* Posts by Martin Budden

2493 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007

Hubble spots ancient spiral galaxy that SHOULD NOT EXIST

Martin Budden Silver badge
Boffin

Re: YOUNG galaxies. YOUNG!!! FFS!!!

Abso-fucking-lutely. The UCLA associate professor of physics and astronomy and co-author of the study really should know better.

Humanity increasingly sitting on collective arse

Martin Budden Silver badge

Sky is blue, water is wet.

*yawn*

Dumpling squid do it WHENEVER THEY CAN, FOR HOURS ON END!

Martin Budden Silver badge
Joke

Shy

They probably don't bother releasing lots of ink if they have some privacy: they were just trying to hide their passion from the prying eyes of the researcher. They'd also be much quicker if they could just get on with it without feeling all self-conscious about being watched.

Cockfighting Reg hack cursed with cancer

Martin Budden Silver badge
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Two wrongs, and it's still not right.

The a/c was wrong to wish cancer on someone. By all means wish jail on someone who promotes animal cruelty (which is illegal) but not cancer.

Lester was wrong to promote animal cruelty (and before you say "oh but he just talked about it he didn't promote it" yes he did promote it by going to a cockfight and putting money on it).

Martin Budden Silver badge
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@Thomas 4

"If it wasn't for Lester's article I wouldn't be on my way to Devon to pick up a load of chickens *right this very second* and looking for a small out of the way arena."

If you are saying that you are about to hold a cockfight then I hope you get caught and go to jail: there is no excuse for animal cruelty, which is why it is illegal.

Martin Budden Silver badge
FAIL

Re: To be fair..

"Since when did talking about something automatically constitute "promoting" it?"

Lester told us he actually went to a cockfight and put money on it: that promotes it for sure.

US, Iraqi lawn chair balloonists blown out of sky

Martin Budden Silver badge
WTF?

Al Quaeda doesn't stand a chance now!

"This is the way to defeat terrorists"

Really? If it's that easy how come the War On tError is still going on after so many years?

Reg hack bumps into Cockfighter

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I'm shocked

I'm shocked that anyone can enjoy, and pay to watch, animals being tortured to death. Lester, you should be ashamed.

Martin Budden Silver badge

Re: Old topic

Well here I am saying cockfights are evil and I'm not hiding my identity.

p.s. I notice you are a/c yourself.

Martin Budden Silver badge
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Re: We should be thankful ... (@ Lamont Cranston )

"By your logic why don't we just allow snuff movies?"

This *is* a snuff movie, and therefore abhorrent.

Boffins build eye-controlled interface out of game-console cams

Martin Budden Silver badge

Re: "direct a wheelchair by simply looking at where they want it to go"

A mate of mine was telling me about when he was learning to paraglide. He kept crashing into trees when trying to land, even if there was only one tree for miles around. Eventually he realised that it was because he kept looking at the tree: the paraglider was 'steered' in the direction he was looking because of subtle body movements associated with turning the head. Once he started making a conscious effort to ignore the tree and look only at a patch of empty field he was able to make perfect landings.

So yes, steering a wheelchair by looking where to go is potentially dangerous as people tend to look at obstacles and hazards.

Rovio chucks up Angry Birds successor, hopes it will fly

Martin Budden Silver badge

Re: Mr Pedant writes...

That free version on Amazon is only a 16-level trial.

Telco industry slapped with new consumer rules

Martin Budden Silver badge

About bloody time.

That is all.

UK.gov to clear way for Britain's first SPACEPORT

Martin Budden Silver badge

Newquay?

Runway already very long, with room to extend if needed.

Right on the coast so noise quickly over sea instead of many miles of towns.

Planning authority easy to bribe.

LOHAN fizzles forlornly in REHAB

Martin Budden Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: A bigger hammer?

If you want to use finely powdered ferrous oxide, you may as well go for thermite. But all this talk of adding home-made rocket fuel to the combustion chamber seems dangerous to me - let's just see what happens with a simple burst plug first.

Oz asteroid-hunt at risk as NASA cuts funding

Martin Budden Silver badge
Facepalm

@Charles Manning

True, we can't do a damn thing about the really big ones, the ones that will wipe out most species on the planet... but we CAN do a lot about the medium-sized ones that will take out only a single city... for example, evacuate that city. Even if we only get 24 hours notice most people will survive that sort of hit by simply getting out of the way - as long as someone like Rob McNaught has funding to give us the necessary warning.

Which is what Steve Brooks was saying, in his own colourful way.

Being a skinny is much more unhealthy than being fat – new study

Martin Budden Silver badge
Boffin

Re: As an overweight person

And therein lies a potential source of huge bias in the study: there are plenty of serious diseases (Chron's is just one, there are many others e.g. emphysema, some cancers, some thyroid diseases, some heart diseases) which make people thin. Those serious diseases can significantly reduce the life expectancy of the sufferer. So what the study *may* be showing is that thinness is an indicator of existing serious life-threatening disease, not that thinness is in itself in any way causal.

