MigL

Just to be clear, you can also fuse Hydrogen just like the Sun does, although it is a lot more difficult than starting off with Deuterium. So technically it could be renewable ( just capture one comet and you're good for another million years ). And in case you still haven't grasped John's replies... If we fuse all the Deuterium in the Earth's oceans to produce power equivalent to the total present world usage, for the next billion years, the Oxygen levels will not increase to the levels of most Las Vegas casinos or Michael Jackson's sleeping/hyperbaric chamber. I.E. within 'normal' limits

" The wheels on the bus go round and round... " And the bus keeps going nowhere ! Can we stop arguing about what can't be done, people ? And focus on what CAN be done ! Even Waitforufo has made a suggestion ( along with some other people on both sides of the argument ). He suggested training. So how about having to take a training course in order to be able to buy a firearm ? It would introduce a waiting period ( or cooling off period for mal-adjusted people ), for a thorough background check, and make sure that whoever purchases a gun knows how to handle ( so he doesn't carelessly shoot himself or others ), and store it ( so its accessible for self defense but his young children can't get at it )

Sounds like what you're looking for, Enthalpy, is a processor with a very long pipeline. The last processor produced by Intel with a long, 32 stage pipeline was the P4D, with the hope of scaling it to 10 GHz. Unfortunately it ran into a heat brick wall at 4 GHz, and AMD with its shorter pipeline ( where each stage does more work ), and superscalar ( load multiple instructions/data concurrently ) Athlon 64 wiped the floor with them. Intel had to go back, dust off the shorter pipeline, P3 architecture, and make it superscalar for the Core architecture. Intel has now evolved through Core, Core 2, and core i, it by adding multiple cores on the same die ( up to 8 actual and 16 logical on its latest CPUs ), and AMD has followed suit. Unless you can find some sort of emulator, I'm afraid you're out of luck.

If there's no signal to the monitor and no activity lights, the computer is not booting. No sense checking any of the equipment like hard drive, memory, motherboard or processor ( yet ). I have to agree with Sensei, the power supply is most likely old/weak and not setting a 'power good' signal. First thing, try another power supply. Doesn't have to be anything fancy if you're using integrated graphics, 400-450 watts should be more than plenty.

As has already been explained several times ( what, didn't you read all the posts, Capayan ? ), the surface of the balloon is the only relevant analogy. It is a reduced dimensional analogy where, for ease of visualization, our normal three dimensions ( length, width and height ) are reduced to two dimensions ( length and width ) on the SURFACE of the balloon. The air inside has as much meaning in this analogy as the air outside the balloon. NONE ! The universe, i.e. all that there is, is represented by the surface of the balloon, and surface only. The properties of the universe prior ( whatever that means ) to the big bang are irrelevant as we can never know them. Space-time was created at the big bang event, John316. I find it interesting that you think it incredible that all the mass/energy of the universe could emerge from a universe which was once so many orders of magnitude smaller than its present size as to be equitable to an atom. Yet you, being a creationist, have no problem believing that all the mass/energy of the universe could spring forth from the whim of a Creator

First time I read about gravity possibly 'leaking' into other dimensions was over ten yrs ago in a paper by Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum. Lisa Randall is somewhat of a celebrity for her intelligence ( tenure at Harvard working on theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology ) and good looks ( best looking Physics PhD I've ever seen, certainly better looking than Swansont judging by the few pictures pointed out in a recent thread ). I think there has been some work done at the LHC on this subject, but to no conclusion. edit: Don't mean to pick on you Swansont but I don't know who else is a PhD on here ( and can take a joke )

Google 'big bang inflationary models'. Or do a search on this forum. I'm sure Mordred has posted relevant links.

You want to speculate about speculations ??? I'll stick with Occam's razor. What's affecting gravity at galactic scales ( but not al lesser scales a not even at greater scales AFAIK ) interacts gravitationally, but not electromagnetically. Anything beyond that is pure conjecture.

Didn't read the link , but yes, strings and branes could affect gravity. In string theory the graviton is the only boson that is a closed loop and therefore not confined to a brane, while brane bound gauge bosons and fermions are open ended strings where the ends are attached to a brane. That means that gravity could 'leak' into other dimensions. This was originally postulated in relation to compactified, Planck scale dimensions. Since gravity strength falls off as r^(n-1), where n is the number of available dimensions, gravity would then have increased as measurements approach Planck scale. I don't think any measurements have proved conclusive ( or sensitive enough ) yet. The effect is always an increase in gravitational strength as more dimensions come together. So if branes were close enough due to galactic presence for this effect to be significant, we, being part of the galaxy would note nothing out of the ordinary, and so cannot account for dark matter affecting galactic rotation. What we would note is decreased gravity in the voids between galaxies, compared to in, or about, the galaxy.

