OldChemE

In several of the Nuclear Power plants I worked on (designing) we had double valves on all pipelines exiting the reactor containment building. No valve is perfect (they all will leak-- even if only a tiny amount). Safety regulations required that we test the valves periodically to ensure leakage was within the acceptable range. We did this by pressurizing the space between the two valves with compressed air and measuring the rate of air loss. This was a very good test, because normally the lines contain water, so using air amplified the leakage (compared to water) and gave us a test of adequate sensitivity.

The Laws of motion-- definite yes (and for engineers especially the three forms v = v(0) + at, x = x(0) +vt + 1/2 at^2, and v^2 = v(0)^2 + 2a(x -x(0))) Also the various formulas for Kinetic energy, Potential energy, and Work

As opposed to electing a rich career politician such as a Clinton POTUS??

If you don't like vaccination for childhood diseases, the least you can do is "old world" vaccination. I come from a family of four boys. Every time one of us came down with the standard childhood disease, my mom would fix a really nice breakfast for the sick one, and when he was finished she would feed the other three using the same spoon she used for the sick one (unwashed, of course). There was risk, yes, but at least she knew we were all sick and kept a close eye on us, and took us to the doctor if necessary.

A good approach. In my physics classes I required my students to use a 5 step process in order to gain full credit for a solution. They had to read the problem and then: 1. Identify the 'Givens' by symbol, numerical value and units 2. Identify the Unknown (the thing to be found), by symbol and units 3. Select an appropriate formula linking the unknown to appropriate givens 4. Perform all unit conversions as necessary 5. Solve, showing the math and presenting the results by symbol, value, and unit

Qwerty is fine-- it had a purpose. Alphabetical order has no purpose. It's an arbitrary arrangement of faint historical value that has no correlation to the best typing arrangement. I'm not sure qwerty has a lot of correlation to what's best either, but I've learned qwerty and I'm too old to easily change. What I would love to see is for the "CTRL" key to be moved somewhere where it is not so easily reached. I am a fast, but not accurate, touch typist. On many occasions I have accidentally hit the ctrl key when reaching for the shift key, and then the keystrokes that came after the accidental ctrl key have erased whole documents before I even realized that the letter keys I struck after reaching for the shift key (due to my typing speed) were being interpreted by the computer as function commands instead of letters.

I can't speak to the topic of music, but down the street from my house years ago there was an old lady with a very nice garden. She had a sign in front of her plants that said "Grow DAMMIT!"

I did my BS in Chemical Engineering, and then a MS In Nuclear Science. By choice, I never got into research type work. However, my experience was that the multi-discipline background you acquire by doing a MS in a different subject from the BS led to many more opportunities for interesting work. There seems to be a great demand in STEM for people with the synergistic ability-- the ability to pull together the pieces using knowledge from diverse fields of study. The funny part is that I enjoyed my career immensely, but never did actually carry a job title of Chemical Engineer or Nuclear Engineer. It depends on what really interests you, but I don't think you can go wrong by staying on the path you are taking.

Maybe there won't be a "job Market" Looking at history, "Jobs", as in "go to work" are, for much of the population, a relatively new thing in society. Look at what a large percentage of the US population in the 1800's simply provided for themselves but did not "go to work" anywhere. May be we're headed for a future where what people do is what they choose to do but don't work for someone else as such. I have a relative who technically has a job in that he has a license to sell used cars, and has a auto paint shop on his property,but what he really does is trade his work for other's work, "flip" cars (as in buy, fix, and sell for more), buy and rent out property, and anything else he feels like doing when he gets up in the morning-- and he's providing for his family just fine.

