MigL

Liked Arnold's video, INow. Maybe he still has aspirations to become President, although even if he could, he's getting too old. He was somewhat contradictory though. At first saying we should not pledge allegiance to the President or the Party, but to the nation and its ideals. While finishing with asking people to pledge allegiance to President-elect J Biden. Chances are slim to none, but if he turns out to be an ass like D Trump, both parties should do what is best for the nation, and get rid of him. The 'old' way to 'control' platforms/businesses was with your money or patronage, JC. If you didn't like/agree with the service you took your business elsewhere, and if enough people did that, the business/platform failed. These days, it's all about liabilities, lawsuits, and trying to control others through legislation. I assume the Mercury you're talking about is the preservative, Thimerosal, Sensei., I've been putting drops in my eyes, containing that preservative, several times daily, for the last 25 years. And, other than the silver colored eyes, I'm still fairly normal. Aren't I, guys ?

Of course. Consider a map of the Earth ( 2 dimensional Cartesian ) with two ants at the equator. Both ants move directly North, they never meet, and there is no force between them acting at a distance. Now consider a different co-ordinate system, where those same two ants are on a curved surface, such as a globe of the Earth ( still 2 dimensional, but now just the angular part of spherical polar, or latitude and longitude ). The ants again move directly North, but this time, they get closer and closer together, until they crash into each other at the North Pole. And since they, like Newton, are not aware they're travelling on a curved surface, assume there is a force drawing them together, and acting at a distance. They call it gravity, but it is actually just paths along a curved manifold. That is what GR tells us. Gravity is not a force, acting at a distance, but simply paths ( geodesics, worldlines ) along 4 dimensional space-time.

Quantum foam is the vacuum ( or a description of it at very small scales, See J A Wheeler ). Quantum fluctuations arise out of the quantum foam, or vacuum, on 'borrowed energy which has to be re-paid back to the Universe after a time determined by the HUP. These quantum fluctuations manifest as virtual particles, which have measurable consequences. IOW, something from the vacuum. What did you intend 'nothing' to mean ?

The definitive Einstein biography is 'Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein'. It is written by Abraham Pais, a Physicist, and friend of A Einstein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtle_is_the_Lord As A Pais was a Physicist, before becoming a Science Historian, so the book does get quite mathematical at times. It is, however, very interesting, one of the best books I've ever read on the life and times of A Einstein, and it should convince you that E Hubble had no influence on the decision by Einstein to incorporate the Cosmological Constant into GR. ( maybe E Mach did; a little ). Beecee's account is more accurate. G Lemaitre proposed his Big Bang hypothesis after solving Einstein's non-static equations ( no CC ), after A Friedman solved them for an expanding universe. E Hubble had measured galactic ( actually nebulae, at the time ) recession speeds of 24 near galaxies in 1929, which turned out to be wrong by a factor of 7, because the zero-point calibration of the 'standard candle' used at the time.

Tell me about it ! Ontario started the second wave with large numbers in the Toronto area, but the numbers are now steadily increasing in most other areas as well. Just about every hotel room in Niagara Falls was booked on New Year's Eve These people weren't local, but everyone could book a room ( cheap winter rates ), get a wristband for entry, and then congregate together in one room to party. There were even stories of 'party' buses coming from Toronto. Now we're getting 4000 new cases per day in Ontario.

Australia ???? All the original immigrants to Australia WERE criminals. It was a penal colony. Just kidding ! Good to talk to you again, Beecee.

I am a BIG believer in free speech, however, I don't do any social media at all ( other than a few Forums, where I'm somewhat anonymous ). My rights to free speech stop when they start infringing on the rights of those who have to 'carry' my speech. So, yes, I agree that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., should be able to police or disallow content they find objectionable. If people don't like it, they don't need to keep using those platforms. The big problem, is that society has 'evolved' to use social media as their primary news source. Gone are the days when the News presented facts without opinion, and you made up your own mind about things. Now everybody expects to be force-fed 'entertainment' news and opinions. more and more, popularity ( on media ) determines whether the general public believes you or not. Presidents used to be chosen on their background, be it military, foreign service, economics, law, etc. Just in the last 40 years we've had a former movie star, and a reality TV star. What is happening to our society ???

Quick question for those who understand American Governance a lot better than I do. Now that Democrats control the Presidency, House, and Senate ( tie-break ), is it possible for them to change election rules and make elections a federal jurisdiction ( instead of State ), so that elections across the country follow the exact same rules ? Or is it a Constitutional issue, and requires a super-majority for a Constitutional Amendment. And while they're at it, address the 'big money' influence, and distribution of voting districts ( if not the whole Electoral College issue, and change to majority of popular vote )

You're seriously using my quote as an example of duplicitousness in my stance?! Are you saying these courageous patriots were just challenging the unjust laws that protect our national institutions, by arming themselves and breaking into the Capitol building? That's a pretty slimy way to argue, if you don't mind my pointing it out, MigL. Wow ! You got all that from "Phi for All replied" ? I said nothing else ! Where you get the duplicitousness and slime, I have no clue. But, if you didn't mean that those idiots who broke the law on Wednesday, should be able to argue it in court as to why it was the 'right thing to do', maybe you should explain and clarify YOUR post. If you don't mind my pointing it out.

Put down those knives guys ...

