MigL

It would be interesting to see where these grocery 'deserts' are. This being New York city, I can imagine Manhattan being considered one such desert. No grocery store is going to be profitable if they need to pay $1 Million per year rent on a 10 or 20 000 ft2 building. And I fail to see why the rest of the citizenry need to subsidize the willingness to live there. If they can afford to live there, they can afford delivery. Also keep in mind the willingness of American governments to succumb to 'ideology'. We've seen some already in previous posts in this thread, with the idea of making only foods that are deemed 'healthy' available.

Freedom should not be dismissed so lightly without considering its nuances. It is exactly the rules and regulations of society that allows for the maximum freedom of all society. What some people see as 'freedom' is their individual ability to do as they wish, while disregarding or subverting the freedoms of others in society. An obvious example are people who oppose mandatory vaccinations as that infringes on their freedom to choose, yet they have no regard for others' freedom to not be infected. Freedom is a right, and just like any other right, it stops once it starts infringing on the rights of others. It is the rules and regulations that ensure where where individual rights stop so as to ensure equal rights for all society. Why not ? I was, for 17 very happy years 🙂 .

This assumes that the spammer is a persistent person who will give their info/email, wait for a response, then flood us with spam, only to get immediately banned. A bot, or a 'casual' spammer, will not; they just visit random sites and spam at will. I am a user of two other forums, which require an admin to email you back before you are allowed to be a posting member ( or sometimes even see additional content ) Not a holding cache for their posts, Studiot, but rather a wait for permission to 1st post.

If it's not the cranks, then it's the bots with spam. Can't seem to catch a break lately. I'll keep pushing my solution to the latter problem. New members are not allowed to simply enter their information and start reading/posting; they can read immediately, but have to wait for a Moderator 'go ahead' before they can post. You guys seem to be on top of things, so the new member would get the 'go ahead' within a few hours, or later that day. Not a great burden for a new member, but a big detriment to bots/spammers.

I think you need a more strict definition of 'belief'. If, by belief, you mean thought that is not validated by fact, then, by its very definition, that thought is not the result of rational thinking, i.e. irrational.

The gloves are off tonight. No more 'Mr. Nice Guy'.

Thank you @studiot . Not only do you live in interesting times, but also an interesting area.

Some storms seem to last forever.

Just my opinion ... Seems like people at either far end of the social spectrum share a symbiotic link. The people with power, wealth and popularity ( the few ) are supported by the poorest, uneducated, disadvantaged people ( the multitude ). Even as they are being taken advantage of, the multitudes believe the few are better than they are, and can do no wrong. Someone like D Trump, V Putin or even E Musk, is believed by the multitudes to be taking care of them; even as they are taxing them for personal profit, and making their life unaffordable. As if the few are better than the vast multitudes, and the multitudes believe the few 'deserve' it. And as the middle class is squeezed out, more people will migrate towards those ends of the spectrum. It is a self perpetuating effect that has increased over time. The few, powerful, rich and popular, lording it over, while being supported by, the multitudes of poor, uneducated and disadvantaged. God ( or revolution/civil war ) help us all. Which battle @studiot ?

More likely a large portion of them are a product of their environment. Constant wars, oppression of people, a culture of fear, little value to life, and no voice to express their concerns. Russians deserve better than what V Putin offers them. ( and so do their neighbors )

Only really bad Philosophers think that all the questions of the universe can be answered in their own minds. ( I hope @Eise doesn't get mad at me; he's a good one 🙂 )

Certainly nowhere near as bad as the US ( or many other places ), but you can't pretend things are running smoothly over there. Except for the area where @studiot lives; he always posts pics of idyllic little hamlets with wooden bridges and churches. But maybe if you guys re-join the EU, and get rid of the nutbars in your Government, who long for the former empire, and think England can go it alone ...

I'm not sure if that makes you ignorant or delusional ...

Tempted to neg-rep your post CharonY, but I was laughing so hard I kept missing the down arrow and hit the up instead.

Define 'beginning'. Of what ??? Geometry is only emergent ( ? ) upon reaching Planck scale/time. Prior ( what does that mean then ? ) to that there is no time or causality ( look up Quantum foam ), so that condition could have had an infinite existence.

Sorry, typing too quick ( at work ). The infinity of real numbers is a higher order of infinity than the infinity of natural numbers. IOW, there are more points between 1 and 2 than can be put into correspondence with 1,2,3,4,5, ... infinity Events can be ordered by assigning a number to them.

No. The wrong or inappropriate math breaks down. No, it can't. Time is one of the 4 dimensions of space-time. Without geometry there is no apace-time. And geometry breaks down at the Planck time ( t=10-43 sec ), or the Planck scale ( see Quantum foam ). So there is definitely a beginning of time unless you circumvent Planck scales by postulating cyclic models. Zeno's paradox ??? There is a greater infinity of points ( yes that is possible ) between the real numbers 1 and 2, than there are real numbers. It must be difficult for you to go from a distance of one meter to a distance of 2 meters, with that infinite number of steps 😃 😄 😂 .

D Trump seems to be extremely envious of B Obama receiving a Nobel. He stooped as low as begging for one and asking ( extorting ) Heads of State to nominate him. So maybe he's just jealous.

If that 'interpretation' is 'true' for you, I'm happy for you. You have found a subjective belief system that makes you content. Don't propose to force that same belief system on us/others, as that makes us discontent. And invalidates your belief system/Bible teachings.

I have no problem with the Bible; I recognize it for what it is. Soooo ... I'm not gonna do anything. But you keep bringing it up at every opportunity ( even when discussing fictitious posters who've been neg-repping you since 2018 ). What, exactly, are YOU trying ( and failing miserably ) to do ?

Ahhh, insults. The refuge of the ignorant and lazy ...

What if the flash you see in the second scenario turns out to be a real knife, and you get stabbed. Maybe both are wrong, and you shouldn't have been walking in that part of town to begin with. The accuracy of 'second guessing' in 'what if' scenarios is misleading.

We don't play here. Again, this is a science forum.

You need to log in to cast votes. If you log in, it shows up as activity. Yet Somebody hasn't had any activity since 2018. How could he/she possibly down-vote you ? You bible-thumpers can't seem to follow a logical train of thought ...

You seem to get a lot of your talking points from ancient texts, such as the Bible, and the Greek ( or Latin or Hebrew ) etymology of certain words, not realizing how, and why, the morals that led to that book, and the meanings of those words have changed over the last couple of thousand years. It's almost like you don't understand our language, and you need to use a translation manual ( the Bible and other old texts ) to understand us. Well, that manual is slightly out of date. Science is no longer a noun, that translates to 'knowledge', it is a verb, that translates to 'searching for knowledge'. The moral of the story ... if you don't understand science, don't try to convert the ideas to ones that make sense to you, instead ask, and we'll explain/clarify. ( don't be embarrassed, that problem is more common than you might think )