Lots of Misinformation here, but maybe I can clear it up. First off-- Yes, I am a Freemason. The TV program you saw was probably put together by Scottish Rite Freemasonry, of which Albert Pike was a founder. There are two versions-- Scottish Rite and York Rite, both of which confer degrees up to the 32nd degree. However, these two organizations are branches of freemasonry for those who are interested in lots of ancient rituals and other things-- and they are NOT the original Freemasonry organization. Frankly and honestly, Albert Pike wrote a lot of stuff that I don't care for, but he is not and never was the spokesman for Freemasonry. Freemasonry originated with individual lodges and three levels of membership (Degrees). The Masonic Lodges you see around the country are part of this original organization-- which is divided by State in the United States. These State Grand Lodges are totally independent and do not answer to any higher authority. Scottish Rite and York Rite Masonry are later creations by Masons who were (my opinion here) overly fascinated with ancient rituals and religions and wanted to delve into all this stuff. A Mason who belongs to a local Lodge and is a Master Mason (3rd Degree) can join one of these organization. But it is important to understand that they do not control Freemasonry. They are simply offshoots and are not part of the State or country Grand Lodges. The Masonic Lodges you see in most towns are what Masons call "Blue Lodges" and consist of three degrees: 1st, 2nd and 3rd (also called a Master Mason). They are NOT part of Scottish or York Rite and do not take their orders from those organizations. Now-- talking about the "Blue Lodges", A Masonic lodge is a fraternity (men's organization). In order to become a member a Man must (1) believe in God and (2) be of good moral character. In times of difficulty we try to look out for our members and their families-- but we can't always do much because our members are not rich. However, we do an informal background check on every applicant and to become a member you have to have unanimous approval of the members. So, once a man joins one of our lodges we have a pretty good confidence that he is a good man (no guarantees here, but we try). When Masons travel to other places, they can always look for a local lodge in order to meet local people who are (most likely) of good moral character. This is why we have secret modes of recognition (well-- mostly secret). When we meet someone who claims to be a Mason we can at least try to determine if he is telling the truth. And-- this is why we require a belief in God-- on the old principle that a man who swears an oath of membership on his own book of religion can most likely be trusted to be telling the truth. However, we do not ask what religion a man is (or even if he claims a religion) because religious freedom is part of our culture. What do Blue Lodges do? We have a social life like any other fraternity. We support Public Education (Scholarships and other programs with local schools). We support youth groups. We support the Shriner Hospitals for Children (in America). Probably most people don't know that the "Shriners" are Masons. I can't talk to the claim that the Grand Master had a light at his genitalia-- but I'm guessing this refers to the symbol on the apron he wears. Traditionally Masons wear a white apron which is intended to be a reminder of need for a man to exhibit purity of life and rectitude of conduct in order to be found worthy upon his death. The officers of the Lodge wear aprons during ceremonies that have different symbols indicating what office they hold. One of those symbols is sometimes the All-seeing eye as shown on a dollar bill. This is based on a Biblical verse that the all-seeing eye pervades the inmost recesses of the human heart and rewards us according to our merits. I can see how this could have led to the "light on the genitalia" but its just clothing. The claim has been made that Masonry is Anti-Christ or associated with the devil. This claim originated with fundamentalist Christians in the United States. This is because Masonry insists on freedom of religion and does not permit symbols specific to a specific religion in our ceremonies. Many Christians in the US have been offended by this since "Obviously" the Christian Religion is the only true religion. Since the Mason won't pray to Christ they must be devil worshipers. Our only reply to those people is that apparent;y they do not support the US Constitution, since it guarantees freedom of religion. Nothing I have related here is a Masonic secret. I am posting it to provide some information for those with an honest interest in knowing more, but don't bother to try to take it apart, critique or refute, because I live in a community where Freemasons are respected and that's all that matters to me. For those who want to read more: http://www.masonicworld.com/education/files/25%20landmarks%20of%20freemasonry.htm

To the intent of your question, Yes, I agree with Dolphins as fitting your criteria. However, your choice of word is wrong. The word Sentient derives from the Latin word for "feel" and is already defined in many dictionaries-- your definition is not the correct one. Sentient beings are those that feel things (subjective reaction to their environment)-- which is different from the ability to reason-- which is what I think you are getting at. Most living animals are Sentient. sen·tient ˈsen(t)SH(ē)ənt/ adjective adjective: sentient able to perceive or feel things

You can start a party-- but the real problem is gaining majority. This is a huge issue in the USA. In countries where the elected representatives form a government, multiple parties can work, because several parties, each having a minority of the total, can form a coalition to select the leader (such as a Prime Minister). In a system like the US where the President is directly elected separate from the Senators and Representatives, it takes some form of majority (electoral or popular, or both) for party to get someone in office to push their platform and not veto legislation.

