John Cuthber

Do you enjoy scrubbing out dirty flasks?

Oops!

It's possible that he should "walk away" happy in the knowledge that the answer to his questions were "no" and "yes". I can't speak for him but (as far as I'm concerned) knowing that we can only analytically solve polynomial equations up to quintics, is well within the sort of maths I understand: but Galois theory isn't. Incidentally, it's sometimes possible to solve higher order polynomials by inspection. Consider (x-1)(x-2)(x-3)(x-4)(x-5)(x-6)=0

Yet you had time to open up a long-dead thread and post that...

They might be present in the buttermilk powder, but they shouldn't be in the others.

That would be a better argument if the rich were not, in absolute and relative terms, richer than the masses and getting increasingly so as time goes on under capitalism. The only time (recently) that the masses caught up with the rich was under (relatively) Left wing governments in the 60s and 70s.

Possibly. It depends on a few factors. For example, if it's still got "In God we trust" written on stuff does it count as secular? Are the atrocities perpetrated more (or less) against one religious group than another? China is certainly more interesting. I have seen communism described as a religion with Mao as a God-figure but I don't think that quite holds out. However I think that China a (relatively) slight extension of the "loony dictators don't count" issue- they have a loony dictatorial party.

"Any clues on where to find figures for magnetic field attenuation trough seawater ?" Yes, the biggest clue is that you can't find a figure/ table for it. Can you think of a reason for that? The next question might well be: what do they make submarine hulls from?

Wiki tells me that "Noroviruses are transmitted directly from person to person (62–84% of all reported outbreaks)[17] and indirectly via contaminated water and food. They are extremely contagious, and fewer than twenty virus particles can cause an infection[2] (some research suggests as few as five).[9] " and "The norovirus can survive for long periods outside a human host depending on the surface and temperature conditions: it can stay for weeks on hard surfaces,[57] and up to twelve days on contaminated fabrics, and it can survive for months, maybe even years in contaminated still water.[58] A study done in 2006 found the virus still on several surfaces used for food preparation seven days after contamination.[59]" Those factors will help it enormously. Also sever vomiting and diarrhoea will increase the probability of human to human transfer However, I have a recollection of hearing somewhere that about 20% of the human population are substantially immune to it. (that might be what this bit means) "A non-functional fucosyltransferase FUT2 provides high protection from the most common norovirus GII.4.[65]Functional FUT2 fucosyltransferase transfers a fucose sugar to the end of the Histo-blood group ABO(H) precursor in gastrointestinal cells and saliva glands. The ABH antigen produced is thought to act as receptors for human norovirus. Homozygous carriers of any nonsense mutation in the FUT2 gene are called non-secretors, as no ABH antigen is produced. Approximately 20% of Caucasians are non-secretors due to the G428A and C571T nonsense mutations in FUT2 and therefore have strong although not absolute protection from the norovirus GII.4.[66] Non-secretors can still produce ABH antigens in erythrocytes, as the precursor is formed by FUT1.[67] Some norovirus genotypes (GI.3) can infect non-secretors.[68]" Which led me to this interesting snippet "Robust fucosyltransferase activity discourages bacterial adherence in the urethra of women.[3] This is also mediated by the presence of few bacterial adhesion sites in the bladder and urethra. Women with these receptors who do not have mucosal secretion of the fucosyltransferase enzyme to help block bacterial adherence are more likely to have colonization of E coli and other coliforms from the rectum and less likely to have lactobacilli in the periurethral area, resulting in frequent episodes of cystitis.[4]" So it appears that women who are immune to Norovirus are susceptible to UTI and vice versa. This, in turn suggests that, if there's a God, he has a strange sense of humour.

It turns out that people are not very keen on hurting others- even in war. What you need to do is convince your soldiers that the other side is "not human". Being able to declare that "God says they are not human" works very well indeed. Perhaps you would like to list the secular societies that have gone in for " torture, genocide and various other atrocities;..." A society with one loony dictator doesn't count.)

Rats and people have immune systems that are fairly good at destroying bacteria.

The simple answer is that, in order to fly "straight" from the North pole, over London and down to the equator following the line of longitude, you need to use the rudder. "straight" lines are poorly defined on a rotating sphere.

"It is more about control over the flow of information." The political interference with the NHS is not to do with control of medical information; it's to do with the Tories selling the NHS to their rich friends. "Before the internet was around practically the only way to get healthcare knowledge was to train in healthcare. " Did it occur to you that you could ask a doctor- if you could afford to pay for their advice? "This method has always excluded the poor or people who don't follow the governments propaganda." It also excluded poor people who did follow the propaganda. "So obviously the poor die because they don't have access to healthcare knowledge or the facilities to provide healthcare services." Because they can't afford to pay for it. Also, we now have the internet etc- and poor people die young. Many years ago we didn't- and poor people died young. Information is part of it, but information is often the cheap bit: cheap to obtain and practically free to pass on.

