Double K

Just in response to the questions as to whether Israel confiscated footage or not; http://www.smh.com.au/world/the-photos-they-didnt-want-seen-20100603-x7ex.html AS THE assault began I started shooting, rotating my six memory cards regularly to reduce the risk of losing them. What we were seeing was unbelievable and I wanted to make sure the images survived so the story could be told. I took hundreds of photos.... ....With satellite communication jammed there was no way to transmit the images so I used gaffer tape to hide the micro SD cards on my body and in my clothes. Most of the Israeli boats sped away but a Zodiac stopped beside our boat and the commandos boarded. I was knocked to the ground, perhaps by a stun gun. I got up and a soldier lunged towards me and snatched my camera. Despite numerous searches, including a strip search, I saved three cards. The Israelis found three in my clothing, but I hung on to the others - two on my body and one in some personal gear.

In some way he is onto 'something'. He has discovered a virtuous circle (positive feedback loop) however how he arrived at assigning 1 to everything still has me baffled. Clipper, why is a positive action 1 and a negative action still 1? It would seem to make more sense to be a binary system, 1 for a truth, 0 for a lie. Or even a +ve integer for a truth and -ve integer for a lie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuous_circle_and_vicious_circle A virtuous circle or a vicious circle is a complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop. A virtuous circle has favorable results, and a vicious circle has detrimental results. A virtuous circle can transform into a vicious circle if eventual negative feedback is ignored. Both circles are complexes of events with no tendency towards equilibrium (at least in the short run). Both systems of events have feedback loops in which each iteration of the cycle reinforces the first (positive feedback). These cycles will continue in the direction of their momentum until an external factor intervenes and breaks the cycle. The prefix "hyper-" is sometimes used to describe these cycles. I know this isn't exactly directly applicable but I hope you can see the relevance.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_feedback Positive feedback, sometimes referred to as "cumulative causation", refers to situations where some force is amplified, then summed to its input.

Kind of reminds me of this "scrubs" episode

Weird, I thought bees and wasps were sworn enemies? Maybe the wasps set up there seeing a good food source close by, and the bees just kind of had no choice?

This law is all backwards! There is something that politicians and peace-keepers trot out whenever they push forward with new laws that eat into our liberties; "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" And yet it appears the same does not apply to those enforcing the laws. If anything the police should be more under public scrutiny than the public themselves. The police are public servants - they are there to serve and as such should be even more closely watched. Who watches the watchers?

I'm still not seeing how arbitrary numbers were allocated to meanings in the OP... It had me totally lost, but I was interested to hear how it was derived... As for "believing" in something I would just like to quote something from a movie "It's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should be malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limits growth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant." - Chris Rock (Dogma, 1999)

There are some fish that breathe air... Lungfish Breathing A distinctive characteristic of the Queensland lungfish is the presence of a lung-like swim bladder. Modified into a vascularized air-breathing organ, it is used to supplement the oxygen supply through the gills.[2] During times of excessive activity, times of drought or high temperatures (when water becomes deoxygenated), or when prevailing conditions inhibit normal functioning of the gills, the lungfish can rise to the surface and swallow air into its lung.[4] It has been shown that more frequent air breathing is correlated with periods of greater activity at night when it uses the lung as a supplementary organ of respiration.[12] The lung is a single long sac situated above and extending the length of the body cavity, and is formed by a ventral outgrowth of the gut. Internally, the lung is divided into compartments by the infolding of the walls. Each compartment is further divided to form a spongy alveolar region. Blood capillaries run through this region close enough to the air space in the lung to enable gas exchange. Lungfish breath in using a buccal force-pump similar to that of amphibians. The contraction of smooth muscles in the walls of the lung results in exhalation.[13] The sound of the lungfish exhaling air at the surface prior to inhaling a fresh breath has been compared to that made by a small bellows.[2] Young lungfish come to the surface to breathe air when they are about 25 mm long.[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_lungfish and Mudskippers The ability to breathe through their skin and the lining of their mouth (the mucosa) and throat (the pharynx). This is only possible when the mudskipper is wet, limiting mudskippers to humid habitats and requiring that they keep themselves moist. This mode of breathing, similar to that employed by amphibians, is known as cutaneous air breathing.[4] Another important adaptation that aids breathing while out of water are their enlarged gill chambers, where they retain a bubble of air. These large gill chambers close tightly when the fish is above water, keeping the gills moist, and allowing them to function. They act like a scuba diver's cylinders, and supply oxygen for respiration also while on land.[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudskipper

Sounds like you've already made your mind up then. The point of a forum is discussion, but this statement already disputes all discussion as pointless. In the face of that though, I do dispute your theory. It makes absolutely no sense, it's about twice as convoluted as the bible. For the record, I don't think the bible is "true" either, but these statements are really unrelated and placing a numerical value true/false statement on that just seems odd. If you are looking for contradictions in the bible you need look no further than the start of it: In the begginning god created heaven and earth, moon and stars and sun. several days later, let there be light - but the sun was already created therefore light already existed when he created the sun.

Paul McGeogh was an Australian journalist aboard one of the ships in the flotilla. When they were boarded, he and another journalist stated to the soldiers who they were, showed their credentials, and yet were treated as terrorists. They were tazered, had their cameras etc taken from them and evidence/footage destroyed. You can read Mr. McGeogh's account here: http://www.smh.com.au/world/prayers-tear-gas-and-terror-20100603-x7ew.html?autostart=1 "Some of the people caught the first commando before he touched the deck – a few started to hit him, but a lot of people moved in to shelter him with their bodies," the cameraman said. "Another soldier with a bleeding nose was brought in ... a few people threw punches, but not as many as I would have expected." Matthias Gardel, a leader of the Swedish Palestinian support group, confirmed the soldiers had been beaten, but insisted those involved were unarmed and in keeping with the ship's non-violent charter, the soldiers' weapons were thrown overboard. Soon after the soldiers had been treated, injured and dead from among the boat's passengers were brought in. Stojiljkovic said: "Some were not badly wounded, but then a guy was brought in with a point-blank shot between his eyes – he was dead and I was told that another person was killed in the same way."

Most "shamans" from the older times of our histories, used to take drugs to dream. Payote, shroom tea, pot, opiates etc...pretty much all of them used a drug induced "vision" (whether these were waking dreams or during sleep I'm not sure) But as stated earlier there are some methods to use to remember dreams, and pretty much it's just a matter of training yourself to remember them. Keeping a notebook by your bed and if you are woken up in the middle of the night half way thru a dream, note it down. It's likely that you dream, are woken up, and return to sleep and then forget most of what the dream is about. The American Indians used to have 'dream catchers' in their tee-pee's. I doubt these things actually did much other than serve as a 'trigger' to remember the dreams, just a subconcious reminder to think about the dreams. Maybe it's worth making one for yourself ( I recommend that over buying one, as the act of making it will queue you with a trigger)

It's also important to note that with a road especially, they form a "camber" on the road so that the force acts to keep your car on the road. Road design is fairly complex in some regards, design speeds (these are the speeds that you see signed as "safe" or "recommended" speeds on corners) and lines of sight etc are all taken into consideration when designing road alignment. Most roads have a crossfall, and a camber. Camber is also referred to as superelevation. Crossfall deals with road drainage, but also is factored into the camber design. "For low speed rural & urban designs and high speed designs, Table 5-1 Rural Low Speed, Table 5-2 Urban Low Speed and Table 5-3 High Speed provide the basic design criteria for rates of superelevation (e) (measured in %) and Total Transition Length (TTL) (measured in feet or meters) as related to a selected design speed and curve radius. The minimum radius for each design speed is also shown. These tables are based on a maximum superelevation rate of 6%. In unusual situations, a superelevation rate less than the recommended value may be necessary for a given design speed. For these instances, the following formulas can be used to determine the Minimum Radius: English Metric Rmin = V2 / (15 x ((emaxx0.01) + fmax)) Rmin = V2 / (127 x ((emaxx0.01) + fmax)) Rmin - curve radius ( ft or m) emax - superelevation rate (%) fmax - friction factor (dimensionless) V2 - vehicle speed (mph) (kph)" http://www.sddot.com/pe/Roaddesign/docs/rdmanual/rdmch05.pdf This is a south dakota design manual, all councils have slightly different standards, but the basics are the same across the board, having a quick read of the concepts in this manual might give you some deeper understanding. This manual is a bit more easy to follow http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/ref_mats/fhwasa10001/ It's very rare for a road to have a reverse camber, in fact it's extremely bad design to do it, as this effect actually "throws" cars off the curve at higher speeds. Trucks especially have terrible problems with reverse cambers as they have a much higher centre of gravity.

