41

General Science / Re: The Start of Time?

« on: 27/06/2020 09:30:09 »

1) the first time period (eg first second), causes the 2nd time period (2nd second)

No. The first event causes the second event. Time period is what lies between* them. It is an effect, not a cause.


*obnoxious phrase, but "separates" can be misinterpreted as an action.

42

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Is Coriolis force real?

« on: 26/06/2020 22:59:28 »

Gawdamighty! If that's what they teach in schools, no wonder nobody understands it! The meteorology courses for pilots and mariners are a lot simpler.

Difference between a teacher and an educationalist. A teacher takes a subject he understands and phrases it so a child can understand it. An educationalist takes a subject he doesn't understand and phrases it so nobody else can.

Please, Sir, if the Coriolis force is responsible for the jet stream, why does it go the other way?

43

The Environment / Re: Locust infestation 2020

« on: 26/06/2020 22:41:22 »

Ploughing is marginally productive as it buries organic matter (locust bodies) that may eventually rot into fertiliser, but it takes a lot of energy, is a fairly slow process, and you lose the immediate food value of the locusts as well as the crop. Harvesting the locusts is quicker and gives you an immediate useful yield of locust meat.

44

General Science / Re: The Start of Time?

« on: 26/06/2020 22:30:26 »

Earlier periods of time depend on later times. For example, if you had not been born, would you exist now?

A complete inversion of logic, as I hope you realise.

From birth to writing this, is a sequence of events, separated by time. If I stop writing, I will not be unborn. Later events depend on former events, not the other way around. The length of time between now and my going to bed will not affect the number of years that elapsed between birth and now.

45

General Science / Re: The Start of Time?t defining glump.

« on: 26/06/2020 18:07:23 »

Ridiculous axioms lead, by induction, to ridiculous conclusions. QED.

The second lump of glump depends on the first lump of glump. Discuss, without defining glump.

46

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Is Coriolis force real?

« on: 26/06/2020 18:05:10 »

If you fly on a great circle track from the north pole, you have exert a force to keep turning left, because the Coriolis effect makes the apparent wind blow from the east.

47

General Science / Re: The Start of Time?

« on: 26/06/2020 17:57:32 »

Our only useful definition of time is "what separates sequential events". If there were no events before BB, there was no time.

48

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

« on: 26/06/2020 11:10:26 »

Your argument still depends on determining the universal terminal goal. Winning at Go, chess, or actual war, depends on making appropriate sacrifices. No big deal if it's the occasional chess piece or even a single run to bring the weaker batsman onto strike, but a ship or battalion is full of other people's children, so somebody has to be disappointed by your decision. Problem is that you can't try a computer for war crimes, especially if it is partially self-trained, nor execute it pour encourager les autres.

The only way you can preserve resources is by suicide, because every other action increases entropy and thus decreases the resources and options available to others.

49

Cells, Microbes & Viruses / Re: Are 110,000 dead from COVID-19 in the USA in just 4 months reason to beware?

« on: 26/06/2020 10:13:10 »

Lethality is currently around 5.5% worldwide and rising from the initial 4%, but that is a rather conservative figure as most of the infected  areas so far are relatively civilised with free public health services. Corrupt banana republics like the USA will find it closer to 10% in the long run, but as the poor will suffer most, it doesn't matter - they are unlikely to vote for Trump anyway.

The longterm health consequences are quite severe. We may find another 10% permanently unfit for work after recovering from the acute phase, which will damage civilised economies, but America will become Great by abolishing unemployment benefits and imprisoning anyone who complains.

Help the economy recover: buy shares in private prisons and gun shops.

The silver lining is that Trumptopia makes the Cummings administration look incompetent rather than criminal. 

God help America.

50

The Environment / Re: Locust infestation 2020

« on: 26/06/2020 09:56:39 »

A desert locust swarm can be 460 square miles in size and pack between 40 and 80 million locusts into less than half a square mile. Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat 423 million pounds of plants every day.

So you need to spread a net 21 miles in each direction, capable of carrying 2000 tons of insects. Even by fishery standards, that's quite a haul.  The net itself will weigh about 100 tons. Current loadcarrying drones can manage 0.1 ton, and coordinating 1000 of them will make the Battle of Britain look like Sunday in the park with your local aeromodellers.   

51

COVID-19 / Re: Will steaming clothes make them COVID safe?

« on: 25/06/2020 19:21:45 »

Since this shop steams new stock before putting it on display, I assume they have a fairly serious attitude to quality control and appearance. Even Tesco used to take the reject rack away, check for stains and rips, and make sure the price label was intact, before putting stuff back on display.

52

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

« on: 25/06/2020 19:04:09 »

But your ideal observer will still have to make an arbitrary choice of beneficiary for any decision. Not the same as choosing an adequate approximation for pi. 22/7 may be OK for buying bricks, 3.142 for grinding a crankshaft, but nobody has to choose between 2, 7.631 or 19 as the only options.  Here's a simple example from real life.

