Posts by Scroticus Canis

Re: Dense diamond @ Grikath - nuclei not collapsed but electron shells are

As we all know normal matter is mostly empty space between the nucleus of an atom and its electron shell(s) and the also between the shells.

The so called diamond at the heart of this white dwarf would be extremely dense as a white dwarf is made of electron degenerate matter (collapsed matter) and while the carbon nuclei may be intact (so it is still the element carbon by proton and neutron count) the electron shells are compressed and changed so the nuclei can sit much closer to each other, not held really far apart by normal interacting electron shells. As the article states just over one solar mass in a spheroid the size of the earth. Density is around 1,000Kg per cubic centimetre. Bit heavy for even the average engagement ring!

Doubtful that the carbon nuclei are in tetrahedral diamond configuration as all molecular/crystalline formation are governed by electron shell interactions.

How do you propose increasing topsoil depth?

Well! Recycling politicians, lawyers, marketing wonks, etc... could be a good place to start.

Might not have much carbon cycle impact but it sure as hell would make the world a nicer place to live.

Re: Oh goodie.. now we're all safe

"... get those contractors busy so no one gets in real trouble".

Oh, like Edward Snowden? Yeh, no one got into trouble over that then.

Re: Slap drones!

Thought a Slap Drone needed intelligence - "smart enough to have a name". If it flies into arbitrary obstacles what will they call this thing? Rototard, Dumbodroid ...?

"real ale and curry nights..."

Well a vindaloo or by preference a Bangalore phal will usually get rid of the taste of real ale. Yuurgh! Reinheitsgebot or make mine a G&T.

(uppies anyway)

Re: A key problem is this... - "The Code Spaces story yesterday was terrifying"

Think you might just have solved the Cloud Spaces recovery problem. If they ask really nicely maybe the NSA will give them a copy of their slurped systems and data back from the NSA's on-line archives.

Who knew the NSA might have some real benefit to the masses?

@ Dr Who -

"Cloud services may have their faults, but this is categorically not an example of one of them."

Yeh, tell that to the users mate, I'm sure they will agree with you.

Vapourware and its data - one puff and it's gone. Wouldn't have happened with decent backups which aren't managed on-line. What a complete fail that is.

@coda122 - "Facebook *IS* human existence"

You really should try and get out more; but leave the smarties-phone at home so you don't walk under a bus or of a cliff (if you ever manage to get into the wide open spaces).

Re: @Wowfood - Don't quote me on this

Yes it does look like very poor interpretation of some other hacks idea of punctuation. As the reg author states that he doesn't know if "Bitnet" was a mistranscription or not, he obviously hasn't bothered checking with the other hack or the commissioner. Pretty poor reportage IMHO.

@Irongut - " the swill that Starbucks laughingly call coffee"

Well they had to test the pISSpreso system somewhere! I also suspect that Baldric supplied the chocolate sprinkles.

Re: This is what you get...

@Don Jefe - respect man, scathing but so true. Up vote for you.

Must admit I never knew you guys had 240VAC going into the property and then split off the 120VAC. Was always a bit confused by the transformers on the poles used in the states, what voltage comes down the road supply lines? Here the UK 230VAC (new convergence of the 220 - 240 zones) comes from a local neighbourhood transformer and then distributed around the 'hood as is. Normally single phase to each property unless they have heavy needs.

Re: Sooo... - "simultaneously correct and incorrect"

Yes, but you can't actually predict which is which and as soon as you measure the result the other one is lost; i.e. the observed result is not the result prior to the observation, as per quantum mechanics just observing it changed its state.

Thus if the observed answer is correct the original answer was wrong and vice versa. The tricky bit is of course is knowing which is which: is the unobserved answer correct if so what was its value, or if the observed answer is correct why did it get the wrong answer in the first place and should it be trusted?

What possible use this would be is beyond me. More tea vicar?

Re: But I read pretty much exactly that about 10 years ago?

Have come across this before too, so it's nothing new.

I would have thought that most of that water got down there during the initial accretion of the planet as well as some being 'deep injected' by impacting comets and getting trapped.

Undoubtedly some gets taken down in subduction as the rock will be as saturated as it can get having sat under the sea for a longish time.

Re: Oxford’s destruction of English continues unabashed @Irony Deficient

I used to think that the Oxford in OED was the English university town not one of the numerous Oxfords scattered across the USA.

English is the language of the English people and it pisses me off when a 'Merkin dictionary calls the proper use or spelling of a word British English (English English would be less insulting) when they should, if they were honest, specify that their usage is American English, i.e. a post colonial variant.

Rather than steal our language and bastardise it with incorrect spelling and pronunciation the USA should rename their first language* Amerglish or some such.

*(by use, well currently amigo)

No, its not him. Its you.

No, it's not him. It's you. - FTFY.

Re: 22 years for armed robbery?

Well as he was identified from his mug shot so he probably has previous form and it was two counts of armed robbery. Don't know if Illinois has a "three strikes" clause but know I would like something similar in the UK to keep the criminals where they belong. Unfortunately for us that would require a government and justice system that knew is arse from its elbow.

Re: Insurance? -"and take their lawn chair"

The one with all the helium filled weather balloons and the BB gun control-option for decent?

Wonder if some stupid 'Merkin Darwin Award wanabe will repeat that stunt with a bunch of quad-copters?

Re: More research is needed...

Indeed it is. The lunar rocks analysed are few in number and not considered as representative of the moon as a whole.

The oxygen isotope discrepancies are pretty minute and nowhere near as distinct as those of meteorites from both Mars and asteroid belt origins. Many possible scenarios from moon having no atmosphere or magnetic field to prevent solar wind contamination to residual contamination from asteroid bombardment.

On the other hand if Theia formed in a similar orbit to earth then it would have a similar isotope composition and such small discrepancies would fit. Also given the supposed nature of the collision there would have been significant mixing of material from both bodies.

Re: TRAITORS - "hung parliament and a hanged parliament"

With the current bunch of oxygen thieves my preference is for the latter.