Posts by Chris Goodchild

Little boys playing with guns ?

Guns are dangerous things and are responsible for a great deal of unnecessary death and suffering, they need to be controlled and kept out of the hands of criminals and children. But most of the commenters talking above about the technicalities of AK's etc are obviously for the most part ex service men and not little boys with a hard on for blued steel, those that aren't appear to be sufficiently well informed to be worth listening to. Most anti gun types are N.I.M.B.Y types who when the shit hits the fan will always ask why the government and the army isn't doing something about it but the rest of the time will happily condemn all the people in the armed forces as savages and look down on them from their lofty intellectual perches.It's an unfortunate fact that a fundamental part of the human condition involves sometimes killing people who don't agree with us and untill we evolve out of that we are going to be stuck with various means for killing others in both small or large numbers.

Oh and as far as I am aware the bren has always been considered a light machine gun, which is, in it's current incarnation the designation. at about thirty pounds much too heavy to classify as an assault rifle. It has a heavier barrel to sustain higher rates of fire than an assault rifle.

Cert

Firstly , Mr Blackley shares my thoughts exactly.

Secondly, I disagree with Andy Bright and his wife, doesn't he realise the risk of having his ankles bitten if he refuses some whim of the `child´? Plus if he wants to take his offspring out of the UK for a holiday, the cost of shots and a dual pet/child physiometric passport will be prohibitive and of course the alternative , kennels with a childminding licence will be not only difficult to find but expensive!

What a waste

If the kiwis are producing so much drinkable alcohol they should just put it in an interesting bottle, call it moocohol and come up with an exciting ad campaign to sell it in pubs not burn it in cars.

Code of practice

It seems that there is room here for an industry agreed code of practice on both sides here. Clearly the vendor of any product that has a potentially disastrous bug in it has a duty to their customers to fix it. On the other hand any one who discovers the bug should not just blackmail the vendor, although in this case he did act ethically in as much as ,he offered the fix to the vendor first and not to the highest bidder whoever they were.

With out some kind of protocol to cover incidents like this, eventually there will be chaos.

Gauche

I too am left handed.

NO you're not!

Yes I am .

YOU are NOT!! AM TOO!!!

But I am not schizo.

Actually most left handed children grow up to be fairly ambidextrous adults and often are quicker at practical problem solving, usually via different logic to righties.

Also because of the problems many of them experience with writing at school, they have a tendency to write in caps. And I am sure that I read somewhere that lefties are generally smarter IQ wise than you righties.

I fire a rifle and bow right handed, write and eat left handed, fire a pistol equally badly with either hand, do up screws right handed undo screws left handed etc.

As for using scissors, they're okay if you only use them for stabbing right hande critics.

Number blind?

I am curious to know if numerical dyslexia is a recognised condition? as I have always had a problem with maths. Basic arithmetic, written or mental I have managed to teach myself but real maths takes much more effort ( especially tax returns and and VAT) and I think I should be allowed more time.

Under the spreading chestnut tree

If poor old H.G.Wells was alive today, he would spend his time being interviewed and constantly denying that he had written a guide book for twenty first century government. He would also be shocked at just how far short of reality his book had fallen. We are being listened to and watched far more efficiently than H.G. could ever have imagined.

The Somme

In France to this day they are still using sheep grazing on the battlefields of the Somme to `neutralise´the old left over ordanance from the 1ST World War, it is not unknown to have your lamb chops butchered and cooked in about one tenth of a second there.

The line about èasily laid and often diffcult and dangrous to get rid of reminds me of one or two exes.

community service?

The logical conclusion to this technology is to build large treadmills, or something like a big watermill wheel (or hamster) and to insert anyone who has been sentenced to community service. Then miscreants will be able to atone for their crimes by providing us with the power to send comments like this. And of course if the effort proves too much for them and they have a heart attack, there is always Soylent Green...

Yawn

Just reading all this crap about our governments possible hi-tech efforts to control us all , is enough to make me puke!

Take me to your leader

When and if America does find life on Mars, Titan or anywhere else it is going to be force fed democracy, checked out thoroughly for potential terrorist suspects and then have a suitably right wing government that is freindly to the U.S. `encouraged´ . And god help them if they have a source of cheap energy that will power gas guzzling cars AKA American national scerity

Crush!

For anyone who admires this guy there are dozens of sites on the net that can sell you a tank, APC, self propelled gun ETC. starting at a couple of grand you can drive it on a car license I think but it does have to have rubber tracks to go on a public high way. And for the sailors amonst you there are a number of ex cold war submarines knocking about for sale, ideal for city workers with Thames-side residences.

Ethical

I think this machine is a marvelous idea, particularly if it has large ears like a bloodhound where you can fit solar panels to suplement it's energy requirements. However, the notion of using it for going ahead over potential mine fields in view of it's probable cost is offensive, it is much cheaper and more practical to use second lieutenants fresh out of officer training as they are generally not much use, often more dangerous to their own side than the enemy and since there is normally a good supply of preppy types in western society, they are a renewable resource. Oh and to the chap who thought mules are probably quieter than this machine is definately a towny. Last thing this would be code named `Squaddy Rover´?

Bloodsuckers

I agree with the general feeling here, the record companies need all of the broadcasting media much more than the media need them. so tell the record co's to shove it and wait till they come back with a better proposal.

Morons?

Isn't `Information Technology ´and UK Gov in the same sentence an oxymoron?

