Posts by the Jim bloke

Spanish towns vie for nuclear dump prize

David Brin had the solution

tectonic subduction zones.

Instead of finding the most geologically stable areas for your dump - sorry, storage facility - dump the waste into an area where crustal plates are being driven under.

Encase the waste so it will be protected for a couple of centuries, and let natural processes bury and dispose of it. Monitor the area for security purposes, to avoid the "eco-terrorist stealing some to use a weapon" cliche.

The Earth is naturally radioactive, even enriched waste wont make any difference.

Launching stuff into the sun is just too expensive and bad for the atmosphere unless we had something like a beanstalk/orbital elevator.

Vomit cannon to protect vessels from pirates, paparazzi

not all that silly really

Pirates need to get close to board a vessel, so a "less-lethal" weapon that can be used to warn them off at a distance, and melt their eyeballs if they persist, is a reasonable option.

As for Paparazzi, they may be hanging further back, but they would be looking at the vessel through telephoto lenses etc. I can see (heh) laser camera/binocular blasters becoming popular accessories wherever celebrities actually do want to discourage paparatzis -as opposed to the ones who delibrately seek the attention.

And as I mentioned in another post, if the laser itself doesnt scare them away, follow up with a laser guided missile.

not a simple mirror

but a survey reflector prism is designed to reflect a laser beam back to its origin within about 30 degrees of its facing. Cheap one would cost maybe $60 ? depending on currency and availability in whichever region.

Less used these days as GPS becomes more prevalent in the surveying world, but still pretty common.

By the time the signal has traveled a couple of kilometres each way it wouldn't have a lot of strength left, especially in a sea level environment..... but Im sure there would be enough energy for some kind of laser painted targeting missile to follow "evil grin"

Air France offers two-seat deal for fatties

in favour of the idea

as long as it isnt a leadup to providing narrower seats/cramming more cattle into the box.

.. replace the 43/46 cm wide seats with say 30 cm wide ones .. and every passenger buys one or two as required.

Can Republicans steal Obama's Web 2.0 mojo?

I'm not from over there but..

the article to me reads like someone complaining or warning about their opposition gaining an even position ?

"its not fair unless I'm in front" thinking ?

Security experts dissect Google China attack

Everyone is forgetting.. China owns USA

Something that was brought up in the GFC, Chinese investment is whats maintaining the USA in the affluence they believe to be one of their inalienable rights.

USA is in economic decline, and some people do recognise that.

Men more different from chimps than women, say boffins

To boldly go where no chimp ...

It all seems very reasonable to me. Men do the beta testing on genetic variation, and wimmins who actually carry the developing fetus, stick with a more conservative version.

The fact that the obverse is not the case demonstrates that it was not evolutionarily(?) succesful.

A non-viable or less succesful male mutation is easily replaced.

Babies icon obviously

Paramount prepares to scale Dune

Roger Zelaznys "Damnation Alley" for worst movie adaption

the movie kept the book title, and maybe were within spitting distance of one or two of the books ideas, but was total crap.

Loved Franks books growing up, but a bit more critical now. Certainly I see nothing worthwhile at all in Brian Herberts milking of the franchise.

The Dune story was too big to be made into a movie even back in the eighties, now with reduced attention spans and instant gratification, there is no chance at all.

"Express the plot and culture of the dune universe, in 120 characters or less....."

Biofuels make poor people even poorer

poor people get screwed. deal with it.

If we dont go green, the sea rises and eats their land

If we do go green, biofuel farms eat there land.

if we do nothing, some local warlord robs them, rapes them, sticks them in their army and gets them killed.

if we intervene, some local freedom fighter enlists them in their cause - where they get robbed, raped, stuck in the army, and killed.

If biofuel farming was providing cash for them - the cash would be stolen by corrupt authorities - including aid groups.

if they get the bugs out of algae-sourced biofuel, and produce it cheaply, efficiently and locally in the industrial nations, then the do-gooders would be complaining about the poor farmers being deprived of a cash crop.

Conditions are probably improving for them, but there will always be a spectrum of human "well-off-ness" (happiness isnt the right word here), and while various things can make conditions worse, there isnt an easy simple way to make things better.

DARPA selects 11 robotic grunts to take driver's license test

forcing robots to hate us

Any sufficiently advanced problem solving AI will soon realise the best solution to traffic problems is the obliteration of the human race.

Oz nanoboffins punt paper-thin flak jacket plan

ammo to defeat bulletproof vests already exists

The technological arms race is simply continuing as per usual.

weapons technology advances.. defensive technology advances...

