The multiculturalist pressure groups are not fazed in the least by any facts or logic used against them.

Indians do not deserve reparations no matter what happened in their past. If the public does not understand that then nothing else matters. It is a matter of ethical principles. No history lessons will change the philosophical premises driving the multiculturalists.

To quote: "Because today’s DNA testing seems so compelling and powerful, increasing numbers of Native Americans have begun to believe their own metaphors: “in our blood” is giving way to “in our DNA.” In Native American DNA, Kim TallBear shows how Native American claims to land, resources, and sovereignty that have taken generations to ratify may be seriously—and permanently—undermined."

from https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-divis...

Recall that my assertion is that discoveries in paleoanthropology can effect our modern world. I do not say anything about 'should' or 'logic'...just that they 'do'.

Jan

Claims undermined to whom? Facts and logic don't drive the racist, multiculturalist movement or the pandering sympathy to it. Whoever the original inhabitants were at what stage in evolution is irrelevant. Civilization is doomed if it has to politically rely on arguments over what primitive tribalists were here first.

It may not make a difference to you or me, but it does make a difference in the real world: The claims of the Indians were undermined by discovery that they were not the original inhabitants.

And yes, I agree that science is worthwhile per se. Technological advancement may eventually make Hillary and her ilk moot (and us too).

Jan

Many of us have been asking that question...

Just get government out of the way so that people can act and since most humans are not stupid, they will figure it out without a 'we have no choice' involved. Though sometimes I wonder why people keep building on flood planes and want the rest of us to bail them out with higher insurance premiums?

To change the rotation rate, the planet can do it by redistributing its angular momentum between angular rotation rate and moment of inertia. It is like a rotating skater who is spinning with the arms straight out. If the arms are put down near the sides the rotation rate increases due to the conservation of angular momentum. The angular moment is divided between the rotation rate and the inertial body which is rotating. If the body changes shape, has a mass redistribution, with more or less change in the moment of inertia of the rotating body, the rotation rate must get less or more to conserve the total angular momentum of the body. Since Venus is very massive it would need a fairly large mass distribution for a 6 minute or so decrease in rotation rate, perhaps large subsidence of crust for such a change in rotation. If it did not pick up a wobble, the mass distribution would have to be symmetrical. The Earth Changes rotation rate all the time, usually just in nanosecond jumps so that a leap second has to be added periodically.

I prefer the shorter time span but I'm afraid we have no choice but to prepare...which the lesson of knowing history and reoccurring cycles.
This is something western society has ignored for some reason.
A few things are clear. we need to grow our food differently, perhaps indoors and look back in the past to see what areas of earth were more conducive for growing.
The other thing is that solar panels will be useless with more cloud cover, given their lack of efficiency. It's not the answer.

If the present cycle continues to another weak one for cycle 25 then it will be more like the Dalton Minimum1790 to 1820 rather than a Maunder Minimum of 1645 to 1715 which an extremely cold period within it.

It doesn't make any difference to the 'reparation' demands what Indians did to each other or others. We had nothing to do with it no matter what happened back then.

But science and innovation are always important. If Archimedes, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and many many others had not continued their pursuits under far less than ideal conditions before even the Enlightenment, their followers who kept going through various forms of statism and tribalism would not have had that base to work from, and we would have had much less for the Industrial Revolution through today. And everything they did furthered their own individual lives through their pride in accomplishment and understanding despite what else they had to put up with.

The carbon dating method projects the time at which the living entity died and therefore ceased to replenish it's Carbon with atmospheric concentrations of radioactive Carbon. That starting point was not a "creation"; from then on there was only decay.

Yes, the exponential decay is a consequence of the proportionality between the rate of decay and the amount of material left:

dN/dt = -kN
so
N(t) = N(0)*exp(-kt)

This implies that the half life, which is the time it takes for 1/2 the remaining amount to decay, is a constant, and that the number of atoms left is:

initial number of atoms N(0) * (1/2)^(t/half-life) -- which means the remaining amount after decay is determined by repeatedly halving the original amount by the number of half-lives over the duration.

