Look up the relativistic rocket equations on the Usenet Physics FAQ. Calculate in a spreadsheet what a crew member of a thrusting rocket would observe after throwing a ball upward at close to the speed of light. Chart the path of the ball's free fall. Use general relativity's equivalence principle to realize the same initial behavior must be observable to a person standing on the ground. You've found "dark energy". A little logic from there shows that high-redshift supernovae must accelerate away from us (the 1998 discovery that lead to the idea of dark energy). Good luck finding anyone else who'll look at your numbers.
> I would argue that the Constitution absolutely overrides laws to the contrary
We're agreeing with each other? It's up to each person who takes an oath to defend the Constitution, to ignore and even fight against unconstitutional laws, i.e. ones that in an ideal world would be overridden by a fair Supreme Court.
Couldn't reply earlier due to "you're posting too fast" limitation, even after a day. I may have to wait several days to reply again.
So was Rosa Parks. We have a whistleblower law, along with a gov't oath to defend the Constitution, that potentially trumps other laws. So his prison potential isn't so clear.
The average American thinks an arrest is tantamount to guilt; one of many signs of this is that mugshots are made public here. Snowden should stay exiled.
We should consider the alternatives. We're borrowing $trillions annually, so we have to pick our battles carefully. Why spend $billions to maybe possibly discover something like that, when the same $$$ can definitely pay back on some other crucial item? For example, most NASA funding should already have been diverted to solving the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico; that's a more critical need that's currently being ignored. And that's only one of many giant cleanup tasks left to be done.
That's why I said not now anyway. In the past, sure, it drove innovation to a great degree. But at this point we've wrung out the biggest gains. Almost anything NASA develops nowadays has little benefit to the public at large. It's entertainment mostly.
If the benefits and carryover paid for it, fine. But I doubt it, not now anyway. If it wasn't borrowed money, I'd say throw .5% at at it. But no way when it's borrowed, unless it can be proven beyond doubt that the outcome is net positive.
It's fine by me if a dictatorship takes the lead in space. Their people might suffer as a result. Our goal should always be to raise the average standard of living. If that means taking a back seat in some area, why not?
Well put. Of voters that have long term vision, I can't see them wanting space exploration over many better investments. We have so many huge problems to deal with that need funds before space exploration and its relatively small chance of payback for the average voter. Especially when it's all borrowed money.
Maybe it's the voters? I'm all for space exploration paid in advance, when the national debt is falling as well. Otherwise, no way. Why should my kids get only the bills? That would be rude. Let downvotes commence.
Imagine how interesting this is going to get. You call up some bank to plead with them that you're the real you, the loan wasn't your doing, and the person you're talking to, who's disbelieving you, just spent their morning on the other end of the stick.
Nor does the US' past direction. Since the 1950s it has toppled two democracies and thwarted another. The (final) overthrow of its own democracy may become possible through such technology.
Well put. I know someone who has elegantly solved five major outstanding problems in physics. The mystery of dark energy, one of the top 10 physics problems, is only one of them. But science is an industry nowadays, and there's no grant money in these solutions (indeed, grant money would more likely be pulled) so the odds of this person being listened to is nil.
> But if you have an inertial frame which is falling into a black hole any signal sent from beneath the event horizon will not reach any other point until that point has also fallen beneath the event horizon.
Problem is, the escaping particle never falls beneath the horizon. So an inertial frame in which that particle is at rest cannot extend below the horizon at all. That's a violation of law K for a frame falling into a black hole. By violating law K, the latter frame cannot be inertial. Note that law K is about allowing inner frames be extended to fill all of an outer frame.
Let a cloud of particles straddle the horizon. Let all the particles above the horizon be escaping to infinity. According to GR, such cloud must be splitting apart. The particles below the horizon must move inexorably inward, toward the singularity at the center of the black hole, whilst the particles above the horizon move ever outward, away from the black hole. Then a frame falling through the horizon of a black hole cannot be inertial, for in an inertial frame the cloud needn't be splitting apart (since law K applies). For example, in an inertial frame in Earth's atmosphere you can have a cloud of particles in which half the particles are given to be escaping to infinity, and the cloud needn't be splitting apart (just let all the particles escape in formation).