Posts by Mooseman 1070 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Mar 2011
"We were doing "network stress tests" during the lunchbreak."
We used to run similar tests in the wee small hours (working for an international parcel delivery service it was either insanely busy overnight or dead quiet) - 4 of us used to play in various hubs including London, Brussels and the Midlands. Great fun!
When working for a now defunct arm of a large national energy company, staff were graciously allowed to *buy* redundant PCs and screens. These were fairly cheap but also quite elderly, in many cases the CRT monitors had burn-in issues (I grabbed one for a server). The "high end" kit was to be redeployed in other branches of the company, so I asked if I could keep my on call PC as it was a little better than my own desktop at the time. I was given the OK and my mighty machine (4gb RAM, 386 running Windows 3.11) was saved from the outside storage cage where the rest of the better spec machines ended up.
"There's a 6 hour law in the UK: You have to take a break after 6 hours continuous work (including driving).
It's a 15 minute break."
It's a minimum 45 mins break after driving 4.5 hours (if you're a commercial driver), minimum 10 hours rest before starting driving.
"The majority of those people Senator McCarthy questioned for being Soviet spies or sympathizers, were, in fact, Soviet spies or sympathizers"
Er, no they weren't. The majority of those put through the McCarthy inquisition were ordinary members of the public that someone had decided weren't quite Murican enough. People like Charlie Chaplin, Robert Oppenheimer. You know, communists....
"Of course the EU is so amazing that they wont go there. Yet people still come here..."
Are we talking holidaying or migration here? If the former, you;re talking nonsense. If the latter, you are either being deliberately stupid or just outright lying. Checking migration figures for EU countries is very easy, you know. There's this thing called the "internet", you may have heard of it ?
Roughly 3 million new residence permits for non EU people are given out every year. Most of them live in Germany, France, Spain and Italy. People come to the UK in boats because they have connections to us. Not for the vast benefits we dont give them (unless you call £40 a week generous, or £9 a week if we feed them?)
Seriously, change the record.
"Populism is democracy. The majority get to rule, like it or not."
No, it isnt. We have a representative democracy, which means that we vote in MPs to represent us, not to simply repeat what the loudest voices say. What you're advocating is, amusingly, rather closer to true communism than democracy - every person's opinion counts. We might as well disband the HoC and accept mob rule. It is, of course, the standard excuse for dictatorships worldwide to claim that it is the "ill of the people" - in fact I suggested that a lot of the guff coming out of the Quit camp should be translated into German to see if none of it gave you lot pause. Of course it wouldnt, as you are wholeheartedly embracing a backwards step to a world where "progressive" (or basic humanitarian) policies are seen as bad. Whats next, banning "degenerate" art? Maybe some kind of camps for those who dont support the regime?
"Brussels was, and is determined to punish us for our impudence and setting a bad example for other countries that might be thinking of leaving the EU as well."
That's standard quitling rhetoric. The EU has no interest in punishing anyone - having left the EU without any planning for trade we became a 3rd country, ie completely external to the EU/EAA and thus subject to the same limitations and tariffs as any other external country without a trade deal. Unfortunately for the flag shaggers we now have the same status in the EU as Azerbaijan.
"what is the maximum power a vacuum cleaner can have according to the dear old EU?"
a maximum power level of 900W. Have a maximum noise level of 80dB
As has been stated above, relatively low wattage does not equate to poor performance. Somehow the other 26 countries in the EU manage to have clean carpets
"illegal immigrants who are desperate and risk their lives in an attempt to flee France and the EU is costing us billions, and fsck'ing the economy.
Hmm lets see - the "illegal" small boats people make up around 8% of net migration to the UK. They arent fleeing France, they are trying to get to Britain because of a multitude of reasons, cushy benefits is certainly not one of them, unless you count living on £40 a week is a life of luxury (or less then £9 if you live somewhere that does feed you). To claim asylum in the UK you have to be on British soil. The countries they are coming from have no legal migration agreement with Britain, so they are forced to risk their lives in overcrowded boats. This cou;ld be solved easily by the government setting up legal routes for them, but they prefer to have a tiny minority to blame for all the country's problems and for people like you to swallow the guff, so instead of a humanitarian system we end up with people who worked with the British army in Afghanistan having to risk their lives "illegally" in order to escape death sentences at home.
