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* Posts by Jemma

1045 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Dec 2008

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Apple man found dead at Cupertino HQ, gun discovered nearby

Jemma
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Re: Rates and news?

Sadly, the birth rate cancelled all of them out.

You know, if all the other countries of the World charged America £100 million a time for every foreign victim of gun crime or just gun related idiocy guns would be gone in probably about a decade. Hit them where it hurts, in their wallets. 25% to the home government for costs and the rest to the families affected (although this might cause a macabre version of healthcare holidays.. "you really want to study at Yale don't you dear...)

Feel sorry for the persons concerned but this wouldn't have got the coverage if it wasn't Apple related, and talking of Apple related how on earth is Sculley an "Apple guru"? He damn near bankrupted them. Personally I'd make the new campus into one huge shoot em up level, lock all of Apple inside and leave to soak... The last survivor could then be executed for crimes against humanity, eco crime and if they've been there long enough, aiding and abetting a dangerous sociopath.

The world would be a better place, we'd have phones back that last 3 days on a 900mah battery, and doctors wouldn't be doing skin cancer tests with sodding iPhones (I speak from personal experience).

And finally, in an unrelated note to all Americans. Please don't vote Trump in, if only for this single reason, over and above all the racism and that hair. If there is intelligent life on other planets, and they decide to drop in for a chat... Do you really want the first person they meet to be Donny Dickwit?

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30 years on, Chernobyl wildlife still feeling effects of nuke plant catastrophe

Jemma
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Re: Liquidators

I wouldn't disagree they deserve more recognition, although as to the "volunteering" many of them didn't know what radiation levels were because the detectors had literally been cooked, they apparently assumed, for unknown reasons, that when a detector runs to its end stop, it means it is still measuring.

No one ever seems to mention the divers either that drained out the water pools, dead men walking before they got out of the water (think K19 with attitude).

It's also not often mentioned that the Chernobyl style reactors are still being used with safety improvements (built from dead Lancias instead of Wartburgs).

As to not being born, you might be alot closer to the mark than is comfortable - many women terminated perfectly healthy pregnancies because of radiation panics. Abortions immediately after Chernobyl were much higher as a population percentage in several countries.

All in all it reflected badly on all of humanity then, and it still does.. with bits of the sarcophagus rusting away and the rest welded together by YTS trainees it still isn't safe and never will be.

I'm not entirely sure that they "saved Europe", dumping bits of reactor back inside was truly a brave and/or borderline suicidal thing to do, but this would have had a more local effect - the European saviours were the poor sods in the helicopters dropping sand and Boron to dampen the core, a further runaway reaction would have produced another more dangerous plume, probably nastier and highly likely to be in a different direction and possibly a higher plume height - imagine if the fallout cloud climbed into the jet stream or high level high speed winds, as it was, it got to the UK.

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Jemma
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Re: I'm surprised that the wolves are doing well

Why?

They're a 50kg animal which can absorb a surprising amount of roentgens, they're feeding, mainly on two animals that secrete most of their own radiation doses in their milk or are babies (hogs & bison respectively), and compared to a 15 gram bird with a metabolism that runs around at 600 heartbeats per minute they're in a perfect position, in fact they're doing, according to the scientists studying them better in most respects, than normal Ukrainian populations..

A better predator to tell whether predators are being affected would probably be a fox, which would find a radiation riddled bird a nice, if potentially lethal, snack. Since they're likely to eat eggs, small mammals, birds and the like, they are much more likely to be affected - not to mention they are a tenth the weight of a wolf, smaller body means higher surface area to mass ratio which is bad when you're licking your balls perched comfortably on a nice warm piece of graphite...

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JAXA confirms ASTRO-H breakup

Jemma
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Units 1 through 4 were unsuccessful...

If they mention hiring a Dr Richard Daystrom it's probably time to run..

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Japan loses contact with new space 'scope just weeks after launch

Jemma

Weird messages...

<I've decided I want to have a specs change..>

<From now on I want to be called.. Nomad.. >

<EOL>

<message ends>

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Iain Duncan Smith's Universal Credit: A timeline

Jemma
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Re: existing system and new idea

Well at least he hasn't decided he wanted to be called Loretta.. A transvestite/transexual IDS, that's a thought as buttock cringingly awful as an Ann Widdecombe lapdance..

