[redacted]

There's the whole temporal aspect of the issue. Who knows how long we'll be using electromagnetic radiation for communication. Perhaps in like, 100 to 1000 years we'll have invented some new method. Maybe we'll have changed so much by then that our current conceptions of technology and existence won't even be relevant anymore.

Say there's been, like, 1000 intelligent, space-faring species throughout our galaxy since the beginning of the universe. If we assume it took them roughly as long to evolve as it took to get complex life here on earth, we can assume that the first intelligent aliens took flight perhaps a billion years ago. And then, at even intervals a new species develops a technological society. Even with 1000 intelligent, technological species in our galaxy alone, there'd be like, on average, a million years between them. Chances of two of them evolving at the same time are relatively small. And even if they used radio-signals for like 10,000 years, before becoming something that we can't even conceive, or destroying themselves, that would still be an average of 990,000 years of radio-silence per 1,000,000 years. Thus, if we stick around even for thousands of years, we still only have a tiny, tiny chance of ever picking up a radio-signal from another intelligent species.

The easy fix involves electromagnets in the floors? Can't say I'm surprised this is still a problem then.

Bolt + Table + Floor = Problem Solved. The chairs would still move around, but they'd hit into the tables like Plinko chips, and that would be even more fun to watch.>> ^Yogi:

This is such an easy fix...electro magnets under the floor with metal bottom'd tables and chairs. Have an emergency bottom that triggers the magnets. Sure you might get some people pinned with their cheap jewelry but at least they won't roll around.

Cringe...his comment about time is just plain wrong. He was really onto something when he said "time is not absolute," but then he makes the painful statement that the object moving near the speed of light experiences time more slowly. While it is true that the object experiences time in a frame that he is moving relative to differently, he will always experience time in his own frame in exactly the same way regardless of whether he is moving or not. That's the entire point of an "inertial frame" in special relativity - one result is that time always looks the same in his frame. It is times in other frames that he experiences differently.

Also (1) I agree with jwray - the color of the sky is related to the wavelength^4 term in the re-emission of electromagnetic radiation equations, and (2) don't get me started on the phenomenological lack of specificity in the overly broad comments about how we only see the world via electromagnetic waves/photons.

>> ^jwray:

He's wrong, too. The profile of wavelengths of sunlight that get scattered and transmitted by the atmposphere would be nearly the same regardless of the existence or nonexistence of humans (except for the effect of greenhouse gasses and other pollution). And the longest wavelength of visible light is red, not violet. Then he digresses into some really wrong woo-woo around 4:10. I'll downvote this guy for being ontologically incorrect.

>> ^LarsaruS:

They are probably attracted to the electromagnetic fields from the radio. Look at the mass of bees at the antenna.


Nonsense, he was obviously transporting flowers and expensive perfume for his lovely wife in the trunk of the squad car!

They are probably attracted to the electromagnetic fields from the radio. Look at the mass of bees at the antenna.

if it has wires, what the hell is the point?
have a rangefinder fixed to an electromagnet and you can adjust the height to whatever you want
like nearly all these floating projects do
you could even do cool stuff like when there's nobody on it, have it float a few centimeters off the ground, and when weight is detected on it, like just lightly touching it, it rises to normal height so you can lay down on it
or perhaps the other way around.. have it normally sit high above the ground as a table and once you place enough weight on it, it goes down to bed's height

@NetRunner - Okay, clearly, there are many unanswered questions about the hatch. I stand corrected. I will say that most of those questions are awfully specific, and I don't think that their unanswerededness (yeah, that's a word -- don't look it up though, just take my word for it) really impacts the show all that much. I mean, it would have been nice to know that stuff, but I think most of it falls in the category of minutia. I mean, we know that pressing the button somehow keeps all that electromagnetic energy contained -- as for HOW it actually does that... do we really need to know that? We know that the failsafe somehow dissipates all that energy without destroying the entire island, but scientifically how...? I don't know. Why does that matter?

Like I said, I don't think Lost is perfect. There are things that bug me, such as the contradictory way the others acted in season 1, and the whole pregnancy thing, which was clearly set up to be significant and then dropped for whatever reason. But even if the writers of Lost had been much more forthcoming with answers than they were, I don't think there would have been any way for them to answer every single question down to the smallest detail. Some things are going to have to be left somewhat vague.

