Posts by Cynic_999

Re: One Last Push and it's Over

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1% - 2% = 630,000 deaths to 1.26 million deaths

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Yup. Meanwhile WHO is predicting that the effect of the lockdown & subsequent economic collapse will result in the deaths of 1.5 million infants and children.

So what's best - 1.26 million deaths, most being of elderly people in the final years of life, or 1.5 million deaths of children? I know, it's not a very good choice.

Re: Trust?

Is there any evidence that the surveillance in NZ prevented even 1 case of Covid-19?

Re: IQ downward spiral...

I doubt that the NZ government's response has had any significant effect at all. I think the favourable outcome in NZ is more to do with the population density and social norms than anything done on purpose. I suspect that the figures in Pitcairne also look really good.

Re: You don't have herd immunity for MERS or Ebola

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Do you have ebola antibodies? Did you get vaccinated for Ebola? No & No.

What about MERS? Do you have MERS antibodies? Did you get a MERS vaccine injection? No & No.

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That's because neither of those is likely to be transmitted via casual contact - you need to be living in close proximity to an infected person for quite some time before the infection risk is significant. So the "R" factor is inherently low.

Re: One Last Push and it's Over

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You could make an equally cogent argument for 'eliminate' and protect your borders

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I doubt that is possible. There is a very plausible theory that even in the absence of carriers, many viruses can propagate by being blown up to high altitudes where they are carried vast distances by the jet stream, eventually descending to start an epidemic in a community with no "patient zero" being required.

But even if not, the idea that a first-world country could quarantine itself from all external human contact over the time period of many years is simply a pipe-dream.

Re: One Last Push and it's Over

Or we carry on as we always did and accept that there is one more disease of the many that we might catch, but which for the vast majority would mean at most a week or two in bed, instead of expecting to be 100% safe from all the nasties. Let those who are extremely risk-averse cower inside their antiseptic homes, and allow the rest to enjoy life - complete with its risks.

Last year there were 27,820 people killed or seriously injured in road traffic accidents in the UK, yet it did not result in hundreds of scare stories each day in the media or people being advised to stay away from vehicles and roads. Nor is there a daily update on road traffic fatalities. We just reduce the risk as far as is possible *without* interfering with either the economy or normal life.

Re: i need to get out more

The only "bad beer" I have been served was a result of the bar staff making a mistake and serving me a mixture of beer and pipe cleaner.

Re: You get what you paid for.

Cheap at half the price ...

Re: long power cut = phone cut

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If the mains fails at night while you are sleeping then you will be unable to use the conventional phone to call for help.

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If this is a concern, then just buy a cheap UPS with enough battery to power the unit for a few days.

Re: The reality of FTTP

It will work so long as you power the unit via a UPS.

Ultimately, in a totally automated world, there would be no need for either work or money. Everything anyone wanted would be available at no charge. A small percentage of people would supply the necessary creative talent to improve and enhance society because that is what they want to do - similar to having a hobby. Machines will run themselves, repair themselves and extract raw materials and energy sources etc. with no need for significant human oversight or intervention.

The hard part is in getting to anywhere near that point. At present people must pay for what they want - essentially by performing work that benefits others. But as automation increases, the amount of work that must be done by people diminishes to the point where there is simply not enough necessary work to keep everyone employed. We are in desperate need of a new, economic model that is not based on such a strict exchange of doing work to get goods & services.

Re: There's a reason for the term Kangaroo Court

Rewriting history is not what is being suggested. Omitting irrelevant information is more what is under discussion. I'm pretty sure you would not want the most unsavoury things you have done to be brought up whenever your name is mentioned.

Re: So what if it "follows you around"?

It's about availability. If you apply for a job, for example, the employer is unlikely to go to a library to trawl through its newspaper archives to see whether you appear in any, but is quite likely to put your name into an online search engine to see what comes up. Bad news tends to get reported far more readily than good news. So an arrest for public indecency when you got drunk 30 years ago as a teenager and peed in a hedge is far more likely to appear in a search than the fact that you made your last company £billions in successful sales, or have donated £thousands to charity.

