Prometheus

It would be a major advantage if the whole operation could be automated. It could also competitive for building space stations - no need to lift all that material up from Earth if we can grab it elsewhere. It might be one of those markets that creates demand just by being available. It seems there are investors who think it's worth a punt. How much would your opinion change if evidence of past life is found on Mars or beyond - or even some kind of simple life?

He makes the claim that death is not an unpleasant experience, even if it was a painful or traumatic experience, except for those who committed suicide. He knows this how? Sounds like religious (specifically Christian) judgement on the sin of suicide. And then he's quite disingenuous about how he describes the time of death of a patient: often the cessation of a heart beat. The reality is usually half an hour after the nurse has bleeped some lazy doctor for the 3rd time, but now i'm ranting. But it is used for expected deaths. In unexpected deaths you commence CPR immediately because there's a chance the lights are still on i.e. they are still alive even though their hearts have stopped - a state of affairs that won't last long. Otherwise we'd have to say everyone who has had major heart surgery has died as the heart is deliberately stopped for some time (and put on a bypass machine). That's why no where uses the cessation of cardiac activity as the marker of death, but the cessation of neurological activity (apart from Japan i understand). Also find it quite funny when he says people can describe in some detail what doctors and nurses were doing. First those details are quite generic; 'someone put a cannula in my arm'. No shit. Second, the patient was there, even if in a moribund condition, so i'm not surprised if something slipped into their consciousness. Especially if CPR is being done effectively, getting blood to the brain, as the technique aims to. You may have experienced something similar while dreaming and music or a conversation slips into your dreams. Finally this type of research often asks patients about the experience up to days, even weeks, after the event. Plenty of time for the experience to be mentally repeated and unconsciously altered, as we all do with our memories. So yes, it appears this doctor is using the thin veneer of medical science to spout rubbish.

I'd recommend trying to enjoy the experience first: go for a fly around the cosmos - maybe look into the heart of a sun. But if you want out there's a few things you could try. Focus on something difficult; try to divide 377 by 13, try counting backwards from 500 in intervals of 7, try to solve that crossword clue that was bugging you all day. You could also try to focus on some detail of the dream, like a fork: what is it made of, what colour, what is it's texture, where did you pick it up from. Finally you could try focusing on your physical body sleeping in your bed. Pick a particular hand and concentrate all your will on moving that hand. Pick just one of these at a time though. Good luck.

I only watched the video because of your post: it was worth it for a laugh. It's amazing just how bad at science some medics are.

It's your opinion that it's not going to work, not a fact. I wasn't around but was it not the case many people thought it was not possible to put a man on the moon in the time frame set out by Kennedy? Do you have figures? According to this less than a quarter of the global space economy is from public sources. Maybe you know of more reliable sources? There are already at least 3 asteroid mining companies in existence. My impression is that this is one of the most economically viable space ventures. Again, reliable figures hard to come by so would appreciate any you have.

It's definitely sounds like a lucid dream. Being unable to wake from a dream happens frequently, to me at least, usually in nightmares proceeding a sleep paralysis event. I'm unsure how well being unable to wake is documented in the literature' sleep and particularly dreams aren't well understood processes, so i'm unsure of a name for it. Does your dream experience have negative connotations? Otherwise why the need to escape; you could enjoy it - you can do pretty much whatever you want, although it is a subtle skill to control your dreams. If you really want to learn to break out of your dreams all i can tell you is that it is a skill i managed to pick up so i imagine it possible for others too.

If that plastic was considered toxic for the sea it has the potential to also be toxic to our air if used on roads. Researchers are starting to look into this; plastics in the air might be more of an insidious health problem than we currently realise. But i accept it can't be left in the sea either. The only way i can see this working is if plastic quotas are competitive with fish quotas for the fishermen. This way fishermen would be financially supported while we try to curb their industry so we don't deplete fish populations anymore.

True. Let me take the opportunity to ask about your experience in a little more detail: i've had thousands of these episodes in my life , many atypical compared to the literature, so it interests me. You had the sense of impending death, but was this embodied in a presence? When you controlled your breathing did you not find it constrained to a degree - normally the intercostal muscles are also paralysed and the mind interprets this as a weight on the chest (in European cultures) or being bound in chains (Japanese)? Also did you experience pain anywhere?

It's important to note that this is only a proxy marker for more specific genetic markers. Once bedside genetic testing becomes common place race will become irrelevant as you can test for those specific markers of interest.

There are historical and scientific reasons. Past movements exploring this subject were overtly racist, or otherwise supremacist, culminating in cleansing programs. I'm sure you can understand why it's still a sensitive topic on historic grounds alone. And as Arete alludes to there are genuine problems with any actual science. Defining race and applying it to populations What does IQ actually measure? How do we account for numerous confounding variables? But people who advocate for 'supremacist science' don't usually address these problems but instead insist they are being censored, mistaking science for a democracy, and it soon breaks down into a shouting match. It's about this time the thread gets shut down.

