StringJunky

Although I don't contribute much in Politics I enjoy reading contributions from a scientific community that has a definite scientific slant with all the evidential rigor and logical discipline that their profession encompasses. If I wanted a purely philosophical slant I'd frequent a Philosophy forum or if I wanted a moral slant I'd probably look into a Religious one...the point is each professional area in life has its own unique view`and emphasis on certain aspects of any given subject like Politics and we choose which one we wish to align with or view.....I agree with this site's policy of filtering for the more scientific approaches in the non science areas here because that's the nature of this particular beast. If we all here use the same sort of intellectual 'tools' (like the Scientific Method or are at least familiar with it's existence) it makes for a more productive discussion environment...the same applies to the other types of forum otside this site covering different disciplines that have their own etiquette and standard methodologies that are unlike science but no less valid within their own sphere of existence. I think it''s essential for there to be common agreement on the rules and standards of discourse`and here that discourse has science at its heart so it is natural IMO to expect that sort of general approach from any person that posts here regardless of the forum header title here..Politics, Ethics, whatever.

There's a company that is looking to increase straw's effectiveness in helping to solve this problem by impregnating it with oil munching micro-organisms. "We are in the process of partnering with select chemical companies to impregnate our hay and straw with oil-eating bacteria and microorganisms to speed up the process of breaking down and removing as much oil as possible from these affected coastal waters". http://oilhay.com/ I don't know if hay is the same as straw but straw has aglaecidal properties (it's used for reducing algae blooms in lakes and ponds) so it's effectiveness might be negated a bit if straw is used.

The thing with the Saudis is that they follow the Koran to the letter and spirit and that's why they end up with these ridiculous ideas trying to modernise without compromising the Koranic ideal. Another farcical situation they have due to their strict segregation of men and women disallowing casual liaisons and bearing in mind homosexuality can be punishible by death is that they have more men practicing homosexuality than there are actual homosexuals because of their need to find sexual expression! Duh! The authorities turn a blind eye to this practice as long as no one flaunts it openly...or else they'll lose their head.

You've got a point there...that's silly as well really.

The current situation is like saying the first person to SEE something for the first time owns it. Bizarre to say the least....pure idiocy on the part of those who allow it.

There's a saying in computing: Free RAM Is Wasted RAM. In Vista and W7 they have a routine called Superfetch which is a memory cache that uses up all the available RAM (after the essential programs) with stuff that Windows 'anticipates' will be needed next helping it to perform faster....this is much faster than having to get it directly from the hard drive on demand. If the routine changes it can drop the contents of Superfetch in an instant and do something else.

If the Universe is subject to expansion/contraction cycles and everything is destroyed during the contraction phase we are at a definite point in time in this cycle relative to the contraction/expansion equilibrium point which is the BB (T=0). This model accommodates why we are here at this point .. because it's taken this long for us to evolve from T=0 and an infinite number of prior cycles could have occurred beforehand...infinite time becomes conveniently segmented and we are in the midst of one of those Epochs. In this model it's not possible for life to evolve from one epoch and traverse into the next one is it? That's how my mind handles infinite time, our position in it and why now anyway.

If Space is infinite wouldn't it be reasonable to think that Time was also infinite because it would take an infinite amount of time for an infinite amount of space to manifest? Even at the moment of expansion the Universe, although much smaller, was still infinite in extent, apparently.

This is what I've explained to him in a PM exchange that BB represents T=0 because it's convenient for cosmologists to do so but time most probably extends much before it possibly infinitely and also that T=0 is is just a point in the Universe's evolution.

I never realised 'til now you mention it there's a difference between Climate and Weather: What Climate Means In short, climate is the description of the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area. Some scientists define climate as the average weather for a particular region and time period, usually taken over 30-years. It's really an average pattern of weather for a particular region. When scientists talk about climate, they're looking at averages of precipitation, temperature, humidity, sunshine, wind velocity, phenomena such as fog, frost, and hail storms, and other measures of the weather that occur over a long period in a particular place. For example, after looking at rain gauge data, lake and reservoir levels, and satellite data, scientists can tell if during a summer, an area was drier than average. If it continues to be drier than normal over the course of many summers, than it would likely indicate a change in the climate. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/climate/climate_weather.html Based on the 30 year 'sets' of observations that make up a region's climate it would take a good lifetime or two to see if substantial climate change had really occurred wouldn't it and that any given set is not just a 'blip' in the long term trend?

