bombus

That sounds to me like explaining something away in the bad old way us scientists tend to do with anything that doesn't fit!

I don't think it's impossible, and it doesn't necessarily go against established ideas about the universe, just adds a few more maybe... There was an experiment done in some UK university where one person had to guess who was on the end of a telephone call before they picked up the receiver. There were four people who it could have been on the other end. I think statistically there is a 1 in four chance of guessing correctly. However, the experiment was repeated many times and the results could not be accounted for by chance alone, i.e., there were too many correct guesses! A repeat of that expt would be interesting!

From:http://space.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524911.600 4 Belfast homeopathy results MADELEINE Ennis, a pharmacologist at Queen's University, Belfast, was the scourge of homeopathy. She railed against its claims that a chemical remedy could be diluted to the point where a sample was unlikely to contain a single molecule of anything but water, and yet still have a healing effect. Until, that is, she set out to prove once and for all that homeopathy was bunkum. In her most recent paper, Ennis describes how her team looked at the effects of ultra-dilute solutions of histamine on human white blood cells involved in inflammation. These "basophils" release histamine when the cells are under attack. Once released, the histamine stops them releasing any more. The study, replicated in four different labs, found that homeopathic solutions - so dilute that they probably didn't contain a single histamine molecule - worked just like histamine. Ennis might not be happy with the homeopaths' claims, but she admits that an effect cannot be ruled out. So how could it happen? Homeopaths prepare their remedies by dissolving things like charcoal, deadly nightshade or spider venom in ethanol, and then diluting this "mother tincture" in water again and again. No matter what the level of dilution, homeopaths claim, the original remedy leaves some kind of imprint on the water molecules. Thus, however dilute the solution becomes, it is still imbued with the properties of the remedy. You can understand why Ennis remains sceptical. And it remains true that no homeopathic remedy has ever been shown to work in a large randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial. But the Belfast study (Inflammation Research, vol 53, p 181) suggests that something is going on. "We are," Ennis says in her paper, "unable to explain our findings and are reporting them to encourage others to investigate this phenomenon." If the results turn out to be real, she says, the implications are profound: we may have to rewrite physics and chemistry.

Indeed. Also, pitbulls have been bred not to have the same 'restraint' inherant in wolves and most other dogs. This restraint is essential when living in social packs, and enables one wolf to cease fighting when the other submits. To breed this instinct out and then get the dogs to fight seems terribly cruel to me. As was discussed in another thread, anthropomorphizing intelligent mammals may not actually be that wrong IMO - epecially with pigs. 'Tis said, a cat looks down on you, a dog looks up at you, but a pig looks you straight in the eye!

Don't worry, God will forgive you - thats his job!

I think he was using the term 'purpose' loosely, as unless there is a God it's unlikely anything has a real purpose ultimately...

Aluminium melts at 660 Degrees C, but Steel melts at around 1538 Degrees. I think steel is still pretty tough at 660 Degrees.

The genes maybe didn't give the option of having dark faces and hands with pale bodies, but there could be many other factors involved that are nothing to do with the current environment where 'eskimos' live. I also thought that UV would not be reflected, but in my experience it can.

I think you exaggerate somewhat on how much the West would need to cut back its spending to provide a nutritious diet to the 3rd world. These GMOs and the pesticides are not yet widely used (thankfully) so the problem has not really occurred yet, but would occur if this method of farming became widespread. I was just illustrating the problem The problem is only of major concern when these pesticides are applied over very large areas. Some do, some don't. In many cases the effects the weeds growing in-between crops have are very minor, but they benefit wildlife hugely. Set aside meadows can be a good solution, but it is very doubtful that enough set-aside land could be created to mitigate for the loss of habitat within farmland. Sites not suitable for growing crops may also not be suitable for the 'weed' species needed by wildlife. The localised extinctions are not so much a fiction as a fact that will occur if we went down the GMO/Pesticide route. Wildlife has a hard enough time trying tolive in areas of monoculture as it is (e.g North American corn belt), so removing ALL weed species is only going to make matters worse.

Mmm, tell that to a surfer, fisherman, skier or sailor. Reflection of sunlight from snow or water can cause sunburn. Have you read 'the red queen' by Matt Ridley? Great book all about this. It has major implications on how we view the process of natural selection.

Maybe, but aluminium has a very low melting point, and the plane that hit the Pentagon all but disappeared due the heat, so I can't see a fuel section lasting very long - it's doubtful IMHO that enough sections would have lasted long enough to produce the heat required to melt/soften the girders.

