abskebabs

I have to admit for a while when reading this thread that my thoughts were similar to Severian's, and lucaspa's posts were the ones that seemed to fit in with my own thoughts and reasoning on this subject. Nevertheless, I didn't consider leaving this website at least not for something as trivial as a thread in General discussion. You, and others have made a good point however on how basically all our reasoning is based on faith to differing degrees. Even the word "faith", may need a little revision of its understood meaning within this context. The situation seems paradoxical in a sense, you cannot come to any conclusion or "position", without first taking a faith based assumption about your own reasoning(referred to as sanity earlier). In a way I feel this whole philosophical discussion is null and futile in a way, as it does not seem likely we will ever verify or disqualify anything we are discussing in way that is scientific. I'm glad this thread has made me think, but from reading it, I'm under the impression that a question I thought was slightly pointless at one point is not even worth discussion now.

Woohoo:-) ! Iraq are through to the final! This is truly historic and wonderful, it's the first time they've ever got there! They face Saudi Arabia in an all Arab final. Things have become very interesting... I really hope and think this may have helped raise spirits. Here's an article from the Asia cup website regarding this: http://www.afcasiancup.com/en/tournament/mtindex.asp?aid=50505&cid=1377&mt=12046&sec=105&ssec=246 There's some awful news from Baghdad I feel will sadly marr the memory of the iraq victory. In the Shiite district of Sadr city football fans were attacked by suicide car bombers, killing 50. I really hope this does not stoke sectarianism, because as far as I can see, the national football team is one of the last remaining enduring images of Iraqi unity. I will provide a link to a news report:http://voanews.com/english/2007-07-25-voa57.cfm For some reason, it seems to me only foreign terrorists would attack such a gathering, it seems unfathomable to me that Iraqi Sunnis would carry out such an attack, thereby I hope Shiites do not lash out at Sunnis over this:-( .

Hmmm... I'm a bit late to join this thread but to be pedantically participative: I consider myself now to be agnostic. I don't really see the reason to believe in anything absolutely, and I think that the methods of reasoning that we use to yield answers do not yield absolutes, and so it is unreasonable to have absolute belief in anything. I acknowledge this might sound aslightly solipsistic. Also with reference to the existence of a supernatural being, I do not guess its form and I can only relate that the God referred to in most religions, from my perspective seems unlikely. This is only relative to however; for example, how I consider the believabillity of the keyboard I am typing on for example. Then again, I guess this does come down to semantics slightly, and it depends on what aspects of phenomena that you "believe" in. Actually if you don't really believe in anything in a certain sense, do you belong to some other category, and not agnosticism as I have alluded to?

Looks like Iraq are now through to the semi finals. They just beat Vietnam 2-0 in the quarter finals. I'm really happy for them, but just unhappy I couldn't watch their last 2 games myself. Things are getting exciting now:-) ! I really hope they do well and wish them all the best with their next game. Would be great if somehow I would be able to find some television channel that is broadcasting the games or somewhere on the Internet showing them. I wonder how much this is affecting people back in Iraq, and if it does manage to put a smile on their face amidst the turmoil. Regardless, the players are doing their country proud. On another note, I found a video on Youtube showing the reactions of Iraqis after the win over Australia. Unfortunately I can't understand Arabic, but it was pretty uplifting nevertheless. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ6Sx_sZXiw

Congratulations ajb. I hope the day is wonderful for you and your future bride.

I'm not necessarily blanket against the technology, I have a bit more of an open mind about that, I just think it would be more productive in the long term to store much of this carbon back under the Earth. Regarding that, perhaps a halfway solution could be reached. We could burn half of the biodiesel that was going to be released into the atmosphere, and restore half of it underground. These could be used as emergency reserves once we have a global cooling crisis;) . Now that's killing 2 birds with one stone! I can see this also not being a bad idea if we use the algae to constantly recycle the carbon from the burned biodiesel that they produce. It then again depends on how efficiently they do this on how viable and realistic such a process is. Also, as a side note, as this is not my area of expertise, what organisms are generally considered the more efficient bulk photosynthesizers? Or am I already betraying the fact that this depends entirely on the conditions and required scale?

