* Posts by Osgard Leach

51 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Aug 2012

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Elon Musk says SpaceX Falcon 9 fireball investigation is 'biggest challenge yet'

Osgard Leach

Footage captured by the US Launch Report shows the rocket emitting grey smoke, before a huge ball of fire explodes from the top of the Falcon 9 rocket, close to where its fuel is stored.

The fire travelled along the rocket and engulfed Facebook’s Amos 6 satellite. A loud bang can be heard as the ground shakes from the explosion.

Err, grey smoke or Lox venting? Erm, everywhere is close to where the fuel is stored mate, it's a rocket. It's mostly made of fuel. And errr, the fire didn't really travel along the rocket either, did it, so much as the rocket (fuel) exploded in stages. Also it didn't really engulf the satellite, strictly speaking, which held out as long as it could then fell onto the pad and exploded in it's own right, (be that damn fuel again no doubt.) Plus not one but several very loud bangs could be heard at various times, linked no doubt to the various explosions.

All that plus a spelling mistake in the fucking headline.

I find myself getting bored with the Register, off to Ars Technica to check the tech news. Bye.

Sweden 'secretly blames' hackers – not solar flares – for taking out air traffic control

Osgard Leach

It reminds me of an old William Gibson story.

Watch: SpaceX finally lands Falcon rocket on robo-barge in one piece

Osgard Leach

The 5 stages of technology;

1) Impossible

2) Unbelievable

3) Amazing

4) Routine

5) Obsolete

We've gone from the original idea,(stage 1), to the drone footage of Grasshopper (stage 2), to this landing (stage 3).

With the speed things are moving on I have little doubt most of us will be around to witness the last two as well.

SABRE perhaps?

Soil and sand harden as SPEEDING MISSILES and METEORS SLAM into GROUND – boffins

Osgard Leach

Seems damned strange, just lobbing things in slowly like that. Un-American.

I know NASA's got a .22 rifle that takes about a bin bag full of gunpowder; hypersonic jobbie, own shed. Surely more the ticket?

Iridium sat comms module comp goes completely TITSUP

Osgard Leach

Operation STRUMPET. Somehow.

Er...

Satellite Telemetry Radio Up-link, Mission-Profile Engineering Test.

There, brilliant. Good luck.

OTHER EARTHS may be orbiting our Sun beyond Neptune

Osgard Leach

Re: Theoretical limit

Don't underestimate Rupert Murdoch mate. I bet when we get out there we'll find the Suns influence is just as strong as it is down here. Lowest common denominator, White Rocket Man schlock always sells.

Purple glistening plasma, you say? Orion plummets back to Earth

Osgard Leach
Pint

What a strange and ethereal video. Thank you.

I don't pretend to understand what's going on here, or even which way up things are, but then it's my birthday and I'm smashed on hash and brandy before breakfast. Which means I sympathise with that capsule; orbit's one thing, re-entry's a bitch.

London teen pleads guilty to Spamhaus DDoS

Osgard Leach

Also from Camberwick Green Youth Court, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub up on arson charges. Shocking.

'Turn to nuclear power to save planetary ecology from renewable BLIGHT'

Osgard Leach

"advanced nuclear power systems with complete fuel recycling ..."

Job done, take the issue of waste seriously and a lot of opposition will vanish, simple.

New reactor planned in UK, their solution for the waste? Leave it onsite in ponds for 60 years and let the grandchildren deal with it. Not good enough.

CERN IT boss: What we do is not really that special

Osgard Leach
FAIL

The so called God particle.

So called by the Daily Mail. It is not, absolutely not, and should never be, called the God particle by serious commentators. Or the Register. Please.

CERN's 2014 Xmas gift from the Large Hadron Collider: Two new baryons

Osgard Leach
Thumb Up

Truth and Beauty

Kudos to El Reg for avoiding the damned unromantic Top and Bottom.

Boffins train robots to pull apart LCD screens – without breaking them

Osgard Leach

Taking delicate things apart with a circular saw is just the sort of thing I used to get criticized for as a child. If only I'd known there was a career in it.

I like to think there's another robot under the table putting all the bits back together for the OEM market.

The Nokia ENIGMA THING and its SECRET, TERRIBLE purpose

Osgard Leach

Would be interesting to see how many they sold if they actually never told people what it's for. It's a black box.

Then let Apple pull the same stunt with a white box and compare the sales figures.

There it is! Philae comet lander found in existing Rosetta PICS

Osgard Leach

Startling how all the smaller features change between the 2 shots. I'd assumed it was either the shadow angle changing or a pack of Clangers running for cover, but with only 5 minutes between shots the shadow theory seems weak.

Now if we knew the scale we could estimate the top speed of a Clanger in an emergency, good science and terrific PR. What a mission this is turning out to be.

When androids dream of baseball fields

Osgard Leach

I don't think the little fella with the baseball bat is going to take kindly to any humans getting between him and the robot Japanese schoolgirl. World domination is for a reason.

Rosetta probot drilling denied: Philae has its 'leg in the air'

Osgard Leach

So still room to improvise and you can't ask for much more after a landing like that.

