Ophiolite

On a science forum I am appalled that 23% favoured creation. I am presuming aguy2 that you chose the third option as most closely matching your view, or more likely 'Other'.

And I did not plan that one either. This one? Yes.

Right. Can we get back to discussing boob tubes. Something in a yellow lycra perhaps, with an abstract logo of some sort. Now, I didn't plan this. I just sat down and typed out the above trivial nonsense. Are you sitting comfortably? The paragraph contains 22 words. That's 11 x 2. There are 121 characters. If I remove the '2' from 121, to match the '2' in '2 x 11', I get 1-1, or 11. (Not to mention the fact that 121 is 11 x 11.) So now I have two '2's, which is 2 x 2 = 4. The paragraph also has four punctuation marks! There are thirty three syllables (33) and three (3) sentences. 33/3=11. Eric is right! They are everywhere. They have invaded my mind.

I'm arriving mid-argument and haven't read all the posts, so if I go over old ground my apologies. Yang du, you commented that what the US is doing now is barbarous. I presume you are talking mainly about Iraq. There are many in the US who would agree with you. There are many other posters on this board who would agree with you. Some might feel, as I do, that under its present regime the US is further from its ideals than it has been for a long time. That does not make its ideals wrong, it means that some of them have, apparently, been temporarily abandoned. Aardvark has been critical of the present government in China. I sense in that criticism a genuine love of China, its history and culture and people. I also sense that all of you have been making your case a little more strongly than you actually feel it. Yang du, you say that a western style democracy is not right for China today. Do you feel that there will ever be right time? How can you ensure that an undemocratic government does not ignore the needs of the people? Would you agree that this has occured on occasions since the revolution?

Now you are thinking of the Italians. I feel entitled to post this flagrant deriding of the Italian military prowess on the following basis. I began a conversation with an Italian friend with the intention of gathering information that would help refute the standard jokes [How many gears does an Italian tank have. Four reverese gears and one forward in case the enemy attack from behind.] I eased into the conversation, because although he was a good friend I did not want to give offence. Despite prods he was not offering anything, so I said, "The Roman Army was the finest fighting machine the world has ever seen and arguably has not been bettered till the twentieth century. Which particular aspects remain a part of the Italian Military.' He looked at me as if I was retarded and replied with a laugh, "None. We're crap at fighting. We prefer eating marvellous food, drinking fine wine and making love. That doesn't leave any time to learn how to fight properly." Now what was this thread about??

Be very, very careful. If it has genuine merit it could easily be purloined. [On the plus side we know that everyone who posts here, apart from yourself YT, is pretty dumb, so they are unlikely to a) recognise the value of the idea, b)have the brains to do anything with it.] I have discussed with a colleague who has looked into this in the past. He had three suggestions: 1) Be very, very careful. 2) Before discussing the idea with anyone get them to sign a confidentiality agreement that not only prohibits them from doing anything with the idea or portions of the idea without your written permission but also prevents them discussing it with other parties. 3) The patent office in the UK has an 0800 help line number. Call them and get advice. He also thought this idea of mine could have some merit. 4) Get all your ideas documented as thorougly as possible and have a them notarised. That will mean you have legal proof that the ideas were in your posession by such and such a date. Steps 2) and 2) could be challenged in court by a company, and they would have the financial muscle to win. So, you need to make a key judgement of the type of people you choose to reveal this to. Hope this provides some ideas. Good luck.

If you are all willing to put in $3,000,000 each, I'm willing to go up in a Soyuz to the ISS and establish a definitive answer. I'll even buy the coke!

Eric, here's the thing. I can encompass thoughts about one impossible thing before breakfast, but not two. My mind has been shrunk by education and experience. I suggested you keep your political agenda out of it. You chose not to and in so doing I believe you have lost any chance of capturing an audience. Illuminati is one thing, date corellation of global events is another. Together the two are too much. And the way to address scepticism, if I may make so bold, is not to up the ante in the bizarre stakes, with a cornucopia of coincidence, but to keep it low key and focused on your initial points.

I knew you knew YT: just wanted to remove any possible ambiguity for cheem.

But not all of them by the same satellite.

Seconded.

Sayonara, from a reasonably careful reading of the majority of the posts in this thread (well since around #45 or so) you seem to be saying this discussion needs to be conducted publicly. Correct me if I'm wrong. You then tell Tesseract Do you mind? I don't want him PMing me about this. Butt out. If you want this to remain in the public arena, surely you have to accept public intervention? Or am I missing some incredibly subtle nuance of forum behaviour?

