* Posts by F111F

271 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jul 2010

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'Race against time' to find LOST TREES from the MOON

F111F
Coffee/keyboard

Icon Says It All

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First reports on XM-25 Judge Dredd smartgun in A'Stan

F111F
Stop

Which Rate?

Which casualty rate are you talking about? Number of casualties per war? Casualties per target? Casualties per week? Casualties per engagement? All of those are dramatically reduced from WWII on. The only civilian casualty rate that's going up is the ratio per dead soldier, since we're losing a lot fewer soldiers these days than in wars previous (57K in 'Nam over 10 years compared to 2,200 or so for OEF in Afghanistan). Even then, the OVERALL number of civilian casualties per war (that is, a combat action where the US or Allied military personnel comprised one side of the fighting--not going to count the atrocities committed in Africa and elsewhere by locals vs locals) continues to drop. THEN you have to take into account how many civilian casualties are caused by US/Allied forces or the Taliban/Al-Qaida. Many/if not most civilian casualties, I would wager, are from suicide bombs and IEDs the Taliban/Al-Qaida favor. I'm not saying there weren't/aren't/won't be civilian casualties from US/Allied operations, but I would argue that they are a much lower ratio than those perpetrated by the Taliban/Al-Qaida.

Super-thin materials could POWER our WORLD

F111F
Coat

Thick?

Umm, doesn't two dimensions (assuming length and width are the two) mean there is no thickness? And since molecules and even atoms are three-dimensional objects, how can the sheets be two-dimensional?

Mine's the thick one...

Fifa to give goal-line tech a shot

F111F
Thumb Down

Still Won't Solve Anything

Off hand and completely without any facts besides my own experiences as a player, spectator, coach, and official in this great sport, I'm guessing about the current accuracy rate is somewhere around 99% when you count the number of goal/no goal decisions made by the officiating teams compared to definitive evidence of an error. Is this really the smartest thing to pursue when it's patently obvious that there is no chance of a perfect system, so how much are we going to spend to get that next half a percent and is it really worth it? I think not.

Yeah, I feel for those who were robbed, but so was my team when the official decided a foul was committed in the penalty area and took away our goal in the World Cup (and I was there, right behind the goal line and saw nothing but normal jostling). Sh*t happens. As I've always told my teams "If we play so badly that the official has input in to whether we win or lose, shame on us."

Murdoch & Co unveil iPad news rag The Daily

F111F
Welcome

I Tried It

Was impressed by the amount of photo/video content. Seemed to work well for the most part, just a few grainy vids. Articles read well, one or two were leaned more to the conservative side. At first I watched a couple of ads and then realized I could just "swipe" through them to the next page. Interesting concept for the articles: after the intro screen shot, you turn the iPad to landscape and up come photos attached, keep it portrait and the next page is the article itself.

What I didn't like: I had to swipe through the entire sports section before I could find a sport other than American football and stories about the Superbowl. The summary/index section needs to be up front instead of last. The Daily needs to allow subscribers to move through an index of sorts to drill quickly to the articles they want to read, and that's true about every section. There is an overhead selection bar for the different sections, but it only takes you to the start of the section. So, if you move back and forth between sections, you have to start at the beginning of each section. At least that was my initial impression, there might be some trick/tweak that wasn't either obvious or intuitive.

Overall: Better than the other news sites/papers out there (NY Times, BBC, etc), but could be better and will have to improve if they want me to pay for it.

Chaps tolerant of girl-on-girl cheating by other halves

F111F
Megaphone

You're Mad

My wife has been an OB/GYN Nurse Practitioner for 20+ years now, and the stories that come out of her clinic...but I digress. YES, STDs are a major concern for any non-monogamous relationship, no mater the combination of gender(s). Sleep with someone, sleep with everyone they've had sex with.

FAA to pilots: Expect 'unreliable or unavailable' GPS signals

F111F
Alert

I'll Let You Know...

Since I live near the "o" in Georgia on that map. Interestingly, Kings Bay is the nearest point of land, were the USN has a large base...wonder what they're testing...