Since you used tap water, there are many, many possibilities. But, my first guess is that something in there reduced the sulfate ions, and you now have traces of pure sulfur-- which is yellow.

That's a tall order. First problem is that the heat of vaporization/condensation of water is very large-- which is why it is so useful in steam turbines. So-- you need to spray it on something that can take away a lot of heat. I suggest anything that conducts heat really well-- which pretty much means metal of some kind. It would also help to have lots of surface area to promote heat transfer. I'm giving you theory instead of actual details because, in all honesty, I can't think of anything that would work really well in Texas heat.

The interesting part to me is that in reading the links posted by Swansont the two medical articles kept mixing the topic of height with the topic of diet. In other words, they repeatedly mentioned dietary differences that they implied were responsible to some degree for height differences. So, is it height that is the factor or is it the means by which the height is achieved??

Perhaps a different way of looking at it will help you (a little College Physics) Imagine you launch an object vertically with some starting velocity (tossing a ball in the air). Eventually, it reaches its maximum height and the velocity goes to zero, but the ball now has potential energy due to its height. We find escape velocity by doing this calculation assuming the height we reach is infinity. At infinity, potential energy goes to zero (no longer attracted to the earth), and kinetic energy goes to zero (zero velocity). The equation is 1/2 mv^2 - GMm/R = 0, where m is the mass of the object, M is the mass of the earth, R is the radius of the earth, G is the gravitational constant and v is the starting velocity (escape velocity). You Solve this equation for the value of v and that is the escape velocity. This is conservation of energy and the angle of travel has nothing to do with it.

I think there is another way to look at this. I learned long ago not to fear a major surgery when I realized that I would go to sleep (loss of awareness), and if I died on the table I would not know it had happened. Let's apply the same logic here. If an animal is not capable of the human level of thought, and is not aware that it is about to be killed, and its existence is terminated in a way that the animal does have the opportunity to experience pain or loss, is there any moral reason not to use it for food?? I don't think so.

In my earlier comment about electronegativity of Chlorine-- I was postulating that since Chlorine is more electronegative than Boron, it holds the electrons shared with Boron more tightly than Boron can. In hybridization, the orbitals of an atom shift to accomodate the bond-- so I'm wondering if the energy efficient approach is for the atom that holds the electrons less tightly to hybridize. You would have to dig into this more to check ti, as I am not an expert on hybridization.

I think DrmDoc is on target with this. Our kidneys serve to filter from the blood any materials that are not needed or at higher than appropriate concentrations, and water flow is necessary to flush out those things that are filtered-- meaning more trips. The reactions to Salt and Coffee are just two examples. Bottled water introduces fewer unwanted things. So, unless you drink too much bottled water, forcing your kidneys to reduce the water content of the blood, you can reduce the trip frequency some.

The crux of it is as Fiveworlds says. In the US, at least, there are many laws in force concerning what things a company must and must not do involving their employees, which are not applicable to someone who is freelance or a contractor. Its a matter of legal obligations (Social security, tax withholding, etc, etc). Thus, there is a difference in legal status between the two.