If it's got an ethical component it is by definition a value judgement. This is Musk's personal money together with a bunch of investors. Is there any public money in this project at all? Also it might be hard to quantify just how much value speculative science has contributed to the global economy, but given how much of it relies on technology i would speculate one hell of a lot. If we're going solely on resource acquisition wouldn't near Earth asteroid mining be the optimal choice? I still wonder about the journey difference: a six month journey every two years versus a three day journey. You'd need far more redundancy and/or luck going to Mars. The moon seems safer. I also wonder whether there would be more political support for the moon just because politicians would be able to predict the feel good factor, and bump in the polls, from any large space mission. Does SpaceX get any public money?

That's a value judgement. If Musk thinks it's worth the effort just because he can't think of anything better to do then it's worth the effort for him. Some people climb mountains just to say they've been to the top, or because they enjoy the journey. More power to them.

Isn't there more of an economic case for going to the moon? Resources would be easier (i.e. cheaper) to mine and transport back to Earth. Especially if helium-3 for fusion fuel actually becomes a thing. Also in terms of safety the moon is just a few days away, Mars requires far more self-sufficience. How do you calculate this? I just had a quick google and the ball park figures i was getting were about $1 billion for 4 people to the moon, $6 billion for the same to Mars.

Might be anecdotal but look at the difference between elite body builders and people in the world's strongest man competitions. Something else is going on.

Sounds to me more like a lucid dream from which you were unable to wake, as sometimes happens in nightmares. Sleep paralysis is often accompanied by the sense of a malign presence and/or impending doom. Did you experience this? Were you just trapped in the dream or were you unable to move your actual body?

Heard Mike Tyson touch on this subject recently. The guy is surprisingly insightful, even if volatile.

I'm not sure what you mean by divided by the difference of limits, i've not come across this before. Maybe if you show the maths notation it will be easier to understand what you mean. In words, i would say the definition is the integral of a probability density function (pdf) times x over some range. In the case of QM the pdf is the square of the wave function (which is the same as the complex conjugate of the wave function times the wave function). They are the same. Man, when you try putting these concepts to words you really see the elegance of mathematical notation.

Do you know why x^2 + 1 doesn't intersect the x axis?

What's wrong with myth?

Top left: Dian4yuan2 zhi3shi4 deng1 - Power supply Indicator Middle: Chong1 bao1 zhi3shi4 deng1 - Filling indicator Bottom left: Chong1 yuan2 zhi3shi4 deng1 - Charging indicator My Mandarin isn't good enough to tell what the middle one really means, it's just the literal translation. I've included the pinyin in case that helps - hopefully someone else can clarify.

The meaning of what you are asking would be quite clear in lay circles, maybe discussing this around a drink. But you have asked on a science forum and science can do better than that. Much better. Hence, people here have much higher expectations. People are asking what might appear to you to be stupid questions to hone your question into something more amenable to investigation. If you don't want to go through this process, fair enough, but then be content with vague 20 - 40 type answers. For example, you are using a term called 'physical peak' assuming it has a universal meaning. What sport to you like/play? I'll take football (the one where athletes can't use hands) because that's one i know. A striker is said to peak around 29ish, measured by goals scored. A goalkeeper peaks around 33ish, measured by goals conceded (although modern metrics are a little more sophisticated than that). They peak at different times because they are performing different physical tasks. The discrepancy will be even greater when comparing gymnasts ('peak' maybe in mid teens? Based on what i see at the olympics) to weightlifters (mid 20s?): maybe a whole decade of difference. Maybe you want to look at bone density as well as medals won. Maybe you want to include fertility - i've heard some female athletes sacrifice their fertility when pushing their boundaries at the top levels. Maybe you just want to know when your body will 'peak'? Maybe... I hope this helps clarify why people aren't just giving you simple answers.

This seems to be a later interpretation. When God speaks to the serpent just after Adam tells him what happened (Genesis 3:14), he indicates the serpent is but an animal. I'm not sure when the snake became identified with Satan, but Paradise Lost would have popularised the idea, if not started it:

The other way to interpret this myth is that the snake, a symbol of wisdom in some Pagan traditions, seeks to help mankind by showing us the knowledge of good and evil. Lucifer is the bringer of light after all. Thus we emerge from the tyrannical patronage by God to realise our own divinity and make our own mistakes.

Let's say that the patient and healthcare provider had no existing contract. The healthcare team earnestly assess surgery to be in the patient's best medical interest and they (somehow) know the patient can afford it. And a guardian is appointed by a court? We're basically talking about giving someone power of attorney over the patient.