Science Undecided on Room Temperature Superconductors

[Hermit]

Terrorists and their supporters in SA are not sanctioned by the Saudi government

Utter crap. The Wahhabi are the creators, catalysts and chief financiers of Islamic terrorism. The house of Saud, from the king down, in turn has financed the Wahhabi to the tune of $100 billion because the Saud's remember that without its alliance with the Wahhabi the kingdom could not have come to be in the first place and without their continued support it would cease to exist.

There are mountains of evidence for all of this. Start reading here.

[Brian Peacock]

But that doesn't tally with the US evening news Hermy - Saudi Arabia is our best friend in the Arab world - therefore it must be wrong.

[Seth]

Terrorists and their supporters in SA are not sanctioned by the Saudi government

Utter crap. The Wahhabi are the creators, catalysts and chief financiers of Islamic terrorism.

I would not disagree with that.

The house of Saud, from the king down, in turn has financed the Wahhabi to the tune of $100 billion because the Saud's remember that without its alliance with the Wahhabi the kingdom could not have come to be in the first place and without their continued support it would cease to exist.

Fallacy of composition. The House of Saud has financed Wahabbism, which is a branch of its religion, Islam. Wahabbis in SA have financed terrorism. But the House of Saud has not financed terrorism, the Wahabbis have.

The fallacy you state is your claim that because the parts A, B and C of the whole have characteristics X, that therefore the whole of X has the characteristics A, B and C.

And though you claim secret knowledge that the funds that the House of Saud contributes to Wahabbism are used to fund terrorism, you have no actual proof that this is the case. If you did you could take your evidence to the World Criminal Court and file a complaint against the House of Saud. But you don't. All you have is speculation and guilt by association at this point.

Which is not to say that you are not potentially correct, but international geopolitics being what it is, and the oil being where it is, so long as the House of Saud doesn't openly support, finance and advocate terrorism (and they just beheaded 47 people with terrorist ties and severed diplomatic relations with Iran as part of distancing themselves from Wahabbist terrorism), every nation on earth that trades with them are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

There are mountains of evidence for all of this. Start reading here.

Right, now all you have to do is prove that the King of Saudi Arabia knowingly and directly funds Islamic terrorism abroad.

[Hermit]

The House of Saud has financed Wahabbism

And the House of Saud is well aware what the Wahhabi do with a good part of the money. It is not as though it has only recently discovered that either. That makes the Saudi family a financier of Islamic terrorism.

Right, now all you have to do is prove that the King of Saudi Arabia knowingly and directly funds Islamic terrorism abroad.

Now you're descending from the weak to the ridiculous. Not only has that been public knowledge for years, but the Saudi family, principally under the auspices of King Salman at the time when he was a Prince, established and financed two so-called charities the chief activities of which were to promote Islamic terrorism in word and in deed. (Link)

[pErvinalia]

So what happened to all those alleged morals? Why is Saudi a US ally in the middle east??

Why shouldn't Saudi be a US ally in the middle east?

Because they are a barbaric theocratic regime. YOU were bleating on about morals.

Saudi Arabia is an Australian ally in the middle east, too. Saudi Arabia is one of Australia's most important trading partners -- what do you guys do? $2.5 billion dollars a year in trade with them? And, you Ozzies have been continuing to let Saudis come and study in your universities under the King Abdullah Scholarship Program - you guys have like 12,000 Saudi students in your universities every year.

Tu quo que fallacy. Red Herring fallacy.

Saudi Arabia is the largest Arab country in the middle east. If it's not a western ally, it will be a Russian or Chinese ally.

So? You raised "morals". Now apparently you don't give a fuck about morals. Makes one think the "morals" thing is a total load of bollocks.

[pErvinalia]

So what happened to all those alleged morals? Why is Saudi a US ally in the middle east??

Well, because the factions within SA who give money to terrorists aren't sanctioned by the government of SA and SA allows us to garrison troops and equipment there, among other things. That fact is precisely why OBL attacked the World Trade Center. He commissioned that attack because he objected to US troops in SA, and he was personal non grata in SA because of his radicalism.

Could SA be doing more to root out Islamic radicals? Probably.

But then again, there's the oil, which has always made strange bedfellows.

Frankly I'm not aware of ANY nation on earth that refuses to trade with SA because there are Islamic terrorists and their wealthy supporters in the country.

Including Australia, NZ and the UK.

