* Posts by Schultz

1769 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Oct 2007

Protestors in Los Angeles force ICANN board out of hiding over .org sale – for a brief moment, at least

Schultz
Stop

Re: There is no government mandate

1. Nobody is threatening the organisations or individuals who chose to register names in .org in any way, shape or form.

>>> Wrong: everybody who registered a .org domain is threatened by higher cost and the uncertainty of having his domain registration handled by a company without a track record.

2. Whoever runs the registry (which is only a clerical operation, with no powers of control whatever) will be constrained by the market to set reasonable prices; otherwise people will simply switch to other domains.

>>> Wrong: whoever has a user base and name recognition built on his .org domain will be hostage to the policies of the new, unknown company running the show. Clerical operation my ass. This is waylaying.

3. This clerical operation of registering names has been a competitive business since 1998, when the Clinton Administration gave it away to private industry. So occasional sales or takeovers of registrar companies is business as usual. People should be happy that the Internet Society will benefit from it. If you don't like it, abolish capitalism.

Wrong: The operation of registering .org names was not a competitive business. Stop comparing apple and oranges.

There is a billion-dollar investment at stake. Anyone want to take a guess whether paid shills will start entering the discussion forum? Sorry, make that 'professional PR operations'.

Schultz
Stop

Re: Appearance of impropriety

Selling a public good that has been entrusted to them is the real impropriety. Whether you can find some added insider dealing and profiteering is just the icing on the cake.

Amazing peer-reviewed AI bots that predict premature births were too good to be true: Flawed testing bumped accuracy from 50% to 90%+

Schultz
Boffin

Why most published research is wrong

Here is the actual paper with that title: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article%3Fid%3D10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124&ved=2ahUKEwjp4puP353nAhVGUd4KHSoaD8IQFjAAegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw3ej46EjYOkYi2cVzeTN8z-

Unsurprisingly, this kind of problem is most prevalent in fields where scientists fight about big pots of money. Say, medically relevant research.

In my field, scientists tend to measure hard numbers - - no big financial incentives and wrong results will be falsified (eventually) ruining your reputation. But in fast-moving fashionable and well funded fields (AI, etc.) the incentives are all wrong.

10nm woes, CPU supply shortages, competition from AMD... What? Sorry? Intel can't hear you over the cash register going bonkers

Schultz
WTF?

"the company realized $3.8bn in AI-based revenue"

Is that rebranding of existing business, or is there any actual, palpable 'AI-based revenue'? My not-so-artificial intelligence wants to know...

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia accused of hacking Jeff Bezos' phone with malware-laden WhatsApp message

Schultz
Unhappy

"it... may see the kingdom cut out of deals altogether"

Hahaha haha. Good one.

As long as there is oil and money to be had, the ugly kingdom will have plenty of friends. Come on, if you can get away with murder, what's a little spying charge going to do.

Sadly, we live in a world where money and power can buy friends in the best places. The best friends, even the bestest friend in the most beautiful office of the greatest power of the world.

New SAP co-CEO 'runs simple' to Davos in Mercedes hydrogen car

Schultz
Go

Re: Greenwashing

I guess the sky is the limit for SAP's future carbon savings stunts. Who knows, somebody might car-pool or even take a train next time!

The delights of on-site working – sun, sea and... WordPad wrangling?

Schultz
Boffin

LabView is everywhere in my field ...

and hated because they repeatedly broke backwards compatibility since I started using it ('90s). I must be the last person on the planet reverting to version 4.0 for controlling experimental hardware. That was the last version you could just carry around on some floppies :).

Those monstrous IEE-488 (GPIB) cables, though, have now vanished in the drawer.

Let’s check in on the .org sale fiasco: Senators say No, internet grandees say Yes – and ICANN pretends there's absolutely nothing to see here

Schultz
Trollface

"just blows my mind that an organization ... can just ... do whatever it wants..."

