MigL

I do think the 'drivers' for these ideological movements are different for the originaters than for the followers. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but take Charlie Kirk for example. I have never heard him, but by all accounts ( from people who have listened to him ) he was a lot more reasonable and not as extreme about 10 years ago. And he did seem pretty quick witted in his debate style, so he was fairly intelligent. I would say intelligent enough to realize that if he put aside his morals, and took advantage of stupid people, there would be a sh*t-load of money to be made. By going to extreme ideologies he founded TP and became a millionaire by a young age, without actually working. It started with 'snake-oil' salesmen in travelling shows, then TV Evangelists, but the internet has seen a proliferation of such people who take advantage of the stupid, and those who refuse to think for themselves. Now the American Government is jumping in for their piece of the pie, and taking advantage of everyone, while supported by these these same people. With AI compounding the problem ( due to Government/Billionaire control ) and even more people not thinking for themselves, I think we are doomed.

While I do agree Immigration should be legal, I, and most people don't agree with rounding them up as they look for work at Home Depot while waiting for their paperwork to be be completed, by masked armed men, and shipping them off to El Salvador. I don't think the UK will ever get to that point; Then again, I didn't think the US would either.

Unfortunately our politicians are always about 20 years too late with regulations. And then, as with social media and digital currencies, just when it looks like we might get some regulations, new governments and billionaire investors come in, gut regulations, and twist them for their financial advantage. ( like having billions isn't enough )

Couldn't agree more, but let's not forget that it's not the Fascism but the extent of Fascism that is the problem. Same with Communism/Socialism; if taken to extremes, as was done by Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, who between them killed more people than WW2 did, it is just as dangerous. I'd like to think some countries, like Canada and European ones have found a reasonable mix of ideologies, but the US has started down the slippery slope towards extreme Fascism, not just due to its leaders, but the fact that almost half its population supports this slide. Unless righted soon, we could be in trouble. I do hope it doesn't take a civil war to get the US back on track.

Oh, I don't know ... In the episode "The Devil in the Dark', the landing team investigates missing miners on a planet inhabited by the Horta, rock-like beings ( silicon based life ? ) which bore through rock using acid, and were threatened when the miners destroyed their 'eggs'. But a lot has to do with the limited special effects, in most cases where aliens are similar to humans other than facial peculiarities.

Again a simple vetting process, where you don't simply type in your email, user name and password to start posting, but you have to wait till an admin gives the 'go-ahead' by return email, might discourage bots and 'pranksters' as they have to be contacted and wait a period of time.

I don't know about the worst two ... I've tried both Heineken and Peroni alcohol-free versions, and found them both enjoyable, flavorful, and thirst-quenching. ( not like I drink to get drunk, but if I did I would use liquor )

For those who may listen to his links, The Bekenstein Bound is the upper limit ( maximum ) on the thermodynamic Entropy that can be contained in a bounded region of space which has a finite ( but maximized ) amount of energy/information. See here Bekenstein bound - Wikipedia I almost pissed myself laughing when it is stated that the current problem with reconciling GR with QM is because GR is 'smooth' and deterministic, while QM is 'granular' and probabilistic. And all the problems can be avoided by considering geometry to be 'granular'/probabilistic, and smooth space-time emergent. Tell us something we don't know. And the claim that information 'collapses' into a Black Hole. Is information, which does collapse ( see Bekenstein Bound above ), not still collapsing to infinite information density ? IOW, the theory is still unmamageable in certain domains and fails due to infinities. Nothing is solved. As Moontanman said in a joke ... If you sit on the toilet at 11:59 and the clock strikes midnight, it's the same shit, different day.

I can certainly see the usefulness of computational methods for analyzing very large amounts of data, but in the case of sparse data with large associated error, I'd be more worried about the AI ( if not optimized properly ) 'finding' patterns where none exist, and going off on a 'wild goose chase'.

Exactly ! Science is NOT observer dependent; it IS observation dependent.

Thinks he can demonstrate that "informational dynamics, without external physical laws, can produce a coherent system with emergent properties resembling spacetime behavior". Big deal; I can do that with a balloon. How many times do the life-guards have to tell you to stay out of the deep end of the pool when you don't know how to swim yet ?

If they used the same type of crucifixion in Judea as was used in Rome/Italy at the time, they would have used a 'T' shaped pole, with minimal, if any, extension above the horizontal section; certainly not a cross, and with usually no nails piercing the hands/wrists. Roman Crucifixion Methods Reveal the History of Crucifixion - Biblical Archaeology Society Same as for the records of the crucifixion of Spartacus ( although no contemporary records exist, but were written much later ) and his followers in the slave revolts along the Appian Way, and is accurately depicted in movies, etc. Not sure where/when the idea of the cross symbol originated.

