I find it pretty hard to believe that we are that close to reaching the 'edge' of the universe. What will these materialists do when we discover a galaxy that is further away in light years than the universe is old?
As other have hinted (but not spelled out), you are trying to think out an einsteinean universe in euclidean terms. Since space itself is expanding, the euclidean numbers aren't expected to add up "right".
Either they will have to adjust the value for the age of the universe (as they normally do) or they will have to accept that the current method for determining age is flawed (i.e., that the universe appears older than it actually is).
I don't know about materialists, but scientists will go wherever the evidence leads.
Sometimes kicking and screaming, as in the case of continental drift, but the evidence always wins in the end.
It is certain that we're still wrong about some things -- probably a lot of things. But you can't take too much comfort from that; the corrections always take us further from the neolithic conception of reality rather than revealing that it was correct after all.
How far apart do your measuring points need to be to accurately triangulate the position of something 9.6 billion light years away?
It's probably measured by its red shift. The red shift can be calibrated by standard candles such as Cephid variables. The nearest of those are calibrated by parallax, or "triangulation" as you call it.
*I* think Social Security and other entitlements are a waste of money, but that's because I'm 27 and not going to see a penny of it.
People have been wringing their hands over the looming demise of Social Security since before you were born.
The only real threat of you not getting your investment back is if the politicians find enough excuses to dip into the kitty for other uses, or if the people who want to transfer the whole kitty into the stock market finally get their way.
They're not coming home until the dollar outright collapses, which is probably not far off.
FWIW, I read somewhere a few years ago that the biggest threat to the US economy is that the international drug and arms cartels will switch from dollars to euros as the medium of exchange for the black market.
It will be the entitlement programs that bankrupt the U.S.
You refer, of course, to the entitlement programs for the rich and powerful, such as Gates is saying we need to cut out?
We'll go bankrupt because of the unwritten amendment to our constitution that says "The Congress shall make no law that cuts into anyone's profits or share prices."
That and the fact that we've offshored all our industry, so that what passes for an economy these days is just a giant pyramid scheme called "Wall Street".
'Global warming' -- sorry, I forgot, it became 'climate change' when the planet stopped warming
I guess the glaciers in Glacier National Park are disappearing because we don't allow enough logging to keep the trees in check, and a northwest passage is opening up because we tolerate too many whales.
a more precise listing of what political reasons you think may be present would be nice.
Contrary to what the talking heads would have you believe, Republicans -- the politicians and party leaders, not the voters -- aren't conservative. Their 'base' is billionaires, and their political philosophy is that the proper role of government is to ensure that the rich get richer faster.
Fighting climate change is going to cost some billionaires a small fraction of their income, so devout Republicans are desperate to prove that nothing needs to be done.
So we get the absurd notion that climate change is a liberal conspiracy.
Just to piss you people off, we should open the borders.
The reason we have had a leaky border essentially forever is that lots of powerful people like having it that way. Look at how many politicians have ranted against illegal aliens and then been found out to be hiring the same for household work.
The status quo is essentially integrated into our economy.
Arizona has a special problem with the marauders, but I don't think this law is going to fix that.
Sad to say, I don't know what *will* fix it. Probably the best thing would be to legalize dope and cut the bottom out of the black market. But that ain't going to happen.
They blamed the dead guy before they made it look like he killed himself.
I don't generally subscribe to conspiracy theories, but I thought it was *very* strange that they would cremate the suspect in a high-profile national security case without an autopsy, after he had apparently killed himself.
When Christianity is at odds with a scientific interpretation of history, Christianity are the moonbats.
tribe's geographical origins that contradict their traditional stories
So, left-wing postmodern cultural relativists, where is your FSM now?
Everyone can see the folly of other people's religious beliefs, but no one wants to turn a critical eye on their own.
Cristianity isn't singled out, and isn't entitled to an exemption either way. But the FSM is reserved for con artists who make up "pretend it isn't God" creators to get around the law.
I'm a fan of manned space travel, but going to Mars or the Moon in today's economic climate is pure folly.
I don't know if a trip to Mars is worth the human risk anyway. We'll need to go someday, but our fatality rate for earth-orbit activities has been too high for the past 20 years. Let's get our batting average up before we venture off to Mars.
I don't think anyone has taken Gaea seriously since someone pointed out that the switch-over to an oxygen-rich atmosphere meant Gaea essentially committed suicide to bring on the new order of things.
The sheer amount of 5-4 decisions on the court should indicate that the court makes political decisions, and not merely informed, unbiased interpretations of law.
And with five dedicated to ruling for the benefit of the largest corporations, ACTA is a shew-in.
Slashdot Mirror
Hopefully he doesn't have another law for dealing with people who misspell his name.
The next time a southern state wants to secede from the union.... LET THEM!!!!!!!!
'Cause we always wanted a third world country comprised of gun-toting Rednecks led by religious whackjobs right on our border.
If you can't fight them... Put a fence around and let them devolve in peace.
Or just invoke Mohnihan's Law: they're entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts.
aid changes would be "a sharp departure from widely accepted historical teachings"
Because something that is widely accepted is always true.
I wonder what kind of batting average you could get by always going with widely accepted vs. widely rejected.
(n.b. - Not a rhetorical questions.)
Is conservapedia a joke site serious or a bit of both?
The Schafly geniuses are deeply involved, so at least some of them think it's serious.
I'd be surprised if there weren't plenty of trolls too, unless editing privileges are restricted to insiders.
"They don't even bother to contact me before publishing nonsense."
