* Posts by Destroy All Monsters

16005 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2008

Humans becoming steadily STUPIDER, says brainiac boffin

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Terminator

Flowers for Algernon!

So the assumption is that there is a "brain peak" that is mysteriously reached when all the genes are right?

That sounds like a pretty bizarre idea.

And that point would be reached in the times of classical Greece?

Most bizarre. Note that the ancients had exactly the same problems as we do today: retarded politicians, stupid wars, neocons, fascism, cities going from "money for everything" to "no more money, dude", throwing money out of the window to erect stuff in honor of "Gods", slavery, killing of critical philosophers, racism, bad social systems, destruction of the environment via goat herds. The evidence for particulary high intelligence is, I would say, not that great.

An individual's à priori penchant for "high intelligence" (which btw. may go completely unnoticed as he may be reduced to a lifetime of cotton-picking) is bound to be a probability density function in a very high-dimensional space of genetic variations. There is no à priori reason to suppose that the population ensemble was clustered at a peak point and is now fanning out into "lower" regions.

Now, brain "malformations" are generally of deleterious consequence, which would at first glance tend to support the idea that the modern brain is somehow "exactly what is needed" or that it is very fine-tuned (For what? For rapid learning and effective cooperation in a environment in which other brains of the same power are bound to eat its lunch I suppose. How does that translate into solving QCD Lagrangians in one's sleep? Beats me.).

Anyway -- one would like to see the statistical distribution of "genetic brain anomalies" that are of no visible consequence (although they may shift perceptions or behaviour) and "genetic brain anomalies" that actually have advantageous consequences (we would however be reduced to the relatively simple tests for "advantageousness", like IQ tests and game solving. Psychopathy could be considered an "advantageous" trait, as you f*ck everyone with no remorse, right?). This would give us some idea of whether the current brain is in some very special "peak position" and whether genetic variations push it "down" that peak or whether things are more reasonable with variations exploring a hilly landscape.

To your MRI scanners!

Meanwhile, I'm waiting for ROTM.

ROGUE PLANET WITHOUT A SUN spotted in interstellar space

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Paris Hilton

Re: 87%?

For all we know, they quantize their values to 0,29,58,87 and 100 %

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Engineering!

35 US states petition for secession – on White House website

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Holmes

Nazi much?

It's pretty telling that no German would come out and say "russkies need to look up how well it went for them the last time they committed communism (The Great Patriotic War)."

Could be it's because they lost.

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Headmaster

Corrections

1) Technically, it was the German Democratic Republic wot build it

2) It was meant to keep people IN (nominally to protect "against fascism", completely ignoring that the actual fascists were the communist concentration camp survivors now in charge)

3) The Great Wall is not a "wall" at all, more like a strudel of defense positions built over 1500 years

4) It was meant to keep people OUT (not a large success though)

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Re: Skyfall, rats in a barrel

Sure is liberal in here.

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Go

"A few counter-secession petitions have been started as well, including one that calls for deportation of signers of secessionist petitions, and another that suggests they should be stripped of their citizenship and exiled."

Not bad.

Yep, everybody wants so hard to be in Club Federal USA that dissenters need to be exiled. Think of all the people in need of Obamacare, DEA, CIA and whatnot, all those widows, children and crying Indians! Abraham Lincoln sure told people what happens if the "secession" word is heard - Maximum Overkill (later retconned to be "against slavery". Quite credible coming from a crooked racist lawyer, yep.)

"The historical attempts to legalize the right of secession in national constitutions show that secession rights have often been used as a tactic to attract smaller sovereign ethnic and national groups into a larger

political union for the purpose of enjoying perceived economic and social benefits. However, once the political union was attained, the right of secession was often delegitimized, either through practical

politics or legal repeal. In cases in which the right of secession was exercised, the result was most often a war by the central state to preserve political union. In those cases in which secession occurred peacefully, it was because the central state accepted the reality and legitimacy of secession and negotiated a peaceful transition through established constitutional means."

"THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT OF SECESSION IN POLITICAL THEORY AND HISTORY - Andrei Kreptul"

Top prosecutor warns troll-hunting cops not to choke courts

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FAIL

Re: You do not have the right...

But no-one on the Internet cares about your inner state of mind or whether you consider yourself to be part of the "victimhood", so f*ck off.

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Re: harden the **** up

Liam Burrows, I REPORT YOU!

AMD said to hire JPMorgan Chase to explore its options

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Headmaster

Re: who?

Why?

Petraeus sex'n'menaces webmail trail leads to NATO A'stan general

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Facepalm

What can you expect from a Prez that comes from Illinois?

"The agent is under investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility over his conduct, which violated instructions by his superiors to leave the case alone"

"Professional Responsibility" is now "STFU, arsehole".

Obama's America - Even more smelley than Dubya's.

I wonder how many concrete shoes were handed out that we didn't hear about.

Sinofsky OFFSKI: Is Windows 9 now codenamed 'Defenestrate'?

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Windows

Re: Absent

So people are scanning Microsoft Group Photos to find in who's who's out, much like in old times Kremlin Group Photos were examined for upcoming upheavals?

