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To be fair, 300 mil yrs after the Big Bang, the universe was extremely close to a black body ( but not quite ) and the CMB remains so to this day. This is because at any time after the inflationary period, there were areas of the universe that were not in causal contact with each other, and isotropy could no longer be maintained. This is also one of the reasons I often argue for a finite universe, at least pre-inflation. The whole purpose of inflation is to impose causal contact between all areas of the universe, at one point in the past, and so guarantee isotropy to the present day. The only way this could happen with an infinite, pre-inflation universe, is to have discontinuities at the `domain` boundaries. This would make for very interesting ( but unlikely ) complications at these discontinuities.

Matter gets 'destroyed'. Mass/energy doesn't, it is conserved.

They're only $20 at the hardware store ! What' re you Scottish ? ( I'm only kidding, Ophiolite )

I take photos with either of my two Nikon DSLRs. Small CMOS imagers suck ( large number of pixels are noise ). Tried to train my cats to open the door when I lock myself out of the house. All they do is stare at me on the outside, banging on the door. Probably wondering if I've gone nuts.

Thanks for all that Ten oz. But exactly which part of your post is evidence that S, Hussein's government was one of the dozen DECENT governments the US has deposed over the last 75 yrs ?

How about tight underwear ? Its hard to squeeze boxers into the skinny jeans/pants which are required 'hipster' wear.

Overtone has his moments, but this site would be a lot more dreary without him. ( besides, I thought you guys 'made up' in the gun control thread ) But I gotta ask, CharonY, where does a biology whiz get such a deep understanding of history. I know its not on topic, but I'm usually surprised at the depth of your posts.

I don't think it has anything to do with evidence or proof. Will you still need evidence if some unthinkable catastrophe happens in your life or the ones you care about ? Science needs evidence, faith, by definition, does not. I don't look down on, or judge, religious people. Their faith is their business, and certainly needs no evidence. I have gotten to the point in my life, where I don't need a God. He has become like the aether, He adds nothing, and so I take Occam's razor to Him. ( But who knows, the time may come in my life, when he is again needed. Hope you won't think any less of me when I need something to lean on. )

You're not anti-social. You're just a little shy, as evidenced by the fact that you get along well with people who share similar interests, and that you have gotten to know. This is your problem, don't blame everything on your mother. Just make the effort to try to get to know other people, the rewards are enormous. You may be surprised at how much like you ALL teenagers ( hope I'm not making the wrong assumption ) are. They all want acceptance from their peers, but go about it different ways. Some become the clown, some the jock, some the bully, the geek, etc. ( ever see the movie 'the Breakfast Club' ?). You have chosen as I once did, to become the introvert, and its hard to break out of this. Try meeting new people outside of your school, it'll develop your self worth/confidence: it certainly worked for me. A couple of yrs later, while in University, I'd meet and 'hook up' with girls in clubs that I'd gone to high school with, and they were wondering what had happened to the shy guy. Some even preferred the shy guy to the partier ( or is it partyer ) I'd become, we had just never talked and gotten to know each other before.

Soooo... I can't be Dark Phoenix ?

Downloaded songs from the 70s and 80s. Memories of my youth ( first girlfriend/kiss/car/slow dance you name it ) come flooding back.

Six. I use a Windows phone so I have a picture of each of my five immediate family members associated with their phone numbers. Plus a picture of my two cats for my home phone ( landline ), but they never answer when I call home.

Would I trust Windows to run a boiler ? Certainly. I'd be more worried about the hardware than the software. Wouldn't want components to fail, so I'd use very low power components like a Baytrail Atom processor that'll work with passive cooling, and certainly no spinning disks. But isn't Windows overkill ? A clean install of 10 takes up 30 GB of disk space ( Win 95 took about 100 MB ). Most software problems are software compatibility issues, but if the system is used solely for controlling the boiler, there won't be a problem. I certainly wouldn't suggest loading Flash ( or other problematic software ) and watching on-line video/animations on the same computer. As for power failures, equipment is designed for fail-safe operation. So valves would fail open or closed depending on which minimised harm. ( no I don't work with nuclear power, but Phosphine is pretty nasty stuff )

So because we sold him the weapons, or ignored him previously, his was a decent government ?

The fact that certain individuals or companies will use any event, even disasters , to swindle and take advantage of others is nothing new, and it isn't just affecting the climate change industry. Upsides and downsides are frame dependant properties ( like energy ). If I lived in Indonesia, at 2 meters above sea level, I'd be very worried, but if I lived in Siberia, not so much. These are very narrow views however. A wide view would see South American and SE Asian jungles turn to deserts, while the new temperate zones ( Alaska/ NWTerritories and northern Russia/Siberia don't yet have the topsoil cover to make up for the losses in agriculture elsewhere. Coupled with the mass migrations resulting from sea level rise, we could see millions die from famines.

Well one mineral which immediately springs to mind is limestone rock. Any geologists please correct me if I'm mistaken, but limestone is formed by the evaporation of water from the 'skeletal', calcium carbonate remains of dead sea mollusks. At a much earlier time, perhaps before life existed on Earth, the calcium and carbon would have had to react, to form the calcium carbonate, and dissolve in the seas for the later mollusks to ingest. The elemental calcium 'dust and elemental carbon dust, however would have been present ( in tiny amounts compared to hydrogen/helium ) in the gas/dust cloud that formed our solar system.

