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Alan McDougall

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  1. This has proved a very interesting debate, my answer to the prime question of the thread is! Was Hitler intrinsically evil, I say no? No child is born evil, Hitler "became evil" as an young adult due to circumstances in his life and his weak nature, these very same circumstances in the lives of most people never lead them to order the unspeakable evil he did.
  2. It is true that the necessary adjustments to the clocks must be done or the GPS system would simply not work. But if the adjustments are done on the ground they will be wrong by the time they reach space? If the adjustments are made while the satellite is in space how do they compensate for the "speed of light time gap" to reach the satellite with the message of adjustment program, or am I making a mountain out of a molehill?
  3. Satellites above our head experience a little more time because they are high, thus under lesser gravity and a little less time because they are moving at relatively high speeds. How do they do the necessary adjustment to compensate for differences between clocks on satellites and earth?
  4. I like your maths, I did a web search and was very suprised by how different the answers to this question are, even from science forums?
  5. Of course he could have been both psychotic (mad) and evil, most evil people have thse qualities. Like you I dispise abortion but one type of evil does not excuse another, Hitler actions were also against adults and children who knew about the awful fate awaiting them in the death camps. You said. This statement is nonsense?
  6. That is correct, some people think the huge amount of mass above the bottom of the hole must somehow effect the equation that gives the correct answer. The density of the earth varies as you get nearer the center. So in reality the sphere beneath your feet would equate to a smaller denser planet, with greater relative gravity. (Although less than on the surface) Thus ;in reality you would weigh more than 1/8th than you would have on the surface.
  7. Adolf Hitler is often referred to as a madman, in part because most people are loath to accept such enormity of evil as anything other than the by product of psychosis. Yet just how ''mad'' Hitler was, and how much of the evil he perpetrated can be attributed to illness, either physical or mental.? Did Hitler, know what he was doing was wrong but nevetheless, chose to do it with pride and enthusiasm? What do you think? He was an abused child by a brutal drunkard of a father, but countless people with abusing fathers do not grow up to do unspeakable evil, but a few do? Or was he like I suppose just intrinsically evil?
  8. I am referring to weight, not mass I know that at the very center you would weigh nothing, and that your mass would remain the same. I will go to the link thanks for that!
  9. I am a father of four daughters, ten grandchildren, one great- grandchild, thus like you I am a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, I am of the higher type of living things, thus I am consciously aware of who my offspring are and they give me meaning for my existence. Love gives us meaning to live and my devotion to them is altruisic. If we talk only about living things, without obvious self-awareness, then you are right, we continue to exist, because we exist. On reading this post again, why did your existence only have meaning in the absence of children
  10. Discounting the real problems of digging such a hole, such as huge air magma, pressure, heat etc! If you could dig a hypothetical hole half way down to the center of the earth and your weight was 100 kilograms on the surface, what would you weigh at the bottom of the hole?
  11. I like him, but I dont understand what you are getting at and how it relates to the topic.
  12. Moderator please read below? I wrote this article a few year ago, it fits loosly with the topic. Dear moderator if you feel it should not be posted here remove it and I will make it a blog ! A suggestion on how to live your life by Alan McDougall I wrote this for both old and young people!! In order to grow through life one must first establish a harmony within oneself, harness all our natural talents, gifts, formal and non-formal education towards the essential goals in life. Chose early the passion of that which you love and do the utmost to make that your career and you will not really have to work one day in your life. Establish a hierarchy of preferences and aim for those most realistic and most important on your list. Imagine you have only one year of life left and list the things you would do if this were all the time left for you. Incorporate this into the list, ranking all the events, and look at it. It should give you a really great idea toward the planning your journey through life. Never ever, stop learning, even if you live to be one hundred years of age. Fascination with all things around you makes a rich and wonderful personality. A very high-developed sense of humour is of absolute prime importance in order to overcome the pitfalls of life. You might say, 'well that's all right for the young but I am middle aged or older, However no matter what ones age, do the suggested exercise and you will be amazed at the richness and opportunities out there still within your grasp. Life is rich and has so much to offer all of us. Be positive in the midst of negativity by using that powerful tool, your sense of humour. Very important although not apparent to many persons is the absolute necessity of having a real loving spouse, partner and friend who travels down the sometimes-difficult road of life with you. Do whatever invigorates you the most. Make life fun, pleasurable, happy, joyful