ewmon

Both these reasons is why I like algae farms built in sunny desert lands. Algae is not a food source, and virtually nothing else can grow in deserts. Algae grown "wild" in relatively infertile ocean areas presents problems such as: 1) containing the algae in those areas, 2) protecting the algae from disease and predators, 3) the loss of biodiesel through evaporation and convection, and 4) environmental impact. OTOH, algae farms provide a controlled, artificial environment, and it is easier to separate the biodiesel from algal "broth" of known constitution.

You should really google homeostasis to find examples that are interesting to you. Regarding the fight or flight response, I usually think of homeostasis as the regulation of an internal bodily factor, so I don't see what fight-or-flight "regulates". Also, reactions by some animals to threats include freeze, feign and faint (in keeping with using f-words). Blood concentrations. Because the body uses blood as a medium to distribute many nutrients, hormones, etc, the blood concentrations of various substances involve homeostasis, including blood calcium concentration and blood sugar concentration. The obvious stuff can be fun to study and report. Skin tanning. The body darkens/lightens the skin in response to sensing excessive/insufficient ultraviolet rays, which are helpful in producing vitamin D but can cause cancer when excessive. Temperature. We sweat when hot and shiver when cold to maintain body temperature within a particular range. Vision. The sphincter muscle in the eye regulates the amount of light received by the retina by adjusting the size of the "pupil" (the pupil is actually the darkness inside the eye seen through the lens) by constricting it in bright light and dilating it in dim light. Researchers have measured this reflex time by shining a laser into the eye at the edge of the pupil. The eye senses the brightness and constricts the pupil, which blocks the laser. The eye then senses less light and dilates the pupil, which returns the eye to its initial state with the laser shining into it, and the cycle starts again. Using a laser in this way causes the pupil to oscillate (ie, flutter). Try googling: pupil laser dilation edge oscillate.

The OP is right in that it's pretty much impossible to know all the laws, but the alternatives are: 1) that hardly any law would be enforceable if authorities had to prove that the accused both knew the law and violated it, and 2) people would spend their entire lives learning all federal, state, county, and municipal laws. Realistically though, the obscurity of the laws and the knowledge of a reasonable and prudent person engaging in an activity is considered as a part of human nature when adjudicating guilt. A deliberating jury would realize that none of them (or a reasonable and prudent person) knew of such a law, so why should the accused. This is not exactly jury nullification, but it's pretty close.

These laws have inverted the sense of "public servant", as the public can no longer record their servants in the workplace. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Apparently, nemo (ie, no one). The odd part is that it's okay if the recording is "obvious"; why so? Would public servants act differently, smile for the camera, make sure they get their best side, etc? I think people holding their cell phones in front of their faces is pretty obvious. Or do we simply need to say that we're recording them? That should satisfy the "obvious" requirement. Then this should hold true for all video recordings of everyone everywhere ... retail businesses, the workplace (ie, everyone's workplace), private homes, government buildings, etc. So nanny videos are also illegal? Blatantly illegal and unconstitutional. So, do police avoid patrolling areas or responding to scenes recorded by all those not obvious private, corporate or government security cameras, or do they now have the right to storm such properties and confiscate whatever equipment they deem appropriate?

These statistics show a slight variation throughout the year (±5%), with highs in July through September.

Lead arsenate. An old Quaker Oats cardboard container full of the pretty pink powder in the garage of a house I bought a long time ago. The previous owner had reminisced that he had put lead arsenate on his potato plants many years earlier, but I never thought he still had the stuff around. He never told me. Good thing my kids didn't find it.

The body does tend to divert wound-plugging and infection-fighting materials to the damaged areas by simply dilating the blood vessels in the area, which naturally allows more of everything to go there, including the red blood cells. The "redness" of damaged areas (ie, infections, sunburns, rug burns, tired eyes, etc) is evidence of increased blood flow to those areas. Sunburns are warm because they have more of your 98.6°F/37°C blood at the surface ... the same as cold ears, noses, fingers, toes, etc in cold weather to keep them warm. What you don't want to see in cold weather is exposed white parts, which indicates frozen/dead tissues.

