Posts by Sacha TF Padovani

LOHAN to straddle meaty titanium rod

On temperatures, again

Sorry, forgot. Felix Baumgartner just jumped off a balloon today at 21 kms altitude, and reported he "could hardly move his hands" at -75°C. Dump the heated rod idea... too much power required.

on the rod, again

Just a few thoughts .. I know the guiding rod is a simpler setup, but I agree with the thermal expansion argument between titanium and alluminium alloy. I was also thinking of some sort of electrical antiicing device you counld use to avoid ice on the rod (thermally shielded common battery + big enough resistor attached to the rod?).

OR, if you're willing to accept another suggestion, why not copy all air-launch systems on aircraft, and build a mechanically severable connection to the truss (...spring loaded blades in a thermally protected box?) and just -drop- V2? After drop, timer (thin cable?) ignites rocket, and off she goes. You'd have the advantage of not having the backplate/rod. BUT you should have a good idea of how V2 performs aerodinamically during the drop (tail first...), but since you'll be going in wind tunnel at Soton... After all, if a B52 can aerolaunch a pegasus rocket .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_%28rocket%29

Flying Spaghetti Monster's works spotted in space

Perfect timing!

ARRR! It's certainly fitting that a FSM story comes out on Friday, after all it's His Nodliness's favourite day of the week. Grab a tankard of ale and a wench and let youself be touched! (by His Noodly Appendage)

Russians drill into buried 20 million-year-old Antarctic lake

To celebrate the great news

I just had to watch "The Thing", yesterday night., btw, Italian newspapers report suspicions of a 105 by 75 KILOMETERS "extremely powerful" magnetic anomaly (1000 nanoTesla) in the SW edge of the lake. Maybe a "cylindrical or circular" metallic object.

http://www.repubblica.it/scienze/2012/02/06/news/antartide_i_misteri_del_lago_vostok_raggiunto_dopo_trent_anni_di_scavi-29442183/?ref=HREC2-49

So, it's either The Thing, or a Linguafoeda Acheronsis, or a Predator ship, or the lost city of Leng where the Old Ones dropped from between the angles of space.

In any case, I'm bolting down windows and doors.

DIMENSIONAL PORTAL INCURSION AT THE LHC!

you tossers

you've gone a bit overboard with this one

have a happy day

:))

btw: been following the LHC lately: last night they managed some more collisions. Looks like Beam 2 is always acting funny.

Mafia don suspect tracked down via Facebook

@Iglethal

He was know by the other Clan bosses as "The bazookist", since he had to use one such thing to off another rival boss, who had the sense of going around in a fully armoured car. So, at least, the guy knows how to do his work.

Street View snooptrike stalks Siena

Must get out more

I live in the bloody place, and haven't seen the dratted thing. So, luckily, I won't have been snapped. A friend, though, tells me she's seen it, and the guy manning the camera was giving a helping hand-and-leg to the pedal-guy, pushing the contraption up Siena's steep streets.

I guess Google's trike-View propulsion devices aren't sourced from the same pool as the Astana cycling team..

Ex-Star Wars boffins build mosquito-blasting raygun

Fan-bloody-tastic!

We need more of these guys.. LOTS more!

With minds like these, who knows what hurdles humanity could conquer?

Credit crunch greedy execs? Pah! Zapped!

Traffic congestion? ZZAAAP!

Hey.. what about ants? Aren't those damn critters really annoying? Could'nt we zap away a whole colony? Hope the device works underground too.. maybe some millimetre wave thingy, instead of lasers?

Pope's star watcher to visit Nasa and talk aliens

I for one (#2)

welcome our Unrepentant Sinful Alien Dominating Hey You! bend Overlords

Fraunhofer boffins tout new 'diamondballs' mech tech

Any recent Suzuki GSX-R has it..

DLC and TiN (Titanium Nitride) coating is widely used to prevent stiction and reduce friction in high end (but quite common now) sports bike's fork tubes.