People who live in glass houses...etc.

I'm not the one claiming the US (or any nation's) foreign policy is "morals" based. That was Coito and is patently stupid. The US should have invaded Saudi Arabia not Iraq. More oil in Saudi, and they are a far more regressive regime than Saddam's Iraq, and they actually do sponsor international terrorism.

[JimC]

Realistically, not a single country (other than a Shiite one) is going to give the Saudis a hard time, even though they are indirectly behind much of the problems caused by fundamentalist Islam. One can point out their inherent immoral nature, but there is simply no point berating any nation state for not acting on this.

And I want someone to discuss Saudi research into room temperature superconductors...

[pErvinalia]

I just realised we are discussing foreign policy in a science thread.

bloody ratz!

[rainbow]

And I want someone to discuss Saudi research into room temperature superconductors...

Yes, back to topic.

1. Intikhab A. Ansari, “Numerical calculations of specific heat and n-dimensional generalized Debye function for pure MgB2 superconductor at normal-state”, (Communicated in Physica Scripta, IOP Publishing). 2. Intikhab A. Ansari, M. Shahabuddin, Nasser S. Alzayed, Khalil A. Ziq, A. F. Salem, V. P. S. Awana, H. Kishan, “Enhancement of critical current density for nano (n)-ZnO doped MgB2 superconductor”, Physica C: Superconductivity and its applications, Vol 495, pp. 208-212, 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physc.2013.10.001 (Impact factor 1.01) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 3. M. Shahabuddin, Intikhab A. Ansari, N. S. Alzayed, K. A. Ziq and A. F. Salem, “Effect of Nano ZnO Doping on the Nature of Pinning of MgB2 Superconductors”, Journal of Superconductivity and Nov Magn, Vol. 26 pp. 1547-1552 2013. Springer Publisher, DOI: 10.1007/s10948-012-1931-4 (Impact factor 0.650) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 4. Intikhab A. Ansari, M. Shahabuddin, Nasser Saleh Alzayed, “Comparison of the critical current density of a polycrystalline MgB2 superconductor by ac-susceptibility and Bean's model” Physica Scripta, Vol 84, Issue 6, pp. 065701-5, 2011 doi:10.1088/0031-8949/84/06/065701 (Impact factor 1.204) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 5. Intikhab A. Ansari, "Reply to the comment from Mamedov", Physica C: Superconductivity and its applications, Vol. 470, Issue 22, pp. 2078, 2010 Elsevier Publisher, DOI:10.1016/j.physc.2010.08.012 (Impact factor 1.01) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 6. Intikhab A. Ansari, "Numerical solution of Bloch-Gruneisen function to determine the contribution of electron-phonon interaction in polycrystalline MgB2 superconductor", Physica C: Superconductivity and its applications, Vol. 470, Issue 11-12, pp. 508-510, 2010 Elsevier Publisher, DOI: 10.1016/j.physc.2010.04.012 (Impact factor 1.01) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 7. Intikhab A. Ansari, M. Shahabuddin, Nasser Saleh Alzayed, Arpita Vajpayee, V.P.S. Awana and H. Kishan, "Enhancement of activation energy in nano diamond doped MgB2 superconductor", Physica C: Superconductivity and its applications, Vol. 470, Issue (7-8), pp. 369-372, 2010 Elsevier Publisher, DOI: 10.1016/j.physc.2010.02.017 (Impact factor 1.01) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 8. Intikhab A. Ansari, M. Shahabuddin, M. Husain, Arpita Vajpayee, V. P. S. Awana and H. Kishan , “Study of Fluctuation induced conductivity of nano diamond doped bulk MgB2 superconductor”, International Journal of Nano and Biomaterials, Vol. 2, Issues 1-5, pp. 240-248, 2009 Inderscience Publishers, DOI: 10.1504/IJNBM.2009.027718 ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 9. K. P. Singh, Intikhab A. Ansari, M. Shahabuddin, M. Husain, H. Kishan and V. P. S. Awana, ,“Comparisons for the resistivity behaviors of different encapsulated MgB2 samples”, Cryogenics Vol. 47, Issues 9-10, pp. 497-500, 2007 Elsevier Publisher, DOI: 10.1016/j.cryogenics.2007.05.003 (Impact factor 0.67) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 10. Intikhab A. Ansari, M. Shahabuddin, Khalil A Ziq, A. F. Salem, V.P.S. Awana, M. Husain and H. Kishan “The Effect of nano-alumina on structural and magnetic properties of MgB2 superconductor”, Superconductor Science & Technology Vol. 20, Issue 8, pp. 827-831, 2007 Institute of Physics Publishing, DOI:10.1088/0953-2048/20/8/018 (Impact factor 2.66) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 11. Intikhab A. Ansari, V. P. S. Awana, Rajeev Rawat, M. Shahabuddin, M. Husain, H. Kishan and A.V. Narlikar, “Fluctuation induced conductivity of polycrystalline MgB2 superconductor”, Journal of Material Science Vol. 42, Issue 15, pp. 6306-6309, 2007 Springer Publisher, DOI:10.1007/s10853-006-1174-5 (Impact factor 2.02) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. 12. Intikhab A. Ansari, K. P. Singh, M. Shahabuddin, M. Husain and A. Gupta, “Computational interfacing of resistivity of high temperature superconductor using Visual Basic Program”, Indian Journal of Pure & Applied Physics Vol. 43, Issue 6, pp. 439-445, June 2005 NISCAIR Publication (Impact factor 0.76) ISI/SCOPUS Cited Publication. - See more at: http://fac.ksu.edu.sa/iansari/cv#sthash.EDk2fP2S.dpuf

