Posts by Francis Boyle 2739 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Jul 2007
Exactly. The (hidden) premise seems to be an evolution of the wobbly old idea that quantum indeterminacy can somehow provide a physical basis for free will (as if being driven by a random number generator in the brain looks anything like freedom).
The thing is, I'm most free when I can act in ways that are meaningful to me and those ways tend to be easily predictable by anyone who knows me. Of course, maybe free will isn't the same thing as personal freedom but if it isn't I don't know what it is bar a meaningless theological concept.
that in certain places 'liking' bicycles is a big no no and will get you on the register and in The Register
I'm not sure what elementary grade 1 is but I'm guessing these kids are around five so they're not about to tap out The Great Thai novel any time soon. This is education for the 100%. Get everyone into the habit of reading as early as possible and everyone benefits including the 1%.
a leftist thug. You know, I was confused. I thought this guy was just another jerk looking to get rich off the misery of others. But that's just the American dream and how can that possibly be bad? But now you've explained that he's a leftist and a thug to boot it all makes sense. Obviously it's all part of Obama's plan to destroy the US and annoy old white guys. Thanks for explaining it.
Unfortunately it reprogrammed it to kill Stroggs which so far hasn't proved to be a terribly useful life skill.
Non flippant version: "reprogramming the brain" is otherwise called learning - if you claim it means something else you're talking nonsense. (Susan Greenfield, I'm looking at you.)
There's a thought.
Yes, there's a size limit to concrete vessels before wave motion starts to produce uncontrollable cracking but you're not going to mount your wind turbine on a replica of the Titanic are you? I'm not saying corrosion isn't an issue but I'm not convinced that with sensible choice of materials it is insurmountable.
And, yes let's get cracking with thorium.
The scoundrel is hiding in Westminster Abbey. Dispatch the plod immediately!
OK, he might be a little bit dead but dig him up anyway and charge him forthwith. They did it to a pope* why not a poet. Can't have dead people making a mockery of the law.
*Pope Formosus for those who might care.
The fact that the real scammers have to hire dupes* like this is evidence that the banks are asking questions. I'm no friend of banks in general but wanting them to ask more questions looks to me like a case of "beware, your wish might just come true".
*unscrupulous, greedy and probably not to bright but dupes nonetheless.
That would be a valid criticism if the researcher were describing the technique as mind-reading which, as far as I can tell, they aren't. I suspect the real usefulness of the technique is likely to be in mind control (by, not of!) since I seem to recall that thinking about something is neurologically similar to looking at it.
Of course, it is a valid criticism of all those "OMG Mind Reading is Coming" headlines. I'll leave it to my fellow readers to decide if El Reg is guilty of that.
but a combination of political correctness and pedantry*. 'Aborigine' is reductive. So we should say 'aboriginal person'. But people are lazy so we end up with 'Aboriginal'.
Now there shouldn't be anything wrong with 'Aborigine' but the fact is the word has a history - all those old well-meaning but cringeworthy references to "the Aborigine". Frankly, it's easier just to go with the tide and say 'indigenous Australian'.
*Assuming you don't just define political correctness as pedantry which I don't.
And it's nothing to do with wanting to be a "Bad Boy".
It's the ultimate deconstruction of American exceptionalism - the idea that people who are white and middle class can do terrible things and still be the good guys - the "I am not a criminal" thing.
OK I get that some people won't get that the show is essentially a morality tale - there's always people who end up identifying with the bad guys if the presented as anything more than cardboard cutouts. But you get that Walter White isn't a good guy. Try giving the fans of the show credit for realising that too.
And yes, the geek appeal of the show comes from the protagonist been one of us. But so are the Master and Lex Luthor - doesn't mean we don't get that they're villains.
Oh and while the underground meth lab is nice and super-villainy I think I'll wait for the Hot Wheels RV version.
Make the screen detachable. Connect it to the camera by wifi/bluetooth and provide an app that can control all camera functions and you might have something. (And remove the viewfinder. As much as I hate not having a viewfinder this is a case where it can reasonably be dispensed with - there's not much use for a viewfinder when your camera's up a pole.)
all NASA have been in accordance with the the relevant laws. Doesn't Congress/the President have ultimate oversight of all US activities in space? But what we're talking about here is discarded equipment. Does a non-functioning spacecraft sitting on the lunar surface somehow constitute an activity? In any case the requirement to make a law is not an authorization of any law. Specifically, if the law violates other articles of the treaty as this one does, it's dead in the water.
On another point, how could there be a world heritage site on the moon? isn't the Moon by definition out of this world.
Cheap Chinese tablets are horribly built toys. I had two - neither lasted more than a few weeks in ordinary use before the screen was destroyed by a minor bump that any decent device would have taken in its stride. For educational use you can afford to save money by using last generation tech. Build quality on the other hand is not negotiable.
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