I guess the clever bit is coating a very small bearing...

Berlusconi plans to use G8 presidency to 'regulate the internet'

Just to shed some further light on the matter

Some of you may recall, if it even reached the Reg, that some months ago, Mediaset, the tv'n'stuff company owned by jolly old Silvio's family (his brother and sons, basically, but he's still got his feet in it anyway) wanted to sue YouTube for illegally replaying bits and snaps of "private content", i.e. a whole host of very funny tv shows, of extremely widespread audience (at least here in Italy), (and also Big Brother, Survivor .. the lot) broadcasted on Mediaset's three national channels.

Many commentators here believe that's the real purpouse of this "regulatory" crap.

Pirates because we'll bittorrent away his ass one single bit a time.

(Plus, on the Murdoch front... SKy Italy has just been enraged by Silvio's "Anti-crisis" economic package, since he's ramped the VAT Sky has to pay to trasmit from 10% to 20%, resulting in pay-tv subscriptions going up at least 3 Euros. Several tv ads have been circulating "Berlusconi doubles taxes to 4.6 Million italians [Sky subscribers]. Needless to say, Silvio wasn't impressed, but his Finance minister said there's no other way to reap some cash.)

Heidemarie 'Toolbag' Piper set for second spacewalk

Ah-ha! So -that's- why they won't lose another bag...

NASA coerced the poor astronautical arachnid into weaving a super-strong toolbag lanyard...

No just imagine if it slips into some nice warm cozy space suit and start vengefully biting away at the occupant..

German boffins plan frictionless liquid crystal lubricant

Ykes!

Crystals around the (bearing) balls?

One heck of a STD, I'd say!

US teen cuffed for sending nude phone pics

I'll surely wont' be the first, but

...I mean.. Horayyy for Licking Valley High School!!

Paris, 'cos she surely graduated there

Fish snapped snacking at 4,200 fathoms

Yeah, but

what sort of Mini?

Mk I ? II? Cooper? Cooper S? An Austin? A Morris? a BMW Mini? Or even (gasp! ) a John Cooper Works GP something?

Scientists unravel galactic spaghetti monster

Arrr!

Now we just have to Hubble out the beer volcano and the stripper factory....

Oz Anglicans embrace Darth Vader

What number am I? A gazillion?

Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen Pope tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Orthodox' hidden fortr…

I find your lack of faith disturbing..

Busts 4 Justice battles Bulgarian airbag tax

From another FB group comment

"but then again you are male and will never have to under go the sheer annoyance that is large bossoms."

Err... indeed, I am male, and I am not currently undergoing the sheer annoyance of having (to deal with) large bossoms (!), but i eventually plan on doing so ..

Paris, 'cos she too isn't undergoing said annoyance.

'Mad Scientist' developing powered suits for US military

Cant' be too long, then

before some top deathtech boffin sees a rerun of the Predator series and starts pestering his inferior deathtech boffins for the helmet-sighted shoulder-mounted plasma ThingFragger...

I bet that'd kick any armoured grunt's posterior.

...

-What? What do you mean "cracked shoulderblade?"

How BA handles lost luggage complaints: Shock picture

What, no SuperModel?

Where's the Battling Clotheshorse (tm) angle?

Paris, not-quite-as-much-battling clothes..donkey?

Dead wife contacts Lancs man via SMS

@D. Wilkie

Must be one of those new gas-powered fuel cell thingies... plus, she's effectively sequestering underground the excess methane.

Spooky, tech-savvy, and eco-friendly!

Botanist sues to stop CERN hurling Earth into parallel universe

The Hawaiian flower-attorney must have

been watching too much Futurama. There's an episode where Frey thinks of what would have happened if he hadn't fallen in the time capsule, and the whole Yooooniverse gets sucked up inside itself into white nothingness. Cool, but boring.

@Geoff Spick

Switzerland gone!? WOW! From an Italian POV, no more silly year-long highway toll stickers, way quicker travel times to the OktoberFest in Munich, and -lots- more parking space around Milan and Lake Garda. Quick, let the atom-shashers rip!

