geordief

Might have been an auto spelling malfunction? (would "whether" have made any sense,even if cryptic?)

Seems a good idea .There must be theories.I wonder if they are mathematics driven or physics driven.? I am new to this subject and was interested to learn that both Feynman and Hawking had ideas before String theory showed up. Can their ideas still have any applicability since the jury still seems to be out?

Mary?(She was a big one)

Hopefully will get through the article in time.I like the bit where they are supposedly disappointed to have achieved their aim without needing to have solved quantum gravity as part of the process. Also like the comments at the bottom.(they help me to assimilate the article as they are much easier to read!! )

I would but I sprained my left ankle yesterday coincidentally a couple of hours before I was due to take a neighbour into the doctor for the exact same ailment. A case of the crippled driving the crippled.That and Storm Barra has made for a couple of evenings and afternoons in front of the fire with legs up.

https://pediaa.com/difference-between-mold-and-fungus/ " Mold and fungus are two types of organisms that belong to the kingdom Fungi. The main difference between mold and fungus is that mold is a multicellular, filamentous fungi whereas fungus is a unicellular or multicellular organism with a chitin cell wall. Fungi include molds, mushrooms, and yeast. A mushroom refers to a macroscopic fruiting body of basidiomycetes or ascomycetes. Yeast are unicellular fungi. Fungi are eukaryotic organisms, containing membrane-bound organelles. Molds produce conidia as their asexual spores. Fungi are typically decomposers that grow on decaying organic matter. They secrete digestive enzymes on the organic matter." something I didn't know either.(it must surely be called "leaf mould" for a reason you'd have thought)

"Principally, it is the action of fungi that break down the leaves. These fungi are quite slow workers, so that is why the two year wait is recommended. Leaf mould does not need worms, activators or anything else." http://www.ipcc.ie/advice/composting-diy/composted-leaves-leaf-mould/ is what I had heard but thanks for the info

I am still watching this Cox series and towards the end of today's episode ,in a description of a "creation story" he says and I quote "In the beginning there was an ocean of energy" I think I have heard it said that energy is not considered to be a "thing" ,more a property of things or a system Am I right to discount such a description or is he maybe just taking a shortcut to get some complicated ideas across to the public in a more direct way? Or have I got it wrong and does that statement make sense in a scientific way? Edit: found a link on youtube https://youtu.be/G33j5Qi4rE8

No expert but is that right? Leaves are broken down by fungi and not bacteria I have heard that "normal" manure is said to deplete the soil of nitrogen if not sufficiently rotted but haven't heard that said about leaves.

A wonderful film Sadly ,though philosophy ,whilst a worthwhile activity does not really come to our aid when momentous decisions have to be taken and there is no time for delay. Of course the best course of resolving such conflicts is to cut them off at the pass (so they don't develop into full out war )but I think the debate as to whether Britain could have avoided WW2 by wise councel has been very sadly relegated to history. Do the lessons from that time apply now?Probably not so much as conflict avoidance between the major powers at almost any cost seems even more necessary at this stage in human history.

I don't know.It was just my naive assumption that they would tend towards that state in the long run and that the more massive they were the more homogenous they would become I thought all the matter inside a black hole was the same and even that matter no longer existed but that the black hole was considered as an extreme curvature in spacetime (without understanding what that or much else besides actually meant)

If @Prometheus is correct about the Confucian underpinning of Chinese society https://www.scienceforums.net/topic/126218-war-games-russia-takes-ukraine-china-takes-taiwan-us-response/?do=findComment&comment=1193365 and if your own observation concerning the reliability of timekeeping devices is also to be banked,then any Chinese tilt at their pesky Taiwanese neighbours may well fall at the hurdle of synchronicity of attacks :-;

Thank you for your cooperation.

What do you think? Or are you saying there is no way to tell?

"Gang up," ,of course

That seems very worrying and it would not be unexpected if Russia and China were to hang up on USA. "The West" should be inclined to buttress USAs attempts to repel any dictatorial attempts at expansion but these regimes have apparently been able ,with their thuggery to keep their populations fairly docile and accepting of their servitude. On the other side of the scales USA is openly divided and very likely to acquiesce in any such expansion provided it can be sold as limited in extent. It has enough problems mounting a defense of it's own democratic acquisitions . Also its credibility amongst its allies is in the deficit column. On the plus side there is the hope that Russia and China will once again succumb to over extension of empire. As to how this administration should react,I wish I had a good idea but it seems I don't.

Is it more accurate to talk of a central region rather than any central point? And are all systems asymmetric to a degree in the finest detail? (so no physically realistic completely simple case) Or can the asymmetry be squeezed out in some limit?

Have been watching the BBC'S Universe( ) One of the 5 parts is about BHs. Apparently they may radiate away to nothing(?) and what "next" is unknown. But I wonder about what might go on at the centre. Might "centre" not be a meaningful concept? Anyway, the force of gravity at the centre of the Earth (if it was a complete homogeneous sphere would be zero ,wouldn't it? Why does that not apply to a BH?

Yes ,I had also found that but who is the man on the spiral staircase?A voyeur?

https://lyricsjonk.com/john-martyn-big-muff.html Anyone care to explain what he is talking about? ("muff" is slang for the vagina) John Martyn sadly missed.

Well ,my reaction would first be to conform to the general acceptance and to build my own castles in the air around it. Not substantial castles perhaps but they would be castles that would reinforce my own sense of importance and the need to protect the "sceptered isle" that we had. It wouldn 't need to suggest any deity since we could see what was (not) out there,but if that was the general acceptance then there would be less fascinating astronomic discoveries to make me question that if the purveyors of religious ideologies were not too invasive or overbearing.

Well we could be convinced of it (because it was so strong a case) even if we could not prove it. How might that affect us?

Same here ,but what if we ever did come to that assessment? How we we react psychologically to this finding? In the past when we assumed that we were the only civilisation it was a belief aided by gross ignorance of the physical universe Now our physical knowledge is greater and ,if we ever again decided that we really are alone ,as an intelligent civilisation in the universe it would perhaps be a different grander "aloneness" than our previous "aloneness" (which was really just a hybristic anthropocentrism that must now have had its day)

Yes ,too soon to make any such assessment but my question is whether we can say what such an assessment ,if it ever became compelling (never provable of course) might imply . If we could ever say to ourselves that ,in all likelihood no matter how far we looked that the only civilised life that ever had or ever would exist emanated from this Earth....supposing all that ,what lessons might we draw from that understanding? It is a sort of "suspension of disbelief" question as I ,personally am inclined to believe that other "alien" civilisations are there to be discovered whether or not we will ever actually do so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=899Wypv4rd0 There are very many planets that are capable of creating life forms but far fewer that have stable enough conditions to create sophisticated life forms. Is it possible that the life forms and civilization we have presently on this Earth could be the only such example anywhere in the observable universe? If that was to become apparent ,what lessons/revelations** could we draw from such an understanding?(would it be a deeper conclusion than from that there were other civilizations/cultural edifices elsewhere in the observable universe?) **not in any religious sense