1

Cells, Microbes & Viruses / Re: Is homosexuality genetic?

« on: 16/07/2016 01:15:41 »

Go look through my post history and you'll see I gladly help others when the opportunity arises [take the CFS thread as an example].

Help? Lmao.  All you did in that thread was tell the patient what the competent Dr said they had was a fake disease, even though it's fact that it isn't with mountains upon mountains of evidence that proves it, then diagnosed them instead with something they almost certainly don't have lol. No, you helped no one in that thread at all. But I guess we should keep that fight there. 

And in this thread all you're doing is being highly offensive and waging a battle based on zero science and that is hurtful to so many, by claiming homosexuality is a choice. It is also a highly absurd position. They may not fully understand what is happening in nature that causes it to happen biologically, but they most certainly know it isn't by choice. And if it's one fact that stands out above all others by a mile that proves it, it's the 1-2% rate of success of conversion therapy.  That squashes your argument on its face.   

Science can be offensive sometimes. I believe exothermic is scientifically correct in saying that there's no genetic predisposition in homosexuality, period. Homosexuality is driven by our cultural heritage to live the way our consciousness is telling us. Otherwise, our sexual organs would have been designed without the purpose of reproduction, and the human race could not have survived. So, homosexuality is not directed by evolution or genetics; It is directed by our free will to have sexual preferences.

Right on now we agree on something, so maybe our future debates are going to be more productive?

Thank you!

Alan

2

Cells, Microbes & Viruses / Re: Is homosexuality genetic?

« on: 16/07/2016 01:09:06 »

Help? Lmao.  All you did in that thread was tell the patient what the competent Dr said they had was a fake disease, even though it's fact that it isn't with mountains upon mountains of evidence that proves it, then diagnosed them instead with something they almost certainly don't have lol. No, you helped no one in that thread at all.

You and your absent-minded/scientifically-void drivel.

This is a physiology-based science forum.... you wouldn't know anything about help.

The patient's doctor is blatantly incompetent. It doesn't take 3-years to eradicate a simple mycoplasma/rickettsia infection.... only to blame the symptoms on something that "has no treatment and no cure." Lazy/baseless medicine.

The patient is immunocompromised and suffering from fatigue-related symptoms which are directly attributed to the chronic infections. You're just an ignorant person with zero scientific intellect, so you'll never understand.

I agree with you!!

Homosexuality is a perversion, I don't mean that in a depraved way, depravity is a human attribute not found in animals and we have the gall to think that we are better and above them as sentient beings.

The only real unconditional love I have ever had the pleasure to receive was from my beloved pet dogs!

3

General Science / Re: Would a floating runway for aeroplanes be feasible?

« on: 14/07/2016 09:19:30 »

The idea is not to build long runaways. Short platform (could be even 100m) which works like the water rudder of a see plane. In other words the plane drift with the platform until stops.

A unique idea that just might work, if I read you right the floating platform should accelerate or synchronise with the of the airplane until it can gently touch down on it.

The atmosphere then becomes the runway or am I getting it wrong?

Alan

4

Just Chat! / Re: A Poem I wrote for those who might fear death!

« on: 11/07/2016 02:09:47 »

Your welcome Alan..and no, I do not mind! 

Those are beautifully written and very enlightened. How long have you been writing poetry of this nature?

For a long time Karen , it reflects the artistic creative pat of me? After all, come 23rd December this year I will turn 76 years young!

Karen did you notice that one of the poems of mine had almost the same wording as your signature "come fly with me"
""Come fly"" towards majestic Orion ""with me""
At great speed to our majestic god we flee
Through a great wide river, at last, we fly
Reaching out to a great light beyond the sky

5

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Does consciousness exist after death?

