Posts by Tim

An aside

This particular comment thread (itself a very 'web 2.0' feature) is in serious danger of degenerating into rational, well-argued debate.

No sooner are they disbanded than...

<<Dr Brian Iddon MP, a member of the committee, speaking to El Reg at an ID conference today>>

That'll be an Intelligent Design conference then?

Martian

I've said it before. amanfromMars is a computer program generating grammatically 'correct' but utterly meaningless text. I believe it uses a process called Markov chaining to construct superficially coherent text. It's quite easy to be sucked in by it because it combines fragments of real English together: each clause may make sense on its own, but the whole is just gibberish.

He is, therefore, a machine. We are all disappointed that the Reg is allowing the lizard army to sully the virginal threads of Web 2.0.

Martian - no! It's RoTM

The Martian is a robot - it uses semantic linking of some kind to create almost-cogent writing. You used to see it on Usenet a fair bit.

(It's really disconcerting for humans to read because you have gramatically correct sentences that go nowhere - kinda like Grandpa Simpson's reminiscences on acid. I reckon it'd be quite useful as a way of sending interrogation suspects mad; like verbal water torture.)

I can't answer how it gets past the moderators. Come on El Reg - the Machines are bringing the war to you and you won't fight!

Lovely idea

With all the twisted, weird stuff you hear about people doing to their deceased relatives (upgrading them to first class included), it's good to read something so touching.

What a lovely idea, and much more tasteful than a jar of ash on the sideboard.

Missing the point?

Terminal velocity is only part of the answer.

What matters is how fast you impact the water. The speed at which that is fatal isn't really anything to do with terminal velocity at all. After all, if you die when you hit water at 200kph does it matter whether you're going 201 or 500?

What's more interesting in this question is how water reacts when you try to break its surface: you can dive from a great height and be fine, but go a few metres higher and the water can't 'get out of the way' quick enough so you end up smeared on the surface. Obviously the shape of the object falling has an effect - pointy is more likely to break the surface than flat, etc. I'm sure the Navy has done some studies on torpedoes dropping from planes or something that would give us a hint as to the physics involved.

Come on - inquiring minds want to know.