Raygun dreadnought project reports 'remarkable breakthrough'

F111F
FAIL

Title

You missed the part about "multiple kills simultaneously"

F111F
Boffin

Offense vs Defense

Lasers will be limited to LOS (line of sight), or the horizon for ships attacking ground/sea based targets, whereas railguns are projected to have hundreds of miles of effective coverage. So, if a ship's laser is 10m above the water (seems a reasonable height), then multiplying by 12.7 and taking the square root...means the horizon is about 11.27 kilometers away. For sea-skimming, supersonic missiles (assuming a standalone radar at the same height as the laser), that comes out be around 32 seconds (or less) to acquire, target, and engage the missile, or not much time at all. Since the FEL is supposed to have a continuous rate of fire, it can hold a beam on the missile, where a railgun might have to fire repeated shots (assuming you can reload/recharge in less than 32 seconds).

So think of the FEL as your goalkeeper (except not the English ones), and the railgun as your Xabi Alonso (Liverpool vs Newcastle, 2006(?)) and you'll do fine.

Galileo euro-satnav 'driven by French military', says sacked CEO

F111F

Completely Dependent

Considering Europe IS completely dependent on the US to get anything done militarily, and has been for the past 60 years or so, your statement about being dependent on the "playground bully" strikes me as being a bit petulant. I mean, you Europeans couldn't even get the Balkans settled down without a huge US presence to not only employ force, but to coordinate the entire scenario. Frankly, it's been the US pushing our European allies hard for decades to properly spend on upgrading equipment, training, exercises, etc. The Brits are top tier, then Germans and French, and then Italians, and then everyone else as far as being able to actually defend themselves and project power to secure national interests (which includes keeping the peace in Europe itself).

BTW, it's been this "playground bully" that's given you free access to the playground for the past six decades, so if you want to strke out on your own, go for it. Good luck, it's a big world out there.

F111F
Go

Offer

...up, oh, say one trillion dollars and we'll be happy to sell it to the UN. That should pay for a very nice replacement system.

Israel and US fingered for Stuxnet attack on Iran

F111F
Black Helicopters

Already Happens on a Daily Basis

China, especially, and other nations try (and succeed in some cases) to hack the commercial and defense businesses, as well as government systems of the US and other Western nations to gain significant leaps in technology and science. Now, what pray, is the difference between actions to slow one nation down and those to speed the capabilities of another up? Nada, it's just the flip side of the same coin.

California's green-leccy price system will stifle plug-in cars

F111F
Joke

Simple

Just do like the pot-growers and run generators to power your car....

Man nabbed nude pics from women's email accounts

F111F
Joke

3,200?

Is this just the tip of the iceberg? How many women are actually doing this? And why don't I know any of them?

Yank fires up iPhone-controlled beer cannon

F111F
Go

Bud = Timely Repairs

In the 80's, whenever we diverted one of our F-111s to RAF Lossiemouth, step one (literally) in the recovery checklist was to purchase a case of Budweiser (we used the maintenance commander's slush fund) for the RAF senior Warrant Officer up there. If you showed up with case in hand, you got to stay in a nice B&B, lights and power on the flightline, and a truck to use. No case of Bud: sleep in the barracks, no help, no transport. So, don't badmouth Bud too much, it help me get a lot of aircraft fixed...

China's 'stealth fighter' flies – brown trouser time, or not?

F111F
Stop

Only One Problem...

with the author's rant...no one in the US DoD is even bothering to give this thing a second glance, let alone go "brown trousers" over it. Did the author really expect no one to sit up and take notice when China produces a "fifth generation" aircraft? Of course the various pundits are going to do their thing, from both sides of the argument...that's what pundits do. So a "Well Done!" on highlighting the very obvious and wasting our time. The course is fixed for the next decade or so. Continue testing unmanned fighters/bombers until they can pass the "interesting, but what good is it?" stage; and secondly, get a replacement bomber for the B-52s, B-1s, and B-2s, most of which are older than the readers on this site and I suspect the author as well.

ISPs battle EU child pornography filter laws

F111F
Megaphone

Isn't That The Point?

Shouldn't we be forcing pedos to go underground? Make it harder to do such things through normal channels? I could use the same argument that going after the hosts only forces them to operate out of areas that permit it. Duh...do both. Make it as hard as possible for a) someone to post that crap; and b) someone to find it.

Yorks cops bust Bradford guinea pig farm

F111F
Boffin

Darker Areas, not Lighter

...show heat loss. Notice the chimneys and windows on the buildings surrounding, they are darker, showing heat escaping. Also, the article said it was a "garage" not a shed.

