LucidDreamer

plasma (usually)

It's a mix of fact and fiction. Inducing Alpha states and changing body functions like heart rate and blood pressure are well-documented abilities. Reducing the aging process by physical exercise, diet, and by reducing stress is not something mysterious. Being able to distort time-space or stop aging completely is something entirely different. Some martial artists have incredible control of their bodies but this does not extend to an ability to defy the forces described by physics and biology. Since every function of the brain involves electrical signals and since magnetism and electricity are linked then chi and magnetism are probably linked. People who meditate regularly or practice tai chi can develop alot of control of their bodies and will gain many healthy benefits but people have a tendency to greatly exaggerate these abilities because people are fascinated by the supernatural

Earned and Unearned are just the American Internal Revenue Service’s (don't know what other countries use it) terms for classifying income. It’s their business to not make any sense.

Earned and Unearned are just the American Internal Revenue Service’s (don't know what other countries use it) terms for classifying income. It’s their business to not make any sense.

Yes plants use oxygen during respiration to release the energy from the sugars that they create during photosynthesis. Yes, if an animal eats a plant then he will use respiration as well to get the energy out of the sugars that the plant has not already used. Photosynthesis is a totally different process than respiration. Photosynthesis makes sugars. Respiration turns sugars into chemical energy called ATP.

Yes plants use oxygen during respiration to release the energy from the sugars that they create during photosynthesis. Yes, if an animal eats a plant then he will use respiration as well to get the energy out of the sugars that the plant has not already used. Photosynthesis is a totally different process than respiration. Photosynthesis makes sugars. Respiration turns sugars into chemical energy called ATP.

I highly doubt anything like the terminator or I robot will ever become a reality. It's not as if one man is going to create a super-intelligent program in the near future that’s going to take over the world. Nor would this man be able to make a super intelligent robot one-day soon. We will know far in advance when we are approaching the creation of a mechanical sentience. If we were to create a sentient robot and then immediately make a bunch of his robot buddies and then drop them off on a resource-filled planet with a pre-built factory and all the programming we could muster then I doubt we would find a thriving robot metropolis when we came back. At some point these artificial beings would run into a problem whose solution was not in their databanks. They would immediately start running their brainstorming sequences to come up with an artificial original answer. But robot I74 would be unable to successfully complete his designated function because his brainstorming sequences would keep coming up with the same answers that did not solve the problem. I74 would immediately report his failure as a potential malfunction so all of the I units would begin running their own brainstorming sequences but they to would come up with the same useless answers. The difference between the I units and human beings would be that each human is different and one human being is likely to be able solve a problem that another human cannot. The result of this important difference is that when humans return to see how their robot creations are getting along they find nothing but robot corpses lying about. Of course this example is purely fictional and the chances of the exact same problem occurring in that exact same circumstance is astronomical, but the point is to illustrate that its not so easy to create a completely novel working "living" being that’s totally self-sufficient and able to thrive on its own. This is simply not something that's going to happen overnight or by accident. It took billions of years for evolution to create human beings and their mechanisms have been refined and tested for all those billions of years. How could we hope to create a new system even better built than our own in just a short amount of time? It's simply not possible that this is going to happen anytime soon. By the time that man creates a self-sufficient mechanical sentient being he will have already reengineered himself into something totally alien to us. Androids that are organic/mechanical hybrids are a distinct possibility over a pure robot. Some form of silicon chip may be implanted in human's brains or they may create mechanically enhanced bodies for themselves. It may be difficult to distinguish between what is a human that has been mechanically enhanced and a machine that has been organically enhanced. But however it is its unlikely that a war between men like us and machines like the ones we have now will ever occur.

