npts2020
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Posts posted by npts2020
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51 minutes ago, CodeBreaker said:
hate for God
How is it possible to hate something that you believe doesn't even exist?
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On 4/16/2024 at 10:47 PM, CharonY said:
If it leads to reproductive success it will stick around.
I would quibble slightly with this, in that there is also the matter of surviving long enough to actually reproduce, although I think high reproduction rates definitely are a major positive contributor to a species survival in most cases.
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What I have read about platinum catalyst substitutes is in regard to fuel cells so not sure how any would work for what you are asking about but "they" are coming up with them. The problem is, I don't see ATM how a hunk of nickel encased in a sheath of nitrogen doped carbon fiber like this, https://engineering.wisc.edu/news/not-so-precious-new-discovery-could-replace-expensive-platinum-in-hydrogen-fuel-cells/ , would be any easier to get than the platinum.
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It is surprising to me that the insurance industry hasn't managed to kill DST yet. Whether the actual figure is 20% or not outside of Saskatchewan, the trend does seem pretty universal.
"In fact, collision data from 2014 shows a marked 20 per cent surge in claims in the days after the time change."
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13 hours ago, TheVat said:
Yep. We are already in a different place than 1970. If the world had moved to neutral carbon back then, a significant percent of global warming would have been averted. In 2024, we have moved more to mitigation and relocation. Will be centuries before any reversal could happen.
In 1970 we never put a tap in our maple trees before the first week of March and rarely missed any significant sap run. These days if you aren't tapped by mid-February, you missed or are missing the first hard run and even then you may have missed earlier ones that season, something that I don't remember ever happening prior to the last couple of decades.
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12 hours ago, Genady said:
As the bodies outside our visible universe make pretty much spherically symmetric shell, their gravitational effect inside the shell is identically zero.
Why should this be true? What makes the visible universe spherical is that the limits on the speed of light are the same in every direction, AFAIK there is no spherical symmetry to the mass in the visible universe, what would make it symmetrical outside of it?
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You can definitely graft peaches on apricot trees or vice versa but peach trees are one of the harder trees to graft onto. In general, if trees are in the same genus, they are can be grafted to each other.
(disclaimer; the only trees I have ever grafted are apples, chestnuts and maples and the latter two only for experimental purposes)
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Surprised nobody has mentioned scent as a possible reason. Why is it that most people like the scent of roses? I never wanted to eat one but the smell of cliff roses blooming in the high desert left a pretty strong impression on me.
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Depends what is meant by "a new phase". Humanity is already dealing with significant consequences, the only real question is how much more catastrophic will they have to become before a serious effort to address the problem is made.
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On 3/5/2024 at 3:39 PM, MigL said:
Expansion cannot be eternal, as John has pointed out, but time only begins to make sense once space-time geometry is evident, and that happened at the Planck time of 10-43 sec., about 13.8 Billion years ago.
What was there before that time could have been 'eternal', or could have existed for a 'second'; such labels are meaningless since time, as we know it, did not exist yet. But it certainly was not the universe we know ( and may have been embedded in another universe; see Eternal Inflation ).
Is that how you were going to elucidate ?
No one has invoked a 'creator' or the 'supernatural'; just you.Which leads to the question of "exactly what is time and how does it apply to the universe?". It seems pretty obvious time applies to humans because, so far, all of them have a pretty definably observed beginning and end but we only have a single universe of which we have seen neither the beginning nor end, or even much of the in between (if there is such a thing). If I have "invoked a creator or the supernatural", please post the quote.
My bet is that once we figure out a reliable way of measuring gravitational effects from bodies outside our visible universe on bodies inside our visible universe, its size and age will increase greatly.
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1 minute ago, John Cuthber said:
Does the universe have a calendar?
How did/ does it know when to switch the expansion on and off?AFAICT the universe is eternal. As to switching expansion on and off (if it even switches on and off), figuring that out would advance our understanding of cosmology as much as learning the heavens don't revolve around the Earth. When I try to visualize your proposition, all I come up with is something similar to tides. Our biggest problem is the entirety of human existence is such a small fraction of even the known age of the universe and our ability to effectively measure and study its change a tiny fraction of that existence (assuming we can do it at all). It seems to me Hubble, Webb and most other space missions have helped us take a giant step in understanding how things work but also have raised as many questions as they have answered.
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18 hours ago, John Cuthber said:
And, if the universe is accelerating away from me, and has been doing so eternally, why is (any of) it still here?
I'm pretty sure I never said expansion was eternal, only possibly the universe. If you can't distinguish between the two propositions, I will be happy to elucidate.
On 3/3/2024 at 3:20 PM, MigL said:No.
That implies that, if you wind the expansion backwards in time, you come to an 'origin' point,
IOW, expansion of the universe contradicts a universe that has existed forever.
Based on the expansion constant, also known as Hubble's constant, we can say our observable universe started expanding about 13.8 Billion years ago.
( If you're going to discuss with scientists, like John, who actually know their sh*t, you really should 'brush up' on yours )
PS
My apologies, Dim, for continuing along the tangent; never pass up an opportunity to educate.And that assumes we can see and measure the limits of our universe, a demonstrably untrue notion as shown by your use of the word "observable". In order to have an "origin" point, one needs to explain how all of the laws of physics had been broken by making something from nothing at 13.8 billion years ago or any other time. When the choice is something from nothing or a timeless universe, I tend towards the latter. If there is a third choice, I would like to know about it but all of the origin explanations (besides supernatural ones) I have seen lead back to one or the other.
