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Previously on "Those who can, don't get as much money as those who can't."

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  • Mich the Tester
    replied
    Originally posted by Lockhouse View Post
    What industries are solely based on physics? Just asking like.
    Bungee jumping

    Leave a comment:


  • d000hg
    replied
    Originally posted by expat View Post
    At least 1 American in 3 believes that "Evolution is only a theory".
    It is.

    I believe that Gravity is only a theory
    It is.
    would like to see all creationists walk off a cliff and then report back on the level of their belief in established theories.
    They don't debate gravity, or all science on principle (well I'm sure some do but the real crackpots are the same everywhere). Gravity and Evolution are very different types of theory. One has a very simple, solid mathematical framework and can be empirically measured to one part in a billion at least. The other is trying to piece together fragments of history over a billion years into a coherent story, like trying to figure out European history from peoples holiday snaps. Gravity is probably 100X stronger as a scientific theory, apart from anything else you can make predictions and test them. 'Historical science' is much harder to 'prove'.

    Leave a comment:


  • dang65
    replied
    Originally posted by expat View Post
    "OK then," said another scientist, "how does a whistle work?"
    As I understand it, you just put your lips together - and blow.

    Leave a comment:


  • Churchill
    replied
    Originally posted by expat View Post
    There was a story told by Feynman about one of the scientists on the Manhattan project talking to the others in the team. He had just come back from a visit to the UK, where he had seen the development of this new radar stuff. He tried to explain the generation of microwaves by something called a "magnetron", which, he was driven to explain, "works just like a whistle".

    "OK then," said another scientist, "how does a whistle work?"



    Radar, OK. Nuclear fission, OK. Whistle? Hmmmm.
    See? Obfuscation at its finest!

    Leave a comment:


  • expat
    replied
    Originally posted by Churchill View Post
    Physics is bollocks - how does a magnet "work"? Eh? Eh? They can't tell you because they don't know!
    There was a story told by Feynman about one of the scientists on the Manhattan project talking to the others in the team. He had just come back from a visit to the UK, where he had seen the development of this new radar stuff. He tried to explain the generation of microwaves by something called a "magnetron", which, he was driven to explain, "works just like a whistle".

    "OK then," said another scientist, "how does a whistle work?"



    Radar, OK. Nuclear fission, OK. Whistle? Hmmmm.

    Leave a comment:


  • Churchill
    replied
    Physics is bollocks - how does a magnet "work"? Eh? Eh? They can't tell you because they don't know!

    Leave a comment:


  • expat
    replied
    Scientific laws are all make believe?

    At least 1 American in 3 believes that "Evolution is only a theory".

    I believe that Gravity is only a theory, and would like to see all creationists walk off a cliff and then report back on the level of their belief in established theories.

    Leave a comment:


  • AlfredJPruffock
    replied
    Originally posted by Lockhouse View Post
    I've heard ye cannae change them.
    Believe that - and you'll believe anything ....

    1 (a) Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

    The Buddha

    1 (b) Its all make believe - isn't it ?

    AJ Pruffock
    Last edited by AlfredJPruffock; 13 April 2010, 14:40.

    Leave a comment:


  • Lockhouse
    replied
    Originally posted by sasguru View Post
    All industries are based on physics as ultimately everyone and everything obeys the laws of physics (maybe apart from threaded).

    HTH

    I've heard ye cannae change them.

    Leave a comment:


  • expat
    replied
    Originally posted by Doggy Styles View Post
    Also you can't drown a witch, so if a suspect survives 20 minutes submersion in water, they are guilty as hell.
    No, it's the Americans that do that one.

    Leave a comment:


  • Doggy Styles
    replied
    Originally posted by expat View Post
    Funnily enough out in the less than rational world of British Justice, a man had his speeding conviction upheld despite proving that the Gatso camera had been set up in a way that would cause the reading to be exaggerated. The argument was really simple but the court rejected it on the grounds that it didn't really matter.

    Philip Gwynne, of West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, said: 'In speeding matters, it is the law of the land not the law of physics that matters.'

    Mediaeval idiot.
    Also you can't drown a witch, so if a suspect survives 20 minutes submersion in water, they are guilty as hell.

    Leave a comment:


  • expat
    replied
    Originally posted by sasguru View Post
    All industries are based on physics as ultimately everyone and everything obeys the laws of physics (maybe apart from threaded).

    HTH
    Funnily enough out in the less than rational world of British Justice, a man had his speeding conviction upheld despite proving that the Gatso camera had been set up in a way that would cause the reading to be exaggerated. The argument was really simple but the court rejected it on the grounds that it didn't really matter.

    Philip Gwynne, of West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, said: 'In speeding matters, it is the law of the land not the law of physics that matters.'

    Mediaeval idiot.

    Leave a comment:


  • dang65
    replied
    Originally posted by expat View Post
    Industry based on physics alone (never mind any other sciences) contributes about 6.4% of UK GDP, about the same as the financial services sector.

    The bank bailout cost 850 billion pounds - more than Britain's science budget for all sciences for all of history.

    We are poor because we are stupid.
    What do you class as a "science budget"? Are you only counting investment into research and education? In which case, I don't suppose that Britain's "financial services budget" would be very high either.

    If, however, you class the bank bailout as part of the "financial services budget", then presumably you would have to also class any money given to things like oil refineries, pharmaceutical companies, aerospace, weapons manufacturers, observatories and radio telescopes, telecommunications, North Sea gas drilling, computing, coal mining, world exploration and mapping, the steel industry, wind farms and alternative energy as part of the "science budget". Over the last couple of hundred years, or even over the last century, or even over the last fifty years, or even over the last ten years, I bet that lot adds up to a hell of a lot more than the bank bailout. And, of course, for any government funding for science, there will be many times more invested by financiers, so they couldn't be allowed to just fail. (Unlike many industries, under the Tories.)

    Leave a comment:


  • Francko
    replied
    Originally posted by sasguru View Post
    It is true that British society collectively is now more stupid than it has been for a few centuries.
    Despite your best efforts to increase the average, I have to disagree with this.

    Leave a comment:


  • sasguru
    replied
    Originally posted by Lockhouse View Post
    What industries are solely based on physics? Just asking like.
    All industries are based on physics as ultimately everyone and everything obeys the laws of physics (maybe apart from threaded).

    HTH

    Leave a comment:

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