Apart from teflon coating to penetrate armour, the simplest countermeasure is simply to use a bigger/faster bullet.. as per the dumdum article recently.

Depleted Uranium is used for anti tank penetrators.. AFAIK using it for personal weapons is still (currently) science fiction, but supposedly it converts momentum to heat more readily than conventional metallic rounds.. so if the projectile is stopped by armour the energy still gets through.

I dont think anyone these days uses a single solution for armour, everything is composites and layered materials with differing properties.

World's most gullible supermarket chain falls victim to online scam

@amanfrommars

You need to go home, the earthlings are getting to you.

I think I have been able to read your recent half dozen posts and make sense of them.

or is the old totemistic magic, El Reg has bound and neutralised your powers by invoking the Mars icon?

Nvidia introduces 'G92'

so can they still make it double slot

by using a bigger, slower QUIETER fan..

Oz barmaid fined for crushing beer cans between jubs

the evil conspiracy

this kind of thing used to be pretty commonplace in West Oz's mining towns.

Some of the girls were local celebrities, and had their 'signature' tricks. But the moral Fascists decided that hard rock miners would be corrupted and led astray by the sight of feminine flesh (being a long way inland and away from public beaches where such is displayed freely and often so that exposure might lead to desensitization) and required the enforcement of laws from the previous century.

To make matters worse, a local businesman and pub owner, got the license to run an actual strip joint... whereupon other pubs - not belonging to this entrepenuer, tended to become subject to complaints to the morality gestapo whenever the girls working in them happened to flash a nipple or display some buttock.

Its a tragedy, another cultural artform being oppressed and effectively wiped out by small minded officials

Plan for 20mph urban speed-cam zones touted

throwing fuel into the flames

not my country, but I reckon private citizens should not be allowed to own vehicles bigger than scooters/vespa/whatever, or those smartcar things.

If you have a job that requires moving stuff around, then you get a commercial license for an appropriate vehicle.

High performance vehicles - bikes and cars, are just toys/penis surrogates, and should not be allowed to interfere with real road users.

Watson suspended by research lab after race row

@Building the aqueducts

..argueing with history?

it wasnt the "european enslavers"rampaging through the countryside.

No, actually they were buying the slaves at the coast, purchasing them from other black africans, who had done the actual loot-rape and pillage in the interior.

European enslavers are waaaayyy down the list in africas history of foreign contact. The Egyptians and Arabs were there long before us.

Getting back towards the actual topic. I think it was one of the Science of the Discworld books, said Africa contained over 90% of humanitys genetic diversity. Of course there are differences. Only stupid people beleive everyone is exactly equal. Even bleeding-heart mindless small-l liberals acknowledge that some groups are less capable than others - although they call it "requiring more assistance"

Ships pollute more than planes

@Lathem Gibson

How many James Bond ripoffs have been done starting with some generic evil group hijacking a generic nuclear object on some generic ocean going vessel?

Not that I am opposed to nuclear powered vessels (or wessels, keptin).. I have always considered myself to be a pro-nuclear-greenie, from long before it became fashionable.

But the Powers that Be will probably be more influenced by the Bond movies.

Larger ships arent necessarily a good thing, even todays large ships cause damage to the environment - although fewer, larger ships may balance the harm. Large ships are restricted by the facilities they can use, and the requirements of actually getting a worthwhile load of cargo to pay its costs.

Something I would 'love' to see, is high tech sailing cargo ships.. like the ones with vertical aeroplane wings for sails (vague memory).

As always, there is no one, single, fits-all-situations solution. Therefore a range of technologies and options need to be developed, and applied as appropriate.

Fire service may charge for shifting fat people

income for obese people

What jobs -and income- are available for clinically obese people, who have trouble leaving their homes, and invalidate a companies insurance whenever they are required to walk up a flight of stairs ?

So far as urban myth has it, they're the main source of voices for the "live phone sex" industry.. that might explain why it seems to be so much more prevalent these days..

obvious solution - at least from an Aussie POV

Firstly, i would like to point out that the bulk (groan) of morbidly obese people -requiring assistance to leave their homes - are unable to work, so it doesnt really matter who gets slugged with the bill, its all going back on the taxpayer.

Nevertheless, in Aussie-land where we are coerced into private health insurance by punitive tax penalties - the obese should have a specific insurance plan which includes heavy lifting/ambulance assistance. Given the rest of the medical complications associated with obesity, it is only reasonable to put them on a separate tier to the general public. In the same way men dont need to pay for plans which include maternity options (assisted or otherwise) - if there are costs specific to the condition the are subject to, then these should be factored into their premiums.

