StringJunky

I've just had the same problem trying to access page 2 of Today's Posts. I can access page 3 and 1. I've restarted firefox and tried again to access page 2 with the same fatal error.

I use googlemail for my email and have NEVER had spam that I did not request.

Dr432: I have read around enough and extrapolated from this information, as has Inow and Bascule, that serious problems for the human population will probably start manifesting in the latter half of this century. Its not a case of if it's when. Inow: Your view of the future and assessment of the human race, with it's collective intransigence globally, is not dissimilar to mine Bearing in mind what you've just said Inow, I don't think anything will be done seriously until we reach an official State of Emergency worldwide You are right, this is the fundamental problem with us, we can't collectively behave responsibly because we are still bound by our most primal urges, as you have just so elegantly demonstrated with your example! "Case in point: (short term) Ooh! Yummy! Hot dog with chili and a Twinkie on the side! (long term) My arteries are clogged, and I just suffered a massive heart attack."

have read tIhat article you linked to Mokele, thanks...It does support my hunch and explains a few other things like accounting for low oxygen levels at depth due to decomposition. IA: The depth of my lake averages 12ft and, apparently, thermoclines do not occur at this depth or less: surface water temperatures generally don't go over 21oC in summer- measured at night. http://www.lakeforktexas.com/Pages/therm.html Is the depth of my lake shallow enough for atmospheric oxygen diffusion to occur down to the bottom of the lake without mechanical agitation from wind and rain? In periods of low pressure, even during calm weather, fishing and fish (carp) activity on the bottom is usually brisk. Oxygen levels, on average ( I suspect), should be lower and penetrate less to the depths during these periods than those of high pressure and brisk weather activity, water temperature staying the same. The presence of aquatic weed is low in the lake. Any thoughts or links that might explain this apparent anomaly would be appreciated. Sometimes, I find it difficult to think of the right keywords to Google to answer my own questions!

Post back your findings with the new bottles.

If my memory of Lovelock's book serves me correctly, mitigation is the only option that we have...prevention, according to him, is not an option because the time it would take to reverse the process is much too long and we have already passed certain tipping points. He is of the belief, I read somewhere recently, that we should not try to fix the weather system with technology, as and when it becomes available. This would mean we would have to take control of the weather for all time thereafter when Nature has handled it very well for all of Earth's history 'til now. He advocates leaving it alone to sort itself out. This leaves us to mitigate it's present and future effects on the population, so his attitude is in line with your thoughts. Despite the negative tone of my previous post I do not promote the idea of sitting on our hands and doing nothing. Climate change and the growth of the human population are mankind's biggest challenges that I hope we can rise to. Inow: I think the toll on the human population, at some indeterminate time in the future, will run into the billions eventually as resources and habitable landmass dwindles. The size and distribution of the global population will probably change out of all recognition in the next century or so, as the heat rises from the equator pushing us north and south.

I think if more lay people (especially climate change deniers) were made to read James Lovelock's "The Revenge of Gaia" they would take climate change and its consequences much more seriously. I am a layman on this subject myself but I found his illustrations of the various Earth mechanisms, how they interact and where they are heading (which seems to be borne out by the news reports now) to be so lucid as to seem like commonsense. Various friends who I have lent this book to have remarked that everybody should read it. The problem of spreading the idea of anthropogenic climate change is one of communication....there aren't enough people, like Lovelock. than can understand the science AND communicate it to the Average Joe, like me, without losing him in technical jargon and apparently obscure science. Scientists often don't/can't speak in the language of the listener. . It is not the facts that Lovelock uses that convinces me...it's the logical path he takes me through that does it. The time frame for certain climate related events, he predicts to occur, does not matter...they will happen eventually...because more and more people are coming into existence all the time, draining the Earth's resources and producing their share of the increasing pollution. I think the continued growth of the human population will continually negate any positive moves that concerned countries make towards reversing the projected atmospheric trends. Human population growth is the real problem behind climate change....the social, moral and political implications of putting together a strategy to contain it are so complex and difficult I don't think anybody of any intellectual or political stature will contemplate it publically....ever. Ultimately, I think, The Earth System will sort it/us out one way or the other. I have no optimism in this subject or our ability, collectively, to do anything about it significantly.

The contrast ratio that can be recorded by photographic film (especially the slide film used on the moon) is very limited compared to the actual scene's contrast ratio. Colour negative film. for example, can record a contrast of about 100:1 but a sunlit snow scene has a contrast ratio of up to a 1000:1. This means that the photographer has to make a decision, based on his readings, which parts of the scene before him are to be recorded because all of it will not fit in. The contrast ratio ( the difference in light levels between two extremes) of the light coming off the lunar surface and the surrounding sky exceeds that which can be fully recorded by the film.