I highly doubt anything like the terminator or I robot will ever become a reality. It's not as if one man is going to create a super-intelligent program in the near future that’s going to take over the world. Nor would this man be able to make a super intelligent robot one-day soon. We will know far in advance when we are approaching the creation of a mechanical sentience. If we were to create a sentient robot and then immediately make a bunch of his robot buddies and then drop them off on a resource-filled planet with a pre-built factory and all the programming we could muster then I doubt we would find a thriving robot metropolis when we came back. At some point these artificial beings would run into a problem whose solution was not in their databanks. They would immediately start running their brainstorming sequences to come up with an artificial original answer. But robot I74 would be unable to successfully complete his designated function because his brainstorming sequences would keep coming up with the same answers that did not solve the problem. I74 would immediately report his failure as a potential malfunction so all of the I units would begin running their own brainstorming sequences but they to would come up with the same useless answers. The difference between the I units and human beings would be that each human is different and one human being is likely to be able solve a problem that another human cannot. The result of this important difference is that when humans return to see how their robot creations are getting along they find nothing but robot corpses lying about. Of course this example is purely fictional and the chances of the exact same problem occurring in that exact same circumstance is astronomical, but the point is to illustrate that its not so easy to create a completely novel working "living" being that’s totally self-sufficient and able to thrive on its own. This is simply not something that's going to happen overnight or by accident. It took billions of years for evolution to create human beings and their mechanisms have been refined and tested for all those billions of years. How could we hope to create a new system even better built than our own in just a short amount of time? It's simply not possible that this is going to happen anytime soon. By the time that man creates a self-sufficient mechanical sentient being he will have already reengineered himself into something totally alien to us. Androids that are organic/mechanical hybrids are a distinct possibility over a pure robot. Some form of silicon chip may be implanted in human's brains or they may create mechanically enhanced bodies for themselves. It may be difficult to distinguish between what is a human that has been mechanically enhanced and a machine that has been organically enhanced. But however it is its unlikely that a war between men like us and machines like the ones we have now will ever occur.

I don't think the graduated income tax should be changed to a flat tax because it's just a way of making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Its not like we have become communist or anything. People have no problem becoming rich in America. A national sales tax is just a way of sneaking more taxes in. We don't want to let the government solve their deficit by raising taxes on us. We should force them to reduce their spending instead. So I say no flat income tax and no national sales tax.

I don't think the graduated income tax should be changed to a flat tax because it's just a way of making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Its not like we have become communist or anything. People have no problem becoming rich in America. A national sales tax is just a way of sneaking more taxes in. We don't want to let the government solve their deficit by raising taxes on us. We should force them to reduce their spending instead. So I say no flat income tax and no national sales tax.

Perhaps a luxury tax on top of a reasonable tax on excessive unearned income with a reduced flat tax might work. But that’s just another way of creating a graduated tax. Seems like that might encourage rich people to move to another country after they retire though.

Countries like India are filled with highly educated people with no jobs. Just because someone educates themselves doesn't mean there is a job available for them. If everyone in America that didn't have a PHD were suddenly given one there wouldn't be a high-paying job waiting for every one of them. They would just be educated and poor. If there were an abundance of high paying jobs they would have already been filled by the available work force. Impoverishing people doesn't give them the means to better themselves. If it did then everyone that was once poor would now be rich. Poor people have enough motivation to become better. What they need is a better means to do it. If everyone who was poor suddenly moved up in socioeconomic status then some people would have to move down to fill their roles. We would still need janitors, fry cooks, dishwashers, sales clerks, Wal-Mart employees, etc.

As you have mentioned' date=' organisms such as bacteria have the ATP producing molecules in the cellular membrane. The advantage to having the mitochondria is all of the extra membrane surface area allows for a greater production of ATP. There are many mitochondria inside of an eukaryotic cell and all of the mitochondria have many infoldings, which creates even more membrane surface area for all of the proteins of the electron chain and the ATP synthases. This greater energy production allows for a larger cell. Eukaryotic cells are much larger than bacterial cells and their area to cellular membrane ratio is much larger so they have greater energy requirements. By having all of the membrane hogging ATP synthesizing proteins inside of the mitochondria membrane you also free up membrane area for other essential cellular membrane proteins such as ion channels and receptors. The term magnet is usually applied to larger masses that have many dipoles that have all been aligned to create a polarized magnetic field. Small particles can have charges but usually are not called magnets. Sometimes they are refereed to as being polarized when there is a charge separation or multiple charges. I suppose you could have a particle with multiple charges that are polarized and you could refer to it as a magnet. A charged particle will also respond to a magnetic field. A small molecule that attaches to the ATP synthases can only have so much charge and the more charge it has the more difficult it will be to get it inside of the membrane and mitochondria. The cell and the mitochondria are filled with charged proteins and molecules that would also respond to any kind of magnetic force that you applied to it. A magnetic field strong enough and focused enough to move your ATP synthase attaching molecule would also affect all of the other charged particles in the mitochondria.

