Bill Angel

See http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/10/21/3d-printed-replica-brain/

Here is an article about how 3D printing is being used in dentistry: http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/05/14/stratasys-new-dental-3d-printers-fill-overlooked-cavity/ There are a lot of people in the USA who cannot afford the high cost of dental prosthetics ( crowns, bridges, dentures) that are manufactured using traditional techniques.

How's this for a scenario? Current lower prices for gasoline results in consumers having more money to spend on American products and services. A greater demand for these products and services results in fuller employment and upward pressure on wages, resulting in an increase in inflation (via higher prices). These inflationary pressures cause the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates. What happens when the Federal Reserve starts raising interest rates? THE STOCK MARKET SELLS OFF! So now could be a good time to start selling off one's stock holdings, perhaps even short selling stock in some of the high flying glamour companies. I'm uncertain as to whether a prediction of stock market behavior based on complex nonlinear time series could either confirm or refute this kind of market analysis.

There is another career option you might consider, assuming that you stay the course in getting a PhD: scientific support work for the US Government. I don't mean working as a staff scientist at a national laboratory, but employment with agencies who need people to evaluate the possible usefulness of other's scientific work in assisting that agency in fulfilling its mission. The two agencies that I have particularly in mind are the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

NASA has a page discussing the current understanding of dark matter and dark energy:http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/

You have not mentioned what outside interests you might have. To cite a famous example, Einstein played the violin. I personally believe that photography and hiking are good methods for mental rejuvination. Also exercising in a gym. You might also feel happier pursuing a career in science writing than in grinding out research papers, as it is apparent from your post that you have the ability of expressing yourself effectively in the English language and also of holding the reader's interest.

One should be concerned about one's intake of caffeine if one suffers from high blood pressure. See http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pressure/expert-answers/blood-pressure/faq-20058543

Bill Foster (D-Ill.) is the lone physicist in Congress. Here is a the statement he made after the election results were announced.

I think that the pundits are going to be proven wrong. The media is promoting the idea that the Republicans are going to gain control of the Senate. This idea is being pushed so hard, especially at the CNN website, that Democrats who normally would not bother to cast their votes in a mid-term election are going to be motivated to get off of their butts and to go down to the polling stations to keep this from happening.

Spending big money on TV ads in an election does not necessarily translate into victory for one's candidate. The rise of internet social media has I believe lessened its impact. One wealthy doner purportedly spent $100 million of his own money on TV ads in an effort to defeat Obama in 2012, and his candidate Romney still lost. The story I read indicated that he is being more circumspect, and less generous, in how he makes contributions to Republicans in the 2014 election. FYI : the individual is Sheldon Adelson.

That's a possibility, but not all religious groups hold views consistent with that preacher's hypothetical agenda. Evangelical Christians believe that once you have accepted the offer of salvation from Jesus Christ, you are assured of spending eternity in paradise. A preacher of this belief is convinced that his own soul has already been guaranteed eternity in paradise, and therefore has no personal motive or need to convince others of this in order to gain some personal benefit in terms of his own salvation. But one should not be naive about the motivations of some preachers, especially televangelists, some of whom can enjoy affluent lifestyles as a result of their success in attracting financial donations to their organizations.

Ebola can be transmitted in sneezes and coughs By MYFOX NEW YORK STAFF NEW YORK (MYFOXNY) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new flyer clarifying the conditions that could lead someone to contracting Ebola. According to the CDC, Ebola can be spread in droplets from sneezes and coughs. "This isn't necessarily new information; it's a clarification,” said Dr. Roshini Raj, a gastro-enterologist at NYU Langone Medical Center. "The confusion is that they've always said it does not spread through the air. But the truth is, when we talk about airborne diseases we mean without droplets. If germs are circulating through the air, can you get it? No, you can't get it. But if droplets with Ebola get into your eyes, nose or mouth, you can get the virus," said Dr. Raj. The virus can also live on hard surfaces for up to three hours. It's important to remember that a sneeze or cough from someone who does not have symptoms of Ebola is not going to transmit the virus. The question being raised now becomes what is considered 'sick' and 'contagious.' "Sluggish is a symptom, so is fever," said Dr. Raj. "It's important to monitor very closely for all symptoms. It's one piece of evidence we need to be very careful with. See http://www.myfoxny.com/story/27154414/ebola-can-be-transmitted-in-sneezes-and-coughs

Consider the famous thought experiment referred to as Schrodinger's Cat. Suppose a camera is placed inside the box with the cat. Then the total quantum wavefunction inside the box is the wavefunction of the cat and the other stuff in the box that is normally included in the thought experiment PLUS the wavefunction of the camera. This total wavefunction does not collapse, pinning down the determination of whether the cat is alive or dead, until an observer opens the box and looks inside. Until that moment there are only probabilities concerning the expected state of the cat (alive or dead) AND what images are on the camera's film, assuming that the camera is recording one image every second while the box is closed.

