Posts by Bleu

Falcon 9 fireworks display grounds SpaceX

Ha, ha, ha

I have no ill-will towards Musk Enterprises, although I do know that the people claiming it runs without massive state subsidies are fools.

Just as Scaled Composites should have been disqualified from the X prize because of massive cross-subsidies from the US military, Space X runs off massive state subsidies. Private venture it may once have been, if it ever was, it sure isn't now.

I like our supply ship, it seems efficient.

Still, the only thing getting people up to and down from orbit is the good old Soyuz, with many technical (the brilliant auto-docking system, among others) and nagivational (fast path to orbit) innovations.

They are not ineffective and are valuable things. US arseholes in Congress complain, but they will be paying (and already are for Space X) more per launch than for Soyuz. When the US military-industrial complex gets their incredably subsidized thing into orbit, it will cost even more.

I wonder what happened to the space-tourism offer of a slingshot on Soyuz around the Moon. Plenty of arseholes for whom it would have been small change.

Maybe the radiation problem is too great and the Moon landings were fake, I only say that to be irritating, but radiation outside the van Allen belt is harsh, the Moon-bound astronauts had no special protection.

Nobody has taken up the circumlunar Soyuz offer, and I think it is no longer on offer.m

Ashley Madison: ‘Our site is full of women, and members are growing’

Re: I can believe it

You sure prove your less-than-desirable credentials with 'highly sort after'.

You almost make it

to the level of the HMG minister in Brazil (Helpman, IIRC), 'knocking them for six', etc.

I recommend and beg that you do an extended and deeper version, many will enjoy it!

Re: "members are growing"

Def, that was a lovely line, factual or not, well put!

I love the stream of Asperger's spectrumites replying after missing the word play.

Nice story bro.

WTF your little C&W tale has to do with the 'Ashley Maddison' (sounds a little like 'Aston Martin', amirite?) fiasco is beyond me, and, I would guess, most fellow regtards.

Indirection?

Sure looks like it.

Prof Hawking cracks riddle of black holes – which may be portals to other universes

Re: Have you ever lost anything you wanted back

No, no, no, things lost at home under Earth conditions fall into *grey* holes.

Re: Holey information loss, Batman!

We would love to believe that your 'holey' was a word-play, but it is clear that you simply can't spell.

Re: Cite

You are not putting things too well, but agreed that all convincing theory makes the case of a fading 2D projection on the spherical (sure, we hear theory of other shapes, up to cylindrical, none convincing except for slight deformations from the sphere) event horizon.

This 'holographic 3D' idea sounds so silly. Still, must be reading about it in more detail, but it seems there is no detail, just a claim.

Some of Ben Gregford's many silly books have people wandering about in the centre of the galaxy, in a massive retreat from machines. They enter a black hole. Gregford was a physicist, but creates a nonsensical scenario, a very few interesting scenes, mainly southern states of the USA inside the black hole.

AFAIK, Gregford does nothing much in physics, not much good as a writer, must be well-connected.-

The one I read, I will not read again, Wilde commented that a book that is really worth reading is worth reading again, Ben Gregford fails that test.

Re: Damn you Brain, why you no genius?

One of the late great Jack Williamson's later great short stories had trust in Hawking radiation going wrong as a central plot point.

Someone makes a mini-black hole in containment, it falls out, gains mass ...

Doesn't evaporate.

I cannot recall the title, still have it, but it is in a box right now.

On the concrete level, I cannot imagine the conditions for mini black holes that evaporate through Hawking radiation to form.

Re: Plasma Spewing

Tom 7,

Penrose spoke of many of the concepts Hawking has recently recycled.

You might enlighten readers more shallow in history by explaining 'misinterpretation of Finklestein'.

This is a tech site, not speculative physics, though as you would guess, many have studied physics to various levels at universities that actually teach it, and theory of electronics and electrical engineering, especially for those graduating before computer-aided everything, is impossible without physics.

For jwrc

They would like to prohibit dissenting views, on pain of persecution and preferably prosecution, maybe a little gratuitous torture if they were really able to express the desires of their lovingly self-righteous and totalitarian-flavoured hearts.

Most despise science and have never studied it. Doesn't stop them appealing to 'the science' in their little neo-Jacobin campaign.

Personally, I have no doubt that ripping every last accessible hydrocarbon deposit from the Earth will have disastrous consequences in tandem with the collapse that is inevitable as a result of runaway population growth.