Were these actually two unrelated statements?

Eric, I am willing to look further into your claims, if you are willing to tell me that you are open minded enough to change or abandon those claims if they can be shown to be unfounded. Be aware that my statistical skills reflect the three R's - rudimentary, rusty and retarded. I am concerned by several points in your post, but shall focus on just one of them. I chose the four major conflicts in which the US had been involved in the last century. You have arbritarily eliminated two of them. Sceptics will justifiably point out that selecting a data set can effect the statistical outcome. Secondly, you then dismiss the Korean and Vietnam wars as being exercises of the Military Industrial Complex.Let's keep your political agenda out of this if you want to be treated seriously.

Aguy2 I like the panspermia concept for three reasons: 1. It addresses weaknesses in the conventional view that life originated on Earth. 2. Even if the conventional view proves correct, panspermia can be a useful Devil's Advocate position to focus on inconsistencies in that conventional view. 3. It's refreshingly different. I like different. But please! Grey's evolving in the Oort Cloud! There's different, then there's different

I thought the title of this thread included the phrase - "a little bit of fun". It seems to have to degenerated into an internecine squabble! Note: Actually it seems all quite good natured, but I have been waiting thirty years for an opportunity to use the word internecine, ever since seeing the film The Internecine Project while deep in the jungles of Irian Jaya. I got tired of waiting.

Eric, I have not had time yet to view your link, so this is a provisional reply. I address a single point: you ask "what would be the natural probability that WW I would be declared over exactly on the 11th month, the 11th day, and 11th hour." Qualitatively the answer is 'very high'. The circumstances towards the end of the War ensured that agreement was likely to be reached during the last two months of the year. Once November was selected the choice of the eleventh day and the eleventh hour became deliberately symbolic. Had it been December then it would have been the 12th hour of the 12th day. So we are left with odds of one in two or at most one in three. So what about some other major conflicts in the 20th century. I do not recall the dates for the end of World War II (including VE and VJ days), the Korean war (the date of the cease fire) or Vietnam. I should be surprised if they show any match to the number eleven. Just checked: VE day May 8th 1945 VJ day August 6th 1945 Korea July 17th 1954 Vietnam April 30th 1975 So no match. A total of five opportunites to hit eleven on the month, eleven on the day, an pracxtically speaking we get one hit. Not impressive. Comments?

JohnB I agree that Tunguska could seem anomalous. One my fabvourite explanations was that it was an alien spacecraft that was in trouble and heading for Lake Baikal (the largest fresh water volume on the planet) to refuel!!!! I've always felt that a combination of airblast and scant witnessess could likely explain away the anomalies. Coquina's two sites appear to confirm this. Mokele I have also read about the spy satellite sightings and seen a documentary on them. Are you sure you dont have their size out by an order of magnitude? That just looks like too many of that size - but then intuition is not the same as facts!

JaKiri, you have made my day. I can't believe I had never heard of John Stuart Mill. It's always refreshing to discover that my ignorance knows no bounds. Anyone else interested in some background on him, this seems like a passable link. http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/m/milljs.htm

They call you Guilded because your posts are so informed they think you are a group of people (like a guild) rather than a Golden Boy. (smiley not working for me today. Just imagine one here)

Damn. hit the wrong key before I finished and it wont let me edit. Last sentence is incomplete. It should read "Please stop knocking panspermia until you have studied it a litlle more rigorously."

Sayonara you don't need to have a life bearing 'object' arrive from another planet. Life, or at least precursors more advanced than polypetides are pre-assebled by natural chemistry througout the vastness of interstellar gas clouds, so when one of these clouds condenses to form a planetary system the planets are literally deluged not only with prebiotic material, but quite probably primitive life as well. The Earth, is the only one (probably) where conditions remain tolerable for 4 billion years so that we are still here. Yes, this is a minority view, but it is a soundly based alternative. Please stop knocking

I don't know if this is just me and my set up, but the two links do not function. If I Copy shortcut I get http:/// only. To access the links I have to do a regular copy and paste.

Perennial, you are, I think, one of the few posters to this forum who is a working scientist. Can you give an example or two of the pseudo elements you refer to, perhaps from your own field. Thanks.