MigL

No. Re-read Janus' post. Gravitational waves are real ( not just a term we use ), and carry information about the changes of the gravitational field. "The only reason we even know these gravitational waves exist is the ability to see how the local environment ( space-time ) reacts to them." Took the liberty of fixing your sentence. Gravity, as compared to other fundamental forces, is exceedingly weak. The whole planet Earth is pulling down on that rock at your feet, yet you can pick it up with only one hand. ( the example I always like to use )

I'm not from the UK so Colston means nothing to me. And I would be willing to bet his memory means as little to impressionable young people of the UK. IOW, it only offends people who already know the history, and are certainly not going to be influenced by it. However Mark Twain's books are read in schools, by very impressionable young people, at least in North America. So, I would argue it is a reasonable analogy, and, as INow says, that's a discussion that need to take place. And the reason I asked "Where does it stop ?".

Wow, this topic came vigorously back to life... My opinion on the matter is not fully formed, and I could go either way. But the question that needs to be asked is, if these are symbols of an unjust society, and need to be removed because of the harm they cause by bringing back memories of those oppressive times, where does it stop ? Do we, for example, remove all references to Jim and Joe, in Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer ? Do we rewrite the book and call him 'colored' Jim, or 'black' Jim, and native Indian Joe ? How is this done without changing the history that Mark Twain's works reflect ? What about paintings/illustrations in books, that show slaves in chains; do we burn them ? I do agree that slave traders should not be glorified, no matter what other good they did. S

Thanks INow. You can always be counted on.

I'm not well versed in fallacies either, Ken. And I probably commit my fair share of them. I also get the impression that sometimes fallacies are tossed about, because of a failure to understand/communicate properly. Or even because " It doesn't make sense/seem logical/follow proper reasoning to me, so it must be fallacious".

To be honest, I don't think protests are going to solve it either. Just today I read how Snoop Dogg is planning to vote, for the first time ever, this coming November, because he's upset with the way the President is handling the protests. NOW, he's finally upset enough ? Where has he been till now ? A little too little, too late. We are already out of the frying pan and into the fire, with this Government. The best, easiest, way to change things is to get out and vote. If people didn't shirk their responsibilities the US ( actually, the world ) wouldn't be in such a mess. It would be interesting to ask protesters if they plan on voting this November ( and if they actually do )

I remember having this discussion about 3-4 years ago, Stringy, in regards to Confederate flags, statues and other 'reminders' of the Southern States' unsavoury past. I'm not sure what the forum consensus was, but I believe most were for removing 'reminders'. I tried INow's trick of using google with 'science forums' in the search string along with the subject, but got no results. ( maybe INow will oblige )

Are we discussing police action during a protest, or in general ? Protests like these are a special case. People are protesting general police action ( which has led to the incident and resulting protests ). I am discussing general police action, and the way they are sometimes forced to handle situations, for which social workers, nurses, or educators may not be appropriate or enough.

Almost downvoted you, Joigus, for picking on one of my favorite Physicists, Enrico Fermi. The last theoretical AND experimental Physicist. ( kidding )

If I might 'steer' the OP in a slightly different direction... During the last great extinction, 65 Million years ago, the theory is that, there was much increased volcanic activity already poisoning the environment, and the meteor that hit Chicxulub, in the Yucatan peninsula, only hastened the ongoing extinction of dominant Dinosaurs. Could it have happened the other way around ? The meteor hits the Yucatan, and causes not only the devastation of tsunamis, fires, windstorms and global winters for years to come, but also increased volcanic activity for thousands of years to come. And that was the 'nail in the coffin' for Dinosaurs. IOW, do we have geological evidence of the volcanic activity/meteor timeline ?

"Agent Smith: You hear that Mr. Anderson?... That is the sound of inevitability... It is the sound of your death... Goodbye, Mr. Anderson... Neo: My name... is Neo." Inevitability doesn't always work out.