Cornish patsies

The CNLA are obviously people with very small willies and failing to gain satisfaction from playing with insignificant parts are looking for other diversions.

I find Jamie Oliver only slightly more entertaining than tooth ache but I wouldn't have thought even denying school kids burger and chips diets would mean he deserves to have his house, car, customers and restaurant burnt.

Also I bet the rise in Cornish house prices has more to do with money grabbing Cornish estate agents than Jamie and Paddy. If it wasn't for grockles and bloody Londoners with money going to Cornwall the Cornish would still be wearing leather hats with candles on them and digging tin from radioactive granite.

Ice? Naah!

As a matter of fact this mission is under Presidential Sanction. Apparently one of the earlier missions photographed a number of prayer mats some one had neglected to hide under rocks after use. It is secretly thought that Al Quaeda are using oil revenue from Mars to fund terrorist activities on Earth. That is the main reason for the digging equipment, they are looking for oil

Consumer Terrorism

It looks as though the RIAA may have spawned a new version of an old scam for terrorising money out of innocent consumers. Remember one or two large companies that used to sell mail order records and books? They would send a selection each month wherein you were obliged to select only one to buy and then send the rest back and you could cancel at any time after an agreed period at no further obligation. Then, having canceled, one would find that these companies seemed never to get your cancelation notice and would continue sometimes for years to send unsolicited goods with demands for payment followed by threats from debt collection firms and possible county court action. I know of several people who simply gave in and paid just to avoid the complications that a county court action would have on their credit ratings.Consumer Terrorism. Now it seems the RIAA and this perfect ten are embarking on the new improved e-version.

Us and them

I think a lot of people miss the point in cases like this . It is not about local politics or whether you mix in with the locals , speak the same language or have even married a local. It is about territorialism or us and them, if you travel around England you will see it in our footy team and theirs, our town and theirs or even our pub not theirs they aint from round here. Some people in some places are very territorial whilst others are not. Of course occasionally you do find a whole bloody country full of them but it rains too much in Wales for me to live there so I'm not bothered.

Over populated

I'm worried, 500 Gbs on a small disc! What's to stop it falling off the edge? Are they going to put a fence round it? It's the same problem with people you know if they keep breeding at the same rate soon the ones on the outside are going to fall off the edge of the earth.

Title

I have sent a comment on the article about Ian Pearson's successor at Defra so I may well stick my two'pennorth in here. It seems being a government minister is a political appointment so the only knowledge required is how to politic and of course the good thing about a minister knowing bog all about his ministry's remit is that hopefully he has to listen to advice from people who hopefully know what they are talking about because whilst he is listening he wont be talking out of his arse.

Mission to planet earth

So what exactly is the NASA mission to planet earth ? Haven't they found it yet or are searching for intelligent life?

If it is intelligence he is looking for he certainly will find it among Britain's farmers( anyone who can make a living overshadowed by Defra and the EEC aggycrats is definately not stupid) Though he probably won't listen to their informed opinions just like his predecessors who generally preferred to listen to civil servants whose closestapproach to farming is the green wellys they wear when they walk the dog on a wet day.

Funny ?

I'm amazed that not one of the comments posted so far have expressed any sorrow for the fact that someone has died and mostly are jokes, this welder was almost certainly a member of a family who are now greiving over the loss of one of their family and a breadwinner. The other thing I would like to say is,welding, if it is one of the forms of arc welding ( mig, tig,stick etc) then there is a large transformer involved that produces a strong electro-magnetic induction field. Does any one out there know how that may or may not interact with cell phone battries?

Last thing, one of the reasons I subscribe to the reg is for the excellent humour in both the reporting and the comments but I guess where death is concerned my sense of humour is non too good.

Luggage? I doubt it.

I doubt very much the observation that John Smeaton learned his kicking technique on luggage. Being a Glasweigian it was more likely Sunday football, rugby or after the pub on a Friday night, all good training for anti terrorist squads

Skeptics Bah!

Look! I am sick and tired of all the skepticism about aliens visiting the earth to abduct people. I am a professional captain abductor from planet Glaarg, I am also humanoid in appearance as are most of the intelligent life forms in the known universe. We are generally much better looking than you earthlings as the fine coating of mucous that covers our bodies tends to high light our beautiful bone structure.

However, the point I wish to make is that after developing and honing my rectal probing skills at university and gaining an honours degree I am fed up with all you skeptics downplaying my hard work. It seems that the only way to bring home to you people the truth that is out here is to radically step up our abduction and probing strategy and now it is the loudest skeptics we are targetting. Remember the truth IS out there and the probe will be up there.

DARPA?

I have alwaysunderstood that a group of scientists at CERN in Switzerland were the founders of the internet!

unaccountable

As others have already pointed out , unregulated and unaccountable applies to the current government more than any but I think many of your readers are too young to remember much about previous governments. ALL British governments have always been suspicious of any unregulated and unaccountable power. Hence the original reasons for creating the BBC to prevent the wrong kind of broadcast to the worthy british public. What we need is not so much ID cards but better controls on who comes into the UK. NOT based on religion or country of origin but at the visa application stage.

Cyborgs

I think the most worrying conclusion to this technology is the potential for imprinting selected memories. Can you imagine creating cyborg warriors that have had carefully contructed memories designed to produce total fanatics?

Some thing any extreme organisation would give their collective right arms for. Imagine hordes of fanatical constructs with religio/political axes to grind! Bring back Skynet!