Phi for All

I don't like Ti for bladed weapons and tools, like swords and knives and chisels. It doesn't work as well as steel for a thin edge that sees a lot of work. In addition to what swansont mentioned, Ti is often chosen over steel for better rust and corrosion resistance. I believe I read where the US Navy's rail guns propel an armature (presumably affected by magnetism) that carries a projectile. I don't know what the projectile itself is made of though, and wonder if Ti would be a good choice, possibly for the reasons John Cuthber mentioned. On the other hand, as a kinetic weapon, would they prefer a heavier metal?

! Moderator Note If you have extraordinary supportive evidence for this extraordinary claim, feel free to start another thread. Otherwise, please don't hijack one speculation with another. This is against our rules for obvious reasons. Don't respond to this in thread, but Report it if you disagree.

! Moderator Note Do NOT use your pet theory to reply to someone else's pet theory. Hijacking the topic is against the rules. You're falling into bad old habits since you've been back.

! Moderator Note This kind of behavior is unacceptable. Insulting our professors using your home-schooled ignorance is against our civility rules, it's arrogant beyond comprehension, and makes you look like a complete ass to everyone ajb has helped in his long tenure as a Resident Expert here at SFN. Feel free to attack his ideas, but refrain from senseless ad hominem. It's no wonder why your reputation is in the negative after so short a time here. You are one rude person. Decide if you want to stay and abide by the rules you agreed to when you joined. Don't reply to this modnote in thread, but feel free to Report it if you disagree with it.

! Moderator Note I just made it a question. Thanks for understanding. This really made me smile.

I understand that it would probably shatter your worldview to actually understand where I'm coming from. I get that you have to make me seem a certain way in order for your weird devotion to a failing process to make sense even to you. It must make you feel better, so I guess that's OK. But I'll still maintain that much of the reason for all the hate lately is because we've gotten our society out of balance. People haven't changed that drastically, but many other things that influence people have. Capitalism isn't something I demonize. It's a good ideology for us when we need to make a profit and everyone is happy with the deals they get. Fair market practices should always be paramount, that's how capitalism stays healthy for everyone. But it's not automatically going to work well, it has to be well regulated, like anything else. Socialism should be used when profit isn't the motive, when the goods or services provided are the priority. Socialism helps us get the most bang for our buck when it comes to things that help society stay healthy. There should be no citizen who can't get help when needed in the wealthiest country in the world. I also keep wondering why you avoid my point about the 90% tax rate for income in excess of a reasonable cap. You always strawman about me coming for your stuff, or resenting the rich man, when I'm clearly talking about EXACTLY the kind of tax structure we had right after WWII, where some of the ultra-high earnings that almost never get circulated back into the economy are taxed to encourage growth instead of hoarding. Let me ask you this hypothetical question, and please don't ramble on. What would you do if you saw someone deliberately push a person down the stairs? Would you call the police, demand justice, help ensure restitution was made? Now, what would you do if you found out someone was putting a little bit of poison in a person's food, killing them slowly over time? Would you do the same thing, call the police, demand justice, help ensure restitution was made? So when we find out that corporate America has been shaving wages, withholding benefits, lying about how well the company was doing, and in general manipulating to pay workers less and the shareholders more, for the last 60 years, why do you say it's class warfare, or hate, or that I'm demonizing capitalism? Is this the way you think capitalism is supposed to work? You're 62?

! Moderator Note Mike, I've hidden that last post, since it's just a reiteration of what's already in the thread you linked to. We don't need to go over the same ground.

! Moderator Note The topic is transformation and mimicry.

Now you're trying to equate anger and hatred? And again accuse me of hatred when I've already said I don't hate anybody? You do this a lot, arguing against a very specific point with an ever-widening brush, making a strawman out of your own reply as well as putting more words in my mouth while moving the goalpost. Please stop trying to rearrange what I've said to suit yourself, and just read it. Am I so hard to understand? My point in all this is that hate is fed by ignorance and fear, two of the hallmarks of the folks who label themselves conservative. These folks have tainted so much good with their policies. Our country has a hybrid ideology (as it should), utilizing capitalism, socialism, communism, and other ideologies where needed. But these ignorant, fearful conservatives have allowed Big Business to focus on capitalism to the exclusion of all else, even tainting the socialist policies we have, and making them weak where they should be some of our strongest assets as a nation. Do you really think this is a good choice, becoming 100% capitalist? When has it ever been a good choice to be only one thing? You can't have effective capitalism unless the People can participate effectively in the economy. If they can't, this breeds frustration, which breeds anger, which can lead to hatred. History and modern example show us how we can easily have a balance between our ideologies, so we can use each where it makes the most sense. But we've got to stop hampering our social efforts to cater to capitalism. The People are angry, they know they've been screwed by bankers and lawyers and politicians, the same folks who are telling them they can save them. Our capitalist side is doing phenomenally well, and that means the People should be doing much better. That they aren't means something isn't right. We know exactly what it is, and exactly how to fix it in a way that gives the most prosperity to all, using monies that should have been going to the workers all along for the last 60 years. A revolution in the near future seems likely. We can't sustain this level of hate; it will explode if not defused. If the revolution is to be based on hope and prosperity, and not fear and hatred, I'd say we shouldn't put anyone in charge who identifies as conservative. Too many are either outright bigots, or are convinced Big Business can do no wrong (or not enough wrong to be angry with them).

