Posts by Anthony Mark

@ scrubber

"Why are people so willing to put up with this infringement on our rights when the IRA did a heck of a lot more damage on the mainland than Al Q ever has?"

Simple. The members of the IRA looked just like normal British people so it was much harder to vilify them. People of middle-eastern or Arabic background, especially devout Muslims, are much easier to vilify due to the much obvious differences between 'them' and 'us'.

"It bounced off his hand before embedding itself in a foot-wide crater in the ground."

I doubt it. More likely his hand bounced off the meteorite. Momentum and all that...

If only they'd put this much effort into their studies...

Perhaps they would have gotten 'A's legitimately?

The point?

Compulsory passports would only be compulsory for British Citizens. How does this help prevent 'terror attacks' from foreign nationals?

More likely just backing down in the vain hope they might win the next election.

Hmm.

'discarded mechanism used in boosting a satellite into higher orbit" whizzed past at "nearly 5.5 miles per second (20,000mph)" '

Is that 20,000mph its orbital velocity, or its velocity relative to the ISS? It makes a difference.

John Lawton

But in the Summer the nights are much shorter and brighter so you use less artificial light anyway.

Oh dear...

The older generation havce a whole range of skills that need to be passe don to the younger generation. The Government's push for Apprenticeships is an indicator of this need.

Yet, if you look at, say, engineering, much of the workforce is within 5 years of retirement age. Force them all to go at 65 and all of a sudden you have a hugely diminished workforce with a complete lack of suitable applicants to fill the vacated jobs and also you lose an entire generation worth of skills and experience that have never been passed on.

@Kevin Eastman

The backstory was entirely relevant as it helped the reader understand the motivations of the 'bad guy' and understand that he wasn't just born pure evil.

Know your enemy, as they say.

Is this new?

I have friends who run a nightclub and it's a condition of their licence that no-one is allowed to wear hooded tops or peaked caps inside the building in order to ensure that the police can get good face shots on CCTV.

the government said it was possible that future deployments would be legal

it also happens to be possible that aliens may land on Earth next week - it's just not particularly likely.

Of course, seeing as Parliament is Supreme, and that the Government effectively controls Parliament due to having the majority of seats as well as the Whip, there's nothing stopping them putting a small clause into a huge, pages long Act that is only vaguely related to the issue, that effectively legalises whatever Phorm is doing, even if it's illegal now.

I'm particularly concerned...

...that I have not yet seen an El Reg story regarding the Second-Home Secretary's expense claims...

There's a simple reason why scientific research is held back.

Greedy Capitalists are intent on milking everythign for every penny they can ghet out of it. IT's the same everywhere, software, electronics, drugs, vehicles..

The corporations sometimes sit on new developments for decades until they've maximised profit from the technology that would be superceded by the new.

What they fail to point out...

...is that people who speak English as a second language, and lets face it, there are many, are usually better at it then native Egnlish speakers.

The problem is not the complexity of the language, just the laziness of the speakers and also the asbolute failure of our education systems.

The English language hasn't got harder over the last 100 years so there's no other explanation for the drop in literacy other than a drop in standards.

Hmmm...

They removed *likely* matches... Probably means a fair few innocents have been unfairly labelled paedophiles. What about sex-offenders who aren't paedophiles? What about teeneagers who have sex with their girlfriends who are one year younger than themselves and happen to be underage? What about people who piss in public?

In any case, surely it's up to the parents to ensure that their kids aren't chatting to paedophiles online?

And to be honest, if a paedophile is on myspace using his genuine name and age, then if kids are talking to him then there is something seriously wrong with them in the first place.

Genuine predators are likely to pose as children themselves, and it doesn't sound as if those are the sorts of profiles being deleted.

@Emergency services databases (WM Police in particular)

I live in Birmingham - kingseef is my nearest High Street, in fact. The only use that a postcode has here is to distinguish between rival gangs of feral youths.

Following Cllr. Mullaney's advice, I'm sure that the correct spelling should reflect how locals pronounce it, hence kingseef. For the sake of convenience, I elect that we forget about capitalisation also, as the emergency services may be unable to find you if the operator types in the street name sans capitals.

Slightly worryingly, I've seen signs for 'ST. Pauls Square'. Quite how they can justify dropping the apostrophe put keeping the full stop after ST. is beyond me. Also note the incorrect capitalisation of the 'T'.

On a serious note, I've sent Cllr. Mullaney an email expressing my views and I would urge everyone else to do the same. His email address is, of course, listed on Birmingham City Council's website. Should the censor see fit, it is: Martin.Mullaney@birmingham.gov.uk .

Socialism...

...is a step on the ladder towards Communism.

@ Doh! AC

Having had dealings with telephone customer service from several companies recently, I can say with authority that, although Indian callcentre workers are difficult to understand sometimes and don't speak English, they are at least polite and courteous and TRY to be helpful - something that cannot be said for many *British* callcentre workers.

That said, I don't struggle too much with understanding foreign callcentre workers... Then again, I *AM* from Birmingham.

A quick search of the property?

I woinder what excuse they had for that then, unless they routinely search every house they enter?

Imagine yuou are someone who with a predisposition for violent sexual fantasies.

You can releive your fantasies through the use of pornography harming no-one. The law changes so that the punishment for looking at pictures is just as bad or, in some cases worse, than committing the actual offence depicted.

Logically, ou might as well just go out and do the real thing, as the consequences wouldn't be much different if you had self-control and contained your fantasies in your own head, with graphic aids.

In any case, seeing that politicians now believe that seeing a picture of something makes you likely to go and do it, how long before anyone who's watched a beheading video online is arrested for being a potential murerer?

Only done it with a couple of people?

Fellatio doesn't count as 'doing it'.

Blu-ray picture quality is vastly superior to DVD

I have a Sony BDP-S350 connected to a Sony Bravia 40L4000, total price I paid for both was £670.

Now, the difference between a standard definition DVD and a Blu-ray playing at 1080 lines and 24/p frames is obvious and makes one hell of a difference to the film.

Even the upscaled DVD is noticably improved. My experience now, hooked up to a stereo hi-fi, is better than a cinema experience.

Now all I need is a decent AV reciever and a set of 7.1 speakers - icing on the cake.

Just build giant faraday cages over the prisons

More environmentally friendly as it's passive and doesn't consume energy once it's in place.

Can also be used on cinemas, theatres, museums, public transport, etc.

@ Adam Foxton

There's also evidence that DHMO aids in the spread of many infectious diseases, and can also provide a medium for harmful bacterial growth.

Just charge the parents £5 a time to receive the texts...

...and they'll make sure their little darlings are in school every day.

@ Greg

"so trying to infer that gun crime would increase if America banned guns is mind-bogglingly stupid, if you don't mind me saying so."

Except for the fact that if guns were banned in America, owning/using them would be a gun crime and no doubt the statistics would show a huge increase in gun crime to reflect this.