StringJunky

Right OK. I had a feeling it was a mathematical construct. A better word would be discovered rather than random, but still accidental. Meaning is ascribed after the fact. If random choices lead to regular patterns, that we can see, then 'accidental' is the operative word because the pattern design was not premeditated. Again, meaning is ascribed after the fact. ...or making them. Yes, I think so. I'm thinking on a really low level of mental operation here, not high level cognition. High level ideas emerge from basic components and I'm trying to get to the lowest level of human thought processes; the basic constructs where these high level ideas emerge from. if that makes sense.

If that's a randomly generated image i would call it it 'accidental' art whereby the viewer may succumb to their pareidolic tendency to ascribe some sense or meaning to what is before them. At the end of the day, is that not where art comes from; from the hard-wired need to to assign patterns that make some sort of sense of the unfamiliar or to abstract the familiar, by design, to emphasise some aspect of our experience? Regardless of whether 'the decisive moment' is contrived or spontaneously reactive the point is still eloquently and explicitly made. A photographer understanding this concept knows to wait for all the desired elements to fall into place or to put them there a la Cartier-Bresson. It taught me, when I was keen on it, to be 'in the moment' at the point of exposure and to do it at the right time.

Why do some people crave popularity would be correct; I don't so your statement would be falsified. Confirmation that they are socially acceptable and attractive. Evolutionarily, it ties to mating potential; more popular, more mates.

That's why we get a snotty nose because the body is trying to up the temperature in that area in anattempt to inhibit viral replication. It seems to me, with rhinoviruses, the best thing to do is breathe warm air to avoid a blocked nose and keep as warm as possible; everything the body is doing is to that end during the illness.

But the more accurate the model and the wider the domain it can accurately describe it's probably going in the right direction to get nearer the underlying nature. I don't think one can get closer than what one measures and the more parameters that are discovered the better the description. The more complete the description the closer one is. When you think fundamentally about the real world what is reality but the sum of its behaviour; there's no actual physicality in the classical sense is there at that depth of enquiry?

Getting a grip on a reality is like chasing a rainbow; it will always be out of reach but we can get closer. That will keep everybody busy.

Yes Why "friends" and not friends; are they worth less or any less 'real' than ones you physically interact with? As time passes the virtual world is becoming increasingly part of the real world such that they will become indistinguishable. My own experience of online interactions is that they are every bit as real and visceral as my geographically close friends even though I may have not have met them physically. Having said that, I am not one to treat my online acquaintances as virtual, transient, disposable objects to be used for whatever purpose that suits my immediate whim, like some people do; I know it's a real person on the other end and will afford them the same respect - or, likewise, contempt - as if they were sitting next to me. A common language may eventually still develop; don't forget, the internet is still only really a teenager in terms of it being widespread and technologically advanced enough to disseminate multimedia information suitable for the mass market.

We tend to clump together in relatively sealed houses, facilitating transmission, because it's cold; the aerosol from sneezing will linger longer in the still, unventilated environment. The lower humidity in winter may also dry mucal membranes of the respiratory system making access easier for the virus.

Interesting; illustrates well how much use that saving is going to be versus the losses economically, in the billions I would think, from lost trade, besides all the other myriad non-fiscal negative impacts. We've dropped a million to save a penny, in a sense, financially.

Listen to what I say, not what I do; FOS. Like JC said earlier, the UK still has a lot Little Englanders. I didn't realise we had that many 'til now.

Therefore, curvature of spacetime exists; light bends. The underlying reality of what causes that is, as you say, something else.

Asking if curvature 'exists' is the same as asking if distance exists or voltage. More generally, one could ask "Do properties exist".

Why are you doing this?

A world composed of many virtual islands occupied by groups with shared ideologies. That's the way it's heading I think. New of tribes are being formed; as you say, not geographically located. That's cool to me because I am grouping with people more like myself that are not generally around in my geographic vicinity. It's good for the world in the long run I think and progress in general.

I don't know why that number is seen as a carrot; it's a piddle in the ocean The 2015/16 NHS budget was £116.4 billion. £350m will run the NHS for slightly more than 24 hours.

Ha!

Of course.

OK Ta. Nothing ever is, is it?

Thank you. Yes, we are not immune to democratic expressions of mass stupidity.

No, it's an analogy. Here's a PDF link . You've referred to it before, it's illuminating.

For myself, I liken modelling reality to trying to describe an object in a black bag with holes in for your hands as the only means of extracting information about it. From that you build a model which is necessarily incomplete.

Newton didn't invent calculus but developed it? I read he invented it.

Oh no!... please... the despair deepens. Right now, all the upbeat feelings I've experienced this week has gone down the toilet. A 4 pack of Special brew is looking very inviting... I knew I shouldn't have trodden on that mirror the other day...

I disagree. He is the strongest, most consistent and most intimate with the mechanics of this situation to steer it to the least damaging scenario.

If the debt is to foreign agencies then and sterling goes down then, I presume, our debt goes up.