Having respect for and having studied actual science, I know that nobody has an exact enough science of climate to predict where it will go, except that megacities make horrid heat islands.

Even there, Japan, including our heat-island capital, Tokyo, has been in the midst of very cool temperatures for August over about ten days, the maximum today was 22 celcius. Forecasts are for it to continue, not so low, but not typical high summer.

I hate the many recent summers extending into late September, or even October in some years, but am really disturbed by such cool weather in late August.

My own opinion is instability.

Why Nobody Should Ever Search The Ashley Madison Data

Re: Wrong recipient?

You are posting as AC, so neither I nor anyone else has any idea of what you are writing about.

Re: Wrong recipient?

Nice comment northern coder, though I am quite convinced by the 'most female members were prostitutes and most of the rest were fake profiles' theory.

It has been run to death in other media outlets.

There must be a safe way to look at the database.

Not that I care, I sure would never sign up for a site with a logo suggestive of soft porn.

Many of the sleazy people who did sign up (subscriptions take money) did so with the intention of cheating.

Sure, a minority, as the article says, had the misfortune to be 'in lurve' with someone who hates sexual contact, the majority would have been just morons taken in by the imagery.

If, as is reported, almost all of the women outside the fake accounts were prostitutes, I think AM would be subject to more than a civil suit, AFAIK, laws against pimping remain on the books there.

Visitors no longer welcomed to Scotland's 'Penis Island'

Re: How nice

Well, you made the asinine post.

Seven thousand million? Old news. Irresponsible breeders are galloping it up to eight thousand in quick time.

Re: Proof, (if it were needed)

You are wrong, and need to study more on the topic.

Re: Proof, (if it were needed)

Sorry, it is a dialect of Anglisc.

I do not understand some words or spellings at times, but, my wee bonny bairn, can usually look them up or work them out.

You do know that Burns wrote (beautifully) in a way that was considered archaic *at the time*?

That was a good while ago.

Re: Proof, (if it were needed)

Languages.

Scotland had three celtic language groups, two before the invasions from Eire of old, three after, but the other two died out completely, replaced by the Anglisc language. As others say, Gaelic in Scotland has no direct connection to the languages of the Picti and Scotti in Roman times, but to invaders from Ireland after that.

As an observer from afar, I find it interesting that Anglisc took deep hold, with no sign of an invasion, in so much of Scotland from the dark ages.

The remaining gaelic there, in many parts of Eire (sure and all I know that it still lives in *a few* places there), most of all in Cornwall, where the last native speaker died in the nineteenth century, and what is spoken in their Cornish language clubs is an artificial language based on Cymric, with a little vocab.

The possibility of EU subsidies makes the charade worthwhile.

Only Cymric and, in a few places, Irish Gaelic are truly living languages.

Here, the language of the Ainu was completely separate, that of Okinawa very different, but numbers of people who can truly speak them are always falling.

Embracing the life-changing qualities of USB power packs and battery extenders

Re: My phone regularly runs out of electric power.

Thx, I may try it next time.

Would guess it doesn't work everywhere.

I never thought of those as volume buttons, but can see that is the intention.

If I listen to music on headphones, it is from my DS.

Since my pre-paid card is unusable and Google chooses not to offer any kind of help service to tell me why (they sure don't reply to 'Feedback'), can't download the programs I want (for making sounds, not listening to them).

Re: No substitute for a big battery

'the back disintegrated before the battery lost it's ability to hold charge!'

I don't even ...

Did you drop it many times, was the battery too hot, or was the back made from paper that you exposed to heavy rain?

Re: rugged cases with batteries vs usb battery packs

... but it does defeat the purpose, the combined weight is in ultra-light laptop territory.

Re: No substitute for a big battery

Burning iPhones give you so much more,

burning iPhones give you so much more.

As experienced by many!

Re: elegant metallic finishing

You have respect from my heart if you really recall those things.

My phone regularly runs out of electric power.

I have one of those battery packs now. Have only used it once, my thinking is that I should be doing something more useful instead of reading crap on the phone, but it is the easiest thing to do when time between changing trains is short and one is standing.

The battery is removable, but it is a process, I thought Android was crash-proof, all of the seven, eight or ten times I have removed the battery, it was to reboot the thing because it crashed. Albeit, this is over two or more years.

Why they didn't include an external reset button, accessible by toothpick or pin, I never understand.

