Recent content by PhysicsDilettante

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    Mathematica Mathematica File Import Question

    I'm an occassional Mathematica user (Ver 7.0.1.0). I'm doing something now where I need to import a couple of large Excel files, no problem with that. I'm wondering, however, if there is a procedure to make the resulting lists created by the imported data permanent so that I don't have to...
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    Traveling at Near-Light Speed: Time Dilation and Your Perspective Explained

    FYI, it is "only" about 50,000 light-years to the center of our galaxy, not 50 million. But even that is an excruciatingly long distance / travel time.
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    Do Half of Americans Really Believe in Guardian Angels?

    Looks like George just beat me on this thought, but would it not be a more factual statement that 50% of the population is below median intelligence? Depending on how it is measured and how that measure is distributed in the population, more (or less) than 50% could be below the average.
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    Couple of Bounce Questions Regarding Black Holes / Universe

    Thanks Marcus and others for weighing in on this. I was sure hoping that the reserachers had more to say about my questions given how much LQG and the bounce idea appears to be taking center stage these days. It seems that with the bounce idea the LQG modelers may have found a way out of...
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    Couple of Bounce Questions Regarding Black Holes / Universe

    I've been fascinated by the posts and discussions here about "The Bounce" that seems to be emerging from some LQG models (thanks Marcus and others). I have a couple of questions, which I don't think I've seen in posts here (my apologies if they've been raised and discussed and I've missed it)...
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    News Alan Keyes: Who Is He & What Do We Know?

    He was a UN ambassador under Reagan, but I remember him most from when he ran for the Senate in Maryland a couple of times (88 and 92), losing both times. He also ran against Obama for the Senate seat in Illinois that Obama won. He is a pretty conservative Republican, especially on the social...
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    Are new planets and stars still forming?

    Is there an example or two yet where astronomers have looked at those rich clouds of gas and actually observed a new star that hadn't been seen before? Or does the timescale for how frequently a new star "turns on" along with the problems of seeing through those rich clouds of gas where they...
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    NASA NASA Dark Matter Announcement on Monday, 21st Aug

    Any reaction from the experts here to the NASA story today? http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/dark_matter_proven.html Frank
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    Question on the expansion of space

    My apologies if this is too simplistic or poorly phrased of a question. I am trying to get a better handle on what the observed expansion of space implies about the nature of space itself. My basic question is: What are the mainstream theories and descriptions that cosmologists and...
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    Just read decoding the universe : question

    Space Tiger - Can you elaborate a little on what is meant by trivial and non-trivial topology? Thanks.
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    The physics of dark matter & energy

    ST -- or anyone who knows: Can you give a brief description of what it is in the WMAP observations / analysis that provides support for dark energy and for the estimate that it comprises ~70% of the stuff in the universe? Thanks.
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    What are the latest exciting results from WMAP's three-year data release?

    Thank you very much for this summary, ST (your posts are always among the most clear and informative on this site). A couple of quick clarification questions. What are the "units" being used here so that these add to 100% of the universe's composition? I'm particularly not clear on how dark...
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    Beginning of space, time, matter, energy

    Frederick’s “Empty Nest” post reminded me of a thought that I have had on occasion. Perhaps it is essentially what Frederick’s post is getting at, I’m not sure. (Note: This is not intended to imply a theory but is simply meant as a question about what we know or don’t know.) What is the...
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