StringJunky

Yeah, he's quite a good comedian if that style tickles you which it did me.

He's taking the p***.

65.7643% of statistics are made up on the spot.

God let's you see what he wants you to see...that's part and parcel of omnipotence. Ya buggered, he's holding all the aces. You need a spell in The Total Perspective Vortex just see what an insignificant and impotent little organism you are.

God cannot endow creatures with freewill and then interfere with their behaviour....that's an oxymoron.

Thanks, so, how do you deal with it...just ignore it because it's not a sensible question if one actually understood the math?

Up to now, I've understood it that there is no time in the frame of the photon and therefore arrives at it's destination instantly, so, to ask: "What do things look like travelling at that velocity?" is moot....it's all arrivals without the journeys in between in that frame. Is this incorrect?

There's nowt wrong with being called an Evolutionist...it's just a label like "String Theorist" to denote the viewpoint that a person holds...it's a differentiating convenience. Nothing to get ones knickers in twist about.

ydoaps and I were referring to the period prior to the formation of Israel.in 1948. One needs to have a good knowledge of the history of the area, the holocaust, British colonialism and post-war politics before you can jump in with both feet with opinions on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The Israelis are only in Israel by 'religious right', so you can't use that argument for Arabs...the Arabs are/were indigenous to the area.

Yes. you absolutely right, I just meant to get all angles. Even some understanding of the English goverment's perspective at the time might be useful as well. My own sense is that we British were bloody arrogant to carve up the land in the first place..but hey ho we can't change the past now.

I don't know any documentaries but it might help get a balanced view if you could do some study on the events and conditions leading up to the formation of Israel which are a matter of historical fact rather than just opinions from both sides.

There is.

After all the time and effort people conversant in this subject have put into answering your questions on this I think the above is a thread-terminating statement. You are a lost cause on this subject. You are taking the piss.

Perhaps you could put a sticky in this subsection with the header "Read This First!" that gives a template or guide on how a hypothesis must be presented and details it must contain; failure to comply could then be issued with a warning that it will end up in the Trash. In my thinking, it doesn't matter if the idea is erroneous (it most likely will be) just that they present their idea in a prescribed way with set compulsory elements as described in the sticky. The sticky guide should be written in a way understandable to a high school student that is easy for them to digest and apply. In the proper science forums, if a person can't point to a peer-reviewed example of their hypothesis, transfer of their thread should automatically go into Speculations...no ifs ..no buts. There needs to be a clear line between established science or science executed by professionals (which may actually be speculative eg Dark Energy, Quantum Gravity etc) and amateurs thinking stuffup in their homes.

Soylent Green?

I wasn't suggesting that it should be under consideration for removal but just exploring what the overall consensus was and if there was a balance in opinion between not annoying the scientists and yet not alienating laymen, as you say.

Do you mean that the resulting corrections applied to someone's hypothesis in Speculations are put in such a way that you end up understanding the scientific principles better than an explanation in an equivalent subject in the proper science forums? timo: So, you don't think the threads with really outlandish and totally unsubstantiated ideas are detrimental to forum?

If you have an angle grinder handy you could use a diamond tile cutting blade and put masking tape both sides of the cutting line first. This what one or boat builders I've just read do. Whatever you do use the masking tape first.

This question was raised in my mind after reading a comment from one of the most knowledgeable and experienced member's on this forum which suggested they were so dispirited by the content of some of the speculative threads that they don't want to come here as much, which is a great shame, as i have valued their input in the past. The Speculations forum was spoken about a year or two ago and I thought it was high time there was another conversation about it as I myself feel there is a need to reassess it's purpose and where the forum admin might draw the line. I don't want to say any more at the moment as I'd like to see what the poll says in terms of the distribution of opinion. The purpose of this thread is for people to speak their minds about whether Speculations is really viable overall and if it adversely affects the scientific integrity of the forum as a whole or not.

You are right. Professional spammers 'seed' sites with innocuous posts and then slip a link in sometime later. They synchronise the insertion simultaneously with many other sites and the resulting spate of many clicks gives their site a higher search engine ranking.

Could the disappearance of the upper hierarchical aspects of your life be attributed or correlated to negative changes in the more basic requirements lower down? Note: cause and effect won't happen immediately...there will likely be a delay. It would probably take weeks or months of adverse alteration in your basic needs to affect your overall long-term attitude and relative sense of contentment. The Maslow Hierarchy, on reflection, is one of the few things that made sense to me in my short-lived attendance of a psychology foundation course and is actively used by my region's social services drug action team.

Absolutely...or to put it another way: you can't ponder the meaning of life on an empty stomach. On the subject of inner peace; my avatar is a photo I took of an installation that was erected in my home town at the same time I was rehabilitating and I called it "Freedom" because that was what it represented to me at the time. Copies ended up in the Social Services and the local drug rehab waiting rooms with the title "Freedom is peace of mind"....this is what I learnt coming off drugs.

i think you are supposed to work from the bottom, so the top two, in your case, could be interpreted, although currently fulfilled, as not on solid foundations and may be transitory and subject to the vagaries of your life as represented by the stuff further down the hierarchy or pyramid. I'm happy to be shot down on this though if I'm wrong! IIRC this model was used for my CBT when I was coming off drugs ten years ago. You have to fulfill the basic physical needs (lower hierarchical elements) before you can tackle the mental/emotional ones.

I'll lend you mine...I've got a couple gathering dust. Cheers Externet... awesome. It's great to see state-of-the-art technology being used to such great effect in the hands of experts.

It's been put off for now: Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said on Friday that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution.” “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” Smith (R-Texas) said. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.” Smith also released the following statement on Friday: “We need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products. “The problem of online piracy is too big to ignore. American intellectual property industries provide 19 million high-paying jobs and account for more than 60% of U.S. exports. The theft of America’s intellectual property costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually and results in the loss of thousands of American jobs. Congress cannot stand by and do nothing while American innovators and job creators are under attack.” http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/sopa-is-dead-smith-pulls-bill/