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7 hours ago, Sensei said:
That's why people all over the world are against the "Green Deal", because it is simply a fraud.. CO2 certificate emissions? A fucking joke from the global warming
Not sure what "Green Deal" you are talking about but the original platform for a Green New Deal as proposed by the Green Party in 2006 says nothing about CO2 certificate emissions or anything of the ilk. I would be interested in knowing what part(s) of it you feel are "a fraud", other than the fact that any action on it will have been put off for nearly 2 decades already. Here is a text of the document. https://www.gp.org/green_new_deal
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20 hours ago, John Cuthber said:
Among other things...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olbers's_paradoxThis could be an interesting discussion on its own but if you believe modern cosmologists, there is a point where the universe (possibly the majority of it) is expanding away from us faster than the speed of light. It seems to me, that would explain why the entire sky isn't bright and does little to show whether the universe is infinite or not.
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On 2/28/2024 at 4:51 PM, Sensei said:
..then who made up the Universe.. ?
What makes you think the universe was "made up" and hasn't always existed? Just because you have a linear existence with a fairly definable beginning and end because of time, doesn't mean the universe must behave in a similar manner. Personally, I have a lot more faith in the laws of conservation of matter and energy than I do in the relevance of time in relation to the universe as a whole.
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I think this is a great idea. IMO the US ought to require that all products and services bought or sold in this country follow US law from exploration to discovery, extraction, refinement, fabrication, assembly, transport, storage and sale. However, it seems the longer it takes to do this, the less effective it will be as the US loses its former stranglehold on world trade. How different would the world be today if this had been done 60 or 70 years ago?
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Welcome to the forum willferral. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about chemistry to help you but there are several people here quite knowledgeable on the topic who might. You did post in the appropriate place.
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4 minutes ago, iNow said:
Except a conviction will lead to him getting fewer votes even among his ardent supporters and thus not serving at all given how tight the margins appear to be
QuoteA majority of Americans say they would not vote for Trump if he was convicted of a felony or was currently serving time in prison. A bare majority (55%) say that they would NOT vote for Donald Trump if he was convicted of a felony crime by a jury, while 58% say they would NOT vote for Trump if he was currently serving time in prison
I don't know what the numbers are for just Republicans, since they will be the ones (except in a few states with open primaries)to decide who is the Republican nominee. When Trump beats his closest competitor in her home state by 20 points, including all of the Republicans who don't like him, I don't see things getting closer throughout the rest of the country even if he is convicted of multiple crimes. You have to remember, a large plurality (if not in fact a majority) of Republicans still like to claim the election in 2000 was stolen and that all of the charges against Trump are politically motivated (never mind the fact that The Donald and his companies have been in court literally thousands of times and with numerous convictions previous to any of the current suits). Democrats should hope Trump wins because I don't think Biden can beat anyone else (totally my 2⍧).
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11 hours ago, TheVat said:
Well, some of the charges TFG faces could be deemed “high crimes and misdemeanors” within the meaning of Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, thus warranting impeachment by the House and removal by the Senate. Second, if Trump is actually in prison on Inauguration Day, that fact could render him “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” within the meaning of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. While I can see that a slender Democrat majority might have trouble executing a section 4 removal, the practical obstacle to the duties of POTUS by incarceration might be enough to incline some GOP congresspeople to vote against TFG on impeachment. It might depend on who the Veep is.
Maybe but I am not that optimistic. Besides, it seems any likely VP will be as bad or worse policy wise. If he actually ended up both in jail and President, think of the taxpayer money that could be saved on paying for secret service protection and golfing junkets.
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7 hours ago, iNow said:
Or until he’s arrested
It won't matter. There is nothing to keep "The Donald" (as he used to be known) from running for or serving as President while in jail. In 1920 Eugene Debs got over 3% of the vote while serving a jail term for sedition (because of his vocal opposition to WW1).
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On 2/23/2024 at 11:42 PM, StringJunky said:
I just found a site called They Work For You , which records MP's voting actions on the Commons floor and what they've said there. Is there a US equivalent? The (clean) link is a page for my MP, to give you an idea what I'm looking for.
Since 1873 there has been a government (federal) publication called "The Congressional Record" that prints everything said on the floor of Congress and the Senate and who voted for what. It is printed monthly and, when Congress is in session, it is published online daily. When I was a bicycle messenger, at least one of us would wait on the doorstep for the GPO (government printing office) to open every month when the Records were due out to pick one (or more often several) up for clients. Apparently, being one of the first to see what is printed is a big deal, especially for multinational corporations and investment types.
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On 2/23/2024 at 8:27 AM, StringJunky said:
From the Alabama chief justice: "Human life, Parker wrote, “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself.” - AP
What can you say to that?
I'd say god is pretty ugly if it looks like any blastocyst....
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What happens if scientists bring an individual to life using only an egg or sperm? Will females then be required to attempt pregnancy every time they ovulate? Will it be a serious crime for a male to ejaculate anywhere other than a fertile womb? Seems to me, the whole notion of when life "begins" (I look at as more of a continuum) or when you become a person leaves plenty of room for interpretation or debate and therefore should be up to individuals to decide for themselves. It is interesting that the supposedly "small government" types seem to be the ones most eager to have the government settle the question so they can enforce their (often hypocritical) views on everyone.
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On 2/8/2024 at 9:01 AM, dimreepr said:
80+ year olds should NOT!!! have a political opinion, let alone a finger on the trigger...
Except I know a fair number of 80 year olds who would make far better Presidents than most much younger possibilities. Sessions like the Prime Minister's questioning at Parliament in Britain would go a long way toward showing whether a leader is mentally competent but with bought and paid for incumbency where it benefits more than a few to keep mental decline under wraps, this kind of thing is highly unlikely.
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TFG or That Florida Guy? Either way, can the GOP win in 2024?
in Politics
Posted
Not only that, The Donald now wants 5% of any funds raised by candidates using his name or likeness...
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-republican-campaigns-fundraising-name-face-5-percent-2024-4?op=1