MattS

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• Commented on Dead plots
  Absolutely correct, you never get something for nothing. Talking medium and up sized drones, they are run as a team exercise (think a bomber crew with flight engineering and a shift change during the mission) and you still generally need...
• Commented on The obligatory general election discussion post
  Looking at the Brit elections from the antipodes I’m struck by the parallels with our last election. TL:DR policy wonks on the left allowed a lackluster conservative government to thread the needle to victory. Oh and a leader who people...
• Commented on Someone please sack the script-writers
  Yep. The best study to date I've seen on 2016 voting patterns was that done by Diana Mutz, her conclusion was that it was predominantly dominant group status threat (not economic hardship) that determined the 2016 outcome. Diana points out...
• Commented on Someone please sack the script-writers
  Greg @ 37 - More HMS Pinafore and 'When I was a Lad' :) I guess my partial explanation (and opinion) of the current craziness on is that there's been an ongoing shift in western societies since the 70's and...
• Commented on Someone please sack the script-writers
  Yes, group identification trumps all. :) Mostly unstated by commentators and analysts but the best predictor for how people voted in 2016 was simply how they voted in 2012. One study found that (totally unsurprisingly) 92% of those surveyed who...
• Commented on Someone please sack the script-writers
  Any second now there's going to be a deep fake turn up on a porn channel. Interesting times....
• Commented on Someone please sack the script-writers
  Lack of education is the factor that appears to correlate most strongly with ethno-centrism (see Mutz and Manfield's study as an example). So one could infer that rather than conservatives fleeing to the country, it's the difference in educational opportunity...
• Commented on Normal service will be resumed eventually
  Hey Charlie, I’m sorry to hear of the death of your mother. Take care and look after yourself. Matt...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  As my day job is aerospace safety I’ll chip in with the comment that when you’re looking for vendors of safe software the first thing you look for is domain knowledge. The company that makes safe landing gear control software...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  And here’s what STOL may look like in the 21st Greg. :) https://www.nasa.gov/content/hybrid-wing-body-goes-hybrid...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  Ah yes the Harrier, flying proof that if you strap enough engine to a brick you can do VTOL....
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  Oh and if we fuel this bad boy with LH2 we can use the cryogenic fluid to cool our superconducting micro power grid, generators and fan motors before burning it the turbo gen....
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  You guys. :) Direct vectored jet engines are so last century. A turbo electric aircraft splits the turbo engine from the propulsion array which is in the form of a wide array of small electric fans. This gives a high...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  I doubt we'll give it up, air travel is too useful. But definitely the next after one generation of aircraft will look completely different. Electric powered or hybrid for short hops. Liquid hydrogen fuelled turbogenerator and superconducting distributed electric propulsors...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  O yes, I do think the UKs negotiations were an exercise in self harm. I was talking to an acquaintance who used to work in Brussels as part of the EU secretariat, and now is providing advise to HM Treasury...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  Article 7 requires a unanimous vote in the European Council that a breach is still occurring (after a warning shot) and then a qualified majority in council to implement. And y'know Article 7 was aimed squarely at 'values' i.e. liberty,...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  Thanks for paraphrasing the EU's opening position, which is great for the EU because it means the leaving nation is down the chute before negotiations start. But that's just 'their' interpretation to how A50 works. However I'm not actually talking...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  Boy are they going to be surprised. Slightly more seriously the work of Achen and Bartel, ‘Democracy for Realists’ totally supports your assessment. Voters are disengaged, influenced by proximal events and tend to cleave to identitarian voting patterns when they...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  I believe that whilst the right honorable Prime Minister has the confidence of the crown he remains the PM. Should there be a show of no confidence in the house, he should however tender his resignation. But that’s a matter...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  Well you know what Richard Nixon said....
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  Unfortunately people outside of Brussels don't understand what a "big deal" the EU budget is to the EU apparatus. Or how much the EU is scared of a deeply mischievous UK remaining inside the tent. Nor is this is a...
• Commented on CASE NIGHTMARE BLONDE
  Simple solution. As parliament can't make up it's mind, Boris repeals Article 50, 'sorry guys, can't agree what we want, so we'll be in until we decide we have a deal'. Then Boris tells the EU that "hey we'd like...
• Commented on Whoops Apocalypse!
  Yep. And it’s treating ObL and AK as a warring actor on the world stage that got us where we are today. It legitimized the AK organization as having parity with a nation state. Which is exactly what ObL wanted....
• Commented on Ask me anything!
  Compare and contrast, the wife, who grew up in Chelyabinsk (go Traktor!) made her own clothes as a girl as did all her friends (early 80s) because that was what you did. Mad keen for patterns. She still buys clothes...
• Commented on Story time!
  That certainly explains the strange skin tone, it’s thermal heating......
• Commented on Story time!
  Set analysis. The law penalises a set of womenfolk, that intersects with the set of women who can't mount a robust defence because they're poor and in turn that intersects with the set of women who are black. So a...
• Commented on Story time!
  The problem is that up to now security has been framed in the context of code, but this approach fails to understand that recognition and context are essentially language problems. If we look at the problem from a language perspective...
• Commented on Story time!
  As it’s Alabama, it shouldn’t escape notice that this is really a modern version of the old Jim Crow laws....
• Commented on Story time!
  You'd be surprised at how durable kit can be. When I joined the service back in the 80's we were still seeing ye olde contact (floater) sea mines from WWII washing up from time to time on beaches across the...
• Commented on Story time!
  Out of plane manouevre: Back to the Joker origin story. The story is told as stream of consciousness, tip ‘o the hat to James Joyce, and it’s a little ‘odd’ to start with but hey you know the Joker is...