geordief

If motion is the default state , what non-default states are there ? Is "rest" a state? Am I just playing with words?

Maybe not but on a practical level people get away with what they can (especially children). I hope that Trump's ability to do as he pleases will be trimmed by the US system overall. The best would be if his supporters peel away (or his opponents are galvanized) but that may be wishful thinking. .

Thanks. I am a little surprised as to why the increase in speed is not compensated to any significant degree by the decrease in the length of time involved. I guess that would become clearer to me if I had the maths under my belt.

You mean with Trump?(or predecessors?) Trump has yet to have an administration that carries out his policies and so there is no actual example on those lines. If you mean examples of what he said he would do as opposed to what he said later there are many examples (but I don't think you mean that) If you mean predecessors ,well doesn't it happen all the time? ( eg Guantanamo) So I am not sure quite what you are asking . I would be a bad person to ask anyway as I am not a details man when it comes to American politics-although I know I have to back up my posts when asked. It doesn't look good regarding Trump's appointees and I think any change in his plans will be slow coming (but that is just an uneducated guess). I hate to say we will have to wait and see (it makes me feel sick to acknowledge he will be the President Clown for the next 4 years) You don't think he is sensitive as to how he is perceived by people he looks up to? He has a very demanding job now . You don't see any insecurities? You don't think the idea of him being President is as absurd to himself as it is to others?

I thought the idea was that,confronted with the realities of the job his positions would shift from rhetoric(if they deserve that characterization) to more practical stances (both regarding policies and re -election ,which he may come to devoutly not wish for) I doubt he will change as a person but he will surely have to adapt to changed circumstances.

No I think you may have misunderstood my idiom* I meant how realistic is it to expect that things are "lovey dovey" under the surface ? Not is it normal or not to put on an act in public? That is quite normal but families do fall out in private and so I doubt it is good for them to be too closely involved with the actual job. Apart from the fact they are unelected. *"are they supposed to be " can have the sense of "are they likely to be" ,can't it?

Isn't the "actual conflict of interest" (if it becomes obvious ) easier to understand than what could be perceived as a "mealy mouthed" defense of his position? Personally ,I couldn't give two hoots if he kept his business empire so long as it did not interfere with the office. That picture of his daughter in law in on the meeting with the Japanese PM made me cringe( as does the involvement of his close family full stop) That family thing looks like it might be a timebomb ready to go off in the background . Are families supposed to be lovey dovey all the time ?

I am hoping that his supporters will tire of his novelty effect (and any lack of real product) and come to look upon such obvious failings more dispassionately. They only scraped through this time and so are perhaps extremely vulnerable on that count to things tipping the other way. You asked me why I thought this issue would sway voters. and I gave you an answer(perhaps your question was rhetorical?). Do you think this should sway voters but that on past record it is unlikely to do so? In support of my assertion- rather a question - why do you think Trump is doing (or attempting to seem like he is doing this)? Does he/his advisors not recognize a vulnerability with the electorate?

If that happens will it be so transparent as make his reelection (or the election of Republican candidates in two years time) much harder? That ,and the likelihood that his supporters may see no benefit from his Presidency. What "red meat" has he to offer them really?

They do not " exhibit an identical discrepancy " is what you are saying? I was thinking that ,if the distance is fixed then the increased time dilation caused by the higher speed (c/2) would be accumulated over a shorter time whereas the time dilation caused by the lower speed (c/10) would accumulate over a correspondingly longer time . And so (if this relationship was at all linear -the relationship between the two instances of time dilation) then it might be immaterial in the aging twin scenario at what speed the one twin receded from the other since the amount of time dilation would accumulate to the same (or very close) in all instances regardless of the speed.. Do you see what I am trying to get at? It may not be a fundamental point -more a practical outcome (if true -which it may well not be if acceleration is used in the journeys) I understand that time dilation is a function of speed. I am not quite sure of the terminology that describes an accumulation of this time dilation when 2 objects are "reunited".

That needs to be learned out of him. If he doesn't carry through then it is another example of him disgracing the office (well he has only disgraced the democratic system so far),. If he does the it may bring up the "spare time" problem if he is fundamentally unsuited to his "new job".

"Trump says leaving "business in total" to focus on presidency and avoid perceived conflict of interest" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38155141 This seems like fairly unalloyed good news(taken on its own merits) but the question arises why did it take so long for the penny to drop for Trump? One hypothesis is that he must have a strong emotional attachment to his business and will feel "cut adrift" without this interest. Having a part time President was concerning in the first place Another question that arises (if he carries through on this promise) is whether he is up to learning the skills of his new job. I previously wondered if he might be an example of the Peter Principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle Not that I am accepting his spiel about being "smart" but I think it would (barring him and his team completely losing the run of themselves) be in everyone's interest if he was to have some kind of a proficiency in his new job (debatable perhaps). I do worry about the mental heath of a President who has to forego a huge chunk of his daily routine to take up a post for which he may be (on his own terms) quite unsuited.

