Posts by Nigel

Police ad urges: 'Trust no one'

I'm buggered then !

I often look around at CCTV cameras to count how many I'm probably on at one time, especially in supermarkets etc. That's me done for !

Mine's the one that deflects the light falling on it and renders me invisible, please !

Mormons demand ICANN plugs net smut hole

Sorry

Sorry, just misread

"ICANN is responsible for managing internet port and IP address allocations globally"

as

"ICANN is responsible for managing internet porn and IP address allocations globally".

Home Office lost CDs on 3,000 workers

and the contractor informed the individuals concerned.

"and the contractor informed the individuals concerned."

So, the contractor has successfully contacted and informed the "3,000 seasonal agricultural workers" has it ?

(at least that's what I think it means)

Sounds pretty clever to me, especially since "seasonal agricultural workers" is often a synonym for "will work for half minimum wage, no questions asked, send wages to family in [insert country here]" !

Go icon, 'cos that's what the current government should do !

"Special Delivery"

"This is not a Home Office data loss," said a Home Office spokesperson. "Contrary to agreed procedures, an external contractor sent two discs containing details of foreign nationals to the UK Border Agency by normal post when these should have been sent special delivery."

Well, pardon me.

A few years ago, my wife sent some student notes for a training course by "special delivery" as we were told that was THE way to DEFINITELY GUARANTEE they got there the next day.

When they hadn't got there in 2 days, we went to the post office to investigate and were told by their PR person "as far as I know they could be in the Outer Hebrides by now" (good PR, that !).

Although the solution to this involved an extra cost to us personally of over £100, the compensation we got was £2.95, the cost of the "special delivery" posting.

In case you wondered.. the "Special Delivery" package never turned up.

So, WHY are the Home Orifice RECOMMENDING sending sensitive data by "Special Delivery" ?

The alien, 'cos I'm beginning to wonder if they're running (sorry, screwing) the country.

Renewing the mythology of the London ricin cell

Castor Beans Used a Jewelry

So, Castor beans ARE used for making jewelry !

http://museum.gov.ns.ca/poison/castor1.htm

See also (from the US FDA) :

Approximately 1 billion pounds of castor beans are produced annually. Castor beans are used as a source of oil, medicinal products, protein feed, ornamental landscaping and jewelry

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/oc/scienceforum/sf2005/Search/preview.cfm?abstract_id=347&backto=author

Fun with passports and paperclips

re : it's just the *act of unbending them* ... that is currently illegal

But, isn't that what you're supposed to do if your CD/DVD drive won't open : unbend a paperclip and poke it in the eject hole ? So, once your DRM music CD has refused to play in your PC, you can't even eject the thing if it gets stuck. Therefore requiring another purchase of said music CD and CD drive ! Has the music industry now been pursuing a law stopping anyone from unbending paperclips ? Wouldn't surprise me !

Microsoft, Feds, and Chinese authorities seize $2bn in pirated software

re : "10^12 is way too big a number to be of much use..."

Unless you are talking about the US military budget.

Need hard facts? Try Conservapedia

re: Anything can be edited by Anyone

Not quite.

I just created an account on Conservapedia, initially to see how the editing works. Naively, I decided to create a page about Andy Schlafly. All I put in it to start was :

Andy Schlafly is the "editor" of "Conservapedia".

which was duly saved. I then selected to edit the page (e.g. change "editor" to "creator") and expand it.

Within a few minutes, the following message popped up on screen :

"User is blocked

Your user name or IP address has been blocked.

The block was made by Dpbsmith. The reason given is Strange edit: created article for Andy [sic] Schlafly, calls him "editor" of CP (within quotations).

You can contact Dpbsmith or another administrator to discuss the block. You cannot use the 'email this user' feature unless a valid email address is specified in your account preferences. Your current IP address is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, and the block ID is #xxxxx. Please include either or both of these in any queries."

So, I created an article, and was blocked from it, because I put quotation marks around "editor" !