Magnetic cells put biologists in a spin

Martin Budden Silver badge

Re: Does this have any relevance to Nina Kulagina?

I used to go out with a girl who crashed computers and stopped watches as you describe, and also caused calculators and other electronic equipment to fail. Very odd phenomenon. She also had a photographic memory, I have no idea if that is somehow connected.

LOHAN finally checks into REHAB

Martin Budden Silver badge

Re: Pressure release on firing

The perspex lid is just sitting on the seal. When the motor fires the lid will lift off because it is not actually glued on at all. The safety teather ensures that if the lid lifts of at high speed the lid won't go far enough to hurt someone. The mirror is sacrificial: if the lid destroys the mirror no-one cares because by that point they know that the motor can ignite, which is the only question they are trying to answer.

Qantas gets rocked by Amadeus

Martin Budden Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Dr Karl

No, please don't. His "explanations" frequently contain factual errors and urban myths. He is a crappy media presenter and an even worse scientist.

BAE proposes GPS-less location

Martin Budden Silver badge
Joke

We don't need no steenkin signals....

I always know exactly where I am: HERE.

Blighty laid bare as historic aerial snaps archive goes online

Martin Budden Silver badge
WTF?

Re: Disappointing - Resolution far too low for aerial photographs.

"You might well ask why anyone would want such a large TIF file from 150 years ago. Well, I chose this image example to illustrate just this point. In the long line of soldiers in the photograph, there's one guy in the back row (towards the RHS) that stands out from the others by what he's doing (download the large TIF to find out)."

I waited AGES for it to download, and what did I see? Just some guy looking towards the camera while all the other soldiers are looking away from the camera. Please tell me that's not all it is - I was really hoping for something interesting.

El Reg official units of measurement: Linguine, Jubs, Hiltons and all

Martin Budden Silver badge
Headmaster

Re: Lager?!?!.. Oh Dear..

Mild is a style of ale.

Vatican subtly shifts its position on The Blues Brothers

Martin Budden Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Am I the only one who doesn't like the film?

Yes, you are the only one. Don't feel left out though, the rest of us need someone to keep the drinks and popcorn coming while we watch the film.

Larry Ellison buys island 1000x bigger than Branson's

Martin Budden Silver badge

Re: Maybe...

He sold that yacht a couple of years ago. Not to me.

Mars has more water than thought

Martin Budden Silver badge
Holmes

Is anyone actually surprised by this?

Mars and Earth formed next to each other, from the same cloud of dust, at the same time. Guess what - they turned out fairly similar!

Amount of meat we eat will barely affect future climate change

Martin Budden Silver badge
Childcatcher

"a paltry few-percent-at-best saving"

I've read lots and lots of El Reg articles which say doing <whatever> isn't worth the effort because it will only result in "a paltry few-percent-at-best saving". I can't help but think that if all those few percents were added up the total could be significant indeed.

R18+ games still not over the line in Oz

Martin Budden Silver badge
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I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The sooner we get rid of these WOFTAM state and territory governments the better. There is no need for that expensive middle tier of red tape.

EU boffins ponder robot copters that carry people but no pilots

Martin Budden Silver badge

Re: Or just use buses

Cheaper for whom? Cheaper for you: you don't have to buy the entitre bus, but you do have to buy the entire 4.6 litre 4x4. It's not just about the price of the bus ticket, it's about total running cost.

Of course if you need to own the 4.6 litre 4x4 anyway to drive to places that aren't served by busses at all then that's another matter, but the OP said *just* use busses.

Solar power can head out of the clouds says CSIRO

Martin Budden Silver badge
Boffin

@ Tony Reeves 1

I sit corrected. Having googled and read a bit I have found that your are right about the local area transformer working both ways. Even so, there are limits to how much PV power can be fed into the system, and the limits can be significant... I found the following IEA report helpful:

http://www.hme.ca/gridconnect/IEA_PVPS_Task_5-10_Impacts_of_PV_Power_Penetration.pdf

Martin Budden Silver badge
FAIL

Re: The other alternative...

Where I live we only need the aircon for about 3 weeks each summer. I still want my solar panels to work for the other 49 weeks, and I still want them to feed into the grid when I'm at work and (almost) everything in my house is turned off.

Martin Budden Silver badge

local limit

There is a limit to how much rooftop solar PV can be used in a local area, i.e. the area served by the local area transformer. This is because the local area transformer only works one way. When the amount generated by local rooftop solar PV approaches the amount being consumed locally there cannot be any more generated, because it's not possible to send power backwards through the local area transformer to the grid. I believe the power company can even send signals to inverters telling them to limit their output if this situation is likely. The obvious solution is to make transformers which can feed back to the grid.

Asteroid zips past Earth

Martin Budden Silver badge
Boffin

Re. Statistically...

Wouldn't that depend on how many lottery tickets you buy?