Because this is expressed in terms of instantaneous rates and a fixed half-life, the half-life is an attribute of an atom that can be measured over a short period of time expressed as a small fraction of the half-life.

The physical explanation and confirmation is summarized on this same page at https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...

The remaining carbon atoms in the entity being dated are observably the same now as any other carbon atoms today, with the same structure and identity and therefore the same physical actions: causality is identity applied to action, everything does what it does because of what it is. The value of the half-life depends on the type of radioactive atom.

Carbon is used for dating past living entities because plants absorbed CO2. An isotope of Uranium with it's much longer half life is used for rocks, putting the age of the earth at about 5 billion years, etc.

The dating of living things has been limited to about 50,000 years because after about 9 half-lives the original amount is divided in half 9 times and there is too little left to measure. That isn't the case for longer half-lives like uranium.

That physics is a separate issue from the question of what was the concentration of radioactive Carbon atoms in the atmosphere, and therefore in a living entity, at the beginning of the decay process long ago, which becomes relevant because actual measurements in applying the principle are in terms of the ratio of decay rates expressed as concentration fractions of radioactive material remaining at the different times t:

f(t) = initial fraction f(0) * (1/2)^(t/half-life).

The observed decay rate per gram of both radioactive and non-radioactive atoms translates to concentration through the relation dN/dt = -kN.

Creationists don't seem to understand that distinction when they attack the concept and physical principles of 1/2 life and mix it with concentrations in the atmosphere.

Carbons 12 and 13 are stable isotopes. Carbon 14 is the only natural radioactive carbon form we know of. It has a half life of 5,700 years.

You have indicated an error in embracing the idea that these forms of carbon are created in stars and so might imply that the starting point of decay occurs in the stars. 14C is created from Nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere and is produced by "collisions" of thermal neutrons from cosmic radiation in the upper atmosphere, and is transported down to earth to be absorbed by living biological material. 14N + 1n → 14C + 1H

Finding calibrating factors for the presence of 14C presence amidst 12C and 13C increase accuracy of the dating technique using tree rings, ice cores, and sea floor sediment observations.

Ratios are detectable by exposing Carbon atoms to a strong electric field. As the atoms pass thru the field the difference in the polarity causes the different isotopes to deflect into one or other detectors where the clicks are counted over time to determine the ratios of the various isotopes of carbon. Calibrating them to known times of death of an organism and accounting for various variables in the creation of 14C like the nuclear air testings have been taken into consideration in the calibration of 14C dating.

Is your orange juice from oranges or has it had corn sugar added? the different characteristics of the two different plants makeup in 12 and 13 C can be used in the counters with streams bending the two by different amounts into counting detectors and lo, the FDA can nail those falsely advertizing a product of juice from concentrate when it is in fact adulterated with corn sugar. Lots to learn about the techniques and calibrations. My fav has been the Teaching Company's course, The Physics of History. Covers some hard stuff. How does Special Relativity allow increased accuracy in calibration of methods of dating. It does and from some amazing properties inherent in the E=mc^2 equation. I'd say you were missing the course: http://www.thegreatcourses.com/course...

this is one of the postings which keeps me addicted
to this group -- the knowledge, the intelligence is
wonderful and impressive! . it is great to have access
to all of this education! . Thank You, All. -- john
.

Vegas was settled by Mormons and they are very powerful in government here. I used to live near la and it was much more socially free

That was an official article too...NASA!...but I just can't find it now...ugh!...I'll have to skower another site, just in case NASA deleted it...they've been known to do that from time to time, either that it's too far back now to retrieve from their web site.
Rest assured...I Will find it again. The Venus one is easy to search...it actually decreased, 6 min or so...(my mistake)

Grand solar minimum is a match to the one 400 years ago. (Maunder Minimum) 400 year cycle.
Science, political or not...do not like cycles...no money in it. Laughing

Excellent

"If the "birth" of elements being measured with carbon dating are unknown how can anyone determine half-life or set anything more than a best guess based on other equally flawed readings?"