@blankfist - I disagree with the theory that they all died in the explosion. I think they all died at various times in their lifetimes (ie. Sayid in the sub, Jack at the end of the last episode, Hurley and several others much later into the future) and then found themselves in the flash sideways world together. We, the viewers, first see that world when the bomb goes off, but really, it's not taking place at any specific time in the real world (I believe Christian said something like "there is no now."). It's taking place at some time in the future, after the last of them has died, whenever that may be.

arg, hard for me that watch this. I think it is more accurate to say that there is 95% of the theory of gravity that doesn't work right now, rather than to say gravity is perfect and this undetectable (it isn't exothermic or endothermic, nor does it reflect light or any electromagnetic radiation, and works like gravity in reverse(it has a repelling force not a binding force yet it binds itself and only repels normal matter) matter and energy (which o, is nearly all the known matter and energy in the universe). Or perhaps dark matter and energy are just ghosts, whooooooooo WHOOOOOOOOOO!!

In all seriousness, it "could" exist. But this is really one of those cases similar to retrograde motion of the planets. If one holds without question that earth is the center of rotation of the universe you have to create retrograde motion out of necessity. Same goes for here, if you assume that the little we know about space, energy, matter and time are so accurate that they are beyond question then you do "need" this invisible, unknowable thing called dark matter...either that or one of our more fundamental understandings are flawed. What say you guys, I am alone on this?

The Prius that was in the news recently, here in San Diego, the conventional brakes were useless, and shifting to neutral wouldn't work, as it wouldn't allow it. What was successful, according to the CHP, was a very zealous tug on the hand brake (definitely an "emergency" brake in this case) as well as the foot pedal. The officer positioned his car in front, not to slow it down, but to prevent it from shooting forward after the driver finally got the car to a stop, despite it still wanting to move forward. Essentially the squad car was acting as a brick wall, but not a brake assist.

In this case, the car would not shift into neutral, nor did foot braking alone make a difference. It was muscle on the hand brake that ever so slowly dropped the speed.

You are correct about the first casualty. It was a Lexus and it happened in Santee, CA (part of San Diego County). The brake and neutral attempt were useless. The situation is described thus:

---
California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, 45, his wife, Cleofe, 45, their daughter Mahala, 13, and Cleofe's brother Chris Lastrella, 39, were traveling on a freeway near Santee on Aug. 28 when their vehicle reached speeds of more than 120 mph, hit a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames.

Investigators found that a wrong-sized floor mat that trapped the accelerator was the cause of the crash. (Note, this has not been forensically proven, and is in dispute at the moment.)

A haunting 911 call captured Lastrella telling the others to pray before the car launched off the embankment.

...the Lexus ES350 "began to accelerate on its own." Saylor attempted to apply the brakes and do everything possible to stop the car, but he was unable to do so...
---

The video demonstrated the "technique" on a relatively low horse power (and low torque) four cylinder engine. A Lexus ES350 has a 272HP V6 (at full throttle) and the Prius has a high torque electric motor. Good luck with that braking.

>> ^silvercord:
>> ^supersparky:
What this article fails to include are the unique issues with the hybrid cars. Oddly enough, two have gone out of control in my home city, San Diego. The first being a death, which started the publicity. This one was driven by an off duty cop! I would think his training would have given him these skills to stop the car. However, as more and more facts have come out, the brakes it seems are useless. The Prius uses a combination of electrical and mechanical braking. Unfortunately the mechanical only kicks in under a certain speed.
Many people have reported burying the brake pedal to the floor and it having little effect. They also seem to not be able to shift into neutral, as it's a drive by wire system. Many cars don't let you shut off the engine if it's in gear too.
The Prius, while being a butt ugly eye sore and gutless wonder, also has an electric motor. These have 100% of their torque at any RPM. This means a gas engine can be fought and stalled with functional brakes, but you fight the full torgue of an electric motor all the way down to stopping, if you're lucky.
No, a fail-safe override needs to be considered for all drive by wire vehicles. Something that actually physically disconnects power from the system as a last resort.

My understanding is that the car driven by the off duty officer was a 2009 Lexus ES 350. That is not a hybrid. That said, I tried the 'move the shift to neutral' trick yesterday in my Windstar and it worked just fine.
However, the link I provided also noted: Last month, Consumer Reports found that models that don't have so-called smart-throttle technology, which allows the brake to take precedence over the throttle, a vehicle might not have adequate brakes to overcome a stuck throttle at 60 mph.
So, jam your foot down on the brake and kick it into neutral, pray like hell that you hit a truckload of Snuggies.
As for the electric cars, maybe a nuclear air burst that issues an effective electromagnetic pulse would do the trick.