Sell a public good to the highest bidder -- sounds like something that is bound to happen unless it is explicitly illegal. Turns out that the whole system is still run on "Trust", so we are good on that front! Those registering .org domains trusted the system, bad for them.

It also makes perfect sense that they package it as one giant sale. If they'd sell the Trust piecemeal, the law might catch up to them, or they might even loose the Trust before it is fully monetized! It's clearly essential that the Trust be sold in full and with upfront payment to maximize the profit.

World-record-breaking boffins reveal the fastest spinning thing on Earth – and it's not George Orwell in his grave

Schultz
FAIL

"fastest spinning thing on Earth"

That statement is nonsense, because in molecular spectroscopy molecules are routinely observed spinning with THz frequencies. Paul Corcum constructed an 'optical centrifuge' (just some clever laser trick) to spin up molecules until they broke apart from the centrifugal force, now that is closer to the limit. (see here and here.)

A quick check of the canned researcher press release shows a slightly more specific statement: "Scientists at Purdue University have created the world's fastest-spinning human-made object". But that is still nonsense, those rotating molecules observed in spectroscopy are often humanly made (i.e., synthesized). A correct statement might be that they observed the fastest rotation in a classical object (as opposed to the quantized motion of a molecule).

A nice example of scientific hyperbole:

Step 1: Big paper with big claims.

Step 2: Big press release with even bigger claims (grazing the fact-fiction borderline).

Step 3: Big press articles with even bigger claims that are pure nonsense.

Internet Society's Vint 'father of the 'net' Cerf dodges dot-org sell-off during public Q&A

Schultz

Red herring: RFC 1591

".org has never been reserved for non-profit registrants."

But it became the home of most non profit registrants. How does the above quote justify selling off .org for a billion? How does it justify selling the thing they were entrusted with to the highest bidder? Why should they get to pull a billion dollar out of the paying registrants?

ICANN finally reveals who’s behind purchase of .org: It’s ███████ and ██████ – you don't need to know any more

Schultz
Stop

A group of people were entrusted with the administration of the .org domains ...

Now they sell out for a cool billion dollar. Who gave those clowns the key to the kingdom? What kind of personality does it take to NOT see the moral depravity of the deal?

Maybe they fool themselves that it'll all work out for some common good -- but if you look at the money involved, it becomes quite obvious that pure greed is driving everyone involved. And who wouldn't be tempted to follow that gravy train ... something might trickle down to the good men and women with flexible morals.

What was Boeing through their heads? Emails show staff wouldn't put their families on a 737 Max over safety fears

Schultz

"But it's not a 'new' aircraft is it? "

As I understand it, the problem is that the Max is very much a new airplane. Using sensor inputs for computer controlled flight attitude adjustment is quite different from the old Boeing philosophy of giving the pilot direct control over the airplane, but is not inherently bad - Airbus uses a comparable "fly by wire" concept for quite some time and it works.

The problem is that they built a new airplane but pretended that it was not new. When confronted with unexpected behavior of this new plane, the pilots were lost.

Oh, and there are two attitude sensors on the Max, but they wouldn't integrate/analyze/verify the data in the computer because that would be obviously different from the old 737 type. Can't have that if you want to avous a new certification.

They should fire the managers that made the bad decisions, not the engineers that recognized and commented on those bad decisions in their emails.

Is there alien life on Earth? Maybe, says Brit 'naut. Well, where did they come from? How about this far-away cluster. Or this 'Godzilla' galaxy...

Schultz
Boffin

"First in this galaxy is plausible. First in the universe is less likely."

This statement is false: we can't make any meaningful statement about the likelihood of extraterrestrial life.

In our minds, the large number of stars in the universe is close to infinity, leading to the fallacious perception that everything imaginable must be out there somewhere. But the amount of matter out there is finite and the probability for emergence of life is finite and completely unknown. The resulting probability for extraterrestrial life is therefore unknown and could be anything between 1 and 0. Pick any number, it's completely meaningless.