Well ,what about my journey to a fixed destination? Say, Alpha Centauri ,4 light years hence I believe. One expedition travels there and back at a speed of c/2 and the other does the journey there and back at a different speed ,say c/10. When they return do they exhibit an identical discrepancy vis a vis the clock they left behind at departure? I can obviously see that ,f they do not then the difference in time dilation(correct term for the aging twin effect?) between the two expeditions must be a function of their speed. Separately is there a common property to the way time is altered by velocity and the way it is altered by acceleration**? Do they simply share the property of reflecting a malleability of time relationships between separate objects where an identity of readings can be seen as ,in physical terms the exception ? ** This Feynman's lecture transcript shows the circumstance where this occurs (Fig. 42–16 towards the bottom of the age) as he compares the gravitational effect to an accelerating rocket.

We have time dilatation caused by simple relative movement where each observer views the other's clock as moving more slowly. Then we have time which is altered by acceleration or gravity where one observer sees the other's clock as moving slower and the other sees the opposite effect. Are these the only two processes* where observers see each other's clocks move at different rates? Another question : when 2 objects separate and after a period of time are brought together ,is the degree of difference in the reading of their clocks dependent on their respective velocities over the course of the round journey? If acceleration is employed over the course of the journey does this also change the degree to which the 2 clocks will disagree** ? *if I can treat gravity and acceleration as more or less the same for this purpose. **from what it would be if the relative velocity was constant except for the need to reverse it (decelerate and then accelerate) half way through the journey .

I don't want to give wrong information. I am fairly sure there are 4- yearly Presidential elections which are followed 2 years later by legislative elections. The question of the President "co-habiting" with a politician from a different party can arise when these legislative elections are held to elect the National Assembly and the cards in the pack are reshuffled as it were.. so that the President may have to appoint a new Prime Minister from the ranks of the new Majority in Parliament. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable will correct me . At the moment Fillon looks a comfortably more likely outcome than Le Pen.(National Front)

It is sadly a two horse race by all accounts. The socialist will have a candidate but ,as things stand he or she has no hope of progressing to the run-off.

I hope this is a related question. The phrase "curvature of space time " seems to cause a bit of befuddlement and I am wondering is it more to the point (and perhaps linguistically accurate) to think of this as a curvature of the co ordinate system employed by an observer to describe events in an accelerating or gravitational frame of reference so as to be easily understandable to another observer in his or her own frame of reference? Can we replace the term "space" or "space time" with "co ordinate system" ** and basically avoid the whole area of debate around whether space actually curves or not? By the way I am not clear whether an observer in an accelerating frame of reference sees the frame of reference of an inertially moving frame of reference as curved in a symmetrical way. to the way an observer views events in an "accelerating frame of reference" ** giving "curvature of the co ordinate system"

But I don't think "fragrant" rings the same bells in Austin, Texas as it does in England https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Archer

There seems to be some agreement that what I have (unoriginally,as it happens -I heard the same idea expressed on the This Week programme on the BBC last night) brought up is not a new thing. Is the internet magnifying this effect? Causing ,perhaps unnecessarily extra division or partitioning in society? I seem to remember when the then new technology of satellite TV was being credited with circumventing the Iron Curtain.

It would be helpful if there could be found some correlations between being "media savvy" and an individual's (or a group's) economic success. The internet should be a wonderful tool for expanding knowledge.

This seems to have need of revision since the results of the American Presidential Election. Does anyone have a dispassionate view on the matter? Is there going to be a big shock one way or another or will the international economies and trade tend to carry on regardless ? EDIT: no Economics sub-forum as such?

fragrant dilettante?

Are the votes all amenable to being counted manually as well as electronically ? What reason can there be for refusing a manual recount? Surely the (potential) manual count is the one that should give confidence and validity to any electronic count. Additionally ,if manual counts were the only counts allowed until the last person had voted in California if would prevent the time zones interfering with the outcome. It would also make the polls seem more "consequential" - more of a "democratic sacrament or " ,less "entertainment" Voters could be encouraged to lie to pollsters if they conduct exit polls . But I can see ,why the Democrats may well not ask for a recount this time unless there is a good reason for that.

I think it has been said that the comparison is Jackass Benito http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/hurricane.html to paraphrase: How can the life of such men Be in the palm of this fool's hand ? Don't ask me for historical detail. I am sure Benito was more of a "vision man" and was probably more competent. But Trump is probably the more pathetic and will surely be better copy. Glad to see that has belatedly disavowed those repulsive American Nazis though. Still ,if he had simply tried to maintain a distance it would not have seemed out of "character".

http://bobdylan.com/songs/only-pawn-their-game/