Maybe Sinofsky exchanged “inappropriate communications” with Jill Kelley, too?

Microsoft v Google judge could shape the world in new patent punchup

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Stop

"it wouldn't stick with the court's decision on a patent rate unless the rate was less than $1"

It's not a rate, it's a value expressed in a currency that is being inflated away.

Omnishambles beats off mummy-porn, becomes English word of 2012

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Devil

What, no YUROPOOR?

Even though the sound of crashing Ponzis and bailouts is everywhere?

BOSS Bang boffins: DARK ENERGY spreading across the Universe

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Re: It's the best theory we have so far

> "How about this: our models are wrong." About time someone said that, well done.

Babby's first illuminating thought?

Tell you what - why not go and develop your own. The whole arxiv lies open for daring publications. Have a go. Protip: Don't write in Microsoft Word.

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Facepalm

Re: It's the best theory we have so far@Destroy All Monsters

> Well I've not seen any

Well, guess what, I can't send you a gravitational field either. Or show you a gluon. So maybe it's little angels pulling you down onto your sofa. Yeah. And Gremlins keeping those nuclear balls in your body in check. That's as good an explanation as any.

Really, the doofosity of the Scepticalism of the Reg Readership is amazing. Pretty sure most Scepticalists couldn't even do a simple matrix multiplication even if their last wifebeater depended on it.

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Facepalm

Re: IMHO

I can only suspect this article is being linked from some CRANK SOURCE.

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Facepalm

Re: Quantum Foam

And in the next lesson, we will show how to take Moscow in winter.

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Facepalm

Re: I'm starting to blame Hollywood!

Explain it to yourself, then. Don't fail totally while doing so.

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Stop

Re: It's the best theory we have so far

1) We are talking Dark Energy, not Dark Matter

2) Dark Matter is pretty well established by observation and detailed computer simulation

> Any schoolboy with a knowledge of ordinary Newtonian gravity theory, a knowledge of computer programming and an ordinary PC can write a physics model and demonstrate the fact.

> You can't apply Newton's Theorem of Shells to disks!

I think therein lies the problem. You seem to assume that these simulations take short cuts of the "Computer Recreations" sort. These simulations run on large machine clusters for weeks on end and use code that is well-justified by theory, with tweaks well-justified by observation. Have a gander:

http://www.ibtimes.com/supercomputers-allow-first-detailed-milky-way-simulation-video-306976

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Run

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Facepalm

I'm starting to blame Hollywood!

> time is slowing down

What the hell does that even mean?

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Re: Call me a sceptic

> it would contravene thermodynamics.

Well, most likely not. "Vacuum background energy" does not seem to be transferrable to any actual classical system. Which may be a good thing. If the vacuum is not in its lowest energy state and you start to mine it, who knows what will happen?

> A force possibly acting over all dimensions

There are just four dimensions. Anything else is ... very speculative indeed.

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Thumb Down

Re: Call me a sceptic

What "concept of conservation" would that be, oh illuminated one? Dontcha think someone maybe someone would have thought about it?

Really, with commentards falling all over themselves to discredit observational evidence by mentioning something they might have heard on BBC Science one day, just between brushing their teeth and playing Vidya for the night, it's a wonder Keynesians, Intelligent Designers and Antivaxers are not joining the fray.

What next indeed?

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Re: Is it me?

Welcome to how Science actually works.

SECRET 28 'scientific experts' who Greened the BBC - Revealed!

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Trollface

Re: Impartiality about what?

Corn will grow even if no CO_2, so no problem.

Brits swallow Google Nexus 4 supply 'in 30 minutes'

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WTF?

> Not at a profit, I hasten to add, before get flamed!

Anti-Capitalist Political Correctness is now at the level of shameful preemptive self-criticism?

Despair.jpg

Google, Amazon, Starbucks are 'immoral' and 'ridiculous' over UK tax

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FAIL

I stopped reading at the point where government flacks are calling someone else "immoral".

Sorority girls gone wild: '1 to 3' casual sex 'hookups' every month

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Coat

I regret not having gone to college in the 21st, then

“It’s important that we gain a better understanding of students’ sexual behavior, since it can potentially affect both their physical and mental health as well as their academic success.”

Time for an additional financing round to go... uh ... undercover.

Samsung turns screws on Apple, hikes A6 processor price 20%

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Happy

Re: Re:Earl Jones Of Potatoes

Well after browsing through the other foaming comments all of which have variant values of truthiness and truthfulness, a big dumb "troll" affirmation made me smile.

Even a CHILD can make a Trojan to pillage Windows Phone 8

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WTF?

15?

Infected by Hollywood's Über-Kids expectations, are we?

Elemental origins glimpsed in 12 beellion year old supernova

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Re: The early universe

> Everything was closer together

Nah not really. Since inflation ended, the universe has practically not expanded.

EU proposed emergency alert system won't work on iPhone

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Pint

Re: SMS?

So there should be special "crown" and a "keep calm" LED on every Ofcom-approved mobe?

Star Wars VII: The Disney Movie signs Toy Story III script genius

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Happy

Re: I sense a disturbance in the Force...

But will Mr. Plinkett do a followup?