Way back in the early stages of this discussion there was the implied statement that if God does not exist there is no purpose in life-- or something like that. Without evidence I offer the following thoughts: Of all the inhabitants of earth, only mankind seems to possess the intelligence to be religious. I believe this is because religion requires beings of sufficient intelligence to be dissatisfied with the limitations of life, to wish for something better, and to be able to visualize what that better something might be. When viewed with this perspective, I believe the history of religion makes sense. Early man was essentially powerless in nature. He could hunt and forage for food, build shelter and care for a family, but he and his family were largely at the mercy of the natural elements. Having the intelligence to be dissatisfied with this situation, man began to wish for something better and to visualize beings who had power over the elements and did not have human limitations. This is the origin of Gods. Thus, early gods tended to reflect the needs of mankind: Gods of the hunt, the harvest, and of all things good in life. As mankind grew and developed into larger tribes and had territorial conflicts, the Gods of battle and war emerged-- because a warrior who could win was what mankind needed. As man recognized the limitations if death and yearned for more life, gods became immortal. When civilizations developed and mankind had a better lot in life, such as early Grecian and Roman societies, mankind yearned for pleasures that the moral standards of society tended to limit, and the immortal gods emerged that had to power to have limitless love affairs and debauchery. In simple terms, our Gods have always tended to represent the things we wish we could have in life but cannot always have due to our human limitations. As civilizations progressed, however, God became more sophisticated. At this point I could discuss more than one religion, but I will focus only on the God of the Hebrews and the development of the Christian religion. As civilization progressed and human knowledge expanded, certain very intelligent humans began to realize that what they really wanted in life was to live a full and happy life within their own families and societies. This led to dissatisfaction with the baseness of pagan gods. Gods of sex, war and debauchery were not the answer. Thus, philosophers or religious writers began to develop a vision of a God that represented all that was best in life. A Moral God. A similar trend occurred elsewhere, producing Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and other modern religions. This new development of a Moral God had one problem: not all mankind has the intelligence or inclination to accept a moral code on face value. Just as children must be disciplined in order to teach them proper moral behavior, there are many members of society who never outgrow the need for the discipline of an elder. Some people simply do not want to be moral. For early societies, such as Israel, this led to a situation where the founders of the religion could not simply appeal to higher instincts of their people, they needed to keep God as a physical person, just like the earlier gods. Thus, although the Christian God (among others) represents a moral ideal of proper behavior, the Church still needs to have God be a physical person who will punish those who misbehave. This is why we have problems in modern society with religion not reaching all the people. In our modern society with all our forms of communication and broad education, it has become obvious that God does not punish the bad elements of society (hence the modern pre-occupation with the question of whether or not God is dead). God is not dead-- God was never alive in a physical sense. The problem is that only portions of mankind have the intelligence or will to recognize that the moral teachings of religion are important to living life properly. The rest will only obey God when God appears to them and punishes them. Since God is not a physical being, that isn't happening and isn't going to happen. So, if you are looking for moral purpose in life, religion is one answer-- but not the only answer.

Yes, there is a difference between speculation and hypothesis. In the Scientific Method, a Hypothesis is formed after first collecting observations. The purpose of the hypothesis is to explain the cause of the existing observations in a manner that permits a prediction that can then be verified by further experimentation. This is more rigorous than speculation. If there are actual observations of events that might imply negative mass, then it would be appropriate to attempt to develop a hypothesis that would predict the conditions necessary to achieve negative mass, and then one would construct experiments to verify this prediction. A speculation need not form the basis for an experiment, while a hypothesis is not proper unless it is sufficiently structured to permit an attempt at verification. However, a speculation based on actual observations might be a good starting point for more detailed work to form a hypothesis.

The solution I'd like to see is driven by the situation wherein those who make the laws and enforce them also tend to exempt themselves, which I believe lessens their incentive to get it right. My suggestion (not original to me) is that the US constitution be amended to require that all systems (retirement, health, etc) developed by the Government are mandatory for all government and elected officials, not just the rest of the population. If Congress had to depend on Social Security and Medicare for health (not Tricare or other plans) they would have more incentive to do their best.

While I see some good points in the above posts, I have to note that under Obama my medical insurance costs went up with no change in coverage, Our economy went in the tank (median household income peaked in 2008 in the US and has not recovered), a close friend DIED of prostate cancer after the "Improved" medical care system said he should not have his cancer removed surgically because he was too old, and it wouldn't kill him, and many more upsets. Anybody who promises to stop the Federal Government from meddling in my life has my vote.

I don't know what exact type of steel was used in the titanic, but it is worth noting that below a certain temperature, certain steels experience a situation where the yield strength rises above the ultimate strength. The required temperature is warmer than typical winter ocean temperatures. When this happens, and a stress is put on the steel (such as due to an iceberg), the steel fractures instead of bending. This was the cause of some of the Liberty ship hull failures in WWII. The point is that steel hulls can fail even without being weakened in advance.