Posts by Scott Swarthout 39 publicly visible posts • joined 17 May 2007
It's crap. I have yet to meet anyone that can name the 3rd worst nuclear incident in history. We all know about Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, but in 30 years, those are the only ones with names; and no-one was remotely affected by 3MI (there wasn't even a "leak" as defined by a previous commentor).
...how many fires in coal plants have there been in the world, in the psat 30 years? And Nuke is not safe?
You, sir, took my words.
But the part that scares me is the fact that all of the climate change models ignore cloud formation; which as any one who's been out on a dreary, overcast day knows can affect the temperature. I know that's a local occurrence, but if a cow farting in a field can have global repercussions, so can a cloud reflecting several Km^2 of sunlight.
The part that scares me even more, is that with this admittedly poor understanding, these "Friends of the planet" are proposing things like sulfur in the atmosphere (didn't we just clean up acid rain?), ruining the global economy, practicing eugenics/population control, and other extreme efforts to prevent a catastrophe that may not happen. Especially seeing as how the climate models cannot even accurately "predict" the past.
Maybe when our understanding is complete enough that the weatherman can tell me with 95% accuracy weather or not it will rain in two weeks, I'll listen to what the climate change people are saying. Until then, they do not have the data, the models, or the math to back them up on any of their claims.
"Downgrade rights" have not ever really been a problem. It was not until Vista that one was unable to purchase an older version of the OS. Win 98 was on the shelves even after Win ME (and a good thing too)
it wasn't until Vista that you could not buy a prebuilt machine with anything other than the latest WinOS.
To keep a kid from falling out with convulsions you don't need to stop them cold-turkey, you just have to make sure they eat once/twice a day. and sleep every day or two.
Then, you don't have to worry about watching them, but no-one will arrest you for criminal neglect.
If you can't get an exhausted, malnourished WoW geek away from a computer, I'm surprised you had the physical abilities to make said baby.
Was not because she called the Emergency number, but rather, because she called it 3 times. The first time, when the Cop finally arrived, he would have sorted it, if only to the point of informing them that it's civil, not criminal, and to sue each other. After the 3rd call his plans were changed to "get the nutjob off of the phone".
I understand the Chemistry and Nuclear Physics can do different things, and that it is (theoretically) quite possible to chemically separate Am from Pu or U, with enough Chem experiance. The question then becomes, what if the process of separation uses a substance that had nuclear properties. Like water, for instance, which greatly reduces the size of critical mass (and completely mucks up the whole stability thing) over time; so it may be possible to separate them, if it weren't for the fact that the process would ruin them.
I'm guessing that this guy with a slew of degrees after his name is more educated than a large number of the arm-chair physicists who are saying that he's wrong or over looked the obvious. He may have, he may not have. read his paper (and understand it) *then* criticize his work.
This story has many points, so it's easy to miss them, what with it being written in a subtle manner, and with tounge firmly planted in cheek.
There's the out-of-control kids; the over-use (abuse?) of the criminal justice system; the fact that teachers are put-upon, or can't hack it depending on your point of view.
And then there's the all-important IT angle, all of this was over a mobile. At least they mentioned what model it was.
I don't think that the escalation was left out for the sake of making a better story, but rather that it was implied for the sake of the article (no-one wants to read a 3 page he-said, she-said).
Frankly, I feel that this was a wonderful way to start my Thursday morning.
Given that El Reg is so very popular with geeks all over the world, I fully agree with giving folks that do not speak English nativly certain allowances. The question arises though, which English? I have seen knock-down drag-out flamewars in previous comments sections over differences in American (sorry, 'Merkin) and British spellings, word usage, and phrasing.
I submit that no more should we bash each other in the forums over small misspelligs, typosd, mis-placed hyphens, and differences in dialect, but rather for being completely stupid or incomprehensible. if the wording is clear enough and the typing is close enough that you can read it, then, read it. If a comment is obtuse, poorly written, or just stupid, then begin the abuse.
save the pedantry for bits about IT, or facts related to the article; picking on writing just makes it seem that you have nothing better to contribute.
I will not argue that the climate is changing (it does that...a lot) I won't even argue that it may be accelerated by carbon mon- and di- oxide from burning oil, coal, and natural gas (stored from plants and animals long dead).
I will propose that the earth was obviously very healthy when the organics that formed the carbon reserves were alive. Look at how many plant and animals there were, and the amount of diversity. Given that most of the oil we get are from places that are inhospitable, one could argue that the planet has become impoverished, and maybe we need to bring it back to the way it was. The Sahara used to be a forest, Nevada and Utah (in the US) used to be an inland sea, the Mississippi River used to be a minor ocean. Hell Antarctica used to be a tropical paradise. Is the world coming to an end, or just going back to the way it was?
Germany would want to be seen as opposed to these videos. Germany's image in relation to Jews/minorities is still derived from WWII. They have to be aggressive in reacting to these kinds of things, so that they don't, by inaction, strengthen the view that they are anti-minority.
Having said that: The Nazi party was first and foremost a Fascist regime. They used the people's nascent xenophobia and desperation for a scapegoat to rise to power. The US (and UK, deny it as you will) are following the same path.
"It seems that how the US networks for mobiles are set up are backwards, Yes fair enough it is a lot bigger but in the UK ..."
40 times bigger (Well, 39.64x, but really). The difference isn't necessarily that the US has bad network design, or that the towers are too weak, but that any flaw in a system that large becomes significantly more pronounced.
Additionally, The UK has, I believe two or three Major carriers, mostly as off-shoots of the old land-line companies. In the US Mobile phones were a completely new form, and until recently were not associated w/ the land-line companies. So there were a tonne of small companies, that have only recently (past few years) started conglomerating.
So as to why the US can't do the same: Yes, it is that difficult.
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