Posts by Chris Ridley

Chinese whispers: China shows off magnetic propulsion engine for ultra-silent subs, ships

Does it sound like "a whale farting"?

Jeffrey Jenkins, "A Twist of Sand", 1959.

Hey, George Clooney. LOST in SPACE... and thirsty? Visit these 5 ALIEN worlds*

Re: Clooney

"But then he quickly departed without any visible means of propulsion in the general direction of stars. If he can defy gravity (ahem) in such a way, he might just as easily teleport himself to a distant exoplanet to have a drink or two while enjoying the view..."

Ah, well, if he was Defying Gravity then one of the Artefacts must have been calling him. :-)

What is thy bidding? Han Solo’s shooter goes under the hammer

A good weapon

"Assuming you don’t put your faith in ancient weapons and hokey religions, your only option is to pack a good blaster at your side"

Nah, I put my faith in a nice little piece from the Weapon Shops of Isher. Dreebo woldn't even have started to move his hand towards his gun before being toast. :-)

Win a free delegate pass to PHP 2013 Europe!

Discrimination

Hmmm.... C'mon Reg, I never thought you'd be the sort of organisation that discriminates against those of us who refuse to use Twatter and Farcebook.

Go on, enter me in the draw from here. I dare you !

Thorium and inefficient solar power? That's good enough for me

Re: Thorium reactors

>>The "Big Oil" argument? I don't buy it. Maybe in the US, but not worldwide.

Perhaps because thorium reactors produce next to no plutonium?

Legal bible Groklaw pulls plug in wake of Lavabit shutdown, NSA firestorm

Re: Does anyone else

"Think of the fascist police state from 'V for Vendetta' when they read about the NSA actions etc?"

Actually I thought more of the extreme totalitarian world government of Neal Asher's "The Owner" series http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/unhappy_32.png

Windows 8 to get self-healing 'Storage Spaces'

USP

Ermmm.....Will this be available as a clip on pack to the back of you nice shiny new Win 8 tablet?

DARPA calls for 'DUDE' combo infra-nightscope

Day of the jackal

These, like the other gunsights, need to have their aiming reticules "boresighted" - that is, accurately aligned with the gun barrel - every time they get attached to a weapon. (Movie scenes where people gaily snick aiming attachments on and off weapons and never bother to zero them on the range are strictly creative licence.)

At least the Jackal (not that pretender tosser Sanchez) made the attempt to zero his sight on his custom made weapon before striking it down into a crutch for transport.