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The field is mainly dipolar

All magnetic fields are bipolar.  This is a consequence of Gauss's law of magnetism which is also the second of Maxwell's equations of electricity and magnetism.

All magnetic fields are the sum of one or more magnetic bipolar fields.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved home and the war's desolation! Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust." And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

For the price of a single lawyer to argue SCO's weak case they could instead hire two engineers in California or ten engineers in India and set them to work making something useful and beautiful for people who use computers.

Instead they hire lawyers to argue weak cases to cover the mistakes of a badly run company.

I paid $500 for the SCO operating system for my brand new PC in 1991 and I did not even get X-Windows or a C compiler.  There was no customer support (you need to buy more licenses!), and they treated me badly.

It seems that the last thing an unsuccessful technology company does before they go out of business is to file a bunch of lawsuits.

What are those Santa Cruz hippies smoking these days?

 

 

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand, Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation; Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust" And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

This is the kind of forward thinking that we need from NASA.

Air is a gas composed approximately of 79% nitrogen N2, 20%Oxygen O2, trace amounts of Argon Ar, and varying amounts of warter H2O.  The behavior of these molecules in a large conglomeration such as a laboratory flask or the Earth's Atmosphere can be accounted by the following laws of physics.

1. The laws of quantum physics determine the internal energy states of individual air molecules.
2. van der Walls forces govern the interaction between individual air molecules.
3. Maxwell's dynamic distribution describes the velocity distribution of air molecules at a given temperature.
4. Thermodynamics describes the transfer of energy between large quantities of air.

How then do we account for the existence of cyclonic weather phenomena such as hurricanes and tornadoes?  There is nothing in these basic laws of physics that can account for such phenomena, but they are very common.  Therefore the sensible solution is to assume that an anthapmorphic supernatural deity is responsible for all hurricanes and tornadoes.  Since this systems never cross the equator and spin in opposite directions  in the northern and southern hemispheres this lends credence to the theory that certain parts of gas physics cannot be explained without resorting to the supernatural.

Oh thus be it e'er when free men shall stand Between their lov'd homes and war's desolation! Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land Praise the Pow'r that has made and presrv'd us a nation And conquer we must when our cause is just And this be our motto: "In God is our trust." And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Just one Question for the folks and NoIndoctrination.com

Will this organization be looking into how Christian Evangelical Universities such as Bob Jones teach Molecular Genetics and Astronomy, and if not then why not?

The key to victory is war is the realization that it never changes.

Do you see the contradiction of this statement, since science itself - mathematical proof and scientifc method - is based on Truth (an absolute)?

The third law of thermodynamics stipulates that the temperature of 0 degrees Kelvin is unobtainable because it would require an infinite amount of energy to create the smallest piece of matter that was at that temperature.

Absolutes are abstract concepts that humans have invented to describe reality with varying degrees of success.

The scientific method is another absolute, but again is the a perfect set of experiments for uncovering and understanding a particular set of physical phenomena?

Mathematics has a absolute system for proving theorems about mathematics, but at the same time Kurt Goedel proved that even this absolute had a fatal flaw in it.

I have given you three examples of absolutes in science and shown to you that they are all defective in one way or another.

Without an Absolute, Final Principle in the universe, a measuring rod for Truth, how do you get off asserting "facts"?

One of the absolutes I learned was a system for constructing mathematical proofs while I was in college.  My other absolute was the scientific method. I know about temperature absolute zero.  Beyond any of these absolutes I know of no others.

Facts can be assembled from various sources: the sidereal period of the Moon in seconds, the mass of a typical carbon atom in grams, the number of DNA bases in a human sperm cell, the proof of the infinite nature of prime numbers, the list of facts is very large and has many interesting facts, and some facts change as new information or ideas become available: Examples of this are: The number of moons orbiting Neptune, various atomic models from Cavendish to Schroedinger, the proof of Format's last theorem using.  Science changes as new fasts are added, old facts are deleted or modified..

I am afraid that if you are obsessed with absolutes you should avoid the subject of science.

Of course knowledge itself makes no sense in a random, meaningless universe, much less truth, justice, and love.

When the subject is physics, then meaningless, truth, justice, and love are not the subjects under examination.

The laws of physics deal with mass, time, length, temperature, pressure, electrical charge, magnetic polarity, and various combinations of these quantities. It is a fact that current laws of physics are governed, like most areas of physical science, by the laws of probability and statistics.  This statistical nature of reality extends from the smallest scales such as those that electrons occupy, to the largest clusters of galaxies, and every single layer in between.  Probability and statistics is the core of physical reality.

