Split Thread The validity of classical physics (split from: DWFTTW)

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subductionzone said:
I am tired of humber, we need more humb!!


Agreed! The thing I like about humb is that he takes something I otherwise am finding extremely frustrating (i.e. trying to pound an ounce of sense into humber's mellon), and literally makes me laugh out loud. It took me 10 minutes to get through his post about the canoe in the glacier because I couldn't stop laughing.

On a separate note, I started wondering about the meta-question... how does this thread end? Each of us will probably tire of it, but we will be replaced by new people that think they can explain some basic physics to humber - right? Eventually our kids, and our kids' kids, will be carrying the torch. Is it possible this just goes on until humber dies?
 
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Okay spork, now you've done it. The greatest insult possible. Somehow a quote of mine is attributed to humber.
 
Hi Subduction Zone,

are you sure? I would argue that the other way round it would be bigger :D

Greetings,

Chris

I have to agree:D I am still waiting for more humb. It must be painful for whoever is humb to adopt humber's personality, even if it is only temporary. But whoever you are your efforts are deeply appreciated.
 
The closest answer I can give you is to say that if the balloon were held at windspeed, then it would indeed be dragged back, but to below windspeed.
This is because the force driving the balloon, the downstream wind, is not enough over come the drag of the balloon through that medium.

There is the 'downwind' drag, propelling the balloon, but there is also the opposing drag of the balloon through the air. It's not a free ride

There is a turbulent wake in front of the balloon, just like there is an equivalent trail behind an object being dragged through a still medium. It's the wake of the medium over the balloon.

This encapsulates your misconceptions. You state you understand relative motion, then abley demonstrate that you don't.

You talk about DRAG as the balloon travels THROUGH the air- but it doesn't!! It travels WITH the air, so there is NO relative airflow and so NO drag.

There is NO wake "IN FRONT" of the balloon because, relative to the air, the balloon HAS no front as it ISN"T MOVING!!! For there to be one, it would have to be moving FASTER than the wind.

If the balloon had a net force acting on it, it would ACCELERATE. As it is moving at a constant rate (from any frame of reference) it MUST not have a net force acting upon it.

I realise this has been pointed out to you numerous times, but , hey, one more voice to the chorus!!
 
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Yes SD, but wheelslip was not mentioned until I raised it. When I did, it was incorrectly applied to the treadmill and cart. In the case of Goodman's cart, it may well be of use.
Wheel slip was not mentioned until you mentioned it. When you did, you incorrectly applied it to the treadmill and cart. You still are doing so now.

There's a stream in Wales that contradicts that. The water runs like a sheet over a flat, hard sedimentary bed. There is no pooling.
Just your definition of what is possible. Second hand assumptions. None relevant to the point about the speed of objects in steady flow.
All these examples do, is illustrate how variable conditions really are, and how far you are given to circumlocution.
Again, as per example of wheel slip above, no-one mentioned water going uphill until you introduced it as a way to confuse the issue of the speed of objects in fluid flow. Now you have managed to develop yet one more line of argument, which you now chuck in other people's faces as being irrelevant.

I was thinking though, about that stream. Well, your are right, I can't provide a reference, but I was wondering if I proposed a situation where a river may behave as I said, would you be able to help me clear up any mistakes that I may make?
When I read this I warmed to you. At last humber is showing some readiness to listen and learn, some basic communication skills, some humility. If that's the case, I congratulate you on your progress. If, however, as I then began to suspect, you are just being sarcastic...well, let's forget that (thanks for the reminder Gaspode) and deal with the text as if you were genuinely asking for help...

