Moontanman

Just curiosity on my part about how metal alloys are made, or more accurately, why certain elements are used as alloys but not others. I know carbon isn't a metal, poor choice of words on my part really. Iron and carbon make steel, I have to assume the combination was accidental on the part of iron smiths since the very idea of an element wasn't really clear at the time. I am assuming that some other alloys were also accidental or maybe more accurately experiments of trying to combine properties of various elements. I wondered if it is a hit and miss process or if there is more of a science behind it and if so could the properties of such combinations be predicted. I'm not sure if we were starting from scratch if someone could have predicted iron and carbon would make a better alloy or if it would still be mostly hit and miss experiments? In other words do we have a reason to combine certain elements or would it be as a wild a shot in the dark as adding lead and tungsten to see what happens? As for recovering... I'm not sure it is possible to do anything more than deal with the profound sadness I feel. Hasn't diminished any, I am just learning to accept what I can't change. Oh yeah, I have been giving this alloy question some thought for a couple weeks now. I had seen a show where an alloy was being touted as unknown to modern science and it got me to thinking how such a assertion could really be made.

Is it possible to predict the properties of metal alloys? I think many of the first alloys like iron and carbon equal steel were probably accidental but can we predict this now days?

I'm going to have to disagree, the Earth rotating as the Moons tidal effects slow down Earth's rotation has to result in some heat. Not as much as other sources but it has to be a significant source of heat/friction.

I have more than a six pack, I have a keg!

Believe it or not the melancholy is mostly a look, they are lazy and the look contributes to the profound dignity/silliness of the breed.

When I was a kid dogs would follow me when I went fishing. I would set out with my fishing pole and walk a few miles to the river, along the way I would always pick up an entourage of dogs from houses along the way. They would sit with me while I fished, wrestle with each other and chase rabbits. When I went home the dogs would cut out of the "pack" as I passed the houses where they lived. My grand father was the same way, dogs just seemed to like him and me as well. I have no idea why, some of the dogs were big others were small, mostly hounds but a few others as well. I spent much of my adult life raising basset hounds as pets, weird dogs for sure. Many people think they are dumb... not true they just don't care to please like many dogs do. They are very self centered and distant unless they want something. I had some bassets that were almost too lazy to live, others that were active and aggressive. All of them adhered to the pack mentality, individually they were shy and barked incessantly at anything strange. In a group they became almost of one mind and few other dogs would want to approach them, a ring of barking bassets circling around you is an impressive and frightening thing. When I walked them they would always walk around me and stay between me and any other animal or person who approached. their behavior in a group and individually was like night and day. As individuals they were easily frightened, mostly with a couple of notable exceptions, but as a pack they were a force to be reckoned with.

I missed the original air date but I did enjoy it, not really accurate but still a good drama.

I finished out the show, really good show considering what it was based on. The confusion and crazy of the mid 20th century was portrayed quite well.

Anyone else watched Project Blue Book? I am watching it on Peacock but I think it originally aired on the History Channel. Not a bad show, it does seem to be loosely based on actual UFO sightings, very loosely, they take a lot of poetic licence and make up details and change names but I do recognise the sightings from the late 50s to early 60s so far. Sadly they have left out some details that were IMHO important and made up stuff to make a "better" story but really didn't need the embellishments. Let me know if you watched it and want to discuss.

Not exactly!

Yes, but do the curtains match the rug?

My first wife was a readhead, she couldn't tan, her skin turned red and her freckles turned green, I told her she looked like a christmas tree.

You noticed that too!

I never suggested the tool is evil, I was just using the word in a different context. Religious rituals have no basis in rational thought.

It was both wrong and irrational. Lying to a child is always wrong, telling a child that something irrational is true is doubly wrong. The irrational part is the people believing it, the wrong part is the few lying to the many for power. Hmm, I think we are using the word ritual in different ways, I am using it in the sense of something used to control others through repetition and repetition of non truthful things. IMHO words do not have meanings but usages, that is why when you look up a word in the dictionary they have many and even contradictory definitions but your mileage may vary. No, you are putting words in my mouth, the past has wisdom as does the present and so will the future, none of them have the last word on knowledge but science becomes ever more accurate, faith and belief are not, were not, and will not be accurate methods of obtaining knowledge.

Religion IMHO was just an attempt to explain our reality in terms of what we observed, our instinctive biases, and a generous dollop of mind altering drugs. There was no doubt some logic in it as far as the observations go but they were flawed and no method of testing them existed. I am willing to discuss whether or not this involved rationality but IMHO any rationality was immediately overshadowed by the need for ritual and control by an individual or an elite group. Belief and faith played and still play a paramount part in religion and these are not rational means of obtaining knowledge.

I read about this 40+ years ago, although it was named boron proton fission then.

None the less none of them are based in or on rationality. You are forgetting the ones that have lasted for longer than 2000 years or do I sense a bit of favoritism? I thought religions all claimed to be true as opposed to social structures which can be total bullshit and still withstand the test of time. I mean the Illuminati is still around.

I've been in that inner circle of hell! Religion is far from rational, religion's foundations have nothing to do with rationality.

OMG! There is a nuclear reactor inside the Earth! We're all gonna die!

Exactly, I'd like to point out that the life Isaac Asimov suggested would require a narrow "goldilocks" zone much like Earth and no planet in our Solar System meets this requirement, although Jupiter's Moon Io might have these conditions underground below it's frozen sulfur rich surface.

Six of one half dozen of the other much?