Peterkin

It may be 'interesting', but I'm not deeply concerned with what it is you're escaping from, or how that relates to previous discussion. My problem is simply that you have consistently refused, not only to respond to what I have actually written, or the subject to which I was referring, but the very framework of reality in which it exits. Therefore, communication is impossible.

There is no point in pursuing this. You evidently live in a different dimension.

Or $7.71, depending.

That's what I frickin said! And What Marx said! The oppressed do not have enough to eat, or decent shelter, or clothing or health care or sanitation or education or leisure or anydamnthing. This why they are discontent and occasionally chop off the heads of their oppressors. But you and the various priesthoods keep insisting they should be "content" with their lot on Earth, because there is milk and honey and harp music in heaven... Catch 22: trying to get there before the oppressors are ready to let you off the rack is punishable by eternal hellfire. No, it doesn't! Oppressors are hydra. The heads grow back and shield themselves behind another generation of prelates, preaching abstinence and selflessness through one face, gobbling swan's tongue and cognac with the other.

Could have sworn they were the ones I was talking about. Go be oppressed and happy with my blessing!

Listen. There was a subtle hint in the Russian Revolution that all was not hunky-dory with the plebes. Good luck! But first, try living a year in the conditions of the unskilled working class in 19th century England, or 15th century Italy, or 21st century USA. If you are content, congratulations. If others are not, that is their right. Or should be. None of these are guaranteed to the oppressed; they can be snatched away from one minute to the next, even should they have it already earned it. Jesus said so: Matthew 25:26 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Horse Feathers What motivates you to plead for the oppressor?

Where we live, in Ontario, we not only track through the day, but can tilt the array from fully horizontal in case of high wind to fully vertical to shed snow. Those adaptations become increasingly important as we have more and wilder weather events. There is a growing advantage, too, in distributed, small, stand-alone array/battery/controller sets, since above-ground grids are extremely vulnerable to breakdown (in addition to the loss in transmission, c. 5%) and difficult to repair in bad weather, which means a great many homes are left in the dark, maybe for days, when a component breaks down or there's a big storm. In the UK, some power lines are underground, but over the kind of distances we have in the US and Canada, that's not practical. You're much more secure with your own home system, even if it's not optimally efficient.

I'm with the missiles, rather than the missionaries, on this one.

Yes, so? That's true, and religion is usually one of the mechanisms by which that oppression is perpetuated. However, in the present context, I was explaining the Marx reference, as it pertained to the society he was writing about: the same one Dickens was writing about, the world of Oliver Twist. Not a contented pastoral idyll. Twaddle! They're never "in balance". Some landlords are less oppressive than others and a few don't even force themselves on the parlour-maids, then throw them out on the street and prostitution, like the righteous Christians do, when those sinful women get pregnant. There's philosophy, and theory, and doctrine and canon... and then there is institutional practice. If you don't want to deal with that, fine; if you have a big enough rug to sweep it under, fine. But your pink-lensed POV does not invalidate my yellow-tinted one.

... and doesn't fit on the roof too comfortably...

Can't speak to that. The practical aspect depends on where you live, and that's what the tables are supposed to tell you.

You didn't live in the 'content' society he was writing about, and evidently you're not having to live in any of the religion-dominated societies of today - or at least, you don't have to be at the bottom tier of one. The point is, tenant farmers, servants and slum-dwellers, miners and mill-workers were not content. They were, and millions still are, miserable, oppressed, repressed, poor, guilt-ridden and abused. You don't need to understand any of that, it's okay for you to see the positive side of religion, but when you call institutionalized exploitation, coercion and emotional blackmail "contentment", I take exception to that. This is very much the point you seem to be deliberately missing The sin question wasn't in response to you. I know what original sin is, and what's wrong with the concept, but don't really want to get mired in those philosophical or anthropological questions. As presented in the bible, 'original' sin is an obscene idea. On a personal level, the sense of soul and damage through breaches of integrity, OTH, is a legitimate psychological issue.

Is it a math question or a practical one? In practical terms, tilted is better. Ideally, you should be able to adjust the tilt, for time of day, season and weather conditions. But even if it has to be fixed, there is plenty of advice on how to find the best angle. https://news.energysage.com/solar-panel-performance-orientation-angle/

No, it's what Marx thought. And others, since, in various contexts. The reference is : The article is worth reading.