That's a bit hard I think, so perhaps you can help me with a simpler problem.
I put a rock in the river, and it did not travel at waterspeed as expected.
I realised that perhaps only buoyant objects may do this. Yes, of course. I exclaimed. But then I began to wonder if the transition from river bed to waterspeed may not be sudden. If the object were a little buoyant, may it not be simply dragged slowly along the bed? If it floated, say, 1cm above the bed would that mean it would suddenly jump to waterspeed?
Then I noticed something else. It appears that different objects, even though they are they same height above the bed, seem to travel at different speeds.
This makes me doubt that all objects get to waterspeed, even if time were allowed for acceleration. What do you think?
You see, even if you started off with a mind set on sarcasm, you are presumably presenting things the way you see them, and I am afraid I have to say that your understanding of fluid flow, even bits of muck in a stream, is very poor. Your basic point is right (which I will elaborate here), that a heavy rock will be pressed to the stream bed by its weight, and thus the friction between it and the bed may overcome the DRAG FORCE of the water flowing past. Indeed, heavy rocks can be shoved and rolled and bounced down a river, since the flow is not of a constant speed, depth, etc.

Considering however a single bit of a river in a steady rate of flow (but in a real river, where there are eddies and so on), we will find that lighter particles are lifted by eddies more often and bumped and dragged by the water more often. Much lighter particles still will hardly impact anything, and will flow at the speed of the water around them - roughly, because that will be turbulent.

If we now imagine a flow (unusual in nature, if possible at all) where there are no eddies, so particles are either too heavy to float or are light enough to be suspended, then we may still see the phenomenon that you describe - particles nearer the bottom may be going slower than those higher up (or further from the sides). That is simply because the water is impeded by friction at the bottom and sides, and we get that gradual differential in speed of flow from boundaries towards the middle, where the water flows fastest. Hence, if you observe suspended particles moving at different speeds depending on height, that is because they are suspended in fluid that is moving at different speeds, the same speed they are moving at, the condition we have all described to you, where the relative velocity between the object and fluid is zero, and there is therefore no resultant drag forces applied to accelerate (change the velocity of) the object or the fluid around it.

So, if you were genuinely looking for help understanding that, or if you were presenting it as another sarcastic objection to what is orthodox physics, there is my reply. If you see anything wrong with it, you are free to say what that is. Please avoid mixing up conditions in the scenarios you present. You must discuss what will happen to an object in ideal conditions, or when there are eddies, or when there are no eddies but a gradient of fluid speeds, etc. That kind of thing may have led to some of your confusions.

A further point in passing regarding your confusion about bow-waves and drag in these situations. ETA:
There is the 'downwind' drag, propelling the balloon, but there is also the opposing drag of the balloon through the air. It's not a free ride
When we imagine the scenario prior to steady state, when a balloon or boat, etc. is being accelerated, as I have said before, we need only consider the drag force applied to it accelerating it towards the velocity of the flow. I have asked for any others you think apply and you have so far failed to tell me what there might be. When there is that relative speed, fluid flowing past the object, there is a higher pressure behind the object (I'm using 'behind' and 'in front' as related to the direction of flow), which is like the bow wave. It pushes. The same flow tends to cause eddies and a low pressure in front of the body, like a wake, which we can only think of as pulling the object, not as retarding it. Thus there is just the 'drag' force, however you divide it up. Indeed whether there is such a thing as a pull force is debatable, and usually we think only of the low pressure in relation to its opposite on the other side, pushing, just as we don't consider 'cold' as a thing, only as a lower heat condition.

Of course, these directions seem odd (bow waves are usually in front of things like boats and wakes behind), but that is because we are not considering an object moved by a separate motive force (like a body falling or a powered boat on a still lake), which is why I raised the warning about using those scenarios and the term 'terminal velocity'.

I hope you will see that all of the above statements are consistent, not only with each other, but with the correct translations into other inertial frames of reference - such as, indeed, when a powerboat switches off its motor and comes to match the speed of the stationary lake it has been powering across.

If you would genuinely apply yourself to answering my question - what is that missing force - or to square your rendition of the situation with Newton, I think you will give yourself the help you have asked for. ETA: You would discover, and/or admit, that in the relevant scenario, there is no other force of impedance; there is indeed a 'free ride'.
 
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Seriously humber does show many of the signs of methamphetamine abuse.

An alternate suggestion...

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g. exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements) (SCORE)
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love (SCORE)
3. believes that he or she is 'special' and 'unique' and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions) (SCORE)
4. requires excessive admiration (?)
5. has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations (SCORE)
6. is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends (?)
7. lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others (?)
8. is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her (?)
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes (SCORE)

The above are diagnostic criteria for a narcissistic personality disorder. A narcissistic personality disorder as defined by the DSM is characterized by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the above.