May 2012 was second warmest on record. The warmest? 2010

Martin Budden Silver badge
Coat

That's a big blue dot over my house.

Although I didn't really need a diagram to tell me how frosty it's been at night. Brrrr.

I'll get my coat, because it's COLD outside.

Sole British 'naut Major Tim embarks on NASA deep space mission

Martin Budden Silver badge

Re: DONT LET THE BASTARD DRIVE

Dear El Reg,

Could you please make it possible to "ignore" all posts from a specific commentard so I don't have to see them.

Thanks.

Two new Jovian moons confirmed

Martin Budden Silver badge
Facepalm

I look forward to receiving emails

inviting me to purchase an acre of land on S/2010 J 2.

Western consumption helping to kill off species

Martin Budden Silver badge
Headmaster

"not-honourable"

Really? What's wrong with "dishonourable"?

Climate scientists see 'tipping point' ahead

Martin Budden Silver badge
Thumb Up

Nicely written.

This Rik Myslewski fella should do all El Reg's climate articles, he's done a good job of explaining a very wordy Nature article in an open-minded way. It's a plesant change from the heavily one-sided stuff I've seen too much of round here. Keep up the good work Rik!

Martin Budden Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: During the meanwhile ...

The point of the article is: "We need to go get the facts".

LOHAN seeks failsafe for explosive climax

Martin Budden Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Inverted

Hang on a mo, something here might be a little bit of a problem. Let me see... ummm... something about "inverted"... ahah!

If the launch happens while the rig is upside-down, the rocket will go down instead of up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daryllang/4766269648/

GAGA: Spinning blades, welding, wi-fi, what could possibly go wrong?

Martin Budden Silver badge
Boffin

Yep, that castor wheel will get stuck. However....

Instead of a small castor wheel, use a large track-ball similar in design to the balls you used to see under computer mouses before they went all optical. Your ball will need to sit in a circular cage around its equator (the cage will probably want three or four nylon bushes to hold the ball snug). You'll also need a nylon bush above the top of the ball which will allow the weight of the PaddockChompBot to sit on the ball. The bigger the ball, the better it will cope with bumps.

GAGA has balls!

Universe has more hydrogen than we thought

Martin Budden Silver badge

What about the gaps between galaxies?

If we also take into account self-absorption for the stuff in the gaps between galaxies, how much previously-unaccounted for matter will that reveal? Enough for a diprotodon?

'Six-eyed' robot to tour National Museum of Australia

Martin Budden Silver badge
WTF?

Five or six?

"The bot in question, visible in concept design at right, Basic robot design for the National Museum of Australia will boast six Ladybug2 cameras."

"The project will take images from the five Ladybugs mounted horizontally atop the bot’s central stalk"

Well, which is it ?????(?)

Insect vision a template for computer ‘sight’

Martin Budden Silver badge
Facepalm

Make it even easier...

They can simplify the research even further by focussing (groan) on the input of just one of the bee's eyes and just half of the bee's brain. After all, if humans can still function properly while covering one eye (see icon) (now cover one eye and you can still see icon) there is a good chance that one-eyed bees can also function properly.

Or to put it another way...

Half a bee, philosophically, must, ipso facto, half not be. But half the bee has got to be, vis a vis, its entity. D'you see?

Roman roads get the web maps treatment

Martin Budden Silver badge
Coat

Re: @ I ain't Spartacus @ Neoc - Fascinating

I understand how one knocks up a servant, but how does one knock up a statue?

Ape Apps help Orangutans talk to people

Martin Budden Silver badge
Pint

Bindun without the tech.

It's possible to teach orangutans proper sign language, which they can then use to communicate with keepers and with each other. They have the smarts but not the vocal cords for talking.

Beer was the orangest colour icon available.

iPad chargers can open beer bottles

Martin Budden Silver badge
Go

Re: How quaint

"I don't want screw off bottle tops!

Can't reuse the bottles as easily for my home brew!"

Sure you can. It's easy. This is the kind of twist-top bottle cap we are talking about:

http://gardennotesforrelocalisation.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/twist-on-home-brew.html

and here is a close-up:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-14736985/stock-photo-beer-bottle-close-up-with-bottle-cap-with-clipping-path.html

They work great with a standard home-brewer's capper.

NASA spots the light of a ‘super-Earth’

Martin Budden Silver badge
Trollface

"AND EVERYBODY SPEAK ENGLISH"

Even Big Dumb Guy 555!

Solar quiet spell like the one now looming cooled climate in the past

Martin Budden Silver badge
Boffin

Re: It gets hot it gets cold, move on

Some years snow remains all year round near the top of Australia's highest mainland mountain (Mount Kosciuszko). A drop in average temperatures could see that snow remaining all year round *every* year, which would cause it to gradually build up and form a small glacier. Interestingly, this patch of snow lies on the side of a glacial cirque... so we know that a glacier *can* form here.