[It's so sad to be an armchair cosmologist without a degree in physics but I'll not let that stop me]

If gravity is manifested in the wave that we're presently trying to find, it must travel [it is said that the Earth would still orbit for a period of time if, hypothetically, the Sun were to suddenly be removed]. If it travels, it must expend energy. If it expends energy, it must diminish in strength over time [the moon is increasing its orbit presumably on account of diminished gravity]. If it diminishes in strength, the arms of a spiral galaxy must be the stars there being "let loose" and beginning to travel in a straight line [Newton's law of inertia].

This diminution over time, could explain the expanding Universe. As you radiate more energy, you lose mass and, canonically, when you lose mass, gravity diminishes in strength.

caveats:

a. the moon may be expanding its orbit because of other orbiting bodies "pull" on the moon.
b. diminution in gravity may be just the loss of mass through radiation, but this would also explain the arms of a spiral galaxy but only if black holes also lost sufficient energy over time.

I emailed a host on WBAI about how I thought the government should do all the hiring (at least for most well-defined jobs). I never heard from him but I suspect that, like most, he might feel that Blacks should be educated first. I disagree with that stand because, regardless of your education, if minority competes with a White man, he would need better education than the White man and even then the employer would favor his own kind. That much we know. It is as inescapable as the prevalence of deviant catholic priests. So the solution is to ensure non-discriminatory practices first or simultaneously with education. Alone, education will not do the trick.

How do I know this? Well, I am educated and I have tons of experience (more education); but when I reached 50 years of age, I encountered ageism and I now know firsthand how discrimination works even against the White Hispanic man. When I was younger, my Spanish surname was never a big issue as I always found employment but now, I don't get an interview unless I lie about my age or cover it up.

The way to level the playing field is to make the hiring process blind to the employer. He should specify what he needs and the government should test for the necessary skills and select, at random, an employee that the government guarantees will do the job. The employer may even benefit because, now, we've eliminated unemployment expenses and may decide to replace them with employment subsidies or free training.

Fora.tv had a Dawkins talk. I didn't listen to him because I know what's always on his mind. I did read the comments to see how far along the evolution/religion debate had evolved. It's all as stagnant as ever.

I was going to post the following but with those people (on both sides) it would have gotten lost among the indecipherable comments that plague online comments.

I had wanted to ask all those who bask in Dawkins' and their own intellect that, if evolution is true, why do they not defend the child molester, the rapist, the terrorist, the serial killer, the homosexual, the thief? Was it because cowardice is also ingrained along with arrogance or is it because religion (in the U.S., at least) is an easy target?

Those who profess to know evolution should stop state capital punishment, incarcerations, and sundry other penalties, along with prejudice and bigotry born of societal ignorance. For the time being, leave people to the philosophies they were taught and, who knows, they may come around to your way of thinking if you can show them that the perversions that afflict them are not satanic spells but godly manifestations in the form of His grand evolutionary scheme.

The cynic might say that punishment is something that, surely, evolution created. Yes, it is true. But what is stopping us from finding the humane solution? We know that punishment doesn't deter anyone. Yet we spend untold billions on inflicting pain on our fellow man who, I can bet you any eternity in heaven that I might be blessed with, is behaving under forces outside his control. That's right, the mafioso who runs the New Jersey town; the Jews and the Muslims who, like the Christians (let's be fair), reads the bible like a lawyer reads the law; the President who promises this or that and falls victim to lobbyists of one ilk or another; the female teacher who seduces a student; the Catholic priest who stupidly is ordained to follow the edict of some eunuch pope of days gone by and fails; the capitalist who grows richer while passing off societies ills to, of course, society; all these are, in the grand scheme, faultless.

So what is the solution? The solution is one of education. The evolutionists spend all their time condemning the creationists as if all the ills of man are their doing or as if all the impediments to progress are their doing. NO. The fault lies with the man who has knowledge and knows not how to instill it in his neighbor. It may be because he would be forced to defend the child molestor--who would want to do that? But no one is being asked to send their children over to the deviant in order to appease the god of evolution--that would be ludicrous. But if we can agree--and teach--that perversion is outside the individual's control, we can treat the man or woman or child, organically, through surgery, chemistry, or genes. The solution is out there. Rather than the anachronistic call to incarceration and the crimson letter, let us collectively seek more humane treatment. The fiction of A Clockwork Orange was unfortunate in how it affected us. It may have single-handedly set us back decades for it showed how through our best intentions, man can not interfere successfully with nature; but the thinking man should have been aware that without man's intervention, we are stuck with the snail's pace of evolution to, hopefully, make a better man. But we should heed the lesson of the ant who has outlived us by eons and yet is, according to E.O. Wilson, one of the most warlike of species. Evolution has given us smarts. Let us not continue to be philistines.

