MigL

12 Monkeys ( B Willis, B Pitt, M Stowe ) comes to mind.

Would that be divergence instead of convergence as a result of an applied perturbation ?

If it is positively curved the parallel lines will obviously converge at distance. Expansion has the effect of 'smoothing out' curvature; curvature does not cause, or give the illusion of, expansion. The measured curvature is exceedingly small, almost flat, indicating that the Universe may be much, much larger than the observable universe. Can't access the actual paper but it would be interesting to see the error in the curvature data, INow.

I'm not very religious at all, so keep that in mind when considering my opinion. We are finding that more and more health problems are associated with stress. And prayer, like yoga, or meditation, can have a 'calming' effect on a person, and reduce levels of stress. I would imagine this works only if you believe that it is going to work. I myself used to get stress headaches, and I used to take acetaminophen with caffeine ( Tylenol Ultra ), then I convinced myself that it was actually the caffeine that dilated my brain's blood vessels, and stopped the headaches. Now I just make a large cup of coffee when I get one of those headaches, and I get relief, without having to take any acetaminophen. ( for some reason espresso doesn't seem to work, no matter how many I consume; maybe it's the Sambuca I add to it )

Already between the two of you, fairly well learned and precise, members we have a differing usage of equalities. Imagine how difficult it is for the rest of us, who haven't been exposed to that kind of rigor/precision since we left University ? I know, myself, quite often struggle to use the proper terminology; and quite often fail. My apologies in advance.

Just to be clear, because Michel has mentioned it a few times... In the far, far future the CMB will not just 'disappear', it will get weaker ( much less than 2.7 deg K ) and be 'buried in the noise', and, as a result, be much harder, if not impossible, to detect. But an advanced civilization will have various noise-cancelling techniques available to them ( just as we do )

You will kindly notice that I stated some of the more obvious/simplistic causes of black violence in my post. And quite a few of those are due to/caused by systemic racism. But those are circumstances, and don't change the definition of 'crime'.

And that very same data that you've shared is skewed by the system currently in place. I notice you cite traffic stops and drug possession, where Black Americans are way over represented. And you are right, they certainly are targeted more and receive stiffer penalties for simple possession. But what about more serious crimes, like shootings ? One could easily blame it on peer pressure ( gangs ) of growing up ( 72 % of the time ) fatherless, with a mother who has to work two jobs to make ends meet, living in a depressed neighborhood, with no future. But that doesn't make black on black violence any less of a crime ( although I've never heard of a black mass murderer )

Just to be fair, INow, what you say above is certainly true, and I agree with it. What you said earlier "Blacks make up only 13% of the population, yet they are 25% of police killings, and worse still comprise 38% of those in prison, and all despite committing crimes at the same (or lower!) rate as their white peers. is not necessarily true. It relies on the assumption that a specific percentage of any group will commit crimes, and therefore the percentage of that group in the general population should be reflected by incarceration rates. One might as well ask why women, who make up slightly more than 50% of American society are not incarcerated more ( they are at about 10% incarceration ). I don't want to imply that Black Americans commit more crime, because quite frankly, I don't know ( crime statistics are also skewed by the system against blacks ); But you also cannot say they commit an equal, lesser, orgreater percentage than their white peers.

Really ? Cosmic rays enter the atmosphere billions of times, yet not a single micro BH has ever been detected. Maybe you can produce a citation of a detected micro BH. I can certainly post numerous citations of cosmic ray detections.

Sorry if I was short with you, Zap. A 'strawman' is creating an extreme version of the opposing argument and the proceeding to attack that extreme version. While I did cite some extreme versions, I attacked generalizations about groups of people, which is what I perceived CharonY's post to be doing. So you can call it a 'whole field of hay' for all I care, sometimes 'stretching' an opinion helps demonstrate the faults with that opinion.