It is rare for a narcissistic individual to be diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder because those who really should be don't seek help and so don't get clinically assessed; it is usually members of their family or work colleagues who seek help to cope with them.

References:
http://www.winning-teams.com/definitions.html
http://www.winning-teams.com/recognizenarcissist.html

If you ever wonder how the exploited wives put up with their narcissistic husbands, just think of yourselves and this thread...

We are all suckers...

As this may be seen as attacking the arguer I insist on saying that the text above in no way supports the argument that humber is wrong and others are right. I am making an argument that states that humbers writings match the symptoms of a narcissistic personality disorder. This is not polite of me, but what the heck. I just thought, looking at some scientific texts on psychology, that this really is an interesting subject as itself.
 
Take for example free fall in air. At terminal velocity, the forces are in balance, so it is said that there is no force upon the object. That is absurd.
Gravity is acting upon the object, which is why there is the other force.
Balance is not elimination.
I agree that "balance" is not precisely the same as "elimination", but in terms of looking at the effect of Newton's 2nd Law, the Force (F) in "F = ma" can often be conveniently understood as the net force on the object. So in that context, you can certainly eliminate truly balanced forces.

Say we have somehow arranged for a helium balloon to be in an almost perfectly uniform airflow, and moving at the same velocity as that air. (We'll assume the mean velocity of each and every molecule in the airmass and various parts of the balloon is identical. Is that precise enough?) The balloon's shape is not changing, it's height above the ground is constant (and enough to avoid boundary layers near the ground) and so on. Is there a net force of any significance on the balloon? No. Does it have some positive mass? Yes. Use f=ma and you see acceleration must be "zero". In other words, Newton tells us the velocity will not be changing. Therefore (in an idealised Newtonian world) this balloon continues on moving at the same speed as the surrounding air. That couldn't really get more simple as far as I can see. If you are trying to say that a balloon in this kind of idealised situation will slow down, then you need to explain where the unbalanced force comes from. In the real world things will nearly always be more complicated, but we've discussed this before and my understanding from your response at that time was that you weren't interested in quibbling over those kinds of messy (and often insignificant) details.

So let's now get back to the treadmill, and why you think it isn't an appropriate method of testing the cart going downwind at wind speed...

Referring to my post #2744 in the original thread, you said:
I did say that I found the scenario confusing, and ambiguous. I appreciate that you tried go be explicit. however, I came to the conclusion that what you were proposing was a variant on the treadmill idea. I should say, that if there is a real wind at all, then your claim may stand, but not if the wind falls to zero.
If you find parts of the scenario confusing and/or ambiguous because my description is lacking in some way then you should simply ask me to clarify the appropriate details. If you find it confusing and ambiguous in some other way then perhaps you should ask yourself if your understanding is lacking in some way. Yes - it was a variant of the treadmill idea. The point of that was to explore how you thought it might differ (if at all) from the treadmill. If you'd responded (and you still could!) in the same spirit that I wrote that post, we might actually be able to move forward. I don't understand why you can't (or won't?) do that.

I remember agreeing to a condition, but I didn't see a response. Perhaps I missed it.
I haven't checked back but that does sound right to me also. Perhaps jjcote will continue with the aircraft carrier again if he reads this.

Those are experiments that have nothing to do with the treadmill. I mean that whatever outcome you get from them, the treadmill is not like that. More specifically, not the treadmill and cart.
The other treadmill-in-a-van experiments, are proof that you can carry a treadmill in a van.
I am trying to understand what your objection(s) to the treadmill is (are). In my opinion, to baldly state something like "the treadmill is not like that" is not really good enough because it doesn't say anything about why you feel that way. It may be obvious to you, but it's not to me. This is why I (and others) have asked you to restate your main objections again now in some kind of summary. It's not easy for someone coming to this thread now to read the whole thing and pick out the relevant parts, and even if someone was to do that it may not be clear which aspects are the most significant in your opinion.