I suppose you could salivate on the archive for now, though you may already have a lot of these pictures. If not, enjoy;) http://www.phy.mtu.edu/apod/archivepix.html

Yes but regardless of whether you burn or don't burn the coal, basically the carbon has been transeferred into a different form, i.e. diesel by the algae. You burn the diesel and still release CO2 into the atmosphere. The main thing is this was carbon that was locked away that gets released into the atmosphere, and this is what is causing global warming as far as I can see. There is no problem with most biofuels, as essentially the carbon dioxide is being recycled by the same crops and plants from which the carbon based fuel originates. I understand algae will release oxygen into the atmosphere, I just don't see this solving any problems because the net amount of CO2 would still increase by this process, if applied in such a way. Also growing algae on a massive scale to counter the co2 increase, but really I don't see this being much different from planting lots of trees. You may as well just have your coal plant and surround it with a forest, instead of having the trouble of converting it to diesel:eyebrow:

Thinking about this, I'm not sure it's necessarily a good idea. Forgive me if I'm being hasty Bascule, but; you're taking CO2 produced from coal and using algae to rpoduce biofuel. What you gonna do with that: burn it. Now there's no problem with biofuel in general, as long as you're not increasing the maount of carbon in the atmmosphere(aka the cause of anthropogenic global warming), but aren't you in fact doing just that by carrying out this process. In effect isn't there no difference between this and the increase of CO2 in the atmorsphere besides the involvement of algae? I understand that it could be recycled by the very algae you're growing, but the bottom line is carbon that was locked away is getting into the atmosphere. On the other hand, I am very much for Coal if we can find an enviromentally viable way of "locking it up", and with regard to this perhaps you have a point with producing biodiesel, as this could be stowed away, and carbon prevented from reaching the atmosphere. O the other hand biodiesel canbe harnessed as biological life and its products are all around us. One avenue which I am surpriesed is not harnessed more or attempted to be is the use of organic waste(human, animal, medical the list goes on...) biological products that could be used to produce a kind of biofuel. This is already done in a crude way in many countries by the way of biogas reacters using excrement, but I'm sure much more sophisticated methods are available. It would definitely be better than increasing the price of foood to produce biofuel, who knows maybe in a few years we will have a cut throat competitive poo market:eyebrow: ? Also have you heard of thermal depolymerization? It's a speculative tachnology that made me get excited about this whole biofuel business. I'd appreciate it if you checked it out and told me what you think of it.

