1

New Theories / Re: An essay in futility, too long to read :)

« on: Yesterday at 22:41:24 »

Not "possibly".

Titanic was a civilian ship authorised to carry passengers and mail, not a military vessel loaded with guns. The distinction is clear and obvious, even to the color of the flag  she flew: blue ensign for a civilian ship commanded by a member of the Royal Navy Reserve and carrying mail.  White is reserved for the Royal Navy itself or ships commandeered or authorised  by the  Ministry of Defence, and red for all merchant ships under civilian command. Royal Air Force search and rescue vessels are also "HMS" and carry a blue ensign with the RAF roundel.

Therefore definitely RMS, not HMS.

And it wasn't her first voyage, which was from Belfast to Southampton.

Facts are very important in science. 

2

New Theories / Re: An essay in futility, too long to read :)

« on: Yesterday at 16:41:57 »

HMS Titanic on its first, and last, voyage.

That's how it looks

RMS (Royal Mail Ship), please. HMS is military only.

3

Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: Yesterday at 14:43:41 »

I don't see how it can lead to determine the future actions of a specific individual.

In order to have a revolution, you need to persuade a few million individuals to behave in a certain way, beheading aristocrats or marching across China, for instance. And the leaders of the revolution are subject to your judgement of morality.

Problem is that society evolves, so what may appear to be in the short term interest of the peasant army may pave the way for repression of their descendants.

Whilst vegans don't drink milk, the quantity of water required to produce a liter of almond "milk" is ludicrous. Nonveggies argue that the culled bull calf will be eaten anyway, either now as veal or later as beef, but beef is a very inefficient form of grass-protein conversion so now is better.

4

Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: Yesterday at 11:40:54 »

The same way that you predict the effect of any action on generations yet unborn. Inspired guesswork.

Look at Russia and China in 1900. What could benefit present and future generations more than a communist revolution?

5

Just Chat! / Re: Erectile Dysfunction And Its Solution

« on: Yesterday at 11:35:24 »

OK, Paul, here's a detumescive response to your rampant wit.

AFAIK (not IIRC) Sildenafil does not induce spontaneous or sustained erection: stimulation is also required.  Ergo no pandemic of priapism.

Pedant? Moi? Now where's that damned tongue-in-cheek  emoticon?

Switch-mode power to your elbow, my friend!

6

Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: Yesterday at 11:21:11 »

Suppose I could have prevented the birth of Pol Pot. Serious negative impact on one known conscious being, major benefit to everyone else. Moral or immoral?

Abortion of unwanted pregnancies:moral or immoral?

Contraception?

Spaying a pet dog?

Ah, philosophy. Ask a question with no defined parameters, then get paid for not answering it.

7

New Theories / Re: An essay in futility, too long to read :)

« on: Yesterday at 11:12:03 »

You could save yourself a lot of pointless effort by simply suggesting that I read the Guardian. I don't see evidence of anyone else reading your posts, and the Guardian is quite well written if a bit predictable.

8

Just Chat! / Re: Erectile Dysfunction And Its Solution

« on: 24/06/2022 18:15:59 »

Still the best and funniest advert on TV, though.

9

Just Chat! / Re: Occam's razor, what most likely happened to Amelia Earhart?

« on: 24/06/2022 18:12:05 »

Hardly infancy. The first flight from England  to Australia was in 1919, by which time at least one war had been fought with fighters and bombers.

Nothing particularly unpredictable about the Pacific ocean (essentially, buggerall chance of survival if you hit it in any kind of  airplane) but it is VERY BIG so a small headwind can result in ending up hundreds of miles short of your planned destination even if you were pointing in the right direction. Also VERY EMPTY so little chance of getting a credible enroute weather report even if your surface station radio is working. And

Earhart's transmissions seemed to indicate she and Noonan believed they had reached Howland's charted position, which was incorrect by about five nautical miles (10 km).

So their navigation may have been perfect but the chart was wrong, and they were certainly short of fuel at the time of their last known radio contact, when they said they were tracking north and south at 1000 ft in scattered low cloud looking for Howland island.

10

New Theories / Re: An essay in futility, too long to read :)

« on: 24/06/2022 17:43:22 »

Alan, humanity, not you personally deciding.

