Posts by Bitsucker

Suspended animation?

In every one of the suspended animation examples listed in the article the subject had a reduced (core?) body temperature. But all of them appeared to be substantially hotter than their surroundings when found. So how can the article say that they had "literally frozen to death"?

Also, it could be questioned whether the subjects really did suffer no ill effects. I believe that surgeons in the old Soviet Union used to perform heart surgery having stopped the patient's heart. Rather than using the high-techery then available in the west, the surgeons cooled the patients down to 5%C by placing ice over their bodies. Western physicians who studied the outcomes of the 'successful' procedures (those where the patient survived) as well as the blood passed through the patients once during surgery & retained, concluded that the brain suffered damage when blood flow was restricted, even at very low temperatures. And all of the examples listed in your article were warmer than 5%C when found.

But that's what the Police do...

If the Police arrest someone then they'll try to include as many 'crimes' as possible in the charge sheet for at least three reasons:-

a) By throwing everything possible at the 'perp', the CPS may be encouraged to take the case to court. The more charges, the higher profile of the case.

b) Some of the allegations include child porn. The Police pursue those cases with a religious zeal. Anything that might tangentially be associated, if it's not an image can be described as contravening another existing act, in this case the Obscene Pubs Act.

c) Police forces in England (at least) are put into league tables based on how good their crime clear up rate is. Most forces have enthusiastically embraced 'administrative detections', where incidents/acts that would in the past have been dealt with informally are now deconstructed, tabulated into sequences of 'crimes' (committed both by 'perpetrator' & 'victim'), arrests made, cautions issued. Nothing has been done to REDUCE real crime; the only winners are the Police, whose crime detection & clear-up rates are artificially elevated, and 'difficult to solve' crime is ignored in preference of administrative detections, which carry as much weight in the crime stats.

Thanks for the heads up!

Fascinating video. Thought that ATC seemed to keep the show on the road, despite losing a runway. Loved the bit where the Captain of the 777 was advised that he was broadcasting the aircraft evacuation message!

It's not a 13 month sentance!

The defendant was jailed for 13 months, then consigned to a lunatic asylum indefinitely. On what grounds has he been sectioned? The article mentioned no reasons, other than he refused to cooperate with the authorities. That's the kind of thing that used to take place in the Soviet Union.

Grenade because people should be getting angry...

I'm not bovvered...

Other readers have referred to the pathological lying record of Peter Mandelson, so I won't (further).

However, when the subject of piracy detection (and the supposed ineffectiveness of Peerguardian2) was recently discussed on a torrent site I use, one of the administrators said the best way was to keep a low profile by using private trackers and avoiding mainstream stuff.

Well done Times!

How does revealing the identity of a blogger advance the causes of journalism or free speech? I wonder if one reason for outing him is because the Times offered nothing remotely similar, and 'if you can't join them, beat them'. Maybe there was a public interest in disclosing that the blogger served in Lancashire, but none in releasing his name.

Me too!

I can symphasise with Emma Alvarado - I bought a laptop last May & had to pay an additional £45ish for XP Pro instead of Vista. No regrets for buying what I think is a better operating system, but I'd like to know whether a lawsuit to recover the extra cost would have any chances here?

Bill, because he's probably responsible for this.

Another opportunity to stifle free comment?

It's not that far fetched to envisage people being arrested for wearing clothing with anti-government opinions printed on it - there are numerous examples on the ACLU and Youtube websites of precisely that already happening in the USA. To pick an example from Youtube, a couple were arrested for wearing T-shirts with identical anti-Bush logos - what is to stop the Police here from applying the proposed laws on the grounds that such clothing "prevent identification"?