Thales

But zero velocity relative to what. Space itself is not static.

It wasn't about how the universe was formed it was a mission to better understand the processes dominating the formation of the solar system. Critical to understand the processes by which planets and the like form in the hope of gaining enough insight to extrapolate and apply the ideas to other solar systems. Which, it could be argued, could help us narrow down the serach for life.

Its not semantics. Its a critical point. Too many naive Americans operate under the assumption that if someone sets out to kill or maime an American soldier they are terrorists. As for Bush. What a clown! As I have said repeatedly(in the hope it will get through)people fail to realise that re-electing him will futher distance America and Americans from the rest of the world. The fact that more than half the country(extrapolating from the latest polls) supports him illudes to the extent of naivity and stupidity in your country. The guy is a ultra right wing mo-fo but unfortunately most people who vote for him don't understand that(or the concept of right/left (in more ways than one)). As for griping. It does help. Discussions such as this yield interesting and informative viewpoints from which the seeds of change can be sown. People who are against such discussions are usual that way as a result of not wanting their baseless doctrines to be challenged. Unfortunately the value of questioning things and of frank open discussions such as these has been forcefully forgotten. As for a solution to the terrorist problem, to me it seems obvious. Address the root causes, stop antagonising them and respect peoples right to have religious/political diversity. Terrorists didn't just start blowing things up because they felt like it, they are responding to Americas unjustified global policing. I'm not saying they are right but you cannot seriously hold that America has done/is doing no wrong. If you research the facts and take an objective look at recent history, America has one of the worst human rights records of all 'developed' nations. Investing in poorer counrties, educating them and helping them will be more productive than killing people, always. To quote president Eisenhower; "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from an iron cross."

I am not from Australia but I reside here. I'm actually british but I moved here when I was very young, so for all intents and purposes I am Australian(except of course if I wish to work or travel or study in Europe then I revert to my other passport, oh the joys of dual citerzenship:-)). I do have an aussie accent according to my English cousins but then when I'm around them aparently I revert back to a slight British one according to my friends, which I find amusing based around the fact I moved here before I could really talk.

I chose my avatar when I signed up, before I had viewed any pages. It is a coincidence, no less. If however you feel unjust about this I suppose I can endevour to find a new one.

There is a reason drugs are labelled as bad by society. Its because over the course of more years than you have been alive, the denegration they have imposed on peoples lives for centuries, has been acknowledged. Sure they may help initally with feelings of self exploration and even spur some insight into bizarre concepts but the end game is that once people get addicted to them, which happes more often than not, it profoundly effect their lives in a negative way. But at the end of the day its your choice. Making them difficult to obtain, by making them illega,l is societies only way of attempting to regulate the damage they can quite easily inflict when they are abused. These opinions I have formed through my own experiences as I have been there and done that myself. Drugs do not contribute to your overall well being nor do they make you anymore interesting/productive a person. For that reason alone I say that while there is a time and a place to experiment, habitual drug taking is bad.

You are making generalisations about an ethnic minority based on preconcieved prejudice. It doesn't get much more racist than that.

One problem I have with the neutrino explaination is that don't these particles move near the speed of light and doesn't that mean they would very quickly be radiated into intergalactic space where there is very little evidence for dark matter (the opposite is dominate infact). Hot dark matter has neversat well with me but if you have the time Severian, I would really appreciate an explanation to how a particle travelling at near c can pertain a gravitational influence on the rotational curves of galaxies given that they would be off the scene so quickly.

While I like the idea of illuding to peoples area of expertise I don't think it should be part of the user title. Perhaps it can be lumped into the Join date/Location/Posts area. There is also the obvious fact that a distinction may be needed between; interested in and expert in, as some of the younger members, while no less important are usually less informed.

Such overt racisim. Ever thought that just like terrorism, addressing the root causes of crime(ie poverty) might serve better than lumping minorities under the one banner. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Edit: On the original question I think the answer is a resounding, no! Should we let issues, our political leaders screwed up royally, go, in the interest of 'moving on'. No. Critical analysis is the very foundation of a functioning democracy. If you suppress debate, either prior to or after the event, the fear of political backlash will fade and our leaders will have little left to temper the hand of revenge and cheap political gains. You cannot expect people to just 'let go' of issues like Iraq because it has already happened. The point of debate is to acknowledge the mistakes made in a attempt to learn from them. Failure is the greatest teacher but if these people are unaware of their failings there is nothing to stop the from doing it again.