I think Obama has done a commendable job, having inherited two ongoing wars, a failed world economy, a large national debt, etc. The Nobel Prize was a bit hokey, though.

Well... now I've become ambivalent (and confused). The world is not clear on "what" Gaza is. It seems that it is recognized as a sovereign entity by half the world, the exceptions being mostly Australia, Japan, North and South America, and western Europe. So, who issues passports to Palestinians/Gazans? What do countries recognize as passports for them?

I have changed my perspective, and thank you, the San Remo Manual helped. I don't doubt that Israel basically behaved within the letter of the law, and as to Mooeypoo's videos, I don't doubt their veracity and that the protesters were violent. Yet these images are basically "snapshots". What transpired before and after? What's the whole story? People have called for impartiality and transparency. In 20/20 hindsight, of course, did the UN have observers there? It would have been nice to have their cameras, telephoto lenses, parabolic mikes, infrared sensors, etc capturing (and showing) an impartial history in high-tech. Also, does the UN monitor the aid coming off the ships and going into Gaza to the proper recipients? Am I making too much sense here?

I don’t pretend to understand all of this. There seems to be a chemical “point of no return” after which the neurons cannot recover, and it involves the intracellular (ie, within the cells) accumulation of free calcium. Calcium is an electrolyte (it’s not just for bones and teeth), so talk about depolarization seems to refer to activities involving calcium. Excerpt from: Cellular physiology of hypoxia of the mammalian central nervous system

When Israel delivers any goods to "Gaza", what does that entail? Does it go to the government/Hamas, or corporations or private citizens? Basically, what course of governance has Hamas pursued?

No question is stupid. Basically, brain cells are highly specialized and do not store much energy, so they meet their immediate energy from the bloodstream. On the other hand, muscles has greater stores of energy and can “survive” several hours without a blood supply (ie, by amputation or tourniquet, including “falling asleep” due to a compromised blood supply). Brain cells cannot do that, and the commonly understood limit for brain cell “survival” without a blood supply is 4 minutes. Pretty much, once any cell dies, it’s dead, and there’s no way to “jump start” it back to life. As to reversing damage, yes, people do “come back to life”, so to speak, but their brains never really “died” — but were only dying or compromised. Researchers now work with some exciting developments on how to treat the dead. They found that too much oxygen too quickly can cause damage or death, and that slow reperfusion over time allows the cells to “wake up” more safely (kinda like turning your computer on in “safe” mode). A “brain dead” person has little/no brain function but the heart and lungs continue to function. People also call this a “vegetative state” or, less respectfully, they call the person a “vegetable”. These words come from the Latin vegere, meaning “alive”. Compare this to “animal” (as in the first question in 20 Questions: “Animal, vegetable or mineral?”), which comes from the Latin anima, which means “soul, mind, spirit etc”. So, the use of “vegetative” makes sense — the “person” (ie, the person’s body) continues to live, but the soul/mind/spirit is gone. Sometimes the heart and lungs continue to function without signals from the brain because the heart has its own pulse generator in its SA node, and because the celiac plexus (aka “solar plexus”, a network of nerves) in the abdomen just below the diaphragm controls the lungs. “Getting the wind knocked out of you” occurs when this respiratory circuitry malfunctions due to abdominal trauma (ie, a punch to the “stomach” or falling on your back.

I'm just waiting for someone to develop kittens and puppies that never grow up! Imagine having a cute little kitten or puppy for a dozen years? Peter Pan for animals.

BBC News images of the Gaza flotilla seizure I just don't see where the flotilla was running the blockade. According to the BBC, the flotilla consistently steamed parallel to the coast and well outside the blockade. The distance between Ashdod and Haifa (the peninsula shown below) is 70 nautical miles. This places the flotilla about 75 nautical miles off the coast, well outside Israel's territorial waters (also shown above). Its ETA for violating the blockade was infinity. The flotilla hadn't even steamed past Ashdod where Israel ordered it to go. This debunks the idea of not being able to stop it in time if it violated Israel's 20-mile limit. Besides, as someone aptly pointed out, Israel can always sink them.