The Brian Greene's and the Michio Kaku's of the science world bring interested people to theoretical physics, and the key is to recognize when your interests need more detail and depth than popular science provide, so you can abandon them for more mainstream texts. You can't let yourself get addicted to the easy reading if you really want to dig down and understand how these theories develop. An analogy would be learning to swim. You learn in the swimming pool and you find you really like swimming. But if you're interested in swimming in the ocean, you need more than the pool can teach you. In fact, the pool might make you reach poor conclusions about what swimming in the ocean is like. You need to get out there in the real seawater, go deep, experience it, and don't stay in the sanitized, convenient, popular pool water. I agree with the others who've said that Kaku is not making a scientific statement, he's making an explosive, opinionated statement designed to bring him attention. I suppose if it gets a few religious folks who wouldn't normally expose themselves to theoretical physics to think better about science, then he's done a good thing.

If you torture words so they mean what you want them to, what good are they to the rest of us? The definition of universe is established, and has nothing to do with "everyone on Earth", except that they are a subset of it. You're a subset of Primates as well, which is a much more accurate thing to call each other.

I would prefer not, thanks. It's inaccurate, and fairly meaningless in all the contexts of the word I'm aware of.

You're a product of our society. You're not alone, there's a lot of you that are more susceptible to manipulation by emotion. Pity is more accurate, it's a far cry from hate. Since I pretty clearly detailed how I equated conservatives to terrorists (it was the part about how both your extremist views are normally dealt with in society until you get too much money and power), I have to assume you're being manipulative by making it seem like I said you're EXACTLY like terrorists. In virtually every discussion with you, you find myriad ways to misinterpret what I'm saying. It really only happens with you, MigL, and waitforufo, the most outspoken of our conservatives. Statistically, it would be weird that none of you can understand a rational argument, so I have to assume it's intentional, and it's because you are so emotionally tied to your viewpoint that you can't recognize reason anymore when it comes to those topics, and you have no reasonable arguments, so you pretend to be outraged at things I didn't say. It's not helpful, I don't like it, but I don't hate you, any more than I waste time hating anybody.

Because we were so Communist under Eisenhower? Honestly, at some point you have to be embarrassed about being so obtuse whenever you're replying to defend your conservatism. Did Ike rob from the rich with his 91% tax rate for the top bracket of wealth? I'll give you a hint, the rate was even higher before he took office. It's what smart nations do to avoid exactly what's happening now, too much wealth at the top and not enough spread around to keep the economy robust. Corporate America has screwed over workers since Nixon, constantly shaving a bit from middle class wages and funneling it to the top. Now we want it back. Decent wages, corporations aren't people, and they should pay more than their share because they use more than their share of the infrastructure. We don't mind that they do, we mind that they're trying to weasel out of it, with the help of conservatives like you. None of this is extraordinary. This is an historical fix that's worked before, except now these assholes are in control of the media as well, so they get folks like you on their side to talk about work ethic (like we don't have any), and class warfare (it's not a war, you screwed us and we want to fix it), and hating the wealthy (never said it, those were your words in my mouth). You've been the biggest help to all the really awful corporations that do the most damage, like the arms merchants and the ones who pollute wherever they can get away with it. You folks who identify as conservatives are the biggest haters on the planet, and you go along with corrupt leadership just because they say they're afraid of the same things you are. I don't want your voice stifled, but I look at conservatives the way I look at terrorists. If you didn't have all this power you stole from the rest of us, society could deal with your extremist, bigoted views the way we deal with other problems. But you've got too much money, the way terrorists get too much money, and now you're an immense pain in the ass for the rest of us who would like to live a little friendlier, and more prosperously, for everyone and not just the ones who already have the most.

Several things can cause your vision to narrow and darken (low blood sugar, for instance), leaving a slice of light that could look like a cross. The rest is your mind insisting on forming a pattern out of practically everything. Debris on the surface of the eye appears like vines and grapes. Then the momentary malfunction is gone and your vision returns to normal. It's amazing what our brains do with the limited and distorted information they get from our eyes. But they can also trick us when they don't understand exactly what's happening and they just make stuff up.

I've always wondered if the ultralight plane industry would benefit from electric engines.

I'm not sure if the fastest human runner can overcome gravity's effect on our mass. The tail helps the lizard because of the way his legs work, but he isn't pulled down into the water as quickly, so his swimmy/runny locomotion takes advantage of the surface tension in a way we never can.