This is a prediction:

Saturn's red spot will turn out to be a "moon" orbiting just below its surface.

In trying to solve Goldbach's conjecture, I came up with the following:

1. Primes are known to thin out to infinity.
2. Of the two primes that make up an even number, one is found between zero and 1/2N, the other is found between 1/2N and N, where N is the even number being tested.
3. At some point, we should expect to find a gap equal to 1/2N and occupying the region from 1/2N to N.
4. Goldbach's conjecture is disproved because no prime will reside between 1/2N and N.

Update: #3 is a conjecture, unproven.

I was watching TV the other day and some automobile designers had incorporated my ideas into their new designs. The couldn't conceive of a gas-powered auto but they did have an electric auto where the motor and batteries formed a flat chassis on which different cabs where installed ready to be replaced at the owner's whim.

About hybrids, why not build one with "everything on it." It would operate electrically and, like locomotives, would have their batteries charged by an internal combustion engine that can accommodate gas, diesel, or alcohol. Hey engineers! Stop being so damn intellectually lazy! Here's more to keep you busy: the hybrid would have a roof, hood and trunk made of photovoltaic material. Come one now GM--show some muscle! While you're at it, put an optional flywheel that can be powered up by manpower. . . at a red light... by pumped up kids in the back seat ;) Oh, and, BTW, make the rear of the car capable of "catching" the wind that might be blowing you your direction.

With love to my poor fellow sufferers, Angel.

Just a quick note to say that my 1987 BMW 325 will soon hit 150,000 miles and shows every indication that it will keep going to 200,000.

Why is it that American car makers can't make an engine like that? The answer, of course, is that they can't but wont.

But what if they can still turn a great profit, employ thousands, save the planet, and offer the public a great deal? They can do this by creating a great engine/chassis like the BMW has and designing--every year--a new shell that the public can buy to keep up with that new car smell. That's what I'm saying: keep the engine and chassis well-built and durable but offer a new body every year. The average consumer will enjoy a new car every year yet not pay the cost of an entire car. The seats, paint job, gadgets, wiring, etc. will be new but the engine and chassis will stay the same. Several options can be made available with regard to the engine: economical, standard, powerhouse. The body can be offered as sports car, pick-up truck, luxury, SUV.

Detroit, doesn't this make more sense? Make a move into the future before Toyota, Mazda, and Honda do it sooner.

Detroit, for help in getting your act together, please do not hesitate to contact me at thelobbyist@gmail.com

From what I've read hydrogen cells are the way to go (no more dependancy). Now it seems like two major discoveries have added a boost to the technology: researchers discovered that hydrogen could be released from glucose molecules using cheap tin, aluminum, and nickel catalysts instead of expensive platinum; another researcher found that if you do use platinum, you don't need nearly as much as was once thought (they coated a metal with platinum and then used acid to remove most of the platinum--the platinum left behind was enough to do the job, while the platinum that was removed was recycled.

These are just the kind of advances that we need to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

There was a scare recently about the possibility of hydrogen cells hurting the ozone layer. Luckily, a clear-headed engineer said that it was all a question of engineering; in other words, if a leakage problem existed, you only had to engineer it away. This is the sort of thing that Alfred Nobel did with nitroglycerin when he added it to saw dust.

Have you ever held on to a favorite car or purchased a used one only to discover that the car has or is developing electrical problems? Sometimes the problem is so darn exasperating that you would rather give up the car.

Today, with integrated circuits so inexpensive, it is possible to create a car electrical control network. Here's how it will work: There is routed thoughout the car a single wire. That wire--we'll call it the Grid-- will carry positive current AND a signal that piggy-backs on it (this technology already exists--it's used to control household appliances from your computer). Every device in the car (starter, radio, window motor, car seat motor, lights, etc.) connects to an individualized module that is attached to the Grid. The module only supplies the device with power if the module receives a signal from the grid. Input devices also attach to modules that attach to the Grid and these place the necessary signal on the grid.

The signal consists of 2 or more parts: an identifier section that might say, "the next command is intended for the passenger side window motor," and the actual command section that might say, "Open the window slightly."

This new wiring paradigm will practically eliminate present day wiring problems and aid immensely in troubleshooting any problems that do arise.

The second idea I have is to build a chassis that will last for several generations (think BMW, Rolls Royce). The automobile companies continue to make money by selling people a shell to go on top of the sturdy chassis. People would be able to buy a pick-up shell, a sedan shell, or any custom built shell that they might want. They could more readily keep up with the Joneses because they are only buying a shell to put on their chassis. This saves on steel. Also the electronic components can be easily salvaged from the shell and re-used. Initially, the car companies would build a chassis with an internal combustion engine but, later, people would be able to upgrade to hydrogen power.

I think it is a win-win situation for the car companies, the people, and the environment.