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Jemma

The secret diaries of Iain Duncan Smith, part the second..

Day 1021: Find out Gollum, all right, all right, George Osborne, actually Witch King of Angmar's nephew. Should have guessed, explains why Theresa May goes all Rudolf Hess and drools whenever in same room... Even creepier than hook handed terrorist crush..

Day 1028: In retrospect using Orc programmers not the best idea, but not as bad as their idea to use Ada for the coding, still we can always blame windows 8..

Day 1029: Most job centres still using Windows for Workgroups... Bugger.

Day 1035: Find out that Euro MPs get more money for less work than even I do. Most offended. In other news Theresa spending a lot of time 'straightening Gollum's tie'.. Would be convinced of innocence of that, if for some reason they didn't need to do it in broom cupboard...

Day 1050: Ooohh, a referendum on Europe, poor old Dave, he will soon, I suspect, enjoy the full Corporal Jones experience. He won't like it up 'im.. At least not without KY.

Day 1051: Eureka! Have figured it out. If I resign I can stuff them all at the same time.. No more Euro MPs, no more Dodgy Dave, no more whinging peons AND I can blame Gollum, totally stuff the party (oh you of little reality) and get away with it..

Day 1052: blamed Gollum for being too nasty to the peons (if you don't drive them ALL to suicide you can harvest them again, benefits claimants don't grow well if you plant them, but they make good fertilizer..). Went on Andrew Marr show, he saw right through it. Pesky Andrew Marr.

Day 1053: Relaxation, no more Gollum, no more Theresa. Looking forward to holiday somewhere rural and unspoiled, someone recommended The Shire, at least I think that's what he said.. I don't profess to understand the thing about pervy hobbit fanciers (maybe he means Liberal Democrat counsellors); Didn't feel like asking for details. I will miss the looks on young Conservatives faces when Ann. W did the bellydancing at conference, I thought it was only Orcs who had greeny-grey skin and bulging eyes..

Day 1060: Resignation horrible mistake! One more episode of Time Team or Quincy will take the gentleman's way out. Had high hopes for Four in a Bed, turned out not to be East Anglian dogging show. Most disappointed, turned out to be odd couples playing hunt the bathroom pubes for cash prize, Ick, almost as bad as Balrog porn (see Ann.W); After all I paid my TV licence and I only have 5 TVs. On other note, wondering why short hairy archaeology presenters on mind so much.. It's always the one with his favourite spade.. But Mick will kill me if I try anything..

Day 1061: Umm, why does that man in the pullover look so familiar...

----

Thanks to Cassandra Clare and the Secret Diaries.

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Is this the last ever Lumia?

Jemma
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Re: Epic Fail

So, you'd be tired of your kneecaps then?

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Who would code a self-destruct feature into their own web browser? Oh, hello, Apple

Jemma
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Re: Perhaps...

A friends dad solved that problem, made her watch the entirety of The World at War, at the age of three. Permanently traumatised her but Disney never got a look in. Has anyone else found kiddies TV mildly horrifying recently? Cross-dressing Jimmy Saville cringe-alikes for the 2 year olds and foot fetishist lemurs and the Penguin Separatist Front for the older ones, not to mention the bring-out-yer-gays homopalooza that is Spongebob. cBeebies, creating psychopaths with your TV licence. Not to forget airborne flamethrowers with a side order of unstabilised projectiles and lava vomit (all in a good cause naturally) sort of America in Vietnam for 8 year olds (unsanctioned massacres that didn't happen anyway, not included). And differently able Vikings making a contribution to society..

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Reminder: iPhones commit suicide if you repair them on the cheap

Jemma
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Re: Tell Apple how you feel

Sorry, UNIX not really my thing, although it's not the only mainframe command the iPhone series use - the other is halt and catch fire..

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Jemma
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Re: Tell Apple how you feel

In other news Apple finds a new use for the Dev_null command...

Apple listening to customers is about as likely as Teresa May listening to reality.

