MigL

For most people, gender does modify their world view. Gender association, sometimes adds extra insight into a person's opinion. You know, " walk a mile in their shoes " ( or high heels ) to understand where they're coming from. This is for opinions mind you, gender has no bearing on facts.

If someone pulls up in an old motorhome, don't sell him anything. He's just looking for equipment to stock his mobile meth lab.

As per your initial question, I'm not sure if global equilibrium is a sensible concept. Globally only parts that are in causal contact can be in equilibrium. And the parts of the universe that are in causal contact are continuously changing. Parts that were in causal contact 1 bill yrs ago, are no longer. You cannot say anything about the temp outside the observable universe.

The point is, the Ukranians are not the aggressors here. The Russians are tearing Ukraine apart ( again ) and absorbing it a piece at a time. Yet you talk about logos and insignias.

That is the most useful description. As to what it actually is ? It is a property of 'things'. And, to the best of our understanding, certain 'things' obtain this property through an interaction with the Higgs field. ( look up the Higgs mechanism )

Most systems tend towards equilibrium. There are many feedback signals which regulate swings away from equilibrium. Global warming makes the environment more favorable for plant based life and less favorable for animal based life. Eventually the Earth will be more heavily covered in plant life, sequestering carbon and freeing oxygen, and have much less animal life producing CO2, and climate will swing back the other way. Unfortunately humanity may not be around to see it.

Their ability to be implemented in 'suburbs' , make them ideal for homeowners. I could envisage having 2-3 of these 100 ft high generators in the back yard. Even if to just supplement solar panels, on windy, overcast days.

Thanks Stringy, my mistake... Glass is not totally opaque to infrared, but depends on the wavelength. Near infrared ( close to long wavelength visible ) easily passes through glass. Far infrared is absorbed and emitted by the glass ( at room temperature ). This is a similar effect to greenhouse gases. Visible and near visible light will pass through, no problem; but when absorbed and re-emitted at the much lower characteristic temperature of the room, will have a harder time escaping back out. IE heat comes in ( unless you add other properties to the glass, such as tint ), but is prevented from escaping. Two panes make little difference to the above, although I have read that much of the absorption is a 'surface' effect, increasing the surfaces to be crossed, would then, increase absorption.

Two panes with a vacuum or gas filler, is a much better insulator than a single pane of much larger thickness. Very little of the visible or near-visible radiation is attenuated, but thermal conduction is greatly reduced. All windows in Canada are dual pane ( outside temp is -5 deg this evening in one of the southernmost parts of Canada ).

Is this thread about the US sticking its nose in other nation's business, Stringy ? Or is it about the US dollar and the effectiveness of sanctions; or the casual way China appropriates other nation's intellectual property, circumvents agreements and has the gall to claim Canada has violated Weng Manzhou's ( Huawei CFO ) human rights by detaining/extraditing her ? Like the Chinese government would know human rights if it bit them on the ass !

No it doesn't, CharonY. It would be nice if they were, but a lot of media personalities are real a*sholes. ( some even go on to become POTUS )

I have waited to weigh in on NDT's behaviour to see which direction this thread would go. Other than the case involving alleged drugging, which would be criminal IF PROVEN IN COURT, the others are simply cases of bad behavior. And going on about it, and making assumptions about thoughts/circumstances/actions for six pages is simply spreading gossip. Is that proper behavior on a science forum ? The fact that NDT is an excellent populariser of science does not mean that he has to be a proper, or even good, person. We've had some people who I thought were excellent scientists on this very forum. But that didn't translate into people skills, and some had really bad attitudes. Fortunately I can separate the two qualities, as no-one is a 'total package'. I might listen to a NDT lecture, but maybe I won't go on a date with him ( also I like women ). I suggest we all do the same. Other than Raider, who is still at that wonderful age, we are all old enough to know what is socially acceptable behavior. And I'm sure some of us ( myself included ) have chosen to act inappropriately ( never criminally ) at some point before reaching our old age.

I'm not as pessimistic as some people about Canada. As a matter of fact, I like it here; so I choose to stay, and make a life. I also don't have a problem with America; they are nowhere near as bad as some make them out to be. If it wasn't for that little bit of extra arrogance, you could put Americans and Canadians in the same room and not be able to tell them apart.

No, it would not !

At first I thought you guys were being too hard on a new member. Maybe I'm just naïve, but I continue to overestimate their moral/intellectual integrity.