Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Ah Diogenes, father of cynicism, so you could be right re your unspoken inference.

I remember an account of Diogenes from The History of Western Philosophy by Bertand Russell. He is supposed have lived in a barrel. Alexander the Great visited him as he had heard of his great wisdom. Alexander said he would grant him any wish as he was such an importeant thinker. Diogenes replied that maybe Alexander could get out of his light.

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Here is a better version of the story than my recollection of a book I read 30 years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_and_Alexander

According to legend, Alexander the Great came to visit the Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope. Alexander wanted to fulfill a wish for Diogenes and asked him what he desired.[5] According to the version recounted by Diogenes Latius, Diogenes replied "Stand out of my light."[6] Plutarch provides a longer version of the story:

Thereupon many statesmen and philosophers came to Alexander with their congratulations, and he expected that Diogenes of Sinope also, who was tarrying in Corinth, would do likewise. But since that philosopher took not the slightest notice of Alexander, and continued to enjoy his leisure in the suburb Craneion, Alexander went in person to see him; and he found him lying in the sun. Diogenes raised himself up a little when he saw so many persons coming towards him, and fixed his eyes upon Alexander. And when that monarch addressed him with greetings, and asked if he wanted anything, "Yes," said Diogenes, "stand a little out of my sun."[7] It is said that Alexander was so struck by this, and admired so much the haughtiness and grandeur of the man who had nothing but scorn for him, that he said to his followers, who were laughing and jesting about the philosopher as they went away, "But truly, if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."[8]

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And there's me thinking that the saying, 'Whose first in the Barrel' came from an old Naval tradition.

Apparently NASA have been given the GPS coordinates for Dale Farm.

Anyone know why?

Greek - I thought it was Annie Taylor!

Now, now, behave!

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Further update to the CERN article - Light speed: Flying into fantasy


on edit. One comment says it all ""You can imagine: we'll never get old - politicians would stay young forever.""

My question, did it beat the speed of light? This beam was in a straight line, yes.
Has anyone thought the earth is curved, so light travelling here is curved .Did it beat the speed of light?

Do you mean the Flat Earth theory is wrong?

Just a thought Fred.

Nutrinos pass stright through matter including the earth from one side to the other. The path of the beam was underground in a straight line. The scientists at Cern are not that sure of the speed, which is why they want other scientists to check their findings. It is very unlikely to be true.

The principle is that as something gets faster then it becomes more massive which in turn rrequires more energy. As the mass approaches the speed of light the energy required to increase the speed becomes infinite at the point where it is the speed of light.

Thanks haystack, just a sudden thought.

Columbia University physicist Brian Greene said he would "bet just about everything I hold dear that this won't hold up to scrutiny." But even if the results are confirmed, Einstein's theories will need more of a patch than anything else, he said.

Ereditato agreed.

"When Einstein did his relativity, it didn't destroy what Newton did. In fact, Newton explains 99.9 percent of what is happening around us. But still, in some special conditions of matter, you are forced to use special relativity," Ereditato said. "Now suppose we would find one day that under extreme conditions you have to take into account corrections to what we know now. This doesn't mean that Einstein's wrong."

And this is the glory of science, said Don Howard, who lectures on Einstein and heads the Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values at Notre Dame University. Experiments are allowed, even encouraged, to challenge pillars of science.

"Everything is up for grabs," Howard said. "Even a genius like Einstein."

Einstein proved wrong? If the speed of light is NOT the ultimate speed, is it conceivable that, according to his theory of relativity, that we could travel faster than 'light', thus returning to Earth in say 20yrs (10yrs out, 10 yrs back) before our great, great grand children are born?
YEARS AGO AT COLLEGE, I tried to prove that 'Einstein's Theory of Relativity' cannot be true and WILL NEVER be possible, so all future experiments will be a total waste of resources. This is how my theory of 'constant relativity' is explained, in simple terms.
1. The speed of light- 186,000 miles per SECOND!
2. The space shuttle can only manage 22,000 miles per HOUR, YET CAN BURN UP ON RE-ENTRY at such a comparatively low speed.
3. A space ship travelling at light speed, would need to be made of materials harder than diamond or borazon to be capable of withstanding burning up in space at a speed of 1000 x that of the shuttle, which would still be hundreds of times slower than light speed. At 2,200,000mph(2 million) particles in space would seriously damage any craft at these huge speeds. Wormholes will not be possible, theoretically on paper they appear to work, but in practice you would be lost in space.
4. Light does not move and has no perceptible power. Shine the most powerful beam onto a feather, and there is no movement , why is this? Light is illuminated along strings of air/space particles - like a domino effect, illuminating not travelling, the speed of which is calculated over distances. Each particle illuminates the next particle almost instantly, giving us light speed, but nothing has moved.
Dominoes have the ability to move the next domino until all the dominoes have fallen, thus giving the effect of movement but all the dominoes are still there but in a different position!
5. An anomaly of science physics, has shown how travelling at light speed can alter the amount of time you spend in space relative to those back on Earth. In practice these speeds can never be achieved, as this would require travelling around the Earth SEVEN TIMES in the time it takes to click your fingers once = one second. Einstein's calculations would only work at light speed (theoretically on paper) if the space ship reached exactly light speed, a fraction under and the maths don't work.
6. Travelling at ONE SEVENTH the speed of light..is still absolutely not possible in space. Equivalent to once around the world in just ONE SECOND, SUCH A SPEED would take years to build up to and years to slow down towards destination of the nearest star, that in practical terms the journey would be longer than the life spans of the crew, and that is only one seventh light speed! AND EINSTEIN? he knew all this, but proving the impossible is what drove him on!