BPHgravity

Behavioral finance is the effect of behavioral marketing. In the world of the stock market, this may be the way in which the company represents itself in regard to the buyers three determining issues. The three magical issues that determine how a person makes a financial decision are NEED, WANT, and VANITY. Depending on the persons personality type and prioity of these three conditions will determine the probability of the decision. Most things disguise themselves with NEED and are really WANT or VANITY. This is the personal justification. Dont be a consumer!

The main problem with the FCAT or any other standardized test is that no one can really determine how comprehensive it is is. I am not as concerned with the 10th graders that are not passing the exam. These people do not need to enter our society and it is better that they remain in school for another year. My concern is for the poor 3rd graders that have to spend 3 hours a day on test taking skills, instead of actually learning something. The whole exam concept is joke and needs to be improved. Grading schools and determining funds based on one exam has placed way too much value in it. One year a school gets an "A" grade, so next year all the parents move their dumb kids to that school. Because of all the dumb kids there now, the school gets a "C" and the school that everypne left is now an "A" school. It has to be more than an exam that determines ones ability to "make it" in the real world. In my profession, I have known several highly qualified and skilled persons that simply are unable to pass a standardized test to obtain certification. On the same note, I know of several "hacks" that are naturally good at exams that are now certified that arent even remotely qualified. Many times these people study on how to pass the exam instead of studying the content of the exam. The same now holds for FCAT grades. These student will be very good at taking exams, but can they think??????

I have a few questions on some of the particulars of our known universe. 1. What is the largest star we have observed? 2. What is the brighest object in the universe? 3. What is the largest galaxy we have detected? 4. Largest Black Hole? 5. Fastest traveling object? 6. Fastest spining galaxy? I have performed several searches for these topics only to discover several varying answers. If you are aware of any of these answers, please also put them into perspective with a common comparison. Thanks!

I actually enjoyed the event, even with the overcast night here in SW Florida. It is such a wonderful oddity that the Moon, Earth, and Sun are all the right sizes and distances from each other to provide such striking Eclipses. I imagine it would be very boring living on Neptune!!

I went to Matrix 2 this weekend and really enjoyed it. The energy level blows away the first one, and the special effects are outstanding. The idea facing this one is similar to Blike's question on free will. While the fact that NEO is out of the matrix makes him free, if he has a destiny, how free is he? The writers definitely have a interesting perspective on the possibilities of AI and the resulting cause and efffect world. I recommend it for pure entertainment purposes considering it is smarter, faster, and most refreshing to not figure the ending of the movie 10 minutes into it. PS: If you sit through the 8 minutes of credits, they show a 30 second trailer of the third installment to be released in November.

I would suggest astronomy magazine and sky and telescope magizine. Here are some good websites too: http://hubble.stsci.edu/ http://astronomy.com/home.as http://www.stsci.edu/ You can also go to http://www.Skymaps.com to download afree star chart each month. The chart gives you the easiest things to locate and observe for beginners. I can still remember the first time I saw Saturn, Jupiter and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31)....What an amazing thing to experience!!! Have fun and good luck. I recommend Meade Telescopes as well.

Does anyone know the origin of the staff with a snake wrapped around it that is used as a medical symbol on ambulances and hospitals? Most of the time there is a blue cross behind it as well? :confused:

Per the WMAP results provided by FAFALONE: the universe is made up of 73% dark energy, 23% dark matter, and 4% visible matter. Where did all the dark energy come from? Is it possible that the annihilation of matter/anitmatter collisons produces this dark matter at the first moment of the universe? Also, what is dark matter? Is it actual particles and matter that does not luminesce or is it regular matter that is just hard to see with current technology like small planetary bodies and gas clouds? :confused:

Hasnt the universe expanded faster than the speed of light? The universe is obviously larger than how long it would have taken light to get across it. Am I making any sense? :confused:

Somwhere around 50 to 100 km/s/Mpc and accelerating.... Or maybe we are shrinking at the same rate and everything appears to be getting farther apart? Or is it further?

DONT DO IT!!!! This is a trick to get you to volunteer to be a slave to an alien race of giant house flies. This happened to me in a past life. :lame: :lame: :lame: sorry, I was bored! Anyone participate with SETI at home here??

Where does the FLUX CAPACITOR fit into all this?? :lame:

I really think this is a bad idea. In my opinion, it is the weak aspects of a persons life that inspires them to acheive and become strong. Those things that come easy and seem to be natural are ignored and hardly taken advantage of. Humans by nature reject what is given to them to create something of their own, in their own right. Very few people by population make most of the natural talents they have through genetics. (Atheletes and such) Most people are influenced at a very young age with what they expect to accomplish and what they expect to do in life, and nothing; not even genetics nor modeling is going to change that. Just my opinion.

