You had a expert in relatvity here and Orac's childish laughing made him realise this is a bad place to try to help people. Good by little boy.
Sorry what I am laughing at is the way you are dealing with the issue, hey I know you are right and I know you are an expert but you aren't explaining why you are right you just saying I am an expert believe me which is Bill S complaint in the first place.
Is it only me that see's that as funny?
What you haven't done is explain the sanity you had to put under your answer because to you it is natural you learned all that when becoming an expert but it's not obvious to the layman and the problem is shooting over his head.
Bill S happily believes a tachyon might exist and to it time would go backward as just one example. To you or I time going backward and retro causality are a drop dead no go but not to Bill S he has no basis to know why that is.
I am not laughing at you personally PMB, I am laughing because the basis you and Bill S are working in are totally different.
My comment about string theorists I am sorry is very true they extend the laws of physics into domains and universe that are very different to ours and so under the way you are answering they must be treated the same way which I also find amusing.
I am very respectful of your knowledge I am however very critical of your teaching ability to date ... explain to him why you need sanity under time, distance and forces and the answer becomes obvious rather than berating me.
The only difference between Bill S and a string theorist in reality is the string theorist realizes the universe he is describing is not ours and Bill S can't see that, he is not trying to directly violate the laws of physics he violates the sanity under it.
If you don't want to discuss the sanity we are forced to put in place because it is "beneath you" or "too silly" don't beat me up about it that's the reality layman see. Yes this would be filtered off a real good science forum but it isn't here so either deal with it or not and that is outside my control much as I would prefer we could get rid of this sort of rubbish. At the moment I am feeling a bit of a case of the messenger getting shot, I am clarifying the argument and getting abused for doing so.