Where did they get their funding from? Anyway, while I don't doubt their genuine intentions, the companies that market the product would make profits from it somewhere down the line. That said, this GM development is not particularly worrying (unless gene transfer via bacteria occurs to non-target species) in itself, but is a sticking plaster where major surgery is required. The poorest are forced to eat rice and virtually nothing else due to economic policies. The truth is, there is not really any need for GMOs, solutions to problems already exist. Also, another problem is that relatively benign GM developments open the door for much more harmful ones. That's fine, and some of the claims by some groups are more-or-less baseless, but you should also be sceptical of those that wish to harness GM technology as well. Glyphosphate is harmful to the environment, it is just not as harmful as some pesticides as it is less persistent and less likely to spread to non-target areas. To illustrate my point: Between rows of arable plants often grow many 'weeds'. The effect these weeds have on the crop is usually minor, but the farming industry wishes to maximise profits so wants no competition from other species. The area where the GM crop grows is dosed with huge amounts of pesticide which wipe out everything else- all the weeds, so all the invertebrates, so all the birds and mammals etc that feed on them etc etc etc... This results in massive habitat loss for a huge range of species, thusly, localised extinctions. So to say Glyphosphate is not harmful to the environment is not strictly true, and when used on large areas, totally untrue.

Fair point. I'm still right though.

It's just about always done for profit. How many companies spend millions of pounds on research only to give away the technology for free? The idea of Golden Rice was just a way of maintaining the status quo so that we don't have to do anything to really help the poor of the world. (Even the tribes of the Amazon basin have a varied diet. The very poorest in the world are denied a healthy diet by western economics.) From wiki: Terminator Technology is the colloquial name given to proposed methods for restricting the use of genetically modified plants by causing second generation seeds to be sterile. The technology was under development by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Delta and Pine Land company in the 1990s and is not yet commercially available. Because some stakeholders expressed concerns that this technology might lead to dependence for poor smallholder farmers, Monsanto, an agricultural products company and the world's biggest seed supplier, pledged not to commercialize the technology. The technology was discussed during the 8th Conference of the Parties to the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitiba, Brazil, March 20-31, 2006. Terminator Technology is one form of Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURT). There are conceptually two types of GURT. 1. V-GURT This type of GURT produces sterile seeds meaning that a farmer that had purchased seeds containing v-GURT technology could not save the seed from this crop for future planting. This would not have an immediate impact on the large number of farmers who use hybrid seeds, as they do not produce their own planting seeds, and instead buy specialized hybrid seeds from seed production companies. The technology is restricted at the plant variety level - hence the term V-GURT. Manufacturers of genetically enhanced crops would use this technology to protect their products from unauthorised use. 2. T-GURT. A second type of GURT modifies a crop in such a way that the genetic enhancement engineered into the crop does not function until the crop plant is treated with a chemical that is sold by the biotechnology company. Farmers can save seeds for use each year. However, they do not get to use the enhanced trait in the crop unless they purchase the activator compound. The technology is restricted at the trait level - hence the term T-GURT. SkepticLance, you're not really very skeptical!

Colonizing mars would be easier, but I think terraforming (via micro orgs) would probably be easier on Venus, although it could take thousands of years.

Consider yourself pardoned:-) However, my incredulity is simply reversed by those with the opposing view.

Eskimos also eat lots of fish - very high in Vitamin D. Thus no need to develop pale skin. Also, increased sunlight due to reflection from snow and ice may make darker skin advantageous. Neat! Great photo!

