geordief

It appears from my limited acquaintance that ,as far as we can tell events in the universe follow random paths (can we call them "paths" or are they "appearances?) I am thinking of spontaneous radioactive emissions where there (again to my limited knowledge) thee is no "interior" pattern to the ordering of events save for the half life laws that seem to be obeyed. What interpretation can one give to this order of things? I understand the Einstein was famously (and seemingly wrongly) outraged by the notion of pure randomness (not sure if it was in this context) but is it possible to welcome this state of things beyond the requirement to accept it as an apparently "set in stone " feature of things ? Can we (should we) elevate in our estimation randomness to a level whereby ,as it were if it did not exist we would need to invent it? Do other fundamental understandings flow from an acceptance of some kind of a randomness principle or is it a standalone pillar of the functioning of the mechanisms of the universe?

Do we receive more optical data from the distorted galaxy than we would otherwise get....or is the image just distorted? Are we getting photons that would normally not reach us bent in our direction so that we can see them so that we get a higher definition image as a result?

A little bit off topic but a wonderful detour "Grandin has lectured widely about her first-hand experiences of the anxiety of feeling threatened by everything in her surroundings, and of being dismissed and feared, which motivates her work in humane livestock handling processes. She studied the behavior of cattle, how they react to ranchers, movements, objects, and light .................... her claim of compassion for the animals is that because of her autism she can see the animals' reality from their viewpoint, that when she holds an animal's head in her hands as it is being slaughtered, she feels a deep connection to them" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin

So this on going expansion (whether steady or whatever) is like a blank canvas on which the relative motion of bodies is written? Like a page in a book where the letters get smaller and smaller over time. ( the letters corresponding to regions bound by gravity)

Yes,thanks. @Halc it was intuitive .(seems there is a thick line between counterintuitivity and lack of imagination Still,I find it hard to accept this concept of "expansion of space" if (as my mind tells me) space is not a "thing" that can expand. Does this "expansion of space" just mean an increase in distances between objects? Also ,might the "Big Bang" have occurred over a small region and a very short time with there actually being a concatenation of BBs which blended into one event when viewed in retrospect?

It seems very counter intuitive that galaxies should be separating from each other at velocities that are proportionate to distance. But this is what we observe ,it seems. Does this imply that ,at an early stage all the matter that formed those galaxies "talked to each other"? What did they "say"?😉

So does an EM wave propagating through the vacuum interact with this CMB field in theory even if the effects were too small to measure?

When does E=0? Not,surely because to detecting apparatus is too insensitive? Are there points in the region of an electric charge when E is equal to precisely zero? Is ,perhaps the field not continuous? You can't have a perfect shield against the electric field can you?

So,I am getting the feeling now that the CMB is not ,as I imagined an example of an electromagnetic field per se. Is it ,though or can it be described as a field of some kind (a set of measurements over space)? Also ,if the CMB is not an electromagnetic field what would be the first (earliest) known example of an electromagnetic field and would that field have perpetuated itself (in a continuously changing form) in perpetuity down to the present day?

(Hope this is the right subforum) Really a question about waves,particles and fields wrt electromagnetism. I understand that light propagates as a wave in the Electromagnetic Field and think I am also coming to realise that the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) may well be such a field and a primordial one at that. So,this is what I am wondering (and my question) When light propagates through the vacuum as a wave in the EM field can we say that it is propagating through this CMB(field) ? Is the vacuum (in this instance) the CMB field? As a second related question,how does one detect the CMB field if it is the same in all directions ? What apparatus might one employ to measure its value and how would its needle move if it didn't know what direction to move in?(if that makes sense)

Is there any connection between the Cosmic Background Radiation and Dark Matter. Dark Matter apparently accounts for a lot of the overall matter in the Universe.. Should its presence be evident in the analysis of the CBR ? Or would its temperature profile around the time of the BB be indistinguishable from that of ordinary matter? Are there any other ways analyses of the CBR could shed light on the DM mystery?

Simple badness and to shore up his base? Not that he couldn't have had the hope of a "Trump majority" in the Supreme Court as well. All about number one,after all. The Repellent Appellant.

No chance of recounting 2016 when he is gone ? (it might allow him to run again two more times😉 )

We have a term for those in the UK who have problems with their national identity when their days of empire and influence has run its course. We call them "Little Englanders" .They throw their toys out of the pram if they cannot stop the changes in their own terms. I am seeing something similar in the US.If they can't keep things in the same privileged framework they have ,as a country had it so far then damn the lot of us . They are damn well going to put their heads under the blanket. Little Americaners.

and the BBC https://www.bbc.com/news https://www.bbc.com/news/av/election-us-2020-54845496 Can we start to enjoy ourselves yet?

Let's not denigrate our equine companions. Otherwise ,fair comment.

jump2021?

On a pike.

I was thinking along the lines of a posthumous message that explained how we had managed to survive as a group or what led up to our self destruction. @Area54 maybe advanced civilizations might have language/signalling abilities more akin to primitive life forms. I doubt we have understood all or much of these mechanisms here on the Earth . If only we could come to a modus vivendi with our new friend Covid-19....

@MarkusHanke @zapatos I think there for that we should train ourselves by attempting to learn the languages of the creatures on the Earth first. Then ,to be more sure that the message is understood as a message we might send 2 versions of the message;the first just a plain object without a message and the second the same object but with the message encoded

Suppose we wanted to leave a message to another civilization in the event that our's came to a bad end and so we could inform others of our failure (or our successes) ,how could we be sure that our message would be understood if it was ever come upon and read? Would we need to invent some kind of a universal language that we could be confident that any (or at least many/ most ) advanced civilizations would be able to decipher? What basic principles could be employed to ensure that the "reader" would firstly understand that our message was worth the effort to understand and then that it could be understood? Has this subject been already explored perhaps?(probably ,no doubt)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP2RUD_cL0 Money for Nothing (and get your chicks for free) Apparently Trump's election team wanted to use that to open his rallies but Sting was insisting on royalties. Then Trump said he expected the royalties from them but Sting said he wasn't even American, just an Englishman in New York 🤔

I find dreaming gives me great hallucinations (never had hallucinations "in the dream though ;wonder if that is recorded as happening) edit:I suppose sleep is "drug induced"; just not "artificial" drugs

Any particular example? (sorry to drag you into the debate if I am doing that)

I've had them regularly for the past 25 years.At first I thought that Lyme's disease was only prevalent in N America and maybe mainland Europe until a friend in England got it. So I now wash my hands whenever I need to remove them from different ,sometimes alarming parts of my body. It feels like I should have built up an immunity but I don't know if that is what happens.