Phi for All

An elderly lady has just finished discussing the arrangements for her late husband's funeral, and the director of the mortuary asks her if there's anything else they can do to honor the dearly departed, anything at all. She tells him, "Well, I hate to mention it. I chose that black suit because it was the most expensive one he had, but blue was really his color. I first met him in a blue suit, and he wore blue when we married. If you could buy him a really nice blue suit to be buried in, I'd appreciate it greatly. I know that's over and above what we discussed, so take this." She hands him a blank check and he tells her he'll do his best. The next day the viewing starts and the elderly lady is very pleased to see her husband in a very stylish blue suit. She thanks the funeral director and compliments his choice. He assures her it was his pleasure, and then returns the blank check. The lady objects, saying, "But that's a really nice suit! Aren't you going out of pocket for it?" "Madam, by a complete coincidence, another woman wanted her deceased husband buried in a black suit instead of a blue one. One of my assistants remarked on how both men were about the same size, so it was the easiest thing in the world to just switch their heads!"

Questions are awesome! Questions spark great discussions where everybody gets to learn something. Bring 'em on, and welcome!

Forgive me if I failed to acknowledge the diligence shown by Merrick Garland. His non-partisan, ultra-cautious, barely noticeable approach has taken very little breath away from me, so I should have plenty left to sing his praises.

This is a misunderstanding of Relativity, and probably where your frustration lies. Spacetime isn't a "thing" I can loan you a bushel of, it's the geometry we can apply to determine position within the universe when we observe various phenomena. Three spatial dimensions and a temporal dimension can describe any event anywhere. Just like, on Earth's surface, I can give you longitude, latitude, altitude, and time coordinates so we can have lunch together next week on the 24th floor of the Chrysler Building. I'm not sure where all these people are who argue that time is a physical object. Can you cite some sources on this? The thing is, when we use spacetime calculations to determine when to launch a rocket and hit something millions of miles away, it's extremely accurate. Thinking of space and time as an inseparable continuum allows us to predict the movements of massive bodies to an astonishing degree. Can you use your idea to calculate the height of a geosynchronous orbit?

So, I shouldn't drop the baby. Got it. I was waiting for this response. It's an assumption many make wrt privilege (among other things), that we'll automatically over-correct if we even try to correct. I'm reminded of the joke: What if climate change is a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?

Touch needs to be divided into more parts, imo. With touch we know when we make contact with an object, whether it's soft or hard or sharp or wet (textures) or hot or cold (temperature) or vibrating. We associate pain with touch receptors as well, and even emotions like compassion can be detected and even delivered through touch, so I think these are all separate senses, or deserve to be. And where does proprioception fit in? It's the sense that lets us know where we are in relation to the space around us, so we don't have to watch each stair as we climb them, or so we can touch our nose with our fingertip when our eyes are closed. We also have a sense of balance that seems caught up with tubes in our ears, but has nothing to do with hearing. I've heard some claim we have a sense of proximity, like how close we're standing to a wall, but I think that's a combination of feeling air pressure against the skin and hearing the difference sound makes when it's being reflected off a close surface. And of course, there's the fact that we don't sense anything with our receptors directly. It's all filtered and interpreted by the brain, which is so fast that it often predicts what you're supposed to be seeing based on past experiences before the light actually reaches your eyes. I hope that's not too off-topic for the opening post, but I think understanding how the senses evolved to work is important to their questions.

The four charges against TFG the committee recommends the DOJ look into: 1. Obstruction of an official proceeding. Iirc, this one carries up to 20 years in jail with it, and seems the most obvious of the charges to me, since there's so much evidence he failed to stop it even after people died. 2. Conspiracy to defraud the United States. I hear they have over 1200 witness testimonies stating TFG knew the election was legitimate but didn't want to look like a loser by admitting it. 3. Conspiracy to make a false statement. TFG was prepared to go ahead with certifying a false slate of electors if Pence had played ball. This one is worth up to five years in jail. 4. Insurrection. He roused them up, told them to come to the capitol to save their democracy, refused to tell them to stand down, praised the insurrectionists for their efforts, and has expressed zero regret for the deaths and violence he caused. This is the one that would prevent him holding office again. Tomorrow we should see the panel report that lays out evidence for the DOJ, if I've understood that correctly. That report is the evidence that the DOJ claims to be waiting for before pursuing an investigation of their own. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64034782

Earth species evolved sensors that detect various phenomena that helped them survive to reproduce, such as eyes that sense light, and ears and skin that can determine various sound vibrations or changes in temperature. All these stimuli existed first, and Earth life adapted to sense them to varying degrees. Think of it this way, there are parts of the light spectrum most humans can't see, like ultraviolet. UV light still exists even if we can't see it.