[mistermack]

Bloody A-Rabs.

They could have translated it into English.

[Brian Peacock]

The House of Saud has financed Wahabbism

And the House of Saud is well aware what the Wahhabi do with a good part of the money. It is not as though it has only recently discovered that either. That makes the Saudi family a financier of Islamic terrorism.

Right, now all you have to do is prove that the King of Saudi Arabia knowingly and directly funds Islamic terrorism abroad.

Now you're descending from the weak to the ridiculous. Not only has that been public knowledge for years, but the Saudi family, principally under the auspices of King Salman at the time when he was a Prince, established and financed two so-called charities the chief activities of which were to promote Islamic terrorism in word and in deed. (Link)

Indeed...

Saudi Arabia is no friend to the United States
...

And what, pray tell, has America’s “best friend” done over the past four decades as all of that petrodollar loot, once estimated at $116 billion a year, poured in, as noted by a PBS “Frontline” report? Besides spending like mad on airports, hotels, highways, hospitals and schools — much-needed domestic projects and infrastructure — Saudi billions also found their way to other channels, such as religious charities that funded networks of madrassas: religious schools steeped in the conservative anti-Western Wahhabi strain of Islam that laid the groundwork for the creation of al-Qaeda. All those billions did little to erase the repression of Saudi women or end inflammatory teachings about Christians and Jews.

Where did the cash and arms that helped create the Taliban come from? Yep, you guessed it, the kingdom.

In fact, after the Taliban took over the Afghan capital of Kabul in September 1996, Saudi Arabia was among the three countries to establish diplomatic relations. That relationship ended on the rocks in September 2001, however, when the Saudis concluded, the kingdom said, that the Taliban was up to no good, attracting and training Muslims, including Saudi citizens, “to carry out criminal acts” against Islamic law.

...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... story.html

[Forty Two]

So what happened to all those alleged morals? Why is Saudi a US ally in the middle east??

Why shouldn't Saudi be a US ally in the middle east?

Because they are a barbaric theocratic regime. YOU were bleating on about morals.

I was? When? What morality did I bleat about?

Saudi Arabia is an Australian ally in the middle east, too. Saudi Arabia is one of Australia's most important trading partners -- what do you guys do? $2.5 billion dollars a year in trade with them? And, you Ozzies have been continuing to let Saudis come and study in your universities under the King Abdullah Scholarship Program - you guys have like 12,000 Saudi students in your universities every year.

Tu quo que fallacy. Red Herring fallacy.

Only if I was making the argument that because Oz does it to, then it's a valid argument or o.k. My point was only that all countries ally themselves with countries that have unsavory aspects about them. In fact, if they didn't, then no country would have allies. It's because alliances are made between countries on factors other than how super-nice they are.

Saudi Arabia is the largest Arab country in the middle east. If it's not a western ally, it will be a Russian or Chinese ally.

So? You raised "morals". Now apparently you don't give a fuck about morals. Makes one think the "morals" thing is a total load of bollocks.

