Jabber!

[Don Alexander]

New theory? Working on it... Meh. Well, maybe some day.

Well, you have been warned.

[Scaramouche]

Yeah, the head of physics at my uni gave me the same warning. I was asking questions, working on a few ideas, and he called me in to discuss my ideas. He saw nothing wrong with them except that I have to develop proofs, and they must be shown to do the job already being done by other ideas.

And that's one of the big problems. We can have functional explanations which work, but which may not be correct. The thing is, if they do work, they're accepted for that reason, whether it's right or not. The problem there is that generations of new hypothesis and theories which also work but possibly not for the right reasons have been built upon earlier work of the same sort. And as long as it all works, it'll stay that way. Which doesn't suggest that those ideas are wrong, only that the possibility may exist.

And if I can develop an idea which works exactly as well, but explains the reason for it in some totally different way... what then?

[Bear]

Oh, and FU to England for winning the match against Germany!!!!

(Our own fault, I guess, for keeping Ballack out...)

I blame those cheating scumbags Chelsea myself for leaving Ballack out since they've got both Terry, our captain, and Ballack on their team...

Seriously though... people making loud noises before 9am need to be mauled... or worse.

[Don Alexander]

Yeah, the head of physics at my uni gave me the same warning. I was asking questions, working on a few ideas, and he called me in to discuss my ideas. He saw nothing wrong with them except that I have to develop proofs, and they must be shown to do the job already being done by other ideas.

And that's one of the big problems. We can have functional explanations which work, but which may not be correct. The thing is, if they do work, they're accepted for that reason, whether it's right or not. The problem there is that generations of new hypothesis and theories which also work but possibly not for the right reasons have been built upon earlier work of the same sort. And as long as it all works, it'll stay that way. Which doesn't suggest that those ideas are wrong, only that the possibility may exist.

And if I can develop an idea which works exactly as well, but explains the reason for it in some totally different way... what then?

If that happens, then you would be quite famous, methinks!! And many people will start to work on shwoing that your theory is just the same one as the old one, but seen in a completely different way. ;)

Physics is not Math. Math needs absolute proofs, and is in return the only science that can produce absolute proof. Physics is a description of the world, a prediction machine. If it works, even for the wrong reasons, it can be used. Newtonian mechanics is wrong. There is no absolute time. There is no infinite speed. Einstein has told us that. And yet Newtonian mechanics is perfectly valid, and applicable, in our everyday world. While you do need GR corrections for GPS, I'm not aware that any GR was ever needed for anything else related to Solar System exploration - and they call that Rocket Science. ;)

Newton already said "I can only see so far because I stand upon the shoulders of giants." For the most part, physics is progress, building one block upon another, always on older theories and experiments. Revolutions rarely occur. Planck's constant h was a revolution, yes. The earlier atomic models, like that of Thompson, were going into a completely wrong direction. SR and GR were not revolutions. They were more fundamental extensions of Newtonian mechanics.

All in all, I deem the chances of a theory popping up which totally overthrows what we have right now to be very, very small.

Furthermore, anyone who wishes to develop such a theory must first have utmost understanding of the theory he is trying to replace.

Scaramouche, I invite you to go here. It makes for some interesting reading.

(And, by the way, this seems much to serious for the Jabber thread! )

@bear: Mauling. That's totally your territory. Beware the roused bear!

[Scaramouche]

I can probably do it. I am Superman, after all.

[Scaramouche]

Kitten with two faces born in Perth



A KITTEN with two faces that meows out of both mouths at the same time has been born in Perth.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24 ... 62,00.html

That's just wrong.

[Bear]

Its actually much more common then you think, animals being born with extra heads, limbs etc... alot of it, like humans with siamese twins, is the cluster of cells in the egg failing to divide properly, resulting in creatures like this.

I remember once watching on TV, theres a turtle zoo somewhere in Florida that had nothing but mutant turtles... *Raises Ban-Hammer in prep for obvious jokes*... that had something like 60 or more turtles with two heads, all living perfectly healthily.

[Don Alexander]

That's just wrong.

I think it's cute.
But then, I'm a sick person...

[Bear]

Don must have liked Cyclops kitty then....

[Don Alexander]

Don must have liked Cyclops kitty then....

Awwww.
Though it seems unclear if that was even real. And if it was, it did not live long...

[Bear]

Alot of them tend not to because of the physiological problems that they tend to develope...

[Scaramouche]

Best villain?

Some to consider:
Doctor Doom.
Darth Vader.
Mister Sinister.
Agent Smith (The Matrix).
Aliens (Alien).
Dracula.
Iago.
The Green Goblin.
The Joker (Heath Ledger version).

[Don Alexander]

Best villain?

Some to consider:
Doctor Doom.
Darth Vader.
Mister Sinister.
Agent Smith (The Matrix).
Aliens (Alien).
Dracula.
Iago.
The Green Goblin.
The Joker (Heath Ledger version).

Stephen King's Randall Flagg. Way too awesome for the movie screen.
Otherwise, from this list...
1.) Vader
2.) Agent Smith
3.) Heath's Joker.
IMHO
Aliens are swell. But I like Yautja (Predators) even more.

[Phoenix]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QP-jWgY1s2A

I propose that this become the forum theme song!

[Scaramouche]

Some to consider:
Doctor Doom.
Darth Vader.
Mister Sinister.
Agent Smith (The Matrix).
Aliens (Alien).
Dracula.
Iago.
The Green Goblin (Spidey movie version).
The Joker (Heath Ledger version).
Arnold in Terminator was good.
Daleks.
Zorg (The Fifth Element).
Sauron.
Moriarty due to extreme coolness.
Gargamel.
Lord Voldemort.
Grendel.
The Borg.
Cthulhu.
Saddam Hussein from the South Park movie.