sethoflagos

Does that effect actually prevent one from choosing to reduce sugar consumption? Does adverising actually prevent one from choosing to reduce sugar consumption? If your answer to either of these questions is something other than 'no' then I refer you to Bob Newhart: Maybe I'm missing your point. But for now I'll stick with the word 'choice'.

Sounds rather like a plea of 'not guilty' on grounds of diminished responsibility. Good luck in court with that argument. State of mind is rarely uninvolved in any significant choice we make.

You might like to have a look at "The emergence of a collective sensory response threshold in ant colonies" Gal & Kronauer, PNAS, 2022

@Munim : Why is the best agreed estimation of the dawn of the universe unsuitable as a t=0 from which all other times can be measured? For a closed system, a pure crystalline solid of any arbitrary size has only one permutation at absolute zero (ground state) and an entropy of zero. It is not totally inconceivable that the initial entropy of the universe was zero. @Munim : Entropy increases with the logarithm of system volume so how can an ever-expanding universe reach equilibrium? @Munim : Thermodynamic equilibrium does not preclude, for example, isentropic events... @Munim : ... but it may preclude life as we know it, Jim! So time may continue with no one left to experience it.

You might be interested in a further related article in Nature: 'Multistage lithospheric drips control active basin formation within an uplifting orogenic plateau'. PDF here. This analysis differs from the OP article in that the upper mantle delamination seems to be driven purely by isostatic imbalance and does not require a subduction induced Raleigh-Taylor current to shear it free. Again, it focuses on relatively modern fold zones, but is potentially more general in its global applicability. For a mental picture, Anton Petrov has put together quite a good Youtube video overview of it at:

In this thread, as almost universally elsewhere, the word 'chaos' is being misused. As a scientific concept it is a blundering shorthand for 'deterministic chaos' or a bounded degree of uncertainty in the evolution of certain systems. It does not imply 'utterly random' as in common usage and theological context. Monkeys evolve directly into slightly different forms of monkey: not guppies or petunias. It's a red-flag word for me, so wherever the likes of Dim exploit the ambiguity of 'chaos' for their own nefarious ends, I automatically substitute 'diversity'. It usually helps lift the fog.

No-one? How about Tectonic Explorer? I can make no qualified judgment of its correspondence to reality, but it is fun to play with. Your notion that earth's continental crust was formed on the dark side of a tidally-locked planet that was subsequently spun up by 'space-whips' is not supported by the geological record. Counter evidence just on geological grounds include ancient deltaic tidal rhythmite deposits etc

Isn't this a fair approximation of a low density ideal gas? They do at low enough temperatures. TdS = d (CvT) is a tough ODE to solve as you approach absolute zero if Cv doesn't disappear in tandem. I'd still expect them to act in accordance with Newton's 1st Law. In essence, that's all I'm trying to reconcile.

This seems to suggest that maybe admittance of a particle in a 'forbidden' quantum state into an already occupied space is impossible as it would require a superluminal value of momentum to achieve the necessary energy density? This picture at least has the virtues of a) the energy of repulsion is derived from the particle's own KE and b) the force carrier for momentum transfer can be whatever is appropriate for that class of particle eg. virtual photons for electrons etc. I'm pretty comfortable with the old derivation of degeneracy pressure in the classic Fermi paper attached where eqns. 7, 8, 9 pretty well form my understanding of ideal gas heat capacity and entropy at low temperatures. As far as my old day job necessitated anyway. Clearly there's a bridge somewhere that I need to find... I'm in no position to question this. But it seems to be an observation rather than an explanation. Fermi Quantisation of MIG.pdf

Then which of the remaining fundamental forces manifest as degeneracy pressure, and what, if any, is the force carrying particle? Sorry, I did try to export this quote into a new topic, but I couldn't find the right button.

Because evolution tends to respond to increasing environmental diversity by increasing biological diversity which, in turn, increases environmental diversity. A fundamentally unstable and unpredictable system.

Thank you, yes. That's the distinction I was attempting to refer to.

Is it truly a failure of logic? Bad arguments based on false premises can still be logically flawless. We get a bit challenged in our definitions when assuming all arguments are presented in good faith. Sometimes they are not. The problems can lie in ethos or pathos rather than logos.

Do you really think that biology teachers are beating the jesuits at their own game?

Perhaps more particularly, and for a variety of reasons, many are drawn to explore the boundaries of accepted practice of the previous generation. All parents must I think see this in the behaviour of their children. It's how they learn. And it is fundamentally unstable. Another of nature's little jokes at our conceits.

Like stamp-collecting or morris dancing? What an utterly absurd conclusion. Why are you so uncomfortable with the idea that those who cherish nature do so because they identify as being equal parts of it? You clearly do not feel that way. You evaded denying a god-given claim to dominion over nature, and fabricate some entirely fictitious ill-intent to the natural world in order to justify reneging on your ethical obligations to it.

And yet it is conspicuous by its absence in most of our interactions with the natural world. You didn't answer this bit.

So if humanity offered little to no practical benefit to other species (endangered or otherwise) then there would be no justification for the preservation of humanity? This seems to be a logical extension of your reasoning. Is this what you really believe? Or do you consider humanity (or at least, your part of it) to be somehow worthy of exception: Where does the practice of exercising dominion without responsibility come on your list of evils?

Back in the '70s, the only species I recall seeing with this intensity of colour was Gymnocalycium mihanovichii (var. Hibotan), which had so little chlorophyll it had to be grafted onto (typically) a Hylocereus sp. rootstock. It seems there are more of these options available these days.

Comb through Cactiguide.com The link opens on a best guess candidate species I remember from my cactus collecting days. The strange colour is obtained through propagation of a random sport.

So you don't regard say Levallois tool-making as a scientific advance? Good luck managing to procreate in the palaeolithic if you can't even make a decent pointy stick.

... an ability Leo G. Carroll perfected in the role of Trump in the 1933 Broadway production of 'The Green Bay Tree'?

Metabasite is a broad term for a metamorphosed basic (ie. low silica) rock. If that low silica rock was originally a basalt (as in this particular case) we can be more specific and call it a metabasalt. The terms aren't exactly synonymous, but ... A lot of these newer terms have appeared due to the modernisation of rock type systematics that the BGS has been implementing over the last couple of decades. More at BGS Rock Classification Scheme My crib sheet for metamorphics attached. Most of the outcrops in this area have been subjected to a 'greenschist' grade of metamorphism which is typically characterised by the green mineral chlorite. I'm not 100% sure that @exchemist's blue is the glaucophane blue of 'blueschist' grade, but it's possible. Classification of Metamorphic Rocks.pdf

You might be able to glean a little more from Geology of the Greenock district Memoir for 1:50 000 geological sheet 30W and part of sheet 29E (Scotland). From what I can make out, the beach walk north starting at the Highland Boundary Fault near Kilcreggan will cross: 500m of Bullrock Greywacke until junction with School Road 2000m of Dunoon Phyllite until just after beach crossing of Dowall Burn in Cove 300m of Beinn Bheula Schist to just before Knockderry House Hotel 100m of 'metabasalt' before continuation of Beinn Bheula Schist This last looks to be associated with the Loch Katrine Volcaniclastic Formation situated directly across Loch Long from the hotel, which is dated to Ediacaran Age. Since the hotel is built on this formation I'm guessing it's a good candidate for the photograph.

Shouldn't speculate really, but the first thought that came to mind was amphibolite. Similar tones, textures, banding, and definitely not out of place for that area.