I would concur, based on personal experience, that one may not recognize that one is dreaming until something triggers you to wake up. I once had the experience of sleeping so soundly while dreaming that someone could not awaken me even by shouting "wake up" in my ear while shaking my shoulder. My mind was dimly aware of the physical movement and the sound of this person's voice, but performed the mental trick of integrating his voice and actions into the scenario of my dream. The result was that my mind couldn't easily be triggered to recognize that I was asleep and (gaining that realization) to wake up!

See http://www.insidescience.org/content/date-particle-supercollider-detects-no-evidence-dark-matter/1545

The following article presents some interesting results on the subject of dark matter being composed of axions: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/scientists-may-detected-dark-matter/

I like New Age instrumental works, because you can think about other stuff and get work accomplished while listening to it: http://youtu.be/GCEiwh795eg

When I was growing up there were no video games, but children did watch a lot of fantasy violence on TV. There were the westerns on TV and also the gangster movies. Most of us had an arsenal of cap guns and rifles. Some of these guns even fired plastic bullets which could have been harmful in they had hit someone in the eye. I really longed for a Daisy BB gun, but my parents would not get me one, even though some of the other kids had them. In any case playing "Cops and Robbers" or "Cowboys and Indians" with toy guns did not carry over into an agenda in adulthood of antipathy towards either Native Americans or the police. As a point of interest here a shot that I made recently at the Maryland State Fair of a mother instructing her young son in the use of a machine gun at a shooting gallery https://flic.kr/p/oJhvmc

"self-absorbed, and non-empathetic, and usually combative"? That is a very good description of some people I've encountered in Baltimore... One morning I was walking down the street alone just thinking my own thoughts and smiling to myself while reminiscing in my mind about earlier events in my life. (I'm a 66 year old white fellow) Suddenly I hear off to my right a young black man screaming at me "what are you smiling about!" I turn around (he was by then behind me) to determine what the commotion was about and noticed that his face was contorted in rage and belligerence directed at me. He, along with two other people, were standing well away from the sidewalk against a wall in a location where it was highly unlikely that I might have noticed them, and in fact had not noticed them. I had not encountered this fellow before, but subsequently discovered that he needed to take up residence in a local homeless shelter, as his family and the community had "washed their hands" of him. He probably thought that I was aware of his difficult situation and that was why I was smiling to myself, as I was gloating over his misfortune. Of course his assessment of me and my motives for smiling to myself had nothing to do with the reality of the situation.

Cloaking device uses ordinary lenses to hide objects: http://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/watch-rochester-cloak-uses-ordinary-lenses-to-hide-objects-across-continuous-range-of-angles-70592/ It struck me that this work may just be an ingenious application of a well known principle of optics design. Most good lenses used in photography have variable diaphrams placed somewhere between the optical elements. When you take a picture the lens's aperture or diaphram is "invisible" in that it doesn't show up in the image. Only the scene that lays in front of the first lens appears in the image that is focussed on the film or digital sensor.

This issue can arise when engaging in many different kinds of intellectual activity such as solving mathematical problems or doing puzzles. I was woeking on a crossword puzzle and I got stuck. I was working on it for about 45 minutes and could not finish it because I could not think of words that matched the clues. So I stopped working on it, went outside, took a walk, ate lunch, and then returned to work on it. NOW after this break the words that I could not think of that matched the clues come to me and I finished the puzzle. I believe that the same phenomenon can occur when one is doing math problems. So what is going on here? What cured the "brain fatigue" that prevented me from discerning what the solutions were to the puzzle I was working on?

If Britain and Scotland split, won't it put Scottish students at a financial disadvantage, compared to their current situation, if they wish to enroll and pay tuition at a British college or university?

The assertion that we have mutated over time in order to be able to consume CAFFEINE is intriguing. Large doses of caffeine are toxic. Or is it perhaps a situation where a mutation that proved to be beneficial also had the side effect of increasing human tolerance for ingesting caffeine?

Wasn't it the murder of three young Israelis in the West Bank ( not Gaza) that triggered this current round of violence? If the Palestinean police force had been more successful or motivated in apprehending their killers this current round of violence most likely would not have occured.