Statements about the probability of extraterrestrial life is pure, baseless speculation. We don't understand enough about the origin of life to make any meaningful estimations.

Hey, ICANN, if you need good reasons to halt the .org super-sell-off, here are two: Higher fees, more website downtime

Schultz
WTF?

That financial assessment should come as no surprise...

if you go from a no-profit model to one that needs to refinance a cool $ billion (+x) and wants to make a profit, the prices need to rise and service might suffer. No Sh*t.

But that is the price the wider society has to pay to assure that everybody at ISOC and their friends can sleep well at night, knowing that they'll have "a more stable and diversified source of income". Who gave those clown the key to the .org kingdom? The rot is deep and wide if those steward see nothing wrong at converting the the trust placed in them into an automated teller machine.

"It's a market," says Andrew Sullivan, the president and CEO of the Internet Society (ISOC). But it was not meant to be a market that you and your friends can exploit at the cost of everybody else. The wider internet community are supposedly the 'stakeholders' represented by those governing the internet domain names - do you think those stakeholders agree that it is a free-for-all, take-what-you-can market opportunity for you to exploit? I thought it was just some necessary infrastructure that should keep the internet running with the least amount of interference and cost.

ISOC didn't build or invent the internet (even if Vint Cerf is on the board). How did they earn a billion dollar endowment? Where do I sign up to claim my share of the free money? I run two .org domains, please forward me the $260 Ethos Capital pays for those domains and I will stop complaining.

ICANN demands transparency from others over .org deal. As for itself… well, not so much

Schultz
Stop

Only 10% yearly price increase...

- First, that's VERY different from running the domain registry as a non-profit. Yearly inflation is far below 10% and, arguably, progressing technology should make the whole thing cheaper in the future.

- Second, has anyone heard about the exponential law? It scales quite nicely.

- Third, how should anybody trust those guys. This story nicely illustrates that when those guys see money they are willing to jump high and far to collect it.

This whole community model with "stakeholders" in charge is clearly unsuited to regulate a billion dollar industry. It was a nice idea back when it was a hobby, but once we talk about real money, guess whose stakes those representatives are going to hold? It's corrupt and the fact that we can see it so clearly just shows that they are bad at corruption.

Tesla has a smashing weekend: Model 3 on Autopilot whacks cop cars, Elon's Cybertruck demolishes part of LA

Schultz
Angel

... checking on his dog in the back seat ...

I bet he was worrying about the homework he also kept on the back seat!

Internet Society says opportunity to sell .org to private equity biz for $1.14bn came out of the blue. Wow, really?

Schultz
WTF?

Breach of trust.

They were entrusted with the administration of a common good and they just breached that trust to the tune of 1 billion dollar. Have they no shame?

Schultz
Go

How did it get to this point ...

where a few guys and their buddies can monetize the common good of the internet names to line their pockets? Sorry, they'll only use the money to "endow" themselves for perpetuity. But based on their actions, I assume they are already endowed with quite some mighty cojones. Wasn't the internet supposed to be shared space of rainbows and unicorns? Well, they certainly found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and they will not share!

I guess this is a sign that the "trust" based organization of the internet infrastructure is coming to an end. The first to break the trust can, of course, cash in mightily. Get ready for the race to the lowest common moral denominator before the internet registry is moved to a more regulated foundation.

Any bets about how many of those non-profit do-gooders at ISOC and PIR (and friends ...) will end up with significantly better pay checks within the next few years as the billion trickles down from the pockets of .org registrants to those of flexible morals? And nobody should get hurt if a few bucks are divided by 10 million, right? Oh, its a billion buck - those don't divide so neatly.

In the future you'll just have to bring some money to the table if you want to play on the internet. there is bigger fish out there and it wants to be fed. Straight from the revolutionary ideals: you gotta pay your tax if you want you voice to count.

