Posts by PatrickE

Meta sued for 'aiding and abetting' crypto scammers

Go ACCC! I'm sick of these ads. No matter how many times one reports to Facescam, the ads keep reappearing. Lest we forget, Facebook does actually make money off of these ads, so they share responsibility.

Apple granted patent for microphone silhouette

My HP 6730b laptop has this icon, sans the circle, right alongside the hole for the condenser mike. I'll go find a razor blade to scrape it off. I don't want to harm Apple in any way shape or form as they exude corporate integrity and should be placed on a pedestal.

Apple, Spotify, Amazon: All your Cloud are belong to us, says firm

Will it never end?

Inane patents and law suits yet again. You'd think Apple, Spotify and Amazon would like this sort of suit to end - except their snouts are firmly in the trash patent trough as well. End of the day, we all pay the lawyer fees one way or another. Joy :)

Ocker CANNIBAL DEATH SPIDERS invade Japan!

True story

Most stories are based on truth. My Dad was working with the Dept of Civil Aviation in Oz until the late 70s. We lived in a place called Tenant Creek and the wife of one of his colleagues, Mrs Atkinson was a nurse and worked at the local clinic. This is in the late 60s and it was a very outback place.

Anyway, we were having a barbie and Mrs A tells the story of a local stockman dragging himself into her clinic, in very obvious pain. So he'd gone to the thunderbox (outside dunny) and had been bitten by a redback on the old fellow. That's gotta hurt! So she relates, the guy says "please missus take away the pain but for gawds sake, don't take away the swelling!".

True story? We thought so as she wasn't one to make things up.

Take away bad drivers' mobile phones, they still crash their cars

Mobile (cell) phones are addictive. Drivers also might not be texting but updating facebook as well. :) status: "I'm driving in traffic at 70mph on my way to work. It's soooo boring. Thank God I have a coffee, my breakfast and facebook to keep me awake! See you all at work later"

How about really putting the boot in to idiots driving and texting (or calling without hands free). Close all their mobile phone accounts and data plans - they can foot the early exit fees as well. Ban them from mobile phone use for a year or so and let them drive without the electronics. Anyway, there's still breakfast and coffee for the freeway commutes.

ZTE slams Congress spying claims, doubles down on sales ban

Re: Having your cake and eating it.

Shagbag, I'm sure your analysis was quite "cursory". The price of bananas was impacted but more by opportunism than floods. I can't see a price of £15 existed here though. Maybe $15 but tops I saw was around $12. We didn't buy any bananas for a month or so.

As far as protectionism dressed up as quarantine - well mate you are effing wrong. We are very protectionist about quarantine issues. No foot and mouth, no rabies etc. We have problems here with a number of feral imports such as rabbits, foxes, goats, pigs, buffalo, camel, rats, mice, cane toads, to name a few (Poms too come to think of it (oh heck, I'm a feral import too :) )), so we take these concerns seriously. We will go to great lengths to keep agricultural disease out of Australia with complete support from plebs like myself.

Since we are so scummy, please feel free to visit somewhere else next holiday right? More considerate poms from the country of my birth are welcome of course. cheers

Huawei previews Cisco-killin' E9000 modular system

Re: Once more in English

I enjoyed the content but. ;)

New hottest-ever extreme temperature records now easier to achieve

Here's the original story from Wunderground - very interesting.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/comment.html?entrynum=89

Here's the Watts Up With That article by Dr Jeff Masters

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/09/13/dr-jeff-masters-shows-why-siting-matters-death-valley-steals-all-time-temperature-record-from-libya/

Of real interest in the Master's article is a piece by the late John Daly called Badlands (middle of article).

Personally I think it was reasonable making the change to the Libyan record. No records should be hidden away or not be subject to scrutiny and change to correct error. You listening to me CRU? :)

Key evidence in Assange case dissolves

A few people have mentioned the uselessness of the Aboriginal gesture. The key bit is

"The Indigenous Social Justice Association is fighting for sovereignty within Australia and claimed that it wanted to forge solidarity with Assange, ***who has been largely unsupported by the Australian government.***"

Largely unsupported, not only by the Auusie government but by Aussie media. II read about Assange here at the Reg, not in our mainstream media in Australia. Sure, the gesture is symbolic but it serves a purpose if it, even briefly, raises the profile of this case in Australia.