Really Overtone ? " in the past 75 yrs the US has deposed dozens of decent governments " Do you consider S. Hussein's government ( dictatorship ) decent ? Or the one in Afghanistan? Because those are the ones we are discussing The fact is that the US and their allies were not inclined or prepared, to use the same methods as S. Hussein to control the various factions of the population. They were there to 'win hearts and minds', and so, were doomed to failure. Iraq was previously an ordered society because of Hussein's strong arm' tactics. I'm not sure of the numbers, but he probably killed more of his own people than the US and her allies ever did. Have you forgotten the chemical attacks on villages, the shredders people were fed into, etc. As long as religious ideology is more important to them than peace ( or their lives ), the populace of those areas is destined for continued conflict ( internal, between factions, and external, the west ). But you're not one to ever pass up an opportunity to sh*t on the US.

Not that I agree with any or all of what Evobulgarevo has said, but to throw forum rules at his opinions of atheists is a little rich, given what is usually said about religious people on this forum ( even by me sometimes ). Secondly, everyone makes generalizations and has opinions based on stereotypes. They are that, because often, they are correct, although not always ( as proof I offer that Ophiolite has never bought a round in my presence ). Never 'judge a book by its cover' is conveniently violated every time you pick up a magazine based on its cover, and only then, investigate the actual contents. There are whole marketing departments which seek to take advantage of this basic human nature

Ahh, but el Nino also translates to much milder winters here in the Great Lakes region ( 17 deg F today ). So, yes there is an upside. The problem with global warming is NOT that there isn't an upside. Its that the downside is significantly worse than the upside.

Seems simple enough. The equations of any model which describe evolution in time of the system, by necessity, involve the time variable.

I would suggest that 99.9% of all elements on Earth come from the original gas/dust cloud which birthed our ( and other solar systems ) as most, if not all, meteors and comets which come near us, are loosely gravitationally bound to our solar system. There are few, if any, that are captured from other systems on our revolutions about the galaxy. The original gas/dust cloud was the result of 'seeding' with heavier elements ( after supernova events ) by hot/fast burning 1st generation stars ( composed almost exclusively of hydrogen/helium ). That being said, minerals ( rocks and the like ) are the result of many reactions that occurred when the Earth was young.

The difference between a 'crapshoot' and a 'promise', as you put it Overtone, is knowledge based on all available data. Some have simply been pointing out that disregarding some data, because it may make an opposing view look more favourable, damages the 99.9% prevailing viewpoint as well.

Given that the Paris events are likely to influence immigration into Europe from various areas of the Muslim world, culture is certainly an aspect that should be looked at CharonY. On the one hand you have the US model for integrating immigrants. The 'MeltingPot' model makes every-one an American, and makes them proud to be Americans ( mostly ). The Canadian model is called 'Multiculturalism' and was introduced by the father of our current Prime Minister. It promotes diversity by paying people fleeing from oppressive regimes, to keep their native 'culture', which, in a lot of cases, facilitated the rise of said oppressive regimes. It has led to what is called the 'hyphenated' Canadian ( Italo-Canadian, French-Canadian, Irish-Canadian, etc. ). And while I applaud the cultural diversity, no-one is proud to be just Canadian. I;m not sure which model is prevalent in Europe, and while both models have advantages, they also have disadvantages, with my personal preference slightly greater for the 'Melting Pot'. I'm sorry if I've misunderstood your point, Hyper. But as I've said, I'm just 'grasping at straws' trying to understand the motivation behind the Paris attacks. So, of course you are right, don't understand nor can I make any sense of these senseless acts. It is one thing to target a military installation, camp or militant hide-out, and kill innocent civilians ( you know what they say about the fog of war ), and a totally different one , to deliberately target innocent civilians ( or use them as hostages and shields ). It takes a 'different' kind of person or 'mentality', to strap a bomb to your chest, and go out and explode it amongst young people having a good time in a club. ( or go on a shooting spree in a school, or blow up a train in the cause of Irish or Basque separatism, etc. ) 0

That's it ! Shut down this site. I've learned many things here on the Science Forums, but none of them have resulted in greater compensation at my job. All I've done is increase my internet bill. This site's just taking advantage of me. Surely TSF should discontinue all theoretical science and push Chemical Eng. which would )help me at my job. ( all I remember from my Gr 13 Chemistry class, the last I took, is that Ti burns in a N2 atmosphere )

Why does modern society have to label everyone ? Atheists, theists, etc. I don't consider myself either. I was born in a country steeped in the Roman Catholic religion, and so had all the required sacraments, but I soon fell in love with science, and took Occam' razor to my beliefs. I really don't care ( but respect ) what other people believe; Myself, I have no need for a God. I try to be what I consider a good person, but like many sometimes fail. But the failures are on me; They are my doing and I take responsibility for them. They are not the will of some omnipotent, supernatural being. That doesn't mean I don't have other untestable beliefs that I still consider useful. So I don't care what iNow says, there's just gotta be a Santa Claus.