ETA: I have seen the other post, Clive...
I'm keen to read your response to that post (outlining 5 stages of an evolving scenario). Perhaps we might both learn something. Is this possible? Please don't disappoint me Humber! Once again, the idea behind this is to zero in on where your understanding differs from mine (and perhaps others also). Surely you agree that would be a good thing also?!
 
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On a separate note, I started wondering about the meta-question... how does this thread end? Each of us will probably tire of it, but we will be replaced by new people that think they can explain some basic physics to humber - right? Eventually our kids, and our kids' kids, will be carrying the torch. Is it possible this just goes on until humber dies?

What is humber's motivation here? Nobody on JREF will ever take him seriously. He can't very well tell anybody in the real world that he is humber on JREF because anyone can look up this thread and he will be the laughing stock of the town. If he think he can just disappear and come back as someone else with a fresh start, he needs to read the membership agreement again.

Did humber come here with the intent of being disruptive? He certainly has a knack for degrading any conversation into schoolyard name calling. We need to avoid that trap. There is no possibility of getting humber to admit to being wrong so just provide the refutations to his "arguments" as if you were documenting the humberisms for future generations.
 
Jeez, that was a lot of catching up, and I still have only skimmed most of it.
Humber, the discussion has moved on a bit too much for the reply I promised, so I'll just hop in here.

You mentioned somewhere that you agreed with this guy Drela that the important issue is the difference in velocity between air mass and surface.
You also stated that Drela says nothing in support of treadmills as a valid way of testing the DDW cart.

Can you help me undestand how a treadmill does not create a difference in velocity between an air mass and a surface?

Thanks.
 
So can you tell me how it is that every single person other than you on this site (and several others) just happens to be wrong?
Not true! I ride to the defense of my comrade and compatriot and compote!

I am tired of humber, we need more humb!!
I'll do what I can. Unfotunately, I am employed as an exterminator for a church, and this time of year I am kept very busy with the chiropterids. Not to mention the frog in my hosiery.
 
humber, I would think one of your many areas of expertise would be statistics. So can you tell me how it is that every single person other than you on this site (and several others) just happens to be wrong? I mean the odds of that seem pretty slim. Surely you have a perfectly lucid and logical explanation.
No expert in statistics, but good enough. How about you?
A previous remark exposed your ignorance of Drela's paper, and the above of the scientific method, and you have no idea of the concept of sets.

And yet you can't suggest a single way to test that "theory" of yours!?
You tell me why I can't. You have been unable to critique my objection that you have violated equivalence because the ground view does not match the belt view. They are not equivalent. Are you going to fail the challenge again?
Like I said, I gave you a use-by date, it's only circumstance that has extended that.

And you still can't decide where you stand on my claim that 2 + 2 = 4
Ask Daddy.
 
Hey, guess what! I heard from my old friend Mark. I asked him:
Testing of the model cart has been done on a treadmill, that is, with
moving ground and still air, as opposed to fixed ground and moving air.
Is the treadmill test equivalent (from a physics perspective) to operating in "real" wind?
and Prof. Drela replied:
They are the same if the real wind is uniform with height.
In reality there is a wind gradient, which the treadmill test can't duplicate properly. But the treadmill test can certainly validate the theoretical models, which assume there's no wind gradient to begin with.
I doubt that's good enough to satisfy humber, though.

Meanwhile, this has all been fun, but vacation is over, and I have to get back to work designing devices to medicate people and combat terrorism. Not sure if I'll be able to squeeze in any more time to go through the aircraft carrier example (which would eventually establish that the treadmill is indistinguishable from the road). But then, it's not my job to educate humber. I just hope my life never depends on anything that he has engineered. Please tell me you don't design hang gliders, humber.
 
You tell me why I can't. You have been unable to critique my objection that you have violated equivalence because the ground view does not match the belt view. They are not equivalent. Are you going to fail the challenge again?
Like I said, I gave you a use-by date, it's only circumstance that has extended that.

Wrong. It has been explained to you several times why it is equivalent. People gave you links to the physical laws involved.