Thanks for your response IA So you don't think it's down to a shift (somehow) in the concentration difference between the o2 in the atmosphere and that o2 already dissolved in the water when the pressure changes...I suppose like a concentration gradient.? Your answer does make sense...I didn't think of it being a purely mechanical process, the wind and rain acting as a mixer!! Going fishing now for two days ...will pick up on any more responses when I get back. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged Nearly missed sight of your post Mokele! Thanks Will chew on it when I get back. Cheers

The diarrhoea is probably caused by drinking too much water. The body is unable to absorb all the excess water ( that people are no doubt drinking VERY enthusiastically...More is better! ) when the waterlogged food is in the large intestine, where it would normally be fully absorbed, and excreted via the bladder. If this is happening to your son, advise him to restrict his intake to just a couple of glasses. Emphasise to him that it's ONLY ordinary water....nothing more. Water, like any other substance, is a poison when taken to excess....it can actually kill you! I http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-water-poisoning.htm What bits I've read about Kangen, and other companies like it, I think they are quite ruthless and commercially evil. Are you going to tell your friend of these findings?

Why does low atmospheric pressure cause the oxygen leels in a body of water, like a lake, to rise....or so I am lead to believe? I am an avid angler and it is a commonly held belief that, during low pressure, the oxygen levels rise and push the thermocline down causing fish to seek the bottom of the lake. Does anybody understand the physics or chemistry of this phenomenon. My instinct says that oxygen levels should rise with rising pressure since the atmosphere is 'pushing' more on the water's surface,.but apparently not

The changes you have made to your life will have real benefits long-term for you. Avoid looking for short term solutions like that water ionizer and other 'life enhancing' technologies and substances. There are no short cuts to a better healthier life that you can buy. The best medicine is a) A positive attitude b) A healthy diet c) A good bike ride! d) Keep asking questions here and you'll get FACTS!

Unless you've had some scientific education it's very easy to fall for this type of con that preys on people's ignorance...the scientific jargon is very convincing. Prince Charles, here in the Uk, subscribes to homeopathic remedies, so even the great and good are gullible! These things 'work' because the placebo effect is very powerful...with the right degree of suggestion from someone, people can convince themselves they are benefiting. The people's testimonials you've read are probably honest ones, but they've fallen for the placebo effect. The pharmaceutical industry makes use of the placebo effect all the time, when trialling new drugs. They set up a control group of volunteers with fake drugs to make sure the results are really caused by their new drug and is not generated psychosomatically by the trial volunteer. i.e their minds should not generate the intended physical effects. I'm happy to save you $4000

Eric: What makes you think that life is a distinct entity separate from that of its molecular makeup..Is it a metaphysical force that somehow 'connects' with the physical system of atoms/molecules that it resides in?. If this is your view then you are supporting a view of the nature of life similar to a religious person...that living things have souls or spirits or suchlike. A view like this is based on belief not evidence...unless you have some evidence that life really is this way, that you would care to share, which contradicts the mainstream scientific view.? . .

Don't bother with it. Ionized water for health is nothing but pseudoscientific claptrap aimed at relieving the scientifically illiterate and worried well from there pennies. It's in the same league as homeopathic remedies. Here's the facts, by a chemist: http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html

Could the apparent prestige associated with doctors and lawyers be something to to do with the fact that they are socially mobile professions and that gives them more public exposure than scientists, in general. My idea of prestige being related to how well-connected a person is throughout the socio-economic strata (read: class system). To have prestige, it's not what you know, it's who you know!

Ok. I'm new to physics and what I wrote is as far as I understand so far. I'll have to take a back seat on this one, observe and see where it leads to.

The rate of Time does not appear to be different depending on your position or viewpoint, It is a measurable fact that the rate of time changes according to your position (in the gravitational field) and motion. The GPS system proves this everyday. The people that work on this system have to compensate for time rate differences between the satellite clock and the ground clocks due to relativistic effects i,e, the clocks tick faster on the satellites than the ground clocks, when viewed from the ground. If they didn't do this then the accuracy of the system would get progressively worse for determining the position of an object, linked to the system, on Earth over time. Check this out: http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit5/gps.html If there was no such thing as gravity and everything in the universe was stationary relative to each other, then there would be a constant time.