I know something about law. It's called a preemptive strike. If a neighbor states his intentions to enter my property, and I see him walk into the street toward my property, it is illegal for me to go out and attack him in the street. It's called "taking the law into your own hands". Otherwise, how far out onto the high seas can Israel arbitrarily extend its 20-mile limit? Apparently as far as it wants. Oh, wait a minute ... those were 20 Israeli nautical miles, meaning of arbitrary length and subject to change without notice. They’re defensive when someone invades my property. Unless the protesters were boarding Israeli ships and beating the occupants therein, to stand on your property and beat someone entering your property is defensive. Yep. It’s called repelling an armed boarding party on the high seas. If you were a homeowner enjoying a loud raucous party, and you saw a neighbor with a gun walking up your sidewalk toward your open front door, would you think nothing of it or simply say to yourself that you deserve whatever he wants to do with his gun? Hmmm...... I doubt it. No, not at all. I said, “I think the protesters anticipated being stopped and/or boarded by the Israelis, and that they pretty much knew what would happen.” That is, there would be a physical confrontation and maybe someone would get hurt. Maybe, but how did Israel behave? Israel behaved as pirates on the high seas instead of waiting for the ships to violate the 20-mile restricted zone. How could Israel justify what it did: “Uh, hi there ship people, nice to meet you. You refused to stop for us on the high seas, as is your right, when we hailed you. Tsk, tsk tsk! Well, you also haven’t violated the 20-mile limit that we announced, but regardless, we decided to literally fall out of the sky and forcibly board your ship while armed, and we will search it and take its cargo. You see, we can force you to adhere to more restrictions that the rules allows, but we don’t have to hold ourselves to those rules. You might call this lawlessness, and you’d be right, but we’ll kill you anyway.” Let's not also forget that the Israelis also commandeered these ships on the high seas. That's the neighborhood equivalent of being carjacked. Wait a minute — it's the commandos who weren't defending their lives when they boarded the ships. For all intents and purposes, the commandos acted as pirates. Refusing to respond by radio on the high seas is not a violation of international law and does not warrant boarding. Well, they responded to being invaded. Yes, clubs and knives are lethal weapons — and, strangely enough, so are the firearms brought aboard by the invading forces. The only two firearms found on board were the two pistols taken from the commandos. As for lethal weapons, let's not fool ourselves. A “shod foot” is considered a lethal weapon, and a small woman wearing stiletto high heels can easily apply well over 2,000 psi pressure by stomping on someone. In some American jurisdictions, a knife with a blade exceeding 1½ inches is a lethal weapon. Woman Kills Man With Shoe And have you seen the photos of the woman with high heels stomping a kitten to death? Yes, Israel felt it was justified, but most of the world is saying their "feelings" were wrong. It seems the people who disregarded human life and who were settling it with weapons were the armed Israeli pirates who illegally boarded ships on the high seas. They were the ones with the firearms ... the ones who killed the protesters who are dead. Any dead Israelis? No. In my neighborhood analogy, I’m walking down the street to visit a friend’s home. Another neighbor comes out onto the street and starts following me. “Hey, Ewmon, come here. I want to talk with you. Don’t you try to go to your friend’s house, or I’ll stop you at the edge of his property.” Now, do I stop in the middle of the street and let this guy frisk me and confiscate stuff, or do I just continue on my way and mind my own business? ### Uh-oh! This just in:

Yes, defensive. I saw the video of the protesters repelling the IDF boarding party. I didn't see any protesters slingshotting or shooting firearms, torpedoes or missiles at - or otherwise harassing -- IDF ships. The actions of the protesters were defensive in nature; they did not pre-empt the Israelis. The Israelis offensively forced their way aboard their ships on the high seas. The hovering of armed military helicopters in close proximity to the ship and the rappelling of armed commandos onto the ships are both acts of aggression. Even by Israel's most recent announcement, these relief ships were in international waters -- Israel merely decided to spontaneously and arbitrarily extend its 20-mile blockade out to 40 miles. But don't get me wrong. I think the protesters anticipated being stopped and/or boarded by the Israelis, and that they pretty much knew what would happen. What I'm saying is: what the Israelis did here was literally "over the top" and it was what everyone (ie, both sides and the rest of the world) expected them to do. Some protesters made the sacrifice and martyred themselves, as some do, and by doing so, they made their point of highlighting Israel's excessive belligerence. Now the world is unhappy at Israel. In the end, everyone got what they wanted: 1) the protesters made their point, 2) the Israelis acted out their aggressive paranoia, and 3) the world isn't really surprised by any of it. Are we? Are we?? We're not talking about something as shocking as Los Angeles invading Arizona over concerns for its illegal immigrant laws. Right?