Polish builder sacked for humping hoover

Smiling?

If it was being molested shouldn't the hoover have been at least frowning or crying or whatever?

Members of the court (.....) please have a conscience, and recognized it was consensual hoovering.

Mine's the "Hoova Moova" Dire Straits jacket, thanks.

Vote now for your fave sci-fi movie quote

Had to go fro Blade Runner

even if I'm firmly a Star Wars geek. BR -is- science fiction, after all. SW is... something else.

Besides! What about: "I am your father!" in ESB ? That started off a whole (far away) galaxy of south american soapopera plots..

And who many times have you got in someplace thinking there could'nt be "a more wretched hive of scum and vilany"?

Veggies a 'perversion of nature': Official

Silverstone?

Only good one I know is in Northamptonshire.

Mrs Silverstone was utter cr4p in Batman 3. Possibly because she was confronting Plant-toting Poison Ivy?

Ah, yes, mine's the coat with carrots dangling out of it.

Chinese make Olympic weather bow to Party's will

Won't succeed

They can't tell their Celciuses from proper Celsiuses, or Kelvins, even.

Or Hiltons, to be precise.

Sociologists: Studying engineering turns you into a terrorist

Watch out you lot

Now where did I put that explosive belt... Oh I know, silly me.

SELECT * FROM jihadista.mydeadlyweapons WHERE jihadista.mydeadlyweapons.name LIKE "%belt%" GROUP BY jihadista.mydeadlyweapons.stash_id DESC

Polish IT worker calculates exact speed of snail mail

Laden or unladen?

And does the shell count as "load"?

Mines' the shell hanging next to the door, please

Starbucks mocha clocked at 628 calories

You really have a sad sad life

if you're stuck with that crap they call coffee. As an Italian resident, I have my daily dose of "caffe'", that's it, you justa walk in a bar, and ask for a coffee. None of that "it has a ridiculously long name so it must be good" business. Oh, and I don't have sugar, either. AND it only costs 0.80 €. I've had a (proper) espresso in London for nearly FOUR times that. Nuts.

Winamp blighted by bug brace

Overly long?

Like "I remember (Death in the afternoon)" ? Surely not!

We tuned the dial,

We heard the news,

And laughed,

We don't know why

Lightsaber voted top movie weapon

Shame

Where's the Predators' helmet-sighted shoulder blaster ??

Computer system suspected in Heathrow 777 crash

They got damn scared here..

Sat or Sun morning on a 06:45am Milan to Southern Italy flight, the crew had to ground 3 "business" self-loading-cargo before takeoff, despite at least 3 notices from Capt. Speaking, 'cause they wouldn't switch off the damn mobes. Plane type (and OS) not recorded. Apparently, the navicomputer had gone titsup, and had lost a couple of waypoints*.

The 3 fools were fined a paltry 200 Euros, and risk incrimination for compromising transports security.

*Capt.Speaking's copilot should have probably have had to revert to the maps application on his Nokia N95... Oh, DAMN!!!

Bjork lays into NZ snapper

"And if you complain once more

..you'll meet an army of me.."

Village shaken by GPS-driven tank invasion

@Jeff&Alex

Ok, wrong Don(n)ington, but sure it'd have given new meaning to the "big bore thundering & booming" Ducatis...

Don-ing coat...

Supersonic stealth jumpjet rolls off production line

Too bad for the Italians???!

Right, Mr. Page, as a child of both UK and Italian citizens, I hereby decree that your monthly subsidy of linguine and prosecco has been indefinitely suspended.

So, please tell me, just how are you going to cope without a fundamental El Reg unit of measure, and the accompanying knickerless-sponsored beverage ..?

German air passenger quaffs litre of vodka

So, now we DO need

The Booze-angle icon!!

possibly with the man's face on it.

Cheers, everyone!

