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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Are Black Holes Real? Is Time Travel Possible?

« on: Yesterday at 14:24:32 »

I was going to start a question here by first saying that there is a wormhole at the center of every black hole. But Google AI says not necessarily true. There is a "singularity" at the center of every black hole. "A point of infinite density." (How is infinity possible?)

But, black holes are possible. But likely are they? Has one been ever observed?

And black holes would take you to another time and place in spacetime. So time travel is theoretically possible? What about temporal paradoxes? The the grandfather temporal paradox talks about an extreme example. What about on a smaller scale? If you went to your house when no one was home, wouldn't that create a temporal paradox? You changed the past because no one was supposed to be home at the time? Or am I mistaken?

And what about other ways of going back in time? In Star Trek they used the slingshot effect of the gravity of a star to build momentum while avoiding the change in mass that comes with speed. Would that work? Or is that just fiction?

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Just Chat! / What Order Should You Include People's Names When You List Them?

« on: 09/01/2025 11:01:24 »

This is purely a grammatical question. What order should you include things when you list them as you write something?  And what order should you list humans, is what I was thinking of.

I know my mother told me as a child, when you send out a Christmas card, for example, it is the order of the person who is most closely related to you. Your blood relative in other words. If you are sending a card to Uncle John and Aunt Jane, and Uncle John is you father's brother, and Aunt Jane is just who he married, it goes: "Dear Uncle John and Aunt Jane". If the it's the other way around, then it is: "Dear Aunt Jane and Uncle John ", etc.

Outside of that, I guess it is order of importance, chronology and degree. In other words for importance, if you got money on your birthday from your uncles A, B, and C. And A gave you the most, but C gave you the least, it would be in that order. Uncle A, Uncle B and Uncle C. I'm right, aren't I? Or in order of time. If I visited aunts A, B and C on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in that order, again it would "A, B and C". Right? Or maybe for my last example above, degree. In other words, any degree. If my neighbors A, B and C are not mowing their lawns, and the grass is tallest in that order, then you list it in that order whenever you talk of those three.

That's what I think at least. Is that correct?

3

Physiology & Medicine / Is Aspartame Safe And Healthy To Eat?

« on: 09/01/2025 10:51:39 »

I still remember. The FDA approved aspartame for use in 1981. And in 1983 the it approved it for use in beverages, baked goods, and confections. Up till then saccharin was really  the only artificial sweetener on the market. That, or a sugar alcohol like mannitol or sorbitol.

Some people at the time thought that the FDA rushed approval of aspartame. It is made with methyl, or wood alcohol, which is poisonous. Some people who ate aspartame said it gave them a headache. And saccharin had to carry a warning for about 20 years because studies showed it could cause bladder cancer in laboratory animals. Aspartame never carried a warning. But it is now one of the most common artificial sweeteners in the world.

So is it unsafe? And if is it unsafe, how unsafe? Just a negligibly unsafe, like the way some things like nitrites in foods might be? And should it maybe carry a warning if it is even a little unsafe?

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Just Chat! / Re: Are These Good Ideas For Remembering? Also, What Is This Called?

« on: 02/01/2025 15:30:48 »

Also like I said, I've been sharing these ideas online and other places. And I came up with a couple more.

For typing important numbers quickly on a calculator, as I said hey turn off in 5 minutes unless you keep them active. You could keep pressing the equal sign. That's not always a good idea. Because sometimes that makes the calculator keep re-adding something, or they think you're doing something else. Or, you could just keep pressing "M+". Or M- if you want to. That will keep adding and substracting the value on the screen to memory. You can't keep doing that all day. But if you think your five minutes are about to expire, you could do it once or twice more.

Or If you want to hold onto the number, for a day or so say, you could do this. For example, if you have to remember an important phone number each day but just for that day, add it once to memory. Even some cheaper calculators hold onto number in memory even after they shut off. Scientific calculators always do (and you can get some of those cheap now too). For phone numbers that could be a problem since most cheap calculators only have 8 digits. An average US ten digit phone number wouldn't fit there. But where I live, metro Detroit, people often use just the first digit of an area code for that area code. For example in metro Detroit, the area codes 313, 248 and 734 would be just 3, 2 and 7 respectively. Also, numbers on a calculator could be letters to you. Some people think the numbers 1 and 8 look like I and B. And some people think the numbers 2 or 5, 3, 4 and 7 look like S, E, H and L respectively, upside down that is. That could be your code to yourself for remembering somethings. Or you could have you own personal code.