Are you taking notes as to which bottle types are producing, or not producing, these effects...you should do or you will lose track! If you are getting different effects, using the same water in different bottles, then it's looking like it's the bottle material, especially as your water jugs are clear if you've frozen one. This is your control experiment that eliminates the possibility of it being the water. A suggestion: With the bottles that are producing the nasty stuff get a new one that you haven't used hot water in and instead just sterilize it with a weak bleach solution, then rinse it. Put tap water in it and freeze it as normal..when it melts, check for clarity. If it's clear It would indicate that the hot water regime is leaching something from the plastic. With these suggestions I give you, I don't expect you to execute them straightaway as it is very important you follow your own logic and method. I'm not with you after all and I'm relying a lot on my imagination to visualise your scenario!..I'm merely giving you another viewpoint and ideas, as I think of them, for you to pick up on as and when you see fit. It's up to you to prioritise my suggestions, if any are useful...I'll just keep throwing them at you! Your ultimate goal, I think, is to find the bottle type that withstands your cleaning regime and freezing with no visible residues.

These are some of the tunes that I use to escape to a better place sometimes: 1. Firth of Fifth Genesis 2. Comfortably Numb Pink Floyd 3. Time Away Paul Kossoff 4. Prelude, Fugue and Allegro Bach ( guitar played by Julian Byzantine) 5. Fantasia (Guitar played by Julian Bream) 6. Time Pink Floyd

I'm glad you starting to view the problem in an experimental and objective way, after all this is a science forum and the beauty of this type of problem, unlike most physics problems (which are in the head!) you are actually finding out practically! At first, I thought your problem was a mundane one. Looking into it more, it has raised interesting issues about the safety and stability of plastics under certain conditions so I've learnt some thing that I might not have. I spent spent quite a bit of time yesterday thinking about your problem and browsing the internet on this subject, hence the three merged posts! I hope you can deduce eventually what the cause is. I'll think about it some more and post anything that I think may be useful information. I hope you'll keep posting your findings and approaches as I'm interested. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedHow long have you had your treatment unit? Your unit can be used for 5 years or 5000 gallons of water, whichever comes first. As the problem started recently and is getting worse I would check this. What do you think to this idea, which has nothing to do with the container material?: Tap water contains salts of magnesium and calcium which are not very soluble at normal temperatures. As the water freezes a block of ice is formed on the surface, which is pure water. As the size of this block increases the concentration of the salts, in the remaining and ever diminishing volume of liquid, increase to a saturation point. When this tipping point is reached, some of the excess salts (at this falling temperature of just above freezing in the last bit of remaining liquid) agglomerate and consequently precipitate into the deposits you see when it is melted later.

I've found a definition of nothing that I think is relevant to this thread: Nothing....is a concept that describes the absence of anything at all

To eliminate some variables (impurities in the water) you could try buying a bottle of deionized or distilled water frozen in the plastic bottles you use to see if it is the bottle material that is really causing the problem. Your water filter does deal with chlorine and other impurities but not calcium compounds as far as I read...this is assuming it's working properly. Using the above deionized water you'll be starting from a clean sheet, so to speak, and can isolate if it is the bottle material. The problem could possibly be even worse with deionized water as it's a better solvent than plain tap water..if it is the bottle material then you'll know for sure. You need to approach the problem in a systematic way gradually eliminating the possibilities. Maybe one of the chemists here could give you a logical procedure to follow as my suggestions are a bit haphazard! Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedAnother thought has occurred to me, If the problem occurs only after freezing then it maybe possible with some plastics to become brittle enough to cause it to shed micro-fragments into the water on thawing. You don't buy these bottles frozen do you? Is it possible that these bottles are not engineered to be structurally stable at freezing temperatures. How's your acid reflux now at the thought of drinking suspended plastic? ...just a thought. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedI've thought about this some more and the simplest test to see, conclusively, if it's the bottles causing the problem would be to freeze some water in a metal cup/container, let it melt then pour it into a glass to see if any deposits are in it. If there aren't, then you'll have to reconsider your thoughts about freezing these bottles. You should note that these water bottles are intended for single use only and are engineered to be such. I can't find any hard, unbiased facts about the effects of freezing plastics...only opinions and hearsay in forums .or announcements from organisations with a vested interest (in the plastics industry) I would be inclined to find bottles made to withstand the rigours of re-use and easily sterilizable...like stainless steel. Not cheap but definitely safe and robust..

Just as an experiment, put some water in your (open) water jug and leave it to stand overnight in the fridge. This is to allow any dissolved chlorine to dissipate from the water, which is why the 'scum' may not be happening in your water jugs, then put it in the plastic bottles and freeze it...see what happens when it's melted. My suggestion is a long shot but it will eliminate chlorine, which may be a culprit, from the equation. Another way to get rid of the chlorine would be to boil the water, allow to cool first, then freeze it in the plastic bottles and see what happens.

Physman: Check out the 'What was there?' thread that is currently running. Klaynos and others have covered this problem of the universes location at the singularity/Big Bang and other things quite well. I don't know how to provide a link to it.