geordief

@Phi for All " trying to get to total capitalism, thinking that must be better than total communism or total socialism. Give us a better mix of economics, give us ranked-choice voting, give us more representation than two mega-parties, and figure out a way to better inform and educate The People so they can feel their efforts at being a citizen are worthwwhile." Sounds good to me? Is any progress being made in that direction? Any baby steps? Any proposals for reforms of the electoral system that might mitigate the damage that the two party hegemony seems (to me) to be causing to the body politic ? I seem to remember, the problem (in my eyes) was the overdue influence corporate money had on the political system Now it turns out that Trump (with his disregard for truthfulness and decency) has been able to siphon off donations from individual donors whereas the corporations I used to despise seem to be a bulwark against reactionary policies(they have to appeal to their consumers who may not like their instinctive policies)

You implied that smaller countries would be (or appear to be) too costly to run.But the world is full of small countries so they must be economically viable. No ,I don't have an example but anyone can be the first.It would not be easy but if there is a demand it can be difficult to resist (eg Scotland) I think I just feel.USA (and other big States) is too big for its citizens to feel a democratic part of the whole and that decentralization has its attractions. Sure there are other forces dividing people but the actual size of very big countries stands out to me as a barrier. Mind you national identity is a bit of a mystery to.me.

Why is that different from other small countries? Is Australia too small? Ukraine? I have thought for some time that USA is a poor example for democracy(as in "not really one") and might be too big for its citizens to feel they were a part of a community. I feel uncomfortable if the Right in USA is in favour of it (for now) but I didn't get the idea from them.

No ,I think it was considered (and wished for by the Nazi esque groups who thought he was a joke) before anyone in particular was prominent. They just thought he would clear the ground for someone savvier (and in their mould presumably)

I thought there was a view when T first got power that the person following him would be more dangerous bc more savvy and acceptable. I don't think that held much water as to date T has jumped nearly every hurdle . In a sense it is all or nothing for the T base. After him they seem unlikely to win a general election .But times change and the Dems can implode. Imo they have to ditch their two party system It is almost as bad as the one party system.

Thanks,yes it did.What I half suspected.

I was about to ask @Markus Hanke to explain the meaning of a made-up German word "ur-observer" in this text(addressed to me) in another forum "The key distinction is between uncertainty (the image is blurred but I think there is an animal out there) and indeterminacy (it really is a woolly sheep and not just an unfocused goat). Sicherheit is all to do with confidence, hence certainty, whilst Genauigkeit concerns exactitude, an inherent property of the entity under discussion. I still think you need to distinguish carefully between an "active observer", i.e. one who necessarily disturbs the system by making a measurement, and the textbook "ur-observer" (a made-up word, but you'll appreciate its very handy Germanic root), i.e a surface in spacetime, outside of the system being observed. For instance it is quite obvious that nothing we do can affect the fusion processes that make Betelguese shine since what we observe actually happened about 700 years ago, nor for that matter can we influence the decay of a uranium nucleus a few picoseconds away from the gamma ray detector, so we are generally "ur-observers" of nuclear phenomena but "active observers" of fetal ultrasound imaging." https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=86353.0 Not so much its meaning in the context , but what does that prefix"ur" mean "normally"? Anyone else can answer if they have good German....

He has said as much and we have seen how Putin got around that roadblock.

Thanks.Well ,from the origin the spacetime interval to the point 1 is zero,I think . Do the corresponding intervals increase as the angle of the trajectory wrt the spatial axis increases? When the speed is least (say the speed of a Trump conviction) ,is the spacetime interval greatest?

Suppose we shine a light on the Moon (from the Eath) and also (imagine there is no gravity) aim a bullet to reach the same point on the Moon much later Can that be depicted on a Minkowski diagram.(an extra vertical line at the top of the orange line that the red line meets ,perhaps?)

OK(I feared as much) but are my scenarios real scenarios even if wrongly described and are there 3 different ,but related spacetime intervals attached to them?

Suppose we take two points on a Minkowski spacetime diagram and "connect" them with different pairs of physical events. So one if the points is the origin and the other is any arbitrary point The first pair of physical events is a massless object fired,* from the origin through a vacuum and leaving a physical mark ** at the site of the second point on the Minkowski map. The second pair of physical events is a spaceship travelling at c/2 and arriving at the site of the mark made by the massless object.(at a different time and spatial distance) The third pair of events is just a bullet following a similar trajectory. So there are three related spacetime intervals. I think.I may be right to say that the first spacetime interval is zero? Of the other two intervals the bullet strikes me as being the longer. Have I understood and presented the scenarios correctly? If we line up all the potential pairs of physical events does the spacetime interval associated with each increase on inverse proportion to the speed of the trajectory involved? *The first event of the pair **The second event of the pair

Fog of War? Can we afford Ukraine to be defeated when it has shown it has all the cojones and all we need to provide is material assistance? Ukraine has the fingers of a demented lunatic around its neck. I don't think the Marquis of Queensbury rules apply. Separately and since Taiwan is one half of this OPthis early assessment by a Chinese source at the very start is fairly amusing in hindsight ", a quick solution to the battle. Just as Russia’s war against Ukraine is likely to be resolved within 48 hours, if the “war of reunification of Taiwan” starts, the “highest goal” of the PLA is to “reunify Taiwan”. The PLA will never delay and will not give the U.S., Japan and Europe the time and opportunity to intervene militarily and politically. The PLA will also defeat the island’s naval and air forces in the shortest possible time, seize air and sea control, provide security for subsequent landing operations, “eliminate” Taiwan’s combat power within 48 hours, and take full control of Taiwan within 72 hours." https://www.china-arms.com/2022/02/russia-ukraine-war-inspiration-taiwan/

If I throw a boomerang in the air and it returns to me after traveling a distance of 1 light second and having travelled at a significant fraction of c the boomerang's clock presumably moves at a slower rate than mine.(when I am able to make a physical comparison) Conversely my clock's rate is faster than its(the boomerang's) If the boomerang travels as close to c as is practically possible does the rate of my clock compared to its clock approach a value that is equal to c? Does that shed any light on the expression that we are "traveling through time at the speed of light (c)?