Personally, I think the way to tackle the issues at hand is to ignore the material and observatinally apparent characterisitics of this subculture if we consentually refer to it as such. The issues to be tackled have to be the poor way in which many youngsters now behave towards their elders and other members of the public, the way in which their irrseponsible behaviour and actions have become encouraged, and to look for how to tackle possible root causes. Overall the picture looks complicated to me, and I reckon any solution will be just as much, if not more. Perhaps a kind of reformed welfare state in the UK, whereby people are encouraged to make a real commitment to look for a job before obtaining benefits, or perhaps having some sort of tangible commitment to a cause relevant to this. It's true as YT points out that youth culture needs to assert itself in a way to separate itself from the mainstream, and this could in a few ways be a manifestation of this but my suspiscion is there is more involved here, and there are serious societal issues to address. This might be a little extreme, but a kick up the arse from the state could get a lot of people to get their act together, or maybe resort to crime, but there would be consequences of that of course. This "chav culture" or whatever we may refer to it as, together with the connotations we associate with it, personally; from my interpretation and perspective has become all pervasive throughout schools across the UK. The fact is people are not encouraged to be ambitious in any kind of realistic constructive way, and maybe the wider world is something they consensually become ignorant of. I think more than anything else it is a culture of ignorance, and it will be difficult to uproot. Even writing this I can't feel ignorant of my own experiences and past behaviour. There was a brieft time when I feel I was affected by this too, and tried to act kinda "street", in fact it embarrasses me writing this, but the truth often is. I guess it's a case of monkey do monkey copy. If you see your peers acting like this, you feel compelled to follow, and if not you feel odd for not doing so. Asserting an identity also has a lot to do with it. I remember though the way I acted was in a way out of contempt for "authority", and I looked for ways to get out of doing things people told me to do for my own good, but ignored it out of spite for them in a way. This youth culture only encouraged it, but I guess part of that might be ordinary teenage behaviour. What I feel separated me more than anything else from this was the way I felt I had something to prove in doing well academically to my parents(especially my dad), the way my parents pushed me, but more than anything else the ambition I had, and always had. When I was a kid I drew pictures and designs for inventions, that later I saw the flaws of and learned most were erroneous(damn the second law of thermodynamics! ). But more seriously, I always wanted to know how things worked, and was quite a difficult kid. I think I can still be a difficult person to deal with, and I still get a little amused in a cocky way if I annoy a person of authority, who responds in a way that is emotionally manipulable. It's a childish joy winding people up:eyebrow: If we were able to instill positive ambitions in kids to do something with their lives, and let them see the rewards of being so this would encourage many to change their attitude. Also a lot of the role lies with parents too. I remember one of my biology teachers remarking about something to with White families not instilling their kids with the same kind of parental pressure that asian and immigrant families do, and how this was affecting academic performance. Whether or not this explanation is true, the assertions are certainly reflected in the statistics, boys of a white origin are the worst performers in GCSE scores I think(for the UK). I'm sorry if I am corrected wrong. I think the phenomenon is maybe less pronounced or even absent from the private school sector, as I canimagine them doing a lot to stamp it out. Also kids who go to private schools will be the kind of people stigmatised by this same group of people so may develop their own kind of anti culture against this. In a way I saw this at my own school, but I can't say it happens everywhere. The attitude towards uni students may be a similiar one. I guess the best thing you could say to someone in a "chav" frame of mind, thinking that they are acting rebellious and behaving in a general antisocial manner is whether they reject what people in a position of authority in society(I mean this term vaguely, for lack of a better expression) tell them to because they think for themselves and genuinely apathise what they are saying, or whether they feel compelled to because they are by their mates. I'm sure, especially if you ask them in the form I just put above, you would be extensively ridiculed by them in whatever cocky or brainless comeback they have. But you never know, you might touch a nerve. I don't know, I think this thing has to be acknowledged and tackled by people who can do something about it like parents, teachers, youth workers etc. Thats my 2 cents(more like dollars!) on this. Interpret of it what you will, I hope it is a constructive addition to this thread.

I thought I would share this with everyone hear, I'm sure some of you may have heard about the recent progress of the Iraqi football team(or soccer, for the benefit of Americans). They recently trounced Australia, one of the favourites in their opening game(I think it was their opening game, the tournament's only just begun) of the Asia cup. I must say reading about the result made me feel elated. All the things this country, its people, and its team to have been through, it does bring water to my eyes thinking and reading about it. Football, I think, can make a real difference in these kinds of times, and could be a real source of unity and hope for the country if they succeed. I will provide a few links to related news stories but I'm sure people can find them themselves too. http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/03/1968398.htm?section=world http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=352194 I think I may try and follow the Asia cup from now on, not in the least bit bothered about my country of birth; India's progress is not of concern to me, I doubt they even qualified! Against the odds if Iraq were to win the cup I think it would bring me to tears:-) . It might not change things completely but it would be symbolic and people would remember it. I wish them all the luck in the world and hope to follow their progress. Actually with regard to this, does anyone know any television channels or other sources of media that are covering the Asia cup? I would prefer channels that operate in the UK, as that is where I am. Also what are your emotions, feelings and viewpoints regarding this?

