Argon is used in welding. It is almost completely inert. The body does not notice lack of oxygen only excess of carbon-dioxide. The expression on my friends face was peaceful. Just don't even think of it.

Aramaic not Herew

This is why I find religion sick, What sort of evil mind came up with concept of original sin? I guess that is the only way to justify the evils that happen to children. "There is no such thing as an innocent child". I find anyones acceptance of this to be evil and unfit to associate with.

Except. Atheists do not do the 'belief' thing. I would say that people like that (if there are any) were just playing the odds.

Bzzzt! The people around you, the people you are most likely to meet carry many of the same genes you do. It is not as black and white as you claim. The notion you put forward is, to the best of my knowledge, counter to current theory.

Bzzz! Again. Many cultures putlet. I may be sixty-five but that makes what life I have left even more valuable to me. Of course it may mean nothing to you.

My response to your third paragraph is an an uncategorised "it depends". John Donne may have been a god-botherer but he had it right when he said that no man was an island. There are always other people involved. I have lost a lot of friends to a permanent solution to a temporary problem. And problems people think are permanent are not always so. While I do agree with the right to die there has to be a lot more to it than someone saying "I'm done". It cannot be unregulated.

Which, incidentally fits the dictionary definition of a facist state.

Atmospheric diffraction used to be far more serious on earthly telescopes than it is now due to correction mechanisms and software. The flickering of stars due to atmospheric vagaries can be almost entirely eliminated. You want to bet on the fact that a lot of money has not been put into making that go the other way?

Atmospheric attenuation should not be a big issue. The point of having a ground based laser system is that you can pump a lot of power into either a flash strike or a persistent strike. Orbit to orbit? How much power can a satellite pack? I honestly do not know.

However, as we do not know it was a laser it is moot at this point.

I do not know. I am not putting forward any theory. Actually, reading back, I did. But I mentioned it only as a possibility. I am certainly not wedded to it

Whatever caused it caused it. That is the only thing I am certain of. People seem to think I favour a particular theory. I do not, Sorry to give any other impression.

Perhaps, perhaps not. An active working public satellite, well I doubt it. An old worthless, past its busby date satellite, maybe.

But there are lots of candidates besides China.

But I am not making a claim for either cause or villain. We do not know enough and probably never will.

This was a discussion about the use of Occam's Razor. How is your reply relevant?

There is no claim from me that it was or was not at battery failure, that it was or was not an energy weapon.

But if were trying to send a message I would not be taking something out that was provocatively useful and expensive. That might get a reply that I don't want. You do not take out a person's (state, country, empire) assets, you demonstrate the capability to take them out. It is a good deal less provative and sends you message more clearly.

The principle of Occam's Razor is not "simplicity" vs. "complexity". It states not to multiply entities unnecessarily, but that does not equate to simplicity.

We have never seen a battery failure like this before (and there are very many of that type out there) so we are creating a new entity with introducing this type of battery failure to our list of known entities. That does not mean (under the principle of Occam's Razor) that it did not happen that way (battery failure) only that we should consider other possibilities that do not include introducing that entity.

Lasers, enemies, interest in dominance, all the other entities required for it to be an attack already exist as known entities. As such it is something to be examined not dismissed. Occam's Razor suggests that this latter hypothesis be examined prior to the former. And that is all it suggests.

Occam's Razor does not determine between simplicity and complexity. The simplest explanation for lightning is that "God did it". Our modern explanation for lightning is incredibly complex. Which do you think is accurate? Which one better satisfies Occam's Razor?

Given all the crap that is going down all over the place right now, someone making a point does not really require introducing anything new and doesn't seem unlikely. Nor does a simple battery failure seem unlikely. But Occam's Razor is not the tool to use here. If we try we wind up in the Procrustean Bed of refining our problem to suit one solution or the other.

Best wishes, sorry I am a bit Aspie here.

Which is simpler? No one knows. Too many unknowns and imponderables. As a guess I would think the latter more likely.

Micro meteor a very unlikely option. There was heating before the explosion. A laser or its ilk? Quite possible. Now who would want to demonstrate the capacity to destroy space and orbital assets easily and cheaply at this political juncture? Russia, China, North Diarrhoea, Iran? I wonder what part of the world it was over?

Well, this IS /. By now, Windows people should be using Linux, Linux people should be using BSD and BSD users should have moved on to Plan 9,,,

Its a joke Joyce...

Errr... You claim to be a scientist and yet you say "All good scientists are skeptics at heart; they require strong empirical evidence to be convinced about a theory," .

Circular definition, circular argument. Also, false. Many scientists (like Darwin for example) form a theory and then look for empirical evidence to test that theory. Next time start that sentence with "In my opinion" and you get away with it. You didn't and you don't.

Reading your article, it says nothing. I would not hire you on the basis of what you have written here.

Pardon me if that seems rude but it was in my opinion, too superficial to ignore.

Oh! By the way, what you do has had a title for a generation. You are an analyst doing what analysts do. Analyse data.