Aging isn't really one process; it’s the breakdown of a hundred thousand different processes. In order to extend life beyond 120 years we would have prevent the breakdown of all those processes. Alot of these processes are controlled by similar mechanisms so its not as difficult as solving each one individually but still there is no one single process that can be prevented that would allow us to live for a greatly extended period of time. So far the life expectancy has been increased by concentrating on the things that are most likely to kill people like bacterial infection, trauma, heart disease, cancer, etc. This has been a gradual process with small leaps, like with the introduction of antibiotics. Chances are that it will continue to be a stepwise process that will gradually lengthen the life expectancy to a theoretical cap of around 120 years. Life can be extended even further by replacing the parts that are likely to break down first but this is a never ending battle because of all the parts that are going to break down. If you replace a person’s digestive system their heart breaks down. If you replace the heart their heart their circulatory system is still breaking down. You reach a problem with this because the brain cannot be replaced and it will break down soon too. So the solution might be to create some form of rejuvenation program that will effectively reverse the aging process. Of course no one has any clue how to do this because the body is not designed to age backwards. Perhaps you could create some kind of nanobot that traveled through the blood system and repaired tissue. You still run into the problem of trying to fix a million little things that are breaking down. I think the quickest solution to mortality, as sci-fi as it sounds, would be to transfer a persons consciousness to a clone. Of course this would not be easy, considering that the brain is extremely complex with billions of connections. But it still seems easier to me because you only have to concentrate on preserving the functions of one organ and you can create a fresh body with a clone (moral implications aside).

Well, if you exclude enough essentials then you have a luxury tax, which would be a tax aimed at the rich and upper middle class.

Well, considering they are doing nothing I will offer a few suggestions to reduce the inflammation that may or may not be helpful. But I am not a doctor so you might just want to ignore me. 1) Apply a moist heating source such as a moist heating pad from a drugstore or a whirlpool 2) take an anti-oxidant vitamin 3) eat lots of fruits and vegetables 4) he has to quit smoking

I don't think it would be as easy as you are making it out to be. It's much easier to take stem cells and turn them into specialized cells than it is to take specialized cells and turn them into stem cells. The cells are already preprogrammed to become specialized when exposed to certain hormones and there are built-in mechanisms to carry out the specialization. There are no mechanisms for turning the specialized cells back into stem cells and this kind of procedure is way beyond current knowledge or technology. (disregarding any unusual cases where specialized cells naturally turn back into stem cells if there is such a thing.)

Ah, my mistake. You are just talking about the last stage of oxidative phosphorlyation where the molecule ATP synthase uses a rotating motor, which is powered by the protons. I was thinking you were talking about the whole chain or the citric acid cycle and I should have known what you were talking about. Ok, since we are just talking about the ATP synthase molecule lets just imagine that we did create a suitable charged molecule to attach to it. Now you have two major problems with trying to get the synthase molecule to rotate as I see it. 1) Anything strong enough to get the charged molecules moving might be strong enough to rip apart the mitochondria. 2) Then there is the major one that you pointed out. Since the mitochondria membrane is full of chaotic in-foldings the ATP synthases would be all be oriented differently so no magnetic field could get them to all rotate with any kind of synchronization.

A national sales tax would technically be a flat tax. A national 30% flat rate income tax would be too.

Yes, a national sales tax is sort of a backwards graduated tax since poorer people spend all of their money and the rich save and invest it.