But Ler

Unseen wrote:
Because gaps in knowledge always matter, do they not? Maybe when the gap is filled, it’s trivial, but maybe it changes everything.

Sure, all the gaps matter, to different degrees, and the W-boson mass discrepancy seems to indicate further research could uncover something pretty significant.

I could be relatively out of touch with p…[Read more]

It’s important to me to differentiate intellectualizations vs feelings of spirituality. In the former, yeah, there’s a lot of bullshit and over-intellectualization about it. In fact writings and discourse about religion are largely bs and over-intellectualizations. Full of fluffy words and virtue signals, too.

But feelings are different. It’s…[Read more]

Jake I remember a story like that… didn’t look into it but am looking forward to further talk about it.

Related to causation of everything, JWST will probably provide a treasure trove of insight. For example, finding galaxies and other objects that serve as gravitational lenses that magnify and make visible objects even farther away than the…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Pope i am not certain i know the answer but my hunch is that without knowing what causation is we can never understand the cosmos. Nothing fundamental will be understood only shadows of the flickering fire on the walls of the cave.

I can agree with that. Maybe we’ll have to stick with (e.g.) “quantum mechanics works in…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
we have not penetrated causation

So why does that really matter? We’re assuming we’ll never be able to predict quantum behaviors in other than probabilistic terms, but we’ll still keep working at understanding the ramifications of quantum dynamics.

First off, we’re not omniscient, so we cannot immediately explain every cause or causation. Every explanation is necessarily limited by its context, among contexts we define. E.g. classical and quantum physics explain causation in different contexts, in spite of our inability to merge the two realms of experimentation and explanation into one,…[Read more]

@TheEncongitationer

Do you see as many generalizations coming from the left here on AZ as you often like to present?

The first time I actually noted these kinds of popularized slights was about 15 or 20 years ago when a co-worker used the word “Libtards”. Took me more time to realize it was used fairly often on Fox News shows, and then…[Read more]

My first thought was about consciousness, too. But first…

Alive vs dead are indeed matters of definition. Take viruses… the debate on calling them dead or alive is still happening, and in my opinion, it’s similar to whether one calls Pluto a planet or not. IMO, the only time you could call a virus anything close to “alive” is when it’s…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
I find it easy to simply go up to the address line (the URL) and block copy it. Works every time.

Ok, but I can’t let you win with that response.

I promise I wasn’t looking for anything on Max Headroom; serendipity just happened, as a choice that Youtube presented in their list of what I could watch next.

I watched the whole…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
The one I posted is the actual sketch. They are the same length, but not the same content. Is this another internet mystery?

Looks like Davis accidentally clicked on “Copy URL at current time” while he was at the end of the skit. So his URL’s set to play 64 seconds into the video. It’s a nice feature that I use a lot. Easiest way to…[Read more]

Istvan wrote:
I think I’ve seen enough of your Crank Tank here. If you ever wonder why people don’t think atheists are ready for a seat at the grown-up table of society’s discourse, take a look in the mirror.

Crank Tank rhymes nicely, I’ve never heard that one. I like that better than Basket of Deplorables. Not sure if I belong in either categ…[Read more]

Davis wrote:
note to mod: I hit edit instead of reply to Istvan’s message and I don’t have emails of posts, could someone restore his original message please?

I’m 99% sure there’s no history kept of deleted or edited posts. There’s only post deletion, editing, and other adjustments possible en masse e.g. at the following link where I’m fil…[Read more]

marulimarulaki wrote:
But he agreed and agrees with all the christian morals as he was told, he never rejected and overthrew any of them.

[…]

3. Gaining the god’s favor in the afterlife as given in the bible puts obedience to the god’s rule above human well-being.

I think I agree with Jake on not knowing enough of your circumstances for con…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Here are two of our favorite comedians disagreeing about where the coronavirus came from. One of them is wrong.

Jon’s reasoning is so unsupportable that I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from him when he said this, and only today have I determined that he wasn’t joking. The fact is that no one has any evidence yet of exactly…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
The optimism of the warmonger made Mr Putin lazy. He was so sure Ukraine would fall rapidly that he did not prepare his people for it. Some troops have been told they are on exercises, or that they will be welcomed as liberators. Citizens are not ready for a fratricidal conflict with their fellow Slavs. Having been assured that…

[Read more]

Yeah, made me wonder why. I don’t think he’ll risk meltdown. Maybe he’s attacking power production so they suffer more from petroleum shortage.

Putin’s Way from 2015, Frontline. I hadn’t seen it until today. Looks pretty ominous.

I won’t pretend to be an expert on today’s Russian issues, but will say it may be costly to support Ukraine, by extending the war. But what would be the cost of letting Putin have his way with every country around him, for…[Read more]

Sorry for the negativity there. I plan to overcome it, in spite of pervasive negativity. Back to the topic, regarding CDC, yes, they have major weaknesses. But the Trump era nastiness and revolt against trusting in federal agencies and against unifying states’ effectiveness in fighting the pandemic did not help, either. Science even became the bad…[Read more]