Sorcerer

Sorry, I was unsure which subcategory this should go under. I was having a sci-fi discussion recently and talking about means of intersellar propulsion available to possible advanced cultures. Would it be possible to somehow tap vacuum energy to create a force to propel a spacecraft? What would you need to harness it? Could you, for instance, have positive energy created infront of the spacecraft, pulling it forward, and negative energy created behind, making the spacecraft/space expand away from it?

Hi, I was having a disscussion about this recently, I just began thinking about it again, and read up about vacuum energy on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy. I didnt watch the video and havent read all the posts in this thread, I was actually going to post a new one, but decided I'd jump in here instead of doubling up. So to my questions: I found it interesting it says in the original, gravity can have negative energy, does this mean attractive gravity, or is it talking about dark energy? What is stopping universes from spontaneously appearing inside our universe then, would these appear as black holes? What is stopping matter from continuously coming into existence (and staying that way) and negative energy increasing simultaneously? Are these truely balanced? (under assumption by negative energy gravity it means dark energy) Gravity has an inverse square rule (atleast simplified newtonian), does dark energy have the same rule? IF dark energy isn't bound by the inverse square rule, AND matter in constantly coming into being along with dark energy, would this account for the apparent acceleration of the expansion of the universe? Just fyi, I prefer the thought the universe always existed, since this also removes the need for a deity and since time is dependant on the existence of something. __ sorry, I read it now, gravity is negative energy, still this doesn't explain what dark energy is..... perhaps like particle/anti particle, also anti-gravity/gravity?? And particle/gravity, anti gravity/anti particle? So dark energy increases as anti particles come into existence, annihilate with matter ---> more photons + more dark energy? bah, just ignore me, somethings wrong here, somethings very wrong with the whole story - explain the imbalance in matter/anti matter, explain dark energy. For an anti paricle to be truely anti, shouldn't it have negative mass?

Ok, our water bed has sprung a small leak, so we are going to get a mattress anyway. I might try it, but I was wondering, if I made the solution up as normal jelly, would the temperature of the water bed effect it, I'd have to make it more concentrated right. Also I was thinking of using hypochlorite bleach as a disinfectant, would this have any effects on the structure of the jelly.... ie will it react?

Your analogy as sexism being no better than racism falls down at the olympic games, you see men of almost all nationalities compete against men, the same for women. Now if you want to find out who is the best in the world at something, why do you need to know who is the best of their sex?? If the olympics was to show no sexism at all men would compete against women in all events. However, have you ever heard of a thing called positive discrimination...... no feminist is gonna burn her bra and chant, "let us lose fair and square" Well, possibly, I'd say their would be a difference in prey strategies between men and women. I have heard of quite a few cases of sexual abuse by women, I don't think they should be left out completely from the discussion. The biggest danger is the one you least expect. I never said sexism was good, I just stated it exists and that there are clear difference in general between men and women, particulary how they socially interact. Womens in general lower place in the social heirachy is countered by their social strategies of forming groups, which support each other in social encounters, and can even scheme to destroy anothers social standing. The thread should be something like: The psychology of sexism. What are the psychological and neurological difference between the average man and the average women. What are the average (within a culture) man and womens Emotional Quotient (EQ) and IQ? Social strategies and evolution: Do men and womens social strategies differ because of their investment in offspring. With women always knowing they are the mother, but the father never being totally able to be sure. Is sexism another social strategy for enhancing the populations reproduction rate? Is there positive and negative sexism? Where is the line? Do some stereotypes hold up? Can physical/psychological differences between Men and Women be used to justify their differential treatment? What examples are there? e.g. the courts are more likely to favour custody being awarded to the mother. eg2 mothers usually have the final say in their abortion. Discuss. BTW I couldnt be bothered with reference because it was 4am, if you really want me to dig I could, but why don't you google it yourself, you might come back with something solid to make me "see the light". The light that blinds people from seeing discrimination and equality can coincide. Why tax the rich more, what did they do wrong? Don't tell me your an economist . Capitalist, facist, communist, its all about the balance of social power, why are some forms of discrimination acceptable, when others aren't.