My question: Why not simply look in the window? Don't most garages have a window or two? It would be "in plain sight" and if the police couldn't see the pets, they would see that there was no cannabis production. I'm guessing they coppers didn't even try, and just decided to inconvenience everyone by calling the homeowner home from work to grandstand a "raid".

US gov funds censorship-busting tech alternatives to Wikileaks

F111F
Coat

It Would Appear...

...from the commenters here that you (collectively) do not see any difference between supporting individual rights to publish private material (even if it's critical of government decisions or policies), and efforts to prevent and/or punish theft and subsequent publishing of communications between government agencies.

It leads me to wonder the following:

A) Would all those who call this measure hypocrisy be willing to have any and all private records open for public viewing, including financial and medical records? Or, barring such willingness, be supportive of a trusted agent (employee or relative, take your pick) who gives your information to someone else who then publishes your private records for your competitors and neighbors to read?

B) Is there no government information that should be kept from public disclosure? For instance, tax records, or medical records for those whose tab was (at least) partially paid for by government funds? And does that mean procedures for protection of dangerous materials, including the access codes and locations and/or description of keys? Or, is it O.K. to have some level of privacy (or restriction of information to trusted agents, if you will), even in government, and what we should be discussing is what kinds of information should be public, along with what kinds should be withheld from public scrutiny?

C) Assuming the "free love" attitude with information that seems to prevail here becomes the standard, does anyone here really think the world will be a safer or even less dangerous place? I could go for for the paranoid viewpoint and argue that secret ballots are a method for governments to keep control of the people (or companies to prevent unionization, etc), and therefore ballots should be made public so independent agencies can confirm the votes for each candidate/proposition. Of course that would open up avenues of retaliation against those who voted "incorrectly", however the greater good of transparency would be maintained. But, is transparency really the greater good?

The two assumptions I'm operating from, if not totally obvious, is that there is information (personal, commercial, and governmental) that does not belong in the public arena. Second, that we have to have "trusted agents" in personal, commercial, and governmental areas who will control the information contained in that area. Whether that person is your significant other and has access to your bank accounts, or someone with a Secret clearance to peruse information from a variety of government agencies in the hunt for terrorists, we are going to have to trust them to do their duty. I also believe that, eventually, most government information (excluding personal information such as, but not necessarily limited to, tax and medical records for private individuals) should become public information, but the timing for some of that information should be well beyond any possible interest to anyone but historians.

I'll get my coat now, it's the one soon to be covered in rotten eggs...

Enormous 1km ice-cube machine fashioned at South Pole

F111F
Boffin

LC-130H is the Name...

flying in the Arctic and Antarctic is the game. The USAF (actually the Air National Guard's 109th Airlift Wing, out of Schenectady, New York) maintains the LC-130s for both military and NSF missions to the poles. The rocket packs are real and very much used to help overcome the friction of sledging along the snow/ice. They are working on an eight-bladed composite prop to provide enough thrust during takeoff to exclude the need for the rockets, or at least hold the rockets in reserve for the heavier loads.

Catfish: A fanfare for Facebook fakery

F111F
Paris Hilton

AMEN!

I'm with you brother...wait...drat.

Paris, for just this

'Blitzer' railgun already 'tactically relevant', boasts maker

F111F
Coat

RTFL*

In fairness to Lewis, he used the same numbers posted in the GA article..."exceeding 60,000 gee". The picture in the article shows a barrell about 10-12ft (3-4m) long, and shows a shell in flight with fins out, so unless this is a bit of early/late April Fool's on the part of GA...

*Read The effing Link

...mine's the one with the sabot in the pocket.

Electric forcefield space sailing-ship tech gets EU funding

F111F
WTF?

Ummm...

how do you keep the spokes (wires) from overlapping one another? Assuming space isn't "smooth", nor the solar wind, won't the spokes migrate about without a "wheel" to keep them in position? Or, could they use the electrical fields to control the wires?

Herts cops 'ate the evidence' at scene of crime, court told

F111F
Thumb Up

Tags

I'm just impressed that The Reg has "Pizza" and "Dominos" tags. Too bad there's no "pizza" icon, 'cause I'd order mine with tuna and bannas (from an ad a LONG time ago in the U.K.)