« on: 06/07/2016 01:55:28 »

It may be widely believed, but there's no evidence for it. There's some evidence that brain development is affected by experiences in the womb; so, for example, exposure to music or rhythm may enhance development of those areas of the brain. Calling potentiated development of that kind memories is a bit of a stretch. But areas used in memory, such as the hippocampus, are underdeveloped at that point, and it takes some while after birth for perceptions to become organised enough to allow coherent memory storage & retrieval. This doesn't stop people reporting having such memories, but as we now know, autobiographical memories can readily be constructed from second hand information, or imagined events.

This is a "belief", as you say, shared by most, if not all, neuroscientists. That doesn't mean that the brain is functionless until that time. I'm not telling about coherent memories, but about memories in an absolute sense.

What do you mean by "memories in an absolute sense" that are not "coherent"?

Perhaps you should read Antonio Damasio

As it happens (checks bookshelf), I have read Damasio, and Stanislas Dehaene, Stephen Rose, Barry Gordon, and Daniel Schacter, on memory. Perhaps it is the somewhat opaque and fragmentary nature of your posts that is causing some misunderstanding, but that one looked nonsensical to me...

I am impressed by your bookshelf and appreciate that you have read Antonio Damasio. I'm sorry my posts are opaque and fragmentary and that this one looked nonsensical to you.

I regret that I expressed the types of memory in terms so vague. As memory in an absolute sense I mean declarative memory. As other coherent memories I mean procedural and short-term memories.

I hope that this will help making it less nonsensical.

What you post make perfect sense to me and I am baffled by that hurtful comment to a valuable interesting member like you

Keep up the good work and ignore them

Peace and Light!

Alan McDougallL

6

Just Chat! / Re: Hi, I'm just introducing myself...

« on: 03/07/2016 19:48:05 »

Hi Scot a warm welcome from me!

Regards

Alan

7

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Does gravity attract masses in space, or does it curve space between them?

« on: 29/06/2016 15:09:56 »

Well I do not think Einstein actually said space was curved in anyway but rather space-time was curved, so I suppose the answer to your question depends on how we interpret space-time.

If we considered that space-time only exists between masses  then orbital motion would suggest that in some way the space-time was ''spiralling'' and a torque was produced between masses that curved the forces between the masses.

Mass attracts mass, gravity is what we call the force,


Does the space curve? there is no evidence of this

Does the ''invisible'' forces between masses curve?  probably but we can't ''see'' it.

Sometimes you actually impress me and this is one of those times.

I fail to see how that impressed you?

https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2012/08/18/einstein_discovered_that_gravity_is_not_a_force_but_a_curvature.html

Excerpt

Max Planck, himself a leading German physicist, advised Einstein to abandon his quest for this grander theory of relativity, for he was bound to fail.

But by 1916, Einstein had succeeded.

The resulting depiction of gravity was stunningly different from the orthodox view that had prevailed since the time of Sir Isaac Newton, who first devised a coherent explanation of the phenomenon, one that accounted for the behaviour of familiar objects on Earth as well as the interaction of planets and stars.

Up to a point.

The classical theory of gravity had been a huge breakthrough in its time, and it still provides a good means of predicting the motion of objects. But it is wrong, in part because Newton misunderstood what gravity is.

He considered gravity to be a force that objects exert upon each other.

But?

'But, in a burst of brilliance, Einstein realized that no such force is required and in fact no such force exists.'

We “feel” the force of gravity only because we are perched upon a surface that gives us weight. Remove that surface and gravity would no longer feel like anything at all.

We would be weightless.

By this way of reckoning, the Earth only seems to be turning in circles around the sun. In fact, it is going straight, but straight along a space-time surface that is itself curved — warped by the mass of the sun.

If this seems to make no sense, imagine driving “straight” from Toronto to Montreal. The truth is, you can’t do it, not even on the 401. The “straightest” route between the two cities — in fact, any route between the two cities — is curved by the surface of the Earth. In fact, if it goes on long enough, any “straight-line” journey along the surface of the Earth will eventually describe a circle.
The same goes for any “straight-line” journey in the vicinity of the sun.