Costing billions? The estimated cost is £1.3 billion per year - taxpayers are being forced to fork out ever-increasing amounts of money for accommodation providers over and above contracts that were worth a whopping £4.5 billion over ten years when the government signed them to secure asylum-related housing provision back in 2019 - dodgy and short sighted government contracts again, who'd have thought it? All they need to do is actually process the claims and watch the issue disappear. Oh, and allow asylum seekers to work rather than force them to live in a weird kind of limbo.
"Referendums only count when they produce a desirable result."
Indeed - most sensible governments rerun them until that happens. Most sensible governments don't abrogate responsibility and put a massive change to the country in the hands of people who voted to call a ship "boaty mcboatface" either, just because they were (and still are) afraid of losing power because of an emergent far right populist party.
A referendum is an opinion poll, not a legally binding vote - had the brexit "vote" been an actual vote it would have been declared null due to the various dodgy election practices.
"BLM, climate, anti-brexit"
Oh dear. BLM is a movement that advocates equal treatment of people no matter the colour of their skin. It's only the racists and bigots who claim its all some mysterious marxist conspiracy.
Climate is left wing populism? Yes, if you're heavily invested in fossil fuels I'm sure the concept of moving to cleaner and renewable energy must be scary, but denying climate change is idiocy. And finally brexit - to be anti brexit is "left wing" is it? Plenty of traditionally left wing voters supported it - notice I didn't say "voted" because there was no vote - and only the far right seem to claim it was anything (and remains anything) but a complete and utter disaster. Look up the very short list of things claimed as "brexit benefits" by people like Farage etc, and try not to laugh.
"Snow fall from above and accumulates."
Or consider the "star dust" crash in the Andes in 1947. It vanished from sight but bits of it started appearing from the ice after 50 years as the glacier melted. Clearly this proves that the glacier was at the same level when the plane crashed....
"So, what the hell is so essential for a kid to have a mobile phone with constant internet access < 16?"
What if your child has to travel daily to school on trains and buses and needs access to timetable changes? What if you want to know where your child is so you can pick them up when the public transport system fails? What if they need to call you to say they have missed the train/its cancelled/can they stay after school with x or y?
My children had phones after primary school for those reasons (aged 11).
"no study EVER looks at women's misandrist posts"
Yes of course, lets pretend that misogynist posts and male supremacist propaganda a la Tate brothers never leads to increasing domestic abuse or bizarre ideas about the other 50% of our species.
I'd agree that posts targeting men or women negatively should be stopped. Acting like a dick is not an acceptable response.
"Every single king and priest is a messiah, the act of pouring oil on their head is the ritual"
That's a tenuous definition, sorry. No English king has ever been called a messiah - the term messiah has definite connotations in English, and merely annointing people (how often does a monarch do that?) does not make you a messiah. Nobody thought Charles I (as per your example) was a messiah (I will resist the Monty Python quote) - a monarch was seen to be divinely appointed, yes, and in earlier times people believed that touching a king would cure some diseases.
"amazing how blind you are"
Ease up on the personal attacks please. I'm not "blind" for simply correcting your misunderstanding of how monarchs were regarded in medieval England. Nobody thought Charles I was a messiah.
Yes of course organised religion is a means to control the populace - the whole christian idea that poverty in this life guarantees you riches in the next, while you watch your wealthy neighbour getting the best of everything is a classic example. Again, I didn't disagree with that.
Take a little time to read what people say before ranting. Thankyou.
"The English felt that Charles was a Messiah"
No. You're confusing the divine right of kings with actually being a messiah. Kings were considered divinely appointed (conveniently) so that getting rid of a king or queen would go against god and upset the natural balance of the world - look at any Shakespeare play where a king is usurped, there are natural disasters, unusual phenomena etc etc as a consequence.
"20ish years ago man murdered his foreign girlfriend whilst living abroad and flew back to the UK, he was arrested in the UK for murder."
It would be more likely that wherever he committed the crime issued an international arrest warrant for him, and HM Gov detained him under that warrant, presumably so he could be flown back to face trial?