I just hope the Register (or some other publication) will follow this up with a report in some 5-10 years time, telling us where that billion went. We should have some names to hate when/if the profiteering took its course. Or maybe I am mistaken and all that money will flow back into rainbows and unicorns. Free rainbows and unicorns for everybody, payed by those rich and generous .org registrants. Check your pipe to find that unicorn, it will lead you straight to the end of the rainbow...

Schultz
Unhappy

... hit with a bill that will probably be significantly larger

If my pocket calculator is correct, somebody just offered to pay US$ 113.5 for every single registrant of a .org domain. Now I would assume that those venture capitalists are not doing this for philanthropy, so the prices can be expected to go up rather fast. Say some hundred $ per year per registrant in the near future (assuming they'll have to make up for some attrition rate). Those investors clearly bet on the fact that the domain owners do not want to move their websites - its a pain to move your user base to a new address!

Quite disgusting. But with a billion dollar dangling in front of their eyes, can you really blame them for turning soft? It'll be free money for EveryBody for Life! (If you are part of the team.)

Boffins believe it was volcanoes, not just life, that made Earth what it is today – oxygen rich

Schultz
Boffin

Really?

I don't have my CRC handbook at hand, but I doubt that CO2 + H2O- - > H2CO + O2 is a spontaneous reaction.

Internet Society CEO: Most people don't care about the .org sell-off – and nothing short of a court order will stop it

Schultz

savedotorg.org

You can add your name to protest the sale -- probably won't stop the commercial interests behind this scheme but who knows...

No wonder Bezos wants to move industry into orbit: In space, no one can hear you* scream

Schultz
Boffin

"it'll work with little energy because you're going down, gravity-wise"

Breaking an orbiting object (e.g., to bring an asteroid down towards the earth orbit around the sun) costs as much energy as accelerating it. We are spoiled on earth, because friction slows things down to quite reasonable velocities. In space, things move fast and you need lots of energy to change those velocities; it doesn't matter if you go up or down.

Like so many science fiction ideas, Bezo's idea makes perfect sense if you assume infinite available energy that can be flexibly deployed. Just build things in space, why not? But earth is quite unique in offering a few billion years of stored photosynthetic (fossil) energy up for grabs -- plus that fossil fuel is a great resource to make stuff (look up how we make our metal alloys, cement, plastics -- it all involves coal, oil, and natural gas). Also we have that nice incremental yearly photosynthesis we use to grow our food. Take all that away and things get quite difficult.

Second time lucky: Sweden drops Julian Assange rape investigation

Schultz
Stop

Citation Please!

"Assange admitted it [...]. He has stayed under oath that he held down and raped a victim who was physically resisting [...]"

-- I second the call for a citation for the above comment. I have never heard this assertion in years of media coverage and have a hard time believing that this is anything but hearsay (i.e., a vile smear).

From what I heard, the characterization "Sex by Surprise", as given by DiViDeD, better describes the situation.

Thanks, Brexit. Tesla boss Elon Musk reveals Berlin as location for Euro Gigafactory

Schultz
Boffin

Re: 677km from Prum to Berlin

Any car will burn twice the fuel when going 150 km/h instead of 100. That's one big reason why a speed limit makes sense if you care about the environment.

SpaceX flings another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit in firm's heaviest payload to date

Schultz

terrestrial astronomy is only good because of lack of orbiting telescopes

That's a bit like saying roof solar energy is only a good option because there are not enough solar installations in the Sahara. Technically it might be correct, but it misses the point on many levels.

Uber CEO compares pedestrian death to murder of Saudi journalist, saying all should be forgiven

Schultz
WTF?

Re: He makes an intersting argument which is bogus.

Why should he worry about being hacked up in an embassy? He clearly positioned himself on the right^X^X^X safe side of that issue and will have earned all the goodwill of the relevant Leadership for his troubles.

As for being run over, that's why you drive a 3 ton company limousine. Let's see who runs over whom!

Surveillance kit slinger accused of slapping 'Made in America' on Chinese gear, selling it to the US government

Schultz

Value added!