Maybe a tad, but the opening post is a tad naive as well. It's like saying "Everybody should respect their parents", until you hear about parents that should be put in jail for what they've done to their children. Respect? I'm with Genady, it should be earned, not expected.

! Moderator Note Can you give us more to work with? Related to what, each other? What is it you'd like to discuss?

That's demonstrably false, but makes a snappy sound byte. Most religions place their deity at the top, and then rank all the pious in order of worthiness, with church leaders high on the totem pole, church patrons below them, regular church members below them, members of false religions are further down, atheists are down there too, and everyone else in the world they don't like somewhere below that. Why should anyone respect a hierarchy that judges them disrespectfully, that doesn't take their humanity into account but instead berates them for it, using humanity as a synonym for "flawed" and "weak" and "sinful"? Or lack thereof.

! Moderator Note The reasons we don't discuss video blogs are many, and based on past experience. Is it possible for you to post your data here for us to analyze, or is it all in video format? Science discussion may not be the best route for you if you're visually based.

The software can't display both scores, just the total. Sorry. For what it's worth, we don't get that many posts where there's a lot of up and down votes.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-really-use-only-10/ This was a myth before the internet. Before TV even. We use the whole brain, but not all at once, unless we're having a seizure.

If the software is capable of displaying the breakdown, that's where you would see it. I'll check with an Administrator.

This is my stance as well, on all points. I've gone out of my way to do things I didn't even want to do just because someone told me I couldn't. Orneriness should be taken into consideration. The only way I quit smoking was to remind myself daily how much better off I was. Saving money, no more stink, better stamina, less cleaning up, and a better overall feeling were reasonable outcomes to quitting. If the gov had passed a law, It would have taken me a LOT longer to quit.

If you click on someone's rep score for a single post, does it break it down into + and - scores, but without names?

It would probably make Genady feel better informed, and with less condescension. I'm not sure the software can display both votes, but I think it would be interesting to know how the + and - breaks down (without knowing who voted which way). Seeing a post that has a +2 score doesn't tell you the interesting fact that 16 people voted it down and 18 voted it up.

JohnPBailey has been banned for abusive posts and PMs, soapboxing, and bad faith arguments.

! Moderator Note There's nothing medical about this stance. Perhaps you need to go somewhere you can blog about what you misunderstand. Thread closed.

I think changing the mindset is crucial no matter what we decide to do. So much of the trash generated is convenience-oriented packaging that has to go from manufacturer to distributor to supplier to consumer, then sit on our shelves for a short amount of time. Nobody but the consumer is interested in making products last in the package once you've gotten it home and opened it (see any Ziplock bags inside a cereal box?). I reuse all good plastic and glass containers, over and over if I can. I have a whole collection downstairs that I use to store other stuff, mix a small amount of paint or oil in, fill with water to use as a weight, or any other job where you need a jug or can with a cap or lid. And I keep hoping the laws will change and I can start taking my old containers to fill them up with bulk rice or flour or sugar. Didn't I see a headline a while back about a bacteria that eats plastic and poops out something better for the environment? I'd seriously be willing to get rid of my back yard and turn it into a mulch for little plastic piranha bugs. I'm so sick of wasting resources on a lawn in a high altitude desert. I agree, there's no single fix. It has to be a compound effort. I'm sure the US campaign from the 60s was accompanied by stiff fines for littering, but the message got to me. My family was big on camping when I was growing up, and we always packed out our trash. Keep America Beautiful resonated with me, and as an adult, if there's no trash can I stuff my refuse in a pocket and throw it away later. I know if I toss something on the ground, I'm creating both an eyesore and extra work for someone. Taking care of my own litter taught me not to take my problems and make them other people's problems.

! Moderator Note This stinker is closed!

JustJoe has been banned for bad faith arguments designed to waste the time of any who bother trying to correct his horrible science.

! Moderator Note Thanks, it would be my pleasure! Merry Christmas, everybody else!

Lady Byrd Johnson used her platform as FLOTUS to support the Keep America Beautiful campaign back in the 60's, and that worked exceedingly well to place trash bins in many places, and more importantly call attention to the need to be responsible with our trash. That ad of the Native American crying at the pollution of the time had a real impact (I'm seriously not sure if I could ever throw trash on the ground to this day). So I would say do something similar but modern, like get all the social media influencers to help show that you have to be a moron to trash your own environment.