npts2020

Short on facts long on speculation. If it is impossible to take a picture of it, what is the picture in the article of?

JohnB: Heat does not flow from a "colder upper atmosphere to a warmer surface". As the upper atmosphere warms (but still colder than the surface) there is less difference in temperature between the two. The rate of heat transfer is related to the difference in temperature between source and sink (in this case surface and upper atmosphere). As you heat the sink (upper atmosphere) less heat is transferred away from the surface causing surface temperatures to rise till again reaching equilibrium at some higher temperature.

Anyone remember Kent State in 1970?

One could say aliens existed but no rational person would give it credence without some further evidence. In the case of evolution, you dont even have to believe fossils are real (although it is more logical to see how they could have been formed from extinct life forms than any alternatively proposed process I have ever seen) to see it in action. What do you suppose breeding (plant or animal) is all about? There are still bodies of many extinct species, dodo birds, carrier pigeons, and wooly mammoths just to name a couple, in existence. Where did those bodies come from? Plus there is speciation occuring right now, how many breeds of dogs, cats, or corn are there now compared with 200 or even 100 years ago? Simply put, evolution is the best explanation for the way things change from one generation to the next. I would love someone to come up with a better idea for it but I'm not holding my breath.

If we had to launch a ship ASAP this would be a logical choice for doing it. I think most of the objections are not well founded in facts, however. Right now there are many "closed" environments called submarines that use exactly a reactor for an energy source. Furthermore, they have been in operation for over 50 years. IMO the only valid argument against a well designed nuclear plant is proliferation issues. Anyone who can understand refining technology and how a reactor works can build a nuclear bomb. If in fact we should worry about terrorists or rogue states obtaining and using one, how many people do you want with that kind of knowledge? The more you use the technology, the more chance of having someone willing to use their knowledge for undesirable purposes.

Which society?

Knupfer: Even scientists mostly agree that the human race will become "extinct" someday, so I fail to see your point. Does that mean we should all bury our heads in the sand in the meantime and wait for "the end"? I am not a scientist by profession but still like to try to understand the world around me, science gives me that explanation better than any other. If you have better explanations for things we all want to hear and see how they better explain natural processes.

I just finished wading through one of the biggest piles of B.S. ever. After reading every word of HR-3997 or the Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 it seems like the only thing they did was add more spending on top of the already rejected $700B. While the bill has something for just about everyone to like, the totality is the biggest money grab in the history of the planet. What I don't understand, is if the real problem caused by all of this is credit availability, why doesnt the government do the lending on its own through the treasury, small business administration, or some other agency, especially since it is claimed that it is the overnight market mostly that is suffering? If that is in fact the problem, then government intervention should be very short term, a few months and not years. BTW the pork mentioned on the CNN site is only a few things seemingly pulled out at random and does not even comprise half of the giveaways over and above the original $700B.

In nearly 40 years of following politics I have never seen a populace more opposed to anything the government was doing than the current financial institution bailout plan (not Viet Nam, Iraq, Watergate, or even Guantanamo Bay). My personal opinion is that the American public realizes they are not being dealt with in an honest manner, even if they dont understand the intricacies of the problem. Economists can't come to a consensus about what to do,either. You have well respected and knowledgable economists weighing in at every point from total bailout and control by the gov to doing nothing at all. Without knowing anything else, you have two "experts" telling opposite things, one says cough up large amounts of your money to help "the system" out, the other says save your own money "the system" is a black hole that needs fundamental changing before investing in it. Add to that the people arguing for the first option claim it really isn't a bailout but what else do you call giving money to someone in financial trouble who has exhausted all other means of paying off their debts? Who are you going to listen to? The problem for the politicos is that dipping into peoples pockets is one of the few things that government does that gets the attention of a large segment of the electorate. If the house goes along with the senate bill before the election, look to see as many as 100 or more new representatives come January, unfortunately they will still be mostly democrats and republicans.

Two things from the last 2 posts. Firstly, I thought earmarks were added after the bill had already passed and was in conference? Secondly, how can anyone buy cash or gold in significant amounts but not be able to buy real estate?

Exactly how are you defining the term "greed"? I dont see how it can be defined in such a way as to not be a negative (to those not greedy) trait. It has been a couple of decades since reading "Wealth of Nations", "Das Kapital", etc. but it seems to me every book I read seemed to say capitalism is based on greed (what is profit motive?). What is capitalism based upon if not greed?

Not exactly. Greed is the basis of capitalism, does that mean no capitalist system is tenable? The true cause is allowing that greed to be unfettered.