(Now this article seems to have disappeared).

Then I saw I had a message, which read :

"Hi. I've blocked you for two hours because I'm puzzled by your recent creation of the article Andy Schlafly, and I'd like to be sure of your intentions. Your article looks a little bit like a joke, or like carelessness. We already have an article on Andrew Schlafly, and you really should have checked that before creating another one. I don't understand why you called him the editor, which is not the way he refers to his role here (Conservapedia has many editors) or why you put the word editor within quotation marks.

We're always interested in serious content. Were you planning to add more to the article?

What sorts of things are you interested in doing at Conservapedia?

Dpbsmith 09:30, 21 June 2007 (EDT)"

Well, I couldn't tell then what I was "interested in doing at Conservapedia", 'cos they'd never let back me on their site if they knew !

And, I Had searched for "Andy Schlafly" (which gave no results), first. (Maybe I'd spelt it rong !)

So, I went to the page for the user "Dpbsmith"

From here, I tried clicking on "Email this user" and got

"You must be logged in and have a valid e-mail address in your preferences to send e-mail to other users."

Since I WAS logged in WITH a valid email address, this was rubbish.

Anyway ...

I searched for "Evolution", and surprise, I was redirected to the "Theory of Evolution".

(NOTE that this page is locked and cannot be edited to correct it)

The first sentence of this page says :

"The theory of evolution is a naturalistic explanation of the history of life on earth"

If you click on the word "naturalistic" you go to the page for "Naturalism".

The description for "Naturalism" ends thus :

"John Morris, PhD., wrote:

Naturalism (i.e., naturalistic evolution) is often desirable, for it seemingly

frees us from the authority of a Creator God. Without a God to whom we are accountable, we are free to live as we choose. College students, often surrounded by hedonism are particularly ripe for wrong thinking, and many never recover."

Would you believe it? Many college students "never recover" from wrong thinking !!!

And, presumably, WITH a god, we are NOT free to live as we choose.

Well, that's no god for me then, please.

Looking at the entry for "Bible"...

That, too is locked, but looking down the page, Genesis runs from 1440-1400 BC.

But, if you go to the entry for Stonehenge, it says "secular scientists" say t was started about 8000BC, but most of the present structure was added about 3000 BC.

So, God created the heavens and the earth about 1500 years after StoneHenge was finished !

Q/. Why do we bother with this crap ?

A/. Because unfortunately, there are LOADS of people who not only believe it, but will do anything possible to force their way of "thinking" (it's true, I read it in a book) on other people.

By the way : lookup "Thinking" on conservapedia, and the nearest entry is "Critical Thinking".

It's definition finishes :

"Critical thinking uses many aspects of formal logic and informal logic. It also focuses on discovering bias, propaganda , delusion and deception both in the sources of ones information and ones own views and approaches to reasoning problems out."

It's a pity the "authors" of Conservapedia don't apply some of this to their site !

Creationists open biblical history museum

Creationism

As I understand it, part of creationism is the belief that all human beings descended from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

I recently read a copy of Genesis (from the Standard American Bible) and this is what it said :

1/. Adam and Eve were put in the Garden of Eden by God, the Creator.

2/. Adam and Eve had 2 sons, Cain and Abel.

3/. Cain killed Abel and settled in "the Land of Nod" (to the east of Eden) where he met his wife.

So, Adam and Eve were the only 2 human beings until they had Cain and Abel.

Cain killed Abel, and was banished to the land of Nod, where he "had relations with his wife".

BUT, apart from Cain, Adam and Eve were the only 2 people left on earth.

So, was Cain's wife also Eve ? his Mother ? or Who ?

Biofuels are the 'next environmental danger'

Biofuels and Transport

The problem (as declared in this report) seems to be that so much arable land will be taken up for producing biofuels. Of course, the obvious thing to do is to adjust our lifestyles so that we limit the necessary amount of travel as much as possible. It seems that one of the most wasteful uses of energy is in transporting people and goods around the planet.