Posts by Francis Boyle

On the contrary

Stupid and grossly irresponsible everywhere, only in America, suicidal.

Yes

The wireless charging premium is around 50% – so nothing like going from a Prius to a Hummer.

Re: Grid applications? ROFLMAO!

The Hornsdale Battery was a direct response to 2016 South Australian blackouts. Musk, being the consummate showman, he is simply identified the PR opportunity and made the SA government an offer they couldn't refuse. (There were many other proposals but presumably the companies behind them were constrained by having to make a profit.) The installation's primary function was always the prevention of load-shedding (by holding the until backup generation capacity can come on line) not grid storaage.

Sounds

more like Tulip Mania multiplied by the power of the internet.

Re: Becoming like?

"how do you know the light goes off when you close the door."

There's an app for that and thus all mystery has been drained from life.

Re: Professionals built the titanic... Teignmouth Electron

On the other hand, as I understand it, the reason that Crowhurst embarked on the series of deceptions that lead to his death was his understanding that were he to venture into the Southern Ocean his boat would have been destroyed.

Seconded

Tail landing rockets and high resolution pictures of Pluto (for example) are both extremely non-pedestrian.

I notice

you don't provide actually that "* CDC source" for your false claim about California's infection rates.

That's the easy part

The difficult part is: to what extent am I entitled to restrict your freedom in order to protect someone who might not be even be aware that they are in any danger from you. The trick the libertarians try to pull is to suggest that somehow, deep down, we all really believe that any such restriction is illegitimate. Of course, it's projection but it's been a maddeningly effective technique

I think

You're Fuchsing right. Sorry, Leonhart.

No

the fireworks display was just a bonus.

I'm guessing

it's something like:

run – one picosecond

setup – setup one day

Re: Very sad, but...

I think you mean radar. The Chinese telescope (FAST) is a passive device and not as good at detecting those sneaky asteroids that run with their lights off.

Re: how do the proteins fold so quickly (and so reliably)?

Well put. Sometimes you just have to accept that complexity is just complexity.

And with all those

carbon and oxygen atoms it's mostly metal. Enjoy your glass of liquid metal.

You might say the same

about any particular location in a public place. If the area is reasonably busy you can never be sure you aren't walking through a cloud of viral particles someone has just sneezed out. But aerosols settle so if no one is actively breathing on you, (and you're taking the recommended precautions) your main concern should be to avoid surfaces that might have been recently touched.

Sorry but from where I stand

Daryl Hannah might be worth risking my immortal soul for, Heather Locklear not so much.

Here you go

www.japanesetools.com.au/products/diamond-sandpaper

Industrial grade diamonds are so cheap these days there's no reason not to use them in sandpaper. (Don't get me started on the De Beers Cartel, but, basically, all diamonds are ridiculously cheap to produce these days.)

I like the idea

As long as they dig a hole to put it in. As a dedicated surrealist I think there should be more landmarks that are huge holes in the ground.

I on the other hand

have a nasty feeling that this escapade will become the basis of the climatic scene of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 3.

So Murphy's Law

in it's purest form. It seems we've learnt little in 70 years.

Re: Another one bites the dust

Given he was a Trump appointee getting fired by Trump looks like a sound career move.

Re: Definitely a cooler word

It's pretty well established that it happened to Marcus Garvey though he was clearly close to death at the time and there may have been some malicious intent involved.

Re: Hyperbole

The more relevant response is that there isn't actually a continent called "America"

Re: Yay! Party time!

He was fighting Hitler and depression.He needed to overcome the latter to deal with the former and alcohol was what he used to do that. As I understand it he understood quite clearly what he was doing.

Re: Windy

As I understand the air traffic just had to fly a bit higher. It did however greatly interfere with the Luftwaffe's early trials of low level aerial package delivery.

Re: Warning...

In that case they'll just have to work harder until they tern the corner.

I do think Parker and Stone's work can be pretty sophomoric at times but in a culture where most popular entertainment is pitched at about third grade level I consider that high praise.

I suspect it's about something far more obscene

Oracle.

Re: "98.5% accuracy"

Agreed. In 2020 no one should be talking about the accuracy of their test without specifying both false positive and false negative rates. (In this case 1.5% is probably fine for the former but not exactly great for the latter.)

Re: Outside America

One that includes a lithobraking component?

Re: Level 4 Automation is insufficient

While you are of course right about the levels I suspect the person on board thing is more about the need to pay off the local sheriff have someone to take charge when something goes wrong.

Which is therefore no longer a proper cuppa. Clearly the problem is insoluble, which explains the demise of the British space programme.

Yes

If they'd only waited a decade or two and then asked Elon to do it, it would have been done last Tuesday,

If you make appropriate use of 4:20

you'll never have to worry about how "sad" 4:40 is.

Well, obviously

someone called Captain Boing has only ever voted for the Serious Party (Extremely Adult Faction).

The problem with Facebook

is Facebook. The problem with Twitter is the users.

We're all in the shit

all the time. Faecal matter is one of those thing where whether you find is dependent on the sensitivity of your tests.

To be fair it's not just marketing

It's the old rat/snake/whatever bounty problem. If you offer an incentive to do something useful people will always find a way to game your system.

Small beer compared to

torpedoes, misiles (guided or not), kamikazes. War is wasteful in all sorts of ways.