I for one certainly don't take a negative view of biophysics, and I find the mention of such "real physics" actually amusing. Doesn't everything in the natural sciences involve physics(admittedly rhetorical question:eyebrow: )? More seriously, I find the nonlinear and chaotic phenomena that are described everywhere in nature highly interesting, and I think a lot of the more advanced biophysics research is based roughly around this area. I also find interesting highly speculative theories about DNA, RNA and protein messenging via modulated light solitons, as well as the idea of a quantum brain but thats another story.... Guess those ideas just capture the imagination. And that would be the key message I would suggest to you Snail. Even though I am even further from the point of taking a Phd than you, if I were to pick a subject it would have to be along the lines of something that I pondered or thought I had some rough, sketchy kind of inspiration about(my words betray me here, I don't think I can quite describe what I mean). I can only explain by parable I suppose. When learning about thermodynamics and entropy but also about probabillity, I found it amazing how aspects of probabillity theory manifest themselves in the physical world over time, and make up the nature of the 2nd law of themodynamics. At the time I had sketchy rough ideas, but I am sure with a lot more hard worked mathematical skill, I could have pursued and found something in the mumblings through my head. Maybe...... I may well be talking out of my *** but thats kinda the way I felt and thought. I would suggest if you ever had these kinds of feelings about a specific field or area of study then I would advise going for it. As for the practicalities of getting a job and careerwise.... I don't think I can give advice; I gave up a course and lucrative career in Chemical Engineering to study Theoretical physics:-p (and I'm glad I did too).

What I meant was; As the relativistic "scalar product" of a 4 vector with itself is an invariant scalar(as shown by the spacetime invariant interval), thereby the same thing should be true with a 4-momentum vector. Accoringly, if I take the same 4 vector measured from another frame of reference, therby containing different space and time components; I will get the same invariant scalar when I take its "scalar product" with itself. I can see now, along with what you have put up in your last post, that this has to be true, I guess it's actually trivial!

Could someone please answer the questions I have given?

lol, well spotted;) . Regarding 4-vectors, can we always consider them as "arrow" vectors with regard to general coordinate transformations, or do we have to start taking into account whether they are contravariant or covariant, or whether they are densities, capacities, or "ordinary"? I liked the explanation using 4-vectors, and so I have a further question. I know we can work out a scalar called the "invariant interval" when taking the relativistic product of 1 spacetime displacement 4-vector with itself(or even with another, but never mind that). Could something similiar be done with 4-momentum vectors, to show a similar invariance, and hence demonstrate a relativistic principle of conversation this way?

I think what he means is the science, or the facts and knowledge of nature is amoral, as such things cannot have morals inherently. Those who pursue or fund scientific research themselves however may have vested interests, therby making it either moral or immoral. I think it depends entirely what you mean by science. If you mean the body of knowledge produced by logical resoning and induction of natural phenomena, then Swansont is correct. If, on the other hand, you are referring to the "scientific enterprise" or research, then you have a point.

I've hear recently that Michael Bloomberg may well run as an independent candidate. Were this to happen would you guys, harbour any hope that he could perhaps instill some positive change if elected? He doesn't really need extra money, and could possibly finance his own political campaign, so he would be free of other corporate interests. However, I acknowledge he may have vested interests of his own for getting elected...

I would disagree with that statement. If I have brown hair, in a population where everybody else has blonde hair, that makes me unique. But if I have blue eyes, and everybody else has brown eyes, doesn't that make me more unique? Perhaps I have made an error in my semantics, but please tell me whether you think my reasoning is correct.