I was working with a vet a couple of years ago. A woman brought in a very sorry-looking pigeon that she had just rescued from a sparrowhawk in her garden. The pigeon was beyond redemption so the nurse despatched it, went back to the counter and said "I have euthanised the pigeon. Now what is the hawk going to feed her babies?" Even if the pigeon had survived, some human had to make a choice of beneficiary, and being neither pigeon nor hawk, her choice was entirely arbitrary.

53

COVID-19 / Re: Will steaming clothes make them COVID safe?

« on: 25/06/2020 18:51:38 »

Many small clothing shops either don't have the extra space or will run out of 'clothes for sale' because all the popular sizes will be out the back in quarantine. Within a few days we could run out of stock.

Surely you will only be holding 3 days' return stock, which you rotate on a first-in-first-out basis. Unless you were in the habit of reprocessing the returns and tryons immediately they appeared, it's more likely that you will only be holding an additional 2 days' worth.  As footfall will have reduced anyway, you won't need as many copies of each size on shop display. I'd be surprised if things didn't "iron themselves out" in a week.   

54

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: How will this research change our understanding on quantum mechanics?

« on: 25/06/2020 10:42:52 »

I imagine that during the transition, the quantum system is in a superposition of two quantum states.

Whatever happened to "forbidden transitions"? IIRC there is an infinity of them between any two quantum states, which may allow us to model a temporal path. 

55

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: How microwave superheats water?

« on: 25/06/2020 10:39:09 »

Silly of me to forget. "Constant boiling solutions" are worth investigating.

A well-known example of a positive azeotrope is 95.63% ethanol and 4.37% water (by mass) boils at 78.2 °C.[7] Ethanol boils at 78.4 °C, water boils at 100 °C, but the azeotrope boils at 78.2 °C, which is lower than either of its constituents.[8] Indeed, 78.2 °C is the minimum temperature at which any ethanol/water solution can boil at atmospheric pressure. In general, a positive azeotrope boils at a lower temperature than any other ratio of its constituents. Positive azeotropes are also called minimum boiling mixtures or pressure maximum azeotropes.

56

The Environment / Re: Locust infestation 2020

« on: 25/06/2020 10:30:34 »

Sadly, hand spraying seems to be the least inefficient process available. UNFAO has supported aerial spraying over the years but it is fraught with difficulties.

To spray insecticide over crop you need a small plane that can fly low and slow and turn tightly – usually something like a Piper Pawnee or Cessna Stationair with a big engine to haul half a ton of chemicals. This works fine for planned spraying but you need a reasonable airstrip within about 30 miles of the target, and bowsers of fuel and insecticide: locust swarms aren’t all that cooperative in their choice of feeding station.

Spraying an airborne swarm is much more difficult and less efficient, and you need to avoid spraying over human and animal habitats.

You might be able to track and spray a swarm migrating over desert or sea, using a hefty long-range tanker, but now we are talking about a major capital item and a big crew that may only be used once a decade, so it is best contracted to the military, who do that kind of thing. Except that the job will probably involve flying low through airspace that belongs to hostile, corrupt politicians (there being no other sort) and their sworn enemy fanatics. Sucking a few locusts into the engines is unpleasant, but a rocket can really spoil your day. 

57

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

« on: 24/06/2020 13:24:00 »

I considered the last sentence from your previous quotation

For instance, to make a moral judgment about a case of theft or murder on Earth it is not necessary to know about geological events in another solar system.

and expanded Robin Hood to that level of absurdity.

So given that all considerations are actually partial, either because we have to find them inside a finite horizon or because we have to choose between competing priorities, the concept of an ideal observer is useless.

58

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Complex hearing issues - can you help me understand?

« on: 24/06/2020 00:31:47 »

A long shot, but how about something on the lines of a minor stroke or petit-mal epileptic episode with damage, not to the ear, but to the auditory processing system?

Gradual and inconsistent return of hearing with good sensitivity but a loss of stereo imaging suggests the brain rehabilitating and re-learning (including learning to ignore yawns) in a different area. Worth pursuing an EEG, fMRI or similar brain function mapping to see if auditory stimuli light up an unusual area. Could be good news as it may improve and normalise with re-learning.

Time for a chat with a neurologist? Could put Ronnie's mind at rest, and might suggest a therapeutic regime.

59

Technology / Re: What happens to unused electricity?

« on: 23/06/2020 15:40:53 »

They were "dreadful" because they were filling the atmosphere with CO2, …….The problem was that the use of fossil fuel was (one way or another) unsustainable.

Unlike gas, which has replaced coal? Fortunately, thanks to COVID, we now have enough hot air and steaming bullshit emanating from Downing Street to keep the survivors warm. Thus Mother Nature restores sustainability.

60

Technology / Re: How can you make a mobile phone charge faster?

« on: 23/06/2020 15:35:43 »

If your charger had zero impedance it wouldn't go any faster that the charging circuit in the phone will allow, since that is designed to prevent overheating.

Nikon provide a proprietary 1.5A cable with their camera chargers, and it is certainly heftier than the average phone cable.

A computer USB port must be able to supply at least 500 mA but there is no specified upper limit, and a remote hub dongle may be limited to less, especially if you are running several devices from an unpowered splitter.

In a word: there is no general answer to the question!