Good position DrmDoc. I am aware of the redistribution schemes for police funding to social services and support workers that are more qualified to de-escalate and educate. I come from a town ( Canadian ) of 130 000 people but we are 30 min away from Hamilton, and 1 hour from Toronto. Four border crossing bridges to Lewiston, Niagara Falls NY, and Buffalo are within 20 min drive. From the few cops I know I've gleaned that most of their calls are domestic disturbances, followed at some distance, by drunk and disorderly ( we are a university and college town ). I would hate to think that the next time a husband ( enraged or intoxicated ) is beating on his wife or kids, there are no police on call, to separate him from his vulnerable family. Education, and even de-escalation, takes time, and sometimes the situation needs to be remedied immediately, sometimes even using force ( or even killing to save an innocent's life ). If anything, I would like to see INCREASED police funding and presence, but in a way that they are among the people, and interacting, with the people they are sworn to serve and protect. Police ARE ( or are supposed to be ) a social service already. It is partly a vicious circle. People ( especially minorities ) distrust police, so they tend to be un-cooperative, so police think they are automatically guilty of something, and rough them up ( or much worse ), and so people become even more distrusting of police. This is in regards to police forces in general. There is no excuse for the criminal treatment G Floyd was given by D Chauvin, a 19 year veteran who should have known better, but seemed indifferent to human life or death. INow just posted... And I know I said I wasn't going to discuss it any more, but … If there are more guns in the streets that are in possession by the military ( see Curious Layman's link ) you may feel the need to be armed to the teeth, when you go out on patrol. As for G Floyd ( before I'm reprimanded by Mods ), he was killed with a knee, not combat or heavy military equipment.

Very well. We are not going to discuss the methods police use because of other factors, or policing in general, as related to the unfortunate G Floyd incident. The change that is favored by the currently peaceful protesters is "Defund the Police" ( I wish America well, with that simplistic plan )

By your 'model' of free will, it is equally possible for an artificial intelligence to have free will. Yet that AI, at some basic level, is controlled/constrained by programming that is provided externally. Does the 'external' programming, then also become part of its free will ?

That differs by state. What may be true in New York state, or California is not true in Texas or Florida even. ( outside metropolitan areas, most every adult Texan male carries ) All I'm saying is that if you're going to investigate new methods of policing, so that incidents like G Floyd's murder are minimized, you can't be simplistic about it. Saying things like … Take away guns from police. Talk to the suspect for a specified length of time before escalating. Don't escalate at all. Let them go. Etc. It takes some consideration of what policing entails, and you can't put one group of people at risk to protect another group. incidentally some of the statistics from your link are scary, Curious Layman... "American civilians own nearly 100 times as many firearms as the U.S. military and nearly 400 times as many as law enforcement."[7] Americans bought more than 2 million guns in May 2018, alone.[7] That is more than twice as many guns, as possessed by every law enforcement agency in the United States put together.[7] In April and May 2018, U.S. civilians bought 4.7 million guns, which is more than all the firearms stockpiled by the United States military.[7] In 2017, Americans bought 25.2 million guns, which is 2.5 million more guns than possessed by every law enforcement agency in the world put together.[7] Between 2012 and 2017, U.S. civilians bought 135 million guns, 2 million more guns than the combined stockpile of all the world's armed forces" IOW, thngs are getting much worse with the gun situation, not better.

Yes, of course I am, and I am not moving goalposts. If you go back and read carefully, you'll note that this particular branch of the discussion ( as opposed to the Moreno branch, "Racism exists", "No it doesn't", "Yes it does", etc. ) focussed on how police should approach a situation ( starts 4 hours ago; wish we still had numbered posts ). No one is contesting that what followed the initial approach, and G Floyd's death, was a crime, and should be punished. My contention is that the choice of initial approach in the US is constrained by the large numbers of unregistered guns on the streets. Whereas in Canada, our police have many more choices ( de-escalation comes to mind ) because they don't need to worry as much about the risk of a gun, and getting shot ( have three friends who are cops; one of them probably hasn't drawn his gun in years ). I could say " maybe you think it's good that there are 120 guns per 100 people in the US" But then you'd really be accusing me of fallacious arguments.

