Scott of the Antares

2 hours ago, Bender said:

And even more easily by civilisations not lost to history and human ingenuity.

Perhaps so, but any anomalous ancient site that seems incongruous with our understanding of the development of civilisation can be more easily explained by a as today unknown civilisation rather than aliens.

Examples would include;

Gobekli Tepi; purposefully buried complex carbon dated to over 10,000 years old when buried.

Twin cities in the Gulf of Cambay under 100 feet of water; last above sea level also around 8-10,000 years ago.

Mountain of Light at Gunung Padang, core samples carbon dated to around 20,000 years ago.

Drilled and grooved blocks at Puma Punku.

Just saying that there are sites around the world that show signs of previous human civilisation that we have little knowledge of, and that some people will wrongly cite these as evidence of aliens.

I think vitamin D deficiency would come around 5Oth on a list of human concerns for post-civilisation requirements.

I think a lot of evidence that ancient alien subscribers cite can more easily be explained by a previous civilisation that is lost to history.

2 minutes ago, Unitive_Mystic said:

Well I wouldn't say Afircans can live anywhere. Their skin needs more sun because the melanin levels in the skin makes you need more sun to get the proper amounts of vitamin D.

I might have used too broad a brush there, so apologies, you are right. But African people do live in the U.K.; am I totally unaware of a practice employed by them to counter this?

Surely Mexicans and Africans can live anywhere, it is whites that need the sun cream and sunglasses you mention. And whites were in Africa,  the Middle East, India, the Orient and Australia before these inventions so I imagine they wouldn’t have any problem doing it again, without these devices.

And I reckon that if civilisation falls, hunter gatherers inherit the earth. 

3 hours ago, Lord Antares said:

Aside from you stealing my name, I agree.

I had this name before I even discovered this this forum, honest!

Regarding play acting, I always gravitate back to Rivaldo’s awful incident in 2002.

Shameful!

Croatia are doing really well; Argentina were lolworthy they were so bad last night. 

With all the ‘good’ teams being distinctly average, anyone has a chance imo.

1 hour ago, John Cuthber said:

The cost is roughly in line with other similar systems (and about half the cost of the US healthcare system)

But the wastage; several years ago the government scrapped a computer system to hold the NHS patient records. The cost of this folly? 10 billion GBP.

The profit made by companies building and running hospitals for the NHS? 830 million GBP. That 830 mil of taxpayers moneys that should have been spent on healthcare, not private profits.

NHS PFI debts? 2 billion GBP per year.

How much does a ball point pen cost? Pence? The NHS pays several times the value for some reason on lots of sundries.

3 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

A news organ should not have an opinion pervading through its reporting...

Especially when publically financed; it is what has always made the BBC such a well respected organisation (plus no adverts makes the whole media consuming experience so much more refreshing and pleasant). I still support them; I am just a little disheartened by their bias.

5 hours ago, Ten oz said:

It simply doesn't work to run a service meant to provided care to people like a shareholder owned for profit business.

 

This. Exactly this. PFIs and villainous marking up of sundries should be outlawed as a first step.

Healthcare is most important (I think), but I think Ten Oz’s words apply just as well to the UKs water supply, electricity supply and train network. Selling off vital services is never of the users interest; if it can’t be ran well by under public ownership than it shouldn’t be viable as a profitable investment for a private company.

4 hours ago, StringJunky said:

 I don't if it's me getting older, but the BBC seems to be not as neutral as I would like. It has agendas that it consistently promotes.

I am with you on this StringJunky.  Being in my mid-forties, I have grown up with the BBC at the core of my media-consuming life. I think their documentary and sport programmes are genuinely amongst the best in the world; certainly the best I have personally viewed. I viewed their news services the same until the last few years as their decades old neutrality seems to be severely compromised at the moment.

As long as they pay the same tax as their competitors in the local markets they are competing against.

There are some strong feelings in the U.K. that companies like these do not pay 19~20% corporation tax on profits generated here and that is simply not fair on all the companies that have to. Make the playing level please!