The physics and chemistry of life are governed by the chemistry of ammonia, cyanide, polymerized sugar, phosphates, lipids, and a few metals.  It requires no supernatural spook to explain the forces that cause Saccharomyces cerevisiae to replicate itself in a petri-dish  than it does to explain the formation of a tornado that forms in the middle of Oklahoma.  The forces that govern the chemistry of biological evolution can be explained by the chemistry of DNA, mathematics, and natural selection.

Modern cosmology comes from observation, measurement, and Einstein's  general theory of relativity.  So far every measurement and observation has confirmed a big bang, and Einstein's theory predicts that the universe can be either shrinking or expanding, but a static universe is not likely.

Creationist Atmospheric Science. (What creationists do when they look at atmospheric physicist)

It is a fact that air is composed of N2, O2, H2O, and a small amount of Argon. It is known that the forces that govern the interaction between the molecules that make up the air in our atmosphere is governed by the laws of physics and that these physical principles can be described as:

1. Van Der Walls forces that govern the attraction between molecules of air.
2. The statistics of Maxell which govern the distribution of air molecule velocities at a given temperature.
3. Gravity.
4. The laws of thermodynamics.

When air is studied under laboratory conditions tornadoes, hurricanes, and other cyclonic phenomena cannot be accounted for.

Therefore given that cyclonic weather is common and cannot be explained using existing gas science the only logical conclusion that can be made is that there is an intelligent anthropomorphic supernatural deity and that nothing further can be learned about this creature.

(The above comments are satire.)

Two days ago I was getting ready to go to a job interview.  I have been out of work for over a year and I need a job or I will be soon selling out my IRAs to pay the mortgage.

My phone rings.  It is Stanford University Medical Center Blood bank.  They have a baby getting a heart lung transplant the next day who needs three units of platelets and I am the only A- Cyclo Meglo Virus Negative donor they can get.  I am a regular monthly blood products donor at Stanford Hospital, but sometimes I get a call from them that sounds desperate.

I call the company that I have the interview with. I reschedule the interview and I go to the blood bank and spend two hours hooked to the aphaeresis machine with a needle in each of my arms.  I get to watch a movie, but I can't scratch my nose or move for two hours.

I emerge from my ordeal, but I would like to meet the parents of the baby getting the blood products I donated on short notice.  I got a cookie and a glass of juice, but a thank you would have been nice as well.  I have also been a recipient of blood products and it can be reassuring for a blood product recipient to know that the donor has a very boring life.  Blood donors at Stanford cannot even travel outside of Canada and the USA.

Stanford Children's hospital is across the street from the blood bank.  After running to all the nurses stations to find the right one for babies about to get heart lung transplants I am told by the nurse that I cannot meet the parents of the baby because of medical privacy.

I just wanted to wish them the best, reassure them that my body fluids are safe, and maybe get a thank you for my efforts.

Maybe sometimes there is too much medical privacy.

 

Chemistry was a confused area of science in about 1600.

By 1900 the periodic table had cleared up most of the confusion. By 1906 the gross internal structure of all atoms was understood and by 1930 the fine structure of all atoms could be understood using very elegant mathematical models. By 1975 the internal structure of the atomic nucleus was very well understood using new mathematical models.

All physical science reduces observation to mathematics. If we could get NASA to shut down the space station and shuttle program then maybe we could start doing some real physics and astronomy and get to the bottom to how the universe really works and the largest and smallest scales.

If the Japanese government was responsible for the attack on the US Naval installation at Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941 then can somebody on this board please explain to me why that war mongering mad man Franklin Roosevelt felt compelled to drop bombs on France and invade France?

France had nothing to do with the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Why were thousands of US soldiers invading a country that was a long time US ally to avenge an attack that happened half way around the world?  There was no evidence that the democratically elected Vichy government of France had any role in the attack at Pearl Harbor and yet somehow that madman FDR managed to convince the US military to invade a country two years latter that was a traditional ally of the US and had nothing to do with the attack at Pearl Harbor.

War is very confusing.  I can understand why the left is critical of the invasion of  Iraq after 9/11, but why do they never bring up the totally unnecessary immoral and illegal invasion of France in 1944?  FDR should have been impeached for killing thousands of innocent French citizens who had no role whatsoever in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

(The above comments are satire)

But wait, there is more to the story.