No, that's not what it means. It means stupefied compliance, because they're unable to think or respond. No culture starts with an idea, any more religion starts with a design. Human culture grows out of chimpanzee culture and then branches out into whatever kinds of human culture best adapts a troop to its changing environment. Along the way, people generate and borrow all kinds of ideas, try out all kinds of organization; keep the ones that work for them, discard the ones that fail; tribes die out through natural calamity or aggression, are subsumed by bigger tribes, intermarry, mingle, form alliances and carry on feuds, converge and divide, explode and implode. What kinds of human each group contains depend on what traits the group values, whom they allow to live, what kinds of person thrives and multiplies and what kind is cast out or subjugated, and what world-view they impart to the young. We know some of where it leads; it's not quite done yet. But that wasn't a "starting condition"; it was a stage in the history of several cultures, each of which brought its own set of attitudes and beliefs from previous tradition. We can each designate arbitrary beginnings and ends to a period we wish to examine or count on, but they're unlikely to be the same lines for any two of us, and they will all be arbitrary. (Even the final one that none of us will be there to draw.) What are "sins"? Why do you want to be "free" from them? How would repentance cure them? It's all quite nebulous and unreal, unless you build a conceptual framework to give those words meaning. Yes. Each religion provides a different framework. So does every philosophy. So does a nation's constitutions or a corporation's "mission statement" (there's a silly name!) a political party's platform or the agenda of a meeting. Each one satisfies a need to communicate the purpose of a shared undertaking. Meaning, it provides you with a framework to lean on. Yes, that's what it's supposed to do. For some people, that's the best support structure, for others, it doesn't work, so they must find a different one. That's what atheists do.

And I forgot to mention the marginal, but growing, right-ass holity faction - the pseudo Christians who hope to transport us back to the clean, bright family values of 12th century Europe. https://www.bchumanist.ca/the_rise_of_the_christian_right_in_canada They're not a political force yet, except in that they push the Catholics and Anglicans toward their ... less tolerant side.

Mine? I'm in Canada. We have agitators, "guest speakers", new extremist political parties forming, the existing conservatives shuffling relentlessly rightward and being ever less guarded in their rhetoric and affiliations, open, unfounded attacks on elected representatives, anti-vaxxers and other lunatic fringes not only making noise, but death threats against legitimate public figures, attempting to stifle the press, intimidating and physically attacking health-care personnel, and self-avowed Trumpists.

Oh, scary boy, are the next-door neighbours aware of that!

Yeah. Apt metaphor!

We may as well make fun while the sun shines. There is no way this can play out without extensive damage to the nation.

I'm not surprised. Yes. Maybe we have flying squirrel or bat genes, from somewhere way back in evolution. More probably, it's something children wish to do, when they see that other creatures can, and the weightless sensation of falling asleep, which happens faster for children than adults, adds to the creation of a dream experience. I take that last bit from the fact that so many physical sensations - being too warm or cold, some noise in the night, an itch, restricted blood supply to a badly placed limb, tension, snoring, etc. - present as fully formed imagery in our dreams. Of course, emotional state is the deciding factor in the form that imagery will take. Sight-seeing from a great height maybe wish-fulfillment, while careening off bulkheads at breakneck speed as one flees an armed enemy is an anxiety dream. These are distinct categories of dream, each with its own vocabulary of symbols.

A very common dream. One of the most popular, especially in youth. It can take the form of levitation, floating, winged flight or weightlessness as in a spaceship, where there are solid objects against which to push off or stop. https://dreamtending.com/blog/common-dreams-and-what-they-mean/ That's normal to experience, but unusual to recall. Dreaming about it, however, is also normal. This happens quite often. https://www.psychmechanics.com/problem-solving-in-dreams/ In the same way, when you're learning a new skill, like forming letters, driving a car or scything hay, you keep seeing the same things and going through the same motions in your dreams, so as to fix the memory in long-term storage. Your mind keeps working on analytical problems, too, sorting and re-configuring the data you put in while awake - only without the distractions of a physical life. No, not at all. People like to exaggerate, embellish, form a narrative around something imperfectly understood.

Why do you care who put a red or green sticker on your post, or if anyone did? You don't get a prize at the end of the term, just as being told - and by whom - that you're going to heaven or hell after you die changes neither your behaviour nor the outcome of your demise.

That's what I meant about the "design" theory. It meets his criteria. "Opiate of the people". Yes, religion is often used that way, and also as a banner under which to muster them for war, and also as club to enforce obedience, and a bribe to induce compliance, and as bait to con money out of them. All of these are true; all of these things are on the negative side of the enormous concept of sprituality, and endeavour of religious practice. Whereas the parts of truth you present: instruction, social harmony, compassion, empathy, reaching out to the eternal and infinite, community, appeal to the benevolence in man, are on the positive side. None of these things are the whole truth.

Do you access to a centrifuge, or are you relying on sedimentation? For long-distance transport, slides would be more practical than sediments. https://diatoms.org/practitioners/how-to-make-permanent-diatom-microslidesOf course, it depends on the sample size you want. If it has to be liquid, you might do better with ethanol as a preservative for long term, since it doesn't crystallize. The microscopy is simple enough.