* Posts by sconzey

12 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Feb 2007

SpaceShipOne man, Nobel boffins: Don't panic on global warming

sconzey
Trollface

Unintentional hilarity...

The unintentionally hilarious aspect of the warmist letter comparing attacks on Climate Scientists with McCarthyism, is that McCarthy was later proved absolutely correct, at least in so far as his belief that there was a great deal of unacknowledged co-operation between the US civil service and the Soviet government, and that there was a strong pro-Soviet influence in US media and politics.

Where his analysis failed was in imputing malevolent motivations to those involved, and branding them as "un-American" when, for the most part, the diplomats and journalists sincerely believed that they were acting in the best interests of America and Americans, and -- most importantly -- in keeping with the fundamental spirit of America. Acheson and Hiss didn't see themselves as betraying the US, but living up to it's highest ideals.

Royal Society says goodbye to creationism row vicar

sconzey
Paris Hilton

All aboard the failcopter...

If a child is asking a question in a science lesson, no matter how misguided, at least they are THINKING. It is not the questioning students we should worry about, but the silent ones.

Whether you consider ID/Creationism science or not, nobody should object to teachers answering questions from students fairly and honestly (even if they just say "I don't think that question is appropriate now, but I'd love to have a chat after the lesson").

What disturbs me most of all is that supposedly rational, intelligent individuals could react so irrationally to what was (correct or incorrect) a rational proposal. This isn't science.

Ironically, creationism is *already* in the science curriculum. A friend of mine is a teacher at a rural state comprehensive and as part of the "Science in the News" course the kids must learn about "alternative views" and critically analyse them.

Paris, because her policy proposal video was more rational that some of the comments I've seen here.

Netbooks and Mini-Laptops

sconzey
Paris Hilton

great minds...

Fantastic article. Moar of this comparisons ^_^

For me the battery life of the AA1 doesn't cut it, even with the reduced price, so it's between the 901 and the Dell at the moment. I'll wait for El Reg's review of the Linux version. :P

Paris, because she's nearly as aesthetically pleasing as the Dell. ;)

Phoenix chokes on 'clumpy' Martian soil

sconzey
Thumb Up

Kudos to NASA

Whether you like them or no, NASA do hire some very bloody smart people and -- barring the manned mission proposal which I understand NASA is opposed to for political rather than scientific reasons -- I doubt you guys have come up with anything they've not thought of before.

Internet s&x auction ends in pregnancy, legal feud

sconzey

I'm sorry... what?

These six gents... had sex with some random woman they met over the internet... and didn't use a condom?

They should be glad a child is *all* they got...

Bank turns London man into RFID-enabled guinea pig

sconzey

Not to worry...

If your bank does send you one of these, just pop it in the microwave for two seconds on high. Not sure what it'll do to the magstripe, but it'll fry the rfid nice and good.

The other alternative that I've heard is discharging an instant camera flash through a wire cool around the card.

Do we need computer competence tests?

sconzey

Interesting...

Well, first up, attack the idea, not the analogies he uses to explain it.

Secondly, this all sounds very similar to the NetPC idea I heard being batted around at the turn of the century. I believe it had limited local storage, and the applications and data were stored remotely and downloaded before running.

Java was in there somewhere too.

It seems to me this would be the "secure information appliance" you're looking for as all the user's activities could be monitored and controlled remotely.

Israeli sky-hack switched off Syrian radars countrywide

sconzey

Heh

I think what speaks louder than any commentary on this is that neither Israel *NOR* Syria want to talk about it...

This means that whatever attack happened, Israel don't want people thinking they sanctioned it, but Syria think it could be justified...

That said, geopolitically I find Saudi Arabia *much* scarier than Syria...

Asus Eee PC 4G sub-sub-notebook

sconzey

Power Saving...

Those of you with EeePCs may be interested in this fine website: http://www.lesswatts.org/tips/

They offer tips and tricks for optimising power consumption on linux-based computer.

The problem with power drain whilst sleeping sounds suspiciously like misconfigured or faulty ACPI...

Greens walk out of nuclear debate

sconzey

Fuels running out, IMBYs, and greenie bastards

I don't have any figures on nuclear fuels to hand, but I understand there's more to it than just uranium, I also understand that depleted uranium, can, to an extent, be recycled in breeder reactors.

In addition, it would be nice not to have pseudo-democratic middle eastern states holding the OPEC knife to our neck.

As to NIMBYs, we need an organisation of people who actually want nuclear power so much, they're willing to give up their back yard... IMBYs if you will. I understand the yanks are working on such a scalable reactor. Will the government subsidise me to fit one of those between the koi pond and the herbacious border? They did pay for half of my roof-top solar panels...

Israelis vote for Eurovision nuclear apocalypse

sconzey

The difference...

The difference of course being that Israel is a secular democracy, and holds regular, free and fair democratic elections.

Princeton ESP lab shuttered in bad week for irrationality

sconzey

Um...

Right, so if this group took a "strictly scientific" approach, failed to find evidence for ESP, why were they ridiculed by others at Princeton and James Randi?

Is it really that bad merely to look...?