Well its great that you can watch a video of a man being murdered and say, from the comfort of your computer chair " He was unarmed, and so no threat". But if you were tasked with approaching/arresting a large guy, with the high likelihood that he is carrying a weapon ( 120 guns per 100 persons remember ? ), I think you would immobilize him first, and ask questions when you are sure you won't be shot at. I'm not saying what the cops did after he was immobilized was right; it was murder. But the gun culture in the US gives very little option as to how you initially approach the situation. As far as I know the incidence of Americans carrying knives is no higher than anywhere else, Zap. Sometimes if you don't assume they ARE carrying a gun, you get shot.

I could say you are ignorant, as you don't live in the US, Curious Layman. ( inside joke, you had to be here a few pages ago ) There are 120 guns foor every hundred persons living in the US. That is for 100 men, women, children, old people ... There are about 4.5 guns per 100 persons in England and Wales. If you don't think that makes a difference, I'm sorry my friend, but you are delusional. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country Of those American guns, Just over 1 million are registered, so that police know about them. Over 390 million are unregistered, and the next guy you pull over ( if you're a cop ) could be carrying half a dozen of them. Good luck to you !

Police in other countries ( like mine ) don't have to worry about the large numbers of guns, compounded by open and concealed carry rules. How do you train for that, other than by taking control of the situation. Similarly, when the order comes down to clear the area of protesters, because Zapatos has just called and said his store is being vandalized/burglarized, d you ask all of the thousands of people if they've recently had a hip replacement before starting to push them away from the area ? Or should we just let your store be burglarized, and it's your problem to deal with ? A discussion of the issues needs analysis from all points of view. It is very easy to say what should not be done; a lot harder to say what should be done instead.

Ah, bless. That's so sweeeeet. Is that the guy who was arguing for eugenics because he couldn't get a date ( or reproduce, thank God ). Less conspiracy theory; more analysis, please. Just for discussion, and not to shift blame for the events that have occurred... Is the job of policeman, as it currently is, untenable in the US ? Are we willing as a society, to accept reduced levels of policing ? We obviously can't have 'variable' policing, by area or population density; the same groups who are currently disadvantaged would be even more affected. So how do we modify policing, so that it is color blind, and not 'brutal' ? The whole Emergency Response Team ( about 50 ) recently quit in Buffalo, when a video incident surfaced that showed team members pushing an old man while trying to clear a protest area, for which they were suspended. They were following their training/orders, and can't be expected to treat each individual accordingly, when several thousand are present and some are destroying/vandalizing property. Obviously this was 'brutal' treatment of an old man, but what should be done instead. All suggestions welcome.

After you make a good connection between cables and posts, coat them liberally with petroleum jelly, and you won't need to worry about corrosive build up. The build up is mostly a surface effect, but it is acidic/corrosive. I don't recommend spraying large amounts of water on your battery ( although little doesn't hurt ). And if you're concerned about getting the stuff on you, or in your eyes, a small steel brush is probably not a good idea either ( although that is what I do ) The baking soda will neutralize the acid, making it safer to handle, but it still needs to be scraped off. The vinegar or lemon juice will actually help it dissolve better with a little water ( never actually done this; just guessing ).

It wouldn't simply be the ratio of the colour force to the electromagnetic. The force that binds nucleons is actually 'residual force from that which binds quarks in nucleons.

No one could possibly ever accuse you of being shallow, Eise.

Expansion of the universe isn't a relative phenomenon, but an additive one. A galaxy will separate from the next at a specific rate, but one that is twice as distant, will separate at double the rate. It has no constraint to be subluminal. The Universe is already assumed to have a 4Dimensional topology, whether hypersphere, flat torus, or other, but time is the 4th dimension. And sure enough, you are right, other than the subjective 'now', a single point, we can't observe time.

Whereas a redox reaction involves the binding of an electron from a reducer to an oxidizer, a fusion/fission reaction involves the binding energy of nucleons ( protons and neutrons ) inside the nucleus, which, as Joigus has explained, is several orders of magnitude more energetic, because it involves the strong nuclear force, not the electromagnetic force.