I really preferred my TRON mini-brick in many ways. It *never* crashed. Still hasn't.

Off topic, I saw a lady on the train today who had decorated her iPhone with marker pen, I thought 'That's the spirit!' She'd written 'OH MY' with nice balance on the top, and G and D! on either side of the round button in the lower centre.

Applying marker pen to a sillyphone, very stylish IMHO.

China shutters 50 websites for spreading explosion 'rumours'

Re: Shut down,

Well, it was you using the words 'shut down' for a few ideas. I agree with none of the ideas (maybe the third, since I can't recall what that was), but 'shut down' is pure bullying and attempted thought control.

Perhaps you may revise that mentality some time.

Re: Anybody know what the rumors were?

Ian, you sounded convincing until you claimed that your similar post on a site outside China was deleted by 'government hackers'.

We 'government hackers' had no interest in you, you do not name the site. I would be suggesting that controllers where you posted were removing your post because it was stupid.

Do not worry, we 'government hackers' will be keeping as close eye on you and your every brain fart from now as we can.

'

We do not know what you posted, but you can be assured, we wil be tracking it down very soon.

Re: Serious questions to the AC.

Thank you for clearing up the first part in a funny way.

I am quite sure

that 'the BBC is repeating something their reporters heard about' is the more correct way to say it.

Re: We help this $ort of thing to happen!

It is hard to avoid buying made-in-China things, in Japan, too.

Sometimes, I try to find the made-in-Japan of a product I like, particularly in niche markets it is becoming impossible.

You can still find video players, monitors, audio made here.

Just checking through my bag, my Casio electronic dictionary that I have to use for posting here sometimes is made in China, so is the 3DS.

I already checked my mini video camcorder, designed in Japan, made in China, like the other two.

Sure, some of the chips are made here, but I am not so sure about the 3DS.

Many have noted that it is, in part, to do with exporting environmental problems.

Serious questions to the AC.

What is an antivaxer or a vax? I know of the old computer systems, but do not know what you mean, so cannot give you a vote either way.

By "entrepreneurial state", do you mean a state where some state-owned businesses have become entrepreneurial (as in China as exemplar), a state in which 'enterpreneurs' are given free rides, have excessive influence, and are used as instruments of state power (as in the USA as exemplar), or something else?

I ask for reasons of study. Hate it when I do not understand terms.

Shut down,

well aren't we the all-for-the-free-flow-of-information one?

Not that I am a fan of what I hear about Faux, seems to be a parade of idiocy. Neither am I anything but amazed by young-Earth creationists (I think that is the term). From my reading, I see that the idea has also caught on very strongly among the sillier and more extreme Jews and Muslims.

Shut them down? Why? If someone wants to push that stupid idea, good luck to them, in the end, the whole idea can only lead to one conclusion: the creator has composed the geological record as a big lie, for a test of faith. The latter argument is unlikely to work on non-brainwashed people who see this flaw.

Even if it weren't for that, they should be free to push their silly idea, as long as they don't try to make it the only one.

Plenty of 'biblical creationists' accept the rough true ages of the Earth, Solar system, the universe, and accept the geological record.

I suspect that such people are the true subject of your 'shut them down'. Fact is, you can neither prove nor disprove the existence of a creator. Even Dawkins recently posited aliens.

If you want to find a model of information control that exceeds that of most totalitarian systems, try posting things, in polite terms, that they disagree with on The Guardian's inaptly named 'Comment is Free'. You will quickly find it impossible to post anything except rubbish that you don't care about, anyway.

Then again, that is clearly how you would like the world to work.

From your post, which reeks of new-left totalitarianism, I suppose you must be, or dream of being one of their censors, sorry, I mean 'moderators'.

Wonder how and where they recruit them?

Pretty sure they don't pay.

Personally, I don't work for free, except in exceptional cases. Being an on-line bully for a strange collection of causes (you clearly would agree with all of them) does not qualify.

I agree with the OPs who are saying that the death toll from the explosion(s?) must be higher than is being stated.

BTW, this is the same as the post I withdrew, except the bit about 'biblical creationism', and mistaking the AC for stardust.

Kaspersky: Freemasons coded fake malware in the Bermuda Triangle

Re: Pure click-bait...I'm disgusted.

I enjoyed the article. You must be very literal-minded.