Yet the IDF has clearly stated that its commandos were armed with paint ball rifles but wore secured firearms just in case. Very clearly, anyone in the military knows it is suicidal to brandish non-lethal arms when confronting armed terrorists. This indicates that the IDF did not expect to encounter terrorists with firearms and, in fact, the IDF itself referred to the passengers as "protesters". The IDF admits that it found two pistols on board. Whoop-di-do. The stuff shown in the YouTube video are all defensive and mostly makeshift in nature: colorful smoke torches, black-and-yellow slingshots, maybe 100 small sling stones, blue and white pipes, wooden tool handles, knives, heavy metal tools, gas masks, and a ½ L isotonic saline solution bottle from Turkey with unknown contents. We're talking really low technology, possibly items scrounged together after Israel announced it would forcibly board the vessels. Go through anyone's home and you'll find plenty of similar items except for the smoke torches, slingshots and gas masks. It doesn't scare me that these folks may have been prowling the high seas or headed into a war zone armed with slingshots. For as horrible as the Holocaust was (and I have several Jewish friends as well), I think that the creation of the state of Israel was artificial, and that Israel's exaggerated belligerence (including spying against America) has, for many years, been operating in the plateau part of the curve and has suffered from the law of diminishing returns. As for me, I haven't felt sorry for Israel for quite some time.

Offhand, I don't see why bacteria can't make foods, explosives and polymers. The food possibility is very obvious. We've already developed algae to produce ethanol fuel, so explosives should be easy enough. For polymers, we'd just get a bit more sophisticated: some bacteria make the repeat units and other bacteria make the enzyme that polymerizes them. In that way, the polymers are produced outside the cells instead of inside, where it would be disastrous.

The electric current in a wire builds a magnetic field around the wire, and a collapsing magnetic field creates an electric current in the wire. So, a changing magnetic field creates a current in the wire. A coil merely concentrates this magnetic field. For example, instead of the magnetic field spread out over 1,000 feet of wire, a coil would concentrate it in the space around the coil. And instead of a cylindrical magnetic field around the straight wire, a coil forms the magnetic field into a torus (ie, doughnut shape). There's a few important factors. Coil: number of turns. Magnet: strength, proximity to the coil, and speed past the coil. Other than making a generator with a spinning rotor, a magnet mounted on the tip of a pendulum that swings past a coil can provide the needed speed and closeness. This is basically a generator with an oscillating rotor.

I concur. Furthermore, let me interject, Colluder, that you might be objecting to something involving semantics. Everyone knows that the Big Bang Theory seems more legitimate if the universe contained more mass and energy that we know is there. So some folks have gone and given this alleged mass and energy names, and it's these names that make them "come alive" and sound better. Otherwise, the theory is no better than before ... it just sounds more legitimate. Creating names is very powerful to the human mind. Create a name, and it comes alive. If some Renaissance astronomer had suggested the existence of materia sub umbra or of energia crypta, we may well be laughing about it by now ... or have forgotten it.

Final amount = 5 µL × 5 µg/µL = 25 µg. Final volume = 5 µL + 50 µL = 55 µL. Final concentration = 25 µg / 55 µL = 0.455 µg/µL. But you asked what concentration of ethidium bromide you were adding to the solution, and the answer was already written on the bottle: 5 μg/μL.