"Napoleon invented the idea of Belgium, created the country from some leftover bits of Europe then proclaimed one his cousins King."
Sort of - it was the Austrian Netherlands under the Hapsburgs until the French nicked it in 1795 (it became part of France), then it became the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (a bit confusingly), which then had a revolt and Belgium was created from the Southern part of the now not so United Kingdom.
"the old carpet got mouldy"
We used to have an Austin 1100 (steering wheel like a bus, gear stick about a yard long) that had mouldy carpets, we eventually discovered that the rubber seals in the floor panels (where the car was originally dipped) had perished and water was oozing in.
"Cornyn 'I was not at the funeral at all' to Xi 'Concentration camp' and of course the great hero of NK and his love of banning denims.."
Oh dear. Corbyn was an idiot who should never have been allowed to get t the position he held. Xi is no more left wing than Codejunky, and "the great hero of NK" is a far right dictator. IF you're going to use people as ex,[lars of "the left" then try and use actual, you know, left wing people. Being a prick seems to be almost exclusively the domain of the right wing - unless you think Tommy Robinson, Liz Truss, Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, Doald Trump and Elon Musk are merely telling us the truth?
"Selensky, not for his religion or other heritage but for his corruptness, killing his own citizens and prolonging a useless war"
Oh, so he should roll over and accept that Russia has the right to invade Ukraine, and meekly accept his show trial and execution that would follow such a capitulation?
You claim the AfD are not proto nazis? Hmm. Up to about 2017 you might have been right, but their current policies and statements are very much of the nazi style.
" may be nuclear capable, or become nuclear capable to states bordering Russia?"
May do, might be, could happen....sounds like a justification for a pre-emptive strike on Russia, doesnt it? After all Putin has been threatening nuclear attack on a weekly basis since he invaded Ukraine, so by your justification Russia is presenting a clear danger to the world. Or does it only work in the make believe theatre of Putin's (and clearly your) head?
"Modern Ukraine, incorporating parts of what was Poland and Hungary as well as territory occupied by the Tatars was only really staked out after WW2."
Ukraine was set up as an independent state in the 18th century, until the Russians did their thing and absorbed it, banning the Ukrainian language etc etc. It was once again an independent country in 1918, until the soviets (Russians) did their thing and sent in the army to conquer it in 1921. Post WW2 it was divided between the soviet union and Poland. Following the collapse of the communist USSR it is once again an independent country, until...oh yes, the Russians did their thing - again.
By your logic most of Eastern Europe and Germany aren't real countries either, and if you extend the thinking far enough neither are the UK, France, Spain, Italy, USA......
"Once upon a time a country lost it's shit over the Cuban Missile Crisis when Russia tried to place nukes in Cuba. That's further from the US's borders than Ukraine is, yet people seem suprised that Russia raises the same objections to NATO expansion"
Er, Cuba is right next door to the USA. Ukraine is quite a long way away. I suspect you meant to say Ukraine is closer to Russia, but that's really irrelevant in terms of nuclear missile launch speeds.
The biggest problem with your (and let's be honest here, Putin's) claims about NATO expansion into Ukraine is that....it simply wasn't true. Ukraine applied to join NATO in 2022 following Russia's annexation of four Ukrainian provinces. The application was not allowed. There are no US nuclear missiles in most European countries, they are held in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey and Netherlands.
There are no missiles in the Baltic states, so that excuse won't wash.
And the winners write the history books."
I remember reading somewhere: "isn't it incredible that throughout history, the Good Guys have always won."
This is the current rallying cry for people who like to pretend that they are somehow more enlightened than their peers. Unless you can support that statement you need to rethink it - can you define "good guys" in say, the conflict between France and Britain in the 18th and early 19th centuries? How about the Crimean war? The American war of independence? Etc Etc
That kind of glib nonsense is usually a way of pretending that somehow nazi germany was a victim.
"Used to collect 'cider' from the Scrumpy Farms on the Mendips (SW England) in empty 2 litre vinegar containers."
We reused orange squash concentrate 4 litre plastic containers to take the local scrumpy to parties. I gave up drinking the stuff after one such event when I discovered the bottom of the quite thick plastic container had been dissolved by the cider overnight.
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