One of the easiest ways to affect change in theis regard is to start informing the people. All to often green movements, collapse to obsucirty because their leaders spin too much rhetoric or they don't know how to connect with people. The seeds for any revolution start with the masses, who on this particular issue, are decidely uninformed about the urgency of the looming crises. My advice is to join an existing local community based group and start garnering support for practical means of addressing the issue, from letters to your local MP to community meetings/forums where the issues can be openly discussed, increasing the chance that governments will take you seriously. I have recently joined a local support group and while I was skeptical at first I have found an overwhelmingly positive response to people's want and need to affect change on environmental issues. Once people begin to understand, then we can begin to rally the economic sector. Without some form of monetry gain to be had there is unlikely to be any real forward progress. Unfortunately such is the world in which live.

I find most people who go on about IQ tests scored highly once on some dodgy online test and hope that means something. The simple answer is that it is not you IQ it is simply a score you got for that test. Sit another test and it will give you a different IQ, does that mean you've got smater or dumber between tests....no. How could it when the psychological definition of IQ is supposedly unchanging with age. People can be intelligent in many different ways, from their ability to function in the spartially abstract to writing and politics to art and music. You cannot simply assign a number to someone by sitting a test and use it as a means to rank peoples intelligence. Its a flawed concept.

The first one is just common sense. The second and thrid are educated guesses based on facts I have gathered over the years but I have no specific reference. Makes sense to me.

What a sad state of affairs if you honestly believe that. Bush is a right wing puppet who pleads to the evangenical right and his political doctrine on issues of both foreign and domestic policy have already isolated the American public from the global community to a sad extent. If he is re-elected then it doesn't bode well for the rest of the world's opinion of you and your country. Although I guess that doesn't matter as long as you have a 'strong' leader at the helm. Please wake up and smell the shit your shovelling.

Yes. Its has to do with the differeing decay rates of anit-B-Mesons as confirmed recently by the team working on the BaBar experiment at SLAC. Here's a link; http://www.slac.stanford.edu/slac/media-info/20010726/pr072601.html

Thats my point it won't last as long and therefore won't yield a substantial shift in momentum when compared to a more prolonged push.

If the force is function of the pressure differential and that is fixed regardless of the hole size then doesn't it hold that integrating the impulse over a longer time will yield a greater change in momentum?

I'd have to agree on saying a subjectively based rating system would do nothing but add unwanted politics to the page. Sure we get the odd stupid question but as long as people are tolerant(which is not always the case) and someone is willing to point out the error in their ways, the site serves as a good way to eduacte as well as inform. We don't need competetiveness, enough of that exists in our immediate surrounds. Science is supposed to be a rational dialogue through which ideas and theories can be openly discussed with fellow academics. Not a measure of who is better or who is right/wrong. People are defensive enough as it is without having the added temptation to go out of their to hold on to errorneous concepts and in someway prove to a mod that their original post has merit.

The speed of quarks? Are you talking about the kinetic energy needed to overcome the strong nuclear force?

Lots of snow and deserts. That whole area is pretty much the most 'inland' you can get in the world so while I'm no meterologist I would assume so.

Just rob a house? Ebay is usually a good place to flog random stuff.

Good, lets hope it affects some change. Bush is a moron and I will refrain from extending that comment to those who blindly support him...

Are you serious they missed it? Someone really dropped the ball on that one!

Curly hair is usually shorter and covers less area of skin resulting in easier heat disipation. Slimmer eyes makes it easy to see in glary and/or windswept areas. Skin tone is more a bit more difficult but i should imagine it has to do with the amount and intensity of sunlight recieved in the varying environments.

Akira is pretty nuts although I was pretty disappointed with ghost in the machine. Have you seen the Beserk series. Didn't watch it all but caught the end, vbery messed up movie. Ninja scroll is a classic also.