What Lucky said

I remember back in the 1940s and 50s where just a loud radio or later in the 50s and early 60s a loud TV was enough to bring the police. Now the police do not seem to hear the noise and you get laughed at if you ask that they not amplify the drums.
Not like LA where my gay nudist brother lives and has his nude cleaning service. They don't even have a religion problem. He and his companion who have just had their 45th anniversary have had no problem finding a church that accepts gays and lesbians. If you don't push it on others out there, I guess all is well. Only trouble here is that heroin use got to next door where a 33 year old woman recently died from an overdose.

I am very aware of being a nuisance, and that wasnt the issue at all. I live in a relatively uninhabited part of town, and have a lot of soundproofing in my basement where the noise is cconcentrated. They hated the idea of us accepting donations for our parties to help defray the cost. Perhaps it was because they were parties a lot of gay people were invited to. This IS a mormon town after all.

Wasn't because of the neighbors having to put up with drum noise coming through their walls like I have to put up with for hours a week because the local resort has a permit to do it with bands for weddings and dances and just to keep young people from doing stupid things.

You, a cockamamie theory? No. Just mentioning that physicists (and other "hard" science types) often feel beset by people with theories. Sometimes these people are Other Physicists! One of the difficulties in science is how you can prove something perfectly with mathematics, but the physics part won't behave.

The usual cockamamie theories involve perpetual motion machines or astrology. Occasionally electronics or automobiles. I once listened for three hours to a fellow who claimed to have invented a computer that ran at "1.5L" which he said was 1.5 time the speed of light. that's "L" not "c".

Because the decay is exponential you approach zero as an asymptotic limit. The closer you are to the limit the more difficult it becomes to measure the precise time at which you have reached "zero C14 atoms remain," and the more difficult it becomes to detect those few remaining atoms. Additionally, you have the other side of the balance, which is C14 genesis through ambient cosmic radiation. (I don't want to think about measuring it!)

People love to turn others in nowadays. I got investigated for having "too many" pool parties at my house in vegas. There is a law here apparently that you arent allowed to have "too many" parties with people who do not live at the house. Of course "too many" isnt defined, and they just come after you whenever they want to.

I think its partly for the protection of the casino hotels, and partly because the mormons want to restrict anything but religious stuff outside the casino district.

Probably not since even my youngest brother whom I still talk to, when I open my mouth many times says "why do you always do that" about my connecting different subjects together. Never looked for friends or even being a decent looking guy never found a woman who would put up with multi hours per day of different subjects and ideas. Might be from being on the high IQ, high functioning cusp of aspergers syndrome or at least what the cardiologist put down as social anxiety. Probably why I did not pursue a chemistry or math future and went into a solitary business instead. Nice having the Gulch for having liked Rand's work since 1965, though I did not like her personal life or her allowing those around her to nearly worship her.

You haven't seen anything yet. You are nowhere near it being really bad. I would guess that North Korea is nearing that really bad state. In the USA you can still come and go as you like with very few stops to mainly show you are complying with some mainly blue law.
The closest it came to bad in my village was when the sheriff with many auxiliary officers wouldn't let me out of town because some idiot rammed a large 30,000 gallon propane tank and caught it on fire and got out of his car and locked himself in the trunk and fried to death. Couldn't leave for 24 hours when the fire burned out. Not quite as bad as being imprisoned for 24 hours. Now consider wanting to leave the USA and get back in. That is getting much harder and will be nearly an imprisonment if Trump gets his way. Just saw that the young boy who built an electronic clock and took it to school is suing the school system because the open case had electronic board in it and the teachers immediately having no idea what a bomb might look like had him handcuffed and removed from school and suspended for three days and if I recall right they wouldn't believe the science teacher that it was not a bomb. There is a change toward complete ignorance in this country which with the 'if you see something, say something' has already cause some injustice. Just lost a car because I don't use it much and someone saw that it wasn't moved in every 10 day period that it was then considered a junk vehicle. No way to find out who told the police. Yes things are getting worse but nowhere near where one should get out to go to some other hell hole.