It turns out the the Pope in Rome is just another Italian Mafia gangster who happens to have assumed the throne of Saint Peter after his friends and relatives won a giant knife fight to see who would be next Pope.  This period was well known for its gigantic knife fights to settle claims. The Papacy had just been reunited after a long period of having as many as three popes at one time in various places in Europe.

The new Pope claims to be a descendent of Julius Caesar and his first bright idea on becoming Pope is (surprise!) to re-establish the old Roman Empire just like it was in the good old days.  Of course there were numerous princes and kings who did not like this idea.

Pope Julius first hired a famous artist Michelangelo to paint a ceiling for him and after that he had him re-do the entire Vatican the way it is today. Pope Julius just pushed for too much money when everyone in Europe was getting sick of their church money financing Italian mafia wars every few years to see who would get to be the next Pope.

There were massive economic, social, and political forces at work that produced the reformation.  I think the entire conflict was dependent on the personalities of the people involved.

Martin Luther was really one of the prime instigators of this modern world that we live in.  I have not seen the move yet, but I hope the movie deals with Luther's dark side because he had a very dark soul indeed.  Luther was more responsible for the 30 years war in Europe than anyone else of the period and I believe that Luther is the spark at the end of a various long fuse that has ignited more than a few wars since he sloughed off his mortal coil.

 Burt Rutan has a vehicle for taking a few people to the high atmosphere, but there is not way that the vehicle shown in the article could make an orbital re-entry and survive.  A re-usable Orbital vehicle is not even close to what SpaceShipOne is.  Burt's toy lacks attitude control jets and if he gets his space ship a little to high and looses orientation he is not going to be able to regain it until he is low enough to get some air.

The test pilot of Burt Rutan's suicide machine should keep an image in his mind of his space ship approaching the earth at a random angle of attack and a whole cluster of problems arising from the fact that he will be able to do nothing about it because in order to save weight Burt Rutan did not put attitude control jets on his space ship.  Burt's test pilot, passengers, had better be strapped in pretty good, the fuel tanks near empty when that bird gets to the high point of its sub-orbit because if it starts to tumble for any reason the pilot will not be able to do anything about the situation until he starts to hit real air very fast, and by that point there may not be any set of stick and rudder maneuvers that will have any positive effect on restoring the pilots control of the bird.

If SpaceShipOne starts to tumble at the high point of its sub-orbit, the ship, the pilot, and the passengers are going to become an incinerated meat byproduct.

Burt is a great Aeronautical engineer, but from what I have seen of his space ship he does not understand what it is going to take to put living meat in earth orbit and bring it back down on a re-usable space ship.

The space shuttle is little more than an expensive aging suicide machine.  The Federal government has spent billions of dollars on the program, and it is time to shut the space shuttle and the space station down.

Burt Rutan has not really shown that he has a better solution for getting living meat into orbit and brining it back down on a cost effective basis.

Burt Rutan's company will either run out of money or kill a few want to be astronauts or both.  He may launch a very nice sub-orbital flight and crash his spaceship in the ocean, but there is at lease one thing on the following list things Burt Rutan's company is never going to do.

1. Launch living human meat into earth orbit and bring it back down alive with his space ship still usable.
2. Fly with a safety record that is comparable to civil aviation assuming he can accomplish 1.
3. Make money doing 1 and 2.

America has flown living meat in space on around 200 times and we have created 17 incinerated corpses to prove it.

All of the real science and technology of the space program comes from unmanned launches and the manned space program has never been anything but a high-flying white elephant heavily subsidized by the US Federal Government.

The USA has two working space shuttles, a partially complete and nearly useless space station, some Russian space partners we massively subsidize with our tax dollars, and very little to show for our efforts except some neat pictures from the seventy's some nifty moon rocks, and the national pride that comes with these very impressive accomplishments.

The USA needs a space program for the 21st century and not the 20th century.

The fact is that space is a really big cold dark place and not many humans are not going to be traveling very far into it anytime in the next few decades.

I wish Burt Rutan well, but as a man who has seen a Titan IV blow up on the pad up close enough to make my ears ring I can only repeat what Von Braun keep shouting at the NASA engineers 35 years ago, "Rocketry is not aviation".  Burt Rutan's vehicle does not have the lift to put three people in orbit, and it does not have the protection to bring them down.