“Newton would have said that an apple fell to Earth because there was a mutual force of gravitational attraction,” writes Simon Singh in his book Big Bang . “But Einstein now felt that he had a deeper understanding of what was driving this attraction: the apple fell to Earth because it was falling into the deep hollow in space-time caused by the mass of the Earth.”

Although it might not seem like it, the Earth is right now falling into the even deeper hollow in space-time caused by the mass of the sun. The only thing preventing a collision is the Earth’s velocity, which is about 107,000 km/h relative to the sun, or just enough to ensure that, in its never-ending downward spiral toward the fiery centre of the planetary system, our fine blue orb keeps missing its target — fortunately for us.

This constant state of free fall, coupled with an appropriate velocity, is what constitutes an orbit.
Astronauts aboard the orbiting International Space Station appear to be weightless — in fact, they are weightless — but not because they have escaped the reach of the Earth’s gravity. Instead, they and their space station are in a state of free fall toward the Earth.

They avoid striking the planet for the same reason the Earth doesn’t crash into the sun — because they are going pretty fast. The space station travels at about 19,000 km/h relative to the Earth, or just enough to prevent a collision.

But the important point for relativity theory is that space-time is curved by mass.

“A star or a planet or any hunk of mass warps space and time,” says Robert Mann, a physicist at the University of Waterloo.

This may sound bizarre, but it is true

8

Chemistry / Re: Can electric charge move electrons to higher energy shell levels?

« on: 27/06/2016 22:06:57 »

pronto the atom will release a proton of light to balance the equation

I think you mean photon...

Sorry yes I meant photon (Not proton which would be silly of me)

9

Chemistry / Re: Can electric charge move electrons to higher shell levels, rather than using th

« on: 27/06/2016 21:54:24 »

Can electric charge move electrons to higher shell levels, rather than using the absorption, and emission process.?
I was reading that the electric charge force cannot be changed, but can this force move electrons to higher shell levels in some way.
I am grateful for your help anything helps even a few words. []

Simply adding heat energy will do the trick add heat and pronto the atom will release a proton of light to balance the equation.

10

That CAN'T be true! / Re: How did I get to October before the Earth did?

« on: 27/06/2016 21:43:57 »

Navigation is no joke.

Our trajectories will cross but we will not meet. If this were not so, every crossroads, shipping lane and flight corridor would be full of scrap metal. At most, I'll be seeing where you were about 3 minutes ago, not 4 months.

Our trajectories would meet if we predicted the event timing and synchronised speed to this timing, a sniper shooting a moving target shows this to be true. Although I have got to admit a long range target has more room for error with the shot.

I know navigation is not a joke.

I will see you in your July orbital position , you would see me in your October orbital position, You are not seeing me in your past or future, you are seeing me in July and I am also in reality in July with you although I get the cold end of the ''stick''.

I am baffled as to why you have so many "Thanks" Maybe because some think your unreadable ambiguous posts contain some truth , which they do not!. You go making meaningless, convoluted posts, regardless of how many times you are informed by the members that what you write is utter nonsense!

Alan

11

New Theories / Re: Does the universe need a conscious observer for it to exist?

« on: 27/06/2016 16:13:09 »

I beg to differ.

I do as well.......................Suggesting that consciousness was present at the Big Bang sounds a great deal like NONSENCE too!

How can you possible know that?, who says the big bang was the beginning of all existence or the universe is everything that exists and "there is no need too "shout" to get your point over.?

Either energy is eternal and the blind cause of everything, or some form of no-material reality beyond human comprehension caused the universe to exist by contemplation.

12

New Theories / Re: Does the universe need a conscious observer for it to exist?

« on: 27/06/2016 00:00:57 »

Do you need a conscious observer internal to yourself to exist?

Edit: You can't say bacteria unless you can count them as a conscious observer.

You avoid the question by posing your own question that has nothing to do with the question I put forward in this thread "Does the universe need a conscious observer for it to exist'

I am not talking about a Descartes philosophy of "I think therefor I am" that is the idea that one could know,  intrinsically or subjectively that they existed as separate conscious unique beings. But does their awareness of themselves give rise to their conscious existence , I think not?