This will answer your first two questions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_electricity

I think I can identify with you on the loss of your guitar...it is what you express yourself with and it takes along time to to understand its strengths and weaknesses and get it to sing with the voice you have in your mind. It's like losing a wife or husband to divorce and have to go through all that learning/familiarising process with someone else again. I had an acoustic guitar made with money left by my Grandparents so there is a strong sentimental value attached to it not to mention the countless hours it's taken me to find the voice I want from it...having to do all that again does not bear thinking about...it's a year at least before the luthier get's round to making mine and that's just for starters! Like you my immediate response, thinking about it, is a visceral and physical one but I do hope you can reconcile with yourself philosophically somehow with what has happened and emerge stronger than you were before. If financially possible, spoil yourself and have your next one made for you...it's a great journey..make the final outcome positive.

If I remember correctly from a James Lovelock's book "The Revenge of Gaia" the main nucleation material is dimethyl sulphide produced by oceanic algae. Would there be net charges in these droplets that cause them to conglomerate at some point? Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged There are random natural events like volcanic activity spewing out millions of tons of light blocking (cooling) and nucleating particles (rain forming) which would help to maintain a constant state of disequilibrium in weather patterns. As I mentioned earlier algae-produced dimethyl sulphide which, I think if Lovelock is correct, is a precursor to the formation of rain clouds would also be dynamic in the amount that is produced according to the algae population which are dependent on the abundance of nutrients, which in turn is dependent on the ocean temperature....if it's too warm the nutrients stay locked at the bottom of the ocean (Can't remember the mechanism). The population of all Earth life itself is dynamic and the byproducts they produce combined would effect long term climate patterns as well I would think.

Between you I think you've explained and demonstrated what I need to know to explain to him. My own guess was a combination of a fairly weak molecular attraction, atmospheric pressure surrounding the cloud and viewing them from a long distance which gives the impression of stability when in fact, close up, they are quite turbulent and not so static looking. That video does show that they dissipate eventually like gases aided by the wind...it just needed speeding up. Cheers

What are the contributing factors that keep atmospheric clouds in a compact state as opposed to diffusing out uniformly which is what I expect gases to do normally? This is a question prompted by my nephew that I couldn't adequately explain. I said they were a bit like steam but he said: "Why doesn't it spread out and disappear then?!" If you can put your responses appropriate to a bright six year old I'll let him read them....his name's William. Thanks.

Same for me too, I pulled it out of his Cosmo Basics sticky. I have to hand it to Martin for linking to interesting stuff that is both concise and understandable to those of us who are not fluent in high math and cosmological physics. For a mathematician he does a great job of keeping the mathematics to a minimum!

This should shed some light for you on the current state of ideas on this subject: http://www.einstein-online.info/en/spotlights/big_bangs/index.html

Here's an actual method to remember your dreams that elaborates on what iNow suggests: http://www.lucidity.com/NL11.DreamRecall.html

The fractional difference in the distance between the two positions relative to the Sun would so negligible as to render the difference in light intensity as unmeasurable I would think. If you are talking about a light source some meters away the difference would be measurable between the two positions but when looking on the scale of 10's of millions of miles and the two positions are only meters away from each other it's out of the question. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/YBA/M31-velocity/1overR2-more.html

Rather than completely deny your sense of perfectionism any form of expression why not allow only one or two forms of activity of your choosing where it is permissible and be content with 99% for the rest of your activities...it's ok for most things to be just ok and not unblemished. The trouble with perfectionism is that it takes an inordinately disproportionate amount of personal effort to get that last one per cent all the time with all things. You might have more continued success this way and have the one or two tangible focal points where the quality really matters without it engulfing all of your activities and constantly lowering your self esteem because you are asking the impossible of yourself...to be without flaw in everything that you do. You need to keep practicing this way of thinking and acting for a while before those neural highways get formed that will allow you to do this automatically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity

