Ophiolite

Sorry ed. Since you spelt it plank, not Planck, I assumed it was intended as humour, which set me off thinking about alternative spellings of other sub-atomic items.Planck length is 'the scale at which classical ideas about gravity and space-time cease to be valid, and quantum effects dominate'. That was extracted from here, which you may find useful. http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae281.cfm

The potential energy of the body is not measurable in your example because you have excluded the information necessary to compute that: its position. Let me adapt your opening statement. if you had the ability to know anything about an object (except its temperature). its position, the amount of gravity its being subjected to its velocity, anything. and, you just didn't know exactly how hot it is. you could make any prediction you wanted about what the object would do in certain circumstances What you could not do would be to say how much heat it contained. Using your logic therefore, heat is not a measurable quantity and does not exist. (Though perhaps you were just thinking of Aberdeen in the winter.)

Let's see Severian, black body radiation: doesn't that involve Maxwell and Bolsterman - back to the futons again. (Is that an admin I see lurking, about to urge us to get back on topic?)

Are you asking me or Mandrake root? Not much point in asking me, I doubt there is any quality evidence. I was just explaining the motivation for the action. Edit: And ed, Firedragon didn't ask about the moon hitting the earth, but a moon sized object.

You ask a valid question ed. I'm not well versed in this area, but I believe it has to do with futons. As you are aware these are a form of Japanese matress, with potentially lethal properties. (Consider the futon torpedoes on StarTrek.) These futons were introduced to the west in general and the UK in particular by the stylist Mary Quant in the swinging sixties. (I think the swinging had something to do with Galileo and pendulums, but that's another story.) Because the economy was still depressed at that time Mary could only make these futons in specific sizes. Plank came along and noticed this and said that futons were Quantized. The rest as they say is history.

MAB, I understand, though I do not share, your concerns. Several of the posters have asked that you give specific examples of where posts in this forum have been disrepectful or displayed hatred. It could be helpful if you could offer some examples, so that the discussion was then about specifics, rather than generalities. I also thought 5614's post addressed each of your concerns rather well. What was your reaction?

In the interests of historical accuracy we might wish to consider Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel from 1969, and Indira Ghandi in India from 1966. Edit: And consider that women are heads of state or government in Sri Lanka, Ireland, Latvia, New Zealand, Finland, Phillipines, Bangladesh, Sao Tome and Principe, and Mozambique. Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/4642/ [i know you don't like geocities Sayonara.]

And they only have three billion years to do it before the sun screws it all up or we collide with Andromeda.

all? all?? All???!!Rather extreme don't you think. What happens to all those areas of research that have little bearing on space, yet are important? What happens to those areas of research that are currently managed with much greater efficiency than NASA?

Would that be like the devolution we had in Scotland?

You aren't at odds with me Skye. I was hoping someone would step up to the plate and say that. It is very comforting to think of the terrorists as being brainwashed, unwashed, undeducated, unthinking zealots. We can recognise someone like that: put a label on them and we are half way to stopping them! The excellent article you have linked to makes the point that many of these are almost the reverse of this stereotype. Tecoyah provided a one word explanation earlier in the thread - desparation. It does not have to be personal desperation. It can be desperation for ones people or ones beliefs. In that regard the terrorist is displaying an altrusitic concern for his own family/culture/society, which is why within that framework she will be regarded as a heroine. A final point that may offend some, so I shall put it in personal terms to try to reduce the offence. If I am ever on a plane that is hi-jacked please do not allow any part of the media, or any politician, refer to me as an innocent victim. In voting as I vote (or even worse not voting), in living the consumer life style I do, in focusing on my life, my needs, my wants (where 'my' includes family, friends, and fellow Economist subscribers), I have lost all entitlement to be considered innocent.

The best demonstration out there of why eye-witness testimony, including our own, should be treated skeptically.

You have to hit the event in space too, and that is where relative to now?

Re the Excel decimals, how strange. I never noticed that before. Yet Excel will allow you to set up to 30 decimal places. I tried using custom and scientific and still no sucess. I have a tame Excel expert across the pond. I'll check with her and let you know.

What's interesting here is that it is probable that it was the impact of a Mars sized body during the final stages of the Earth's formation that is responsible for us being here.By stripping away a large proportion of the lighter crustal elements it made possible plate tectonics. Without plate tectonics we lose regulatory mechanisms on climate and agents of change that promoted evolution. A portion of those stripped lighter elements condensed to form the moon, which has been critical in stabilising the earth's rotation and making it more amenable to life.

We have demonstrated a singular inability to predict the impact of even small changes on an ecosystem. The concern is that GM foods may have a disastrous, unanticipated effect that does not show up within the constraints of the testing program. The benefits of GM are questioned, and some argue they are grossly overstated by commercial interests. Even assuming the benefits are genuine, the haste with with which we have embarked upon implementation of GM in some areas causes alarm among those who fear a catastrophe. I favour continued cautious research, development and testing of GM products, but on a much broader base than current programs. There is no need for GM products at present unless you are a agri-chem company looking for enhanced profits.

Quite correct, but regretably the timing is not before 2030.

This has been nagging me ever since I first read this thread. Where and when did Bush ever say men on Mars by 2010?The provisional goals are to return to the moon by 2015 at the earliest. The manned Mars visit would take place after 2030. And all that before Congress get their hands on funding allocations. Those who voted 'yes', we will reach Mars by 2010, might benefit from distinguishing between desire and reality.

My assessment of the picture is pretty much the same as YT. I do have to take issue with Sayonara's view that there is no evidence for what ghosts are. At least one form of ghostly manifestation is well accounted for. Psychologists have long recognised that in the state between sleeping and waking hallucinations can occur. Many ghost sightings occur when the witness has just woken up. The image they see in this instance can look very real. This does not account for all sightings, but certainly for a significant minority.

It allows us to have something in reserve when we wish to really make a point.

For much the same reason you take out insurance on your home.

I thought that it was fairly well agreed that we are inside a black hole, or have I been watching too much Discovery channel with my brain in neutral? both? Neither?

Thanks ed, though it didn't quite address my questions over mass and the missing neutrinos. This one does that nicely so I am now a happy bunny.http://www.phys.hawaii.edu/~jgl/nuosc_story.html#A%20Decade%20Old%20Problem Edit; just looked back through the post and I see Subjunk was asking for references. This one looks solid to me. But then I'm an Earth scientist and easily confused.

I wonder if it was something like this that you ran across. The main thrust of the story is that SETI, the Institute for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, basically picked up the reins when NASA lost governent funding for such work, and has done most of this with private funding.http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astrobiology_report_020719.html Also there have been a lot of proposals that NASA should make more use of private funding, and in fact should transform itself into a management entity with projects carried out by private comapnies. Not exactly the same thing, but the same ball park. This article gives a nice perspective on that side of things. http://www.cato.org/dailys/7-16-97.html