here know what the chemical difference is between liquid sunflower lecithin and powdered sunflower lecithin? Thank you very much. Kind regards Tim

Hi Everyone Lets say we have a an extremely fine powder which is a water-soluble crystalline solid at room temperature. Lets say we also have an oil which is less dense than the powder in its non-powdered form. If the powder is mixed into the oil, am I correct in thinking that it will be much harder for a particle of the powder to fall through the oil than it would be for a feather to fall through the air? Will the settling of the powder at the bottom of the container be so slow as to be almost imperceptible? Thank you very much. Kind regards Tim

Hi SringJunky Thank you very much for your advice. I am on keto so hopefully my current sugar intake is below the danger level. Kind regards Tim

Hi StringJunky and Sensei Thank you both very much for your replies. Yes, Sensei. I was thinking about TOFI when I made the original post. The lower end of the BMI scale in the study mentioned in the Wikipedia article Sensei linked to is 20. I have actually recently been on a diet which in the last half year (approx) has so far taken my BMI from about 24 to 19.7 so I think I may now be safe. I don't know though. I rather wish that the study had included as a group the range 18.5 to 20. I have found a link to the study. It is as follows: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225060033_Excess_body_fat_in_obese_and_normal-weight_subjects Thank you very much. Kind regards Tim

Hi Everyone Does anyone here know what BMI value you have to get below in order to absolutely guarantee that you do not have a harmful amount of fat in or around any of your organs? Thank you very much. Kind regards Tim

Hi DrP Thank you very much indeed for all your help. Kind regards Tim

Hi DrP Thank you very much for your reply. I am guessing that the following question is a very difficult one to answer so I will fully understand if you can't answer it. Do you have any idea how to calculate the minimum amount of surfactant needed so that if given a large amount of initial agitation, the oil:water ratio at the bottom of the container will stably remain the same as at the top of the container? (Putting this another way, so there is no separation whatsoever.)

Hi DrP Thank you very much for your reply. Does this mean that the more surfactant you add, the smaller will be the average droplet size? (assuming you shake the container after adding the surfactant) Also, am I correct that if there is just a single droplet of oil in a container of water and the oil droplet is surrounded by a layer of surfactant, the surfactant will not stop the oil droplet rising to the surface of the water?