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Just Chat! / What Happened To 'Ye'?

« on: 02/01/2025 15:19:47 »

Like I said before on this board, using the singular form of you (which is thee and thou in English) fell out of use a couple hundred years ago. That's called tutoyer, after the French singular forms of you "tu" and "toi". It is more familiar and some people think it is disrespectful. So by George Washington's time, almost no one ever used it. (It is still modern English though. Because we still use it. In poetry, religion, quoting Shakespeare, etc. Like in the 1980 Diana Ross song "Upside Down":

"'Round and 'round, you're turning me
I say to thee, respectfully.")

But by Washington's time, we switched to the plural of the second person you, which is you and ye. So whatever happened to ye? We don't seem to use it anymore.

Also, is there some advantage to having one form of the second person pronoun? For example our definite article, the, is only one form. And people say that is a good thing. Artificial languages usually copy it. Because, among other things, you can always find it in a sentence. Because it is only spelled one way.

So what happened to ye?

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Just Chat! / Are These Good Ideas For Remembering? Also, What Is This Called?

« on: 26/12/2024 18:32:28 »

I actually came up with most of these ideas in the last couple of months, for remembering things:

- When you have to remember something important. Turn off the oven soon, for example. But again, you are distracted. Sing an unlikely song, one that you don't normally sing. And that kind of has to do with your task. Because you know. You continue singing songs, long after you even remember how you started. Then when you get to another room, you ask. Why am I singing "Hot Hot Hot" by Buster Poindexter? Oh! I left the oven on.

- Or hold onto something. Because you also keep holding on to things even when you're distracted. There's even a joke from the 70's or 80's about that. A man picks up lingerie panties for his wife in a store. And then he forgets he's holding them and almost leaves the store that way.

- When you have to briefly remember some important number, especially one with several digits. Type it on a nearby calculator real quick. Now you know, calculators turn off in about 5 minutes.

- When the last thing you used from the tap was hot water, there's sometimes a burst of hot water next time. Even if you turn on the cold. So get in the habit of turning on the cold water briefly each time you're done with the faucet.

- Also, for remembering things, you could just buy an Etch-A-Sketch magnetic doodle drawing board. They sell them at Dollar Tree for a $1.25. So you could get more than one and throw them out when they become worn or dirty. It's a good way of saving on paper, because you just keep reusing it. And if anyone asks you why you have it, explain it to them. It's to remember things you have to quickly jot down. They'll probably think it's a good idea.

I shared them with a couple of local nursing homes. And I also sent them via mail to a nursing home in Canada, the UK and France. Why not? Some people have problems remembering important things. Sometimes due to illness, or sometimes just due to aging or even in their youth. What I like about them is that they are all simple and cheap and easy to use. So people are more likely to follow them then.

Also, what are those two psychological phenomenom above called? You keep singing a song long after you remember how you started. It must have something to do with memory. Or maybe the part of the brain that involves songs and singing. And what is it called when you hold onto things long after you forgot? I've heard of people going to sleep with objects in their hands and then waking up that way. What causes those two things? And what are they called?

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General Science / Can Human Consciousness Be Uploaded?

« on: 19/12/2024 15:30:36 »

I've heard some people say that at the moment of death, someone's consciousness could be just uploaded into a computer.

Is that true? How would that work? I mean, what is consciousness? Is it only material or something like electricity being transfered in computer circuitry? Or is it something more? And are we the same people one year from now, ten years from now, or even moment to moment?

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Just Chat! / Would This Solve The Problem Of Cruelty To Animals?

« on: 12/12/2024 13:49:16 »

Concerning meat production, and animal medical experimentation (esp. for serious human diseases), what if. What if the animals were selectively bred to all have Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), and soft restraints were used so they didn't injure themselves? They could also be bred to be easy-going and happy all the time. And have frequent breaks. Then they'd feel no pain.