I am pretty sure that the sticker saying 'made in the USA' added a lot of value! By common sense, if most value is generated by the manufacturing process in the USA (i.e., putting on the sticker) it should be called a US product! :)

But apparently, the FTC disagrees: if any significant part of the product was assembled elsewhere, you can't use the label. Well, there is common sense and then there is common sense. Tough luck.

Remember the Uber self-driving car that killed a woman crossing the street? The AI had no clue about jaywalkers

Schultz
Boffin

"the AI thought Elaine was, at times, a static object"

The obvious problem in the control system seems to be that it can 'forget' the history of an object if it is reclassified. Physical reality tells us that things don't magically disappear - so the system should somehow match the newly identified object to its past data.

Our brain is very good at that - the moment we identify something our brain will convince us that we saw that object all along. And the brain will quite strongly resist recognizing the object as something else until the evidence becomes overwhelming. Look up optical tricks to learn more about this.

Conspiracy loons claim victory in Brighton and Hove as council rejects plans to build 5G masts

Schultz
Boffin

"...and the doctors published advice [...] not to be near a working microwave oven"

So you have an anecdote of a doctor telling about possible harm to pacemakers and you extrapolate that to a general recommendation about microwave ovens and 5G antennas?

I wonder if there are any scientific studies on the effect of microwave ovens ... well, we could look at this article citing the FDA analysis of the problem, or at that article from the NHS discussing the issue, or at another one busting the myth "About Devices that Can Interfere with Pacemakers".

Danny 2, why don't you spend 5 minutes looking up serious resources about the topics that worry you? Might this not be well invested time, especially when your health is concerned? Spend more time reading and less time arguing. And please learn to identify pseudoscience when you encounter it. Just because a Doctor said something does not mean anything -- apparently there are 10 to 15 million doctors in the world and not all of them have a great scientific education.

Schultz
Boffin

"e-m radiation does not have to be ionizing to be dangerous"

It's a matter of the dose. Microwaves ovens use GHz radiation to heat water. And, unsurprisingly, heat can kill. This has nothing to do with the electromagnetic nature of the radiation. As I explained above, photon energies below the visible regime do not break chemical bonds. So they are harmless. Unless you cook yourself with them.

Schultz
Boffin

"5G is an order of magnitude (i.e. TEN times) higher frequency "

And the 5G frquency is some 10'000 below that of visible light. And, as opposed to visible light (or, god forbid, UV light), this frequency does not create radicals or affect chemical reactions in any detectable way.

The GHz regime of 5G radiation is a regime where rotating molecules absorb and emit radiation. This occurs continuously in our atmosphere. Look at the atmospheric microwave transmission spectrum, wherever the atmosphere is opaque (non-transmitting), atmospheric molecules absorb and emit radiation. Oh, and in the spots where the atmosphere is not opaque, you are bombarded by the unattenuated microwave emission of the sun. It's quite pleasant to feel the warm sun on your skin, isn't it? It's all that radiation hitting you.

I suggest everybody should spend 5 minutes understanding energy and radiation. Maybe start here, looking up the avelength and frequency of diferent parts of the EM spectrum. Everything <u>above</u> the visible regime (UV, X-rays, ...) can break chemical bonds and is scary. Everything <u>below</u> cannot break chemical bonds because there is not enough energy in a single photon to overcome the bond energy. (Exceptions exist in the form of highly reactive chemicals, but those will poison you without requiring any light.) Remember, you can always use E = h×frequency with the Planck constant h to convert the photon frequencies to energy and then compare that photon energy quantum to whatever you are interested in.

OK, Kindergarden is over, go back to your day jobs!

HP to hike upfront price of printer hardware as ink biz growth runs dry

Schultz
Boffin

"We rebalance the system profitability by monetising ..."