FOX is in the business of publishing nonsense.
I find it pretty hard to believe that we are that close to reaching the 'edge' of the universe. What will these materialists do when we discover a galaxy that is further away in light years than the universe is old?
As other have hinted (but not spelled out), you are trying to think out an einsteinean universe in euclidean terms. Since space itself is expanding, the euclidean numbers aren't expected to add up "right".
Either they will have to adjust the value for the age of the universe (as they normally do) or they will have to accept that the current method for determining age is flawed (i.e., that the universe appears older than it actually is).
I don't know about materialists, but scientists will go wherever the evidence leads.
Sometimes kicking and screaming, as in the case of continental drift, but the evidence always wins in the end.
It is certain that we're still wrong about some things -- probably a lot of things. But you can't take too much comfort from that; the corrections always take us further from the neolithic conception of reality rather than revealing that it was correct after all.
Do these clusters sometimes merge together to give birth to entirely new galaxies, and if so, what would that merging process be called?
Clusterbation?
How far apart do your measuring points need to be to accurately triangulate the position of something 9.6 billion light years away?
It's probably measured by its red shift. The red shift can be calibrated by standard candles such as Cephid variables. The nearest of those are calibrated by parallax, or "triangulation" as you call it.
Wikipedia has an article on the extragalactic distance scale, which may interest you.
*I* think Social Security and other entitlements are a waste of money, but that's because I'm 27 and not going to see a penny of it.
People have been wringing their hands over the looming demise of Social Security since before you were born.
The only real threat of you not getting your investment back is if the politicians find enough excuses to dip into the kitty for other uses, or if the people who want to transfer the whole kitty into the stock market finally get their way.
They're not coming home until the dollar outright collapses, which is probably not far off.
FWIW, I read somewhere a few years ago that the biggest threat to the US economy is that the international drug and arms cartels will switch from dollars to euros as the medium of exchange for the black market.
"Military-industrial" is retro. These days it's the military-pharmaceutical-energy-banking-insurance complex.
It will be the entitlement programs that bankrupt the U.S.
You refer, of course, to the entitlement programs for the rich and powerful, such as Gates is saying we need to cut out?
We'll go bankrupt because of the unwritten amendment to our constitution that says "The Congress shall make no law that cuts into anyone's profits or share prices."
That and the fact that we've offshored all our industry, so that what passes for an economy these days is just a giant pyramid scheme called "Wall Street".
'Global warming' -- sorry, I forgot, it became 'climate change' when the planet stopped warming
I guess the glaciers in Glacier National Park are disappearing because we don't allow enough logging to keep the trees in check, and a northwest passage is opening up because we tolerate too many whales.
a more precise listing of what political reasons you think may be present would be nice.
Contrary to what the talking heads would have you believe, Republicans -- the politicians and party leaders, not the voters -- aren't conservative. Their 'base' is billionaires, and their political philosophy is that the proper role of government is to ensure that the rich get richer faster.
Fighting climate change is going to cost some billionaires a small fraction of their income, so devout Republicans are desperate to prove that nothing needs to be done.
So we get the absurd notion that climate change is a liberal conspiracy.
Just to piss you people off, we should open the borders.
The reason we have had a leaky border essentially forever is that lots of powerful people like having it that way. Look at how many politicians have ranted against illegal aliens and then been found out to be hiring the same for household work.
The status quo is essentially integrated into our economy.
Arizona has a special problem with the marauders, but I don't think this law is going to fix that.
Sad to say, I don't know what *will* fix it. Probably the best thing would be to legalize dope and cut the bottom out of the black market. But that ain't going to happen.
I've been saying what Hawking is saying all along.
Me too.
This probably explains the Fermi Paradox: them that advertise get eaten fastest.
They blamed the dead guy before they made it look like he killed himself.
I don't generally subscribe to conspiracy theories, but I thought it was *very* strange that they would cremate the suspect in a high-profile national security case without an autopsy, after he had apparently killed himself.
When Christianity is at odds with a scientific interpretation of history, Christianity are the moonbats.
tribe's geographical origins that contradict their traditional stories
So, left-wing postmodern cultural relativists, where is your FSM now?
Everyone can see the folly of other people's religious beliefs, but no one wants to turn a critical eye on their own.
Cristianity isn't singled out, and isn't entitled to an exemption either way. But the FSM is reserved for con artists who make up "pretend it isn't God" creators to get around the law.
I'm a fan of manned space travel, but going to Mars or the Moon in today's economic climate is pure folly.
I don't know if a trip to Mars is worth the human risk anyway. We'll need to go someday, but our fatality rate for earth-orbit activities has been too high for the past 20 years. Let's get our batting average up before we venture off to Mars.
And get our economy up...
...that the new Administration is still running the country for the benefit of corporations, the way a country ought to be run.
Gotta help those billionaires become trillionaires - the rich don't get richer fast enough without government help.
I don't think anyone has taken Gaea seriously since someone pointed out that the switch-over to an oxygen-rich atmosphere meant Gaea essentially committed suicide to bring on the new order of things.
Ban the party system.
IIRC, George Washington warned us to avoid any n-party system in his farewell address.
The sheer amount of 5-4 decisions on the court should indicate that the court makes political decisions, and not merely informed, unbiased interpretations of law.
And with five dedicated to ruling for the benefit of the largest corporations, ACTA is a shew-in.
Narrow beam, high power, simple signal,
... 1/r^2 ...
Has anyone calculated how powerful a signal would have to be before SETI's equipment could detect it?