StringJunky

I think the probability of life elsewhere is pretty much a given but life within travelling distance I'm not so sure. Probably, the way to go about is consider the known physics of how potentially fast an alien craft can travel in some arbitrary time, then draw a sphere of that distance around the Earth and see what possible habitable worlds are within it. If there isn't anywhere fitting the criteria, we can be reasonably confident that these sightings are misidentified.

Well, Trump is picking the people that think like him or are spineless enough to do as he says.

Imagination is worthless without data to build it with.

No. This what the US is doing right now and they must respond.

I think everyone outside that is outside accepts that this is a Trump action and not supported by most sensible Americans. From the BBC: At least they know he's thick. As far this goes: I hope this will be ignored by all the signatories and we carry on as we have.

On that basis it's not a scientific question.

N.Korea will be sceptical now, It's clear the US can't be trusted. i know it's this administrations fault but a lot of outside people are just going to see the US as one political entity and this is what it thinks. The Iranians, to their credit, are going to sit on it and see how it pans with the rest of us. This is subject to Rhouhani being able to keep his internal problems under control, of course.

Volume of Earth in teaspoons is 2.197×10^26 teaspoons, Amazing.

Right, hopefully Trump will be ignored by Europe on that because it would be blatant bullying. My thoughts are more like a sailor's atm but I''ll keep it restrained.

I have a vague recollection reading recently that the US wasn't going to do that... it would be a unilateral action and everyone else could do as they wish. Yes, exactly. The best one can hope for is that everyone sees this presidency as an anomaly and will grit their teeth until he's gone... in the meantime exercising damage limitation.

"“I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake,” Obama said in a statement." - Reuters

Lasers and caesium clocks

As we know from our own memories, attempts at regime change cause more problems than they solve. I would like see the rest of the signatories ameliorate US sanctions by filling in any trade gaps that they create, so that the sanctions don't have so much effect on Iran. I consider this deal as a matter of our collective honour and Trump has broken it.

Probably the cheapest way is to pump the water upwards into a layered filter system with the coarsest grade at the bottom and clean sand at the top. The greatest expense is the manual pump and pipe. What you've got here is a filtration system under pressure but it is able 'give' because the particulates can move upwards to relieve excess pressure as the filter fills up with filtered matter, which acts a finer filter further still. You could put a charcoal layer in for toxin removal - this can be made on-site. If it was big enough and left long enough bacteria would colonize the substrate and break down the organic matter and nitrates. This latter step, if you use the bacteria rather than regularly rebuild the filter substrate, would probably require the final water to be chlorinated which might be outside your hypothetical budget. Perhaps @CharonY might comment on that last part regarding the safety with using bacteria without post-chlorination for drinking purposes. I'm thinking perhaps the people that would use this system may be more tolerant to such bacterial species that inhabit such a system. I'm thinking in terms of least-harm compared to what is probably already available - untreated river water or pond water. With regard to your original idea, you need UVC rays for a germicidal effect in reasonable time and these are pretty much completely filtered out by the upper atmosphere. You need specific light bulbs that emit this range. UVB and UVA are not energetic enough to cause damage quickly enough and cells have evolved to repair such damage. Here's a NASA article about it: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/UVB/

Imatfaal's a he. He was just cross-dressing with the avatar.

I think I read of micro-porous filter that will remove much of the toxins

+1 for the funny.

The apparent speed only changes because of intervening interactions with electrons, which cause a delay, on the way.

You are being conned. Let me be clear, the guy's a cunt. Go to the police if that's possible.

OK. Cheers.

As history is our witness, a theory is only correct under the prevailing accepted paradigm. That's why they are called 'theories' and not 'laws'.

Would a 2D inhabitant on its surface be aware it was curved? Yes, I do understand the 3D aspect is superfluous in that analogy.

It's 2D curved plane in a 3D container.

Not at all. I'd rather be wise than naive, although world does look simpler and less complicated.

Yep. That's groovy. I must be getting younger in my old age.