Interesting, I think hate is a little strong a word to describe a celebrity like Paris Hilton no matter how much they may tend to annoy you. Nevertheless, I find even more annoying the fact that so many people seem to care so much about these meaningless celebrity archetypes. As for Paris herself, you may have a point. I certainly didn't think she seemed an idiot from the episodes of the Simple Life I saw, but I don't think you could really get an impression unless you at least had the oppurtunity of getting to know her a little to find the kind of person she is. This is something I doubt most of us will be able to do though. Certainly based on recent events I was under the impression she was at fault with regard to her drinking and driving charges, but a litle research into the topic shows things are not so black and white. Certainly she is at fault for driving under the influence, and she got a pretty swift punishment of 36 months probation and a hefty(but probably not for her:eyebrow: ) fine of $1600. Also driving with a suspended license at 70mph in a 35mph zone is pushing it pretty far, though I couldn't help but feel overall she'd been a little hard done, but the full details of what actually occured are beyond me so I reserve comment. Personally I can't say I feel anything for Paris Hilton. With regard to cases such as the above, I hope she is given fair treatment, not biase against or towards her, but she's leading her own life. What she does with it is up to her. I guess also a lot of people may be jealous of her, probably because of her wealth and will loathe her for having an easy life, and not having to do much in her position as a "socialite", or whatever label she is tagged with. She may just be the most visible "heiress" of which there will be a fair few more, and so I suppose she may be targeted and stigmatised more for that reason.

Interesting, I was fully aware of vedic mathematics, but did not know this method had its roots in it. Between the trachtenberg system and vedic mathematics, I recently chose to pursue the former, and I think I am getting better at simple maths as a result, but the vedic maths may be worth looking over some time in the future too I guess.

If you're not sure about how it works, then think about what you're actually doing when multiplying. For example 2*2 is producing "2 lots of 2", so you can imagine the situation in terms of lines, I draw 2 parallel lines and I intersect them with 2 other parallel lines, producing 4 intersections, and thereby "doubling". You can have the situation in many other cases, using intersections in this case is just a handy way of visualising multiplication. Now for the other aspect of the method, different sets of parallel lines are drawn for different powers of base 10, e.g. 1s, 10s, 100s etc. Each set intersects every other set at least once. Now you can interpret this and find the resultant intersections that make up different digits of your answer. For example if you are multiplying 2 2 digit Nos together, then to get the total No of the 10s digits you add together the No of line intersections produced at the point the 2 respective 10s and unit sets from each No intersect. If the sum is greater than 9, then you carry the 10s part of it into the hundreds part of your answer, similiar to how you would in other methods of multiplication. Just remember you could split up this kind of multiplication in the following way: [math](10a+b)(10c+d)=100ac+(10ad+10bc)+bd[/math] Also, referring to the comment about this looking like art... maybe some ppl might interpret it as that, but as a method I can see this becoming quite tiresome when large Nos and digits are involved, even though it is quicker than ordinary multiplication. I guess the painful, messy calculation could be thought of as a kind of art upon completion...

I can understand your feelings, but I find the sentiments a little naive. If you're talking about smartness, then we already know that pigs are fairly smart animals but we don't really have qualms about killing and eating them, unless for cultural or religious reasons. Also, as long as the Japanese do not wipe out the population of whales living off their seas, and do not overfish them, allowing their population to be maintained is it really a problem? Besides, wouldn't this be in their commercial interests anyway?

I've just seen this video, displaying a simple method for multiplication. What I liked about it was that it was very visual, and with a little perceptiveness, it is easy to see how it works too. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zr6eqxk038A&mode=related&search= What do you think of it? Personally, I think it may be best for multiplication of numbers with small digits, as otherwise the method could become time consuming, and so overall I much prefer the Trachtenberg system which I am starting to get to grips with. I guess this method has some sort of attractiveness to me for some odd reason because it is visual, and perhaps exposes another way of thinking of the same thing when compared to other methods of multiplication.

The book is called "Mathematical Puzzling" by A. Gardiner

I figured this was the right place to post this so here goes: A little while back I posted an old A level coursework on Quantum theory I did that served as an elementary introduction to the subject. I'm starting to feel like I should now produce a piece of work that could serve as a more complete introduction, but this time to relativity. I have no alterior motive this time around, I am not currently required to do such a piece of work by my department at University, I just feel it may help me out in my own understanding of the subject if I can produce a piece of work with which to explain relativity as best as I can. Do you think this will be well received? I was thinking perhaps it could be stickied maybe, if presumably ppl think it useful enough. I was also thinking it would be quite interesting if more ppl on this forum did this kind of thing, and tried explaining the things they have learned themselves too. It could certainly make the entire experience more worthwhile:-)