I honestly wonder how long Apple would have lasted if they hadn't used the "mind control" method of customer service? Remember they've imploded at least once before, under Sculley, God willing it'll happen again.. Sadly the new dark lord is doing fairly well..

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Jemma

This is one of the many reasons I won't touch or have anything to do with Apple kit. Back in the day it was beige macs with cases made out of finest razor blades, actually designed to do support people injuries, then it was the lock down Nazi's - you will have our system as we like it and if it serves up porn to your 7 year old, hard cheese.

It beggars belief that Apple customers let them charge three times what the device is worth, spec for spec, then screw them on software updates and app store mind control, then try and lock them into authorised repair places - and the in-duh-viduals still go out and buy another.

I'm going to get alot of hassle for this but I think the smartphone should not be a democratic device - if you can't use Android, Sailfish or any of the others without having brain wibbles, it would be better if you didn't use them - back in the day we had all sorts of innovative designs for phones, with reasonable amounts of memory and 3-4 day battery life, multiple folders, flips, slides, twists, the Nokia N Series for example.. What do we have now? Oversized slabs, with sloppy software, memory guzzling, palm frying tat - because apple told us to, all hail apple, serving the lowest common denominator for too long - and worse, dragging everyone else down with it. Samsung to be fair aren't any better, but at least they just copied Apple, they weren't guilty of killing innovation in the smartphone world.

As far as I can tell this is also illegal under EU law but since when has legality stopped Apple - interesting that they've pulled and replaced 2 pin chargers recently - I suspect paying off the families of the people they electrocuted was getting too expensive..

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Head transplant candidate sells souvenirs to fund operation

Jemma

Blue Screen of Death? A sneeze too far?

I hate to imagine how you'd three finger salute a human body.. Jam two fingers up his butt while twisting his left nipple for 5 seconds if its anything like an Android phone. It'd probably be fun finding out..

I wonder also how you write Davros in Russian?

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Why the Sun is setting on the Boeing 747

Jemma
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Re: Losing engines - Memphis Belle

That's the one, the B-17 was known internally at Boeing as the type 299 and was an unrequested private design hence it's Y1 prefix when tested. Neither of the air forces asked for it, Boeing just went ahead and built the prototypes off the experience of the B-15 which if I remember was even bigger in some respects than the B-29 but built in 35/36.

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Jemma

Losing engines

Kinda reminds me of a film quote...

Co-pilot "uh, how long can we fly on one engine?"

Pilot "I guess we're about to find out... "

Not a 747 but a Boeing type 299. Anyone know the film?

- This comment is dedicated to all the Americans who fought in the Crusades -

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Cunning Greek lizards seek skin-matching rocks

Jemma
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Re: Too many husbands..

They're also venomous as are all the Varanids to a greater or lesser extent.. But even Komodo can get so tame one examples favourite game was to be led around by a three year old girl by her hand on it's tail and some have been said to let young kids ride them, although you wouldn't catch me having a child attempt it, either someone's going to get bit, or the lizard will disappear into the distance at 15-20mph with kiddie holding on for dear life. People really don't give reptiles credit for their intelligence and ability to bond with a person, a nervous Tegu will come back to their owner and curl up on their feet or lap, mine has done that. Mine has mapped my flat.. And knows the way back to his nice warm bedroom wherever I put him down.

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Jemma
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Re: Too many husbands..

Your friends might have been quite lucky, a 6ft water monitor is more than capable of causing serious harm, up to and including crocodilian style death rolls while biting hands, fingers. Any cuts or blood and they can go into feeding mode, and then you'd better be a really fast runner or good at climbing trees. If your friends were in a hotel then the monitor might be more or less tame.. They are very intelligent and soon learn its easier to let the funny two legs give them food than try and eat one. My Tegu loves eggs, salmon, mice and of all things roast chicken from sainsburys.

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Jemma

Too many husbands..

Many of the smaller teiids have got this problem solved. They don't have males at all, they all reproduce by parthenogenesis, alternating between years when one will play daddy and the next year the other will. Larger members of the teiids don't do this, which when the largest extreme b&w tegu can get to 5ft and 7-8kg is probably no bad thing.

Some monitor lizards in a female only environment will do this too including the Komodo.

