dimreepr

I watched this episode today and for some reason this thread sprung to mind, I can’t think why... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrk00nYqbsI

The phrase “Live by the sword, die by the sword” seems particularly relevant. Fear seems to be the prime motivator for the imagined need of such instruments of death, how often, I wonder is the actual need?

As swansont points out, there is no real way to compare. Local topography is important and affects the weather in many ways, Britain being a prime example, without the large coastline (not to mention the north Atlantic currents) the temperatures, both winter and summer, would be much more extreme and thus negate the need for the citizenry to travel for their sunshine and skiing holidays. http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/wxfacts/North-Atlantic-Drift-Gulf-Stream.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_in_Britain

The truth of the matter is the opposite; the northern hemisphere Temperature exceeds the southern by an average of approximately 2 degrees C. http://itg1.meteor.wisc.edu/wxwise/AckermanKnox/chap14/climate_spatial_scales.html http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/temp/jonescru/graphics/glnhsh.png

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” probably the most profound and well known statement ever uttered by any explorer. His shoulders will be so often stood upon, he will be greatly missed.

Good answers, it’s given me a new perspective on the term. JMJones this quote from Mark Twain is particularly pertinent “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”

Too often I hear this used as a way of belittling others, especially academics or experts who don’t happen to share a mechanical or constructional bent. For me the definition is something we all should know without an education, such as fire burns or walk in front of a moving car is dangerous, however friends insist it includes a standard education, but what is that? And when is it completed? For the average non academic most learning is done outside of the ‘school’ environment and it never ceases, so when can we say common sense is complete and therefore a term that can reasonably be used to deride others when violated: 20 40 60?

The best way to survive such a society is to become a clown. Cannibals don’t eat clowns, they taste funny. Back to topic, I don’t think a vegan only world would last very long, as pointed out in the above post’s there is no ethical way to deal with the livestock, consequently starvation would result as the livestock starts to compete with us for the available food (how long this would take is up for debate). Sooner or later some exceptions would be allowed (the thin end of the wedge) and we’d end up where we are now. All we can really do is treat the livestock well, while they wait to become food.

No this is an example of surface area to volume ratio, one example would be why whales have grown to the size they have or another would be the Eskimo (short and fat increases this ratio). The conductive property of air, isn't all that good, so trapping air between hairs is a way of increasing this ratio without the need to increase subcutaneous fat, which requires a lot of excess energy, which is hard to come by and we humans need the extra energy for our huge, relative to size, brains.

Ok now that you've moved the focus to something that can now be reasonably discussed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_United_Kingdom The Uk's struggle to integrate different cultural influences has meant such laws as "Racial and religious hatred act 2006" completely unnecessary and an example of kneejerk legislation. "The terrorism act 2000/2006" is an example of the government using fear to impose (unreasonable) controls at the behest of the public. The above laws could be seen as self imposed, driven largely by fear and a media in constant search of the sensational, in order to sell itself to the public. Fear is a large part of what is deemed necessary to censor, maybe you should stop worrying.

I call “reductio ad absurdum” no one here is attacking free speech let alone to the point of being a “Nazi” or trying to establish a universal dictatorship, as Ecoli has pointed out this is a private forum with its own set of rules, this doesn’t extend to society in general. This is the reason for the opposition to your position.

So any one who disagrees with your, somewhat, skewed version of reality, is guilty of trying to establish a dictatorship or is a Nazi? Seriously! Do you not see the ridiculous position your taking? It's just laughable; I'll refer you to Swansont's post #20.

As zapatos suggests this isn’t an example of the slingshot effect (gravity assist) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slingshot_effect It’s an example of an elliptical orbit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_orbit Besides which how would you harvest this power? and if you could harvest the power you would just diminish the orbit until it crashed to earth.

Can you not see the fallacious nature of your argument? You HAVE been allowed to argue your point without censorship and unlike a religious or other dogmatic environment; no one has shouted heresy and demanded you be punished. However as has been pointed out the forum has (very reasonable) rules, as with society, every society.

Having read the paper I think the statement that’s most pertinent to this discussion is “While objects will not be observed to cross the event horizon, light from them will be exponentially redshifted, so that within a time frame comparable to the longest lived main sequence stars all objects outside of our local cluster will truly become invisible.” Krauss & Scherrer As has been suggested my use of the term “blink out” is wrong, that however doesn’t mean the galaxies won’t disappear for a future observer.

IIRC they sent the first GPS satellite up with the option not to use Einstein's equations to compensate for the time difference. http://www.brighthub...cles/32969.aspx Edit/ Just in case he was wrong.

It’s not about distance other than its relation the rate of acceleration, the universe will do so ad infinitum. The light from these galaxies is constantly being updated and red shifted as the relativistic speed approaches c but once c is exceeded the updated light wouldn’t be able to catch us up however far the light wave is stretched. I’m not sure the rate of expansion has, as of yet, exceeded c, perhaps one of the expert members could enlighten us. When you say relativistic speeds I assume you mean c, in which case, it will never be out of range so will never disappear, as the relativistic speed will never exceed c. However, if we take your thought experiment a stage further and place said clock on a planet in a galaxy outside our local group, at some point the relativistic speed will exceed c, at which time it would blink out of view. I have no idea how this observation would manifest. I’m afraid my math isn’t up to calculating the time dilation involved. Just to clarify Krauss didn’t say 50 billion years he said 50 times the current age of the universe.

If universal expansion is accelerating, then the observable universe is constantly shrinking. The source of light, relative to us, is travelling away faster than the light it's emitting.

If the plastic lid’s plain then it looks like a junction box, though quite what it’s doing on a wall like that? Maybe wall lights...

If god is truly omnipotent, then, everything he/she does couldn’t be improved. However, there are so many instances where this so called omnipotence is called into question the profundity of this answer is in serious doubt.

If there was a meaning or purpose, would it make the grind less problematic? Would you live your life differently?

Sounds like you have overcome your final illusion; had your moment, become enlightened, if you will. Congrats. There are five such illusions we, humans, have to grapple with, those being: Fear, understanding, control, need and time. It’s almost impossible not to appear condescending with this post, my apologies it’s certainly not my intention, this is a description of my moment http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/63253-45-year-depression/page__p__652524__fromsearch__1#entry652524 Post #4 is most relevant. If, as may well be the case, I’m way off then please just ignore. BTW ‘The Plague’ is well worth a read.

This link shows the official funding figures per sport for the London 2012 games. http://www.uksport.gov.uk/sport/summer/ Also included is the funding for the Paralympics

An article I’d love to read, please provide a title or link, I can’t seem to find. On the face of it seems very cheap. It is, however, no measure of the relative spend of other nations.

I am very proud to be British and salute, with a tear in my eye, the achievements of the Great British Olympics team; well done. Let’s, as a national, revel in the success and reflected glory of these games. However, let’s not get used to it; this will NEVER happen again, why? Gone are the days of the plucky “brit” with a can do attitude and stiff upper lip, wins the day. No, today’s sport at Olympic level (the sports that count, of course) is a matter of finance. We all know, that by the time the next Olympics come around, we’ll, as a nation, be funding sports at probably the level of, let’s say, Greece and the RETURN of “gold medals” will be reflected.