Climate denier bloggers sniff out new conspiracy

Has this article been edited?

Since I first read this article it appears to have been edited and the bits about Jo Nova and WUWT added, also the bullet points and the structure modified. The original was more of a rant about how silly denier conspiracy theorists were. The PDF links were at the end. Not cool el reg to edit an article without noting the change.

The study itself seems to find that there is a conspiracy to squash science - Pg 3

"The reasons for this declining public concern are manifold. Researchers in history and sociology frequently cite the manufacture of doubt" by vested interests and political groups as a factor (Jacques, Dunlap, & Freeman, 2008; McCright & Dunlap, 2003, 2010; Mooney, 2007; Oreskes & Conway, 2010; Stocking & Holstein, 2009). For example, over 90% of environmentally sceptical books published since 1972 have been demonstrably sponsored by conservative think tanks (Jacques et al., 2008). Oreskes and Conway (2010) analyzed the shared ideological underpinnings of organized attempts to question well-established scienti c ndings over the last few decades, from the link between smoking and lung cancer to the causal role of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) in eroding the ozone layer to, most recently, the ndings from climate science. "

Hmm. Vested interests, conservative think tanks, shared ideological underpinnings. Lewandowsky looks like he wants to find bad anti-science guys and what do you know? He does, he does! Its a giggle really.

denial denial denial bwahahaha

Chirgwin - you really are a dick.

The study caused contention ond consternation on "denier/sceptic/nazi-loving conspiracy blogs" (sarc) like Watts Up With That because of glaring oddities which came to light after publication. For instance - it looks as though 3 different surveys were used, depending on where the recipient seemed to fit on the denier-believer scale and Lewandowsky claimed that sceptical blogs failed to respond to the survey(s), whereas blogs such as WUWT have stated that they were never approached to begin with. Lewandowsky refuses to identify which sceptical blogs he approached and failed to note in his paper that more than 1 survey was used.

Since Lewandowsky is impugning the reputations of various sceptics by associating them with deniers of the NASA moonlandings, it seems only reasonable for them to respond. Perhaps in you opinion they should shutup and simply accept Lewandowsky's opinion of them?

For myself - I watched Neil Armstrong et al reach the moon and was totally captivated. As far as I am concerned, it happened. Similarly, I accept that there has been slight warming over the last 100 years or so of approximately 0.7degC. I accept that part of this will be anthropogenic *especially* as related to land use change (see Pielke Snr), part will be natural and part is due to artefacts of adjustments to the temperature records for *homogenisation purposes* as these seem to cool the past and warm the present.

On the other hand I do "deny" the extrapolation of this warming to imply some frightful, disastrous future. In fact, I go so far as to say that whether or not this future arises, that reactions to it are social and political in nature and not merely technical and therefore I have as much right to decisions regarding how we deal with this future as any politician, lobbyist or scientist.

Boffins confirm sunspot-weather link

Odd. "record-setting cold winters in 2010 and 2011" compared with " colder “low-sunspot” winters are growing warmer". So the winters are warmer and set record setting cold at the same time, thus the Rhine doesn't know WTF to do. Maybe some other factor such as flow, traffic, whatever has stopped the Rhine from freezing despite the record setting cold/warm winters?

Arctic ice panics sparked by half-baked sat data

"Indeed, which shows the arctic can change markedly. Ie it's highly sensitive. Long ago the arctic had palm trees and crocodiles and the ocean temperatures in summer were above +20C. "

Thats the *Antarctic*! The Arctic icy bit has no land mass. The palm trees must have been the floaty type.

How can it get that warm? Well the arctic in summer, thanks to near 24 hour daylight actually receives more sunlight than the sahara."

It will receive more hours of sunlight but when you consider the angle of incidence, the insolation in terms of watts/sqm may well be a lot less in the Artic (and Antarctic). I don't know but I suspect the fact that the Sahara gets bloody hot all year round and the Arctic is not hot even in its summer would point to a lot more energy hiitting the sands than the ice.

