Large Hardon Collider

[Max™]

Looks VERY interesting, what a tease.

[Ferion]

http://www.ruudwetzels.com//articles...setal_subm.pdf

Posting this mostly for the people that are interested in statistics. Came across this last night and thought it was very interesting considering I couldn't point out exactly what was wrong with that psychologist's Psi testing from Cornell. Gives a pretty fascinating talk about how important methodology is when running tests and how misleading statistics can really be.

[Psion]

Interesting article, and I certainly wouldn't mind stricter controls, if only to stop all the fake medications on the market these days. But there's a couple things in that article that they might need looking into more:

A) They mentioned the million dollar challenge and how no one has ever won it. This isn't nessessarily because no one is psychic, but because the person (James Randi) is cheating. Not to say he's cheating for sure, but there's been a lot of criticism of his methods and how they are basically a borderline scam. OK, maybe more than borderline.

B) They mentioned how people don't bankrupt casinos. This could indeed be due to lack of psychic powers, or due to psi not working in casinos for whatever reason, but there's also the problem that it isn't just one person wanting to win in a casino, but EVERYONE. If you got a table of people gathering around the wheel and half are wanting black, the other half red, and some wanting random numbers, unless someone's really powerful compared to the rest, as a whole the thing will be around chance results, because everyone's influence is interfering with each others.

That, and casinos ban people who win too much. lol

C) They ask why there's not a bunch of powerful psychic creatures in the world, if it's an evolutionary advantage. It's true that more powerful psychic abilities would have a greater advantage, but nothing comes without a cost. For all we know, it might actually require quite a bit of energy to use such powers, which might mean it's only cost effective to a certain point, just enough to get a sense of danger, or have a lucky guess at where food is sometimes. I forget her name, but one famed psychic who could do things like stop a frogs heart from beating and the like, eventually quit because it caused a lot of strain on her body, or at least so it seems. It could be such powerful acts require equally powerful energy costs.

I'm not willing to rule it out, but it could be either way. It's just a shame that there's not any real funding for it, maybe we could prove once and for all whether it exists or not if we had a giant spur of cash inflow and smart scientists to design foolproof experiments. Too bad most of these researchers are doing it out of their own time and money. :/

[Shiroikage]

goddamn, you are some sort of sperglord with this psychic power shit

[BerenTebogo]

We're on the verge of what may be the most important announcement in all of astro/exobiology in the history of the fucking world and you come in with this shit? Now?

Get the fuck out and stay the fuck out. ARWRSDGTSG DGSDF GRARARARAR.

[Shiroikage]

We're on the verge of what may be the most important announcement in all of astro/exobiology in the history of the fucking world and you come in with this shit? Now?

Get the fuck out and stay the fuck out. ARWRSDGTSG DGSDF GRARARARAR.

i got this on lock

[zoobernut]

We're on the verge of what may be the most important announcement in all of astro/exobiology in the history of the fucking world and you come in with this shit? Now?

Get the fuck out and stay the fuck out. ARWRSDGTSG DGSDF GRARARARAR.

My thoughts exactly. The rage is welling up.

Any predictions from anyone on what they are going to announce? More potential microbe fossils or something bigger?
Liquid water on a distant planet?

Alien life forms living on our planet in disguise? (kidding on that one, maybe?)

[BerenTebogo]

My thoughts exactly. The rage is welling up.

Any predictions from anyone on what they are going to announce? More potential microbe fossils or something bigger?
Liquid water on a distant planet?

Alien life forms living on our planet in disguise? (kidding on that one, maybe?)

Microbial fossils is my 99% but still, confirmation of this, actual confirmation, is fucking HUGE. Like, arguably the most important scientific discovery in the history of mankind depending on your perspective.

If there is solid, valid evidence, it will be BIG.

[Ferion]

Wasn't looking to debate Psi stuff, just liked the math/statistics behind their argument haha.

[zoobernut]

Yeah microbial fossils is my biggest bet too and I agree with you on the implications. It will have major impacts on everything we do and everything we know about life on earth. It might even give merit to the idea that life on earth might have had some sort of origins in the stars beyond just the elements. I forget the name of the theory but at one point it was thought that maybe the basis for life on Earth started with organic material deposited here from space rather than cooking up in a soup of glop.

