andrewdeacon517

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• Commented on Hiatus
  Surely the whole point about Aliens is that they are Alien, what makes people think they could understand an aliens motives?...
• Commented on Down tools
  Charlie, I always believed that the UK deterrent (and French one) were to commit the US to the defence of Europe. Imagine, you are a Soviet commander and you see a missile strike in bound, do you say "Oh look...
• Commented on Some rambling thoughts on region restrictions
  I suggest any one interested in Cash reloadable debit cards google "Titanium cashplus" or just "reloadable visa cards"...
• Commented on Some rambling thoughts on region restrictions
  Charlie, you can get cash reloadable debit cards in the UK, I have on for use on the internet when I do not trust the seller. There is a standing monthly charge but peace of mind has a cost. W.H...
• Commented on YAPC::NA 2014 keynote: Programming Perl in 2034
  The pink starfish men of Patrick V probably don't use 50/60 Hz A.C. It's possible that their machines don't use a von Neumann architecture. But almost certainly -- given the universal physical constraints on feature size -- those machines are...
• Commented on World Cup: engage Grinch mode now!
  I han't forgotten, but the 30 years war was preceded by other religious wars, The Hussites in Bohemia for one.If you were to say that history doesn't repeat its self and the Islamic powers learnt from the Iran-Iraq war I...
• Commented on World Cup: engage Grinch mode now!
  As a "civilised"* human being I do not want to see a re-run of the last 2 internicene religious wars (30 years war and 1941-1945 Eastern front) with Poison gas, modern heavy arms and potentially Nuclear weapons. That is why...
• Commented on World Cup: engage Grinch mode now!
  I agree about the ludicrous coverage of the round-ball game and its effect on coverage of more important things...”The end of the world has been announced, Billions to die horrible deaths but now back to Brazil and Rooney’s big toe”...
• Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
  I do not disagree with you about Soviet plans, but there could have been an element of "use it or lose it" IF you believed the US claims about their missile accuracies, but lets not digress from the subject of...
• Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
  The discussion on Faslane and Nuclear targets reminds me of this Gurdian article http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/05/uk-government-top-secret-list-probable-nuclear-targets-1970s Whilst it is a UK derived list and we do not know the Soviet targeting list,I think it is a reasonable first approximation....
• Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
  Charlie, I don't want to get involved in the debate as I live south of Hadrian's Wall but I will say one thing-a derisory vote would be the biggest possible disaster despite the choice so PLEASE WILL EVERYONE IN SCOTLAND...
• Commented on The Snowden leaks; a meta-narrative
  I am conflicted about the Google ruling as both sides have grounds for their position. This arose from a bankruptcy relevation, in the UK this would have been disclosed in a report from a Credit Referance agency or by consulting...
• Commented on The Snowden leaks; a meta-narrative
  It should also be noted that one reason for State armies post westphalia was the (unspoken) belief of never again after the 30 years war where uncontrolled religious forces cause massive destruction. The next Europen religious war was nearly 300...
• Commented on The Snowden leaks; a meta-narrative
  It is arguable that all state armies post Westphalia were,in Europe, National Armies. 18th century armies were small, expensive and well trained, non-states did not have the resorces to field good armies. The French revolution/Napoleonic armies relied on mass forces...
• Commented on The Snowden leaks; a meta-narrative
  Er..No The European Convention on Human Rights =/= European Union, it is a seperate organisation to which Norway and I presume Switzerland are bound.This means a privicy declaration by The European Court of Human Rights is binding on them.If this...
• Commented on The Snowden leaks; a meta-narrative
  I think Alex (the cartoon) has some of the best comments on Nigel Farrago of rubbish here http://www.alexcartoon.com/...
• Commented on Interstitial note
  I am in awe of Greg's willpower if he can look through TV Tropes "Briefly"!...
• Commented on Interstitial note
  Hmm... I seem to remember that E.E."Doc" Smith used to enjoy blowing bigger and even bigger things up. When do you start dropping planets on you protagonists?...
• Commented on The prospects of the Space and Freedom Party reconsidered in light of the crisis of 21st century capitalism
  Re. High Energy industry Back in the 70’s and 80’s I worked for a UK Chemical Company which ran a large Chlor-alkali plant which used mercury electrolysis cells, a Sulphuric Acid plant and a Crude benzole refinery. We were on...
• Commented on The prospects of the Space and Freedom Party reconsidered in light of the crisis of 21st century capitalism
  Paws4thot, Cap'n Deltic is also known as Roger Ford, author of Informed sources in the magazine Modern Railways. He was an engineer at English Electric and worked on Deltics....
• Commented on The prospects of the Space and Freedom Party reconsidered in light of the crisis of 21st century capitalism
  @179 and @181 Another determinant of Line speed in the UK, is Signal spacing and number of signal aspects(=lights). Breaking distances are also important, an express travelling at 100mph needs 2,500 yards to come to a stop safely(from memory). This...
• Commented on The prospects of the Space and Freedom Party reconsidered in light of the crisis of 21st century capitalism
  "I think most of them will look at it, look at the cost of hiring a load of thugs with guns and say "screw you."" Remember what Machiavelli said "Gold will not get you good mercenaries but good merceneries will...
• Commented on Generation Z
  As I understand it, in areas such as the UK(where I am) most sewage(and hence phosphate) ends up in the sea. I assume that in Coastal areas of the US, Europe and Canada the same applies, in Inland areas if...
• Commented on Generation Z
  shortfall not shortful-and I previewed...
• Commented on Generation Z
  Heteromeles, correct me if I am wrong but I understood one of the problems with any improved agriculture, be it fuel or food, was the impending shortage of phosphate supplies as we are currently using the last known resources. We...
• Commented on Generation Z
  With regard to Websites/Blogs with polite and knowledgable comments sections, I can recomend two, Tetrapod Zoology at Scientific American-somewhat technical but easy to understand, and Why Evolution is true(Jerry Coynes site). What is noticable about both those sites and Charlie's...
• Commented on A nation of slaves
  Re Population growth, Danny Dorling in his book "Population 10 Billion" points out that the second derivative of population growth, the rate of change of population growth, has gone negative i.e. as the current population bulge ages the rate of...
• Commented on Implications
  @139 I suggest that you consider the thermodynamics of any ammonia or methane based system and compare it to the available energy your system can absorb. The Rubisco reaction is thermodynamically permitted (although the actual Free energy data is not...
• Commented on A hypothesis
  To me this is looking more and more like an Insurance scam gone wrong. I suggest checking the affairs of the passangers and crew. Is Malaysian Airlines financially sound? How much is a plane of this type insured for?...