As to seeing them, when a small lizard is still they're the very devil to see, and if it's seen you you don't have a hope of catching it. The larger ones like tegu, monitors and crocodilians really don't care much about being seen by humans, try to catch wild monitors or tegu and you're liable to lose fingers. Add autotomy to the mix, the ability to drop and regrow the tail, and it makes it harder. Apparently stage three of a wild tegu getting annoyed is a little tapdance, all I've experienced so far with my pet one is tail slaps, open mouth threat display and a feeding bite (think a dog with a pull toy, then imagine a lizard with as many teeth using your fingers/hand as the new toy, it's as unpleasant as it sounds).

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For fsck's SAKKE: GCHQ-built phone voice encryption has massive backdoor – researcher

Jemma
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Either that or King Arthur is the department manager...

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Doctor Who: Oh, look! There's a restaurant at the end of the universe in Hell Bent

Jemma
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Probably because they're so rare no one under the age of 30 has seen one, the Ti is worth finding. Could have been worse, there's always the Allegro Equipe.. now that would be something.. a chameleon circuit jammed on a skidmark brown Allegro estate.. the Daleks would all die laughing..

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Jemma
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Well of course it is... Tolkien was a fetishist for anything in UK history and the Vikings/Saxons are a fairly big chunk of that. Hence alot of the names he creates, uses for people, places and creatures are yanked effortlessly from all those obscure parts of Viking/Germanic myth that didn't get made into opera by Wagner. As Ashildr is basically the OE (old English) form of the modern Hilda and OE is what you get when Germanic languages and half forgotten latin collide..

Although what would happen if someone called 'me' Hilda I hate to imagine, something along the lines of black eyed and veiny I imagine.

Thankfully we were spared the experience of Moffats take on Pervy Hobbit Fanciers although, if you squint you could kind of see Clara with hairy feet and a pipe..

Just for the love of <insert deity here> don't mention carrots...

Or blowing the Horn of Gondor.

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Jemma

Given that 'me' at the end was pouting fit to burst (and making her jealous is probably a 'berserk button' moment par excellence) when Clara walked in I can see fanfics aplenty... but think about the BBC doing a relationship between those two.. lesbian necrophilia (since Clara is not alive.. but not dead.. so undead.. oh dear) on the Beeb? makes Brookside look positively dull.

Hmm.. Martha..

The problem I have with Clara is as a companion she's the gormless wonder but that's not really what she's there for; she's there so 70% of the audience tune in to drool.

Capaldi would be fine as the Doc bar the CoE Torchwood arc, you know, where he wipes out his family on primetime TV and inspires several meatspace idiots to do the precise same thing. I fervently wish they'd stop doing the test drive thing for Dr Who on other related series.

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Transparency thrust sees Met police buying up to 30,000 bodycams

Jemma
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Re: You also forgot......

...and then I accidentally must have slammed it in my desk drawer, five or six times.... so I'm clumsy..

Old Stoneface would be spinning in his grave...

A good motto for police brutality protesters - "we who are about to die,* don't want to..."

* accidentally get our heads bashed in (for non stateside readers)

Sir Terry Pratchett - for when amateur cynicism just isn't enough.

I've heard it said that other countries police forces consider the UK police the gold standard - Gods help the rest of the world..

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Jemma

You missed:-

My colleague was pointing the wrong direction.

The server hard drive crashed.

We lost the instructions.

The camera subsequently fell in his/her coffee/the toilet/the nearest canal (up north)/the nearest water feature (everywhere else).

I'm a transphobic/homophobic sociopathic closet UKipper (the long version)

I deleted it on pur... by mistake. (the short version)

The camera was suicidal and jumped before we got there..

I accidentally taped over the card in my GoPro...

It bore a passing resemblance to a Brazilian electrician after I'd had several pints.

It really doesn't matter anyway since you aren't allowed to take the Police to court anyway and the IPCC are "independent" in the same way as elections involving Robert Mugabe are "democratic".

I'm just waiting for the Conservative/UKIP coalition and the renaming of Harlow to Faragegrad. Come back Uncle Adolf, all is forgiven..