Not sure whether the majority of humanity actually supports the development of nuclear weapons. The democratic nations that possess them only require about 30% of the electorate to approve any particular policy, and dictatorships don't consult the population anyway, so the best estimate is maybe 15% of the world's population being prepared to fund them and the other 85% either being forced to do so or living in counties that don't have them at all. 

Don't blame human beings for what politicians do.

11

New Theories / Re: An essay in futility, too long to read :)

« on: 24/06/2022 17:36:00 »

NATO and G7 countries, USA carefully not mentioned.

Isn't the USA part of NATO and G7?  Therefore "mentioned" in the same breath as UK, France.....

12

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Why where the native Americans so vulnerable to disease?

« on: 24/06/2022 11:44:35 »

Eurasia was genetically very diverse and had suffered innumerable plagues and pestilences by the time Columbus left these shores, so what was left of the population (after a very high rate of perinatal and infant deaths) was fairly resistant and understood some methods of quarantine and treatment for the diseases they exported. But they didn't export the treatment.

13

Cells, Microbes & Viruses / Re: Monkeypox: Could it be similar to cowpox, and just a mild variant of smallpox?

« on: 24/06/2022 11:38:12 »

Sean's comment is only partially true. If an agent can infect a second host before the first becomes clinically symptomatic, it will flourish. That is the problem with COVID, several STDs, and potentially with monkeypox.

In the case of COVID, once the Secretary of State had ordained that he be infected it was the host's late immune response that killed him, and by the time clinical symptoms appeared each infected person could have infected several others.

Whether you blame the Benign Creator or evolution, that's how successful organisms from the common cold to the Nazi party do it.

14

Geek Speak / Re: Why different computers/devices may show different times (at seconds precision)?

« on: 23/06/2022 22:48:21 »

And don't forget that not all countries subscribe to UTC. The legal time in Denmark, I understand, is not exactly UTC+1. 

15

Physiology & Medicine / Re: The crucial ingredients of CBD:

« on: 23/06/2022 22:42:06 »

You can probably hang the soft bits that everybody remembers, on a secondhand skeleton, thus eliminating most of the requirement for calcium and phosphorus. The other stuff is only required to make it all function, but to misquote a famous authority, a dead mouse is a perfect model of a live mouse, if only for a short period.

16

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Is there a net heat exchange between water and ice at 0 degree C?

« on: 23/06/2022 22:37:00 »

It is due to the fact that the speed of the molecules match statisticaly to the average temperature,

If you start with an incorrect statement, you can confuse yourself.

Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules in a sample, not the other way around.

17

Physiology & Medicine / Re: The crucial ingredients of CBD:

« on: 23/06/2022 17:14:13 »

So... it's too late to point out that the ingredients of CBD are carbon, hydrogen and oxygen...?

Pretty much like most of Marilyn Monroe, but I don't see evidence of a new synthesis. Project for a bored chemist, perhaps?

It's an interesting thought, however, that if anyone started synthesising THC, bearded tokers would shun it as "full of chemicals".

18

Just Chat! / Re: would it be a good idea to truncate endless pointless arguments?

« on: 23/06/2022 17:06:13 »

Throwing cabbages doesn't always help.  I think, at school, you would have been steered in the right direction by a sympathetic teacher.   

Indeed I was. After one playground brawl I was taken aside and advised to try leading with my right. Good advice.

19

New Theories / Re: An essay in futility, too long to read :)

« on: 23/06/2022 16:59:34 »

Einstein didn't want his theories to produce nuclear armaments, you did.

No, I didn't. And I take exception to your frequent pejorative use of the second person.

But my dad and most sensible men of his generation did, because the alternative would have been an Allied invasion of Japan, with an estimated casualty count of several million.

You need to change

No, you need to seek and respect the opinions of your betters. The worst thing you can say about a fellow jazz musician is "he plays for his own amazement". Don't fall onto the trap of believing your own propaganda - it led to the defeat of Napoleon and Hitler, among others.

20

Just Chat! / Re: would it be a good idea to truncate endless pointless arguments?

« on: 23/06/2022 13:18:08 »

If someone want to sit in the stocks, I'm happy to throw verbal cabbages at them.