Robotic High Noon in Colorado

F111F
Pint

The "Real" Reason...

for the robot is buried in the story: "Some pedestrians, unable to reach their vehicles at a lot adjacent to the robot, decided to wait it out at a bar on 20th Street, asking uniformed officers to let them know when the road reopened."

Cheers for the sensible pedestrians...

NASA to make MAJOR ALIENS REVELATION this week

F111F
Happy

Now Is the Time...

to stock up on selenium...Head and Shoulders, preferably.

Smiley (with three eyes)...

YES! It's the twists-in-midair FALLING GECKO ROBOT!

F111F
Coffee/keyboard

You Owe Me...

one of these...LOL

'Phantom Ray' robot warjet to ride atop NASA shuttle-carrier 747

F111F
Boffin

Several Things...

1) It can carry a variety of weapons; cruise missiles are limited to one.

2) It can attack several targets far apart; cruise missiles are limited to one (OK, you can kill multiple targets but they have to be co-located).

3) It can be re-used; cruise missiles are designed for one-way operations.

4) Reusability MIGHT make the UCAV cheaper than cruise missiles in the long run, but it depends on a lot of factors.

As for script kiddies, sorry, no clue. However, to accomplish such a feat, the intercept would have to successfully hide amongst the real flying schedule to convince maintainers and weapons loaders to prepare it for flight (as well as the armament guys to build the munitions and deliver to the aircraft). It might be slightly more credible if the intercept were to occur in flight, though then you take a gamble of what its loaded with might not fit your plans.

NASA's new 'Bullet' airship to fly from Moffett Field

F111F
Paris Hilton

New Measurement?

So, if this airship is rated at 1,500 cattle, how would the Hindenburg rate?

Paris, for, well it's Friday and why not?

How to make boots on Mars affordable - One way trips

F111F
Boffin

20 is correct.

The article is referring to their life expectancy on Mars, which would be about 20 years or so, based on the amount of radiation absorbed a) on the journey there, and b) on the surface. As I understand it, the major cancers from radiation take about 20 years to start to flourish, which is why the animals with shorter lifespans/quicker reproductive cycles are doing relatively well around Chernobyl.

F111F
Boffin

Cells?

Who needs cells when you're on a prison planet with no hope of ever escaping? That would mean guards, quarters for guards, food for guards, unions, etc. Just put them in one location on the far side of the planet with the same equipment/training as the colonists and it'd be centuries before they'd even have the resources to find each other's camp.

US census takers fight angry Americans for their data

F111F
Paris Hilton

1788, not 1776

The Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1788, not 1776.

Paris, for it's exactly something she'd not know.

F111F
Big Brother

That's Nothing

This census taker should be glad he didn't have to do this work 100+ years ago. Census takers were regularly shot at and chased out of towns, especially in the mountains and Far West. It may be in the Constitution, but some Americans take their privacy seriously. As for me, yes, I returned my census form, but it doesn't mean I'm "happy to oblige". It was a duty, and I carried it out. What I hope doesn't happen is the (name your party) using that information to gerrymander districts so they can retain seats (or deny them to the other parties), as well as "give" representation to certain minorities.

Wait...what? It's already happened you say? Well now I know why census takers take such abuse...

Big Brother, because that's what's this is all about, innit?

LOST Vulture One PARIS spaceplane FOUND!!!

F111F
Thumb Up

One...

small plane for Man...one giant fall/glide for plastickind!

Bus spotter admits £11k database fees fraud

F111F
Pint

Plane Spotters Weren't Our Problem...

It was the guy selling ice cream to them...he worked for the Soviets and would report on the comings/goings of our base (I was at RAF Lakenheath in the mid-late '80s). 'Course the tip-off was the 11 antennas sprouting from his van, so he could monitor our frequencies. We let him be on the principle "Better the devil you know", and just worked any classified stuff around his location/shift.

When I was at RAF Upper Heyford (beautiful area of England with some great people with whom we are still friends), we tried to move some F-111s from the US into the UK covertly (NATO exercise), flying in on a weekend, after dark, no light approach until they were on final and then turned off as they landed, just using the headlights from our vehicles to guide them along the taxiways to the shelters. Nice and covert...except for the truckload of plane spotters at the end of runway who'd been tipped off by one of their own in Base Ops and remained camped out there for a few days until they got all the photos they wanted. Still, we managed to keep it "quiet" from the rest of Europe and pulled off a surprise attack on Monday.