I think you'll find that any of the ways to maintain an equilibrium between momentum, weight distribution, balance, and the rapidity of your stride are going to be short-lived. How long can you run at your fastest speed while taking short, choppy strides so your feet don't go too far under the water? Iirc, the lizard's hind legs are splayed out wide, and they get that whole body including the tail in on the movement so they are really moving fast. That won't work for us. I've seen guys attempt this running on from the shores of a lake (not the hoax guys), and while you need speed we'll never have, you also need to take your next step before your last one can sink. This requires short steps at high speed, something that is difficult/impossible to maintain.

I'm not afraid that if I offer the benefits without demanding a pledge, that I'll get screwed. I'm confident that honor is going to be a big part of being a citizen of a country that prizes it's People. So yes, I'm offering all the things I've talked about with no strings attached, other than you pay your taxes when you earn money, and obey the laws of the land. And if it's all done the way it's been done in the distant past, society is overall more prosperous. I guess to conservative folks who are well-off, this makes their own success seem less worthy for some reason, almost the same way some people think gay marriage makes heterosexual marriage worth less. I believe humans who agree to be part of a society are already giving up a lot, and that it's the society who gains the most, if only all its members could see that.

Well, that's just unworkable bullshit that sounds good to you, and has zero historical support. And I can point to our current woes with tons of evidence that much of it is because of stupid, unprecedented amounts of wealth disparity. Or ignoring stupid, unprecedented amounts of carbon in our air. Or supporting corporate interests that continue to post stupid, unprecedented profits while our infrastructure crumbles as they dodge their fair share of taxes. I think your perspective supports hate and haters. I think we need to fix the system, and leave the hate for people out of it. I don't hate anybody, and I think accusing people of it is partially a distraction.

Really?! For nothing, I want you to have access to food, shelter, and clothing if you need them. For nothing, I want you to be treated with respect and dignity simply for being a human, second for being a citizen of my country. For nothing, I grant you the protections offered by the Constitution that governs us. For absolutely nothing on your part, I want you to have the best opportunity to be part of this society, and contribute to it as much as your prosperity allows you to. And if the person with the shadow yacht today loses it all tomorrow, I want them to have access to the same things I offer you. Does that sound like hate?

OK, good luck with this. Make it about hating the people, instead of about fixing a broken system. It's a nice strawman, and you seem to love it a lot. With diligent maintenance and perseverance of the kind you've shown, you should be able to keep it going as long as you need it. Meanwhile, I'll still assert that taxing wealth above a certain uber level is necessary and productive, and together with changes in business that favor the middle class workers, our economy could be more well-rounded, with less disparity and more prosperity. And it's hard to hate when things are going really well. Let tar and people like him think it means we're coming for their stuff, instead of simply adjusting our economy to a more Eisenhower-era, prosperous approach to being American. Maybe tar can find us some links to all the stories about Ike taking away middle class stuff from citizens like him back in the day. There must be something behind this inordinate fear that higher taxes on the uber-wealthy will mean he loses his stuff.

It's difficult, because the same quirk also makes him think I'm talking about him when I talk about people with shadow yachts. Somehow, the quirk turns my implication that the wealthy should pay more in taxes into "I want your stuff, tar". I long ago gave up on actually being understood.

I can hate the apathy and despair in that statement, right?

If we did, in the US, what the wealthiest nation on Earth is capable of doing for its citizens, I think many of the situations that foster hate just evaporate. Imagine if you knew you wouldn't cripple your family by needing surgery to save your life. You could focus on taking the best care of them, rather than on earning the right to do so. Imagine if you knew that you can go to school to learn anything that will make you more productive as a citizen. If you can look towards higher education instead of just getting by, or train for a better job instead of turning to crime, you aren't exposed to as many situations where your thoughts turn dark. Imagine if you didn't need to worry that it will be easy for someone with a grudge to get hold of the ultimate hate-amplifier, a loaded weapon. You don't need to worry about having a gun to defend yourself, because they don't outnumber you in your own country. You don't have to worry about the police shooting you because all their policies change the moment guns aren't in so many waistbands and glove compartments. Your whole outlook changes, you realize the power your neighbors and neighborhoods have now that the likelihood of being threatened with guns is radically reduced. Suddenly our police and other security measures become much more effective, and it becomes much easier to find out who has illegal weapons. Imagine if desperately poor people, as well as ludicrously rich people (shadow yacht types), were as hard to find as truth at a Trump rally. Imagine if the relationship between productivity and middle class wages were reestablished, so that more citizens were more prosperous overall with far less at the extremes. Imagine if you remove the jealousy that turns to hatred that happens when good people doing the right thing are crushed by insensitivity and systems that appear rigged against them. There will always be hate, but it doesn't need the help that our elite conservative leadership is shoveling on top of it, feeding it, tending it. We don't need to hate the haters, we just need to be willing to fix the system they've rigged against us. Hate the greed, not the greedy, and you can use the extra energy to keep their hands out of the cookie jars.