However, Amazon are useful for finding that rare book or particular item and I do use them as a last resort. If I buy from a family business, I am helping finance local families. That has to be better than financing shareholders (although I hear some of them have children too!).

Further reflections; Wasn’t Jeff Bozos in the news a few weeks ago saying he was planning on building a moon base? When humongous global cooperations amass huge wealth and turn it to something good rather than just sitting on it, then that is a great thing. The Bill Gates Foundation has done plenty of fantastic work, Elon Musk is investing in space travel when others seem to be cash-strapped atm. 

17 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

That's a strawman, but since you ask yes; people don't choose to be forced from their homes, but when they get here <insert location> they improve here and it's only your fear (as evinced in your question/strawman) that interrupts this natural process.

My fear? LoL! Now that is a strawman! I just wanted a better understanding of your position:)

PS, I am of migrant descent

25 minutes ago, Ten oz said:

All humans would still be in Africa today if not for migration.

True! But we didn’t have borders and nations back then. So in your mind, there should be no such thing as illegal immigrants?

On 22/01/2018 at 1:25 PM, dimreepr said:

I haven't said your evil, but anyone who thinks their status (accidental birth privilege) is better than others is certainly selfish, and I for one think that's immoral.

Never forget to thank your lucky stars to be born in your country/family. 

You're a legal immigrant and no one gave your predecessors permission.

Do you think any human being born anywhere in the world has a right to live in any country in the world unchallenged?

I doubt fully driverless cars will become mainstream for a long time because if one is involved in a crash where your vehicle is at fault but you weren’t at the controls, then surely the liability lies with the manufacturer? I can’t see them exposing themselves to this kind of financial risk, even with far more robust technology. As long as these is a driver in the hot seat, we will have to have insurance and take on this burden away from manufacturers.

2 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

I think it has to be accepted people may be killed in some situations by automation just as they would by a human driver. I will say though , the inability to surmise there is a stationary car in front of a moving one that pulls out in front of you  needs to be addressed.

True, but we go to jail if we are responsible for killing someone when driving. Do we give AI a free pass?! That sets a bad precedent! *cough skynet on wheels cough*

I am a keen martial artist and a long time ago a read some rather unscientific claims regarding esoteric martial arts. I sceptically took one up and can confirm that after years of practice, these sensations are all part and parcel of these arts.

I regard it like any other repeatable practice in the fact that you follow the exercises and observe the results. It takes many years of dedicated practice to start feel direct these sensations in any meaningful way.

Just like somebody posted a week or two ago; to be able to understand all that science offers you probably need 10 years of dedicated practice. If any of us practiced in these arts for 10 years, I am sure we could attest to the validity of these ‘sensations’.

I’ll consider myself having learnt something new today, thanks StringJunky.

The alimentary canal is a two way system; nutrients go in; waste comes out. Is it possible that what we perceive as hunger is actually just the case the food had been digested, and with with that task out of the way, it can start cleaning toxins out of the body into the fecal matter. Could it be this increase in  toxins generates a feeling that we mistake as hunger? I wondered this because when I feel hungry I get a sick feeling in my stomach after a while.

In reality we can last days without food (probably weeks with the right preparation), so o wonder why we get the ‘sick’ feeling?

This might tie in with the knowledge that fasting is good to help clean the body.

To think that there is only one type of conservatism; would that be a false dilemma according to that much touted list of wiki fallacies?

23 hours ago, Strange said:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/BlackHoles/fall_in.html

Strange, that was a great read. Thank you for posting it here!

Thank you Airbrush:)

I didn’t do any sums but I wondered how big they would appear on the telescope compared to how small exoplanets appear on the telescope. I thought there would be some algorithm for determining one or the other.

In a slightly related query, I was wondering whether Oort Cloud objects could possibly interfere with planet hunting telescopes that focus on objects orbiting distant stars. Obviously these telescopes work so I thought that these Oort Cloud objects must be really small so as to not interfere. 

Are you from the U.K. CharonY?