Posts by Samson David

Royal Navy completes Windows for Submarines™ rollout

Minesweeper anyone..?

Do the guys on the subs get trained by playing minesweeper..?

Abu Dhabi emir rescues Thames Estuary mega-windfarm

DONG Energy..?

*snigger*

Talk about new and innovative forms of energy..

Sumerians cracked world's oldest joke

Three blondes women are stuck on an island, and find a lamp.

They rub it, out pops a genie who gives them a wish each.

The first one says, "I want to be smart". *POOF* she turns brunette and swims to the mainland.

The second says "I want to be smarter than that..". *POOF* her hair turns black, she cuts some trees, builds a boat and sails to the mainland.

The third says "I want to be even smarter than THAT.." *POOF* she turns into a man and walks across the bridge..

Whats the definition of a male chauvinist

Someone who thinks that "harass" is two words..

Two blondes are walking in the forest and come across some tracks

"those are bear tracks" said one..

"no, those are deer tracks" said the other..

They were still arguing when the train ran them over..

Colliding galaxies mark Hubble anniversary

Astronomy really is a humbling experience

It really is. Looking at the image "Pale Blue Dot" and reading what Carl Sagan had to say about it really puts things in perspective..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

'Rowdy' rectal extraction op vid hits YouTube

"Although the hospital has, following a probe,..."

Snigger..

Kirk : Send out a probe, Mr Spock..

Spoke : Probe going captain. Boldly where no man has gone before..

El Reg celebrates 10th birthday

Happy birthday to ewe

Froma cross the atlantic (and most of the (in)continent), I wish you a very happy birthday from Canada..!!

10 Years, and all you did was head down to the boozer..? That's a regular Friday night then..?

Keep it up El Reg (and no, I dont mean with some viagra). Keep standing strong.

To sarah..

Hey, how YOU doin..?

US law makers seek ban on in-flight calls

The URL of this story is "congress_ban_on_in_flight_calling"

At least it wasnt "calling for ban on in flight congress" (The horizontal sort anyhow).

Whew..

*heads off to buy his plane ticket*

NASA's Phoenix closes on Red Planet

Rocks

Plankmeister.. you did the wrong math.. its 5mil / 15bil.. works out to about 0.003 rocks per square meter.

And what is the definition of a *rock* anyway..? pebbles..? stones..? boulders..?

Arthur C. Clarke dead at 90

... and understanding is everything.

Farewell. You will be missed.

Big Brother firm tech exec locked up in UAE

Third world countries

I lived in Dubai for 31 years, was born there and finally decided to move. Its one this to call the place amazing and marvellous etc. Sure it is, if youre light skinned and if you have money.

You see a very different picture if youre one of the people who's blood and sweat Dubai is built on. Working for less than 50 pounds a month in 50 degree heat with your employer not paying you for months on end. If you complain, you get a "settlement" which is half of what youre owed and booted out of the country.

The only reason no one says anything about the human rights abuses that go on there are either 1) they dont know about the prisons in the middle of the desert. Where people are in jail for years with very little evidence (usually in the form of forced confessions or where theyre made to sign a confession in another language). Did you know you could go to jail for bouncing a cheque..? And in jail, you have no access to your accounts, and until you pay your cheque off (try earning money while in jail), you can be kept in prison.

People are imprisoned with no access to their consulates, lawyers and families. This isnt "civilized". Sure you can be kept in an airport in the US without charge for hours. In Dubai you can go to prison without a charge. And forget "I get a phone call and a lawyer" crap.

Sure its modern and they have money. The mentality of a lot of people there is still the same as it was when they lived in the middle of a desert in a tent. Where a boy who was raped by 3 HIV positive men "couldnt be telling the truth because he hasnt yet been tested as HIV positive himself" or a guy who has no job and many wives plans to "keep marrying and divorcing wives till he manages to father a 100 children" rates a mention in a newspaper as a good thing.

The reason I moved away..? I had a good job and everything, I just couldnt live with the ethics of living a luxurious lifestyle on the backs of so many other exploited.

For weird and wacky news about Dubai..

see the secret dubai blog.

http://secretdubai.blogspot.com

One of the latest story there..? A guy from yemen who's in court for trying to sell a "bullet proof stone" for half a BILLION dollars.

See the latest on the obscene jail terms for "drugs". Sucks to be you if youre not someone who's got connections like at Austin person who got caught with drugs a few years ago.

US navy's robot carrier plane building fast

Why'd I want a robot pilot

"Call me irrational but no matter how good a robot is at piloting a plane I want a human at the helm.

Robots have no imagination or creativity and lack the ability to "think" illogically in a creative way. They can not be reasoned with, they can just run instructions and the way they perform is only as good as the instructions that they are given.

If the computer driving your docklands light rail train has a divide by zero error and you miss your next stop or come to a grinding halt you dont have to worry about the 30,000 ft of air between you and the ground and the crater that the 200 - 300 vehicle you are in is going to make when it reaches it.

A robot at the helm has no feelings either way about becoming one with the earth at high speed from a perpendicular direction however a human usually does and as a general rule of thumb will try to avoid it by all means possible.

The most successful and widely used fully autonomous aircraft used to date is a cruse missile and that is not the kind of cruise I wish to be boarding when I go on holiday."

I would rather have a robot pilot that will stay awake, rational and logical rather than having some schmuck who is either boozed out, horny at the stewardess, psychotic nutbag that decides that his life isnt worth living or any of the other hundred "pilot error" statistics sitting up in front.

Besides, if a robot does go awry for some reason, you can always have a human from the ground take control of the flight in an emergency.