It will be amazing to see if we confirm life outside of this planet how it does effect biology as well as the general public's support for the space program and exploration.

[BerenTebogo]

Yeah microbial fossils is my biggest bet too and I agree with you on the implications. It will have major impacts on everything we do and everything we know about life on earth. It might even give merit to the idea that life on earth might have had some sort of origins in the stars beyond just the elements. I forget the name of the theory but at one point it was thought that maybe the basis for life on Earth started with organic material deposited here from space rather than cooking up in a soup of glop.

It will be amazing to see if we confirm life outside of this planet how it does effect biology as well as the general public's support for the space program and exploration.

Pan-spermia iirc.

And yes, aside from the crazies who will give validation to Carl Sagan's description of the crowds gathering outside the telescope array in Contact, the implications could be huge.

[Max™]

Could be finding signatures of oxygen in an exoplanetary atmosphere, as that sorta requires there be processes there which emit oxygen faster than it takes itself out of the atmosphere, which sorta requires something at least as effective at emitting oxygen as recognizable lifeforms.

Microbial fossils is another good bet though.


Course, could be that Cassini just found this:
http://theprecis.com/blog/wp-content...nolith2001.jpg

[Kaylia]

@Nasa
Wtf is this tease.

I'm expecting a letdown, but yeah, any serious progress is welcomed! Confirmation there is alien life is something i want to see before I die.

http://www.ruudwetzels.com//articles...setal_subm.pdf

Posting this mostly for the people that are interested in statistics. Came across this last night and thought it was very interesting considering I couldn't point out exactly what was wrong with that psychologist's Psi testing from Cornell. Gives a pretty fascinating talk about how important methodology is when running tests and how misleading statistics can really be.

Thanks for the link. It was an interesting read, since it put most of the issue I was seeing clearly.



[edit]

Note that precognition conveys a considerable evolutionary advantage (Bem, in press), and one
might therefore assume that natural selection would have lead to a world filled with powerful
psychics (i.e., people or animals with precognition, clairvoyance, psychokineses, etc.).

I think it's the best quote in the article. Psi vs evolution!

[Psion]

Ok, this one trig question is pissing me off, because no matter how I try to balance it to solve it, it just doesn't seem to work. Then again, I'm sleep deprived atm, but I would like an answer to this asap, if possible. >.<


sin2x + cos2x = 1. Solve the equation for solutions in the interval [0, 360). Note that x is really theta, but my keyboard doesn't have that key, and 0, 360 is in degrees.

I keep trying to do double identities to try and get it to solve, but no matter what I do I can't figure it out. ;;

[Kaylia]

The solution to this equation is:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../e/e1/Psi2.png

Ok, sorry, i had to.




If you want to solve it quickly, just ask yourself where "sin(theta)+cos(theta)" can possibly give 1 on the trigonometric circle? The obvious solution is at 0 degree (0+1) and 90 degree (1+0).

If you want a prettier solution, replace the right side with an equation that always give 1 (hint: pythagore) and replace the side sin/cos with double angle equation.

[Woozie]

Wasn't looking to debate Psi stuff, just liked the math/statistics behind their argument haha.

I'm glad you posted it. I'm not done reading it yet, but so far this is actually pretty interesting.

A while back Ferion asked a question about Advanced Calc and Sath asked about Calc II. I think Sath's question was answered. As for Ferion, I'll get to your question by this weekend, hopefully. I'm just letting you know that I'm not ignoring it. I'm just too busy. I'll try to get it answered before your finals (which I assume are next week since that's when everyone else's seem to be, including mine).

[BerenTebogo]

Yeah mine was answered, very well, by Ferion and Kaylia, thinking now I actually forgot to say thank you! So belated thanks for the help

[Kaylia]

I hope it made sense. Taylor series are one of the thing you need to undertand now. They are used so often in physics you can't simply ignore them and hope they never come back! (that's what i did, and I regreted it for a long time).

[BerenTebogo]

Yeah I have a pretty solid handle on it now, watched some youtube lectures to reinforce as well.

[Eliseos]

If you want to discuss your psi shit, make a new thread and stop posting it here.

Also I'm extremely pumped for Thursday, but I'm preparing for NASA to be NASA and it be a huge let down