Well, I cant be bothered looking for the anthropological/psychological references, but I can offer you an argument as to why women and mens social strategies are generally different. You want to hear it? It doesn't have anything to do with paedophiles, start me a new thread, the psychology of sexism.

Just a sexist opinion of mine which doesn't sit well with feminists, however true it is. Btw sexism is justified in alot of cases, you cannot tell me men and women are not different. Anyway, women tend to use gossip as their weapon of choice, destroying others ranking within social groups, while men tend to use violence. So when fathers, lay down the law, it is usually more obvious they mean what they say as the body language is there saying "or I'll kill you!", even if the intention isn't, so they are more influential. However mothers when trying to get their children to do something will use other types of positive or negative reinforcement. So basically, since the mothers have less sway over children, they will let the fact they disagree with their actions known by making a fuss, in this case making the life of the in-law less pleasant.

Hmm I dunno, do you think women are more cautionary of other women than men are? I think the 'evil' mother inlaw stereotype might be a little anecdotal evidence that women are just as cautionary, but have less influence, so tend to just make their point heard in other, less pleasant, scheming ways.

That just makes it half as likely as a haploid organism to express a mutation in one generation, unless the mutation is a dominant allele.... It's good that you know you don't understand.

Hehe, maybe he thinks you're his bitch......

Good!!!. But instead of "do I beleive in [ESP], not really", say NO!! hehe sorry for the extra exclaimation marks bro.

I added a luke-warm supersaturated solution of gelatine to our slightly under inflated water bed mattress? If we then cranked the heat up on the water bed and made waves to mix the bladder, would we get a slightly viscous water bed?? Say the bladder is 2.7m long and 2.2 m wide and 40 cm deep, how much gelatine would I need to make the bladder a nice comfy jelly? Thats 2.376 m^3, which is 2376 litres of water. Would anyone recommend I try it?

woops nm that was coelocanths.

Wasn't the last surviving, acanthodian found off the coast of madagascar in the deep sea, well anyway, right number of fins, wrong environment.

I thought electroconulsive therapy was old, it was used on heaps of mental paitients, in one case here in NZ it was reportedly used as a form of punishment in some mental hospitals.

Im not sure what ur trying to say, but it sounds like you mean the only way a 6 limbed vertebrate could evolve is if the same mutations from ancestral deuterostomes that formed tetrapods, occured in modern deuterostomes like angnatha and produced 6 limbs instead of 4...... heaxapods so to speak. Lobe-finned fishes have 5 "limbs"(fins) and a tail, the symmetry is already in place for tetrapods, the "mountain has already been climbed" and descending the slope to climb back up mount hexapod would be the road to extinction..... Any fish out there with the right number of fins? If they occur in the right environment they might become terrestrial.

I wonder if beleif in the supernatural is hindering your ability to realise the coporeal(e.g not ethereal as in a soul) nature of your mind, realisation that you are just the product of the things you experience and your emotional reactions to them. I could be completely wrong, you might not beleive in the supernatural and just go to Church because your family does. But anyway, my point is: he things you experience affect your emotional reactions and these effects how you behave. How you behave also affects the things you experience and hence your emotional reactions. *---->Experience----->Emotional reaction-------->behaviour---* Look at this loop of events, and think about at which step you can break the cycle.

Wasn't a 6 legged horse born dead after Chernobyl. What mutation caused that?

I see these when I close my eyes and press on them, this increases the bloodpressure in the eyes blood vessels. So yeah coquina could be right, you may have high blood pressure.

Hehe, I don't buy into the commercialised stuff, most of that is just lies, people find out details about the audience and profile them, profiling is a easy, its guess work and logic, plus how good you understand people in different environments. Everything fits into my pigeonholes, that was a analogy for how I compartmentalise my thoughts/experiences and how I use that ability to realise how every aspect of a situation is influencing my emotions, thus at will I am able to amplify or diminish any emotion I am currently experiencing. It seems in Bettinas case that the amplify switch is turned on permanently. Thx for your PM. And I know its dangerous to hold onto preconceived notions without keeping an open mind. My mind is so open I index it.

Web, theres no such thing as ESP, everything is a sensory perception, it is just how aware of your sensory perceptions you are. I can appear to be psychic, its all in making others think what you want them to think, most people aren't very emotionally aware.