So what would be the problem then?

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Just Chat! / Should Damage To The Prefrontal Lobe Be A Legal Defense?

« on: 05/12/2024 10:33:24 »

There are a lot areas where science and law interact, and some where they come into conflict. One is the insanity defense. Every nation has had some version of the insanity defense since recorded history. Even the ancient Romans did. Even ancient Islam did. (One message board said the Koran never talks about an insanity defense. I don't know where in the Koran it says that. But I know it has something about an insanity defense. Or maybe diminished capacity.)

Insanity means you couldn't possibly know the difference between right or wrong, or you didn't even know what you were doing or that it was wrong. And the more recent Durham rule says the accused is not responsible if the unlawful act was the product of mental disease or defect. And there is something (that I haven't heard in a long time in my country in any news report) called diminished capacity.

Anyways, on the subject of dimished capacity, I was wondering about behavior issues mentally ill and handicapped people can have that are caused by damage to their prefrontal lobe. Something like a traffic accident could cause it. I've heard it sometimes occurs in intellectual disabilities. And my understanding is that some people just have perhaps smaller brains, or poorly developed prefrontal lobes. The same way the visual or auditory centers of their brain might be poorly developed, though not damaged.

I guess this shouldn't count as insanity. But what about dimished capacity? And I'm curious, how is this handled in other countries? Like Europe, Canada or South America?

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Just Chat! / How Many Philosophers Agree With J. J. C. Smart?

« on: 28/11/2024 05:34:08 »

As I tell people, in 1994 I bought the book "Utilitarianism: For and Against" by J. J. C. Smart at the book store of a community college I was going to. I was interested in topics like that. Philosophy, meta ethics and normative ethics. A couple of things still confuse me about the book.

Don't get me wrong. But it just seems to me to be written on a very ordinary level intellectually. But I wouldn't know. I think that is just because it was written for the laymen. I really don't that know much about the subject of philosophy still anyways. So that could just be my opinion too. But I know Smart was famous and outstanding in his field. He was also connected with a couple of universities in Australia and the UK. He also thought utilitarianism is the best normative system of ethics. I don't know what the best normative system of ethics is. But utilitarianism does have some flaws, in my opinion at least. Using hedonistic math is good at solving problems, like how to write legislation to help the most people. But it seems to say that pleasure is the greatest good. I don't know what the greatest good is, but I don't think it's pleasure. I think having a society where everyone is healthy and their needs are met, and then they are able to decide for themselves how they choose to live their life, is the greatest good. I know Smart believed in utilitarianism. But I wonder books like "Utilitarianism: For and Against" weren't just meant more to make people think, and to get the discussion going on that topic.

I was also asking on another message board. Has anyone created a list of normative ethics rules that everyone agrees on? I know I've heard most modern philosophers are moral realists. And some moral realists say that we can not know what moral rules are valid and what aren't. But I know everyone still seems to agree on a few basic rules, at least the most important ones. Because I've heard some people say secular humanism is one rule system that most philosophers and scientist agree on. I've also heard people say that the golden rule is still the best, treat people as you would have them treat you.

So my questions are about that book. Was it written for laymen, or is it taught in places like universities? And do most modern scientists and philosophers think utilitarianism is the best moral system? And what moral system do most scientists/philosophers belong to?

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / What Causes This Optical Effect?

« on: 21/11/2024 15:56:27 »

Did you ever notice? When someone is looking out from a brightly lit room to some place that is pitch dark, like the outside at night, they really can't see anything at all. But the people outside can see them clearly. Also, shades seem to make a difference. It is much harder to see into a room with shade in the window if it is brighter outside. I think I heard some place that is why they used to use shades on windows.

What is this optic effect called? And how does it work?

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Physiology & Medicine / How Does Your Body Burn Fats And Oils?

« on: 14/11/2024 09:48:35 »

I've wondered this for some time now. Carbohydrates, like sugars and starches, lead to weight gain. Your body can also get energy from protein, but protein doesn't lead to weight gain.

But what about fats and oils? The Atkins diet has you eat fats and oils, because the theory goes, they don't make you gain any weight. Or do they just make you gain less weight?