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HELP! Windows Phone update 8.1 broke my Lumia

Jemma

Stop playing with your updates, you'll go blind..

What's the betting that everyone who's having problems with the update are the people who think that it's a fantastic idea to continue using their phone while it updates...? and then whinges because it goes all black screened and veiny three times a day..

If it has Nokia on the casing the only way of getting a stable update is to leave the thing alone, in a darkened room, oriented towards the setting sun on the winter solstice and even then you've got a 30% chance at best... either that or hexing the damn thing so hard it will resist a nuclear attack - assuming you're into that sort of thing.. and wow betide if it has a Nokia Pop(out)-Port connector..

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Target topples CEO in latest data breach domino

Jemma

Wasn't there something about...

German feldmarschalls not surrendering?

By all accounts given he's apparently a pro homophobe in his spare time I doubt he'll be much mourned.. I'm certainly not going to grieve.

Interesting that there's laws in virtually every country against discrimination and yet people can openly ignore them and set the actual hiring and LGBT policies of companies, police forces & governments.

Human rights - your chances of survival may vary (not applicable in the Southern States)

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Mozilla takes Windows 8-friendly Firefox out back ... two shots heard

Jemma
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Re: no surprise here

*three* rusted on weirdos?

Now what did I tell you about Eadon & cloning? Yes that's right, its a bad idea!

Microsoft aren't helping themselves - a dual boot device in the mobile space couldn't do anything but help their prospects - especially since office-esque apps are still playing catch up on Android. In some ways its like watching a US version of the BL death slide. I honestly can't see them pulling their way out of it - unless they kill 8.x on the desktop with fire & manage to pull a miracle combination of XP & 7 out of the hat... as has been previously stated a company like Mozilla pulling a product is bad enough but are they only the first? MS should be begging for dual boot everywhere - not trying to kill it.

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Florida bloke cuffed for pit bull shag outrage

Jemma
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Re: In (mostly) the words of the great Pterry..

The equipment...,so to speak, is retracted for the majority of the time so it stays nice and protected even when they find the most disgusting places to roll around.

The bit you see doing the dangle is the sheath - not the business end of things - that only shows up when needed.

As to the research - what do you think vetinarians do all day - its hardly rocket science - just compare the flora on the human body with that of a dog and you'll find that dogs are actually cleaner at both ends - less nasties if you kiss a dog than the average human.. and vice (squad) versa..

There are some zoonoses you need to watch - especially with cats - new research indicates infection with a particular cat parasite makes you more likely to have car accidents.. by slowing reflexes & altering risk perception.

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Jemma

In (mostly) the words of the great Pterry..

"He'd have given his right arm to be called two-*dogs*-fscking..."

And I wouldn't blame the Floridians too much - I've seen similar in Ohio & Ipswich UK (the redhead will remain nameless).

Inconsequential fact - a dogs wang is actually cleaner than the average humans mouth..

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How a Facebook post by blabbermouth daughter cost her parents $80,000

Jemma
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Re: Something doesn't add up here...

Last I looked in the article it was the father who signed the NDA - not the daughter so explain to me like I'm 5 how the hell HER actions constitute HIM breaking the NDA. God but God screwed the hell up when he created Americans..

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Imprisoned Norwegian mass murderer says PlayStation 2 is 'KILLING HIM'

Jemma
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Re: A few points

As 77 dead bodies attests even one person seeing him as a martyr is dangerous - and I don't think we know the entirety of the Nazi groups - there's a fair few in the US...

Did you forget the part with the bomb(s) in the capital? - aka a diversionary attack and a masterpiece of the genre. Those tactics.. part of the reason Breivik is so damn dangerous is he did single handed what entire armies failed to pull off, perfectly. Even if you loathe him to the point of hanging him by his balls over a Mamba tank - it was artistically done. Just one person copying his method (which has now been slathered through the press) means maybe 80+ dead - now try a whole group... Breivik has to die of natural causes in his natural time.. the results otherwise could be horrific.

The point is simple - you and I or Breivik kill 80 civilians - its a crime. US Army does it - its government policy & perfectly legal. As for less collateral damage - drone aircraft deliver the same munitions in the same way, same weapon same damage, only difference is its cheaper & no meatbags.

