Posts by Rich 11

Re: Deliberately obnoxious

Tolkien didn't turn in his grave.

Re: Cart b4 horse

laser weapons. No need to load

Most high-energy lasers are chemically-powered. The spent cartridges and waste products are viciously toxic.

Re: Algohol

I have no memory of their whisky at all.

Re: Size matters?

Skagvegas? That must be Blackpool.

Re: density

That joke is just Feyn, man.

Degloved

If it fell 20km it'll have to get some new flesh from somewhere. Harley riders of New York State, you need to be prepared to do more than just protect your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.

Re: How in the name of sweet beJesis is this legal?

The police have been using facial recognition since forever, with terrible error rates throughout.

Now, now, be fair. Over the decades a number of police forces have shown that their constables have a far greater ability to recognise black faces than white.

Re: Measuring standards pedant alert!

About 70 yards. I remember working that out at school -- (1760*1760/640)^0.5 -- because I really had no feel for how large an acre was and couldn't have looked at a patch of land and told you its area. But once you can picture how long a sprint track is, or even imagine yourself taking 25 paces and triple it by eye, you can start to make a reasonable estimation by proportions.

I spoke too soon: it looks like the World King is about to be deposed. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

Re: Convenience will always win

Ask me anything!

What is your standard response when pressured to give information?

Re: "Surely it would have to be best of three right, if Remain won the second one? It would be 1-1"

and we most certainly did not get a referendum on the sweeping political changes and dilution of sovereignty brought about by the Maastricht and Lisbon treaties

That's because we're a parliamentary democracy where it's understood that referenda and elections only ever provide a degree of legitimacy for a limited time. The 1992 general election was won against the odds by John Major and was seen as vindication for his policies, including Maastricht. Certainly Brexiters had no problem claiming that the government brought into being by the 2017 general election was an indication of popular support for the Conservatives and the DUP, united by Brexit (and a billion pounds of taxpayers money, but let's not complicate matters). You don't get to claim it both ways, sunshine.

As more information comes to light we have the right to re-evaluate our opinions. This is why the 2016 referendum is not necessarily the last word on the matter. We now have a hardline Tory government which represents only the view of two-thirds of Tory party members, not that of the country as a whole. You can tell that this is true because the new government has decided to manipulate affairs so that Parliament is side-stepped, because it simply dare not put its policy to the test.

Re: Let him have it!

Even he's not stupid enough to not notice that his 5am tweets were no longer being announced on Fox News every morning by the time he sits up in bed to eat his breakfast hamburger.

Re: How things have changed

One of my aunts was a GI bride. She and her husband visited us in the UK several times in the 1980s and early 90s. My dad took Johnny to the Shuttleworth Collection at Biggleswade once, which he greatly enjoyed although it brought back mixed memories. My dad recounts him standing by the V-1 exhibit, saying to another old fellow next to him, "I remember being underneath one of those goddamn things when the engine shut off." The bloke replied, "Ja?"

After that, if you'll pardon the pun, they got on like a house on fire.

Re: Pair Instability

Fair enough. I clearly need to do some more reading.

Re: You definitely need to see

Is there an entrance fee?

Re: Meh

Someone is struggling to understand how debt works, how investment in the future works, and how the perfect should not be the enemy of the good. Enjoy your blind short-termism while it lasts.

Re: 50 / 50 false positives

Surely it is about right if it's close to 50, 50

Only if the white/non-white split in that group of lawmakers is approximately 50/50.

Re: Over Confidence

like looking at a Vegas motel room under a strong blacklight

You owe me a cup of tea (Earl Grey, hot).

Re: "mobile versions will be easy to scale quickly"

Maybe it's time to set up my own forecasting company.

Some days it seems like the only investment required to do this would be a hundred quid to register with Companies House and about the same to be spent on the purchase of a crystal ball and some chicken entrails.

Re: Heavy...

“Why are you wheeling it on a trolley?”

"Because your minister has just slashed our budget and my job goes at the end of the month. Enjoy."

Re: Well, you're leaving

Ah, but you hadn't thought of that ?

Of course we'd thought of it. It's the fucking government who refuse to listen and to get off their blindly-ideological, self-obsessed, short-termist arses.

"OBEY", "REPORT", and "CONSUME"

Let's not forget 'Arbeit macht frei'.

Re: Coding under the influence

Get hold of a square bottle, Jack Daniels or Jim Beam work fine.

The moment I get hold of one of those is the moment when I lose all interest in playing pool.

Re: Also being auctioned alongside Paul Allen's private jet fighter....

My undersea Dome of Doom has never quite seemed the same since I had to relocate it to the garden pond for tax reasons.

Re: harmonising the guns

I have it on reasonable authority the RN had a policy of harmonising at infinity.

Perhaps the Fleet Air Arm expected to spend more time strafing enemy ships than in air superiority combat.

Re: Naming machines

"yoda died"

FFS! Give us a spoiler alert next time.

*sob*

Re: Password must be politally correct

A bunch of Evangelist Christians complained

Complaining is in their job title.