Always glad to oblige INow . That was the first thread I found, and may not be the best for the point I'm trying to make, but I was rushing before you and Koti get into a knife fight . They are not that different, CharonY; both protests take away others rights. The Canadian one takes away freedoms to move about and/or conduct business, and the American one takes away the right to have everyone's vote count in a fair election. And although all unlawful behavior is not violent, all violence is unlawful behavior. So what are you suggesting, that if there was no violence involved, Wednesday's insurrection, where a group that felt themselves to be wronged tried to take away the rights of the rest of the populace, would then be justified ? If not, then please explain to me where the line is, between protesting, and taking away other's rights, versus protesting, but taking away other's rights is merely an inconvenience. PS If I didn't have to get up early for work, tomorrow morning, I might go through the G Floyd/BLM thread to find more appropriate examples. Maybe tomorrow night.

In the thread I started, 'Canadian Protests', in Feb 2020, where no actual violence occurred because police chose not to enforce the law, and allowed unlawful behaviour for months, your reply was "Like in Hong Kong, at some point we need to realize the protestors have a poor and that its worth fighting for." Phi for All replied "I don't know about Canadian law, but in the US, the courts don't overturn bad laws on their own, they need people to break them and then argue in court why it was the right thing to do." Dimreepr said "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter; it depends, in general, on which side of the poverty line he resides." Do I need to find you more ? I imagine D Trump thought that the reason for inciting this protest ... "Because that’s the only way enough people will begin paying the required attention to actually change things. If the status quo is too comfortable for you, you’ll act as an obstacle to the change" I assume the protesters, at D Trump's urging, attempted to make Democracy too uncomfortable for Americans. Oh, and I'm not suggesting any equivalence between the above mentioned Canadian protests, and what happened Wednesday in the Capital. But both were unlawful, and only differed by degree.

We do have people who have served on nuclear subs. At least Swansont claims to have one so. ( personally, I think he just watches 'The Hunt For Red October' over, and over; he's got a crush on Sean Connery )

What ??? No gun ? That's pretty lame for a red-neck !

In a Democracy , everyone has the right to cast a vote for the Government of his/her choosing. And everyone has the right to peacefully protest what they see as unjust. No-one has the right to violent protest, although far too many ( some on this very forum ) will excuse, or turn a blind eye, to the violence and rationalize it as 'the protesters are powerless and have no other option'; but only when they agree with the cause of the protest. We have now seen how rationalizing violence, no matter how noble the cause, can be corrupted by a self-serving, unscrupulous President, in an attempt to deprive people of their Democratic right to a vote. The good thing is that D Trump has ruined the current incarnation of the Republican party; almost half of Republicans are shocked and dismayed by Wednesday's insurrection, or attempt at a coup. Quite a few of his Cabinet have already resigned. I would think a lot of D Trump backers will have trouble getting re-elected, and the GOP will have to do some searching, before they can find the next 'R Reagan' that will make them contenders for the Presidency again. And it would be an even better thing if the person responsible for this coup attempt ( America is now officially a 3rd world country ) is removed from office ( either 25th or another impeachment ), and does some serious jail time.

Sorry about your friend's parent, CharonY. I was off of work, myself, for quite some time, and there hadn't been a single infection at my work. On my second day back, we get notification that a female in the research department has tested positive, and several people ( not me ) who had been in contact with her, are now also isolating. Unfortunately, I am one of the 'older' people there.

Sure, he called out the protesters, and threatened prosecution, but he always adds "even though we won the election … by a landslide … and we were robbed". The 'beacon' of Democracy, once a symbol around the world, has been turned into the 'laughing stock', of the world by D Trump, and his useful idiots. Last time we saw shit like this was the 20s, when B Mussolini marched on Rome to take power by fascist intimidation and violence, or the street battles and violence by Hitler's Nazi party, that eventually saw the end of the Weimar Republic, and forced von Hindenburg to appoint him Chancellor. I would be willing to bet, both Mexico, and Canada, will pay for their own border walls now.

Just making themselves seem environmentally friendly; full electric will only haul batteries, not very many people. Reminds me of early environmentalists, 40-50 years ago, touting electric clean power as opposed to dirty fossil fuels, at a time when a large portion of electric power was produced by burning coal !

I don't believe so. The last couple of months of the President's even crazier behavior, with the election fraud claims and tampering, and the mess with Covid relief payouts, has fractured the Republican party, and looks to have given democrats control of the Senate; something they wouldn't have even imagines 2 months ago.

Seems like a reasonable idea. After all we treat allergic reactions the same way; we treat the symptoms of an over-reacting immune system, instead of trying to 'control' the immune system to NOT over-react to essentially harmless substances. It would take a lot longer, so not the way to go during a world-wide pandemic, but a better understanding of the human immune system, how it varies with different people, and methods to control immune reactions, might be an alternate mechanism in the future.

It is much easier to tell if something is NOT random, than if it IS random. Take the 29 digit fraction .0000026535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 which seems totally random. Yet, if you add 3.14159 to it, you end up with Pi , to 30 significant digits; not random at all. So, was the fraction random, or did we lack information ?

Looks like somebody trashed the memory crystals in Superman's Fortress of Solitude. No seriously … very nice !

Isn't the act of a sitting President committing election tampering an impeachable offense ? Congress should immediately convene to start the process. Oh, wait … that's already happened !

I'm not sure if D Trump was the useful idiot of the GOP, or if the GOP were D Trump's useful idiots. Those people in INow's photos are there for D Trump, not the GOP. If anything, he seems to have fractured the GOP into the group that wants to cut him loose ( including M McConnell now ), and those who cling to his coat tails in the faint hope of retaining power ( no matter how crazy, and illegal, he gets ). Maybe the Democrats should be thanking D Trump, he has exposed the craziness of the current GOP, and may well end up wrecking their current organization.

???? Maybe if it was 'heavenly' bodies, instead of 'celestial' … ( is your mind always in the gutter ? )