A Norwegian reindeer can go 10 km even if has to make do with drinking beer.

I have never made baguettes but that temperature is similar to what you would use in a pizza oven -a bit less. I guess it must be right Not sure what the water is for(to stop the bread going on fire?)

@Externet I typed baguette "levure chimique" into Google and got this recipe for a baguette made with baking powder https://recette.com/baguette-avec-levure-chimique.htm Can you put that page into Google translate? Anyway it seems to use baking powder along with the ability of the dough (must be strong white flour,I suppose) to rise under it's own steam at 35° "Cette pâte à pain se prépare sans levure de boulanger et ne demande aucun pétrissage. Une simple levure chimique suffit pour réaliser de bonnes baguettes qui seront dévorées dès la sortie du four. Temps de repos : 1 heure et demie" This bread dough is prepared without baker's yeast and does not require any kneading. A simple baking powder is enough to make good baguettes that will be devoured as soon as you leave the oven. Rest time: 1 hour and a half 1. Put the water to cool in the microwave (about 35 ° C) and wash (=dissolve?) the yeast. Pour into a bowl and add the flour and salt. Mix with the wooden spatula without kneading. 2. You then get a very sticky paste. Put a cloth on top to protect it and rest for 90 minutes. 3. When the dough has doubled in volume, start preheating the oven to 300°C by placing a bowl of water inside. 4. Place the dough on your floured worktop and form four mini baguettes. Place them on your lightly greased baking sheet and cook for 20 minutes. 5. Remove from the oven when the crust is blond. Enjoy warm preferably. No it collapsed because any rough handling will do that.It collapsed before I put it into the freezer and at the time I transferred it from the mixing bowl to the baking tin just before it went in the freezer.

Yes I let the dough rise in a mixing bowl and ,without kneading I transferred it to two separate baking tins.. The first I let rise again in the usual way and baked ot in about 20 minutes later when I could see it had risen as much as it was going to. The second tin I put straight into the freezer with the dough in it having collapsed in the transferral process. (So it had risen in the bowl at first but when it went into the freezer it had collapsed ) I took the second tin out again the following day and waited for it to thaw out in its own time and subsequently to rise again. I didn't touch it at all before it went into the oven When I compared the two tins ' loaves the one that had been frozen was a lot heavier. I don 't know why (if true) the freezing kills(or weakens?) only some of the yeast... You can also make bread with baking powders of various sorts. They will not taste the same ,of course. There are some flours that are unsuitable for yeast baking since they contain little gluten and ,with them you have little choice but to go the baking powder route.(or learn to like very heavy or fairly heavy bread like Pumpernikel or other rye loaves)

Next time I will make it less sloppy and give it a very light knead and see if it rises better.

I don't know ,but apparently this only works with certain kind of yeast you can buy(not the quick use kinds for example) I first put the yeast in with the flour and waited until it rose well. Then I transferred some of it into a small bread tin and put it straight into the freezer It stayed there for around 18 hours and then I took it out and left it to thaw out at something like 30 ° Celsius for a good few hours until I could see that it was thawed and waited for it to rise.(raised the temperature to around body heat when I could see it was starting to expand) It did rise but quite a bit less than I expected and I have since seen on a website https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-freeze-yeast-bread-dough-427560 that this is because some of the year dies as a result of the freezing So I got a half risen loaf ,which is much nicer than a loaf that hasn't risen at all but not as good as I would like. The site I mentioned above advises to double the quantity of yeast to get a normally risen loaf

My frozen loaf turned out fairly flat/heavy .Edible,though and to others' taste fortunately. It seems you have to give twice the amount of yeast to compensate for losses in the freezing process. Not sure if I will do it again .I don't like too much of a yeasty taste.

Is RW being boorishly provocative bringing this show to Germany? Aside from their victims they have suffered more than any other country at the hands of the Nazis and perhaps they may feel that they have a deeper understanding of the dangers of that ideology than he does. It strikes me that while it is to be hoped that that belief system takes hold in no country at all it may be that the one country we would least wish to encourage it is in Germany itself. If they decide that RW is shouting fire in a crowded theatre for whatever convoluted reasons he may have I would respect their judgement more than that of most .And ,if they decide otherwise I would pay attention to that too.

I make it on a continuous basis(every day or two) . I will put s bit of the next batch in the freezer and see how it works. I don't use a mixer just mix it all in the bowl with a wooden spoon and do not touch the dough with my hands..

You mean more even?I like the chewey texture you get with sour dough and I like the big bubbles that I try to replicate (not too well) by making the dough more liquidy. And it is so much less fuss (I don't get my hands all sticky-or feel worthy from all the physical pummeling)

Are you sure that is necessary? I haven't kneaded the dough for years now .I just mix the ingredients and wait for them to rise. I don't bother with punching it down either...it just goes straight into the tin and rises there the once(I have to catch it before it starts falling but even then it is tastes more or less the same) I did used to knead it but have noticed no difference since I stopped doing so and it saves a hell of a lot of time.