MigL

Maybe you could do an 'expose' on gambling, next.

You would do well to read the whole thread, so that you fully understand other's views, before commenting with references to Nazi Germany, as you also did in the Incel thread. Is that a common theme with amateur psychologists ? Last I checked, an asteroid impact equivalent to 10 000 times the world's nuclear arsenal is not a predator. But I do agree, the sky is full of them. We call them birds. Thanks MSC, you seem to be the only one who got the point of our original discussion. The benefit of society is not necessarily the benefit of the species, and vice versa. Others are merely choosing to attack the examples I provided of 'not necessarily', which in itself indicates some cases fit and some don't. You also seem to have recognized how the ( mistaken ) belief that people were benefitting their society, almost caused the extinction of a group of people ( Jews are not a separate race ) in Germany, 90 years ago. But there are many more such examples.

I could be wrong, but I do believe TheVat mentioned it previously in this thread. You know that eventually the two parties have to work together, they cannot continue to polarize the country such that the whole purpose of government/politicians is to get re-elected, and not actually govern the country. No, Lon would be a terrible choice. Heck, he'd be even older than J Biden ... if he was still alive. Of course I meant Liz Cheney 🙂 . Personally, I don't think an astronaut's 'coolness' factor translates well to politics. And given his 'on the job' experience, I would lean towards Shapiro, of the two that I read are shortlisted. And those two would not make MY shortlist; I believe others are more suitable. But K Harris is competent enough to select a running mate she feels would best complement and strengthen her Presidential bid. After all, she spent most of her formative teenage years in Canada, so I would think she's quite a bit more sensible than most of you Americans 😄 .

If the biggest threat in this coming election is the damage to democracy that a D Trump win could mean, it may be time to consider the 'unity' ticket that has been mentioned previously. I don't see much chance of this coming to pass, because of resistance from both sides, but bringing on board almost sane Republicans, such as L Chaney, would still keep most all Democrat votes, plus steal away a fair number of Republican votes and guarantee a democracy saving win. The country cannot keep going the way it's headed; eventually sane heads must prevail, and work together for the benefit of the country, not their individual parties. "We don't need no civil war." - G 'n R It is now being reported that J Shapiro and M Kelly are shortlisted as VP running mates to K Harris.

In some cases yes. Going back to the wildebeest example, they do encircle their young to try to protect them with the mass of the herd. But the sick and infirm, not so much, and although elephants do try to protect their injured, they instinctively stay away from diseased members of their group. Its a jungle out there; if you've ever seen an animal take down its prey and rip out its intestines while it is still alive, I don't think you could make the argument that nature has a moralistic tendency.

Because it is only accurate for a large percentage of cases, but not all ? All those turtles that hatch on the beach, and race to the water to escape predators have the trait of reproducing in large numbers. Reproduction in smaller numbers has been 'extincted' out of their gene pool. As a matter of fact, if they could run faster, their chances at reproduction would also improve.

Again, weak and strong were not a measure of physical strength, but rather a weakness , or a strength, in a particular trait that confers reproductive advantage. And yes, if you are physically strong enough to survive your predators, you have a chance at reproduction. If you don't survive your predators, you have no chance. That is not a complicated argument. Nor am I advocating for a society without morals; just pointing out that nature works that way. And other than for dinosaurs and dodo birds, evolution has worked out pretty well ( at least till we go extinct ).

Oh, I don't know. I've briefly met Marc Garneau, selected as an astronaut in 1983, and the first Canadian in space. He then served as an MP and cabinet minister in the Trudeau Government. I met him while he was a cabinet MP, and I don't know if his stint in Government had tarnished my opinion of him, but I wasn't impressed.

Strong and weak do not refer to physicality per se, but were in reference to 'strengths' and 'weaknesses' of particular attributes that make a species more suitable to their environment, and more likely to reproduce. They could refer to properties such as appearance, intelligence, or ( at least for humans ) a good sense of humor and ability to listen. Most animals that tend to herd ( have a somewhat social behavior ) protect their young by keeping them in the middle of the herd, but I'm sure you've seen all the videos ( narrated by D Attenborough ) of a youngster getting separated from the herd and falling behind. A lion has no qualms about passing up 'beef' when it can have 'veal'.

It would seem K Harris is the yet undeclared Democratic contender for the upcoming election, so we can stop discussing her 'faults' or advantages others may have brought. We can discuss a running mate that adds to, or enhances, her attributes, and has the best chance of defeating the Trump/Vance ticket. And just to turn the tables on D Trump, maybe news sources will start mentioning that he is now the oldest person to run for President. And almost incoherently crazy ...