My choice of example was deliberate. I thought the thread could use some humour.

Interesting idea. Imagine you get the surgeon to write his 'phone number on top of the light in the operating room. Imagine (now we are getting into less plausible territory) that you have an OOBE and can drift up + read the number. Here's where I digress for a bit. Many of us have spent an evening drinking heavily and, in the morning, struggled to remember the details of what we said and did the night before. With that observation in mind, how well do you think you will remember the number- given that you were even more heavily sedated when you saw it than you ever got during any drinking session?

Did you think that through? The people who gave you weird ideas like Schrodinger's cat and quantum mechanics are clearly able to think outside the box, are scientists. It's the non-scientist (and the cats) who like to hide in the boxes. Scientists are very good at thinking outside the box and asking "what would happen if...". They are also very good at coming up with answers to those sorts of questions. So, what would happen if there was someone who was 250 years old? Well an obvious answer would be that we shooed expect to find people who were 200 and 150- but we don't. So it's reasonable to say that 250 year old people almost certainly don't exist. We also know that people tell lies (and also that elderly people sometimes get confused). So we can look at the most reasonable explanation; not on the basis of a hunch- but on the basis of evidence.

OK, if those 7 words answered my question then, as I explained the answer to the thread title is simply "no". And yet, people are still discussing it. So those 7 words didn't cover the whole story, did they? So, once again What does "by nature" mean in the context of human behaviour? If it means "hard wired" then the thread's over.

"Another possibility is (at least temporarily) making Calcium Bicarbonate Ca(HCO3)2 as intermediate byproduct. Have it been in hermetic container? Had it access to air (so could absorb CO2 from it)?" Will someone please tell the relevant authorities that the famed "white cliffs of Dover" and, by analogy, the Dolomites need to be hermetically sealed. It's possible that you temporarily make something that's even less stable- but the odds are against it. What you really need is a thermogravimetry scan of some of the same polyacrylamide but without the calcite. Do you have a solvent that will dissolve the polymer, but not the filler? There's a simple solution if all you have is calcite and polymer. Weigh some of the mixture. heat it in air to some high temperature, to burn off the polymer. Weigh it again- what will be produced is CaO and that's what you will weigh at this point (technically, I'd add a drop of water then re-heat it to ensure destruction of things like calcium cyanamide) The calcium oxide weighs 56/100 of the weight of the CaCO3 originally present.

I can see that helping a lot.

I asked "What does 'by nature' mean in the context of human behaviour"? You dismissed it in 7 words. I think my reply shows that, at best, your answer was too simplistic to be helpful. So, once again, What does "by nature" mean in the context of human behaviour?

Well, if it was hard wired then all women would be monogamous. They aren't so it isn't so they are not. the answer to "Are women monogamous by nature?" falls straight out of your definition and even a cursory examination of the data.

Do you have the slightest understanding of how good the current "best explanation" is? Do you have any idea how poor and explanation "Goddidit" is? "Most of it is pure logic."

You didn't ignore it; you commented on it. It was relevant to the point in response to which it was raised- your suggestion that dark skin radiates heat better. do you remember this "one of the really useful benefits of a dark skin that I envy is the ability to find shade and radiate excess body heat away quickly, ,,," You were saying you envied them for their radiative cooling- but it's essentially the same rate of cooling as yours. If you have a mixture of different things (and skin has) then you are likely to end up with something quite dark. It's like mixing paints as a kid. You were disappointed to find that you ended up with something that looked like mud.

I was talking about spectroscopy- not evolution. The fact is that black + white skins lose heat by radiation at pretty much the same rate because, in the far IR where people radiate, water is black, So, why the stuff about my lack of understanding- when you were the one who missed the point?

Patents have sod all squared to do with the issue. Do you really believe that the guys who drive concrete-pump trucks are too dumb to see that they could pump water? How do you think they wash them at the end of the day? Do you really think that they (and those who work with them) wouldn't have made that point? Do you not realise that the people working on nuclear power station problems are the same people who built those stations- often using pumped concrete? You are making an extraordinary claim- that of all the people who thought of the idea- you were the only one who was heeded- so it falls to you to provide the extraordinary claim. The reason why patent decisions have nothing to do with it is that patents can be (and often are) challenged. If you tried to patent the idea- citing your web post- others could (and probably would) point out that there was prior art. But those people arernot likely to read this so they won't challenge you. That doesn't mean you are right. It just means you are obscure.