As far as I've looked into spamming it's not actually illegal...it's equivalent to junk mail. Spambots are not illegal either...here's the legal notice from the Xrumer site: The software available for purchase on this website fully complies with the laws of USA, Canada, Australy, Europe and Russian Federation. All parts of the software are protected by international copyright laws. Any attempt to disassemble the software will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under the law." Xrumer is the daddy of spambots apparently and costs $540 to start and $10/month thereafter. Botmaster the owner reckons you'll be in profit within a month. When I see it's specs one appreciates why you forum admin have a hard time: XRumer is a software application that automatically posts your messages to forums, guestbooks, bulletin boards and catalogs of the links (as well as into livejournals and wiki). In a word it is an autosubmitter. Currently available version is XRumer 5.0.12 Palladium. More info about updates... Below are listed main specification and features of XRumer Multithreaded submitting: over 50 simultaneously running threads possible! (30 threads are recommended for optimal performance under 128 Kbps bandwidth) Software can perform registration at forums (if necessary for posting messages) and automatically fill in the required fields. Upon successful registration XRumer posts the user-specified message and/or links. The powerful built-in proxy-server checking script locates available proxy-servers worldwide, choosing anonymous addresses among them. Software is able to work with lots of different types of forums and guestbooks: phpBB and PHP-Nuke with any modifications, yaBB, VBulletin, Invision Power Board, IconBoard, UltimateBB, exBB, phorum.org, wiki, different types of bulletin boards and even custom-written code. Attention: unique feature – software works around EVERY possible type of protection from automatic registration, including: - Pictocode protection (tickets, captcha), which look something like: "Enter the number you see in the box". Details... - E-mail activation protection. Details... - Java-script protection. Details... During the process of posting a detailed log is created with precise path-links to posted messages so that you can check every link and every posted message afterwards. A built-in proprietary "Question-answer" system. A variations system, using which you can post up to 10000 messages all looking different but with similar contextual meaning and the user-defined hyperlinks in them. It helps to broaden the key queries (for Search Engine optimization) and protect your posts from being filtered out by Search Engines (that is, your posts will be included in SERPs). If the forum has more than one category, the software chooses the one most suitable for the message, otherwise it sends the message to off-top, flame sections or the like, and in case those do not exist - to the most visited category on the forum. BB-code can be used. The following forum base processing tools are included: repeated links deletion, hit descending sort, service denial according to customizable black list, and various filters. The program informs the users about availability of new versions and possesses many other powerful features. The system is fully user-independent and requires minimum skills to handle: you only need to choose the proper links database, create a message text with one or several hyperlinks and hit the 'Start' button. THAT IS ALL. XRumer software package includes the Hrefer program and databases with links to more than 102.000 forums. Minimum required system specifications: Windows 98 / 2000 / 2003 / XP / Vista, 1GHz or faster processor, 256Mb RAM. Price: $540. Purchase...

Its best to imagine the Universe as only the surface of an expanding balloon with currants stuck on it...as it expands the distance between the currants increases...space is created between them. It's important to realise that there is *nothing inside or outside above or below this balloon... the surface is all there is...it doesn't expand into anything...there is no volume of space around the balloon. the surface of the balloon is all there is. This is only an analogy but it shows how the distance increases between objects without having an edge...spherical surfaces lack an edge. The Universe was much smaller than it is today but current models suggest that it was still infinite in dimension...get your head round that! *Total absence of anything..not even space. http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/bigbang.html

I was repeatedly referred to as a string junky because I was constantly in state of reviewing different strings for my guitar and not being able to make my mind which was best for me and I also liked the sound of new strings.

I suspect alot of budding astronomers are initially very disappointed as well with their first naked eye views through their shiny new expensive telescopes....nothing like in the astro mags at all. You need three factors present for something to burn: fuel. oxygen (or similar), ignition...one or more of those factors is obviously missing in the necessary amounts....apart from the fact it's also rather cold out there! (-270 Deg C approx.) and hydrogen's boiling point is -252 Deg C. and oxygen's boiling point is -182 Deg C. I'm sure there is other factors as well that somebody else might chime in.