Posts by Boris

Worried about future planet-cleansing superbugs? But distrust AI? Guess you're not interested in these antibiotics

Re: Don't get too excited...

It's true that antibiotics are used to prop up poor husbandry, but it's also been known for a long time that feeding low levels of antibiotics to animals promotes growth. It's finally being banned but China and the US have been openly doing this for decades.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/countries-still-using-antibiotics-fatten-animals-despite-ban/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23331113-700-antibiotic-resistance-is-spreads-from-farms-to-people-in-china/

Don't get too excited...

Most new drugs never reach the market because of toxicity/side effects/plain don't work.

Those that do typically take a decade to get through animal testing and then clinical trials before approval.

Pretty soon after that stupidity and greed will kick in. Meat producers will use it to speed up weight gain in animals, and dispensers in poor regions will sell one (1) pill to poor customers because they can't afford the entire course. Both are excellent ways of rapidly building antibiotic resistance....

That magical super material Apple hopes will hit backspace on its keyboard woes? Nylon

Re: Louis Rossmann

"but Numatic Henry, especiallu commerical version, were the way to go"

They still are mate (says a recently retired cleaner)

I despaired when they retired the henry at my last job because there was a Vax on "special offer" - it was clearly shite.

Henry's are bomb proof, the spares and bags are cheap and readily available and it's made in Britain - a success story no one knows about...

Flying car & roboplane-worthy air traffic digi-net go for 2025

Is there a Plan B?

So if Civil Aviation goes over to this wholesale and there is a catastrophic failure of the SatNav element (for instance a really big solar flare knocks out the system) then what happens with tens of thousands of aircraft suddenly not knowing where they are and (more importantly) where everyone else is?

IM client library bug plagues Pidgin

Latest version

2.6.1 on Windows here.

Keep up at the back!

Government slashes final Eurofighter order

@The First Dave

"I do love the way that the reporter implies that these planes are obsolete..."

The article quite clearly states that Eurofighter was designed to dog fight Russian jets over Europe. This scenario is now very unlikely.

"....and backs it up by saying that the Russians never got around to building anything as good as this"

Really? Where in the article does it imply that?

Amazon Kindle doomed to repeat Big Brother moment

Stolen Goods

"I don't know of any other product anywhere where I can take physical possession after paying in full and still have it repossessed without warning or recourse.

In the UK if you buy stolen goods (unknowingly or otherwise) they don't belong to you and can be repossessed by the owner. Any recourse would be with the seller, who is probably in court anyway.

Top aero boffin: Green planes will be noisy planes

@chris miller

"No, Boris, noise pollution is NOT pollution just like any other. Noise pollution is purely local, whereas CO2 emission affects the entire planet (if you believe in that sort of thing). "

If we're talking transport noise then all noise pollution is by definition directly linked to CO2 emission.

There's nothing local about the noise from a wide bodied jet leaving Heathrow with 250 passengers on board. Even if you ignore the 127sq km 57 db footprint around the airport, It's still a loud sound source in the sky. You can't get away from it. You'll hear it over much of South East England for something like 10-15 minutes. Try standing in the side streets of e.g. Windsor and telling me it's local and not intrusive.

By contrast a high speed train carrying 250 passengers is unlikely to be heard more than a few hundred feet away (I used to live near one) because the lesser noise is emitted at ground level and rapidly attentuated by trees, buildings and topography.

"Let me put this as simply as I can: if you find aircraft noise disturbing, DON'T BUY A HOUSE NEAR AN AIRPORT. Especially don't buy a house near an airport and then campaign to have the airport closed."

Or live in a house that isn't near an airport only to find they want to build another runway that brings the noise near your house?

"And don't tell me that the number of flights has increased since the 80s - true, but the noise emitted by aircraft has reduced."

I didn't. Why not read my comment properly?

Noise nymbyism

"Much of the hatred directed against aviation in the UK is actually noise nimbyism, then, not any form of environmental concern."

Ermm....No.

Noise pollution is pollution just like any other. People exposed to high noise levels for extended periods suffer health problems just like you get from other sources of pollution.

You clearly don't live anywhere near the major Heathrow flight paths or are deaf.

A possible solution to the noise problem is to move domestic traffic onto a high speed train network. The only short to medium term solutions to the long haul/international problem are to move the airport away from dense urban areas or wait for the cost of fuel to fix the problem for you...

Dissolving the plastic bag problem

Plastic Fantastic

It's an interesting article but basically the approach is little better than burning plastic bags in that the material is still converted into C02 and put into the atmosphere.

What would have been really clever was if he could have found a bacterial combination that could chop the polymer back to the original momomers with a reasonable degree of efficiency. If this was possible then you would have the ultimate plastic recycling system...

This DVD will self-destruct in 48 hours

recycling

"Polycarbonate, Flexplay argues, is a fully recyclable plastic"

Well maybe but you would struggle to find anywhere in the UK recycling polycarbonate. Most councils are still struggling with polyethylene and PET.

Space-bubble Bigelow looking to buy fifty Atlas Vs

@yikes

"The shuttle is of course cryogenically fueled"

Apart of course from the effing great fireworks strapped either side of the main fuel tank. The ones that caused the Challenger accident...

If they can man rate the huge mess the shuutle represents then man rating the Atlas should be a cinch and the Atlas has a far better reliability record than the shuttle....

Terror-cops get realtime Congestion Charge database link

Mission Creep

It looks like mission creep has already occurred since this story broke. According to the beeb web site today, a Home Office document has been "accidentally" released which states that there are plans to use real time access to the camera network for all types of criminal investigation.

Looks like big brother is finally here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6903902.stm

Tao Group throws in the towel

Taos

re: Time Tunneling.

"M68K code"....um, not quite, it is/was a set of virtual opcodes and an indefinitely large set of registers.

"m68k interpreter" ....again, not quite. The virtual opcodes were translated to the host machine code, this could be done either in advance or on the fly. There is no interpreter.