but never depraved. Sensuality is awonderful gift if used correctly. Use this part of your psyche correctly and to the utmost. "Really, life should be exquisite, fun, pleasurable, enjoyable and glorious. Unhealthy obsessions must be avoided like a plague (religiousfanaticism etc). There are energy vampires, who will drain you of your life energy, leave you exhausted and depressed. Avoid them at all costs where practical. Make sure most of your friends are energy invigorators and be one yourself. Again, the key here is ones sense of humour. The mendacious are a pain and do not really make good company but sometimes we can overlook and just laugh at their ridiculous stories. Of course, life is not always a bed of roses and those dark times will come to us all. Nevertheless, when in the long cold night of darkness of hopelessness and despair, one should always realize that a new dawn will always come again and the sun shine warm once again upon ones cheek in the morning of joy. Take it from someone who really knows! Oh! How important it is to be forgiving. Unforgiveness has no purpose and will fester like a malignant tumour and result in ill health, doing more harm to yourself than tothe one you will not forgive. Love each other. However, how does one do this? Love is an action, so do love, even if you don't feel it. Carry it out by actions. Compassion is a wonderful unique human quality, so enhance this within your being to the utmost degree. Don't allow anyone to take away from you that which you know is true to yourself. Honesty is the best policy but sometimes-absolute truth can hurt. Humanity consists mainly of good people, who are being held ransom by a minute evil 0000.1 few. Some religious fanatics say that humanity is intrinsically evil , However, I simply don't buy into this nonsense. Wisdom comes with the passing years, but ask children difficult questions and you will be amazed at their insight. Live life like an incandescent light, glowing brightly until you put off this mortal cloak and blink out of existence. In other words, live until your demise. Savour and cherish each glorious moment. Be careful not to say hurtful things to others because once the words have left your lips you cannever take them back. You legacy will become the heritage of those that come after you, and so what you do with your life is not only important to yourself. There is one companion that will be with you every moment of your life and you should love this person as much asyou love anything in the whole world. This precious person is none other than yourself. Use and develop your intuition to a very high degree and it will help you from stumbling on the rocks along the pathways of Life. Have you not been aware when you come into a room and meet a stranger that there is an instant liking or dislike between the two of you? On the other hand, you have felt that a course of action was wrong and the closer you got the more uncomfortable you got with this course of action. These are examples of intuition, listen and adjust to them carefully and you could avoid much pain sorrow and anguish in your life. The eye is the window to the soul, look into the eyes of a stranger and you will hear your mind saying "beauty, kind, shy, bad, ugly, evil" or remote etc. By just one careful look, one can read much about the character of a person you know nothing about. When alarm bells ring in your mind, please listen to them. You are truly absolutely 100% unique. There has never been one like you, there is now no one exactly like you, and in all the future eternities, there will never be another just like you. Of you fathers half billion sperm cells, only one reached you mother's egg and this was you. No has ever had your unique genetic D.N.A. code or fingerprint. Are you not, therefore, very special and is it so wrong to love and respect the wonderful creation you are? Go outside or getaway from the noise of the city and in the quiet of early morning listen carefully, you will hear the birds chirping like beautiful electrons in the mind of God. Take in the glory of existence all around and feast your eyes on its beauty. You know, of all the countless trillions of snowflakes, leaves, flowers, and no two are identical and each one is a unique creation of the universe. Feel the breeze upon your skin, smell the fragrance of the universe bath in the glory and joy of you existence. Be at peace with yourself and all the rest ofthe universe. You are a child of the universe, so special and wonderful. Take your mind into the place of unimaginable beauty and wonder, go on a journey into places you have never been and go further into the cosmic vastness of the beauty of the universe, with the power of imagination. What is the purpose of life? It is to live it to the full, without hurting others or doing the depraved. Charity is wonderful gift to the soul. Question everything with a sense of anticipation and wonder. Love and respect your mortal body, as it is the vehicle that takes you on this journey through mortal life on earth. until the last curtain falls for you on this blessed earth. Planet earth is our beloved mother and we must preserve her, love her and cherish her in all her blue glory. She is a blue blazing diamond glowing brightly in the vastness of the universe. Love all creatures. Get all your priorities in order. Spouse, companion, family and children first. A balance in life between ones occupation and home life is essential or the psyche becomes unbalanced and depression and anxiety will take hold of you. Take much time to be with the one you know best, namely, yourself. Life is a school and if you do not pass a test, you will repeat it repeatedly until you have passed and only then be able to move on. Life made up of countless choices and each choice could ultimately determine and define ones destiny. How we maintain good health, I think by developing a powerful sense of humour, much laughter and exposing one to things we find extremely funny. Then having sufficient exercise combined with a balanced diet of fish and a combination of as many brightly coloured fruit and vegetables as one can afford. Genetic preposition unfortunately plays a factor in how long and heathly we might live and is not always under our control. Red meat should be restricted to the rare occasion. Remember, your body is the temple of your mind/brain and if you pollute it with toxic substances, you will suffer the consequences thereof. What about pollution of the mind? Yes, one must be very careful about what you allow into the gateways of your mind. As a young boy, I was shown terrible photo that horrified me and gave my young mind the idea that sex was an evil perversion.This horrible image of nearly sixty years ago still haunts me and remains implanted in the basement of my mind. Once we have looked at filth, it is with us all the days of our lives, imbedded deep within the brain. Look, listen, read and enjoy that which is good and healthy to the mind. Guard all the doors or inputs to your mind; you are the one that permits these images or sounds into your brain. What we allow into our minds is of such prime importance that it cannot overstated. I, however, acknowledge that all the complexities and realities of life cannot be covered in a short article like this and thousands of voluminous and sometimes unreadable books have been written of this subject. Therefore, the above is my humble attempt by it what it may. By Alan McDougall Composed12/7/2007
  13. I think when we look into the eyes of our children, then suddenly life and existence becomes meaningful
  14. I just realized how huge this topic and how many different ideas there are about the meaning of existence. I think each individual has a unique meaning for their own existence. The science community believe that science may be able to provide some context of how, why, and where we exist, and set some parameters for conversations on topics related to meaning in life. This includes offering insights from the science of happiness or studies of death anxiety. This also means providing context for, and understanding of life itself through explorations of the theories related to the big bang creation event, the abiogeneses of life and the evolution of life on planet earth, or elsewhere such as on Mars with the latest rover, "Curiosity"
  15. Does existence have any meaning and purpose? Then if there really is a purpose behind existence, then everything exists, to allow for that meaning of existence? Thus, if there is a purpose to existence then everything must exist for that ultimate purpose. This would mean thatall things that exist are the necessary structures that allow that meaning of existence, to exist for that purpose. Thus, is existence just a meaningless grind without purpose or does the universe have some intrinsic meaning of its own?
  16. I was thinking of at most thousands of years because this would lead to some real practicle problems if we humans continued to lve longer, which I will address later. We die because of the relentless march of entropy, even the universe must die due to this in the end, be it by heat death or otherwise, such as all the usable enery being used up and dissapated in a closed universe. All the original energy is still within the system but cannot be used. Yes, many people and scientist among them are now trying to live longer by taking huge quantities of supplements, highly increased daily physical and mental activities, restricted diets, and such like. No evidence yet that this will increase life span in humans , but some interesting results in animals like rats and mice. Any increase achieved by these methods could at best only result in a limited increase in human life span and an uncomfortable life to achieve these small results Telomeres Are these the supposed "Death Genes" that if we could switch off would prevent death.. Cancer cells seem to lack these genes and as a result are nearly immortal, am I right in this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telomere Human (and other) somatic cells without telomerase gradually lose telomeric sequences as a result of incomplete replication (Counter et al., 1992). As human telomeres shorten, eventually cells reach their replicative limit and progress into senescence or old age. Senescence involves p53 and pRb pathways and leads to the halting of cell proliferation (Campisi, 2005). Senescence may play an important role in suppression of cancer emergence, although inheriting shorter telomeres probably does not protect against cancer.[13] With critically shortened telomeres, further cell proliferation can be achieved by inactivation of p53 and pRb pathways. Cells entering proliferation after inactivation of p53 and pRb pathways undergo crisis. Crisis is characterized by gross chromosomal rearrangements and genome instability, and almost all cells die. Rare cells emerge from crisis immortalized through telomere lengthening by either activated telomerase or ALT (Colgina and Reddel, 1999; Reddel and Bryan, 2003). The first description of an ALT cell line demonstrated that their telomeres are highly heterogeneous in length and predicted a mechanism involving recombination (Murnane et al., 1994). Subsequent studies have confirmed a role for recombination in telomere maintenance by ALT (Dunham et al., 2000), however the exact mechanism of this pathway is yet to be determined. ALT cells produce abundant t-circles, possible products of intratelomeric recombination and t-loop resolution (Tomaska et al., 2000; 2009; Cesare and Griffith, 2004; Wang et al., 2004).
  17. One of the ideas bandied about is a cure for aging, thus old people could return to youth and live in this state for maybe a thousand years. Another is the prevention of aging by medications as yet unknown , although some are already in the development stages. Cellular aging in the of the human kind researchers Woodring Wright and Jerry Shay announced in 1998, that specially treated cells had resisted senescence (fatal old age) up to 200 divisions, when compared to normal untreated cells that stopped dividing at 65 divisions . If this were extrapolated to whole body in years it would mean a life span of some 250 years. (the Last Mortal generation by Damien Broderick" 1999) I have his book this info is not from the web!
  18. Of course it does , I just indicated this to indicate that we have to regress entropy to the Big Bang for the moment when entropy was zero , and as the universe ages entropy slowly increases toward to the maximum in a far off heat death of the universe. Without the sun, we would have no energy and without energy we would have no life.The sun contributes toward the heat death and advance of entropy of the universe.
  19. As long ashuman history, we humans have dreamt of increasing our life span toward apractical or otherwise goal of physical immortality. If we succeed, there are many pluses and negatives debated about. Scientist haveincreased the life span of a human cell, a worm, and rat for example. There does not seem to be any reason why we die as soon as we die, some postulate about a so-called death gene that might be switched off for example etc. I hope I have oosted this thread where it belongs, if not, moderator please move it! ?
  20. A simple explanation of entropy by me below As an Engineer I know a lot about entropy, and it is true within any system closedor otherwise, entropy can decrease within a sub- system of a greater system, like the earth or the universe.We see this in Power Generation, using huge quantities of coal, entropy in the boileris reduced to as low as possible to increase efficiency, but the overall increase inentropy of the universe continues nevertheless. The furnace, boiler, turbine,electricity grid, use up the suns energy stored in the coal, but the sun continues to shine slowely increasing the state of entropy of the whole universe, maybe even up to its heat death. There is no way around it entropy always wins in the end and one cant use thecomplexity of life as a reason for the spontaneous evolution of life on earth.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;">
  21. We can see that many things in the universe tend toward increased order, the opposite of what, the second law of thermodynamics predicts. Life has evolved as atoms became molecules, then amino acids, proteins, cells, multi-cellular life, social systems, and so on. Definitely a process of increasing order, and against the flow of increasing entropy. This seeming paradox puzzled me?
  22. Thanks for the kind wink If you had to pin me down my type of god is similar to that of Einstein, I know he was an atheist, but he also had difficulty rationalizing the amazing order he saw in the universe, without some sort of driving force behind it all http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Albert_Einstein#Personal_God_and_the_afterlife Your question [about God] is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an Atheist. I do not know if I can define myself as a Pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. May I not reply with a parable? The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even the greatest and most cultured, toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations. I am fascinated by Spinoza's Pantheism. I admire even more his contributions to modern thought. Spinoza is the greatest of modern philosophers, because he is the first philosopher who deals with the soul and the body as one, not as two separate things. In his 1949 book The World as I See It, he wrote: "A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are only accessible to our reason in their most elementary forms—it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man."[32] Einstein referred to his belief system as "cosmic religion" and authored an eponymous article on the subject in 1954, which later became his book Ideas and Opinions in 1955.[33] The belief system recognized a "miraculous order which manifests itself in all of nature as well as in the world of ideas," devoid of a personal God who rewards and punishes individuals based on their behavior. It rejected a conflict between science and religion, and held that cosmic religion was necessary for science.[33] He told William Hermanns in an interview that "God is a mystery. But a comprehensible mystery. I have nothing but awe when I observe the laws of nature. There are not laws without a lawgiver, but how does this lawgiver look? Certainly not like a man magnified."[34] He added with a smile "some centuries ago I would have been burned or hanged. Nonetheless, I would have been in good company."[34
  23. What you posted might be good logical thinking, but it does not prove the non-existence of God. To me God equates to existence and is not invisable, just pinch yourself and you are touching a piece of existence or God. Of course this is not proof of a supreme being, I dont think of God as some sort of a great entity, sitting on a throne somewhere in the universe. If the universe is everything then in my opinion it is God , because the universe gave us life by any process you want to prove it did! Another view about God which I dont totally support is! Gods Immanence God’s immanence refers to His presence within His creation. A belief in God’s immanence holds that God is present in all of creation, while remaining distinct from it. In other words, there is no place where God is not. His sovereign control extends everywhere simultaneously. You might then say what has this got to do with the ambiogeneses of life, if god were immanent he is interwined in the process of the evoluion of life. Dont jump me again this is not proof just an opinion of my own!
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