Posts by Paul George

Amazon to lend Kindle books at 11,000 US libraries

Kindle on iPad

Amazon has a Kindle app for the iPad as well. Free. You do have to hunt for it however.

Mexican army interdicts dope-slinging catapult

Actually...

It was a trebuchet. However they blew the construction by putting the pivot in the middle rather than offset

Aussie Sex Party in evangelist head-to-head

Wiccans and Satanist

Do I need to point out the Wiccans and Satanists belong to completely different religions?

Lucifer is a Christian deity whom Wiccans (as a breed, it;'s a pretty eclectic group of traditions) don't recognize.

Blood (or any other kind) sacrifice isn't part of Wiccan rituals.

Oh well, to the fundies since we aren't with them we must be serving the devil. "By their works ye shall kn ow them" ::-)

US military gets a camouflaged cloud

@AC 09:38

>Begs the question, what are they called if there isn't a war on? Peace keepers? The Unemployed?

As the old joke goes "in case of war: break glass". Eventually they'll get stasis chambers for them. But I still say 'warriors' would be a better generic term :-).

Y'all forget that the military has finance systems, personnel systems, training systems, communications (e.g. email), performance reporting, and a blinding array of forms that are being put online. Most systems aren't for weaponry, just like most personnel are support services not combat troops (USMC excepted)

Britons warned of plague of the 'supercats'

@Ebeneezer Wanktrollop

No, by 5 they understand that if you torment or chase the cat you will get scratched or bitten.

OTOH cats are pretty good at training children. When my ~9mo kid was bothering our cat she stopped, put her paw gently on his cheek and extended her claws so he got the point(s). No scratch, but he learned quickly.

DARPA seeks orbital wheely-bin plan

@Why bring it back?

Naaa. Group it in high orbit and then use orbital mylar solar mirrors to smelt it. The resulting ball of stuff could be used for orbital construction, or de-orbited in some relatively insignificant place in the middle east ;-)

I'm sure us 'murricans can come up with a candidate.or two

DARPA killer AI robots to 'participate in own construction'

Self construction

At the risk of not being in on the spirit of the thing, self construction is very close to self repair, which is probably what they are after.

After all, what good are they if they _stay_ smashed by fleshlings?

Israeli boffin invents "OkayToKiss™" pocket bad-breath test

Sly boffiin

Methinks the man is a joker. In Yiddish Tuchis refers to the other end ;-)

US Defense Dept shuffles self

speaking as a 'murrican..

>He didn't mention, of course, those pork-hungry congressfolks

The correct term is 'congresscritters'

"Suppose I was a congressman. And suppose I was an idiot. But I repeat myself"

- Samuel Clemens

Indian boffins mull zero-grav bhajis

@Antisocial space foods

>>I dunno, eating fermented cabbage while you are living in what is essentially an air-tight tin can doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I bet his crewmates were thrilled.

Especially given the other major ingredients are garlic (lots) and red pepper. Breath, pores, and flatulent emmisions

Profs design AK47-locating 'smart dust' helmets

And with these being Americans.

Naaaa. Much too old school. We use a Predator and a hellfire missle.

Real ID law to receive makeover under Obama

I've often wondered what willhappen...

... if my state has a non-complying license, and I'm summoned to appear at a federal court or IRS office and the thug ^d^d^d^d guard at the door can't let me in by federal law.

Kafka anyone?

Hybrid fusion-fission reactors to run on nuclear 'sludge'

RE: Boot note

At the risk of being picky, fission bombs often have a beryllium core that is a neutron emitter when squeezed by the conventional explosives. That is one way you can get a pocket nuke with what would normally be a sub critical mass.

People seem to be missing that the intent of the fusion reactor is to _greatly_ reduce the amount of waste materials. If you get a net positive energy return that is gravy.

We should IMHO see if scales to commercial use. Nuclear power of some variety is all be a requirement if we want to get off fossil fuels and have something beyond an 18th (or 13th) century level economy.

The remaining waste can be glassified, canned, and shot by big linear accelerator ( a.k.a rail gun) into an inward spiral towards 'mother nature's fusion reactor' for total disposal.

Co-op weighs into battle to save honeybees

Darn it, missed again

Y'all might be interested in an article that largely indicates another cause and discounts pesticides, reported November 18 in Reno, Nev., at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America.:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39117/title/Honeybee_CSI_Why_dead_bodies_can%E2%80%99t_be_found.

Virus could explain one symptom of colony collapse

By Susan Milius

December 20th, 2008; Vol.174 #13 (p. 5)

Doner kebabs: Death wrapped in pitta bread

Donner Kebab

Being a 'murrican I misread the title, figuring a reference to the Donner Party.

Shades of Sweeny Todd!

US Senate wants answers on soaring text rates

Marketing?

Most of the US providers have 'bulk' packages and unlimeted text packages for $10-50/mo.

Perhaps they like a steady revenue stream and are encouraging their customers to switch.

Besides, tracking the number of messages and billing for them costs ;-)

US electronic surveillance bill trapped in political limbo

Can't pardon a 'non crime'

As it happens, the immunity is against civil suits for privacy infringement, which a pardon wouldn't affect. They are for criminal offenses (how about 'aiding and abetting'?).

Besides, the Govt took the amusing position that fact of whether or not the intercepts took place is in itself a state secret :-(

From my point of view enabling companies to assist the 'Guardians of Freedom' in committing crimes is a real bad idea. There is enough collusion and 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink' as it is. Worse there is general criminal immunity for acts committed in office and impeachment is all but impossible. (perhaps 'judge not, lest you be judged' ;-) )

Pentagon: Bullseyed turkey-sat pieces will all burn up

Re True? Well, yes...

That's how an orbital kill works - things bump into one another. Kind of like tossing a brick in front of a car.

Microsoft rejects Yahoo! rejection

AT&T et al

From a user standpoint the issue is not the search engine (what search engine? :-) ) The really scary thing is that for us 'murkins most of the ISPs like Prodigy, AT&T/Cingular, and Verizon farm their email (at least web access and mail clients) out to Yahoo. And as others have pointed out the Yahoo groups are widely used. I wouldn't want that hijacked by M$.

Scareware scammers target Mac users

@No Way

Get back under the bridge! :-)

A mac user since the 512K

US.gov sets Real ID rules in stone

Non-Person

I've often wondered how it would play out when a citizen from a non-compliant state was summoned to federal court or a congressional hearing. If you can't get into a federal building....

Fortunately, the chances of the various state and federal information systems ever being able to communicate even given a common is nill.

Heavily armed cops raid IM chat

Assault

If I put my hand in my pocket and say it is a gun, it is assault with deadly weapon in the US. Making someone believe (the police) there was an AK is sufficient.

Also, _unauthorized_ access to a computer has been a crime here for a while.