The issue that I see with this thread is that I'm proposing actual implementable changes. To the Police Unions and Hiring/training practices, for example. Then we start to work on the DAs who bring up unfair charges on minorities. Saying the problem is systemic ( your meaning CY ) means the whole justice system ( and more ) needs to change, from cops, all the way to the Supreme Court. And we both know that's not going to happen; so nothing will change. The higher up you go in the justice system, the more political it is. And with your polarized two party system, who would even propose such a change, and hope to get re-elected ? Myself, I don't see the point of self-flagellation, and saying "It's all whitey's or the system's fault, and not trying to do something about it. People are dying needlessly, and all I'm hearing is blaming, but no solutions.

I'm certain I read that it was by executive order ( at the Governor's discretion ) after an agreement was reached with the Attorney General.

Exactly. But the Governor is a Democrat ! So I still don't understand. Would there not be more separation for Covid-19, with a lot more polling stations ? Over 600 000 voters in one polling station, no matter how many mail ins you have, is a recipe for disaster during a pandemic.

I see you picked up a trick from Swansont. I most certainly don't think that, and you don't have reading comprehension problems. I'm sorry CharonY, I can't agree. the word 'systemic', means system wide, as in 'everyone in the system'. But even using your meaning, I can't bring myself to believe that a person who is NOT racist, can become a racist from system and peer pressure. ( I can see the process going the other way; a racist becoming more tolerant through education ) Only a person who is already racist/white supremacist/a*shole will be influenced to become even more racist. I stand by my assertion that you guys need to do a better job of hiring only GOOD cops.

Maybe someone can explain this to me... Why would the Democrat Governor of Kentucky sign an executive order cutting the number of polling stations by 95% ahead of primary voting ? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kentucky-cuts-polling-locations-angry-mob-long-lines-georgia-election-day-disaster-confusion-a9577501.html Apparently Jefferson county has ONE polling station for a population of 600 000 people. Isn't that just helping Republican voter suppression efforts ?

Funny comment. But I have a feeling this is headed for the Trash too.

I will contribute to this thread, as opposed to the one in General Philosophy, which makes no sense. Let's say I inject you, Eise, with a mind control drug ( like Sodium Pentathol in the movies ). This chemical is now part of you , just like your atoms, molecules, neurons, hormones and enzymes. This drug severely restricts your choices, but because of who you are ( including the drug ) you are still able to choose freely from the few remaining choices available to you. Is it, then, your contention that the drugged you still has free will ? What if instead of an administered drug, your choices are diminished by an enzyme imbalance ? Does the imbalanced you have free will as per your definition ?

One that rjbeery doesn't seem to understand. GR allows for … white holes singularities naked singularities CTL and time travel wormholes and my mind is working only in one direction; I can't think of any more right now. Everyone else is free to contribute to the list of non-physical effects allowed by GR. ( maybe rjbeery will finally realize the difference )

So ALL cops are guilty of this "disdain for certain groups", not just the ones who are racist, white supremacist, or just a*sholes. And 'screening' those out would make no difference whatsoever. That's almost like the systemic laziness of Mexicans. Or the systemic Mafia association of Italians. Or the systemic irresponsibility of Black American fathers. There is a word for those who generalize about groups of people. The word is 'notmakingavalidargument'. ( what did you think I was gonna say ? )

Not worth the effort. One of the other properties of gold is that ,as a coating, it can be extremely thin.

I would have said … https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Pot Calling the Kettle Black

None, as far as I know. Although the Japanese people may have a problem with the Marines' statue. So I still don't understand your point. ( I'm slow, you're gonna have to spoon-feed it to me )

You are playing a game, and you think that since there are winner, and losers, that game is inherently unfair ??? Who ever said it needs to be fair? If life had been possible during the hot dense state of the initial universe, they may have skipped Newtonian and GR gravity and gone straight to Quantum Gravity, as observational evidence, at that time, would have led to it. And they might have the equivalent of Maxwell's equations for the Electroweak force. They would never know ( until much later if they survived the symmetry break ) about the Weak Nuclear and the Electromagnetic forces. Maybe you think we should be complaining about how unfair it is for us ???

No. I would say people without power don't get monuments. Plenty of monuments for poor people. Jesus, St Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, the three Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima, etc.