ParanoiA, there has been very little detail about the plan. Getting a copy of the bill the house turned down before it was voted on was nearly impossible. There was some talk about allowing the treasury secretary to basically run the economy as he saw fit, that was changed but exactly how? Why should the financial institutions that are in trouble be supported by taxpayers (other than the corporate welfare mentality that has permeated Washington for a couple of decades now)? Are we going to run out of banks? When the "trickle down" stops trickling why should those at the bottom be expected to keep the system propped up? IMO the sooner things are allowed to crash, the sooner we can begin to correct the problem, which has more to do with lack of enough resources for an overpopulated world than the price of an American's house or how big his credit line is. If we do buy up all of the bad mortgages, one of the few things I can see that would significantly push real estate values is to open immigration. Are we going to do that or is there some other concrete plan? No matter what happens most people are going to suffer some hardship.

Great idea DrP, race you to the patent office. lmao.

The showers will occur worldwide. However, a person in Australia would not see the same meteorites as a person in Canada even if it were dark in both places at the same time. I suppose it would be possible for an exceptionally long lived one to be visible in both places but i would think that the exception rather than the rule.

Unless you have access to some expensive high-tech equipment you are likely to be disappointed with the "hands on" part, for now. The best thing you can do right now is learn as much as you can about the subject, especially how the ideas evolved and the strengths and weaknesses of current theories. Combine that with a strong math curriculum (try for calculus before you graduate) and you should have a good basis to continue. Even if you don't follow through to making it your profession, math and physics are great areas of knowledge applicable to nearly all other fields of human endeavor.

Yes, and bigfoot survived and crawled out of the crater.

I dont see how any economic theory is relevant when nobody even seems to know any details. I have read literally hundreds of thousands of words on this matter and still couldnt tell anyone what the gist of it is other than to give more money to those who lost it all to begin with and hope they pay it back somehow. IMO they dont want anyone to know the details beforehand, anyway, which is one of the reasons for the big rush.

Well, the control system on shipboard electric generators I described is how the electric company "knows" whether or not to step up or reduce output, it is mostly automatic. The measurement part is after the electricity is produced. As stated a hydro plant would likely have a similar mechanism. I am not an expert on batteries and cant really comment with authority about them or their control systems. If that didnt at least partially answer your question I apologize and will defer to someone who understands what you are asking.

Actually, weight may not be a problem in the future. I read about (SciAm I think but couldnt find it) a process where the silicon is laid down in atoms thick layers on a substrate with the result being more like sheets of aluminum foil. Whether the efficiency makes it practical or economical I would bet against at this point.

The French have had a tungsten furnace heated by solar power for many years now, so being hot enough is not a problem. How efficiently it does that is another matter with which I am not familiar. Using fossil fuels is totally unnecessary but it is a cheap (when carbon generation is not taken into account) and convenient way of getting energy.

Thanks swansont and Klaynos, hopefully, I am beginning to understand the difference between propagation and photon speeds. Propogation and refraction has to do with absorption and re-emittance of photons, the delay causing the seeming change of the speed of light, got it. I still have a problem with every photon in the universe traveling at the same speed, though......

If humans do nothing, it will absolutely happen someday. In the next 25 years is not likely. Recording the orbits of any object in the solar system large enough to cause such a calamity has been a predilection of astronomers for some years now, long enough for them to say with fair certainty it will not happen that soon.

I fail to see how people say there are two American political parties in anything other than name. The core of both parties solidly represent business interests over individual and societal interest. With this view it should be no mystery that they dont want the same things the rest of us want. American politics is a case study on how to get people to vote against their own self interest. Combine lack of electoral options with a poorly educated public and you have our present situation. Anyone who doesnt toe the party line (i.e. Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, et.al.) is marginalized and attacked as being on the "fringe" regardless of how much sense they might make.

I cant tell you what the consequences of switching to DC would be but I can describe in as much detail as you like how a ship generates and maintains AC electricity at 60hz, I assume commercial plants have a similar mechanism. Attached to the turbine shaft (usually not directly but through gears) is a flywheel with weights that tend to fly apart when load decreases this causes a valve that controls oil flow to the governor (which controls the throttle) to open and drain faster, causing the throttles to close, thus maintaining speed of the turbine and generator. It is the opposite when load increases. The only difference between the one I am familiar with and one for hydro, would be controlling water instead of steam flow. I was once considered to be an expert on this sort of control system by the navy but it has been a long time. Hopefully, this helps. I once had a fairly senior engineering petty officer try to tell me that he could actually hear the generator speeding up and slowing down even after I explained all of this to him and told him what he heard was the throttle opening and closing to maintain speed. Fortunately, I was training the new guys and not him.