Oh Beagle 2, Beagle 2, where was your luck?

Race is on to touch down on COMET 67P before WHIFFY SPACE DUCK breaks up

Osgard Leach
Pint

Philaen Groovy,

Really just hours to go now, magnificent.

I find the idea that we might actually SNAP it like a dry twig is adding another rich level of intrigue to the thing.

Perhaps we could have another mission to land on the other bit?

That 'tech-free' Nophone? It was already out years ago

Osgard Leach
Thumb Up

Sure, ye ney sayers, all radical tech seems strange at first, but if history's any guide in five years we'll all be wondering how we ever got along without one.

Personally I''ll be keeping a weather eye on it, letting the front end users iron out any kinks before I take the plunge.

Ex-Soviet engines fingered after Antares ROCKET launch BLAST

Osgard Leach
Mushroom

Re. the picture;

Given the budget I was expecting a slightly bigger crater. Almost disappointing.

I've thrown parties that made more mess than that.

BAE points electromagnetic projectile at US Army

Osgard Leach
Pint

Terrific, delighted. I've often felt that what humanity really needs, at this critical stage of our evolution, is a colossal hypersonic cannon.

Super-cooled fluids all round.

RUMPY PUMPY: Bone says humans BONED Neanderthals 50,000 years B.C.

Osgard Leach

To be un-smutty, is there not a theory that these genes are a shared inheritance from a common ancestor and not inter-breeding at all?

Though truly if we could find any evidence of brewing, or even distilling technology prior to 60,000 BP the balance of evidence would swing powerfully back towards the shagging.

LOHAN crash lands on CNN

Osgard Leach

As a generic thing, before the mission profile is defined, can we have Kamikaze Altitude, Record Driven, Ale - Science Hybrid, Inter Atmospheric Nonsense?

Or if we're looking to get ahead of ourselves, designwise, then Kite Assisted Rocket Driven Aircraft for Super HIgh Altitude Nonsense.

The Reg's desert XP-ocalypse aversion plan revealed

Osgard Leach

Wonderful, wonderful stuff (Ladies and) Gentlemen. A learning centre in the dusty remoteness, connected to hardly anything at all by the skin of it's teeth, getting £100???????? worth of battle hardened advice from front-line officers, gratis, proposing solutions that are themselves free, done and dusted in 48 hours flat with a chap on the ground ready to execute. Wonderful,wonderful stuff.

Let's hope El Reg stays in touch.

Anyone remember the old "A Meeelion people do the Times crossword every day / Imagine if they did something useful" Disinformation schlock TV thriller from the 80's? Russians planted some Infernal Device, emitted Bleeps/did Nothing/Baffle the Boffiins type of thing.

At one point a young woman with a certain curl of the lip got out of bed wearing only her knickers, had Norh Sea Trawlers in it, all ended badly, Bomb.

Can't remember what it was called but funnily enough, to this day, women with a certain curlp of the lip...

Aaaanyway, this is rather like the opposite of that, if you see what I'm saying.

'Software amplifier' boosts quantum signals

Osgard Leach

Re: whaaat

Well Valeyard, I've read up on all this and you're spot on except for the HDMI bit. Yesterdays tech mate. Plus you only probably have to have put the cat in the box.

Kepler's new mission: spotting black holes and supernovae

Osgard Leach

Searching for the invisible with the unserviceable.

This wouldn't be a government operation at all?

Japanese boffins unveil INVINCIBLE robot rock, paper, scissors 'bot

Osgard Leach

Down my end we have Cider and therefore an annual Shin-Kicking Championship, something I hope these fellows are not aware of.

That video made my blood run cold....

Can't stand the heat? Harden up if you want COLD, DELICIOUS BEER

Osgard Leach

Isn't this just wonderful, wonderful stuff?

Here we are knocking on the door of quantum computing, contained fusion, Human cloning, the colonisation of Mars....

But Ice Cubes? That's a tricky one.

Almost makes you nostalgic for religion; at least you knew where you stood.

Need an internet antidote? Try magic mushrooms

Osgard Leach

Very nice SPB but the young lady looks less convinced, you sure she likes mushrooms?

Post-pub nosh deathmatch: Pierogi versus patatas revolconas

Osgard Leach
FAIL

Re: Streetview shot

EU loans mate, didn't end well.

Osgard Leach
WTF?

Re: so when do you stop with the analysis...

Surely the evidence is already in man?

We apply Occam, we note the bacon buttie already exists, we chow down.

No doubt the red sauce heresy will rumble on but these so called alternatives will fade rapidly as people realise you actually have to BOIL THE FRIKKIN SPUDS!

Jesus, there are INGREDIENTS in some of these things! You have to LEAVE STUFF IN THE FRIDGE OVERNIGHT! There is the very real chance of WASHING UP!

Osgard Leach
Facepalm

Re: Great artery-clogging food

Re "BTW, if you are little worried about your arteries, you can just boil them, garnish with fried bacon and eat them."

Sounds delicious mate but I need mine to circulate me blood

Ice core shows Antarctic Peninsula warming is nothing unusual

Osgard Leach
FAIL

Re: Opposite Viewpoints are not wrong, unpopular but neccessary.