That language nicely captures HP's problem: I, as a consumer do not desire to be "monetised". I want a decent product for a decent price and then I want to get on with my life without worrying about the shenanigans they play to maximize their profit margin.

I use a HP printer and slowly work my way through half-liter bottles of ink - that reduces printing costs by an order of magnitude and really reduces landfill (as if HP really cared for that last point).

If HP started hiring engineers instead of salespeople and went back to developing better hardware, I might regain some respect for the company. Anyone wants to take a bet on that one?

Cassini may be dead – but its data shows basic building blocks of life spewing from Enceladus

Schultz
Boffin

FTFY: "its data shows basic building blocks //of basic building blocks// of life"

They only found the building blocks for amino acids, which in turn are the basic building blocks of life. So they found the basic building blocks for the basic building blocks of life"!

I wonder where the basic building blocks for the building blocks of the building blocks came from. Must have been some supernova, I guess.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise, politicians will philander... And US voting machines will be physically insecure

Schultz
Holmes

"But given how big the parties can be, you can't rule that out."

Yes you can. There are election monitors from both parties present at each step (plus unaffiliated ones). You can volunteer for that job in your precinct. It's not magic, just a good number of people investing some of their time because they take their democracy seriously.

Hinkley Point nuclear power station will be late and £2bn over budget

Schultz
Boffin

Contrarian point of view

That current electricity cost 'in the region of £40 per megawatt-hour' is deceptively low, because:

(1) All that subsidised renewable generation came online, depressing average electricity cost;

(2) We don't properly price carbon energy yet (and it'll have to become much more expensive if we want to move towards those climate goals);

(3) Nuclear power can be sold when the wind won't blow and the sun won't shine - hence when the price is far above average;

(4) Future renewable electricity cost may be higher than we think when we price in the need to store electricity to flatten out supply (probably with costly batteries, unless you have a nice mountain valley for stored hydro);

So some nuclear power might be a good idea and might even be profitable. You might also call it a strategic investment to secure the future electricity supply.

I think we should move ahead on both, nuclear power and on renewables -- in 10 years time we'll see which combination works best. If you don't try it, you won't know what could have worked-- and in the long term that is the worst mistake.

Boffins build a tiny nanolaser that can be inserted inside our cells

Schultz
Boffin

stealth laser sharks!

According to the boffin, their "tiny lasers operate at powers that are orders of magnitude smaller than observed in any existing lasers". So your stealthed laser shark can score a direct hit without revealing himself to the target!

Facebook: Remember how we promised we weren’t tracking your location? Psych! Can't believe you fell for that

Schultz

Re: Samsung phones

I never had FB on my Samsung phones. Must be something about your provider :).

OK, let's try that again: Vulture rakes a talon on Samsung's fresh attempt at the Galaxy Fold 5G

Schultz
Go

I wonder...

how much of the device thickness could be reduced if the front screen were only a small display for notifications. Having one extra-large screen really should remove the need for the second one.

How long until you can swipe between virtual screen on the big display? Remember that 'extended' screen, back when screens were large enough to hold several apps, but maybe not quite large enough?

China remains in pole position for electric vehicle uptake despite cuts to subsidies

Schultz
Boffin

Let's remember that electric / hybrid cars only make sense ...

if we manage to get more electricity of fuel for fuel cells from renewables. Even with the German energy mix (>50% renewables and nuclear power), electric cars barely beat old-fashioned fuel-drive cars in CO2 emissions (cf. https://www.gdch.de/fileadmin/downloads/Service_und_Informationen/Downloads/Fachbroschueren/2019_Sonderdruck_NCh_Klimaschutz.pdf). It is nice that humanity tries to reduce CO2 emissions, but so far we haven't been particularly smart about it.

Most people are happy to spend money for the feel-good factor (Greta sailing to the USA, a British prince "offsetting" his private jet emissions, the ordinary citizen buying an electric car, filling your car with "bio-fuel" so the farmers create the emissions instead, ...). But eventually we have to find solutions that make a real difference!