Just like to add, Reuters seems to have been trying to McAffee-ise Kaspersky, after all, McAffee (sp?) has been serving up very bizarre tales whenever he surfaces lately.

Billionaire Soros 'likes' Facebook to the tune of $212m; Alibaba out of favour

That is interesting

Soros, the clean trader. Sure, nobody would believe that the fortune he made on, say, the run on the pound was based on inside information.

It clearly was, but one can claim that it wasn't, because nobody dared to find his source.

He has been found guilty of clear insider trading otherwise, showing that he has no qualms about it, ergo, he likely does (or did) it whenever he felt he could get away with it, which in practice has been most of the time.

It is amusing to see him throwing cash to one of the more useful tools in his ugly political activities, as if Faesces or Farce Book needs the money.

For services rendered and to be rendered?

Assange™ to SQUAT in Ecuadorian broom closet for ANOTHER FIVE YEARS (maybe)

A remarkably stupid article

including the gratuitous, incorrect, and dishonest use of 'rape'.

The British press, in recent days, has reported that Swedish authorities recently managed to interview 44 people In the UK.

The only one they somehow couldn't get around to interviewing was Mr. Assange, although he and his legal people have been asking for just that since before he jumped bail and was granted asylum, and seem to have spent considerable time trying to arrange it.

Surprise! Evil-eyed cats MORE LIKELY to be SNEAKY PREDATORS – boffins

That is why you can only train them to use the box by rubbing their noses in their own execreta.

They love their own stench.

I am now under trees that are full of, I don't know the English, I think cicadas? It is hallucinatory, they are so loud tonight. If I play some electronic music made by me, they react.

So good morning for the now, I want to play for my insect fans.

Re: Not so much evil

The 'occasionally comical' bit says a lot about their visual system (brain, not optics) and near-reptilian level of perception.

When a kitten or young adult cat falls about chasing it after setting a bit of thread or fabric, perhaps a light ball, in motion, it all all looks very charming or funny, but it is just because of how they see, motion against ground, and unlike a bear, dog, octopus, monkey (including us), and many other species, the cat has no idea of causation.

The cat sets something in motion, it sees it as prey.

When it doesn't have flesh or bleed, it stops for a short while, then repeats the process.

They are domesticated to the extent that some have an idea of how to please the humans they own.

You have two? Does your place stink of cat excreta?

The only reason toilet-training works on cats is that they love the smell, but don't like having their noses rubbed in their own shit (although they love the smell), so they eventually use the box.

Re: Stop right there !

I have seen no evidence that domestic cats (not a domesticated animal) are descended from a larger species.

I read in a Dawkin's book (Ancestor's Tale, I would not bother with any of his anti-Christian screeds), of a project in Russia, where they bred foxes to be more like domesticated dogs. In the end, they got the desired result.

House cats are stupid and have near-reptile-level brains, so if you tried a similar experiment, all you would end up with is an even stupider beast, perhaps a little docile.

I'd love to see the results of a similar experiment on cats.

Wonder what happened to those domesticated foxes? I would like to think that their line continues.

I am grateful for the many on this thread who are acting like Pavlov's dogs and giving me a massive number of down-votes for a few accurate observations about house cats, which happen to run against the Internet cult.

The Internet really does make you stupid.

Re: Eyes Too Close Together

You must be joking. All simians, for example, have forward-facing eyes, apart from the baboons, us, and some of our cousins after divergence from chimps, most were not predators.

Sharks tend to have eyes on the sides. They are rather successful predators.

Predatory birds with side-facing eyes, easy to find examples. Sure, the raptors and owls come easiest to mind, but on water and the sea, plenty have a half-way, not completely side-facing, but not forward-facing either.

Rats, most predatory of rodents, only have semi-forward-facing eyes.

Re: Stalking around

I say successful leech or parasite, sure.

The only things they are good for are controlling rodents, and decoration for the hordes who ignore their murderous nature.

Most are too well-fed to bother controlling rats, preferring easier prey for play, like small birds, frogs, etc., as stated in my earlier post.

The Internet thing is beyond ridiculous.

Feigning being a cat-lover is part of the spectrum of compulsory things.

... and yes, I have had a pet cat, it came to an unfortunately early demise through feline distemper. Had to use the dictionary there.

Yes.

The reaction is all too predictable, but certainly expected. Domestic cats have evolved or been bred for some interesting behaviours, such as imitating certain sounds of human infants.

