Posts by HOW many?

Minister for inconvenient truths?

Politicians can fog just about anything

But good science well packaged is one of the more effective constraints on their nonsense

And you wonder why they were happy to play Pilate to Greenpeace's Judas?

Its a bad day for everyone - Greenpeace most of all when mob rules drown rational assessment.

(Personally I greatly mistrust GM, but that doesn't alter the truth of the statement the scientific community really are all over the shop with regard the safety of GM. (Yeah, though well informed cynics may say that's because half the vimyd are in the pockets of GM interests)).

I'm sure that nice Mr Sajid Javid won't like this either

Going to all that trouble to reassure us his nice Conservative party is going to block a third of the internet in case it shows those dreadful porn pictures which he assures us he doesn't want his four children to see (although evidently he has a good working knowledge of the mechanics of it himself vis his contribution to overpopulation) and now he has this to contend with?!

Its just so unfair. Just when people were starting to forget David Cameron's proof the Conservatives haven't a fricken clue about things IT, internet or personal security........ Those nasty porn sites just keep posting those naughty pictures so Javid falls in the hole Cameron just slid slowly out of by assuring us 'We'll require Porn sites to prove age of viewers or we'll demand ISPs block them'.

(Ahem) "Dear reader - to satisfy Mr Javid and his hand wringing nannyish friends, please submit your full credit card details in the box below to prove you're old enough to be the victim of identity theft and blackmail".

No wonder half his mates want to take us out of the Europe and our committment to the Human Rights right to Privacy laws.

Financially I need to vote for them - But how can I vote for clowns like this - More concerned with chasing the long vanished and not coming back Mummies' vote than with common sense security?

From twice to eight times 'Super Earths' or ...

(or)... As we like to quietly describe them, 'Not a right lot like Earth after all thens'?

Or put another way - if it can find 8x Earths it can find 9x & 10x Earths and where do you draw the line?

2G doesn't feel so bad but you'd not want to experience 3G for very long. (<Sigh> Cue mobile device jokes).

And yeah, OK that's cos QED we're evolved for 1G.

But you get all sorts of odd pressure effects too, so life would be .....

Cut to the chase here - Presumably its a fair bit more of a technical challenge but if you're going to all that trouble why not go the extra mile (or AU or whatever) and look for 1x Earth size alien Earths?

The Queen asked the WRONG question

The RIGHT question was 'Its well evidenced quite a number of Economists DID leap around and scream about in increasingly worried tones about the imminent excrement / air conditioning interface in the wunnerful world of finance .... SO WHY WERE THOSE GUYS IGNORED'?

(Worryingly, some are doing the leaping about shroud waiving bit again now too).

Still, despite starting from a shaky premise, there's actually quite a lot of convergence in the main (if implied) message of the article - A lot of folk had too much invested to dare try and get off the Tiger's back of their investments, they had to (have to)? try and keep the plates up on the sticks.

Aygif agit caygan hagandle Agi

*Then* I'll be impressed.

'Agi' is a 'baffle' language developed by the Brit troops in the WW1 trenches to fox evesdroppers in the German trenches listening in. It simply consists of puting the letters or 'AGI', sometimes AGE or AIG if e or i are involved (its a bit flexible) sound in place of or alongside the vowels, aigif yagoo saygee whaygot aig mageen?

Simple, fun, and an absolute bagastaigard for non-native speakers to fathom.

(Also the pefect rippost for those North Wales pubs where the locals hear English and switch to Welsh).

California, well known for its tectonic stability

Not going to dis the basic concept. Seems wacky? Maybe, but a lot of our transport systems were deemed unfeasable, before they became everyday mundane.

Is California, or anywhere the ground doesn't stay still a great place to take it to once it works in Texas? Umm.

Must've been an astronomer who coined the phrase?

Small world eh?

Je suis really surprised

Yeah OK, I'm lying, I'm not at all surprised.

A moment's reflection and about the only real surprise is none of 'em jumped on this particular bandwagon sooner.

On the upside its better than blowing things up.

Look up 'Groupthink'

An old now but genuinely insightful analysis of how organisations become dysfunctionally self-referencing.

I dunno for sure whether or not the ICANN Board stand in a circle so they can slap each other on the back in congratulation for a job well done whilst the function they're supposed to provide goes to rodent manure........... But that type of behaviour would explain quite a lot. And the Groupthink (all credit to a bloke called Janis (foreign chappie, its pronounced Yannis) nothing to do with me) model would explain how it comes about and becomes sef-sustaining in the face of any reasonable, adaptive behaviour.

Deciding that ICANN is going down the tube just because they're a bunch of self-important ****s may be satisfying, (it might even be 80%+ right) but its not enough by iself to explain the levels of cocking-up currently coming to light.

Well at least OUR Guvvermint would never .....

..................... do a nasty thing like that.

Ohh, hang on -

Sorry Home Secretary. You would? Oh, you di............? But we didn't hear ........... Ah, I see. Right then.