Posts by Alister

Re: Alister

@TechnicalBen

I think the question is, why were they near misses? If totally avoiding the problem is Sci-Fi, what can we do that is realistic to keep them down to near misses.

Sadly, the nearest anyone can get to a reason why they were near misses is that they broke up before hitting the ground.

Partially a function of their mass, size and shape, but also of their composition, initial entry speed and angle. The Chelyabinsk meteor had an estimated size of about 20 metres diameter, that of Tunguska was of the order of 60 to 190 metres long and 10 metres across. In both cases they entered the atmosphere at very high speed and a low angle of attack.

I can see no way that humans can engineer these circumstances with any reliability within a sensible timescale.

Besides. If we can track them, we can know where they will hit. What is the most reliable way to avoid danger then? Fire lasers and hope for the best, or evacuate the town/city in the path?

I think you don't really have a grasp of the enormity of the effects should an event similar to Tunguska occur in a populated area. In the original event the trees, to a large extent, contained the blast, and minimized the dust cloud that was formed.

Even then, there were widespread climate and weather disruptions for months afterwards. If a similar event happened over a city, the planet would probably go dark for weeks due to the dust and rubble thrown into the atmosphere, and that's still talking about an airburst event.

Should a Tunguska sized meteor actually touchdown, then whichever country it hit would be mostly wiped out - note I said country, not town, or city.

The Tunguska blast was estimated to be about 15 megatons or equivalent to roughly 1,000 Hiroshimas.

There is no way that we could effectively evacuate the whole target area of an impact event like that.

They forgot to ask for a pony. Always ask for a pony!

And World Peace!

Re: 1920x990

A 4K space sausage - stirs the imagination :)

...and the appetite!

Re: article header image

I was expecting the answer to be more complex, I suppose. :)

I may have been overthinking this...

Re: Hold on a gosh darned minute...

@ I am David Jones.

My humour detector is fine, thank you, just wanted to get the Cleopatra thing in there...

And how do you work out that 2667BC is 4672 years ago? Where's the missing 11 years?

Re: Let me be the first to say it

Okay, he was the first.

Terrorism as a significant international American concern arose considerably later

FTFY.

Internationally, terrorism was very much a concern from the late 60s onwards, particularly in Europe, it just took the US a while to catch up.

@theOtherJT

No, unfortunately I don't. It's worth noting though, the following:

The NCA first served a RIPA Notice on Mr Love in February 2014 but took no further action to continue it after he did not comply.

Which suggests they were on shaky ground already.

Re: Alien Space Bat at 54:19

@Vulch

Thanks, but in the video you can clearly see a nozzle of some kind with ice crystals forming round it as it vents, so it's not venting through the engine bell.

If there isn't a similar vent the other side, I would expect that to cause a sideways movement of the craft.

Re: Just a thought.

So he's an Australian who's had to flee the country, and makes fantastic statements to grab some media attention.

Curious, it reminds me of someone else.

Re: Music

I've been watching the 1970s comedy series Porridge and there's no theme tune.

Yes there is, it goes:

"Norman Stanley Fletcher, you have pleaded guilty to the charges brought by this court and it is now my duty to pass sentence. You are an habitual criminal who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner. We therefore feel constrained to commit you to the maximum term allowed for these offences — you will go to prison for five years."(SLAM)

Re: Business model?

I'm pretty certain that all of the TOCs and other ticket selling entities all use the same codebase.

Er no, they don't, I'm absolutely certain about this.

I know, as an IT Manager, the users would be in uproar for a few months but they'd soon get used to it.

Unfortunately, when your users include the directors and board of the company, the uproar doesn't last long - say five minutes after the first email the Chairman can't open the attachment on? Then, status quo returns, and you as an IT Manager take a long walk off a short plank.

Re: Relations

I would have thought it would be obvious to even the most hidebound civil servant that his headgear is clearly holey...

Re: Why is Billary not in jail yet?

She's even more dangerous than loose-cannon Donald Trump, who at least has some proven talents. ^{[citation needed]}

Re: I've

You'd think he was the messiah ffs.

Whilst I sort of agree with the sentiment - news channels and the internet have gone way overboard about this - you must acknowledge that he had a massive influence on popular music, not just the songs he performed himself, but all the work he did for other bands, and the industry as a whole.

@ Aodhhan

One of the US Government's primary jobs is the protection of its citizens. Right to privacy isn't absolute, and it loses when it comes to security of the nation or protection of the people.

You just don't get it, do you. What the Government is asking for is NOT POSSIBLE.

It is not possible to create strong encryption with an easy way in "only for government use".

The two possible choices are:

1/ Strong Encryption for everybody which cannot be easily bypassed or broken.

2/ Weak Encryption for everybody, which can be bypassed or broken by governments and criminals alike.

The drawback with #2 is that strong encryption already exists, so even if law abiding citizens and companies do as the government asks, and only use weaker encryption, there's nothing to stop criminals and terrorists from using the existing strong encryption.

Re: And the information is...

Accurate? Just wait for the lawsuit when the app tells people that Brand A is clucking unhappy, when, in fact, it's clucking cheerful.

The data the App uses is taken from a report produced by Choice, a consumer protection organisation similar to Which?.

This information is freely available here:

https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/meat-fish-and-eggs/eggs/articles/what-free-range-eggs-meet-the-model-code

So it won't be the App developers who get sued no matter what.