That's why we're here. We may be discussing two differing conepts; benefit of society, and benefit of the species. Your, and I suspect MSC's, point is certainly valid for benefitting society, but benefit of the species has no morals attached to it. It is simply the purpose of life to procreate. Our species may have morals, but we are still essentially just animals. The wildebeest have no problem giving up the weak and infirm for the lion's lunch, because it means disease and weaknesses are not passed on to future generations, making them 'stronger' as a species. The ones that are fast enough to outrun the lion pass on their genes. Similarly, a monkey with bad eyesight will not catch the next vine or branch, when swinging through the trees, and will fall to its death, never reproducing, and never passing on the 'bad eyesight' genes. Our morals don't permit that, so we give people eyeglasses ( and surgery ), they reproduce and pass on inherited eye disease. Even social animals, ants, bees, etc., will sacrifice the diseased or weak to save their colony, although our morals don't really allow for their 'kind of society' ( except maybe in India, where the caste system allows for different value of different people ). So, as an advanced society, we have the luxury of morals, only because evolutionary environmental forcings don't affect us as much anymore. The eyeglasses I mentioned earlier, and research into curing inherited disease, are some examples. The fact that we don't need to be fast or strong as protection from predators since we have guns. We don't need differing skin melanin levels as we don't need to adapt to our environment, rather we adapt our environment to us with glass and steel shelters and heating/air conditioning. It is not that I'm advocating against morals, yet they do seem to conflict with our nature. A nature that has served us well for about 65 Million years, and has made mammals, and us humans ( the only ones with morals ), the dominant life form on this planet.

Please do. I'd like to educate you on how natural selection works in evolution. ( or possibly, be educated by you )

Given that we can't even get close to probing Planck scales, this then becomes another beautiful mathematical model, which may, or may not make 'real' predictions. i don't want to read the PDF; does this model make any predictions which can be compared to experimental observations ?

I do think N Pelosi was putting a lot of pressure on him to bow out. But Pelosi seems to want a run--off to pick the nominee, not simply nominating K Harris. I didn't really think he could win this time around and in this political climate, but I felt his slide in the polls wasn't so much gains for D Trump, rather losses for J Biden amid Republican, and Democrat, criticism of his mental health. And I'm not sure any other nominee, including K Harris, can do any better. Democracy in the US is between a hard place and a rock.

Evolution is essentially 'survival of the fittest'. You would do the greatest benefit to future generations by being strong and not caring about the weak; taking care of the weak ensures that specific 'weakness' survives and reproduces. But I don't think that's what you had in mind ... It's about to get much worse than Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt at a political convention ... Sarah Palin was 'shallow' and not too bright; This guy is an evil ass-kisser who is just out for himself; just like his boss ran for a Democrat nomination back in the 2000s, but then switched to Republican when he realized they were easier to manipulate. And at least Sarah Palin was good looking ... By the way, I don't find any of part of this situation funny.

Now who's lamenting about how things used to be better 'in the good old days' ? The first step in combatting all problems is understanding; the more we understand, the easier problems become. And the world is much more capable of understanding today than it used to be. Every once in a while opportunistic predators will try to control our understanding, and we take a step back, but overall we have come far and will continue to advance. And don't worry; with an age of 79, attempted assassinations and a wife who wants him dead so she can inherit his wealth, how long can D Trump possibly live ?

The Toronto Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup in 1967, but every year their many fans say "this is the year". The TML are one of the richest clubs in the NHL, and have some of the best players, who always underperform in the play-offs. England last won their only major international competition, the World Cup, in 1966, yet every 2-4 years fans say "it's coming home". Similarly, the Premier League is the richest in the world, and their players among the best in the world, yet they fail miserably in international competitions.

Thanks for the detailed explanation Markus.

Pictures and words are interpreted differently by different people. That's why mathematics are used to describe physical processes. You would do well to learn some; you might learn that your pictures aren't conveying the information you intend, but rather gibberish, and you are drawing non-sensical solutions from them. get a book; Newtonian gravity is simple algebra and easy to understand. Then you can move on to understand GR and QFT.

Congrats @joigus; a well deserved win. ( we'll do this again at the Worlds in two years ) It seems England's national is the Toronto Maple Leafs ( hockey ) of the soccer world. ( 68 years without a major trophy win )

As absolutely flat ( Minkowski ) space-time is not realizable ( gravity has infinite range ), and only used to simplify calculations for 'nearly flat' space-time, the question then becomes what level of background space-time curvature can the Alcubierre metric support to still remain stable ? If any background curvature renders it unstable, then Alcubierre is just mathematics without a physical application.

Italy may be out, but England, my ''back up' team, is still in there. No patriotic fervor here, but they do have some of the best players in the world at the moment. Unfortunately, individual brilliance can't make up for lack of team play ( or coaching ), where Spain has them beat. Im hoping they get lucky again; sorry Joigus, but I'll be wearing my English national jersey tomorrow while watching the game. And a shout-out to Canadian futbol players and fans. Canada did extremely well in Copa America, losing only to Argentina ( twice ). Great 'warm-up' for the World Cup in North America in two years.

You're right. His recent behavior over the past year does lead one to believe his mental competency is in decline. But through years of experience, has managed to recognize reliable people he can call upon to run a government much more effectively since 2020, than the previous 4 years. And I realize it's 'whataboutism', but his opponent in the future election has been acting erratically for the past couple of decades, along with demonstrated criminal behavior, anti-social misogynistic behavior, severe reality denial, and surrounds himself with ass-kissing yes men. ( at least until they realize he may be quite mad ) So who would you suggest should be taken 'off the road' ?

Sorry, Posted expansion factor and CMB temp from memory, and they are wrong, but can't edit my post any longer. Should be 3000o K and 1100 times.

Thought someone had restarted this thread; alas, only news of some old guy finally kickin the bucket. All those names from years ago that I used to enjoy arguing with. Only one I have left is you, INow.