Pacific Views

Is energy always conserved because etropy always increases, or does entropy increase because enery is always conserved? Or neither? Or both?

On the other hand, entropy is only a problem in a closed system.

You go Julia!
The system is illimitable, it is our measuring tools that are limited. Not to mention our conceptual framework that insists on employing them....
Erring to the side of life and happiness in the grim face of it all.
Giving in to inertia born of fear allows the greedheads to win. Increasing the mass of the knowledge of truth offers hope. Purveyors of the drag of disinformation are counting on our hopelessness.
Don't let them steal your slack N.
Wishing you well in your studies. .

After being reflective on my comment, glib while, trying to send a smile out to a friend- full well knowing the FTAA action and the punitive treatment the protesters are recieving are probably messing with studying; especially if the thought that in the larger perspective Miami seems to be a harbinger of how all forms of dissent are going to be recieved in the near future crosses your studying mind.Have you seen the Tommy Franks interview from Cigar Aficionado magazine yet?( check newsmax) It will wait til after your test.
It seems to "walk it like you talk it" is going to require levels of personal sacrifice beyond present belief from all of us to make change, to see a democratic future through. Yje truth is getting mainstream slowly but surely, all my reading has me thinking the "powers that be" are getting the cultural landscape groomed to allow killing the messenger....
I'm rooted in reality. But without hope how can we see it through.
And safely doing the public education task through blogging isn't enough...

My problem with entropy in the kitchen is not that becaue of it dishes pile up, but rather that cleaning up the dishes still increases entropy.

If you argue the Platonic view of fundamental truth as opposed to the Aristotlean, you could argue Plato's (and hence Socrates') belief that there was a fundamental truth or order in the universe found in pure mathematical reason and that mankind's perceptions and language are the imperfect description of reality. Aristotle put forth the opposite view, that mankind's perceptions and descriptions were the fundamental truth and that mathematics was the imperfect description of reality. Hence , if you take the Platonic view, the world is actually ordered, it is our perceptions that produce entropy. I liked it, I gave my student an "A" for creativity and boldness. Now the math was a little shaky, but hey, how many of us actually use calculus to balance a checkbook?

er, entropy always increases globally, but it can decrease locally.

in the long run, you can't win, break even, or get out of the game, but it seems that in the short run, you can cheat mercilessly (albeit not with any confidence about the outcome of your cheating).