Potential is a form of energy, Sorcerer, but I see where you're going with this. I don't remember who first proposed the zero-sum universe. My 'opinion' is that 'nothing' is ill defined. What do we really mean by it ? The absence of what ? And don't say "the absence of everything", because then, you are using one ill defined word ( everything ), to define another ill defined word.

All depends on the configuration of the extra dimensions. If they are compacted, we cannot interact with them because we can't access Planck scale energies. If they are separate dimensions in a higher dimensional bulk, then we would intersect them at successive 'units' of that dimension. Think of it like the dimension of time. A moving object will intersect a new 'position' at each different unit of time. In effect, it will 'draw' a line in the time dimension as successive intersection points combine to form what we call a world-line.

Yes, let's explicitly specify the conditions. And then you tell us what is the difference, Michel123456. Two isolated systems, one of which has Studiot's cup on a ledge, and the other which has Swansont's ice cube on a ledge. Both the cup and the ice cube fall to the floor and shatter into pieces. Obviously neither will re-form in an isolated system, neither by natural, nor human intervention. Do a quick energy analysis, and tell us what is different

This begs the bigger question... " Can we ever know everything there is to know ? " Or will we always have/need a 'God of the gaps' ?

None of the processes you mention, Michel123456, are 'spontaneous'. Melting, travelling, mixing, evaporating, forming, falling and freezing, are all processes which require energy to be added to the system. Using the 'equivalent' energy and half of the processes you mention, a cup can be easily 're-built'. So again what's the difference ?

No, the pieces of the rock will not come together again, no matter how long you wait. They will only come together again if useable energy is introduced into the system ( by earthquake, wind, water flows or any other natural process ). And that is exactly what humans do, when they build something ( like a cup ). So again, what's the difference ?

Generally winter sucks in western New York. You should definitely move Elite Engineer. I live in the Niagara region (( Canada side ), only about 30 min away, and by November we are usually making fun of Buffalo, already buried under 3 ft. of snow, while we have none.

John, according to swansont's mod note, we shouldn't have to 'click' on your fridge to see if there is actually chicken there waiting to be cooked. You should have already cooked it for all of us, so we can decide whether to eat it for supper, or later on in the week.

It doesn't matter, Michael123456, if its a cup falling off a table ( both made by 'human' processes and intelligence ), or if its a rock falling off a cliff ( both natural processes ), the end result and energy changes are the same ( but differing in magnitude obviously ). Thermodynamic processes don't care about 'human' involvement, and I can't understand why you do.

Another big problem in America... Too many conspiracy theorists.

There is accepted and proven science. Greenhouse gases have a particular molecular arrangement such that certain frequencies of radiation are reflected. Carbon dioxide is one such gas, and it is trivial to prove that increased concentrations will trap heat. That part we are absolutely sure of. This added heat, however, can affect a multitude of properties of the Earth. And all these properties are further interconnected. The 'error bars' on any predictions can, then, be quite large depending on the number of these properties being considered. And the predictions reflect this with worst case and best case predictions. So by all means, take the predictions with 'a grain of salt', but, atmospheric CO2 concentration is increasing at an unprecedented rate due to human action, and globally average temps are increasing in step.

Wait a minute ! Did iNow say there's no Santa Claus ? Who's been leaving gifts under my Christmas tree all these years ? And eating my Christmas cookies ?

EditMy apologies, iNow ( and LIPearl ). I watched the video last nite at work, and had forgotten about it when I saw LIPearl's post this afternoon. Edit: You posted before I did LIPearl. Always pleasant as usual, I see. You're a shoo-in to win Miss Congeniality. ( there goes the generalization that all Canadians are good-natured )

Ouch ! Just us colonials butchering the Queen's English again.

No, no really. I had no part of the American government debacle. ( although I still feel free to criticise the American system ) I'm Canadian. We have our own problems. Although I gotta tell you, given a choice, the US would be my second choice of places to live. ( no matter how much I, or others, may criticise it )

I don't see the point of your post, LIPearl. Waitforufo was specifically talking about the increase in mass shootings, not the homicide rate ( which seems fairly constant from your post ). Also what is the definition you are using for 'terorism'. We have had several cases of 'home grown terrorism'. And it could be argued that a large number of those homicides are terrorist acts. The zero level of your graph ( for terrorist killings ) seems like an attempt to confuse the issue by manipulating statistics, Or are you confused ? ( does that offend you thereby making me a racist ? )