I used to hate it when KWs used to come to my door and I'd have to engage for some time in religious banter. Out of respect, of course, since they went to all the trouble of dressing up in crisp white shirts and prim/proper dresses ( men in shirts, women in dresses to be clear ). I finally had enough, and answered the door in my underwear ( back when I was a lot more buff, of course ), and they've never come back since. I do hope it wasn't members of your household, @KJW

While PBS SpaceTime is very entertaining, it can be quite speculative, and for newcomers without a foundational understanding of Physics, can lead down the rabbit hole to 'delusional crank' territory. A much better source for the fundamental concepts, and development, of Quantum Mechanics, albeit one with a bit of mathematics ( simple ratio and trigonometric equations ) which might seem daunting in Grade 7, but will betrivial to you in the next few years, is this one This YouTube channel, Physics Explained, also has other videos which will help advance your understanding of Quantum Theory. For an understanding oof Planck's quantization constant What is the Ultraviolet Catastrophe? - YouTube For the Bohr model of the atom What is the Bohr model of the atom? - YouTube And for a basic introduction to the Schrodinger wave equation What is the Schrödinger Equation? A basic introduction to Quantum Mechanics - YouTube Understandably these have more mathematics than you may be comfortable with, but the concepts do come through, wven if you cannot follow the math ... yet.

There wasn't much talk of it in Canada ( serious or trolling ). I guess quite a few of you Americans will believe anything one of your leaders ( religious or political ), who dyes his hair ( black or orange ), will tell you.

All these predicted 'Raptures' have happened, and will continue to happen. But every time they've happened, Jesus has come back to gather the faithful and take them back to Heaven, He can't seem to find any, and has left empty handed. Maybe next time ...

I wasn't even thinking about questions. If you want to become a posting member, you fill out your information as you normally would, but then have to wait until an Admin emails you the go-ahead to start posting. I don't think bots would put up with the delay, and it would certainly deter automated mass spamming.

The simplest solution would be to make reading of posts available to everyone, but posting is only available after petitioning the Admins to become a member. I would think controlling who can post is a lot easier than cleaning up so many spam posts. Or is this too similar to Trumpian anti-immigrant sentiment ( I'm here, and I don't want anyone else to come in )

The areas I'm most familiar with would be Niagara Falls ( New York ), Buffalo and Rochester. In my younger days I spent most of my weekend nights in the seediest areas of those cities. And you think New Jersey's bad ? The bridges connecting Grand Island between Niagara Falls and Buffalo always scared the bejeesus out of me when I crossed them. The only thing holding them together was the rust

It seems every bit of information offered to you in an attempt to educate you, is an invitation for you to pile misconceptions on top of false assumptions. We don't have the time or a big enough shovel for LL this sh*t. I think the only viable option is to disengage. My last bit of advice is to take Pinball seriously if you want to learn some science ... "( much ) Less speculation and open a Physics textbook"

Don't visit the US ...

You don't seem to understand how governments, or democracy ( never mind other forms of more totalitarian governance ) works. This reminds me of those 'groups against nuclear weapons'. If one side is willing to disarm, in the hope the other side will also, they don't understand deterrence.

You don't watch much American news, do you ? Most Americans get locked up for simple dug possession, and then only if they are not white and rich. Anybody who commits more serious crimes, like shooting up a school full of children, or driving while 'black', usually gets shot. But apparently they've run out of jail space, as they're now starting to jail them ( don't want to call them convicts as they've never had a trial convict them ) in foreign countries with worse jail conditions than the Southern US. Europe, the 'old world', is generally more 'liberal' than the US; that simply means they use different methods to 'control' their people. While a 'conservative' US enacts strict laws and jails to control what you can do, a 'liberal' Europe tries to control how you think, by appealing to their morals or 'shaming' them, Governments seem to be in the business of controlling their populace these days, not so much serving the populace, as that has become 'populism' and is now defined as a bad thing, where once it meant giving political power to the masses, not just the 'elites'.

This seems to happen quite often. Someone gets some 'new' information, and, from that snippet of knowledge, proceeds to build an overarching idea that seeks to describe everything, while simultaneously trampling on most of established Physics. Any idea you might have, has to abide by tried and tested Physical laws and principles, observations/experiments, and has to be testable/falsifiable. IOW, the smaller in scope, the better. If you try to explain just one thing, people can easily tell you if you're on the right track or not; if you try to explain 'everything', from gravity to Black Holes, or even pre-Big Bang with a sh*t-load of misconceptions, people will just throw up their hands and say "You're wrong" because they don't have the shovel or the time.

Newtonian gravity is considered a force. In GR however, you might consider gravity as an 'effect' that arises from test masses naturally following specific paths through curved space-time, which we perceive as an 'attraction' towards other masses. It is easy to say, then, Gravity is an emergent phenomenon of curving space-time, and not a force. You might also consider that, at small enough scales, space-time possibly becomes a chaotic 'froth', what J A Wheeler described as Quantum foam - Wikipedia, and where Gravity, as we know it, ceases to be a thing.