>> ^supersparky:
What this article fails to include are the unique issues with the hybrid cars. Oddly enough, two have gone out of control in my home city, San Diego. The first being a death, which started the publicity. This one was driven by an off duty cop! I would think his training would have given him these skills to stop the car. However, as more and more facts have come out, the brakes it seems are useless. The Prius uses a combination of electrical and mechanical braking. Unfortunately the mechanical only kicks in under a certain speed.
Many people have reported burying the brake pedal to the floor and it having little effect. They also seem to not be able to shift into neutral, as it's a drive by wire system. Many cars don't let you shut off the engine if it's in gear too.
The Prius, while being a butt ugly eye sore and gutless wonder, also has an electric motor. These have 100% of their torque at any RPM. This means a gas engine can be fought and stalled with functional brakes, but you fight the full torgue of an electric motor all the way down to stopping, if you're lucky.
No, a fail-safe override needs to be considered for all drive by wire vehicles. Something that actually physically disconnects power from the system as a last resort.


My understanding is that the car driven by the off duty officer was a 2009 Lexus ES 350. That is not a hybrid. That said, I tried the 'move the shift to neutral' trick yesterday in my Windstar and it worked just fine.

However, the link I provided also noted: Last month, Consumer Reports found that models that don't have so-called smart-throttle technology, which allows the brake to take precedence over the throttle, a vehicle might not have adequate brakes to overcome a stuck throttle at 60 mph.

So, jam your foot down on the brake and kick it into neutral, pray like hell that you hit a truckload of Snuggies.

As for the electric cars, maybe a nuclear air burst that issues an effective electromagnetic pulse would do the trick.

>> ^deathcow:
I'd rather there be a creator, there be an intention for this universe to exist specifically to evolve and house life. I dont subscribe to any Earth religions though. There in fact does have to be a WHY... I belive cosmology, probing the big bang, will get us eternally closer to an answer. The cosmic microwave background is a last scattering surface for electromagnetic energy, but it is transparent to gravitational energy. Cosmologists/physicists are attempting to map the earliest universe with gravitational waves next. I hope it works and they can take our understanding further with it.


There has to be a "how", there most certainly does not need to be a "why". You only need a "why" if you can't subscribe to life having no purpose, that was it just random chance and there is no ulterior motive for its existence. Which is fine, you don't need to subscribe to that but there it is, no "why"

I'd rather there be a creator, there be an intention for this universe to exist specifically to evolve and house life. I dont subscribe to any Earth religions though. There in fact does have to be a WHY... I belive cosmology, probing the big bang, will get us eternally closer to an answer. The cosmic microwave background is a last scattering surface for electromagnetic energy, but it is transparent to gravitational energy. Cosmologists/physicists are attempting to map the earliest universe with gravitational waves next. I hope it works and they can take our understanding further with it.

>> ^KnivesOut:
Solution:
Put a big red button on the dashboard that, when pressed, dumps sleeping gas into the (sealed) cabin where the "children" sit.


nah, it should emit an electromagnetic pulse that wipes out their cell phones and PSP's... that'd make 'em think twice.

>> ^RhesusMonk:
Question regarding fusion: If the binding energies of the two hydrogen isotopes equal 10 MeV, and the binding energy of helium is 28 MeV, wouldn't the fusion require the input of 18 MeV? I don't understand. Doesn't the helium require more energy to hold together than the hydrogen isotopes had to begin with? And, even if the nucleons do just come together, how is there surplus energy if less energy went into the reaction than exists in the product?


Ok, it's a long time since i even looked at physics, but i'm gonna study astrophysics next year so i better make at least an attempt

The electromagnetic force repels the nucleons from each other. The nuclear force attracts them to each other. You have to force the two together. That requires you to overcome the electromagnetic force. So you only need enough energy to do this, and the energy required to do this is usually LESS than the energy that is released for atoms 'below' iron.

The energy basically comes from a conversion of mass to energy. The mass of the combined atoms is not quite equal to the mass of the parts that you combine. Mass is lost, and it manifests as energy. (because e=mc^2, or in other words, energy and mass are 'interchangeable' - you cannot just 'lose' mass)