BaalChatzaf

The Sun is the primary driver of global temperatures. CO2, water vapor and other trace "greenhouse" gases modulate (in some cases) or amplify (in other cases) the Sun's effect on the atmosphere. The other modulator of the Sun's effects are the seas and oceans. Water has a very high heat capacity which means it can absorb a lot of heat with only small temperature increases.

Read State of Fear by Michael Chrichton

Here is a fun lecture on quantum entanglement. A little over 14 minutes.

Atlantis is the fictitious city appearing in a science fiction story by Plato (See Timeaus and Critias). He never said how many people lived there.

https://www.livescience.com/62840-perfect-symmetrical-mushroom-cloud.html

Why bother with the question? People will make babies or not as they can and as the please. Short of forced sterilization there is nothing that can be done to stop breeding. \\// L.L.A.P.

Einstein's attitude on race, on women, on politics were a product of the times in which he lived and his upbringing. While Einstein might have been Liberal in his political views he had a very typical (for the time) attitude toward women. He treated his first wife Milava like shit after the lust wore off. He treated his second wife, who was also his cousin, as a nurse maid and a servant. His attitude toward Asians was no doubt influenced by the prevailing views (of that time) toward Asians. Very few people have the strength of mind and character to fully outgrow and depart from their upbringing. Einstein shed the then current prejudices concerning space and time and blazed a different path. He did not do the same for his regard of non-Europeans and women. No one is perfect.

It use a phrase of the (older) George Bush, Canada is the kinder, gentler America.

Of course not. Dagny was part of a commando raid to rescue Galt. The ends (in that case) justified the means (in this case killing the guard). The Mission determined the tactics.

I said she was brought up Jewish. I never said she was observant. Judaism is as much a culture as it is a religion.

So true. America is the land of opportunity.

check out Rand's biography. She was raised in a Jewish family. The first generation objs Branden (Jewish), LP (Jewish), The former had of the Federal Reserve Greenspan (Jewish). etc. Jewish means brought Jewish, not necessarily observant at the time. Here is an article in the Jerusalem Post which discusses some of the connections between Ayn Rand, Objectivism and Jewish intellectuals --- https://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/The-nexus

Rand had a Jewish moral and ethical sense. Which is no surprise, since she was brought up Jewish. In her mature years she was no longer observant of Jewish ritual and custom but her grasp of ethics was Jewish down to the "sub-atomic level". One of these days I will write an essay on just how thorough Jewish ideological and ethical conditioning is, even for Jews (like myself) become atheists in their mature years. The ethical "take" that Jewish cultural upbringing produces in virtually indelible. Even today if someone asks me "what are you?" I respond , Jewish, without hesitation or embarrassment, because I am, and I am Jewish because of how I was brought up. Jewish in the cultural, ethical and philosophical sense. So it was with Rand and the most of the first generation Objectivists. Check out her earliest followers. Most of them were brought of Jewish and later in life ceased to be observant.

This is an unusual and excellent book. It introduces Bayes Theorem (a theorem in probability theory) and Carrier shows how Bayesian Statistical Inference can be used to update hypotheses based on partial knowledge to produce update hypotheses on the basis of additional evidence. Bayesian inference is the logic of inductive reasoning. In 2012 the Higgs Boson was revealed at CERN. Bayesian statistical inference was absolutely essential to identifying the experimental indicators which showed that the Higgs Boson exist. Carrier in his book deals with methods of making probable hypothesis on evidence of historical events. Carrier uses Bayesian inference to pretty well demolish the underlying assumptions on which Christianity is based. It is not an easy read, but it is probably one of the few books that teach Bayesian inference with very little mathematics. That means someone who is not heavy in mathematics and formal probability theory can learn Bayesian Inference.

quote me correctly please. I said if we received a long stream of prime numbers from no place in the Solar System there would be little doubt that it was transmitted by an intelligent source. No known natural process puts out prime numbers and nothing else.

What would you recommend?. At the very least I would recommend trying to find out how and why we received a long string of primes from Way Out There.

These are question of policy, not of existence. If I received a long string of primes from no source in the solar system, I would conclude that something intelligent sent them. How to react to that? That would be for governments and science organizations to decide. As to the existence of an intelligent sender, I believe there would be little doubt.

A long series of prime numbers. No known natural process can produce this and a long series of primes is very highly improbable as a random sequence. See the movie "Contact" with Jodie Foster.

Lifeless???? Life is a physical process,, every last little bit of it. You, I and everyone else is an ATP fueled organic machine.

you already are a framed copy....

There is no physical evidence to the contrary. No supernatural entity has ever been found in a human body. It is all energy and entropy.

For about 80 to 100 years if you are lucky.....

All there is is matter and energy existing in space-time. Every last thing about the universe is physical.

I voted for Trump to use him as my very own personal political I.E.D. I think of our Donald as a Stink Bomb which I helped to toss into the midst of government.

Who cares what the Arab League thinks?