John Cuthber

Most people simply don't understand much physics. Can it be meaningfully said to have won over everything?

1 Does the universe observably agree with your point of view? And, if it does, does the rest of your stuff follow logically from it? 2 Did it occur to you that there might be a good reason for that?

Selfish isn't really an applicable term. Is a beaker of water "selfish" if it dissolves a spoonful of sugar? It didn't ask the sugar if it wanted to be dissolved. I don't think so. To me selfishness means (more or less deliberately) not considering the position or desires of others. Since babies can't make that choice it seems to me to be the wrong word. In any event, in the context of being "evil" such selfishness would have to be a deliberate choice. Babies have no choice so their actions are not evil.

Unlike the tricorder, this "The more research I do, the more questions I have." is what keeps scientists in a job.

No, according to the evidence one side... There's a difference. And here's another set of interesting data. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428655.700-why-gay-marriage-divides-the-world.html in which they point out that "Across dozens of countries, liberals are more morally offended by the idea of kicking a dog or cheating at cards than by ideas of betraying their family, cursing their parents, or doing harmless-yet-disgusting things like urinating in public. Conservatives find all of these equally repugnant." Let's just clarify that. The conservatives are more morally outraged than liberals about things which the investigators deliberately chose because they didn't matter. If it doesn't matter, and yet you are as bothered by it as you are by things that do matter, are you being rational? And, by the way, before you get too worried about the idea that there's a parallel between this and racism or sexism, ask which is easier. Changing you race, or voting for the other bunch next time? Do you see how it's not a valid comparison?

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/walkingworkingsurfaces/index.html

Have you ever tried listening to am radio anywhere near any electric train tracks? It might be OK for a non-electrified one, but I suspect that noise would still be a problem

Perhaps you should have thought before posting. In any event it remains that case that, for a big enough black hole, there's no reason why the particles should disappear quickly on any particular time-scale. It would need to be a very big black hole to encompass the whole of history (essentially the size of the visible universe, I think) but there's no reason to suppose that particles disappear quickly. Also, once you start talking about densities that low you need to worry about the fact that any particle isn't strictly localised in space. All particles are everywhere.

Mississippichem Obviously, anything that pretty just has to be right. I mean, did you not see all the bright shiny colours?

I wouldn't say it's in babies' nature to be selfish. I'd ask what else it's possible for them to be?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidocaine/prilocaine

ICP OES is certainly a reasonable enough idea. It's how they distinguish the kit from ICP/MS. I do know how to build a Tricorder, but it would put me and my fellow analytical chemists out of a job so I'm keeping quiet. You may want to look at the price of spectroscopic grade argon.

Anything near a black hole will orbit round it, loose energy as gravity waves and, eventually fall in. So any black hole will be "feeding" unless it is surrounded by an absolute vacuum. But it has been accepted that no such absolute vacuum exists. Thus there are no "non feeding" black holes.

"The commandment about "not killing" is understood to be about an individual committing murder and not about national defense. " Other interpretations are available.

"They instantly fall to the singularity and get shrunk to a point." No. They do not. With a big enough black hole you could settle down and raise a family within the event horizon without knowing you were there. Did it not occur to you that to fall instantly they would need to travel at infinite speed which implies breaking the light barrier?

Well, here's one possible idea for a solution. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18391663

Re AG52's post that "Scale is not a direction of movment. It is a relative measurement. It's not a dimension." You say It's also factually accurate (given the conventional definitions of "dimension") So what you are saying is that facts don't convince you. Fair enough. You are on the wrong website.

True, but that was my point. The maths may make sense but the physical system it describes is meaningless.

"While I am aware of the problems in dog breeding and the reasons for it, I'm not sure that eugenics coupled with modern genetic engineering couldn't over come the problems encountered by selective breeding. " The kennel club also thought that.

If you pick someone randomly from the UK's population there's a roughly 1 in 70 million chance it's me. If you pick 2 people then there's a roughly 2 in 70 million chance and so on. For small numbers of people, the probability is pretty close to proportional to the number of people you pick. If you pick i people is the probability that it's me i/70,000,000 ?

I doubt it matters but the question is in the wrong place. Diamagnetism is a quantum effect. I don't know why Bi is so diamagnetic, but I do know that it stops being if you melt it. That means that part of the reason must be the crystal structure and Bi has a very odd structure.

No. Of course I don't agree. You have just made it all up. There is no evidence for what you say.

Also, while I might respect the 106 year old for his determination to teach, that's no reason for me to respect the people who wrote the bible. They were not teaching English to 5th grade students. So, once again: what have the authors done to earn my respect?

I think this thread has gone West. If it carries on for another 10^100 parsecs that will still be West and it will still be the same spatial dimension. Bigger or smaller distances are still distances and they are still the same dimension.

What have the authors of the bible done to earn my respect?