Heretic

Thanks guys I really appreciate it. I haven't been posting much but I've been reading over the conversations and wanting to have something to add but not being able to even relate to half the posts. I'm reading the lectures now and so far so good, Zwiebach's book seems like a good place to head to after that. I plan on watching the youtube when my eyes get tired of reading. Hopefully I'll have something to add later this year. Wow those lectures are way over my head. I'm currently sifting through other articles just to understand what are seemly basic concepts. *shrug* wasn't expecting instant results I just didn't realize how far I really was from understanding it all.

I was wondering what a good progression to grasping the ideas of string theory would be. I'm an educated layman... Not unfamiliar with the concept but generally I don't feel I could explain it adequately to someone else. That said what would be a good way to wrap my head around it fully. I'm got a basic understanding of Quantum mechanics but I'm sure I'd need a firmer background, would I not? Where should I start? Any suggestions on great reading material? (not journals, I read those, but actual books based on the subjects)

I'm really beginning to wonder if all these "XTREME!!!!!11!" ads aren't just paid for by some cynical old fart who actively is trying to propagate Darwinism (not the real Darwinism, the kill off the stupid kind) by destroying and mangling all the misguided youths they can.

Actually there are a number of recorded "no-hitters".

Seriously though I would. What could be more fun then learning something new and interesting everyday. Then learning a new language and spending time at a university in a foreign country learning about their views on the same subjects. What an amazingly beautiful life that would be.

A while back I was given a problem by a friend of mine. He told me that is was a supposedly a high school math problem (turned out it was). The solution was incredibly simple if I had the right equation. However since I wasn't taking high school math and didn't ever need to learn that obscure equation the problem seemed impossible to me. That's more then likely what is going on here. You'll need to find that obscure equation that is only useful for this exact problem.

I think spunnery just has velocity and acceleration confused. Velocity (generally speaking) is the speed at which an object travels. Acceleration is the change in velocity. So if an object is moving at a certain velocity and maintains that velocity then there is no force acting on that object.

Listen you show me one other solar system with 9 planets (well I guess 8 now) with only one of them having a severe elliptical orbit and the rest (for the most part) circular. I might believe that life COULD form there similar to ours. But I won't say intelligent life. The fact is we live in a messed up solar system that is unlike any other we've seen, on a planet that's nothing like the other 8 (or 7 or whatever) in our system and we're the only highly intelligent life-form out of the millions (an approximation) of species that have come and gone from our planet. Put that in your Drake equation and give it a spin. Our existence is one big WTF after another.

I'm sorry but I have to ask. Exactly which religion do you believe has an "omni-benevolent God"?

I think if anything this thread proves the common misconceptions about fusion. I believe many posters are confusing the common fission reactors with fusion reactors. Which is sad because they are pretty much opposites. The worst part is it seems the article was only fueling this rift. Right now I pity every poor science student who was thrown out of class for arguing with their teacher about this article.

Could you please elaborate?

Sure of course the system would kick in, but when? Is it before or after the damage is done? If you blackout from lack of oxygen from holding your breath too long have you not already caused damage? I imagine if your heart was beating at a level that caused insufficient supply of oxygen to important systems that the brain would not react until a blackout or enough damage was done to initiate the response. If in fact your body can pre-emptively detect that it will be damaged then I retract my initial statement.

Just dark matter. There must be a reason for the gravitational distortions we're observing but I don't believe dark matter is the reason. I hope that this study allows us to further probe into what the cause might be. Whenever I hear dark matter I always think of a really really fat woman adjusting a scale to -300 lbs before she steps on it and then saying "SEE LOOK I ONLY WEIGH 110 POUNDS!" The problem is with the equation not with our ability to detect matter. Though I do believe there is matter we are not detecting, the amount of supposed dark matter is far too high to be anything more then human error.

One day scientists are going to look back on this and laugh.

Not long ago there was a health ad for Jaundice. It read: I didn't know there was a difference between men who had sex with men and gay men. Apparently there is.