StringJunky

That's a thought because the lip at the end is not worn so that may eliminate it being a craftsman's tool unless it was fairly unused when it was 'lost' . What's the best way to clean it up or would you leave it alone? Where would you research it?

A friend of mine who is cable and pipe layer discovered this object whilst digging. It's heavy for its size and appears to have copper in it judging by the greenish mottling...possibly a bronzey material: you can see the metal a bit better in the bottom picture It might have had a tang or handle judging by the broken protrusion. It's about 3 inches long and was found in England. Any ideas?

I don't know if this helps but AFAIK magnetism is due to the proportion of unpaired electrons that 'spins' in the same (not particular) direction that determines whether a material is magnetic or not. "...An individual electron possesses a quantum property known as "spin", which is somewhat analogous to the spin of a macroscopic object. (This analogy is not exact, and can be misleading in some circumstances, but it's useful for gaining an intuitive understanding of the magnetic properties of materials.) According to this view, an electron's charge is distributed around its surface, and the surface is spinning about some axis, so there is a tiny current loop, setting up a magnetic field as illustrated below. (The contribution of the nucleus itself to the magnetic field of an atom is typically negligible compared with that of the electrons.) In most elements the spin axes of the electrons point in all different directions, so there is no significant net magnetic dipole. However, in ferromagnetic substances, the intrinsic spins of many of the electrons are aligned, both within atoms and between atoms. The key question is what causes all these dipoles to be aligned, especially in the absence of an external field. It can be shown that the dipole interaction itself is not nearly strong enough to achieve and maintain alignment of the electron spin axes at room temperatures, so some other factor must be at work. Quantum mechanics furnishes the explanation: For particular arrangements of certain kinds of atoms in the lattice structure of certain solids, the inter-electron distances within atoms and between neighboring atoms are small enough that the wave functions of the electrons overlap significantly. As a result, there is a very strong effective "coupling force" between them due to their indistinguishability. This is called an "exchange interaction", and is purely a quantum-mechanical phenomenon. There is no classical analogy. In essence, quantum mechanics tells us that there is a propensity for the identities of neighboring electrons to be exchanged, and this locks the spin orientations of the electrons together. (This is actually true only under certain circumstances. It's also possible for exchange interactions to lock the spins of neighboring electrons in opposite directions, in which case the behavior is called anti-ferromagnetism.) In order for the exchange interaction to operate, the inter-electron distances must be just right, and these distances are obviously affected by the temperature, so there is a certain temperature, called the Curie temperature, above which ferromagnetism breaks down." [/i] http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath240/kmath240.htm

A so called 'prodigy' is most likely just a precocious child who is doing some activity before their peers but their abilities usually plateau to the same level eventually. It could be damaging to their self-esteem when the admired precocious child does plateau short of public expectations and they lose all the attention. This 12 year old is probably being done a disservice by putting them on a public pedestal which, in the end, may not be justified.

Thanks for the clarification Swansont and AJB.

That appears smaller than the bound of an atom; is the calculation I pasted wrong? If you look at your post it is non sequiter...how can you follow an indefinite with a definite? You say it depends... and then give a fixed numeric answer!?

I think AJB means sizes larger than an atom are valid in classical mechanics. http://www.stanford.edu/group/fayer/Wonderfest11-6-05.pdf The link also tersely contrasts the effects of measurement (observation) between quantum and classical systems.

Colour processing starts in the retina and the brain does the rest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_vision

I apologise for my assumption that you are a Christian but the kind of words you chose which I highlighted at the start of my post seemed to suggest to me that you were...obviously I was wrong. The problem of personal accountability by errant fathers is largely a problem within a secular society not Christianity...a committed Christian ethic existing within a group has family bonds and sense of community as strong any Islamic religion but it's voice and influence is waning within an increasingly athiest secular Western society...I'm English, so it's from that pov and what's happening in GB and Western Europe that my comments are based on.

First off, I would like to address your use of 'unwed mothers' and 'fornication' (non-marital sex) as moral negatives and socially destructive: Virginal marriages (no premarital sex ) are a disaster waiting to happen and a likely precursor to later infidelity. I think people should have a varied sexual experience with different partners before they get married and/or have children as I believe the eventual offspring have a higher likelihood, in this modern age, of still having their parents livijng together by the time they reach adulthood...they are wiser as to the possibilities and limits of relationships and their sexual curiosity is hopefully satiated before they commit to the all important task of raising children.I don't think marriage is a necessary requirement for a happy, healthy, nurturing environment either. I have no moral problem with prostitution between consenting parties. The only thing that distresses me is the seemingly excessive use of abortion as a form of post-conceptive contraception...it's a sometimes necessary evil that should not be taken lightly, but used inappropriately and casually, as it quite often is in Western societies, demeans the value of human life. The cement that binds many Islamic societies imo is fear of being ostracised due to non-conformity of which they are largely intolerant. Another thing one may note, when I researched for a post on the acceptability of pornography in a thread on this site, is that the highest proportion of Google search requests for what most Westerners would class as deviant, immoral sexual imagery is from repressed Islamic countries. Also, Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia have the highest number of heterosexual men engaged in homosexual activity with each other due to strict social customs prohibiting casual encounters between the opposite sex in the absence of a chaperone. On the Islamic surface it's all chaste and hunky dory but underneath it seems to be ,the more one looks, a platform for sexual and social repression which can lead to a consequent perversion of a person's natural inclinations in their search for sexual and emotional solace. It's clear to me, for Western society to adopt the Islamic sense of morality is a retrograde step and even your own Christian, judgement-laden ideas about non-marital sex and unmarried parents are out of step and unworkable in a modern and increasingly secular society imo.