As a healthy, careful person I am opposed to compulsory health insurance - its gambling against yourself basically, with the insurance companys as the big winners, followed by the clumsy and unlucky.. but there are limited cases where it has some use.

I have no idea what system the poms use, except they never seem happy with it.

UK fast food peppered with salt

CASH

sounds like another acronym in search of an organisation.

probably sounds more "sexy" to the marketroids than something like "FFOARKU" (fast food outlets are killing us), though that sounds better to me..

Too much honesty in the name would result in a visitation by the legions of legal stormtroopers owned by the franchises.

Did MoD chopper buzz sunbathing au pair?

this entire article

is just a troll to get some mileage out of the helicopter icons.

Does Reg get payed on usage of them ?

It doesnt say much for MoD black-helicopter technology, that they had to get within 500ft of the target... unless they had already fully "scoped her out", and were moving in to make contact.

Boeing trumpets 'relevant battlefield laser' raygun

early gunpowder weapons weren't real effective either

.. but they improved.

and the western world desperately needs zero-time-in-flight, non ballistic-trajectory weapons, because all the new generation of potential soldiers wont be able to hit anything using a real rifle.

YouTube gatecrashers trash 16th birthday bash

choose your advertised party site carefully

Suggestions include meat processing plant, landfill area, major construction site..

basically somewhere that you can get rid of the bodies of 'crashers with a minimum of fuss

Britney's wares exposed online

Wrong Album title

Bratneys most recent album had a perfect name, chosen right here on the Reg.

I beleive the favoured title was

"Cupid Stunt"

as voted by Regsters

Preterite peter-out: How the end beginned

Evolution of English

I kind if wonder what basis the academics used to calculate the 'half life' - but not to the point of reading their work - given that China is supposedly the largest English speaking nation today.

China, India, other emerging powerhouses, may adopt English as a convenient 'common language', but they will treat it with even less care and reverance than the damn septics have.

Someday, people wont even understand why 'engrish' was funny.

TV for those who enjoy massacres

in my younger days

I used to buy 'Military Technology' magazine from the newsagency. I dont really think I was their target demographic, the ads in there were for destroyers, and artillery systems etc.. kind of outside the reach of generic suburbia..

This TV show sounds like a continuation of the magazine, although from the comments, dumbed down in presentation. This reinforces my opinion that TV simply isnt worth watching.

As an aside, why is this article in Science, and not Entertainment - or even Hardware ?

Canadian prof develops drunk-driving sim

accurate sim

needs real spew all over the console, and your bladder in a vise.

I know...

they need to combine this with the DARPA vomit strobelight !

BOFH: Skip diplomacy

Whiteboard markers

can also confirm the whiteboard marker trick

for a bit of a chuckle I used to swap the whiteboard markers for permanents before morning meetings somedays.

RIAA hits paydirt: wins first music-sharing jury trial

Big Record labels are Dinosaurs

..

long past their epoch in history

..

small brained and vicious.

Fifty years since Sputnik

refuting all USA conspriacy theorists

Bill Clinton, supposedly one of the smoothest presidents the US of A has had, could not keep secret getting a blowjob from a fat chick.

The american black hat groups just dont have the necessary competence to do a massive deception like faking the moon landings.

now if it was MOSSAD, maybe..

UK start-up tackles PIN fraud with patterns

Implanted chips were causing cancer

.. last I heard, any further news on that?

I dont want to join the "phone towers radiate death rays" loonies, but there is still scope for further research on the implanted IDs.

the problem with this grid->number->keyboard system that I can see, is that it will slow down transactions. Users will have to look at the grid, work out the numbers which make up their pattern, then key those numbers in. Instead of ..keying their number in.. Sure it will be more secure, but how much more time will be consumed waiting in ATM queus behind geriatrics and slow readers?

Kerching! Halo 3 rakes in 'record' takings

saw it running in a shop window display

and my first thought was they were running an early Doom/Quake conversion..

It honestly looked that primitive.

Post-Bush US preparing stemcell brain drain

support embryonic stem cell research today

"But they require an infrastructure and support which is very heavy. We have got to be sure that it is maintained at the highest quality levels - that does not come cheaply, but we have to make sure it actually happens"

So go ahead, Donate your First-(un)Born Child today...

heres a thought, what would happen if they made embryonic stem cell harvesting... retrospective ?