Anyways, here's one for the good times we had during our 6 years in the UK, where met some great people and got to live in a beautiful country.

Angry Birds addicts crash GetJar site

F111F
Joke

It's...

those thieving swine!

Danube sludge peril: Brown trouser time or not?

F111F
Pint

My Takeaway...

from this article is that we should consume less water, for the time being at least, and drink more beer as compensation...Cheers!

PARIS furnished with engorgement

F111F
Pint

Well Done!

Cheers to Rui for having the good grace to help us with good laugh to start the day...here's your pint lad, first one's on me if we ever meet.

US navy to battle Iranian mini-ekranoplan swarms with rayguns

F111F
Boffin

Probably Not...

To both questions...lasers concentrate an extreme amount of energy in a very small space, overwhelming any ordinary mirror's ability to reflect enough energy to remain intact. Perfect (enough) reflectors are a) really expensive to make; b) hard to keep clean (enough) in a maritime environment; and c) make you a REALLY good target for other defensive weapons. Costs alone would probably dictate that any laser defense would be something else, like ablative material, but again, that stuff is usually expensive and adds weight/complexity to a weapon system. Or, coat your ship/plane with a metamaterial that makes you invisible/hard to target in the first place. The Iranians have a good idea, if you're willing to sacrifice lots of lives with cheap equipment for a limited objective.

F111F
Go

We JUST Got Our Jetpacks...

Directed energy-equipped Selachimorpha are coming....patience grasshopper.

Vulcan seeks further £400k refuel

F111F
Unhappy

Sorry, Not Practical

I'd like to keep one or two of my F-111s flying too, but modern jet fighters are just too expensive to operate/maintain by private individuals/organizations unless you're a billiionaire or have one to support you.

Segway philanthropist found dead

F111F
Coat

A Leap Of Faith?

Let me guess, he installed a Garmin or some such device and was following what it said was a bridge across the river...

Mine's the one with the Streetpilot in the pocket, how else did you think I got here?

Moms stand firm against antenna madness

F111F
Grenade

Compare the rates?

Anybody want to compare crime rates pre cell-phone and current? I don't think cell phone coverage has any bearing whatsoever on crime rates, but that's just my opinion.

And since you brought it up, maybe it won't be happiness, but more studying and better grades that results from reduced cell phone coverage. Would've saved me a bundle just on not paying for text messages, let alone the time/frustration nagging the kids to stop the texting and dive into their schoolbooks.

Sex, lies, and botnets: the saga of Perverted Justice

F111F
Joke

Depends...

Are there rules in this fight? Ala Paul Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Great movie, btw.

South African police hunt Twittering speedcam spy

F111F
Paris Hilton

How Is This "Squeaky Clean"?

You decided to drink alcohol. Then you decided to drive. You knew the consequences. You were caught and now you're angry you're not in jail? Jeez, paying a "fine" (bribe) and getting off without a blotch on your record is a good deal in my book. Only, now you complain about the same cop who let you off with a bribe? So, do the honorable thing and turn yourself in (and the cop), or stop complaining.

Paris, for it's obvious this is something she'd do, innit?

BT feathers ruffled over pigeon-based file transfer caper

F111F
Joke

Trafalgar Square...

where you have all the pigeon-based downloads you can possibly stand...

Apple said to prep iPad news sub service

F111F
Pint

Wrappers made from page 3, maybe...

And even then I wonder about silicone...

Silicone: helping beer goggles for 5 decades now...

Naked woman demands cab ride to Michigan

F111F
Stop

Grand Theft, Auto...

And I'd like my car back, please.

Tinfoil 'radiation shield' maternity wear hits 'Frisco

F111F
Joke

The new fashion trend...

<quote>Why don't you simply wrap a length of trusty kitchen aluminium round your midsection, too? </quote>

You do realize you've just started an entire product line of wrap-around aluminum, designed to be hidden under clothing so you're protected and still look sane?

Linus Torvalds outs himself as US citizen

F111F
Coat

Interesting innit...

How "Gay" now means "bad" as in a poor performance or poor showing. At least, that's the impression I get from my teenage kids and their friends...

Mine's the one with the morphing lexicon in the pocket...

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