You, on the other hand, only make bold statements without any shred of evidence to back them up.

You are again projecting your own misbehavior onto others.

Come up with evidence for your assertions, as you demand from others. Others have done so, you always failed. And no, evidence is not your own made-up view of things.
 
Please, stop projecting the things you constantly do onto others. Mind you, many have told you by now that you do, so you should really think about it: Is it all the others that do what you complain about, or is it you that does what you complain about others doing instead? That is, projecting. In this case, accusing others to twist stuff to make it fit their view, while instead it is you who constantly does that.
I wondered about that. How do you know that Drela's useage of those words is not the same as mine? I am forced to two conclusions.
Either you do understand why I say the wheels slippage is not important, and hovering is, and therefore make the direct comparison with Drela's useage, or you accept Drela's view on the basis that mine is merely different. Which one is it?

Too bad that you can't provide a reference. It doesn't matter what you propose to make stuff suit your thinking. Back it up with proof and references, as you demand from others. People have tried to help you to recon your errors many times, but you always reject that and insist that your view is the only correct one. Therefore, i'm not going to try to help you anymore, because you refuse to be helped anyways.
You are fond of hypothetical, if not to say fantastical arguments. Why stop?
If you don't know why, how can you be sure that stream does not exist?

Again putting yourself above everyone else, or what do you mean by "That's a bit hard I think"? You don't mean that you think i'm too dumb to follow your examples, do you?
Then try.

As others have told you many times by now, and what they have backed up with independent links: No, it would not "suddenly jump to waterspeed". That, again, is you trying to twist what people have said. It will, instead, slowly accelerate to waterspeed, if it is buoyant in the water, no matter at what level. 1cm, 10 cm, 100 cm above the ground. It will get to the speed that the stream has at that depth.
No, I am asking you. If you understand you should be able to tell me.

Again, many people have told you already that objects that differ in size, shape and weight, which are floating in the water, will accelerate at different speeds, but their final speed will be the same: for all practical purposes the speed of the stream. Heavier, more streamlined objects take longer to accelerate to the final speed, lighter and more draggy objects accelerate faster.
No, they are not correct it seems. The mass and shape do affect the outcome, yet it would seem odd that all objects can jump from being almost stationary, to being able to accelerate to waterspeed. I find it difficult to understand what makes the difference. Surely, the force must be graduated, and that will certainly mean the some objects will simply not have enough time to accelerate. A very heavy object, driven my a small force may take weeks to reach windpeed, or perhaps years. Also, it seems that there is a minimum amount of force required to move any object at all. How do yo explain that?
 
Please, stop projecting the things you constantly do onto others. Mind you, many have told you by now that you do, so you should really think about it: Is it all the others that do what you complain about, or is it you that does what you complain about others doing instead? That is, projecting. In this case, accusing others to twist stuff to make it fit their view, while instead it is you who constantly does that.
I wondered about that. How do you know that Drela's useage of those words is not the same as mine? I am forced to two conclusions.
Either you do understand why I say the wheels slippage is not important, and hovering is, and therefore make the direct comparison with Drela's useage, or you accept Drela's view on the basis that mine is merely different. Which one is it?

Too bad that you can't provide a reference. It doesn't matter what you propose to make stuff suit your thinking. Back it up with proof and references, as you demand from others. People have tried to help you to recon your errors many times, but you always reject that and insist that your view is the only correct one. Therefore, i'm not going to try to help you anymore, because you refuse to be helped anyways.
You are fond of hypothetical, if not to say fantastical arguments. Why stop?
If you don't know why, how can you be sure that stream does not exist?

Again putting yourself above everyone else, or what do you mean by "That's a bit hard I think"? You don't mean that you think i'm too dumb to follow your examples, do you?
Then try.

As others have told you many times by now, and what they have backed up with independent links: No, it would not "suddenly jump to waterspeed". That, again, is you trying to twist what people have said. It will, instead, slowly accelerate to waterspeed, if it is buoyant in the water, no matter at what level. 1cm, 10 cm, 100 cm above the ground. It will get to the speed that the stream has at that depth.
No, I am asking you. If you understand you should be able to tell me.