To answer my question you must go back in time to some ultimate observer, which observation caused the universe to exist as a product of its consciousness.

Bacteria are very low level conscious observers of their own environment, which we have experienced to our detriment over the course of human history, they know that they live and exists, within a host which is their source of their sustenance.

13

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Does consciousness exist after death?

« on: 24/06/2016 18:25:24 »

Most of you in this thread take the position of being some sort of authority on the subject, which you are all  decidedly not.

I am as close to an expert or a person who is knowledgeable on the subject!

Because unlike you all, I have actually have had a profound near death experience and know the reality of it ?

Alan

Can you describe your NDE?

Yes here it is (I had a previous experiencing in 1994 which was much more detailed)


Disclaimer.

What I write below is subjectively true and I am not trying to make a case out of proving whether there is an existence after our mortal bodies perish. It is simple; I saw what I saw and it has a profound and lasting positive effect on me and how I now relate to others
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The night my heart stopped and I flat-lined


If I had any doubts about life after death I have none now, each time my heart stopped my soul or consciousness left my body and went into other dimensions of existence.

Hello everyone please read this updated, edited version, which better describes what happened to me night my heart stopped beating in 2011

On the night of  18th, August 2011 at approximately 9.30 pm, my heart stopped beating numerous times, both at home and later on the  Hospital resuscitation table.

On resuscitation table due to third stage or total, AV heart block. I went through the whole drama of my heart stopping, flat- lining over and over again, adrenaline, atropine were injected directly into my heart and the shock paddles and chest depressions used over and over again in a desperate effort to get my heart to beat again on its own without  help.

I had taken a nap on that Thursday night, and a dear friend of mine, Tony Martin was somehow moved to phoned late at night, a thing he had never done before.

I woke up with the phone ringing due to his call, with great fear because my heart was reacting in a manner that I had never experienced until that moment, it was going heart crazy in my chest hesitating then beating and then, almost stopping completely,

I cried out to my daughter Desiree for her to get my wife to phone for an ambulance

My wife immediately called the for the ambulance and they got to my home in ten minutes. The hospital is less than a half kilometre from my home and I was there in five minutes and when I arrived, expert medical attention was immediate.

Note! If my friend of some thirty-five years, Tony Martin, had not phoned, from the town of George in South Africa to Johannesburg some thousand miles away, at the exact moment he did, I would never have woken up and would have died in my sleep.

I am sure God moved Tony that night to phone me at the exact moment he did, which for him was a very unusual hour at about 9 pm. Tony never phones me so late at night and maybe he can explain what made him call me or why he was moved to call me at that exact moment in  time.

His phone call woke me up from a deep sleep from which I would not have awakened and from and I would have died in my sleep, because I was unaware in my sleeping state the fact that my heart was going wild in my chest, a "somnambulist battle of life or death"

Tony could hear over the phone that there was something really wrong going on which me. He said over the phone “Alan McDougall you don’t sound right, are you OK?’ I replied “No”!! “Tony something is very wrong” “you phone back a little later”.

I put down the phone and could feel my heart actually vibrating in a frightening way, it would stop completely and I would lose consciousness for a while, and then regain awareness, but not know where I was, or who I was, as I struggled to survive, during this frightening life or death episode.

I became ghastly pale and started to sweat profusely. I did not realise at this stage know how very close to death I came that night.

It is very scary when I looked at wife or daughter and saw them actually becoming dimmer and dimmer in my eyes because my brain was being deprived of oxygen.

It was then that I began then to move in and out of consciousness on the very edge of death.

At the hospital, my blood pressure reading was zero.

I saw my daughter Desiree in the passage and called out weakly for her to tell my wife Denise, that I was having a heart attack.