I am not a cat-hater, but despise people so caught up in the dull meme value that they are unable to see the huge damage wrought on populations of birds, reptiles, small mammals, amphibians (mainly frogs).

Most 'cat-lovers' are dullards, the worst are the women who use their cats to set up an 'I am witchy witch' image, next worst, men who feign cat fanaticism for pussy from the previous.

There is a sliding scale of arseholery from there, until one reaches the responsible few who get them spayed and keep them from breeding into the feral population.

Cases of attacks on humans are rare, but easy to find.

I am sure the domestic cat would be just as keen on human baby flesh as the rat, given the right bad situation.

Re: Stalking around

That is a very interesting point. I wrote an essay on the visual system of cats, from the literature, I do not think they see much more than frogs, just a ground and movement against it, although in much more detail in the case of the domestic cat, I do not know about the bigger ones.

.

The domestic cat is a pox. The Internet cult of the domestic cat is a double pox.

No species except the worst of the rats and the worst of the humans can compete for murderous intent.

Domestic cats are useless against rats.

Domestic cats are disgusting on many levels, I wrote a better post, but posting from Opera Mini is really still not possible (except once, quickly).

i am enjoying great insect noise now, much better than the rapey howling of the earlier cat.

Windows 10 climbs to 3.55 per cent market share, Win 8.1 dips

I fucking hate

the ribbon.

Win 2000 pinball is not bad, but if I want to play pinball I will go to the nearby (not so near in mid-summer, up a hill, too hot) retro-game centre, they have three working machines.

If I wanted to play solitaire, I would do it with physical cards.

Great time-waster for people not on piece-work salaries.

Oddly seemed to serve for relaxation for those on piece-work rates.

Minesweeper and solitaire, killer apps for M$, even though both had been eight-bit staples, the elderly with little computer experience liked them.

Why does there have to be an app for that?

Re: Why does there have to be an app for that?

Why is it compulsory to say 'app' and not 'program'? Little known fact, NTT was the first to commercialise mini-Java programs on phones, they are called 'appli', from 'application'.

Jobs noticed that at some stage, stole the idea and word, but contracted the word to the very ugly 'app'.

Re: @ normanpritchard59 -

I haven't downloaded one, but I hear that a few iOS devs made small fortunes from flatulence-noise novelties.

Re: Why does there have to be an app for that?

You are right. It is generally stupid. Most of them also seem to use 'net connections for no good reason, check the transfer numbers on Android. I would expect iOS is similar, although not so easy to check.

Really wonder why some of the programs transfer anything, the 'cute and sweet battery and memory optimizer' I enjoy transferred a few thousand bytes, maybe just because I put the widget on the screen.

Interestingly, it did not vanish altogether when it became a former product.

It is also interesting how many of the programs that don't need to, transfer something. I am going to block all of them and see how many still work next time I use them.

I wanted to make my own user topic, it seems to be impossible from a mobile device, how the fuck does one contact the google 'play store' with questions and complaints, they sure do not respond to anything sent to 'feedback'?

Sony Xperia Z3 SIP Client

Perhaps

you could contact Sony? Try the remnant (or core) in Japan. They will almost surely try to get you the definitive answer.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Bacon and egg sushi

In Korea,

sushi with ham and egg is popular.

The California roll, invested by a Japanese chef in CA, is a staple in Japan.

I cannot imagine nori going with fried egg or bacon, or bacon to going with sushi rice.

Wrote an earlier post, had recipe suggestions, met a 71-y.o. leukaemia survivor, more interesting than posting on the 'net, went for a walk in a garden after, was logged out when I tried to preview and post.

There is some time-out problem with posting from Opera Mini, it goes tits-up (I think that is the English) in a certain time.

Lovely presentation from post-pub nosh, I will try to send the recipe suggestions later, but nori on a fried egg, and fried bacon riding on oshizushi, I cannot imagind the flavour combo working. Too salty, to start.

I must be doing other things now.

US spied on Japanese PM Abe, Mitsubishi, and so much more

Re: A victim of a pandering book written 100 years ago

Japan still has great industries, more so in bubble days. Even capsule toys were all made here at that time.

'mother of all bubbles' seems a good description of the UK and Aus. from what I read. Nothing the world would miss is made there, it is all on stock and real estate. You even allow open buying, no questions, by foreign landlords.

Sure helps keep the bubble from bursting!

At what cost to the people?