Posts by Neil D W Smith

Swedish transsexuals offered prosthetic todgers

@Chris G

"Wankers!" - I think that's the point. They'd rather like to be!

Serial troll vents steam through ears

I think you missed a letter

Sarah, I think you missed a letter in your last post - "'K? 'K." I think a third repeat might just go a little ways towards summing up Mr Kempf's political leanings.

For some unknown reason when I see the name "Aaron Kempf" it gets mentally substituted with "Aryan" and "Mein Kampf" - somehow appropriate when reading the bigoted bilge water that this creature spouts (I reserve the terms "person" and "individual" for those that I'm pretty sure qualify as one).

MP calls for Jezza Clarkson's head

If a strongly worded letter does nothing....

...may I suggest a politely worded one to the MP in question?

"Dear Mr Mole,

As you appear to be a member of parliament yet also appear to be part of the Labour faction why is it that you appear to have no sense of humour? Surely you realise that your party is a joke? Admittedly, not a very funny one.

Kindest Regards etc, etc..."

I will happily continue to watch Jeremy Clarkson on TV, read his columns and buy the books because so much of what he says are things that I agree with or at least can see his point on. If it wasn't for the touchy-feely brigade then he'd be hailed as a national hero .Hang on a minute, he is! Who else can I rely on to give a true opinion without pretending to be "unbiased"?

Hypersonic hydrogen airliner to bitchslap Concorde

The reason why it looks like something from Thuderbirds..

..is very simple. They wouldn't have flown either. It's a very pretty picture that someone's presented but a few things immediately spring to mind.

The wing area, while it might work at high speeds, appears to be totally insufficient to get the plane off the ground in the first place.

The angle of the leading edge is too great for high speed work and too small for low speed work. A double delta is the compromise option if they expect to be able to cruise subsonically and also have supersonic capabilities. It might have to be variable geometry to truly get the hypersonic.

There's a reason engines aren't put on wingtips. The stresses involved are ridiculous compared to attaching them to either the wing root or incorporating them into the fuselage. The amount of bracing required to do that is totally impractical from a weight perspective.

I'm only an amateur from the aeronautical engineering perspective but it appears that they've gained funding by producing a very pretty picture that makes the people with the money say "Ooh, that looks cool!" but have in actual fact done little or no work on the true design side of things.

I could be wrong but to me it definitely looks like someone did a snow job to get funding.

Military love affair with videogames intensifies

Alternatively...

You might suggest that they just use the default mouse and keyboard setup as it's

A. Cheaper

B. Familiar to many the world over for computer usage, whatever flavour.

I realise that the number of keys involved may be frightening to some currently serving personnel but I would hope that they'd be able to adapt!

Usage of a console controller, to me at least, implies that an effort to divorce the action from the reality is present. "It's a game controller so it must be a game!" A custom interface would at least indicate that matters were serious, not just for fun.

Connery says nay to Indiana Jones reprise

Enough already..

Lucas has spent too much time riding the wave - just look at Star War episodes 1 to 3 versus 4 to 6. No contest. Spielberg was handed the perfect opportunity to prove his worth after Kubrick's demise with AI - he stuffed it up.

It might be better to look for films by Timur Bekmambetov, the director behind Night Watch. Something far more enjoyable than Lucas's or Spielberg's most recent offerings.