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Jemma
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Re:re A few points

In reply..

Both Erich Von Manstein & Allenbrooke used the same tactic as Breivik did and both were decorated. The difference - two were army commanders, and paid to kill - the other did it for admittedly whacked beliefs - but last I noticed the people they killed are collectively just as dead. Your point re 98ks & lee enfields is a little facetious - when on the one hand its Stens & MG42's and on the other a platoons worth of automatic weapons. More to the point is how the little sod got his hands on them in the first instance. The point should also be made that for all three the people they killed or died as a result of their orders were legitimate targets, the difference being Breiviks view is not shared by anyone else - whereas for the others its legitimate government policy, that is the sole difference - unless you count Zhukovs troops emptying sub machine guns into unarmed German teenage girls as somehow any more legitimate than what Breivik did?

You are right - so far as I know Norway isn't into crashing weddings with cluster bombs - but again just as dead & importantly just as civilian.

I hate to be blunt about it but the poor kids involved in this - many of them wanted a career in politics - one of the things politicians do? oh yes, that's right, wars and the prosecution of same. Killing people, at however many remove.

And I suggest you read your history - the British army were the ones who came up with concentration camps - and have you seen the mess a Lewis Gun can make of Indian women & children? As for Von Manstein - history is dubious there especially during 11th Army ops - although personally I'm on the side of giving him the benefit of the doubt.

I like your idea re forums but not giving him actual access - whatever else he is he's intelligent - and since Norwegian authorities seem to have yard of lard syndrome he might find a way to exploit it...

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Jemma

A few points

1: If they'd have just executed the guy they'd have created a martyr - that's politics 101 - to the point even David Cameron could grasp it...

2: Whether you care to admit it or not, credit where credit is due, Breivik has proven to be a tactician of the scale of a Von Manstein, Allenbrooke, or Blucher - if he'd have been in an army in wartime he'd be parading round the place with a Dannebrog, a GCMG and at the least a Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub & Schwerten... FOR DOING EXACTLY THE SAME DAMN THING.

3: Drone Strikes - aka bobbing for brides/whack a wedding... and don't you dare tell me they're legitimate targets if Russian partisans weren't. Oh silly me - if I'm a private citizen & kill 80 odd people that's a crime - if I'm a police officer, a soldier or a politician -they'll give me a goddamn medal..

4: Contrary to popular belief its in the authorities best interests to keep this unpleasant individual happy - happy sociopaths are quiet sociopaths - and having the world media barf out the whole situation and the embarrassing incompetence of the security forces is not helpful - nor does it help the victims survivors/families.

If your pet sociopath wants his games, especially if he's an anti-darling of the media, you'd best swallow your revulsion & pony up, if only to shut the guy up. In this case all publicity is bad publicity.

5: I find it pretty telling that in Europe when this sort of thing happens gun control is tightened up before they've found all the bodies - in the US they debate Uzi's for schoolkids.. god I love the American Dream..

Finally - for *insert deity here*'s sake - actually sit down and look at your society critically just for once. Do that and hopefully you'll begin to understand why people like Breivik pop up. Modern society in alot of senses makes life in the dark ages positively dreamy by comparison.

I don't condone what this individual did but then I'm sure I'm not the only one who's contemplated the improvement garnered by the British economy if someone had emptied a Sten into a certain Mr Osbourne a few years back. Its an unpleasant truth that should be stated - the only difference between Anders Breivik and the majority of the rest of humanity - he did what many of us contemplate daily..

Don't you just love civilized society?

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GPs slam NHS England for poor publicity of data grab plan

Jemma

Just called Essex Police...

and they say they don't have access - given that they've lied to me in the past I'll believe it when Satan goes to work on a snowmobile..

The problem with this is compounded because there are several conditions where it is ILLEGAL under UK law to inform anyone of a persons medical status without their permission and there would be precisely zero chance of me granting same especially not to the Police.

This has to be stopped - its going to end up costing lives. Example: Police know a protester has Diabetes - deny them food 'by accident' then claim they were 'drunk & violent' (hypogycaemic) as an excuse for tasering or shooting them "in self defense"...