Teen project sparks WORLD-WIDE PEE-POWERED HYPEGASM!

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Oh yes.

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Re: I recall and article...

-> http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/news/2009/july/02070902.asp

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> an oil company has them all shot

Not that liberal stuff again.

Seriously, where are the solar panels?

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If there was lots of free energy in urine, bacteria would be jetting out of the gully in every street corner.

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Boffin

Gas check!

That repurposed cooking gas bottle sure looks dodgy. Fill it with hydrogen?

Where's the compressor?

We can at least check whether it will explode like a pez dispenser.

Let's see... 6h juice for a 40 W bulb demands 864 kJ; let's round up to 1 MJ.

With hydrogen's energy density of 33.3 kWh/kg, we need ~8g when perfectly efficient.

Hydrogen density at 1013 mbar / 20 °C is 84 g/m³, so we need 95 l at normal pressure. Let's say 100l.

That cooking gas cylinder holds ~10 l, so we compress the ~100l down and increase the pressure to 10 atmospheres .... which indeed is the actual pressure expected of cooking gas bottles.

Well, at least the storage holds (I suspect the hydrogen will escape more easily than butane)

Man, 19, cuffed after burning Remembrance poppy pic is Facebooked

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Big Brother

Re: Over the top

> The Central Powers, especially Germany, were the aggressors in WW1, and had a pretty genocidal approach on the Eastern front

That was of concern to UK how?

Did they just defend Belgium, which had transformed Congo into the Roi's own slaughterhouse, because of the Freedom Fries?

Why is there no shrug icon? Big Brother as as stand-in for Loyd George eyeing politicial cheap points by killing a few of the boys will do, then.

Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone 8 handset review

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Re: Get mine on 15th Nov

> Damn, I meant to post anonymously.

I can' believe the mendacity in this hive of scum and villany.

Fedora 'Spherical Cow' delayed by bugs, Secure Boot

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Facepalm

Re: Jesus Christ slow the fuck down!

> You said precisely bugger all about any issues with bugs.

There may be special needs involved here, did you see that this was an article about Fedora. And bugs. And Fedora being delayed because of bugs?

> it seems the only person who can't see that your problem is to do with the support life cycle is you...

Holy! It's good that we have the Internet where perceptive persons can tell me the world is ok and the problem is actually with me.

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Re: This crappy release will become RHEL 7

> This crappy release will become RHEL 7

Care to explain this?

I haven't seen any RHEL with "lower profile features are being crammed in it". Fedora may be useful as RH testing ground, but Fedora releases do not "become" RH releases.

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Gimp

Re: Jesus Christ slow the fuck down!

I commend you for being easily amazed [somehow the patent on exercising a cat with a laser pointer comes to mind, uncalled-for], but....

Did I say anything about "extended support"?

FUCK NO!

Did I say something about Cannonball-style-barreling-down-the-upgrade-highway-with-bug-police-in-tow?

FUCK YES!

Will Santa be working overtime to shift Win 8 kit? No. Yes! Maybe

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Meh

Re: Have you heard the rumours yet?

Richto stop going into those overdrives, you are not helping your employer.

Astroboffins spot smiley face on Mercury

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Facepalm

"deficit-crazed, ax-wielding Congress"

LOL what?

"According to the CBO projection the budget deficit could fall to $641 billion in 2013 from $1.128 trillion in 2012."

Only 641 billion overspending? How do they manage to do that magic?

"According to the CBO data, government outlays are expected to fall in 2013 by $9 billion to $3.563 trillion after a projected decline of $40 billion in 2012."

Holy shit, they cut a full 9 billion dollars!! Call the wahambulance!

Sellafield's nuclear waste measured in El Reg units

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Holmes

Re: Rename all things nuclear

> It seems NMR=MRI or MRI=NMR

thatisthejoke.jpg

> chromodynamic power stations

Actually the energy comes from the potential energy stored in the electromagnetic field, so one would have to call them electromagnetic power stations. Which is boring.

Facebook's IPO was a disaster? RUBBISH, you FOOLS

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Stop

Re: DougS

> And if $20 is twice as good as $40, then is bankruptcy infinitely better than $40?

Slow down with the rhetorical flourish. If the markov model says that 20 -> 30 is possible and 40 -> 30 is possible, but 40 -> 50 is unlikely, would you take more shares at 20 or less shares at 40?

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Facepalm

Re: Very good

> I think you have rather skipped greed mind

I'm so tired about the frankly progressive "greed complaint". If there were no "greed mind", there would be no Facebook in the first place. Indeed, everyone would be seriously out of a job. Maybe old grandmas would be weaving pullovers by hand and giving them out against food...

Microsoft to biz: Just so you get off XP, we don't mind if you go Win 7

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Thumb Down

Re: virii

1) It's written "pedantry"

2) Pedantry is useful, especially when used on people who need it

3) Additional downvote for "virii". It's even more pretentious/wannabe than "cyber" and it's wrong to boot.

The GPL self-destruct mechanism that is killing Linux

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Trollface

Re: The beautiful cathedral of Unix, ...

1/10, because at least MULTICS was mentioned.