strummist

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• Commented on Crib Sheet: The Jennifer Morgue
  Minor quibble: Glomar Explorer, not Glomar Challenger....
• Commented on Crib sheet: Singularity Sky
  Quite a few "super Toucans" in service, but not much panic in military circles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Tucano...
• Commented on Crib sheet: Singularity Sky
  Not just a fetish but a financial motive may have been involved - kill the crew and you've got yourself a prize ship. Sink the ship and you've got nothing....
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  What impresses me about Thompson and his crew as well as their obvious decency and heroism is the far wider issue that he and his crew were part of a large group of people with a great deal in common...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  There's a UK entertainer called Derren Brown, who is extremely good at covertly manipulating people. Now I know it's a TV act and there are limits to this, in principle it's extremely difficult but not impossible to manipulate hostile groups...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  It might appear to an alien observer, that in the 20th century there was a nuclear war between surface dwellers and nameless horrors under the Pacific and Novaya Zemyla....
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  There's the problem that the sort of enemies you'd want to use nuclear weapons on are likely to be conscripts, not volunteers(or any sort of weapons - I felt a lot of sympathy for the "enemy" in the Falklands conflict)....
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  Farm Hall. They were astounded by the news of Hiroshima. Also, iirc there is a place on the transcripts where they doubt the British had the technical capability to record their conversations....
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  I have been told by someone who would know (but who wouldn't thank me for naming them) that the British Tridents can be launched without US approval. This doesn't weaken Charlie's argument, which I find convincing. I vaguely remember a...
• Commented on PSA: Ignore the news
  The only news I listen to is the Today programme, every day. If I miss it for three days in a row, I open my sealed orders. Seriously, though I've no interest in "rolling news" unless I'm personally involved -...
• Commented on Obituaries
  Distance from Port Stanley to Buenos Aires - about 1200 miles. Argentina does not have a valid claim on the basis of being nearby. Neither does the UK, and the UK does not make that claim. Number of people in...
• Commented on Obituaries
  Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Thatcher R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. Also, "And The Second Viscount of Stansgate drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Milliband upon his lap. He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' Sam said."...
• Commented on What are words worth?
  "Cephalopod as Kephalopod" - there is a Great Divide amongst rival schools of Latin as to whether to pronounce a soft or hard c. (Should 'Caesar' sound like 'Kaiser', etc?)...
• Commented on What are words worth?
  "what people ate and when and how" - I blame a family member's weight gain on social mobility- as they now have lunch, supper, dinner and tea......
• Commented on What are words worth?
  Sorry, Kari, not Charlie......
• Commented on What are words worth?
  You'll find my accent from about Bedford down to the South Coast, and slightly further west than Southampton. Professor Higgins would be able to detect Hackney and West London, with strange trace elements. The typical accent coming from the chap...
• Commented on No. Words.
  I'm rather upset by the news, and to me he's just "some bloke, seems like a really nice one, who writes superb books". Well, to be precise he's three blokes - the SF writer, the novelist and the occasional writer...
• Commented on Press Release: Stross Uncloaks Secret Media Project
  If you're thinking of product placement, the phone your good guys should use is the Wasp T-12 Speechtool. It's well weapon....
• Commented on Press Release: Stross Uncloaks Secret Media Project
  Have pledged 30 roubles, a case of Obolon and six bottles of Pervatsch. This movie will happen....
• Commented on The map is not the territory.
  Minor note - a few of the extras for Saving Private Ryan were amputees, leading to this conversation: Director's assistant: "Okay, for this scene I want you to imagine you've had your leg blown off" Ex-serviceman extra: "Yes, I'm pretty...
• Commented on The permanent revolution
  Of course getting an Allen key from the QM stores probably required half a ton of paperwork. ..and if you arm it in error, it's your job to pick up all the ball bearings and put them back in....
• Commented on The permanent revolution
  Someone from the 1950s might recognise a modern television, but would be forgiven for thinking it contained the following parts Bead condenser (model #: AB-619) Cathermin tube with inindium complex of +4 Intensifier disk...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  Relevant quote from WW2: "When we jumped into Sicily, the units became separated, and I couldn't find anyone. Eventually I stumbled across two colonels, a major, three captains, two lieutenants, and one rifleman, and we secured the bridge. Never in...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  Yeah, "Boy And His Tank" isn't bad, but the rest of Frankowski's work (and especially his now lost blog posts) show he was a proper wrong'un and/or a troll. Felt like washing my hands after reading some of his time...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  'A Boy And His Tank' by Leo Frankowski. However, the author has a strong dislike of "feminists, liberals, and homosexuals." It's not bad for milSF, and the author's politics are fairly typical for the genre....
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  I didn't say they deserved the reputation.. When I was robbed of all my money, passport and air ticket in Delhi, a Kashmiri family approached me and gave me somewhere to stay and a job. I can't imagine the opposite...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  Interestingly, Kashmiris in India (outside of Kashmir) are stereotyped in a similar way to Roma in Europe. Probably the same for most excluded minority groups anywhere ever. Oh, in my list of computer languages I forgot FORTH. I wish I'd...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  No, these are the kinds of computer languages. Apple ][ Basic Sinclair Basic BBC Basic Z80 6502 and then there are the incomprehensible and strange ones. I can knock up a bash script, given time and man pages. About 30...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  How much of the UK's considerable stocks of plutonium would become Scotland's, in the event of independence?...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  What the UK excels at? As well as pop music, the UK is a centre of extreme academic excellence - ranking very highly on Nobel prizes per capita, and science Nobels. Not as well as the Faroe Islands - their...