EdEarl

I love this forum, but I may end up biting my tongue off to keep myself from saying things that shouldn't be said.

A pencil with its graphite core can leave a conductive mark, but the graphite deposit appears to be discontinuous. Thus, getting a long conductive mark may be difficult. It is easy to try and inexpensive.

I am no expert, but it sounds like the ions minimize the distance between the two electrodes and assure maximum electrode surface area.

From the page you selected, "And in fact, when the children were placed in foster homes, they immediately began to gain weight - while still maintaining vegan diets."

I haven't found any laws against feeding children a vegan diet. Please provide a link.

Check out khanacademy.org.

Good luck. I expect you will need quite a bit of math. Check out https://www.khanacademy.org/.

You are welcome to practice your beliefs. And, there are many medical professionals who agree with you. I believe the information in the references I gave is newer and more accurate than the FDA diet that most physicians and nutritionists teach. And, I believe the FDA diet will be recognized as not particularly good for people. In the mean time, you have the preponderance of medical professionals on your side. I recommend you watch Forks over Knives and evaluate the evidence. I think you will find it compelling, but doubt you will change your eating habits, because a habit is very difficult to change.

I suppose you mean I am not vegan because I eat a little meat about once a month. Very well, I am not a true vegan. I do not have ethical reasons for being vegan, only health reasons, but I am loosing my taste for meat, and find fatty meat tastes awful. Although years ago, I relished pork chops and cheeseburgers.

Yes, but countries with the highest consumption of milk also have the highest incidence of osteoporosis. Refer to the links I provided before.

I have not heard of that particular effect being produced by meditation or self hypnosis, but it may be possible. I meditate to control pain, a technique taught by several eastern religions. Moreover, a few western physicians teach meditation and/or self hypnosis to control pain.

You have some good ideas, and should pursue them. I would recommend you start with simple experiments and compare all alternatives. For example, compare superconducting and non-superconducting solutions. It is important to consider both scientific and economic factors. Economic factors are influenced by the time they are introduced into the market, so you need to estimate when a product will be ready for market and what the market will be at that time. Technical solutions may be influenced by future advancements, too. Some future factors are impossible to predict, others are not. Your first task is to become an expert on the scientific issues. How much time that will take depends on you, but it is easy to underestimate.

Gendun Drup, the 1st Dalai Lama lived from 1391–1474. I doubt there is proof that he did not eat meat, but Buddhists are well know for not killing anything, even insets, and for being vegan. And, there are 13 other Dalai Lamas, some had shorter lives, but some lived very long lives. And, I believe there are millions of Buddhists living today who have not eaten meat; although, I have no proof. And, I will preemptively admit that I have read some Buddhists do eat meat. The references I provide previously contradict your statements about people needing meat. Since they are MDs and an MD PhD, I will not argue their case. Being an omnivore is an evolutionary advantage, especially when life spans were short anyway. It takes decades for cholesterol to block arteries and kill.

I find curious that this thread has almost no references; thus, it is almost entirely opinion about the ethics of killing animals. I would like to cite references that indicate animal products are already harmful to our health, we do not need genetic modification. Moreover, these same references indicate that eating vegan is a healthful life style. While B12 is found in animals, only bacteria and archaea have the enzymes required synthesize B12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12 http://www.youtube.com/movie/forks-over-knives http://www.drmcdougall.com/ The documentary Forks over Knives is available on Netflix. It is the work of two cardiologists, one researcher and one practitioner. Dr. McDougall is a cardiologist practitioner. Both of these practitioners have healed cardiac patients, who were proclaimed "on their death bed" by other cardiologists. Their "magic" was to put these terminally ill patients on a vegan diet. The researcher explains why our biochemistry is ill suited to process animal products. My doctor put me on a vegan diet, and within two months of being on the diet, I was able to stop taking blood pressure meds, which I had taken for over 20 years. And, my health has improved in other ways too. Many Buddhists are vegan, and often live to be quite old. The Dali Lama was born in 1937, and is in better health than I (1944), who ate meat and animal products most of my life (and still do occasionally). Of course an example or two is not good evidence. But, the references I give do cite many more examples. In addition, growing meat consumes much land the could be used for farming. Estimates I have read say growing animals takes 8 times as much land as growing vegetables to feed the same number of people. If you also have ethical reasons for not killing animals, as Buddhists do, fine. The above references do not discuss that issue. Due to my age, I have seen about 20 doctors in the past few years, few of them are aware of the ill effects of eating meat and meat products. However, my son-in-law is studying medicine, and at least some medical schools do have such classes. But, most nutrition education is based on FDA guidelines, which is strongly allied to agribusiness, including the meat and milk industry. http://www.ecornell.com/certificate-programs/other-training/certificate-in-plant-based-nutrition-certificate/crt/TCCC01

Some people dig in and refuse to change their opinion, at least in public, whenever evidence indicates they have made a mistake. Grinding can be counterproductive.

