Posts by Scroticus Canis

Re: If Sol is orbiting the galactic core ....

Yes stuff in our galactic orbit (distance from the centre) tends to have similar orbital velocity but closer or further from the centre it doesn't; hence the spiral shape of the galactic arms.

However that is not the story here, it's about the fact that the solar system wobbles up and down through the galactic plane as it orbits, some times above the plane and sometimes below and the 35my mentioned is about the periodicity of that. Going through the plane, where matter is more concentrated, it is more probable that we will encounter more random debris (be it dark or normal matter). That appears to be the hypothesis in the article linking this wobble to the extinction events.

Another factor is that everything is on the move including the Milkyway and it happens to be moving 'northward' with the galactic plane being at more or less 90 deg. to the direction of movement, face on rather than edge on. When the solar system is above the plane (north of it) we get more cosmic ray bombardment than when below as the matter in the plane acts like a shield (current thinking). It has been hypothesised that this has caused bursts of evolutionary change as well as effecting global weather conditions. Far from proven but worthy of thought if such things interest you.

P.S. - I did tell it to my dinosaur and it said "Polly wants a cracker".

Re: It follows... (Utterly fantastic)

Not to mention to the U.S.of A. as well, seeing how we let our own citizens be extradited there on less than compelling evidence, if any at all..

Presume the down votes to your comment are by those who are happy with the degradation of the UK legal framework and like the excessive catch-all laws such as the terrorism act.

Re: "Amateur Hour is Over"

Well scamming £238m isn't too bad for an amateur but pros like Madoff got billions. Fools and their money etc... or in the case of the governments bailing out the banks - 'fools and our tax money'.

Re: Face meet Palm

Well Bongo aren't you the ignorant one if you brought Botswana Dollars.

Botswana's currency is the Pula and Tebe (meaning rain & shield respectively). Very stable currency backed by real deposits in various world banks and have diamond and cattle exports underpinning it. They have the best democratic government of any African state and less corruption than most western European states. Since independence from UK back in the 1960s it's sustained growth, stability and good governance have made it the shining light in Africa.

If you want a 'safe' haven for you bitcoins then I would recommend the Zimbobwe Dollar as it's made from real paper and you can at least wipe your arse with it or use it as a fire lighter.

Re: Time to get the calculator out

Shirley a much simpler explanation is that the crime rate total figures go up because the population has increased.

Not only will contemporary infants have matured to crime capable ages, but 90 years is 4-5 generations in the socio-economic groupings where these types of crime are more prevalent and more likely to increase instep with hardship.

Just linking the expected rise to climate change probably got the grant which would not have been the case for a report on the expanding population of the criminally inclined.

Re: Balance... Meh!

Well if you (@ral) think you need more balance you could always lookup the stuff on wikileaks yourself. "Or is that too hard for you?"

IMHO Assange has all the charisma and charm of a sun bleach dog scat and about the same amount of moral backbone.

Re: "Line noise, Mandrake. Internet line noise!" @Trevor_Pott

Nutronium does not physics make either, it's a Si-Fi term; "neutron degenerate" matter is the correct name of the stuff found in "neutron stars".

@AC ..off tangent rant

Why does this sound so depressingly familiar!

Last house was so called connected when moved in but took a month to locate the three separate faults on the line before it worked and each time they fixed a single fault they said it's now fixed without any checking or phoning to verify. Eventually got a magnificent 1.5 Mbps connection in an area rated as 12Mbps on average.

Recently had a 20 day period of worsening line speed until nothing not even a phone connection with all kinds of crap "fixes" such as not meant to turn the router off over night. Eventually traced to a disconnected wire in the street cabinet which had magically managed to disconnect itself! Obviously Open Breach had nothing to do with it!

Re: Odd timing.

Well at least it didn't fly away laughing at your naked state! Would you have posted if it did?

RE: "If you're going to transmit sound over the air "

Well how else unless you live under water or press your ear to the ground to pick up vibrations via the mastoid bone?

Re: Says something, at least,

Didn't need the back pack, air heads float naturally. Bulgarian air bags might also have helped if fitted.

Re: Maybe they are the right people

Echoes a post I made a month or so back about the NSA dislike if Huawei, albeit on a Google story.

From this story - "The cell will be able to maintain "operational independence", but under the watchful gaze of GCHQ."

Do you believe this either? No? Me neither.

Re: Who cares what a PC box looks like? @Thecowking

Upvote for that. First thing I thought was some dork user would think "Oh a coffee mug holder" - cue fizz-bang sound effects.

Looks a bit like the Lecson power-amp from my 1977 hi-fi but that had a fluted cylindrical body in black anodised ally as it's heat sink. Prior art Apple?

Re: Suggested reply. @Fibbles

So Phil the Greek is German? News to me. Anyway arse is derived from the German 'Arsch' so.....

Re: wherever Bjork may lead, I enthusiastically follow

So where is she leading? Bjork (presumably the Icelandic 'famous' person) is only mentioned in the headline and not even a snippet in the text; so did she sign the letter? Who cares? Not me and apparently not the author or headline editor.

Re: Hand held shotgun?

My thoughts actually turned to a one or two bore punt-gun - large mounted (on punt) shot gun used for decimating a flock of duck or geese, one bore = 1lb of shot, two bore 1/2lb of shot.

Acceptable for drones but damned unsporting for wildfowl, thankfully not in vogue nowadays.

Re: cant help myself

Correct Denarius the "nasty hook/knife implement" is indeed called a flensing knife. Isn't this common knowledge any more? Looks like "general knowledge" is becoming the latest oxymoron. :(

RE:- A Parliament of Owls are really quiet

No they are not, there is all that hoo, who, hooting going on, although it would still be an improvement on our lot and most of the others I have seen/heard. My recommendation for a quiet parliament would be VX through the aircon system (well quiet after 5 minutes of coughing and gurgling) but I am afraid that's frowned upon for some reason that escapes me.

Black helicopter because I can hear someone abseiling down my chimney and it's way too early for Santa..arrgh!

PS: aren't owls quiet in flight so they can still hear their prey rustling through the leaves?

Re: Isn't Nicotine itself harmful?

Yup, it's a neuro-toxin and a widely used insecticide due to this property, a 60mg dose is lethal to most humans. Like most neuro-toxins it affects the transmitter agent receptors between neurons, stimulating some and suppressing others; vis increased heart rate but paralyses the bronchial cilia which remove crap from the lungs.

So while an e-fag is much less harmful than a real one due to no tar, it is not fully harm free.

Being an old smokey myself I have tried the 10 Motives brand (any supermarket) and found it quite effective with a couple of hits dispelling the NEED. More than that actually is too much. Also none of the quality or cleaning problems related in the articles as the tip you suck on is the bit replaced when empty.

Patches just don't work for me and the gums taste awful, like a stale ashtray smells.

Re: another potential benefit

Your right, ±0.3 C in unshielded wire but ±0.9 C if shielded.

Re: Hmmmm

Had a similar thought myself Norman, but mine was more along the lines of BitCoin doing it themselves to increase the value of the "product" as people scramble to buy them to save their data.

Am I being too paranoid? On second thoughts probably not in this day and age.