Scotland Yard probes News of the World computer hacking claims

@Climategate

Leaked mate. Leaked.

Billionaire Zuckerberg kills to eat

Thank you - I think it was nice work.

Jon,

despite your, prejudices perhaps, the work was done in a scholarly manner. If you'd actually bothered to read the first 10 lines or so you would see it was a german study. The translation from German was by a Muslim by the looks of the name.

Summary report

Experiments for the objectification of pain and consciousness during conventional (captive bolt stunning) and religiously mandated (“ritual cutting”) slaughter procedures for sheep and calves.

From

Deutsche Tieraerztliche Wochenschrift (German veterinary weekly) volume 85 (1978), pages 62-66

translated by Dr Sahib M. Bleher, Dip Trans MIL

By W. Schulze, H. Schultze-Petzold, A.S. Hazem, and R. Gross

Your comment "their supposition that a heavily disrupted EEG is consistent with severe pain is not supported by either human or animal studies into pain." may be correct. On the other hand Schulze et al reported the animals slaughtered by cutting only had non-disrupted EEGs. Are you suggesting a non-disrupted EEG _is_ consistent with pain?

Captive bolts shoot a bolt through the skull into the brain and do not always cause immediate unconciousness. Similarly for a mushroom gun which concusses the animal. If final slaughter by cutting is not done immediately then the process is repeated. Electrocution causes heart failure and brain pattern disruption. Again slaughter should be immediately after to avoid further pain. Compare this with - no pain and conscious then fast cut, blood loss with loss of consciousness quickly.

I think it is reasonable to continue studies in this area to ensure the animals are treated well.

Using technology

"And she knows from what, personal experience??"

Ever cut yourself and not noticed until you actually looked? People who have suffered large blood loss have reported not feeling much pain (typically here in Oz shark attack survivors). Direct visual observation is not a good indicator of sensation.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/18968848/Conventional-Slaughter-vs-Halal-A-Scientific-Examination

Summary report

Experiments for the objectification of pain and consciousness during conventional (captive bolt stunning) and religiously mandated (“ritual cutting”) slaughter procedures for sheep and calves.

The investigations had the following results:

a) For slaughter by ritual cut:

1. After the bloodletting cut the EEG initially is the same as the EEG before the cut. There is a high probability that the loss of reaction took place within 4 – 6 seconds for sheep and within 10 seconds for calves.

2. The zero line in the EEG was recorded no later than after 13 seconds for 17 sheep and no later than 23 seconds for 7 calves.

3. Thermal pain stimuli did not cause an increase in activity.

4. After the cut the heart frequency rose for calves within 40 seconds to 240 heart actions per minute and for sheep within 40 seconds to 280 heart actions per minute.

b) For slaughter after captive bolt application:

1. After captive bolt stunning all animals displayed most severe general disturbances (waves of 1-2 Hz) in the EEG, which almost with certainty eliminates a sense of pain.

2. The zero line in the EEG was reached for 4 calves after 28 seconds.

3. For two sheep the cerebral cortex activity only stopped in one half of the brain, whilst it continued in the other in the –region (up to 3.5 Hz) until the bloodletting cut.

4. The bloodletting cut resulted for all animals in a brain activity (e and d waves).

5. Thermal pain stimuli caused an increase in activity in one sheep.

6. The heart frequency rose directly after stunning to values above 300 actions per minute.

Sony wins subpoena for PS3 hacker's PayPal records

Poor bastard

Looks like someone, maybe the EFF should provide a "how to hack without getting sued" kit for hackers intent on unlocking the full potential of their lawfully purchased hardware. (Big) Business uses lawyers to prepare for or avoid lawsuits, before they commit to an action. I'd suggest the rest of the world - at least the "civilised" , developed bit - should consider it as well.

Make it Intel: CSIRO needs new kit to replace supercomputer

Intel?

Why not use a bunch PS3s networked together like that PhD Physics student 1-2 years ago doing black hole research. Sony donated 8 PS3s and the student mentioned they were kick-butt faster than (100s? of) Intels at maths processing.

