Posts by John Smith 19

Re: Hugely impressive.

"There's a long, long way we can go yet."

That was sort of my point.

Re: Mis-read the point completely....

"The entire debacle is a result of the start of internal power struggles within the republican party in advance of the 2016 presidential elections (similar to the UKIP/Tory situation in the UK) - the tea party "very right wingers" are trying to draw the non-tea party "marginally less right wingers" (but still so right wing that even UKIP probably couldn't hit them with a rock from where they stand) into either capitulating their position within the GOP to the tea party or being seen to collaborate with the democrats - they then use this as a campaign weapon to get more tea party candidates on the ticket for the elections. Obviously the non-tea partiers in the republican party don't want this to happen - not because they disagree with the priciples of the tea party but because their more pragmatic approach to realpolitik suspects that a fully tea party approach will make the republicans as a whole unelectable for the presidency."

I saw a comment that 10% of the Republican party (IE The Tea Party) made a deal impossible.

The Tea Party are to the Republican party what the Militant tendency were to the UK Labour Party in the 80s and 90s. BTW while they got support within the party they made it unelectable for decades due to the perception of them as "barking mad."

So either the Republicans purge themselves of this group or they stay in opposition.

Personally either works for me.

But neither option changes the fact the US political system is FUBAR

Re: Old or new line

"As to the 50 billion ouch, one might suggest adopting the French approach - pay compulsory purchase victims double what their property is worth and offer their local council/MP a few million to shut up. Exeunt nimbies stage left, build railway in three years for 20 billion."

A chunk of that price hike has been the "success" of assorted articulate and rich NIMBY's getting concessions and whining about the noise.

Something I've never understood is why the hell they don't open the line for traffic once the first stations were open. It would begin generating revenue from that point onward. the time savings might be minimal but they'd start earning revenue.

Re: Sounds like a great idea but...

"... I'd burn my Granny as fuel before I'd give a penny to British Gas under any circumstances. In the hierarchy of consumer hate nothing else comes close."

I've heard they have a talent for making enemies of their customers.

TBF I suppose if you run say a yearly price check and they came to the top of the list as cheapest you'd have to go with them.

I'm not sure if they ever are the cheapest.

Re: First step...

"First step to making a Mars rocket in orbit?"

What do you think the "Asteroid capture" mission is for?

Why spend $5Bn to haul 500 tonnes of spaceship into LEO when you can spend $2Bn and nudge a 500 tonne rock into orbit.

Nothing gives radiation shielding like a couple of metres of solid rock.

AC @ 07:48

"I will post AC for obvious reasons. Having a lot of first hand knowledge of the aforementioned drug, I can assure you that no-one designs computer games whilst tripping. The Ideas and Images that enter your mind are so powerfull that you are literally elevated to another plane. Once you are in the plane it becomes the only source of existance."

Whatever made you think I was talking solely about LSD?

"Most people have no idea what it means to actually hallicunate, it is far beyond anything that a normal mind can imagine. "

I've only seen the aftermath of a bad trip a friend took.

The bodies still walking around but I mourned their death a long time ago.

"Most people have no idea what it means to actually hallicunate, it is far beyond anything that a normal mind can imagine. "

I've heard A Scanner Darkly conjures up some of the behaviour of some drugs quite well.

Re: Won't be long...

"It should also be noted that Titan should not be microwaved as chemicals released in the process can leach into your food."

Hmm.

A giant magnetron, an orbital nuclear reactor to power it and a large vacuum to hose up the results.

The possibilities are limitless.

Re: Shame they didnt...

"Let Balmer hold the phone whilst it was zapped - would be far more entertaining..."

Thus answering the question "Why did the chicken dance?"

"Any more articles to come on the solar challenge? I'm curious to see how the other entrants stack up against the one and only UK entry (CUER)."

There isn't even a Scottish entry.

While Scotland is not really known for it's PV industry they do have a strong history of invention and innovation.

Oops. That should have been "R.V. Jones."

As described in his book "Instruments and experiences," but attributed to the son of Charles Darwin.

An interesting read if you want to be able manipulate objects to the nm scale before the AFM was invented.

Re: Just replace the word "NSA" with "Google"

"The only real difference is that one bunch wants to show you ads whilst the other wants to nail your ass"

Or stick you in an unofficial prison without trial indefinitely

That's a pretty big difference.

Re: We've also got at least one more major design change possible:

"Wow, that was a quick move from 40% to 44.7% PV efficiency.

Now to see if they can mass-produce them at the right price."

And that's where it gets tricky

On the upside it can run at 297 suns so 1cm^2 of cell goes a long way.

And you can probably tap fairly high grade heat off it's back face.

But it's still a long way from anyone's roof.

Re: Om nom nom nom

"$15bn for a few servers and a couple of Scala scripts?"

But it's so much more.

It's a community.

Yeah right.

That will probably give it a P/E ratio in centuries.

Back in the day there was a Freak Brothers comic about their friend "Megaton Wally," who (supposedly) supplied assorted Wall Street types with what they really needed to get an IPO speeding along.

I thought it was hilarious fun at the time.

Somehow not quite so funny now. :( .