Phil Armstrong

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• Commented on Starship bloopers
  No, because (as pointed out above) the gravitational field strength inside a hollow shell is zero. No field, no time dilation. (There might be some GR edge effects if you get close to the shell? But at the centre everything...
• Commented on Typo Hunt: The Labyrinth Index
  UK Kindle version, location 1888: 10^9 displays as 109 on both my Android Kindle reader and Kindle Paperwhite, firmware 5.9.7. Both copies downloaded today....
• Commented on The Pivot
  (and if it's true, per #1273, that effects show within 2 minutes, it can't have been) The reference I quoted (see above) said that /local/ symptoms were observed after 2 minutes, but /systemic/ symptoms might take up to 18...
• Commented on The Pivot
  You insisted it had to have two properties: I just made it clear that one of those properties was entirely plausible, so you immediately announce that it must be the /other/ property that was really the important one. Which gets...
• Commented on The Pivot
  That it takes a long time (3 hours) to act, and then acts extremely suddenly. "Responding to Terrorism" by Ian Greaves (2011), a medical textbook on the topic states the following on Novichok agents: Onset: Novichok is reported to be...
• Commented on The Pivot
  You have a most peculiar door! In most houses, someone will use the inside handle to open the door, and either let the other person through (who then won't use the handle), or the other person will use the outside...
• Commented on The Pivot
  The same applies to the Skripals - when two people enter or leave a house, it is rare for both to use the same door handle. If you leave / enter my house, the first one through the door will...
• Commented on A bright and shiny hell
  but I have no idea where the original came from. Googling suggests Emily Dickinson: There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away, Nor any Coursers like a Page Of prancing Poetry – This Traverse may the...
• Commented on A bright and shiny hell
  On Ubuntu, this took most of a morning. At one stage, I had to manually edit a configuration file to tell it where to find a repository. Was there some reason why $ apt install r-recommended didn't work, or did...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: The Annihilation Score
  No. She had a good cry. This was about the most realistic thing in the book! It’s perfectly normal for people to “work off” an unbearable build-up of stress and tension by having a good cry in a quiet corner...
• Commented on What's The Best Medium For A Storyteller In 2015 And Beyond?
  Reminds me of the RSA talk where the younger version of Stallman (I forget his name: open source, anarchist, dreadlocks, smart-but-autistic) starts wandering into... politically dangerous territory. The moderator snaps a quick hushed "not to this audience" and you can...
• Commented on Aftermath
  oops. flubbed edit there - "don’t get paid enough to make the expense of tax dodging schemes worthwhile."...
• Commented on Aftermath
  12% NI for employees in the lower threshold & 20% income tax Charlie. So for ordinary employees, you pay 20 + 12 + 13.8 / 113.8 = 40.2% of total income expense to your employer as tax. Self-employment looks like...
• Commented on Aftermath
  (mere mortals who earn > £42k but < £150k pay 49%)...
• Commented on Aftermath
  Since the current UK top marginal rate, including all NICS, is about 63.5% and comes into force at about 42,000 PA Careful: Once you start include Employers NI contributions in your tax rate calculations, you have to rebalance all of...
• Commented on Aftermath
  Yes, Labour + all Scottish seats don’t add up to a majority. Unfortunately, the way the Conservative machine hammered away at the "SNP threat" in the last week of the election tells you that their internal focus group / polling...
• Commented on Ask the Author
  Petrol powered washing machines existed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXOE0krsPG4...
• Commented on Ask the Author
  (admittedly the genre appears to be limited to Charlie Brooker writing for Channel 4...)...
• Commented on Ask the Author
  But I'm not sure I can tell you what genre it wants to be, frankly: there doesn't seem to be a genre category for technologically-informed gothic horror crime fantasies set in the near future. Yes there is, it's called "Black...
• Commented on Leading question
  (Are you the Tim W I worked with a few years ago? Ping me an email if you want to get back in touch.) Meanwhile, back on topic: if the days of the mass political party are numbered, thanks to...