CSIRO only need to jailbreak the things to run Linux :)

Aircraft bombs may mean end to in-flight Wi-Fi, mobile

@Missing something?

Mobile/cell phones do not connect to base stations at that height or a lot less. I've 'accidently' tested this using GSM/3g in a well established country south of the equator, where you are supposed to turn off phones in flight. oops.

I lost base station signal (bars) at around 1500 feet on take off. Speed would I guess be 250knots plus. Despite having some signal bars a phone call was not possible. All bars were lost after this.

At my destination city, I started getting signal when crossing some high points. Height was maybe 1000 feet but speed was quite high. Landing was the only time it was possible to get a useable signal but making a call was impossible as I connected to 4 base stations, sequentially, down the strip. Speed was too high abnd base stations could not make effective connection and would have not been able to hand over to the next station.

The only time it was possible to make a call was at taxi-ing speed. I am told by the radio guys that the base stations are setup with signal oriented to receiving on the ground, where people and cars are and that base station handover at speed is a technical issue whcih must be considered. as I recall some Canadians tested this in a light aircraft a few years ago as well.

Boffins mount campaign against France's official kilogramme

Used kilogram

If they don't have any use for it - can I have it please? Make a great door stop.

New pocket-sized smartbomb - just for killer robots

Masta Bater let's loose, shoots wide

Hey Masta Bater stop dissing my belief system - especially since you know f-all other than what your bigotry allows. Poor lad.

Mohammad was not a warlord. He had a fortune prior to teaching/passing on the mesage of Islam. Once he started his 'mission' he ended up spending or giving it all away. He lived poor and died that way. He allowed the Muslims to hijack caravans of Meccan merchants - the same people who had abused, killed and stolen from Muslims. It was a 'strategy of war'. However, he also gave back goods when asked, on a number of occasions. Despite the major differences between him and the Meccans (including his relatives), despite their then disbelief in his message, they still titled him "The Truthful" because even his enemies never knew him to lie. Read a Seerah (biography) of the Prophet.

With respect to : "wrote down in his "Holy" book (that millions, if not billions of backward-folks follow) to "Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them",". What a load of bollocks. Perhaps you are refering to Ch 2 v 291. Please read http://quran.com/2/190-194 for more context. I've seen these verses used to suggest, by non-Muslims, to mean go out and kill Christians. Stupid. All verses along these lines refer to the Munafiq (hypocrites) and Mushrik (polytheists) who oppressed and fought the Muslims, even under a treaty. Muslims are allowed to fight back unless/until the other sues for peace. The Quran then says the Muslims would be transgressors if they continue to fight after that. Muhammad couldn't read/write BTW. If you have any problems with this, please feel free to quote and reference chapter and verse.

All Muslims expect/hope to go to paradise. The (hoor-a-leen), "fair, wide-eyed maidens" are a pretty good added bonus. The little boys you mentioned are akin to cherubim, nothing sexual, you dirty little k****-fiddler you. Slaying and being slain are not a requirement. Do you honestly think the majority or even minority of Muslims go about killing people?

Your understanding of 4 witnesses is similarly incorrect. If anyone accuses a woman of adultery then they are required to produce 4 witnesses to the act of intercourse itself and if they cannot, then the accuser is considered a liar and should be lashed and his/her witness cannot be accepted in a court again. http://quran.com/24/4-7 "And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses - lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after. And those are the defiantly disobedient,".

Your last example regarding the girl; I won't comment as I don't know the case but - I feel it is terribly wrong to apply law in that manner. The Shari approach and the last part of the quote above is "And the fifth [oath will be] that the curse of Allah be upon him if he should be among the liars.". In a dispute, both parties can invoke a vow that they are telling the truth and the other party is lying - then the court is required to free them, since Allah knows the truth between them. Sharia is not just about punishment but contracts, child support, etc etc - think all of Brit statute law.

Finally, I may be wrong. No deity but I live my life in an ethical, moral way and when I die - nothing. No better or worse off. Or I'm right, in which case a couple of "hoor-a-leen" and cool condo in paradise. For you M Bater, you need option 1 to be right :)