Try this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercapacitor

F=ma Force = mass * acceleration It has been a long time since I did this; I will probably make a mistake. Assume a person of 100kg mass...a big man, but easy math. 800km is about 0.25 m/s If the bike is stopped in 1 sec, the acceleration is 0.25m/s2 F = 100kg * 0.25m/s2 F = 25kg*m/s2 = 25 newtons = about 5.620 pound-force I do not know how much force a body can withstand. However, less than 0.25m thickness of a body is damaged in a fraction of a second. The 25 N force is greater as the impact duration decreases. Thus, the impact force is greatest at the first instant of impact and decreases until complete. The force is also distributed over an area of impact, and the instantaneous force on one part of the body would differ from another because the area of impact will change during the impact. I do not know how to do that integral. Eventually, one might be able to estimate the dimensions of an air bag to absorb the force. Needless to say, it would be much greater than those in automobiles going 80k/h, at least 10 times more. The height of the vehicle above ground also affects the design. To be sure it works, one should do crash experiments, or at least simulate them in a computer. Adios.

Amount of trouble...I know of no yardstick, metric, or device that can help convey my anguish caused by religion. I can only attest that it was profound and prolonged; that is, very bad for many years. Even now as a 68 year old I am affected. I have a younger brother who does not speak to me.

Hoverbikes are fictitious. Just speculate crashes never occur..AI driver. I'd be surprised if a moderator does not chide you for posting in engineering.

No, some life depends only on chemosynthesis. Most life would die though.

I would like to be unbiased at 4, but realistically closer to 7. IMO anything but 4 is a religious belief; but religion frustrates and angers me. I am not the sharpest tack in the box, and cannot be an eloquent spokesman for reason and the scientific method. I will generally stay on the sidelines, and cast a vote occasionally. Thanks for your clarification. I like the Dawkins scale.

Channing's quote is interesting rhetoric or free verse, but some, maybe most, spiritual advocates practice indoctrination and spurn those who think for themselves. My family of religious zealots have not spoken to me for five decades, except for my mother who always hoped I would (my words, forget how to reason and) return to religion. I realize believers have an almost impossible challenge to overthrow religious addiction because there are no obvious ill effects, as there are with drug addiction. Everything seems OK to them. And, they think these words are illogical. I really wish I could help them, but feel it is an almost impossible challenge to free them enough to reason. I can only offer my story to demonstrate the subtle ways that religion is harmful. Everyone knows about religious wars and the inquisition as horrible side effects of religion, but that doesn't deter people from being religious. Perhaps my story will be like the whisper of butterfly wings that cause a hurricane...not likely. It is more likely that religious people will consider me a lost soul, instead of considering my story important.

Is Einstein's curved space another explanation for the orbit of a satellite, or is that idea related, if so how?

You can start here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_erosion

When one is isolated, their independent thoughts can lead in them in any direction. As Skinner box experiments show, even chickens can develop religion (e.g., standing on one foot and spinning clockwise to "pray" for food during random feeding). Isolation leaves one with a deep hunger for change. In my case, I identified my mother's religious doctrine as being partly responsible for being abused; thus, my change was atheistic, but concluded atheism assumes too much about the concept of God. I agree that online forums like this can help those who lack social interaction. I am married, disabled, and alone much of the day because my wife works. This forum gives me social interaction. Social interaction via the internet is a relatively new phenomenon that has already had surprising affects, and I expect others. People seem to need religion to face uncertainty. It doesn't seem to be a genetic trait; rather, a consequence of rational thought being difficult compared to other thought, (David Rock says rational thinking is difficult and uses lots of glucose compared to other thinking). Yes, this kind of discussion tends to threaten religious folks and be taboo. Thus, much of my life I have been too frightened to speak up. Now, that I am old and at least partly protected by the internet, I am brave enough to share my story. And, I am insignificant compared to Richard Dawkins and others. It is unlikely anyone will fire bomb my house.