John Cuthber

"And "NO," guns are for the sanely rational, not those with an irrational syndrome known as youth." So, we outlaw irrationality, or we outlaw guns. One of those is difficult: the other is impossible.

Let me know when you can predict the magic numbers mathematically.

Actually, we like good food. Unfortunately for us, we are not (always) good at knowing when to stop eating them. That's a different issue.

Pardon?

Were you talking to yourself there? The empirical data ( if you want to call it that) shows that Christ said that the old laws still stand and would do so for ever. You seem unable to understand that Christ (is reported to have) said that. And, since this is the last thing you are going to say about it, I presume that you have now understood it, and accepted that, according to the accounts in the Bible, Christ made it clear that the Old Testament laws still stand, and will do so until the end of time. So, since you now accept this, why are you not calling for the death of prostitutes and homosexuals in line with Christ's teachings? Is it because you realise that such action, in spite of being declared in the OT and reinforced in the NT would actually be immoral?

You seem to have missed the bit where it would have been better if he hadn't been able to get hold of a gun so easily.

Possibly, apart from the fact that bicarbonate of soda is quite good as a fire extinguisher. Why is anyone here having problems with the idea that super-glue on cotton wool acts this way (at least sometimes)?

Interesting idea. I had a look at the wiki page for the bacterium mentioned and found this "P. luminescens also produces a proteic toxin through the expression of a single gene called makes caterpillars floppy (mcf)." The name struck me as amusing.

The batteries are in one box (which does chemistry): the inverter is in another box, and does physics.

"Valves by nature give off Radiation as a matter of course," Not really. Some, particularly when run at very high voltages, give off X rays and some have traces of radioactive materials in them- for example uranium glass. But on the whole, valves don't give off radiation any more than you and I do.

If someone repeatedly calls me, and others murderers (albeit tacitly) then they are lying or delusional. When it's clear that they have looked into the effects of vitamin B12 deficiency, but only quote the bits that suit them, that's also plainly dishonest. On the basis of the evidence supplied in this thread, it is clear that he tells lies. Calling such an individual a liar is not an insult, it is a statement of fact.

"There is no event horizon unless there's a black hole. You can't have half a black hole. There isn't one and then there is one." Right on all three counts. And when one forms in the middle of a start it grows (not very rapidly) until it has drawn essentially the whole star in. At the point where half of the star's mass is in the black hole it ticks the box for this "At what point is it half star/half black hole?" And it still isn't relevant. There are two ways to go from 4 to 3. One is suddenly and the other is gradually. If it happens suddenly there is no point at which it is 3.5 but, If it happens gradually then there is a point at which it is 3.5 (and on either side of that point it's 3.4 and 3.6). The OP states that the change is not sudden.

Is that Nemo hiding in the bottom left corner? Do I win a prize for finding him?

That got a mention back in post 14, but if you blinked you would miss it.

At the point where half of the mass is inside the event horizon. (The middle will collapse first, because it's densest.) Who cares? You keep trying to talk about fast events, but the OP is talking about one which is at least slow enough to let people post stuff about it.

Its usually called fading. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fading

"...any more than a lit fuse leads to half-exploded dynamite." Actually, that's what usually happens. The velocity of detonation for dynamite is about 7 KM/S (I'm using the value for straight NG so it's not a brilliant estimate). About 7 metres in a millisecond or 7 centimetres in 10 microseconds A typical stick of dynamite is something like 15 cm long so, about 10 microseconds after the detonator fires, you have got half exploded dynamite. My point remains, if the change from 4 to 3 is gradual then there is a point where it's 3.5. If the change is instant then there is no half way house. But the OP clearly says that it "is collapsing from 4 to only 3" "Is collapsing" means that the collapse from 4 to 3 is an event which takes a finite time and we are currently at a point during that interval. "will collapse or "collapsed" would be different.

The notable thing about airline passengers and crew is that they are a long way up. Because of this the earth's atmosphere is underneath them and so it cannot shelter them from the effects of the sun (including the solar wind). However , unless you are suggesting that the dinosaurs were often at 10000 meters altitude it's not relevant to the extinction. That other possibility would be if the air suddenly disappeared. That would leave the animals at the mercy of the solar wind, but the lack of oxygen would kill them before they had time to worry about radiation.

Liar This is what the WIKi article about B 12 deficiency (caused by pernicious anemia, but the outcome is the same) says "Failure to treat can lead to severe consequences for those with severe PA. Giving rise to the name, "pernicious," meaning fatal, patients may experience symptoms such as severe fatigue, depression, irritability, neurological damage, heart and organ failure, and even death." It's what killed the sharpshooter Annie Oakley. While you want to pretend that "people dont die from lack of that vitamin, at worse there memory gets a bit worse." So, you are prepared, not just to kill people, but to lie about doing so. And your idea that "there would be systems in place and powers at play that will make the problem of B12 deficiency disappear overnight with a single signature, if it will be, as you said, such a huge medical issue." would be laughable if it were not for the tragedy of the real situation. Those "powers" can't even supply water to everyone: why do you think they could supply something complicated like B12.

Did you read this bit of what I said? Strictly , the requirement for 3.5 (or even pi) dimensions only occurs if the transition is gradual, but since you said "is collapsing" you imply an on-going process which we are currently in the middle of. That's what I meant. This "shrink until it popped out of existence" is the issue. What about when you were half way through the pop? If it's a sudden change then there isn't a half way stage but his wording tells us that the change is gradual. For any particular bit of the ice, the change is sudden. that's a different issue.

Do you understand that this (unevinced) assertion "A simple law should lead to a simple orbital shape: circular.". is just plain wrong? A simple law leads to one of a collection of simple paths, all of them are conic sections, some count as orbits and some of those are circles. But they are all simple in that they are the shape you get from the intersection of a plane and a cone.

Still waiting for evidence of the epidemic.

Well, since you said "Is the universe expanding,because it is collapsing from 4 dimensions to only 3 dimensions?" I assumed that you mean that it was making some sort of transition from 4 dimensions to three. That's clearly inconsistent with the assertion that "There would always be 4 dimensions." Which do you mean? Do you mean it ends up with three dimensions (in which case it must go through a stage of having 3.5) or do you mean it continues to have 4 dimensions in which case your initial post makes no sense because there is no such collapse? Strictly , the requirement for 3.5 (or even pi) dimensions only occurs if the transition is gradual, but since you said "is collapsing" you imply an on-going process which we are currently in the middle of.

"Repenting in a true sense is sufficient to overcome the consequences of past actions." Nonsense. If someone steals my stuff then kills my friend, but "repents" does that bring my stuff back and reincarnate my friend? No, of course it doesn't. So it obviously has not overcome the effects of their actions. I can't understand how anyone could write such obvious nonsense. As for "The price of a lack of virtue is a disordered soul, says Socrates." If you, or Socrates, want to bring a soul into the discussion then they need to define what it is and prove that it exists. And that would be a topic for another thread. You can not simply assume the soul's existence here.

In order to shrink over any finite period of time from 4 dimensions to three, at some point it would need to have three and a a half dimensions. Is that a meaningful concept? If not, how could the "shrinking" happen?