Starship Asterisk*

You need to be able to say why the BB is absurd, in objective terms. That's what I'm still waiting for. Otherwise, you have no case. I did say why I think the Big Bang is absurd. From a philosophical standpoint, drawing upon human experience, what creation story/hypothesis/theory isn't "absurd...

Chris - Edward Pickering was Director of Harvard College Observatory from 1877 to 1919 and introduced Astrophysics at Harvard even though 'he had to fight the snide remarks and critical attacks that he was pursuing dubious physicals..." So, according to many of his contemporaries, Astrophysics ...

The thing is, Nereid, what I posted, including the string theory, are all examples of excellent scientists making excellent discoveries or assumptions or insights or hunches which proved correct, all considered absurd by other scientists .. all proven correct eventually. Why let history see you on t...

My computer time is over, Nereid, please enter a search for the book and author.

Highly Recommended reading especially for Chris and Nereid - 'Through a Universe Darkly' by Physicist Marcia Bartusiak - includes: Celia Payne who was told by 'the establishment' that her calculations showing Hydrogen was the vastly predominant element in the universe was in error - the person who t...

Highly Recommended reading especially for Chris and Nereid - 'Through a Universe Darkly' by Physicist Marcia Bartusiak - includes: Celia Payne who was told by 'the establishment' that her calculations showing Hydrogen was the vastly predominant element in the universe were in error - the person who ...

Astrophysics was once non-science as far as the establishment was concenerned, and Celia Payne was considered a non-scientist. I highly, highly, highly recommend the book 'Through a Universe Darkly' by physicist Marcia Bartusiak. This book puts historical condemnation of new ideas in a beautifully b...

It is ridiculous to say that all ideas, no matter how ridiculous, deserve consideration. And who is to be the judge of what is "ridiculous"? In a forum like this it obviously becomes the judgment of the moderator with the delete button. Let's not get too carried away; the stated scope of ...

Chris - not that you need to be concerned over my opinion of your posts, but your latest post carries a temperate spirit which I see as improvement. I enjoyed reading it. I never said stretching a rubber band creates energy - I said it creates heat .. but first I had said stretching the bonds of gra...

Chris - that someone could consider for even a moment that a huge explosion of nothing (except you will say 'it was an ultradense singularity smaller than a pinpoint) started the universe is absurd even if some say it is the concensus which, in reading sciene magazines, I find to be just not so. I d...

If a theory has a strong consensus, it places more of a burden on those arguing against it to frame their arguments using methods developed by thinkers in the 18th Century, and which continue to be used to this day. No - I think it places the burden of proof on those joing the conensus. FWIW, there...

While I promised myself not to respond to you Chris, and that coming mostly from your repeated use of 'concensus" being the foundation for thinking yourself correct when the concensus was that the world was flat .. perhaps I was being too judgemental of what I perceived to be your faults .. but...

Okay - what is theorized as Dark Energy is theorized as being responsible for the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. As astronomical bodies separate could a 'stretching' of their co-joined gravitational forces actually create energy? Primitive example: stretch a rubber band and it create...

Statements on the apod forum include: 'this is not science'; and 'this proposal is ridiculous'. Perhaps we should discuss what Science is. According to Webster: Science: "The collection of Data through observation and if possible experiment ... the formulation of hypotheses." Hypotheses: &...

It is ridiculous to say that all ideas, no matter how ridiculous, deserve consideration. And who is to be the judge of what is "ridiculous"? In a forum like this it obviously becomes the judgement of the moderator with the delete button. In a university it is obviously the person who is i...

Chris - I don't mean this as an insult, but while your posts display some level of education some of your posts are deliberately antagonistic, and very often too immature intellectually for me to respond to or to read from this point on. If I can block your posts I will. ... alcohol Block my posts ...

Chris - I don't mean this as an insult, but while your posts display some level of education some of your posts are deliberately antagonistic, and very often too immature intellectually for me to respond to or to read from this point on. If I can block your posts I will.

Speculation - if Dark Matter is reality and consists of a nearly infinite number of undetectable or nearly undetectable tiny particles it will almost certainly be affected by the heat of galaxies and stars. As we all know when heat interacts with liquids or gasses currents of flow are begun. This fl...

The Electro-Magnetic Radiation Pressure (EMRP) Gravity Theory © Engineer Xavier Borg - Blaze Labs Research Abstract This paper aims at providing a satisfying theory for the yet unknown mechanism for gravity... That's as far as I need to get to write this off. No responsible or respectable scientist...

Not that I believe in an Electric Universe Theory but...Consider this: The Universe on a micro scale (relatively speaking of course), Galactic scale, can not readily transfer electrons due to the vast distances between normal matter particles that could carry the charge. However, the universe consi...

Hello All, I think I read Chris's answer to mean that there are no theories on DM. There are observations and a number of facts possibly but not enough along some hypotheses to support a theory. Rigorous, repeatable testing in all aspects of an idea is needed to become theory. And a theory, as we a...

Nereid - I mean no disrespect to you by this post. Copyright laws and therefore people copyrighting material allow limited reproduction of copyright material. I was not aware that posting copywriten material on the forum in accordance with copyright laws is not 'allowed', as I thought the forum trie...

Nereid and Chris - I have only two minutes left on my public access computer time .. and no computer at home .. so I'll see you tomorrow.

Blazelabs - a page from - which seems to be science and which seems at first glance to support the recently proposed idea which proposes that when all known factors are taken into account 'something unknown' is pushing against spacecraft as they travel through space .. (the Pioneer anomaly?) The Ele...

Nereid wrote - Don't lose sight of the fact that our scope, in this forum, is considerably narrower than "Science" ... we focus on astronomy, as science. For example, I'm sure you'd agree that "experimental investigation" is somewhat limited in astronomy ... we can't exactly run ...