I do not think my wife believed me, but after looking at me with my face which now looked like death and sweating body, she called the ambulance, which most fortunately to my survival reached our home in less than ten minutes. (South Africa's 911)

I now entered a life-threatening desperate state of AV heart block ( Heart stopping and starting) I recall very little of what happened to me that night, because I had begun to go in and out of consciousness, until I finally became fully conscious the next morning with a temporary heart pacemaker installed in my heart to keep me alive.

I had to wait a day or two in the hospital for Doctor Rodney King Cardiologist, to get my medical aid to agree to the fitting of a permanent heart pacemaker, under my skin in my chest wall. This pacemaker cost about sixty thousand South African Rand or about nine thousand American (USA) dollars.

I only conscious of a just a little of what was going on in those three hours that the team of committed doctors who refused to give up on me in the very difficult task of restoring my heart beat and save my life This was a battle of life or death

However, I have lately  begun to remember more and more about some rather odd things I saw and heard while on the resuscitation table that night. 

Denise, my wife was kept in the dark by the medical staff and did not know until the next morning how really sick her husband has been or that he had metaphorically knocked on the gates of death, survived to live again, hopefully, many more years as husband and father to his children.

Over the period of three hours, each time my heart stopped and I  flat-line, I went somewhere, not of this world and each time the emergency team of doctors at the Hospital battled to got my heart to beat  Each time it stopped I subjectively went into a comfortable dark void for an eternity and I came back. an objective few seconds later

Each time my heart stopped I seem to  go away for an eternity to elsewhere, but when they started it up again, I returned to life from this elsewhere seemingly in contrast, without even the smallest moment of time passing.

I remember being vaguely aware and conscious of what was going on around me. But kept going in and out of consciousness during the continual attempts at resuscitation.

The team of doctors and nursing assistants were desperately trying to get a needle into one of my veins. I have very poor veins and they are fairly deep under my skin and difficult to locate. Later back in the emergency care ward after I finally became fully conscious I noticed that both my arms and hands were full bruises and needle pricks.

It took three hours of effort on the resuscitation table before the doctors were able to stabilise my heart and to installed a temporary pacemaker to maintain my pulse between 65/110 beats per/minute, instead of the zero to 15 it had been beating/not beating most of the time.

I heard them call for atropine and adrenaline, which they injected directly into my heart. When even this did not keep my heart beating as it should, the electric paddles were used to shock my heart and get it beating as it should.

On my return to the emergency ward, I noticed both sides of my chest, ribs, or torso were very painful to touch as it hurt to breath for a day or two after the event

The doctor said if I had arrived hospital even five minutes later it would have been impossible to revive me. I am 75 years of age now and would not have minded if I had died then'

But I suppose there must be some reason for me to carry on with life or activities yet to do because it is true that a whole lot of favourable coincidences came together to make it possible for me to survive, what should have been impossible to survive under any other circumstances.

I really came as close to total death that night as possible, without actually dying, and was fortunate enough to be brought back to quality life by a great team of doctors, to live again and be with my family and friends a little longer.

In fact, since the heart pacemaker was fitted I have felt healthier and maybe the heart irregularity was a long-standing problem of which I was unaware.

I vaguely remember being on the table with people pricking me with needles all over, my arms and hands.

Because I was continually being revived by the medical team , I floated in and out of consciousness, into the Other-World realms and then back to this one the resuscitation table, this continued until  my heart was fully supported by the doctors, who had managed to get my heart to beat with a temporary heart pacemaker.

Afterlife

I had no tunnel or meeting of a being of light, which is usual for the near death experience. I went directly into a gloomy large dark cave and saw countless people sitting in the dark gloom.

There was some enormous evil entity, so pitch black that it seemed like tar and did not reflect any light. Only later when I saw the Golden Light that I thought might be Jesus, as he approached the dark entity, it shrank away from him.

Was this dark entity Satan the Devil?

When I was elsewhere on the other side in some dimension or the other, I saw a huge tree with a large number of books all around its huge trunk.

In my opinion, this great tree was the "Tree of Knowledge ?