This is a similar situation that is currently happening in the State of Florida. Florida has mandated a series of exams at all public schools. The schedule is somewhat like this: Read/Math - 3-10 grades, writing - 4,8,10 grades, science - 5th grade. This has been extremely controversial because the teachers feel that they are only teaching kids how to take a test and not teaching them how to learn. Its a fine line. The purpose of the exams is to determined student comprehension and provide funding to the schools. Now you see the issue, funding. For every student that gets over a certain grade, the school gets a certain dollar amount. This has led to schools in every district spending an average of 3 hours a day for exam preparation. The grades that arent taking the exams get an hour of preparation for the next years exam. The bottom line is that some feel the students are going to come out of school with less knowledge and skills to learn but will do very well on any standarized tests they may ever encounter as adults. Unfortunately, no one else seems to be able to come up with a better solution to hold schools and teachers accountable for student progress. Since they enacted these exams a few years ago, it is still predicted that the average high school graduate has a reading comprehension level of about 8th grade and can handle mathematic concepts up to being able to barely balance a checkbook. Go figure? :bs:

What makes you think that Aliens would even be interested in us? If they have a technology that is so great to travel the universe, they will most like have evolved and and advanced to a entity that would hardly recognized us as life. Thats my opinion anyway.

No, but I have slurped a long noodle into my mouth and saw what you are describing!! Thanks, this was great information! I now have a good basis and working model of how electricity works, which is the real question behind the question. When EMF is applied, the electrons start to flow because of EM-repulsion. The electrons don't really move all that fast or far, but the carrier particles are at near or at the speed of light and this is the particle responsible for electrical energy. Sound okay or is electricty a different concept?

Okay, I think I see what you are saying. Lets take Blike's example then. Lets say I have a giant spinning wheel a light minute across. I am in space, so I can easily turn it. I give it a spin and appearantly the motion of the wheel a light minute away is instantaneous. Does this eliminate EM-repulsion considering it is now a single body?

Lets say I make a conduit that is the length that light takes to travel in a minute. I then stuff it full of tennis balls so there are no gaps and all the balls are touching each other. I then push on the first ball. Instantaneously, the end ball falls out of the conduit. Is this not faster than light motion? I understand that each ball only moves the length of one ball, but all balls move together at the same time. Lets say someone is on the end of the conduit and waiting for you to perform the action. You shine a light towards the observer, but the ball would fall out before the light gets to their eye? I am sure this is not the first time you have seen or heard this question, so I imagine there some sort of theory or mechanical explanation that is evading my thought process on this idea.

Thanks for the link, but this and most of the theories behind AI or really AS is still based on a comparison to human intelligence. If computers or machines become self-aware, or accuire the ability to think independent of programming based on a model of human thought and ability, not only are they going to do the constructive and positive actions of humans, but they will also do all the stupid things we do as well. Based on this aspect, I think if AI ever happens, the machine will ultimately begin self destruct upon the realization of what it is and what it was created for. The machine will have no reason to perform work or to solve problems. It will probably do what we do and burden itself with questions of self-existence and become addicted to pain killers. I'll stick with waiting for my dog to start talking to me. I know he wants to.

Motley Crue, "Kick Start My Heart" ????

After reading some of the posts on this forum, I am quite convinced that artificial intelligence already exists. Who deems what is intelligent anyway? Because something acts human?

I appreciate your responses to my comments, but I still believe that if everything that is and that everything that will ever be came from the same event and energy, anything should be able to explain anything else. Or maybe it would be clearer to say that everything can explain everything? How can anything be unique when it all comes from the same stuff? Life, black holes, and the tree in my back yard was determined at the moment of the big bang. We may not be able to conceive this math now, but I think at some point in the future, we will be able to take any event that occurs and precisely predict the outcome over any time frame we choose. :bs: ?

I think we will eventually find the remnant of life on the planet Mars.

Reading other threads that relate to this topic, it is appearent to me that my whole conception of how electrons and "electricty" exist and interact is totaly wrong. I am a trained electrician and have spent the last 7 years studying electrical theory for the understanding of electrical current and how it relates to energy and the phenomenon of "electricty." The electrical industry is concerned with the heating characteriastics of current, or more accurately the ways to eliminate and control heating effects of current flow. This well into the scope of my understanding, and this is what I am an expert of. What I am interestred in is what exactly the electron is doing and what its part is in the generating and use of electrical energy. Basically, the electrical industry, and any electrician level theory books decribe the electron as orbiting the nuecleus. They explain that the event is similar to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, and relate the effects of positve and negative charges to the effects of gravity and centrifigual forces. I now understand that this is a misconception. We are also taught that the flow of current is what is responsible for the flow electrical energy, or more accurately that the electrons carry the charge that "loads" use to operate. This also appears to be wrong from what I have read here. I really would like to understand how electrons act and what is really going on when electricity is being produced and being consumed. I think we should be given accurate and true information and not :bs: to make it easier for us to understand. Can you recommend and literature or any texts that clearly define these issues. I am not looking for a "electricity for dumbies" type book, because that seems to be what I have been reading already. A book for the electrician is not going to cut it. I need real inforamtion and real math. Any help?

In my opinion, any and every system should be able to decribe any and ever other system. For example, a comparison can be made about electrons orbiting the nuecleus of an atom with the orbit of the planets around the Sun. There must be something in nature that can basically describe the event of the big-bang. It will most likely be at a different scale and complexity. Supernovae perhaps? As far as the life issue goes, everything is life. If it wasn't for the real small stuff that makes up all matter, matter couldn't exist. Maybe without planets and stars, galaxies could not exist. Without the galaxies, the universe would not be that interesting. The universe is definitely alive. This may be the unifying idea that connects everything from the quarks to the largest black hole. Human existance must be some small function to the whole system or we never would have came to be. :zzz: