studiot

Sadly that's a big part of human nature for you, though there are usually only a few real zealots and a lot of folks being led by the nose. +1

Talking about Lagos Did you ever come across Jonas M K Dake of fluids textbook fame ?

Thank your mother for us please. Unfortunately your statistics are somewhat out of date. It would be true to say We have a rising unemployment, many people who can't find jobs particularly amongst the youth who also can't afford places to live and/or food and/or winter heating. We have a ridiculous tax/ benefit system were we have seen a series of bureaucratic 'adjustments that have been plainly unfair to various people, particularly women, who are the main sector that may only have a state pension. Most men already receiving a pension will have gone through good employment times, not a prospect for those still working. Actually the national average life expectancy has recently fallen, for the first time since the big war slaughters. Yes we have a falling birth rate, since youngsters are choosing to have children later or not to have children at all. cf my first comment about jobs and housing. None of this is the fault of the immigrants, but their presence makes things worse as they most certainly do absorb resources which is why immigration should be carefully managed, as the Norwegians and Swiss have done. This is not a Brexit issue ; neither Norway nor Switzerland are part of the EU. I don't recall any pertinent threads about feeding people, but the cost of food is bothering many folks here in the UK. You want some evidence ? Go to food bank and ask yourself why a society that is allegedly so rich need to feed much of its population that way ? Consider the county town of Somerset. The greedy are promoting a new extension building 1000 + houses and thus increasing the population by some 20,000 to 30,000. Yet nowhere is there provision for a new reservoir or water catchment facilities or sewage disposal facilities. That many people will clog up the already overcrowded roads and other public facilities. And where will they find work ? There are certainly not tens of thousands of jobs listed at the job centre nor tens of thousands of extra school places etc etc. And the worst of it is that scenario is being repeated up and down the country all in the greedy name of growth = profit = economic health = nonsense unless properly brought in. Remember America has almost limitless resources to do these things. The UK does not.

That's a fair question. So if we have nowhere to put additional people would you consider that overcrowded ? It is difficult to get accurate figures, as the construction of the statistics is 'ethnicity led' , current official figures seem to concur with this. This undesirable state of affairs is not only a waste of public money but promotes racism. Just to offer a counter story to your unpleasant experiences. Back in the mid 1980s, my wife suffered an very extended labour with our daughter. Eventually after nearly 2 days without success for the whole team of white midwives, doctors and nurses a huge black man was called who said "I'm Dr Larry and I hear you need some help" The remaining time for the birth was then measured in minutes, with no surgery needed. Prejudice was the farthest thing from our minds. However there is the consideration "Should we be trying to attract the best from these countries ?"

Not sure what you mean by this but 1845 Ireland 1868 India They had all your requirements but millions died, although the British administration could have intervened to prevent this. (To our eternal shame) I agree wholeheartedly, although it depends upon the solution to what, I assume you are referring to 'the decay'. Yes I have already agreed with your perceptive observation about the cultural dimension. But I don't want political parties full stop. They seem to inevitably lead to corruption and decay.

I have already answered you.

I agree +1

So who is prepared to say that the UK is not already seriously overcrowded ? Or that we can properly feed, house, support the people already here ? And yes, there are other parts of the world that are also seriously overcrowded. Yes there is short-termism in our current approach which has been going on for a long time and doesn't seem about to change. It is not immigration per se that is driving the decay in our society.

You should compare population density, not population directly. Only Belgium (of those mentioned) has a higher pop density than the UK, which is already heavily overcrowded. We can't feed the people we have already got. And you didn't address my last point at all.

One might observe that the UK is 'the end of the line'. You mentioned integrated minorities in New York. You didn't mention that they had a whole 3000 miles of a continent to disperse into. West of the UK is 3000 miles of Atlantic Ocean. One might also have expected at least some of these immigrants to have dispersed throughout Europe. The asylum convention require the seeker to seek in the first free country they reach, not the last.

There still is between the Celts and the Saxons. It's called the River Tamar.

Perhaps, but they are usually called the 'Ancient Britons' to distinguish them from later Britons. Please note also that the Celts were far from the first peoples to inhabit these Isles.

Thank you for noting this and paying attention to it. Yes there have been some good posts, but still no comprehensive answers. I've have tried to explain why they are not comprehensive - It is because everyone's 'answer' excludes some aspect of what another post maintains as correct. And this also applies to you definitions. I think @iNow comment that it depends on your definitions of truth and fact is relevant, although others have als0 indicated this less clearly. Perhaps I should explain further and will try when I have finished considering your other points. I think that the question "What is thought" and the associated questions about reflexes, conscious v unconscious, emotions are all off topic so I made a very short comment only. As regards facts (not truths or absolute truths) I have yet to see the distinction made between facts which only have meaning (rather than truth) in human context (A) and facts which are set by the environment around us (Nature, reality whatever you wish to call it) (B) and facts that are abstract tautologies (C). A) It is a fact that salvias are a group of plants in the sage family and the largest genus in the mint family the lamiaceae. However this classification is an entirely human construction - There are many other possible classification schemes, there is nothing in 'reality' or theory to prove that this is the only or even the best scheme. B) It is a fact of reality (Nature) that hydrogen is the lightest (least massive) element and no amount of Human classification can alter this. C) It is a fact of theory (tautology) that all trilaterals have three sides. Note I said trilaterals, not triangles as triangles have three corners or vertices but there must be deduction to claim these figures have three sides. When one starts recognising that there are different kinds of facts one can start analysing them.

Thank you for expanding on my comment. +1 Since you have phrased this as a statement, but added a question mark at the end I will answer both. No it is not true firstly because not all candidates represent parties. Secondly any voter could also stand as a candidate if they so chose, and even vote for themselves. In 1066 England did not exist. There were then the Kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex and a chunk of country still emerging from Danelaw. The Magna Carta was nearly a century into the future. Mercia apparently supported the Normans, else Wessex might have won the Battle of Hastings.

Does no one think that there is some encouragement for these 'cranks' when respected Physics professors publish books about TOEs and other woo (eg Sean Carroll, Frank Wilczek, Penrose) ?

You posted a whole load of links to unreliable sources without saying why, and then asked a question about voting. Only some immigrants are allowed to vote in Britain, Britons can vote unless disbarred by way of prison or other misdemeanour. Axis SolicitorsCan Immigrants Vote in UK? Complete Guide for 2026Can immigrants vote in UK elections? Axis Solicitors explains who can vote, what rights depend on immigration status, and how British citizenship or settlement affects electoral eligibility. So what is this thread about please and why does it appear self contradictory ? The word Britain is a corruption of the word 'Pretani' which is shown of Ptolemy's map of 'the world' as the name of the islands in question.

Since I've been a member the active membership seems to have shrunk. Perhaps if we, the members, posted some more attractive subject matter that trend would reverse and the admins would also be more active as they are playing a different part from ordinary members. There is a commercial imperative underlying and supporting SF.

I am not talking about modelling in chemistry, although obviously as you say modelling techniques are used there like everywhere else. If you want to use modelling, choosing and solving a set of simultaneous equilibrium equations would fit the bill as there can be different ways to do this. But neither of my two examples are models. But please try to see the thrust of my point, which I agree is not very well explained. I am starting from the premise that the most common thread at SF begins along the lines of "My theory of Everything........." It is probably easier to make my point in Mechanics than anywhere else.

Perhaps the discoveries are being made in other branches of Science ? Some branches are definitely more mature than others, but progress is still being made, with no end in sight. Many of these newer branches have become possible as the accumulated knowledge and wisdom increases, along with material wealth and comfort. Should these latter fall apart as with the end of the Roman Empire perhaps we would regress and have to rediscover things ?

Thank you for your response I will try to illustrate what my meaning by examples from chemistry. Being an organic chemist you can probably think of examples of this better than I but here goes. I seem to remember there are often several routes to synthesise a particular substance from precursors, often involving multiple steps.Some are more convenient than others but I would not say there would be a more elegant one. In chemical thermodynamics there is always more than one way to calculate thermodynamic quantities, again why would any one be more elegant than another ? Consider 1kg of ice in a well insulated container with a stopper. Would you consider using Free Energy methods to calculate the entropy of the change as the ice melts ? Or would you prefer more direct methods ?

You seem to have moved on from staff training ? Your second paragraph above sounds much more useful and interesting, please elaborate.

Please note no actual cats were harmed in the production of this post. In my experience there is usually more than one way to skin a cat, as the saying goes. In more technical words in pretty well every mathematical discipline - science, engineering and so on - there are multiple methods available to analyse and solve most questions. Whilst it is true that sometimes a given solution equation has more than one solution and it is important to choose the right one in many cases there is actually fundamentally different theory leading to different equations, that have the same ultimate solution. This is actually a comfort rather than a hindrance since we can confirm the correctness of our calculations "by independent means" Further on many occasions one method is actually more efficient than another for solving a particular problem. In the light of all this why is so much effort put into trying to reduce theory to as few a set of equations as possible - Theories of Everything ?

Nicely put +1

The scientific term Silurian comes form the ancient tribe in Wales, called the Silures where Silurain rocks in Britain are to be found.

I think it more complicated than that. A single cell can be in one of two states call them 1 and 0 - A binary system. Adding two of these can only produce a 1 or a 0, never two digits as that would require two cells. And a two cell system has four states 00, 01, 10, 11.