If you were ever suspected of a serious crime that you did not commit, I guarantee that you would consider it grossly unjust if every time someone typed your name into a popular search engine they were shown an article repeating those suspicions. Many people would decide "No smoke without fire" or "Better safe than sorry", and you'd find yourself being refused all sorts of things with no reason given.

You cannot sue a library for having old newspapers, but you could sue a newspaper for re-publishing or mentioning your "spent" crime without good reason. I generally agree that people should have the right for things they did (or were accused of doing) to be forgotten after a period of time. If every online search made on your name came up with articles describing in scathing terms something stupid you did or were accused of doing as a child decades ago, in my opinion that would be very wrong.

Having something available in a library or archive that can only be seen if you go to a fair amount of trouble to search for it is one thing. To have the same thing automatically presented if you merely type a person's name into your laptop is something else entirely. People change. The fact that someone made (say) a grossly racist comment 40 years ago should not be reason to refuse their job application today, or even think that they are likely to still hold those same views.

A fact that is reported out of context or without relevant background can be so misleading as to amount to a falsehood. "He made a fortune from crime" may well be a true statement. But if it refers to a successful carreer as an honest criminal barrister, it is highly misleading.

Re: The manufacturing process issue

A bean counter might substitute the make (supplier) of a resistor, but would never substitute a lower wattage part without approval from the R&D department. No, it's almost certain that this is a design error. It is possible that the designer specified a resistor that had a power rating greater than the power it needed to dissipate, but failed to take into consideration that the stated power rating of a resistor must be de-rated if the ambient temperature is high and/or there is inadequate ventillation.

Re: Cautiously raises hand...

Could have been a few things. As a plausible possibility, a high aircraft will be illuminated by the Sun before dawn has broken on the surface of the Earth. It will then appear as a bright orange moving object in an otherwise dark sky.

An abrupt change or inversion in air density at a certain altitude can act similar to a mirror and refract images of objects in the sky or over the horizon (common in deserts, and the cause of mirages). The bright object seen could therefore have been the reflection of the aircraft from such a layer, which to an observer on the aircraft would have the appearance of a low flying object that was flying the same course and speed. As the aircraft reached the edge of the layer of density inversion, the reflection would vanish.

While flying, I once took avoiding action because an aircraft appeared to be heading head-on toward me. It was coming out of the side of a cloud I was heading toward, and it was surrounded by a large bright halo. I then realised that it was in fact either a reflection or shadow of my own aircraft in the side of the cloud, where the water droplets of the cloud refract light in a well-known phenomenon commonly called a "glory". Other pilots have seen a similar thing, but with the "other" aircraft surrounded by a circular rainbow.

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If you used the thrid party engine oil, and the car stopped working, who would you sue?

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Depends why the car stopped working. If it was due to some inherent difference between the recommended oil and the 3rd party oil used, then maybe you could sue the 3rd party oil manufacturer (if they made false claims regarding their product), or maybe there would be no cause for action.

But if the failure was due to the car manufacturer deliberately and unnecessarily modifying the car after you had bought it so that it disabled the car when a non-recommended oil brand was detected, and the car manufacturer had not informed you that this was a possibility when you bought the car, then I should think there is indeed a case for suing the car manufacturer.

Same thing applies if your washing machine refuses to work unless you use its recommended laundry detergent.

Re: Massive invasion of privacy

What difference does it make whether they are local government or national government? They are both a collection of people who make rules to control us, and have both been shown to abuse their power and not act in our best interests.

Re: Never ascribe to mailce ...

The reason for the breach doesn't matter. The fact that the data is being collected and stored in the first place is what's wrong. If the data is being collected for the purpose being given, then it could and should be stored in a format that anonymises the vehicles - e.g create and store a one-way hash of the plates before they are stored anywhere. Which could be done with just a single line of additional code.