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Latest Comments
Victor
:
OK, Francis has embarassed me by entrapping my hapless mind with his captcha. Now it's my turn.
"Entropy is conserved" - actually, the second law of thermodynamics clearly tells us that the entropy of a closed system increases. Entropy can be seen as a measure of disorder and systems tend to a greater state of disorder.
I am sure you must have been thinking of the first law of thermodynamics, which has to do with the conservation of mass and matter, to which Eisntein ammended E=MCsquared.
On entropy, for example, heat will flow from a hot surface to a cold, and in the process increase the entropy of the system. Heat will not spontanously flow from a cold surface to a hot surface, unless energy is applied (e.g. through an AC compressor) which in turn increases entropy even further.
So by this law of incresing entropy, the universe will continue to expand and burn itself out into a dim, dilute soup of subatomic particles. The particles that make us, Caesar and will be floating in all directions through space a few billion years from now. How's that for a cheery outcome!
Anyhow, this is how my chem eng education comes in handy to me nowadays
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teresa
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Keep taking the valium Fran. Those are some deep thoughts you're having! T x
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jim
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Keeping on topic, Fran, have a read of this...
How long does a man live after all?
A thousand days or only one?
One week or a few centuries?
How long does a man spend living or dying
and what do we mean when we say gone forever?
Adrift in such preoccupations, we seek clarification.
We can go to the philosophers
but they will weary of our questions.
We can go to the priests and rabbis
but they might be busy with administrations.
So, how long does a man live after all?
And how much does he live while he lives?
We fret and ask so many questions -
then when it comes to us
the answer is so simple after all.
A man lives for as long as we carry him inside us,
for as long as we carry the harvest of his dreams,
for as long as we ourselves live,
holding memories in common, a man lives.
His lover will carry his scent, his touch:
his children will carry the weight of his love.
One friend will carry his arguements,
another will hum his favourite tunes,
another will still share his terrors.
And the days will pass with baffled faces,
then the weeks, then the months,
then there will be a day when no question is asked,
and the knots of grief will loosen in the stomach
and the puffed faces will calm.
And on that day he will not have ceased
but will have ceased to be separated by death.
How long does a man live after all?
A man lives so may different lengths of time.
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Teresa
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Hate to break it to you Fran but Dustin didn't make it out of the semi-final! I know how devastated you'll be but at least we got a some entertainment value out of it as we broke our hearts laughing at his performance last night. A turkey in every sense of the word!! Still he seemed to fit right in with the Eurovision entries of today. Ah well there's always next yr and sure 'whats another yr' as Johnny would say?
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Teresa
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Just like most things you do Fran, have to say it's pretty impressive! Hope the nerve function improves a bit. T x
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Monk
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YEah that's grosse
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Malek
:
I'm a regular reader of your blog and find it interesting. I came to your blog through your book. It's excellent. Very clear, easy to read with sophisticated techniques and FUN. I want to send you congrats and hope you will write another.
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TERESA LOUGHNANE
:
Have to say Fran that as a qualified dietitian / clinical nutritionist I wholeheartedly agree with your comments about the quackery being foisted on cancer patients, and indeed many other grps of patients on an ongoing basis. Many of these ' treatments' may not only not work but as you say they may actually interfere with the work of the chemo drugs. We frequently come up against individuals who have tried quack diets in an effort to fight their cancer, but which are actually depriving them of valuable nutrients at a time when they need them most. Good to see you are promoting the search for evidence that is backed up by proper randomised controlled clinical trials. Keep up the good fight that Karen and you are fighting - Jesus and chemo seem to be working!
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Francis
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Hi sis, as you know I'm a TERRIBLE multi-tasker. In fact I'm a terrible TASKER for that matter.
Lately however I have been pondering some mighty questions, without any real conclusions, just more confusion.
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Teresa
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Gosh Fran, I knew you were a bit of a deep thinker but God only knows where you get the time for this level of analysis! Was interested by the example of you walking along, looking at the bird in the tree and deciding what to eat for lunch all at once. Don't you know that men are not meant to be able to multitask or is this another example of your super human abilities?!!
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