If you're going to use physics to argue in favour of something, you must accept physics as a counter-argument. The incompleteness of modern physics is reason to disbelieve the idea of extracting energy from the vacuum, just as much as it's reason to believe in the the same idea.
I don't even know where to start. There is no such thing as "a relativistic device". Everything experiences relativistic effects - even your hypothetical ice cube - it's just that under most circumstances they are so small that you can neglect them. The ice cube does indeed weigh less when it has less thermal energy, albeit by such a small amount that you probably couldn't build a conventional scale to measure it.
Mass-energy equivalence is exactly what it sounds like - the rest mass and total energy of a body are exactly the same thing. You know in sci-fi, when they convert something big into energy so it disappears into a little box and they can just carry it around? Doesn't work. The mass would stay exactly the same.
I'm by no means saying that his rhetorical approach is effective or justified. He's not exactly software freedom's greatest spokesperson. The extremism of his stance is a barrier to the adoption of his ideas. However you can't argue with his consistency. Many of the entries there are clearly the result of him sitting down and thinking about whether action X really fits with the ideals he espouses.
Re:First post? I brought up breakfast once
on
The RMS Tour Rider
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· Score: 2
Well, maybe if he had more niacin, he wouldn't be spending so much time on email.
RMS gets a lot of mockery for this, but for all the eccentricity, it reveals him as a man who thinks really hard about what he does, and making sure it fits his moral code. How many of us would avoid long-distance trains, or ask conference organisers to use pseudonyms for hotel rooms, because we were so stubbornly committed to the idea of privacy? I'm too much of a pragmatist to put up with that sort of nonsense but I admire the integrity on display.
Rossi has been turning the press away. Only an AP writer he personally trusts has been allowed in. No-one is allowed to publish photos or videos of the site, ostensibly to protect the organisation doing the testing. Allegedly self-sustaining now but we have no reason to believe it at all.
Surprise surprise, the big public test isn't public and probably isn't a test.
Slashdot Mirror
The prominent skeptic in question was the author of the research that was revealed last week.
That's a comically naive view of how science actually works.
I am anticipating future actions based on past actions. It's called inductive reasoning.
Metaphorically. As in the expression "bet your bottom dollar that". To be more literal, I am staking my credibility on it.
That's my point.
Huffington Post is about a week behind schedule on this. Slashdot story: http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/10/21/1239258/global-warming-confirmed-by-independent-study
If you're going to use physics to argue in favour of something, you must accept physics as a counter-argument. The incompleteness of modern physics is reason to disbelieve the idea of extracting energy from the vacuum, just as much as it's reason to believe in the the same idea.
It's the definition of a false vacuum. It's axiomic.
I don't even know where to start. There is no such thing as "a relativistic device". Everything experiences relativistic effects - even your hypothetical ice cube - it's just that under most circumstances they are so small that you can neglect them. The ice cube does indeed weigh less when it has less thermal energy, albeit by such a small amount that you probably couldn't build a conventional scale to measure it.
Mass-energy equivalence is exactly what it sounds like - the rest mass and total energy of a body are exactly the same thing. You know in sci-fi, when they convert something big into energy so it disappears into a little box and they can just carry it around? Doesn't work. The mass would stay exactly the same.
I'm more concerned by P&F's inability to replicate their own research, than anyone else's.
I'm by no means saying that his rhetorical approach is effective or justified. He's not exactly software freedom's greatest spokesperson. The extremism of his stance is a barrier to the adoption of his ideas. However you can't argue with his consistency. Many of the entries there are clearly the result of him sitting down and thinking about whether action X really fits with the ideals he espouses.
Well, maybe if he had more niacin, he wouldn't be spending so much time on email.
He'd farm his own eggs, but then he'd have to distribute the chicken, and the egg, and the chicken...
His opposition to breakfast completely bewilders me. How much progress has humanity lost because we didn't have a fully nourished rms?
RMS gets a lot of mockery for this, but for all the eccentricity, it reveals him as a man who thinks really hard about what he does, and making sure it fits his moral code. How many of us would avoid long-distance trains, or ask conference organisers to use pseudonyms for hotel rooms, because we were so stubbornly committed to the idea of privacy? I'm too much of a pragmatist to put up with that sort of nonsense but I admire the integrity on display.
I know, it reads like I should be filling in blanks on fucking Star Trek, but I swear it's as accurate as my understanding of it.
This. It's something which is impossible, and even if you could do it - you had a magic wand or something - it would be limitlessly catastrophic.
The article talks about them removing some of the systematic errors, not just doing the experiment in a new form.
Given the timing, the US release of the Galaxy S II is probably driving those sales. So, high end devices.
It happens, don't worry about it.
Rossi has been turning the press away. Only an AP writer he personally trusts has been allowed in. No-one is allowed to publish photos or videos of the site, ostensibly to protect the organisation doing the testing. Allegedly self-sustaining now but we have no reason to believe it at all.
Surprise surprise, the big public test isn't public and probably isn't a test.
Or Rossi's pants.
"Prepare for some never imperceivable dissonance from Rossi et al."
Yeah, you're going to have to run that one past me again.
Where did I object to the story?