MigL

It seems you know how aliens think, judging by the examples you gave. I presume you've been abducted by them, and had many anal probings ...

I like Forged in Fire also, and have always wanted to try to forge a knife. This article gives several test, including the spark test, for identifying various steels Learn to Identify and Scrap Stainless Steel | Public & Commercial Scrap Metal Buyer and Container Service. Public Cash for Scrap Metal Recycling in Westport, MA. Highest Scrap Metal Prices Paid (midcityscrap.com)

Can't really comment on how string theory treats the Big Bang, but LQG does make predictions that the Big Bang is actually a 'Big Bounce' from a previous inflationary/collapsing phase. You can google that. What you can't google is the simplistic view of LQG as a box of Cheerios, and the incredulity that that box of Cheerios can expand. So, again, we have observational evidence and a workable model. You have a box of Cheerios, and ... ??? ( hopefully, some milk )

Then why do you confuse him with ALL conservatives. As a matter of fact D Trump, in his last Presidential bid in 2000 ran as a Reformer, before switching to Democrat the following year. He is an opportunist, who does things for personal benefit, as is V Orban. The group of mostly idiots who make up the Republican party are not comparable to most other conservatives in other countries. Knowing that they could be easily manipulated, Trump took advantage of them and their base, for his own benefit; the few sane Republicans that are left, all hate D Trump with a passion. I expect that if the Hungarian people don't get rid of V Orban, the EU will soon lose patience with them, and cut them loose. There are certain standards to be met for joining, and those standards must be maintained to stay.

I'm sorry Phi. If I'm stuck in an elevator with a science forum administrator, and a woman in a wheelchair, who used to be an elevator repair person, I will rank the woman in a wheelchair's advice higher than the forum administrator's. Is that vertical, horizontal, or upside dowwn and sideways morality ?

Fighting against Globalization of economies and governance is not a 'conservative' agenda, Peterkin; no matter how much you want to villify those you consider 'conservatives' with it. It is an opinion that Orban and Trump seem to share. You seem to forget that a huge step towards globalization, the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ) was implemented by two conservative politicians, R Reagan and B Mulroney. Bat-shit crazy is ignoring facts, and basing opinion on personal 'beliefs'.

It was a good experiment Phi. Trying to figure out how a deluded mind works. But Greg's last couple of posts, talking about how things have already happened in the future, and gender wars, have veered into bat-shit crazy territory.

Science has observational evidence for all its claims. What do you have, Glancer ????

So you rank your 'horizontal' morality higher than those who have a 'vertical' morality ? have you substituted the hierarchy of 'vertical' morality with varying angles from you ideal 'angle' of morality ? All morality is subjective. Assigning subjective orientations to abstract concepts doesn't get anyone anywhere. But it may make you feel better, or superior to others, with subjective ideas of morality. Not meant as a personal attack, Phi, but this is like saying "The way I love my family is better than the way you love yours". You are assigning a subjective quality to an abstract subjective concept.

Neither. I would argue the honor goes to Physicist Robert Noyce who pioneered the monolithic silicon integrated circuit in 1959. He founded Fairchild Semiconductor, and along with Gordon Moore, founded Intel. Robert Noyce - Wikipedia Honorable mention should also go to Jack Kilby, electrical engineer, developer of the first hybrid germanium IC at Texas Instruments in the late 50s ( and Nobel Prize for Physics in 2000 ). They are arguably the fathers of modern computing, as we know it.

Just like differences between types of conervatives and liberals, there is a huge difference between 'soft' and compassionate. The idea is not one extreme ideology, or the other opposite. It is a combination of the two which yield the most benefit for all people. Democracy does that much much better than authoritanianism/dictatorship.

Is this a wild guess, or do you have evidence ??? Science works with evidence, not guesses.

I know some very good people who consider themselves conservative ( Canadian, not Republican ), and resent the fact that they are being lumped in with this guy. In Canada, being conservative means not changing our true and tried ways, with new ideas like for-pay clinics or split cost health care. Or getting rid of our armed forces in favor of 'peace-keeping' forces. Or allowing armed citizens, and militias, to protect ourselves from our representative Government. These are just a few examples that indicate there are differences in 'conservatives' as well as differences in 'liberals'. And Greg has mentioned some instances ( Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot ) where left wing idealism has gone 'off the rails' and murdered more people than even fascists like A Hitler did.

So, a bunch of definitions strung together with an overactive imagination, and no model to speak of. Woo and WAG come to mind. To quote the Simpsons "You can't make friends with ( word ) salad"

I also said

And the very people he is defending are Russians and Chinese, both Communist, which is, by definition, left. Authoritarian governments ( dictatorships ) are authoritarian no matter their political leaning; extreme right, or extreme left.