1 1

Prof Stephen Hawking: 'There are NO black holes' – they're GREY!

Jemma
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Re: "I know absolutely nothing about the black holes...

Wow...

"feel the hate flowing at me" - Emperor Palpatine, Coruscant War Crimes Tribunal.

Still at least one person got what I was trying to say.. or liked the quotes *sigh*

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Jemma
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Re: When you consider...

That's true - and its always puzzled me how he's lasted so long when most people with his condition at best manage a few years. It might be interesting to sequence his genome & see if there's a reason there - although I don't know if there can be the same sort of genetic 'immunity/protection' in MND as there is with the AA32 gene in HIV/Y.Pestis immunity.

What he's managed to achieve is amazing but sometimes I wonder if slapping a new idea into a major cosmological theory like you are welding up a hole in a Lancia's subframe could be referred to as "good science". But then again I don't have 40+ years in astrophysics...

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Jemma
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Re: "I know absolutely nothing about the black holes...

And you know exactly why Penrose & Ellis didn't get the same recognition - they've not got MND & don't spend their down time playing chase the nurse..

The name Penrose does actually ring a bell somewhere but I'm not sure where and in what context I heard it.

I guess I'm not all that happy with the idea of cut & paste science - its like the Robot Chicken Pi sketch...

Nameless Peon: "I wonder if future generations will believe I discovered Pi"

Pythagoras: "No, they won't. But they'll believe *I* discovered it..."

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Jemma
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Re: "I know absolutely nothing about the black holes...

You didn't watch futurama I take it...

The clang you just heard was you missing my point..

Its entirely possible he & his colleagues are dead right - its also entirely possible that they've all been coming up with utter twaddle in order to sell impenetrable books to the facebookwits.. without being in the same business at the same level no one can tell...

black hole astrophysics & associated fields are wonderful academic areas of study for a simple reason - not only do you not need to prove anything conclusively - you can't.

Its kinda like the US Government & honesty - they tell you they're being honest but won't let you verify they're being honest because they're honest..

And has anyone else wondered about this peer review idea? A better description might be "agreeing that its possible & calculable because he's the leader in the field & I'm indirectly reliant on his ideas for my salary & position"? but of course that doesn't affect anyone's decision not to call another academic out..

To quote 'free will hunting'

"Philosophy is for them that don't have to work for a living..."

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Jemma

"I know absolutely nothing about the black holes...

even after cashing the huge cheque I got for writing a book about them..."

comes to mind..

Also

"So you called my theory a fat sack of barf & then you stole it?! !"

"Welcome to Academia..."

I've honestly never been sure if Hawking is one of the best scientific minds or the best "stand up philosopher"* the universe ever produced...

* bullshit artist.

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Nokia Lumia update spreads Black death

Jemma

So let me get this straight...

You are running a Nokia firmware update - known for years to be as flaky as a lepers crotch at the best of times - and running a screen grabber at the same time?

Seriously - you are actually putting fingers to keyboard to complain? If you do *anything* while a Nokia update is running - up to and including straightening it on the desk it will crash and burn faster than an Airbus at an Airshow.. this has been common knowledge since they started using Symbian 3rd.

Sorry - got zero sympathy for this - you were fairly lucky you didn't brick the thing...

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Furtive ebook readers push Hitler's Mein Kampf up the charts

Jemma

50 Shades of Grey

http://sniffpetrol.com/2012/07/02/4327/

Couldn't resist...

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Never mind bungled Universal Credit rollout, Maude wants UK to be 'most digital' gov by 2015

Jemma

And we want any of this why?

Great - put driver details on the web - when the DVLA won't accept email anything because, and I quote, we need a signature!

Its a shame they stopped treating treason as a capital crime because so far the 'universal credit' has been directly responsible for at least 2 suicides & one and I fully expect it to be two by tomorrow, murder/suicides. Government incompetence driving citizens to suicide? I'd say that counts as treasonous...

But that's OK Iain Dumb**** Smith - you haven't done anything wrong because you're above the law - despite the 1961 act on suicide in British law saying its a criminal act to cause a person by your actions to commit suicide. And mods - look it up, you'll find I'm telling the truth.