I know the Atkins diet leads to something called ketosis, if you follow it closely. But I'm not sure what ketosis is, or if fats and oils just lead to less weight gain, or any weight gain at all.

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Physiology & Medicine / What Are Chemical Burns?

« on: 08/11/2024 01:49:53 »

A while ago the columnist Cecil Adams of the Chicago Reader answered someone's question. They said that a friend dared them to eat several Jalapeno peppers really fast. And they asked if it would be safe to do this. Cecil Adams said that eating something as caustic as that could cause a chemical burn.

What is a chemical burn? Is it the same thing as a heat burn? Or is it something different?

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Physiology & Medicine / Why Is There No Point For Taking Supplements?

« on: 31/10/2024 09:54:29 »

I brought this subject up here once before. Taking vitamin and mineral supplements. In case you are deficient in any of them in your diet, and for the health benefits their have. Like the health benefits things like phytonutrients give you from fresh fruits. But someone here said they were just a waste of money.

I'm still a little confused by that. I've been taking a multivitamin for some time now. None of my doctors endorsed the idea. But they said it was all right. As I told them, I obviously don't get a hundred percent of the percent daily value in my food everyday. No one could. You'd have to eat a bushel of vegetables just to do that. So obviously I am deficient. At least according to the FDA. Also, I am confused why the health benefits of things like phytonutrients only come from fresh fruits and vegetables. Wouldn't they come when you take them in pill form too? And wouldn't that be easier?

Plus I might as well include this question here. There is an agreed upon percent daily value. But is there an agreed on minimum value? Obviously there are nutritional diseases like Scurvy, that come when you basically don't get any of that nutrient. But is there a minimum amount that you could take to be healthy? When they say the "recommended" amount, they just mean ideally. Right? So what's the difference?

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: What Are The Advantages To Taking Vinegar Everyday?

« on: 25/10/2024 17:32:47 »

Some say that it lowers blood sugar and treats high blood pressure.

Who says that?
Have they done a proper trial?

I don't know about a trial or study. I've heard that information before. And I did a quick Google search to verify what I heard, and what exactly the claims were. Google information searches just give you what is trending. But not always what is accurate of course. And as I said, some people just say that and those are the top health claims made for vinegar.

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Physiology & Medicine / What Are The Advantages To Taking Vinegar Everyday?

« on: 25/10/2024 01:41:26 »

I know some people think some health foods are cures for everything. It's obviously wrong to think that. I have heard they can supplement the other medicines you're taking though. I heard one or two doctors say that. But some are more skeptical.

But specifically vinegar. Some say that it lowers blood sugar and treats high blood pressure. Others say it has antioxidants and other nutrients. Now, it does have some nutrients in, especially if it's made apple cider vinegar or made from wine.

Of course, white vinegar doesn't have too many nutrients in it because it is vinegar distilled from pure alcohol. So obviously if the benefits of vinegar came from nutrients found in the food it was made from, then white vinegar wouldn't give you those benefits. Although people still claim that even white vinegar does things like lower blood sugar treat high blood pressure.

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Just Chat! / Shakespeare's Take On Terrorism And Political Violence.

« on: 17/10/2024 12:02:50 »

I was thinking about this play after 9-11. "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare. I studied it in my Sophomore Year in HS, 1983-4. It was horrible what the 9-11 terrorists did of course. And we should never in any way condone that kind of behavior. But I was thinking at that time. What kinds of political and social conditions lead people to think acts of political terrorism is their only option. And what is going on in their mind at the time. I even thought it might be a good idea to do this play as a charity event to benefit the first responders and victims of 9-11. The January 6th riots would be a more recent example when people are misled to believe that violence is the only solution to their problem. What follows are some of the more famous and poignant lines from that play.

"Knew you not Pompey?"

-Act I, Scene 1.

"But for mine own part, it was Greek to me."

-Act I, Scene 2.

"Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.
He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous."

-Act I, Scene 2.

"Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."

-Act I, Scene 2.

"What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind."

-Act II, Scene 1.

"Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream."

-Act II, Scene 1.

"Danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he."

-Act II, Scene 2.

"When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

-Act II, Scene 2.

"Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once."

-Act II, Scene 2.

"Beware the Ides of March."

-Act III, Scene 1.

"The ides of March are come."
"Ay, Caesar; but not gone."

-Act III, Scene 1.

"I could be well moved, if I were as you.
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me.
But I am constant as the Northern Star,
Of whose true fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament."

-Act III, Scene 1.

"Et tu, Brute?"

-Act III, Scene 1.

"Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!
Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets."

-Act III, Scene 1.

"And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth."

-Act III, Scene 1.

"Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more."

-Act III, Scene 2.

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it."

-Act III, Scene 2.

"He was my friend."

-Act III, Scene 2.

"This was the most unkindest cut of all."

-Act III, Scene 2

"For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech
To stir men's blood. I only speak right on.
I tell you that which you yourselves do know."

-Act III, Scene 2.

"Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot;
Take thou what course thou wilt."

-Act III, Scene 2.

"There are no tricks in plain and simple faith."

-Act IV, Scene 2.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

-Act IV, Scene 3.

"How ill this taper burns.
Ha, who comes here?
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shapes this monstrous apparition.
It comes upon me. Art thou any thing?
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That mak'st my blood cold and my hair to stare?"

-Act IV, Scene 3.

"Thou shalt see me at Philippi."

-Act IV, Scene 3.

"This was the noblest Roman of them all.
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar.
He only in a general honest thought
And common good to all made one of them."

-Act V, Scene 5.

"His life was gentle; and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, This was a man!"

-Act V, Scene 5.

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General Science / Does All Of Mathematics Come Down To Simple Arithmetic?

« on: 10/10/2024 15:46:29 »

This next one is almost totally a question, because I honestly know little about this. Just what I've heard. And that was a long time ago. Someone on another message board once said, that all of science is reducible down to math. I guess he might have just meant all scietific theories use mathematical equations to solve their problems. I know some people might say that math isn't used in political science. But that's not always true. I know Jeremy Bentham proved that if you want to, say, feed the greatest number of people, or spread the greatest amount of happiness, it could be.

Anyways, I also heard somewhere, I think it might have been in high school. All of mathematics can be reduced to simple arithmetic. Actually, just addition and subtraction. (Anyone who has ever done long division can tell you, it just involves a lot of addition and subtraction, really.) Is that true? Even the longest, most complicated calculus problem. Even the most complicated quantum physics equation involves simple addition/subtraction?

Now I heard this a long time ago. Maybe 40 years ago now. So is this still believed to be true?

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Physiology & Medicine / Can Coffee Or Tea Ever Really Go Bad?

« on: 03/10/2024 08:23:07 »

Can coffee or tea ever really go bad? I mean in dry form or as the beverages? Because, in HS I once used a container of 10-year-old teabags. And the cup of tea they made tasted just fine. I know if I keep a prepared pot of coffee or tea laying around couple of days, there never seems to be a problem with it. Unless I add cream. Cream of course can always go bad, and usually in a day of course, if left out.

I know I learned, also around HS, liquid medicines like Pepto Bismol never go bad. They lose their potency, but they never go bad. Because they have nothing in them that food poisoning microorganisms would be interested in. Tea and coffee are foods, of course. But they work differently, I've noticed. I know they have 40 year old Scotches and hundred year old wines. But those two go bad too. Just after, oh I don't know, maybe 500 years, maybe a thousand.

20

General Science / Is There A Pattern In The Number Pi?

« on: 27/09/2024 22:10:48 »

Why does it seem so hard to calculate the value Pi? Pi is defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. And it is non-terminating and non-repeating. But in calculating it, the further out they go, the more difficult the task seems. To-date, the furthest it's been calculated is to 105 trillion places this year.

Is it because the further out you go the larger (or actually smaller) the digit that far out is? For example, for 3.141592653... the three would be 3 divided by 100,000,000.

Because some time back, I got this idea. .01001000100001... is an example of a non-terminating and non-repeating number. But the pattern is obvious. So could it be there is a more simple way of calculating Pi based on some pattern that we haven't discovered yet?