If you want to see more about what you can and cant survive on, in pretty much any landscape, I really recommend the Man vs Wild series. The guy is ex british S.A.S. (special forces) and a survival specialist... it's very interesting to watch too, I love watching it and there are some gold moments like this one... Moontanman I reckon you'd love this series too

What about just setting up a blog page? These are free, you could simply put an "article" in for comment and then people can add their own comments to the bottom of it. I guess the downside is that they would have to submit topics to you directly for posting. Or if they are all trusted enough you could just hand out the login details to each of them if it's only a small community. try here

This isn't a true theory, just something I am postulating on some recent musings. I welcome discussion or dis-proofs of the idea, and keep in mind my knowledge of big-bang etc is pretty surface level so this may in fact already kind of exist in a way. Also this is only something I recently thought of, so theres likely to be holes all through it. That out of the way - the basic precept is this. Chemical evolution is a provable thing that has been studied and shown by others. We are essentially chemical beings. All of our interactions are chemical based, the synthesis of energy which we use to exist is, a chemical reaction. All of our environment is chemical, and although wind, gravity, thermal energy are all part of that system, wouldn't a "chemical universe" be theoretically possible? Ageing is a chemical reaction Attraction (pheromones) another chemical reaction ATP production - chemical Seratonin, euphoria - chemical etc etc.. Each astronomical body is made of various compounds. Is it possible that in addition to gravity (or perhaps this is even the cause of gravity?) that orbits are maintained by chemical bonds, valence, and charge? Mass is essentially derived depending on what chemicals & elements make up an object, as such the chemical makeup of an object dictates this mass therefore dictating it's gravitational affect. If all that exists is made up of chemical elements, then surely overlooking the nature and reaction of chemicals in a universal context would be short sighted? If this was true, wouldn't it even be possible to "model" the universe on a small scale given we know fairly accuratley the chemical make-up of each planet/star/gas giant etc.

The body does actually always try to maintain a thing called homeostasis So it will actually try at all times to maintain equilibrium. Hence why if you have low blood pressure you may pass out. Baro-receptors in your neck near your jugular veins constantly monitor blood pressure. This is the bodies way of returning pressure to normal by making it so your heart isn't pumping blood uphill to your brain. Also certain functions may stop (such as consciousness) however some functions are involuntary (such as your heart beating) this is controlled by the autonomic nervous system But in certain cases merely trying to maintain homestasis isn't enough, there may be a structural blockage, or a rupture, and your body simply doesn't have mechanisms to deal with certain critical failures.

"This mind is the source of all, both mundane and supermundane. When mind arises the various (paradoxes) arise; when mind is extinguished, the various (paradoxes) disappear. If you give rise to the mind that is unattached to good and bad, all things are in their true state." Damei Fachang Slightly paraphrased for relevance.. Anselm's argument: 1. If I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable, then I can think of no being greater 1a. If it is false that I can think of no being greater, it is false I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable 2. Being is greater than not being 3. If the being I am thinking of does not exist, then it is false that I can think of no being greater. 4. If the being I am thinking of does not exist, then it is false that I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable Conclusion: If I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable, then I am thinking of a being that exists I don't believe this statement is actually true. If the being I am thinking of does not exist, then it is false that I can think of no being greater. In fact - if the being I am thinking of does not exist, then in fact no being greater can possibly exist, as non-attachment to the material means that it is more powerful than the material.