I did not raise morals. In what way do you think I raised morals? For what? Did I say that countries should only ally themselves with countries that are "moral?" That's not a thing I would ever say, so if it's what you think I said, then you have seriously misread my posts. Feel free, though, to link to a post where I "raised morals" relative to alliances between countries.

Of course I give a fuck about morals. I have a morality, like most other people. What the hell does my morality have to do with alliances among countries? Country A's form of government and practices may have some relevance in determining Country B's policies toward that country, and may even be relevant to whether Country B is willing to ally themselves with Country A. However, such factors are only one of myriad factors. Geopolitical forces are complex, and involve national interests, military factors, economics, trade issues, cultural issues, geopolitics, tradition/history, tactics, strategy, and a host of other factors.

Are you really unclear about "if it's not a western ally, it will be a Russian or Chinese ally?" You answered "So?" Do you really not know why? Really? O.k., I'll spell it out for you. Because various countries, like the US, UK, France, Russia, China, Brazil, India, etc., all stand to gain by having closer and more stable relations with Saudi Arabia, and the benefits to Saudi Arabia of being a US ally are X, but if the US was to cut Saudi Arabia off of those benefits, then an opportunity would arise for China or Russia, etc., to try to fill that void, and fill that power vacuum.

[Forty Two]

The US should have invaded Saudi Arabia

On what basis?

Saudi Arabia never attacked the US.
There was no UN resolution or permission to attack Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has no WMD.

More oil in Saudi,

It's cheaper to buy the oil then to wage war for it. Look at Iraq. The accusation from guys like you is that the US went in there to steal the oil. Funny, we don't get free oil from Iraq now. And, if all the US wanted was oil from Iraq, all we'd have to have done in 2003 was push for the UN to lift the oil embargo and disband the oil for food program allowing Iraq to sell freely.

and they are a far more regressive regime than Saddam's Iraq, and they actually do sponsor international terrorism.

Saudi Arabia is a "far more regressive regime than Saddam Hussein's Iraq?" LOL. How do you figure? Sure, Saudi Arabia is a Kingdom, a monarchy. But, Saddam Hussein's Iraq was totalitarian dictatorship modeled after Stalinist Russia, whereby the dictator seized control in a political coup in the 1970s where he lit a big fat cigar and put his feet up on a big desk at the front of the then Iraqi Parliament. He began one by one calling out persons he declared as enemies of the state, and had his military police drag them out one by one to be jailed and executed. After several folks were dragged out of Parliament, other Iraqi MPs started standing up and screaming to declare their loyalty to Saddam. He then ran an absolute dictatorship for about 25 years, He had Secret Police who would spy on citizens, and drag them off to jail in Stalinist "black bag" operations, where someone is dragged screaming from their house in the middle of the night in front of their family, to be tortured and killed. His regime committed mass murders. Mass rapes. forced disappearances and kidnappings, assassinations, chemical warfare. He destroyed Iraq's marshes and killed hundreds of thousands of Marsh Arabs. He terrorized the Kurds, killing up to 200,000 Kurds according to Human Rights Watch and such. 250,000 Shias in the south of Iraq were killed as well. Like North Korea, Iraq had police checkpoints all across the country, preventing travel, and exit Visas to leave the country were almost impossible to get. His regime used Sarin, mustard gas and nerve agents against the Kurds, and add to that mass executions, mass rape and the like. Hussein's regime tortured journalists in the 1990s. Saddam was the leader, and groomed his sons well -- Uday had private torture chambers and was a serial rapist as well as leader of the Fedayeen Guard. Tariq Azziz was the hangman, who would hang Saddam's political opponents. Saddam's brother lead the Secret Police, and its regime of brutality and killings and kidnappings and assassinations. Saddam had a half brother who led the suppression of the kurds. Another half brother was in charge of many of the regime's tortures, rapes and murders over the years. He had Chemical Ali in charge of gassing Iraqi citizens. Saddam had his governor of Kuwait set up a program to rape Kuwaiti women during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.

I don't defend the Saudi regime. They are brutal and repressive. But to say that they are "far more regressive" that Saddam Hussein's regime is saying a lot, and I would put it to you to make a case for that.

[Forty Two]

But that doesn't tally with the US evening news Hermy - Saudi Arabia is our best friend in the Arab world - therefore it must be wrong.

You've seen a news report stating that Saudi Arabia is the "best friend" of the US in the Arab World?

[pErvinalia]

Walls of red herring text ignored.