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Strange has given you the accepted thinking of the scientific community. A photon hitting a photographic plate will show an image whether a human ( or other ) consciousness looks at it or not. Hint- Getting into a metaphysical argument with Dimreepr is best done when you are stoned. Sometimes you wanna hug him, sometimes you wanna strangle him .

The problem goes beyond simple lies. Prior to the Internet, the principle source of knowledge for people was books. Getting a book published took lots of effort, and the only thing that reached our schools were the textbooks selected by the school system. This was not foolproof-- but it tended to screen out some of the lies and misinformation. Now, anybody can 'publish' any sort of nonsense and reach a large audience. Virtually anyone who wishes some fact was not true can find plenty of support on the internet for their misguided hopes. It's the same as the political situation-- people with politically extreme ideas seem to have no difficulty finding some 'news' source that tells them what they want to believe.

I don't eat clay or marble either, but I use these things (along with almonds) for sculpture. Not everyone can handle the danger involved in cyano-artistic expression, but you shouldn't let your fear keep you from enjoying the most important part, the kernel. Allegedly carved from an apricot kernel:

A few eclectic points: Half the world's population lives within 50 miles of a sea shore. People in Manhattan live 50,000/sq mi and apparently like it that way. Some of us live 5/sq mi and think it's too crowded. Can anyone name a natural resource we are in danger of depleting in the next, say 300 yrs? As the supply of a resource dwindles, it's price goes up, so demand goes down and the resource lasts even longer. We now produce more than enough food to feed our 7.5 B people. It's estimated we waste half of it. People today only starve due to local, politically impaired distribution systems. The agronomists tell us American farmers could increase yields by 25% if they all properly installed good drain tile systems.. Food's not a problem at this point. In the "Survivalists" Forums, they often talk about the " when the SHTF" situations and how they can survive because they've taken all these precautions, put up stores and can produce much of their own food. I always point out that, before they get too full of themselves, the Amish have been living that way for centuries and are much better at it. When the EOTWAWKI (End of the World As We Know It) does occur, all those Third 'World, subsistence living types will live on as if nothing happened. Mankind is safe. Industrialized society/ urban living may come under some challenges. edited to add: It's been the fad lately to talk about "sustainable agriculture." There's a reason The Fertile Crescent ain't so fertile anymore, nor is N.Africa capable any longer of being the bread basket of Rome, or why Daniel Boone & Davy Crockett kept moving west every few yrs: "organic farming" quickly plays out the land. The only sustainable ag is modern ag using inorganic N fixed by the Haber-Bosch Process. Using manure as a soil amendment only shifts fertility from the pasture to the row crops while progressively decreasing fertility of the pasture. It doesn't increase over-all fertility and is limited by the finite efficiency of natural soil microbes.

Actually, he's leguminous. Willie Nelson is nuts, but sings "Crazy". He also has one of the world's most non-existent almond sculpture collections.

It is just the interaction required by an observation or measurement that matters. If an interaction occurs, but is not part of a measurement or observation, then it has exactly the same effect(*), so "sentience" is not an issue. (*) This does, of course, raise the philosophical "tree in a forest" question of how we would know it has the same effect. And in quantum theory, this is what leads to the Schroedinger's Cat thought experiment (and all the extensions, such as if his lab assistant opens the box but no one opens the door to the lab, then is the whole laboratory including the assistant in a superposition of states). As none of that makes any practical difference, I think we can ignore it.

It is a bizarre question, but the answer is that they must have the same number of chromosomes and genes if they have the same genome. It's as if someone asked: "if the contents of these two books are the same, do they have the same words and chapters?" The answer is: Yes, because that is what the "have the same contents" means. (Maybe the people who wrote the question don't actually know what the words "genome", "chromosome", etc mean.)

You seem to have built a very complicated barometer.

I think they didn't find the aether because it doesn't exist.

Yeah, sometimes 'life happens' and you gotta take a break. Good to have you back.

As others have informed you, the only centre of any universe, is that of our observable universe. An Alien on the edge of our observable universe, would also be the centre of his or her observable universe. It has been shown [MAXIMA, Boomerang, WMAP experiments] that our universe is flat to within small tolerances. That flatness does not give us with any certainty, an answer to the question re the universe being infinite or finite, when we consider exotic geometries like a torus. Been off grid for a while fellas and a busy little beaver but havn't as yet kicked the bucket!!!

This was fixed I think spellcheck had set it that way. Sorry didn’t realize it

I’m more worried about the hysteria than the actual virus at this point

Beyond the obvious personal financial interests of these individuals, there’s also the broader cultural implications, namely control. Those sharing the lies are like puppeteers making our fellow citizens often akin to marionettes. “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.“ ~Voltaire

The article you read was very sensationalist and over-dramatic. Here is a more measured description: https://www.universetoday.com/140619/massive-triple-star-system-creates-this-bizarre-swirling-pinwheel-of-dust-and-it-could-be-the-site-of-a-gamma-ray-burst/ So that is a lot of energy to be released in a short time period. But there are other events (supernovae, black hole mergers, etc) that can release similar or larger amounts of energy. Some journalists do like to say that any big event is "the biggest ever" - it helps get more clicks and more advertising money. And there is no reason to think it is "about to blow". Form the article above: As the writer say, not only will we not be around to see it but quite possibly humans won't either ("Whether or not those astronomers will be human is another matter entirely. A lot can happen in a few hundred thousands years.") As those comments are just sound like some teenage rando spouting off about something they don't understand, I would just ignore them. Concentrate on the science, instead. But basically they are saying: "it may sound dramatic but it isn't dangerous and it is scientifically fascinating". Which is not much different from the final sentence of the article above:

"... In the what-keeps-me-up-at-night category, this object ranks pretty low. ..." It means stop trying to find things to worry about. Your doomsday cult should be based on some real, identifiable risk, like climate change. (Also, why does your profile say your favourite area of science is "astrology"? That's NOT a science.)

Hello all this has to be one of the funniest or weirdest video I have ever seen. It talks about ways things can end in 2020, but watching the video sounds so general. The one that really strikes my curiosity is the rogue black hole. Has anyone had a chance to see this yet. the mass depression part is hilarious what are you thoughts?

Do the math: Pre-WW II farming was essentially "organic"-- the best yields were 50bu/ac for corn. Today, corn belt farmers get 200bu/ac-- ain't enough cow dung and Rhizobium to produce that. US population before WW II ~130M; today it's 330M....We've been swimming hard against the current all these yrs and can't stop now or we'll get swept away. To go organic on a large scale would result in a large change in the carrying capacity necessitating a commensurate die-off. ...Any volunteers?