This government is a joke, the DVLA is incompetent enough as it is without further digital crapgasms ladled on top. Tell you what Francis - why don't you fix the roads we're paying you for? Instead of paying millions for a system that's got the same chance of working properly as a IPCC complaint has of getting an honest hearing.

Not to mention there are alot of cases of 'driver history' where that information being available breaches data protection so badly it'd sink faster than the HMS Hood.. that's even before the traditional 'laptop on a train' data protection disaster.

One person mentioned voting ... whats the point - the fact we're lumbered with Cameron's Wannabes show what we say doesn't matter in the least.

I'd vote BNP over the main parties for one reason - they may be mindlessly right wing bigoted sociopaths with the social skills of a constipated rhino - but at least they'll admit to it...

1 3

Oz couple get jiggy in pharmacy in 'banned' condom ad

Jemma
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Re: Brokeback mountain version

Aka "Soreass Hill" - yikes, watched that film and all I could liken it to was a David Attenborough documentary on gay men - Troy has its lady of soundtrack sorrow - that had its twink of tremendous terrain.. and is it me or do they look far too related.. ?

1 4

How the UK's national memory lives in a ROBOT in Kew

Jemma

i wonder..

Since its already been mentioned that for various reasons long term storage on digital media is going to be an issue, not least because of media degradation maybe we could go a slightly different route.

Since modern papers aren't much better than tapes & the like why not use metal storage? Something like a stainless steel cartridge vetsion of the old punch tapes or Jacquard cards & a high speed reader, after all most just sits there for years doing nowt.

The problem here is mirrored all over the world at the moment in all fields. Will there be anything left of 1990-onwards in 800 years? probably not, we are, bar buildings maybe producing so little that's tangible and what we do produce generally is designed to fail.. including the tape drives and other devices Kew needs to use..

We might be in a latter historians eye - the mysterious denizens of Dark Ages II: The Search for a .DOCX converter... kinda sad if so..

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ASA slaps down BT over 'misleading' broadband claims

Jemma

Who cares?

The whole thing is so flakey that data rates fluctuate virtually every day anyway.. I'd much rather they commit to protecting whats left of our privacy. I'd also love to see the profit breakdowns of peoples payments for service as opposed to what they get paid for selling data on us. If it was possible to function within society without any form of connection I'd seriously consider it.. They're all as bad as each other..

0 1

Moto G: Google's KitKat bruiser could knock out, bury Landfill Android

Jemma

Overpriced, Overhyped & over here

For £60 I can get a phone that is perfect with a good IPS screen, GPS dual Sims & card slot.

This is more overpriced crap for the single syllable generation so please stop claiming its the second bloody coming..

its little more than a slightly faster HTC Touch Diamond running Android with (probably) even less storage free

Although to quote...

"Who's the bigger fool, the fool, or the fool that follows him...?"

In this case the jury is still trying to understand what deliberate means...

0 10

From Dept of REALLY? Sueball lobbed at Apple over crap iOS Maps app

Jemma
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Neither do Garmin & they're selling sat navigation devices.

How many times do I have to bloody say it? If its an advertised function you paid for & it doesn't bloody work there is a legal case to answer if the manufacturer can't/won't fix it.. under British law..

all maps are inaccurate but there's inaccurate & theres telling you you've just arrived at Stonehenge when your sitting in a Vatican City McDonald's

"Do try to keep up, thinking is SO important.."

0 1

Meet the FOUR-TON DINO that made little Tyrannosaurs SOIL THEMSELVES

Jemma
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Re: Ummm

The Tyrannosaurs are the little ones on the right - more to the bloody point did no one else notice the Seagulls?

"I don't think I want to live on this planet any more.. !" Farnsworth, Hubert J.

0 1
Jemma

Ummm

Those cute little greys are the strangest Tyrannosaurs - they look more like dromeosaurs or oviraptors.

I can't see a single recognisable tyrannosaurid feature, although they'd make good pets.

0 1

Tolkien 'almost became WWII code-breaker alongside Alan Turing'

Jemma

Merry does remember we're cousins right...

Right...?!?

LoTR secret diaries...

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