The Physics of Time Travel by John Titor (an alledged Time Traveller) ACCELERATION = TIME DILATION As pointed out earlier, acceleration will produce time dilation. This can be observed by the “twins paradox”. As one twin stays on Earth, the other twin in his accelerating spaceship experiences a slower passing of time. When he returns to Earth, he is noticeably younger than his twin who aged normally in Earth time. This type of “time travel” (should have been proven already on this worldline) with atomic clock experiments. With sufficient power, this type of time travel will only provide practical displacement in a future direction. This type of time travel is also isolated to a single worldline. You will not meet yourself. GRAVITY = ACCELERATION As Einstein pointed out with his STR, the effects of gravity and acceleration are the same. Therefore, you will experience the same time travel effects in the twin paradox by being close to a large gravity source. In the atomic clock experiments mentioned above, the reason there was a difference in time was not because the clock in the plane was moving, it was because the clock in the well was closer to the center of the Earth. Constant speed is not acceleration. LARGE GRAVITY = STATIC BLACK HOLE The next step is to find a large gravity source to use in your time machine. Static black holes provide this type of power. As one twin approaches the event horizon or edge of the black hole, the other twin will watch him as he appears to slow down. He will notice his twin's watch run slower until it stops at the event horizon. The twin moving toward the horizon will notice none of this and see his watch running just fine. Although possible, a trip into a static black hole will not take you to another worldline and it's one-way. The force of gravity will crush you. ROTATING BLACK HOLE = DONUT-SHAPED SINGULARITY Fortunately, most black holes are not static. They spin. Spinning black holes are often referred to as Kerr black holes. A Kerr black hole has two interesting properties. One, they have two event horizons and two, the singularity is not a point, it looks more like a donut. These odd properties also have a pronounced affect on the black hole's gravity. There are vectors where you can approach the singularity without being crushed by gravity. (For those interested in seeing a graphic of a photon trip through a Kerr black hole, try here) http://qso.lanl.gov/~bromley/nu_nofun.html DONUT-SHAPED SINGULARITY = PASSAGE INTO ALTERNATE WORLDLINE Another other more interesting result of passing through a donut singularity is that you travel through time by passing into another universe or worldline. Please see Penrose diagrams for Kerr Black holes or you can examine the calculations of Frank Tipler. So now the problem becomes….where do we find a donut-shaped singularity? A PONDERING HAWKING = MICROSINGULARITY Steven Hawking proposed the existence of microsingularities that were created in the big bang. They were probably about the size of a proton and disappeared over the years due to an effect of radiation evaporation. (Yes, black holes do emit energy.) HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS = ARTIFICIAL MICROSINGULARITY When I first started posting online a few months ago, I said that major breakthroughs in particle physics were around your corner. Soon, CERN will bring their big machine on line and they will be smashing very fast and high-energy particles together. One of the more odd and potentially dangerous items produced from this incease in energy will be microsingularities a fraction of the size of an electron. (for those who would like to follow the developments at CERN) http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/Welcome.html ARTIFICIAL MICROSINGULARITY = LOCALIZED KERR FIELD Through trial and error, and although they are quite heavy, hot and capable of putting out a great deal of energy (300 - 500 megawatts), it's discovered that these microsingularities can be electrified and captured. It is also interesting to note at this point that electrified singularities also have two event horizons. By spinning these various microsingularities, a localized Kerr field is created. LOCALIZED KERR FIELD = TIPLER SINUSOID By using two microsingularites in close proximity to each other, it is possible to create, manipulate and alter the Kerr fields to create a Tipler gravity sinusoid. This field can be adjusted, rotated and moved in order to simulate the movement of mass through a donut-shaped singularity and into an alternate world line. Thus, safe time travel.

You can pay for AVG and Zone Alarm if you want, but in both cases there is a free version for home users. They are much better than any Symantic/Norton product. Trust me on this one! Comodo is another excellent free firewall application.

Absolutely none whatsoever. I think, as has been said above, a fireball is a pretty good indicator. I cannot imagine how the fuel could have pooled in sufficient quantities to burn for a prolonged period considering the speed and force of the impact. Most of the burning I'd bet was 'furniture'.

GMOs have nothing to do with feeding the world. They are to do solely with profit for the companies that develop them. There is already plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is one of distribution NOT production. Also, some GM crops are designed so that they can withstand huge doses of pesticide, and are closely linked to the pesticides industry. Others have the 'doomsday gene' so the second generation is infertile thus tying growers to the companies. The idea of pesticides being produced by the GMOs themselves is nonsense as pests soon develop resistance. (Another thread but did you know that more crops are lost to pests now than before the introduction of pesticides!) GMOs are a big con.

A plane travelling at hundreds of miles an hour and crashing into a skyscraper would be plenty to effectively disperse the fuel and enable it to be consumed in seconds. The engines would have been very effective igniters, along with the sparks created by the impact.

I don't believe the official story of the whole 9/11 affair. There is something very fishy about it. The question is though, how far does one travel down the conspiracy highway. Ultimately people end up with totally whacko theories, but as I've said before, those who stick rigidly to the official story and refuse to see the 'fishiness' are just as nuts in my opinion!

Never buy Norton antivirus products. They are appallingly bad for sooo many reasons. Get AVG instead - the free version is fine for most circumstances. Zone Alarm is a very good free firewall too. With both running you'll be fine.

Have you not heard of John Titor? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor Ssshhurly it just MUST be true...