From J A Wheeler's No-Hair Conjecture "Every isolated unstable black hole decays rapidly to a stable black hole; and (excepting quantum fluctuations) stable black holes can be completely described (in a Cartesian coordinate system) at any moment in time by these eleven numbers: mass–energy {\displaystyle M}, linear momentum {\displaystyle {\textbf {P}}} (three components), angular momentum {\displaystyle {\textbf {J}}} (three components), position {\displaystyle {\textbf {X}}} (three components), electric charge {\displaystyle Q}. These numbers represent the conserved attributes of an object which can be determined from a distance by examining its gravitational and electromagnetic fields. All other variations in the black hole will either escape to infinity or be swallowed up by the black hole. By changing the reference frame one can set the linear momentum and position to zero and orient the spin angular momentum along the positive z axis. This eliminates eight of the eleven numbers, leaving three which are independent of the reference frame: mass, angular momentum magnitude, and electric charge. Thus any black hole that has been isolated for a significant period of time can be described by the Kerr–Newman metric in an appropriately chosen reference frame." From No-hair theorem - Wikipedia That is all we can determine fom an external ( distant ) frame of reference. Internally, we know the laws of Physics nust apply until we get close to the predicted singularity, at which point we know our model is no longer applicable ( otherwise it would not predict a singularity of infinite density ). That being said, we know of no mechanism that can resist further collapse ( to infinite density ) once neutron degeneracy pressure ( as in a neutron star ) is overcome by gravity.

We have rules against referring to other members as 'stupid'. Maybe some disciplinary action is in order ?

Since there are not, and probably never been, any aliens on Earth, are you suggesting we do the same, and leave ?

By 'set' I mean set the model such that 'gravitational potential is equal in magnitude to the intrinsic energy', so that predictions such as the 'universe from nothing' can be made. I was not suggesting a 'creator' set the initial conditions in that way, as some have misinterpreted. My apologies for bad choice of wording.

It is the fact that you live in a democratic society that allows you to vomit garbage like this. If you like dictatorships so much, why do you have a problem with their MO, censorship ?

The lady does have resolve. ( didn't want to say 'balls' ) In a bright pink suit, yet ...

Apparently FlghtRadar24 , a site which tracks civilian and some military air traffic was 'down' for a couple of hours earlier today. It effectively suffered a 'denial of service' because of the most tracked flight in history; so many logged on to view N Pelosi's flight into Taiwan, that the site was swamped. Good for her; the world ( and dictatorships ) need to know that we will support nations like Ukraine and Taiwan against aggression from 'bully' nations

Gotta love it when someone comes in after 50 paes, and posts stuff that has already been discussed at length in those 50 pages. NATO is not an expansionist organzation. It was set up to counter Russian expansionism after WW2, as Eastern Europe ( eventually Warsaw Pact ) was already under their military control. And it seems to be working just fine, because every time Russia attempts expansion by annexing another independent state ( like Ukraine ), NATO membership tends to increase dramatically. Taiwan was liberated from the Japanese after WW2, and placed under the governance of the ROC ( Kuomintang ), the official ruling Government of China, at that time. A few years later ( 1949 ) the Kuomintang were defeated, on the mainland, by the Communist forces during the Chinese Civil War, and the Kuomintang, under Chang Kai Sheckretreated their forces, and ROC government to the island of Taiwan. See here History of Taiwan (1945–present) - Wikipedia Maybe you can explain to me how politicised Chinese citizens are occupying territory that China has the right to take back ???? Remember that North America was mostly British, until the Americans fought a Civil War against the British, to establish independence. The British then, retreated to Canada, where they have had their own Government for about 150 years longer than Taiwan has. Does that mean Canada rightfully belongs to Americans, and we canadians are 'politicised Americans' ? Learn some history ... The natural order is dictatorship ? You may be right. In nature pack animals usually compete for the dominant spot ( nature's way of selecting the strongest genes for reproduction ) but we seem to have evolved past our animal instincs.At least in some parts of the world. This is exemplified by your ability to post anti-social garbage without retribution. Try that in China. Better yet, go live with wolves. See how you make out ... Cross posted with Sensei

usually, what one does is set gravitational potential energy as negative, and since it somewhat matches the magnitude of the intrinsic energy of the universe, we can say the universe is net zero energy. This is the 'universe from nothing' pitched by L Krauss. See here Zero-energy universe - Wikipedia Whether a property can be positive or negative, or simply an 'accounting' trick, or whether it even makes sense to consider energy on a global scale, is for people with better minds than mine to consider.