And no, paying some money to "offset" your profligate lifestyle won't work because Bolsonaro burns down the rainforest faster than your donation can plant a tree.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson moves to shut Parliament

Schultz
Joke

"economics is a science"

Hahaha, good one.

Science and engineering hit worst as Euroboffins do a little Brexit of their own from British universities

Schultz

Comma rules

"half the population, who voted the other way"

... Means something different from... "half the population that voted the other way".

Look up essential and nonessential clauses to spot the difference. Commas Rule!

I could throttle you right about now: US Navy to ditch touchscreens after kit blamed for collision

Schultz

That's nothing...

I once cranked a car alive. Remember that crank tool you insert through the hole in the bonnet? Well, it was an ancient car back then - and French. They must have been the last to produce those cranks.

Neuroscientist used brainhack. It's super effective! Oh, and disturbingly easy

Schultz
Boffin

Let me be the first to call this over hypes BS

... You won't need that tinfoil hat anytime soon. The reasons are: (1) we don't yet understand how the brain works, (2) we don't yet know how to accurately affect the brain (the cited research is the equivalent of a caveman interpreting Ogg yelling 'Ukgh').

I predict that proper 'brain hacking' technology is more than 100 years out. Up vote / down vote me if you think it'll take more / less than 100 years and don't forget to check your prediction in some 80 years time. And Cochlear implants don't count, unless you want to put the Google glass and your phones vibration function into the brain control category (it offers sensory input, not brain control).

Another rewrite for 737 Max software as cosmic bit-flipping tests glitch out systems – report

Schultz
Thumb Up

We have this saying...

You can get it cheap, fast, or properly done, but you only ever get two out of those three. Looks like they move away from the cheap and fast approach - good for everyone involved!

Satellites with lasers and machine guns coming! China's new plans? Trump's Space Force? Nope, the French

Schultz
Stop

...deploy a spinning disk of black mylar...

So how will you depose of the resulting mylar-wrapped space-debris? And don't tell me that the garbage truck can pick up, because I don't want that junk in a spacefill near my planet!

Backdoors won't weaken your encryption, wails FBI boss. And he's right. They won't – they'll fscking torpedo it

Schultz

Don't outlaw crypto...

outlaw crime. All those good men in law enforcement are payed to go after criminals, not to make everybodies life less private and secure. Wray should rethink his job description.

Fantastic Mr Fox? Not when he sh*ts on your lawn, kids' trampoline and your soul

Schultz
Facepalm

Get a dog...

No, not the one you have, but one with a proper sense of property and a willingness to defend it.

Sleeping Tesla driver wonders why his car ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

Schultz
Go

Good safety feature...

I applaud Tesla for implementing this safety feature: aim for the traffic cones and find out if the driver is paying attention. They might have to reimbourse the traffic authorites for those training cones though.

Revealed: Milky Way's shocking cannibalistic dark past – it gobbled a whole dwarf eons ago

Schultz
Stop

Figures of speech

"Elsewhere, at the same time, Gaia-Enceladus, a dwarf galaxy, was quietly unfolding, too."

Can anyone picture the unfolding of a galaxy? And quietly, not that anyone would have heard it out in space anyways.

Seriously, read up on Orwell's rules. Use your metaphors sparingly and only where they enrich your text.

Humans may be able to live on Mars within halls of aerogel – a wonder material that can trap heat and block radiation

Schultz
Stop

Why not test it on earth?

So this material is transparent but insulates like styrofoam - with which it shares the property of being mostly hollow. Why not build insulating windows with it and prove its usefulness on earth?

Mars is very far away and, despite all the hype, I don't believe that we'll see humans on Mars within our lifetime. Living on Mars is not much easier than living on the moon - no breathable air, no fossil energy sources, lots of unhealthy radiation, and not a living thing to share your misery with. So while a use of aerogel on Mars makes for nice headlines, it just tells me that nobody found any real-life useful application for this material yet.