Again, many people have told you already that objects that differ in size, shape and weight, which are floating in the water, will accelerate at different speeds, but their final speed will be the same: for all practical purposes the speed of the stream. Heavier, more streamlined objects take longer to accelerate to the final speed, lighter and more draggy objects accelerate faster.
No, they are not correct it seems. The mass and shape do affect the outcome, yet it would seem odd that all objects can jump from being almost stationary, to being able to accelerate to waterspeed. I find it difficult to understand what makes the difference. Surely, the force must be graduated, and that will certainly mean the some objects will simply not have enough time to accelerate. A very heavy object, driven my a small force may take weeks to reach windpeed, or perhaps years. Also, it seems that there is a minimum amount of force required to move any object at all. How do yo explain that?
 
Hey, guess what! I heard from my old friend Mark. I asked him:

and Prof. Drela replied:

I doubt that's good enough to satisfy humber, though.

Meanwhile, this has all been fun, but vacation is over, and I have to get back to work designing devices to medicate people and combat terrorism. Not sure if I'll be able to squeeze in any more time to go through the aircraft carrier example (which would eventually establish that the treadmill is indistinguishable from the road). But then, it's not my job to educate humber. I just hope my life never depends on anything that he has engineered. Please tell me you don't design hang gliders, humber.

Your are right. It is enough to satisfy you, because you only ask the questions that supply the answer you want. You are leading him by withholding information. However, despite that deficiency, Dr Drela has once again provided evidence that the treadmill is false.

Testing of the model cart has been done on a treadmill, that is, with
moving ground and still air, as opposed to fixed ground and moving air.
Is the treadmill test equivalent (from a physics perspective) to operating in "real" wind?
You did no make it clear that the cart is stationary w.r.t .the belt. This may lead Dr Drela to think that you meant that the cart actually moves with the belt. I have said that case is valid.

and Prof. Drela replied:
Quote:
They are the same if the real wind is uniform with height.
In reality there is a wind gradient, which the treadmill test can't duplicate properly. But the treadmill test can certainly validate the theoretical models, which assume there's no wind gradient to begin with.

(1) Point one is an outright failure. The belt does not produce a wind of uniform height. This too I have claimed. Video #7 demonstrates that the air flow is only significant just above the belt, but not at propellor height.
I have produced at least two drawings to that effect, and shown that flow is in the opposite direction to that claimed. It flows with the belt, and is so a headwind and not a tailwind. That such a wind could be adequate, supports my contention that aerodynamic lift is reducing the friction between the cart and belt.
That is enough. The treadmill fails.

However:-
(a) You did not make it clear which way the vehicle was said to travel.
(b) You did not give Dr Drela the opportunity to consider the friction to the belt.
(c) You did not mention that objection that the cart is simply balancing
(d) You did not mention that the cart is said to be actually traveling at windspeed
(e) You did not mention that the observer is said to be at windspeed
(f) You did not mention that the cart is stationary w.r.t the ground.
(g) ......

Meanwhile, this has all been fun, but vacation is over, and I have to get back to work designing devices to medicate people and combat terrorism.

Please do get someone to check your work.

Now, if you have enough time, perhaps you would like to show your integrity by asking Dr Drela, the correct questions. You did not oblige the first time that was proposed.

If you are at all honest, you will do so, not only for you, but to save your friend Dr Drela, from having his reputation damaged by association

It is outrageous that you are so self-servingly careless.
If you do not, I will. You can see that I am persistent, so it will be one way one the other, jjcote. Bank on it.

ETA;
I am very angry about this jjcote. The request will be repeated until you respond. I will wait, but not long.
 
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Seriously humber does show many of the signs of methamphetamine abuse. When he posts he can type out an amazing volume of garbage. Like meth users he is absolutely sure of himself even in the face of tons of evidence supplied by others. He likes to use words that he does not quite understand the meaning of, and when his error is pointed out we can refer back to his absolute confidence in himself. He promises to provide proof for his side, but then when he never does he weasels out by saying he does not need to since he is obviously right. I am tired of humber, we need more humb!!

You are naive.
 
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