Mr Skeptic

Sort of, but remember that metals are hard to "crush" since they are malleable.

I think it is entirely down to an almost completely unsubstantiated guess. This goes for those who guess zero probability just as well. Sure, but I don't think it tells us too much about how life in general must look. Also, there could be a different form of life on earth, not based on DNA/RNA, and we very likely not notice, not with our current level of technology. If that seems surprising, just consider that most bacteria we only know about from doing DNA analysis of soil. If you like I can define Earth's DNA based life: It stores information as DNA from which it generates mRNA, uses ATP/GTP as an internal power source, has ribosomes to make protein, is enclosed in a membrane, and can replicate itself.

I think that it is useful even though it is an artificial distinction. Perhaps think of "artificial" as "requiring human-level intelligence to produce".

Some statements are neither true nor false. The above is an example of one.

http://www.hol.com/~mikesch/tetzel.htm After Tetzel had received a substantial amount of money at Leipzig, a nobleman asked him if it were possible to receive a letter of indulgence for a future sin. Tetzel quickly answered in the affirmative, insisting, however, that the payment had to made at once. This the nobleman did, receiving thereupon letter and seal from Tetzel. When Tetzel left Leipzig the nobleman attacked him along the way, gave him a thorough beating, and sent him back empty-handed to Leipzig with the comment that this was the future sin which he had in mind. Duke George at first was quite furious about this incident, but when he heard the whole story he let it go without punishing the nobleman. Source: Luthers Schriften, herausg. von Walch. XV, 446.

Yes, that is correct. The way it was explained to me is that Christ would have died for any one individual's sin, so that all are responsible. Note that some people get more upset at the thought of someone suffering on their behalf than at the thought of they themselves suffering. God considers all wrongdoing to be a sin against him, which you cannot forgive on behalf of God. On the other hand, both new and old testaments say you should try to get forgiveness from the person you wronged before seeking it from God. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. " -- Jesus, Matthew 5:23-24 "If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the LORD by deceiving his neighbor about something entrusted to him or left in his care or stolen, or if he cheats him, or if he finds lost property and lies about it, or if he swears falsely, or if he commits any such sin that people may do- when he thus sins and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to him, or the lost property he found, or whatever it was he swore falsely about. He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day he presents his guilt offering. And as a penalty he must bring to the priest, that is, to the LORD, his guilt offering, a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for him before the LORD, and he will be forgiven for any of these things he did that made him guilty." Leviticus 6:1-7 It is only the Catholic Church that forgives on behalf of others.

RNA is dangerous and is quickly degraded by cells, especially if it is missing its cap. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrna#Degradation

Friction works differently at the atomic scale, remember that energy is conserved. Anyhow, I think it would be more accurate to say that heat generates molecular collisions, unless you are shooting an ion beam at your solution or have some other source of energetic ions. Also, I don't think ions have much to do with colloids, other than that solid colloids are often made from ionic solutions.

I asked you to read them, not to police them. You are attacking someone for arguing against discrimination and against the use of logical fallacies, and that part is indeed your own responsibility. If you don't understand, go back and read what I told you to go back and read.

However long it takes to test the theory within the range and accuracy you want to consider it to hold true within.

Reputation is increased when someone likes your posts enough to give you reputation for it (now voting up and it appears as a green number on the post in question). For quite a while we had no negative reputation so reputation was largely a measure of how long someone has been here as well as the quality of their posts. Negative rep works much the same way, generally given when someone is too disgusted with a post to reply to it. If you are polite and don't use logical fallacies you will hardly ever get any negative rep.

Does the child go to school? There he should be largely free of his mom's influence.

Yes, probably not, yes.

! Moderator Note If by "you" you mean jryan, then we call that discrimination and stereotyping. If by "you" you mean swansont, then we call it lemur is lying/confused and personally attacking swansont. Please go back to reread posts 45, 47, and 50. Decide who you mean by "you", because one of these will get you in trouble and the other will end dozens of nonsense and off-topic posts.

Yes, we tax profits and not revenue. Walmart could not exist if we taxed revenue. Even for individuals, we tax "profits" and subtract from taxable income things like food (not even a sales tax) and childcare, although as standardized deductions because individuals would not appreciate having to itemize every single thing they buy. For individuals they also try to write the tax as a percentage of revenue so that the taxpayer won't owe taxes at the end of the year and preferably so the government owes them tax return. Some people create themselves a small business which then allows them to write off certain things as business expenses that they wouldn't as individuals, such as a car and gasoline "for their business", "business dinners", etc.

I think religion has overall done more good than bad, by helping peoples stick together, which is more important than being tolerant of far away "heathen". However, I think it would have been better to replace religion with other alternatives, but I don't know if it would have worked all that well without science. People believed a lot of really crazy shit before the scientific method, and in fact quite a few still do anyhow.

Data can be collected without any hypothesis. Usually the researcher won't be able to see whether a specific data point in any way relates to the hypothesis, until the data is collated and analyzed. In cases where confirmation bias is a concern, the scientists often choose to do a double-blind study. Yes, when people know they are biased they adjust by intentionally going against their bias by the same amount they estimate their bias is.

Sure, until you have computer/technology problems. Then you have to get a kid to help, or pay a professional. (generalizing) What youth really lack is mostly proper risk assessment. Naive, if you prefer. That's largely the parent's responsibility, although limiting the bindingness of any contracts they enter into seems like a good idea, and some other similar precautions that won't limit them too much.

Sulfur is not going to be problematic in small quantities. It is mostly other contaminants that I was worried about, especially metals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_recycling#Environmental_concerns

Use a voice recorder so that the kid can send a spoken message to his dad, which his dad could then use as evidence if the boy also mentions the abuses his mother is doing on him. Of course not an ideal solution either since his mom might end up in trouble with the boy feeling guilty about it, and also the dad might relapse.

He's just pointing out that jryan switched the ratio he claimed at 100,000:1, to 1:1 when it came time to actually use real numbers. Posts 45 and 50.

Well, how about you make it space solar panels instead? They'll still block the sunlight, and as a bonus can beam down power to provide electricity.

Your solution addresses temperature, not poverty. You can be poor and cold just fine.

Yes, but you probably want to remove any toxic contaminants first. I don't think it would be worth the effort.

Yup, the media is highly biased against common things. You hardly ever hear about the number of people who die in car accidents or from normal disease, but if someone gets hit by lightning or eaten by a shark the media is all over it.