The main problem with the argument being that "existence" assumes a material form, and yet "God" by definition has no material form.

It's really important to understand your rights. I can't speak for American law, although I would imagine it's fairly similar. Police really rely on the fact that most people don't know their rights, and they will use their authority to get you to consent when you often really need not to. It really irks me when people give the old "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" addage. I disagree with that, in that if I have nothing to hide, then I have no reason to consent to a search. If a drug dog is indicating I guess that gives an officer probable cause to search you, but in most cases they wont have a dog with them, and I would not be surprised if they could queue their dog to indicate at a person with a command or a certain tug on a leash so it looked like the dog was indicating when in fact its truly not.

Totally, and I guess any system is going to be flawed, in some regard. Although there was a case just the other day of a man beating the living **** out of a guy who molested his 10yr old son. He was aquitted the jury saying that any reasonable parent would have reacted the same way. http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/-/newshome/7334330/father-acquitted-over-violent-bashing-of-sons-molester/ Vigilantism isn't a good option either...just saying

Its easy to look at things in context and not absolutes as long as they arent directly affecting you. "Kill em all and let god sort em out" Isn't a workable approach either, although it has certainly been tried before. I'm not defending criminals should get off scott free if guilty either. We're not just talking numbers here, we're talking human beings. Like you and me, and possibly one day, you or I could be sitting in the wrong chair. I was watching a show the other day on an Australian guy that has been in jail around 20 years now, was jailed when he was 21 or so, he was convicted with DNA evidence (when DNA science was very new and in it's infancy) He has maintained his innocence since his arrest, and was recently denied parole as part of his parole condition was to admit guilt. He refused to admit guilt and to this day, remains in prison. The Innocence Project is working on getting him a retrail. http://www.innocenceproject.org/ 20+ years of this guys life gone. Chance to have kids, gone, chance of a wife and enjoying his life like you and I have the liberty to do. Assuming it was a wrongful conviction - in Australian law (unlike American) if you are wrongfully imprisoned, you get no compensation, all you get is an apology. For 20 years of your life stolen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States 2,304,115 were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails in 2008. 92165 (possibly) innocent per year. That's alot of people. I'm glad you can live with that, but that's a heck of alot of lives dramatically altered. Lets just get that in perspective, you incarcerate someone which disconnects them from their family and quite possibly breaks them up from their family depending on if the family thinks they are guilty or not and is prepared to forgive them. In some cases an execution may be more merciful when it comes to completely taking someones life away from them when they are innocent.

http://forejustice.org/wc/mi_report_april04.html ...So from 1964 to 2000 knowledgeable estimates of the number of wrongly convicted people range from 2% to 14%, and the finding of the FBI – an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice – lends empirical support to the higher figure.

Israel military is hardly an objective observer either. Which was my point. There is going to be a whole lot of he said, she said as this develops, neither party is particularly believable, but I am more likely to believe Australian journalists than I am either Al Jazeera, or Israel, because in Australia we have a code of ethics which most journo's seem to hold dear, and given the gravity of an international incident, I believe, would be more likely to report objectively.

"Because self-incriminating statements are viewed as such inherently compelling evidence of guilt, false confessions are a leading cause of wrongful conviction. In aggregated case studies, they have accounted for 14 to 60 percent of documented wrongful convictions (Warden, 2003; Bedau & Radelet, 1987; Scheck, Neufeld, & Dwyer, 2000; Gross et al., 2005; Garrett, 2008)." http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=richardleo (page 12) And that is what they call reasonable doubt.

So what you're saying is that Israeli military is a more reliable source than an eye witness? I didnt say this was a reliable source, it just so happens to be the ONLY other source that got a video out there. Two Australian journalists were onboard. Both were detained, one was shot, the other tasered, and their footage was taken from them. Fact. Israel is a signatory to this convention (as of 1953) If they dont wish to be held to it, then they should never have signed it.