Just by attempting to read what was on the covers of those books, it was somehow brought to my understanding that within them, were all the answers to all my questions I had pondered over most of my life  These books also contained within them all the knowledge, wisdom and mysteries of existence.

Among the many books, was very much larger one, much larger than the other rest which was scattered randomly around the huge trunk of this beautiful tree. I assume the very large book was a consolidation of all that was in all the smaller books.

When I tried to lift the large book, I found  it was much too heavy for me to carry, so I decided to leave it there under the tree and return later for it.

Maybe when I finally do die and go to heaven, I will go back to that beautiful tree and retrieve this book which I think might the "The book of Knowledge"

During the moments that I flat-lined, I went somewhere outside of this earthly dimension into strange places outside of three-dimensional space and time as we know it is the physical universe.

I walked through a doorway of sorts and saw numerous people gathered apparently to welcome me into the afterlife.

I did not recognise any of them, maybe because the scenario too fleeting and was over in less than a blink of an eye.

Maybe they were some of my beloved passed over family members or friends,  but I cannot say what I saw was factual or not. However, what the were gathering for seemed to be was some sort of a welcome home party or  wedding reception.

Although not in this particulates event, I thought about my beloved Dog Bully who had died fifty years prior and remembered the many dreams I had when I felt his loving doggy presence.

When on the other side of life I also one saw a beautiful pulsating sphere of golden light that I took for the loving Spiritual Essence of the Lord Jesus, because to me he is the only he can emanate perfect peace and love.

I now have a permanent pacemaker in my chest which should last another six years and despite the great shock, I got that night, I am feeling much better and very alive and well.
Note; the medical term for what happened to me is Total AV heat block.

By Alan McDougall (2016)

14

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Could deprivation of sleep by torture actually kill a person?

« on: 15/06/2016 08:40:11 »

People have died from something called Fatal Familial Insomnia where they don't sleep at all and by 6 months they have lethal dementia.

When I posed the question I had already taken that into consideration, (That is a disease) my thread poses a different question requiring a different answer? Torture?

If you were not already welcomed into the forum  "A warm welcome by me"

Alan

15

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: If Energy is neither created nor used up, where did energy come from?

« on: 14/06/2016 20:40:07 »

Always from moderators?

No, there are members whose contributions are judged to be reliable and who admit when they are mistaken eg PmbPhy, Ethos, JeffreyH. In this thread I would also mention agyegy who's contribution is sound.

Perhaps then I should considerably up my game, make my posts much more complex and profound, by the inclusion of much more detail and equations into my posts?  (I never seem to get any credit for my present method of posting). I have deliberately kept them as precise, simple and easy to read as possible, to enable the least informed member/visitor of having a real chance of actually understanding the answers to a particular topic question.

Maybe then I could join your list of the exalted few?

Alan

Not everyone reads every thread. Not every person that reads a thread will post a response. I don't see posting as some kind of competition. If I post something and get no replies then I move on and try to research the answers I want from other sources. People will be reading what you write and it may well be giving them something to think about. Listening is even more important than writing your own ideas down. I have learned an awful lot by doing just that.

I fully accept that, thank you!

I do carefully read the posts of the more informed members of the forum and have leaned a lot in the process, which is hopefully evident in the increasing quality of my own posts?

Alan

Alan

16

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / If the universe contained only one object, could that object move?

« on: 29/11/2008 19:35:19 »

Hi,

A question,

Assuming what we call space outside the event horizon of the universe is a black void extending infinitely outward everywhere in every direction forever.

And you or I found ourselves alone in the unimaginable empty nothingness, inside a hypothetical spaceship that could speed up to an infinite speed in a pico second or less

We then start up our space ship and race into the dark emptiness at infinite speed and then stop.

Would we find ourselves following the image of ourselves?

Would we find ourselves back where we started?


Have we moved?

Have we stopped?

Is motion relative and can only exist if there in another object to compare our position with? 

Alan