Paris Hilton cavorts naked in middle of desert

Where's the -proper- booze angle?

I mean.. Prosecco IN A CAN?

You don't need to be PH's army of barristers'n'slaves to predict a veritable outpouring of legal papers between the Prosecco-police over here in Northern Italy.. Try convincing the Valdobbiadene producers that THAT goldeny stuff is proper Prosecco.

They'll sue The Hiltoness untile she's ..er... shirtless? then .....pantless? No, not that, damn....

Can we have a booze-angle icon? Please?

Catholic schism over mobile icons

The silly buggers

haven't even realized Pope John Paul II isn't a saint YET. His canonization process was supposedly started just after his death, upon public pressure, and stories about his miraculos healings pop up every now and then in our Italian press, just because the churc'n'politics lobby is trying to speed things up.

PLus, all of these mobe* services clearly are a total ripoff, yet the yoofs and the lonely housewives persist on being lured into them.

Could we sue the service providers? Please?!? After all, the service is called "Protector SAINTS" .. surely that's misleading??

Record industry pushes ISPs to cut off file sharers

OK, Europe & the US get shut off, eventually

But what happens when the Indian subcontinent and SEAsia (not to mention China...) get massively on p2p networks, moving to TCP/IP all the CD/DVDs that already get pirated there? Are the record companies going to completely shut off every damn net in the world?

This is nuts, and even worse is the fact that some bloody 60-to-70 years old MP, afraid even to use teletext, is going to actually make a law on this.

Here in Italy the Gov is in the process of backtracking the "blog registration" bill, and damn very well they should. It just seems politicos are targeting the net now that they don't know where else to stick their noses. Mind you, EU Security Commisioner (or somthink like that) Franco Frattini, who recently proposed to ban all "bomb building-related content" is Italian too, I guess I start seeing a pattern...

D'oh. 's better to focus on the Chianti and the fettucicne and get fat and drunk. At least I decide I'm doing it.

Oz barmaid fined for crushing beer cans between jubs

@Erwin

There might be an angle grinder, though ..

Music industry cripples eDonkey network

Still 30 servers roughly out there

Checked out just half an hour ago. Google up the .met file. the 3-4th address returned has got good servers. No sign of the nearly 800K users per server, though.

And Kademlia really bogs down XP machines and home routers with an enormous amoutn of connections :(

787 unsafe, claims former Boeing engineer

About glue in airframes..

I seem to remember the very advanced Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito night fighter had loads of problems (i.e. in-flight fuselage break-ups...) because the glue they used to bond the wooden main spars wasn't as good as the one they used previously (Tego-Film ..I think..) 'coz The Bomber Command had wiped out the factory.

Wikipedia confirms what I remember from a WW II German warplane book I have at home...

Ah, it was wing failure, not the fuselage ... much better then.

So, what's the velocity of a sheep in a vacuum?

Flawed Linguine

Sorry chaps, but being an avid pasta-eater, and living just south of Florence, I must correct your fundamental distance unit.

Linguine are most commonly found in Liguria with pesto, while are not that native to Tuscany. Over here we have Fettuccine or Pappardelle, preferrably with wild boar sauce. They differ in being much much wider than Linguine ("little tongues") AND, crucially, they are marginally longer, and weigh more, too!

PLUS, we havent' had practically any rain in the summer, so our grapes are slightly smaller than the EU standard, but they do pack more alcoholic punch. We should be getting some pretty fine Brunelli, in 5 years' time.

So, the result is, we'll keep on partying with our Pappardelle and Brunello, obliviousl to the rest of the world, since we don't expect any Welsh to know how to properly cook the pasta/do the sauce/savour the wine.

Need hard facts? Try Conservapedia

Diff-o-pedia

Just a manual diff :

WikiP: The word Islam means "submission," or the total surrender of one's self to God

ConsyP: The word "Islam" means "submission."

-

The Conservatorianistas or whatever, must really think Islam is run by a 7ft whip-cracking latex-clad mistress ....