Never mind the one-world-government- bald faced-lie-conspiracy-to collapse-economies ranting, you nail yourself as a religious crank when you say "I will say this now and forever"

.

Never mind new evidence, never mind new research, never mind unfolding scenarios, you will say this now and forever.

And rational people will not be listening.

Osgard Leach
WTF?

Re: Evidence?

All nice and sunny, yes...Just like a holiday.... Unless you live close to sea level of course, but that can't be more than, 75 perhaps 80% of us.

Osgard Leach
FAIL

Re: Agenda?

Lewis is a Parish Vicar of the new dogma so can't afford to be balanced or logical. He has his Holy Trinity to sustain.

Weapons, High Technology and Acronyms.

Sometimes all three come together in one project and he can be seen facing West towards the Pentagon, bowing down and gibbering ecstatically.

Does make The Reg look silly on some big issues but that's religion for you.

Investor pulls out of Facebook, pumps cash into pork-printing joint

Osgard Leach
Thumb Down

This is just factory farming by another name. I want my pork hand-sketched by artists in a respectful, sustainable manner.

New nuclear fuel source would power human race until 5000AD

Osgard Leach

Re: The Usual Silliness

Thanks JGT for actually answering rather than just downvoting blindly.

Points.

Recycling. As I understand it this is strictly for the high grade, spent fuel rods etc. Can it do anything about the countless tonnes of medium/low grade stuff? This stock seems to just expand every time you handle , measure or move it.

Burying it I can understand but the time frame, the geology, the politics.... Seems like a slightly polished version of dumping it in the oceans.

The subduction zone seems tricky as this is not a rapid process, is deep under water and involves very high pressues. How do you contain and monitor the stuff for so long?

Launching it into the back of the sun has long been my personal favourite and was my top choice for a Millenium Project worthy of an advanced species. (Sadly we built a big tent instead, but then we are only an advancing species.)

Osgard Leach

Re: The Usual Silliness

Thanks UMACF24 for a proper answer.

Points.

"Reprocessing", didn't we try that? Didn,t go well I think.

"Remain in the cores for a long time." I realise all these solutions are going to involve long time frames but it can't stay in there forever so are we then back to reprocessing?

"One ton per year per reactor" adds up to a heck of a lot of tons worldwide, of the really ugly stuff. I don't lie awake at night in fear of terrorists or rogue states but I don't see the wisdom in the human species to keep all that power contained.

Yes 300 - 500 years seems almost do-able set against time frames in excess of our history as a species but again the reprocessing, (and all the waste created by that)

"Operations." Understood it's low grade but there's an awful lot of it and again the solution seems to be "wait."

"In face of the prize" There's the rub. I love nuclear power, I'll eat the risk of accidents, releases to some extent but we can't pretend we know what we're doing until we have working, rational solutions to the question of the ever-expanding kilo tons of physically and politically toxic waste products.

Osgard Leach

Re: The Usual Silliness

So you take all the gloves, clothing, tools, shielding, end-of-life components, decomissioned reactors, pipework, instruments and the containers you stored them in and you pile them in a room along with the gloves, clothing, tools etc. you used to move them and this creates electricity? Without creating more waste?

Serious explanation please, what do you do with the waste?

Osgard Leach
Thumb Up

Re: The Usual Silliness

Upvoted JDX, plus the simple point... WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THE FRIKKIN WASTE? Seriously scientists, tell me, what do you do with the frikkin waste?

D-Wave goes public with 81-qubit protein modeling

Osgard Leach
Thumb Up

Re: iChing™

> Consciousness mentioned in physical process description

> The future.

LOHAN turns up the heat on Vulture 2 motor

Osgard Leach
Pint

Re: Layer of insulation

Nice one Auditor, nice one. With the sickening absence of lasers aerogel is a minimum.

NASA: WE'VE FOUND Four-toed NON-HUMAN FOOTPRINTS

Osgard Leach
Go

So any chance this was created by, for instance, a robot lander that, for instance, delivered "30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivering more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second. The energy from the laser exciting atoms in the rock into an ionized, glowing plasma?"

Or, for instance, a shark?

Cosmonauts step out for six-hour space walk around ISS

Osgard Leach

In the space walking game ther might not be an afterwards. I'd definitely get mine in early.

Osgard Leach
Pint

A six and a half hour walk is no joke, the dog must have been knackered.

NASA gets funding for Mars InSight mission in 2016

Osgard Leach
Pint

Re: Anyone else...

Well they've come a long way from the early days of Gemini, (German Engineers, MoNkeys, Ignition!), good luck to them.

Curiosity's laser turns Mars rocks to 'glowing plasma'

Osgard Leach
Black Helicopters

Notice that rock had some fairly well rounded corners? NASA needs a good lawyer, rapidly. One can't run around vapourising other peoples' intellectual property.

Boffins pump hot, vivid fluid into squidgy robostarfish

Osgard Leach
FAIL

The hat/glasses thing is actually a pretty good look.

The robot is shit.

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