The effects of temperature of fermentation Fermentation = water + sugar + yeast. Make 1 batch, divide into three clean and loosely-covered soda bottles (to allow the CO2 to escape). Ferment for a week at different temps, possibly: (1) cooler than room temp (sitting in an ice bath?), (2) room temp and (3) more than room temp (container placed on/wrapped in those iron-oxygen hand warmers?). ((PS – Ice and hand warmers are relatively safe ways for kids to generate cold and heat. I think the ice would need replacing at least twice daily, and I think that those hand warmers last most of the day.)) On the cheap, the “cool” container could simply sit in the frig, and the “warm” container could sit on a radiator. During the week, determine activity of fermentation in the containers. Fermentation produces a “churning” caused by the yeast generating carbon dioxide bubbles that rise to the surface. Ideal temperature for baker’s yeast is about the same “biological” temperature as for humans and most other life: that is, warm (~98.6°F/37°C) but not hot. Thus, the ice bath should produce the least activity, and the room temp and “warm” fermentations should produce the greatest activity. This carbon dioxide also makes the so-called “air” pockets in fermented bread. The word “ferment” comes from the Latin fervere meaning “to boil or seethe”. You would need to determine the proper amounts of water, yeast, and sugar and to see if one week is enough to produce a vigorous fermentation. From childhood, I remember that was about the right time. The effects of pH of fermentation A similar experiment can determine the proper pH for fermentation, using plain water and water spiked with vinegar (acidic) or baking soda (alkaline). The answer is that the “biological” pH would be, not surprisingly, approx. neutral pH (~7, plain water). Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedProteins, protein folding, solutions, and protein-folding diseases Proteins are molecules composed of chains of amino acids that fold into particular shapes due to their composition of amino acids and their environment. Instruct kids to use a magnet on one-foot piece of stainless steel pull chain for lamps. (Make sure they buy the stainless steel pull chains because the brass ones aren't magnetic. Bring a magnet to the hardware store to test it.) Notice how the little balls stick to each other, although not in a particular shape. Attractive forces within proteins are similar, but water repels certain amino acids (as if they were oil) and usually pushes them in where they become folded inside the protein. Certain other amino acids are attracted to water and are often drawn to the surface and end up on the outsides of proteins. This repulsion is also what prevents water and oil from mixing. Kids can put drops of cooking oil in some water to see how they don’t mix. A protein’s amino acids and surface contour are critical to their function in the chemistry of life. Folded properly, proteins can remain in watery solutions, such as bodily fluids, and perform their jobs. (Wikipedia shows nice two-dimensional “unfolded” and “folded” drawings of a theoretical protein.) Demonstrate what happens sometimes when proteins aren’t folded properly, which is, proteins can expose their water repelling amino acids to the water, and thus, “come out of solution” – that is, bodily fluids reject them in the same way that water rejects oil droplets. Changing the pH (acidity) of a solution can cause proteins to distort and unfold. So, add some vinegar to some milk (I’m not sure how much), and watch the milk protein called casein come out of solution and clump together. These proteins are no longer “dissolved” in the liquid. When some people’s genes make some proteins incorrectly, they don’t fold properly and don’t work well. This causes “protein-misfolding diseases” like sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and LSDs -- the Lysosomal Storage Diseases, which include Tay-Sachs, Gaucher, Fabry, and Niemann-Pick. Because these diseases are genetic, they afflict children from an early age, and typically cause an early death. These diseases are very obvious, and people are either born with a protein misfolding disease or not -- we don’t want to give kids nightmares that their proteins might suddenly start folding improperly. Many of these misfolded proteins come out of solution and don’t work as they should, and this results in the “disease”, which obviously is not contagious. So there's no need to fear people with these diseases. Cystic fibrosis: a disease of altered protein folding Protein folding

I've seen such things as well. Is it the idea that the two terminal carbons look like they're part of a benzene ring? In nature, would the two hydrogen groups tend to "repel" each other? I suppose one could ask why the two carbons are split so wide apart (Again, "remnants" of another ring?).

Ditto. Very little is "real" about some of today's entertainment. Vocals are modulated, backup music is synthetic, makeup requires hours of application by experts, costumes are custom fit by experts, and untold money and time spent on skin conditioners, tans, workouts, plastic surgery, etc. Add to that blue screens, computer graphics, and take after take after take. Vasts sums of our economy are pumped into fake entertainment, commercials, TV shows, videos, movies, etc. We used to be a manufacturing-based economy, now we're service-based, and are becoming entertainment-based. "Everyone" wants to be a rock star or videogame developer/tester. Like drugs, it's all unsustainable/unrealistic fantasy that leads to collapse.