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Comment Why "there are"? (Score 1) 143

What I never inderstand about articles that talk about very distant objects: they always use "are" as if this large structure would be there now, when, if at all and we interpret the data correctly, it was there billions of years ago. Something that "stretches" over 4 billion ligth years may also (depending on in which direction it stretches) also stretch over a time span of at least 4 billion years.
It is weird to think that what we see is not our universe at all: it is a picture that is a collage of times of what the universe was.

But what does it mean about our understanding of the universe now? Obviously we have no idea if Quasars "exist" -- the ones we observed so far are at least 600 million years away and thus have existed 600 million years ago.

600 Million years is a very long time. But 10 billion years is much closer to the beginning of the universe than to now. Does this make the violation of that "principle" then even more or qutie less significant?

Comment Adding carbon (Score 1) 479

It all depends where that carbon comes from. If the butane, methane, dimethyl ether or whatever it is is created directly or indirectly by photosynthesis or if it is created electrochemically using waste CO2, the net CO2 in the exhaust is not a problem. The other reaction products you mention still are but it should be able to crack them up catalytically -- these are essentially the same you find in a diesel exhaust, minus the soot, which is a plus.
Hydrogen fuel storage is really still a problem, and I am not sure it is likely to be solved, but I think the alternatives of cells that work with methane or methanol are promising technologies.

Comment So you are saying .... (Score 1) 200

that taking organs from an executed person, possibly to save the lives of other people, is the terrible thing here, not the habit of executing people?
Interesting take on ethics.
In my point of view, every body of a dead human should be a possible donor (if at all, with an opt-out scheme). In my point of view, executing criminals is wrong and barbaric.

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