The Universe at it's origin, in time (not space), was much denser than it is now and so was much hotter...the period of rapid inflation occurred at all points in space, so, the idea of a classical explosion is the wrong concept to use. Put yourself standing on the surface of an expanding sphere with some dots on it and only consider it's surface...wherever you are in the Universe (the sphere's surface) you will think you are at its centre because everything (in reality this occurs at Supercluster level) is moving away from you...you can see from this analogy that space is created between objects and no edges are necessary to move (or explode) into a pre-existing space.

Ringer's right...I looked into it when it happened to me a couple of times...awareness of paralysis on waking is caused by you becoming conscious before the body's muscle relaxants, induced during the sleep phase, have worn off...can occur as a result of a particularly disturbing dream that causes you to wake much quicker than usual.

Mike. it appears that there is no alternative but to learn the maths and get rid of commonsense if one wants to understand QM. Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of the dual particle-like and wave-like behaviour and interaction of matter and energy. Quantum mechanics describes the time evolution of physical systems via a mathematical structure called the wave function. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics “The next reason that you might think you do not understand what I am telling you is, while I am describing to you how Nature works, you won’t understand why Nature works that way. But you see, nobody understands that. I can’t explain why Nature behaves in this peculiar way. Finally, there is this possibility: after I tell you something, you just can`t believe it. You can’t accept it. You don’t like it. A little screen comes down and you don’t listen anymore. I’m going to describe to you how Nature is—and if you don’t like it, that’s going to get in the way of your understanding it. It’s a problem that physicists have learned to deal with: They’ve learned to realize that whether they like a theory or they don't like a theory is not the essential question. Rather, it is whether or not the theory gives predictions that agree with experiment. It is not a question of whether a theory is philosophically delightful, or easy to understand, or perfectly reasonable from the point of view of commonsense. The theory of quantum electrodynamics describes Nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And it agrees fully with experiment. So I hope you can accept Nature as She is—absurd.” QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter - R Feynman .

Point taken. Try Googling: 'in utero smoking asthma' you miight find something there to answer your question...smoke constituents transported in utero have a detrimental effect on the foetus' developing respiratory organs... my immediate thoughts are a smoking families contribution will add to the overall concentration and prolong the exposure to the foetus of ambient smoke constituents which are transferred in utero via the expectant mother breathing hers and/or their smoke. http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/full/167/6/917 If you get the full text and scroll down to the end of p921 and read from there it will give you the probable physiological consequences on the foetus' lungs.

I think you are correct in raising the idea that an increase in environmental toxins that likely goes with industrialisation may also be a contributing factor that shouldn't be ignored. What you have is two possible causes ie insufficient early onset immune system stimulation and persistent environmental chemical pollution and it's probably statistically difficult to detail the extent to which each contributes to the problem as both phenomena are part and parcel of most advanced industrialised societies. To extend what you said if both chemical and hygiene factors are true: Society needs to breathe cleaner air and eat dirtier food!

The 'Hygiene Hypotheis' is one idea I'm aware of whereby the relative lack of early exposure to common or key micro-organisms important to the development of a child's immune system response somehow cause them to be prone to chronic respiratory (and eczmatic) problems...the correlation between advancing industrialisation ie the resulting 'improved' level of hygiene that goes with them, and the rise of asthmatic/eczmatic problems is being explored. Ironically, it appears being exposed to excessive hygiene protocols in early life may inhibit immune function in later life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/resourcesforyou/consumers/ucm167471.htm

IE9 is trying to be like Chrome as well...Google's doing something right: speed and minimisation of screen estate taken up by the browser which is two things that IE9 and FF4 is emulating.

"In chemistry, a suspension is a heterogeneous fluid containing solid particles that are sufficiently large for sedimentation. Usually they must be larger than 1 micrometer.[1] The internal phase (solid) is dispersed throughout the external phase (fluid) through mechanical agitation, with the use of certain excipients or suspending agents. Unlike colloids, suspensions will eventually settle. An example of a suspension would be sand in water. The suspended particles are visible under a microscope and will settle over time if left undisturbed. This distinguishes a suspension from a colloid, in which the suspended particles are smaller and do not settle.[2] Colloids and suspensions are different from solutions, in which the dissolved substance (solute) does not exist as a solid, and solvent and solute are homogeneously mixed." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_(chemistry)

How can we observe a process which we, as observant humans, are an integral and belated part of in the evolutionary timeline and for which the required initial conditions for an emergence to occur seem to have long since gone?

The bull was captive in a small pen with a cow and was observed by the farmer (along with my curious 12 year old self) to make sure that the short-legged hereford bull was capable of servicing the longer-legged fresians...in the event that it couldn't perform it wouldn't be used for stud.

When I was a young lad I watched a bull trying to service a cow for the first time and it mounted the cow and ejaculated about twenty times without penetrating the cow until it finally succeeded....to my mind these were spontaneous emissions without any penile/vaginal contact so it's not a stretch imo that a bull is capable of nocturnal emissions...its mental response is perfectly capable of bringing about ejaculation by thought alone.

I may have posted this too hastily as on further inspection the author seems to have injected his own personal hypothesis into the article...I thought this was a straightforward standard mathematical description of the properties of the electron pertaining to spin with some physical description thrown in where possible; sorry if that's not the case.

You might get something from this: http://wsminfo.org/articles/spin-qed.htm

In the UK the male and female fish do it together by bring their reproductive parts in close proximity to each other in stillwaters and the male is somewhat in front in running waters as far as I have observed...it's a simultaneous action. I appreciate things may be different in other parts of the world.

That might be an idea worth trying and if a person who has just joined really needs to post a link in their first post they will complain...this means they have passed the spambot test and they can be allowed! It won't get them all though: some are capable of making a few posts until the botmaster sets them to start spamming and post a link.