(feeding the troll)

Fundy dunderheads make monkey of monkey man

not sure about "god" but I find "Active Malice" explains how the Universe functions pretty well

"The filmmakers insist they did not mislead anyone, and that the film's name was changed on the advice of marketing experts. "

Marketing/advertising people... Evil has its footsoldiers

US teacher fired for non-literal bible reading

@LaeMi Qian

"I just wish Jesus would get off his butt and come back "

We are living in the age of the sequel, so we can expect Christ 2, The SecondComing anytime now, unless its already out and straight to DVD.

Just think how well Hollywood has done with other favourites from the past, and you get the feeling JC would be better off avoiding the USA completely.

<gets bag of marshmallows, if the flames here wont cook them,they shall certainly roast in hell>

World leaders meet to tackle global warming

Good thing George wont be attending

otherwise they would have to change the name

..UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to deliver a keynote address at the meeting, entitled "The Future in Our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenged on Climate Change".

US Army dalek assassins to pack mini-missiles?

@ Robogeddon

So what you are saying is that they should be defective by design, intentionally saddled with crippleware, and broken OS ?

If we arent careful, we will be hailing Bill Gates as the saviour of Humanity.

Deathbot Restricting Malware FTW

Judge parks 172mph Porsche driver for 10 weeks

stationary vehicle

"To anyone who argues that it's not speed that kills, it's the driver, have you ever been hit be a stationary vehicle? Have you?"

Well, yes, but at least one of the participants in the incident was drunk at the time.

MIT student walks into airport wearing circuit board and wires

They didnt think it was a real bomb

.. otherwise they would have shot her in the head straightaway..

isnt that how the British react ?

She was stupid.

Google readies Pacific-spanning, Verizon-battling underwater comm cable

@jeffyPooh

? small ads alongside VoIP ?

I have enough trouble with the little voices inside my head already, without letting Google take them over.

Retailer sets legal attack dogs on protest website

Customer service team

" I assure you that our customer service team is looking into the issues raised by Mr. Harkleroad."

I get this image of a bunch of large men with no necks and a monobrow coming around to Mr Harkleroads house, to "look into the issue".

Thailand menaces YouTube - again

idiots and youtube

How can you tell the difference between legitimate political comment/protest, and some f##kwit being a smartarse and big-noting himself by putting on clips certain to offend the PTB ?

The criteria I have decided to use, is that if its on Youtube, or any of its clones.. its by a fuckwit.

Welsh council workers turfed out over eBay addiction

Council workers

The classic image of council workers, is a bunch of them standing around on the side of the road, leaning on shovels, while the new guy casually pokes at the ground.

This article makes me think it was actually council STAFF offending, and not the 'workers' .

We are at risk of losing a cultural icon, if we allow this imprecision of terminology to continue.

Dismantling gas giants with nanotech

Call to helpdesk..

Embarassed User:" errrr, I think I've just dissolved London.."

Nanotechnology Helpdesk:"OK, had you made a backup ?"

Dismantling gas gaints

is it time to kiss Uranus goodbye ??

<uses pocket assembler to create a coat out of 3 pens and a cold cup of coffee>

No matter how wonderful the technology

the failure point is still present, located "between keyboard and chair"

Man sues God

This senator guy

.. wouldnt happen to be a lawyer as well would he ??

The american justice( sorry.. legal.. need to learn the strikethrough command ) system exists as a trough for an exclusive club to feed from, with scraps thrown to anyone else foolish or desperate enough toss anything in to it.

By bringing this case, senator whatsisname is consuming money that could be used for something of real value. Instead he is feeding lawyers.

MIT builds load-carrying mechanical boots

It all makes perfect sense

Firstly, they need the assisted load bearing ability, to deal with the obese recruits you get these days, and secondly, this is only the prototype for the fully powered suits which will also be completely remote controllable, allowing Americas Army (tm) game players to REALLY play at soldiers.

PC superstore refuses to take sack in hand

USB floppy drives

Saw one at work the other day, it just made me laugh to think how far we have come.

I cant even remember the capacity of a floppy now.. was it about 2.3 meg ?.. on a port that will support my 4 gig USB key, or 120 gig pocket HD..

Japanese wrinklies spurn robot helpers

@Alan Donaly

At what age are you planning to die?

Sooner rather than later I would guess, from the opinions you have graced us with.

Heaven forbid that you might reach a point where you yourself are 'unproductive' uncooperative, and putting the hurt on anyone else.

Hopefully I still have a few years myself, in which time geriatric care, including whatever label they give these assistance robots, will have the opportunity to improve and develop.

If basic human dignity is a luxury you cant afford.. you need to reconsider your budget.