Posts by Persona non grata

Re: Solution:

"The cost of LASIK eye surgery for two eyes is roughly on par with the cost of the Apple Vision."

That's strange, it was free for both of my parents. You must live in some kind of neoliberal hellscape.

Re: I finally wish them well

"but one thing about smaller reactors... is that they can shed heat enough rapidly enough to make a thermal runaway much more controllable."

Or maybe would if they existed anywhere - they're not exactly being the commercial sucess story thry were touted as.

That's not how IQ works

Where did you get the idea that IQ works like that? It's completely wrong.

This entire post is a complete fabrication.

Not a word of that is true.

For a full debunking of this and other false claims on this page I'd suggest reading : https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/04/20/debunking-all-the-assange-smears/

Of course he's not, all those prestigious journalism awards he won were completely by mistake.

How does US boot taste?

Whistleblowing is not quite the option it used to be

If you whistleblow they'll prosecute you.

And your lawyer.

And any press who report it.

And the leader of the opposition.

And random other people.

And your cat.

More accurately they're centre-right, neoliberal economically and strongly authoritarian. They're also equally lickspittles to the USA even with Trump in office.

They keep a couple of left sounding soft policies on the books but never act on them.

The Unions that fund them are mostly leftovers from the catholic anti-communist forces. They were never even vaguely left wing nor for personal rights. It's why they've been so week on the damning investigations into the church in education also.

Re: re

I'd go further (with the possible and limited area of Armed Forces procurement where that can be of use to possible future opponents), Government contracts should never be 'Commercial in Confidence'.

A higher level of scrutiny should just be accepted as a 'cost' of having the privilege of doing business with the State. All experience has shown it's only used to hide corrupt practices and incompetence anyway.

That's not the answer Mark

The answer is our media is now every bit as much part of the problem as the politicians. They're not the fourth estate, they're now merged with the Third (Commons). Australian subjects have no real say in governance anymore except in those areas where Greens/Independents are their representatives.

Both major parties and the collaborating, desperate media are ignoring them in a grab for unneeded authority based in fear. ALP and LNP memberships are almost non-existent for a reason (except for those who would game the system of course,) nobody with any serious interest in politics outside self-enrichment or a lust for naked power would want anything to do with either party. They're completely divorced from their original philosophical raisons d'etres.

An entrenched and increasingly hereditary political class who have tried to reduce the degree of democracy because it jibes with their authoritarian bent. They don't go into politics without this weird idea they have a god-given right to demand how others live their lives. It's probably a form of psychosis.

I think Douglas Adams had it right when he suggested that anyone who wanted to rule was ipso facto completely unsuited to do so. Perhaps we need to replace the current system with a man with a poor memory living in a small shack answering questions. Couldn't be worse than the current shower.

(and breathe out...)

Re: Hmmm... smoke and mirrors?

"We're getting ever more stuff and working ever less to get it." - TW

Working fewer official hours and more unpaid, unofficial hours as headcounts are reduced and targets increased. All the changes in IR have been to this end, more ideologically driven than anything else.

Employer (and that includes Government, as a large scale employer their figures are more impure than most) funded surveys do everything they can to hide this.

Re: Good for him… maybe?

The police don't press charges, that's the Crown Prosecution's purview. Really if you're going to make an argument, at least make sure you understand the process you are arguing and who the actors are.

Police do not prosecute crimes at this level of political interference.

Translation of "a fair go" - we screwed up our simple arithmetic now we're looking for a scapegoat. Look over there!

It's up there with other great Australian traditions like despising "dobbing" (actually directing the blame at the guilty parties - apparently injustice is a noble tradition in this country and it's your honour to protect the criminal and corrupt.)

Re: Bumper Sticker?

But only for people who don't require available water to live.

Most sources describe over 70% of the landmass as being arid or semi-arid and there have been many warnings we're already beyond the environment's carrying capacity with climate change accelerating this. But hey! You go right on thinking that politically correct wishfulness will make that all magically disappear as soil salinity and erosion increase.

Re: TPG will be the buyer, and competition is not foxtel's worst enemy

"...limit the streaming bitrate in apps and Cricket won't show international matches at all. "

So I wasn't just watching the Aus-Ind test on my android phone and my iPad in HD then? Funny because I could have sworn I did. And later this year I'll be watching the ashes in exactly the same way.

AFL will cut the cord at some point and do what MLB in the US has done and go with a well priced subscription model. The product already pays for the production and filming costs and vertically integrating it makes far more sense.

Sport on pay TV will go the same way as the old 'rivers of gold' that the classified ads were for traditional newspapers. Foxtel is screwed long term and it couldn't happen to a nicer company.

Next I'm predicting that Ruperts anti-aging treatments go horribly wrong and he's transformed into a walking arsehole... Whoops that's an observation not a prediction.

Re: Flame Suit Donned

Really @auburnman, you seem to know more Swedish law than the court that made this very decision. From Ars Technica today:

"However, the court also added that there was a “failure of the prosecutors to examine alternative avenues is not in line with their obligation,” suggesting that there may be an alternative method to questioning Assange, such as doing it at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London."

So, like to admit you got that wrong then?

Or are you better informed on Swedish law than their own courts?

Re: Not for fitness nuts

Sony Smartwatch 3 looks like the closest to what you want so far. It looks like it's the first of the Wear 2 devices and has GPS built in so you can run without taking your phone along and it keeps working recording your stats. Also IP68 (properly waterproof) and in a robust, sports friendly if not exactly beautiful rubber watch band.

Unusually utilitarian design from Sony but it's growing on me.

Re: So, lemme get this straight...

Then you might want to try re-writing it - it implies you support the retention of data.

There's no other way a reasonable person could read it and it's all that appears on the home page.

Using the sub-head as a gotcha is a. dishonest b. you didn't go far enough with it.

Start the headline with 'ISPs suggest' and it's a lot more useful if less exciting.

Proper journalism is less PT Barnum.

Good article though

Re: Sahara etc

Actually that was before human colonisation. The Aboriginal cultures engaged in land clearing by fire and changed the environment considerably. 30k-60k years (the figures are often contentious) gives you a big window for environmental change. They also apparently hunted all the megafauna to extinction.

What Lewis is trying to conflate with farms here is slash and burn as still practised in SE Asia today. It's a method where the population moves yearly after burning the local vegetation to provide an ash based fertiliser layer in the notoriously poor soils of rain forest. Only a tiny percentage of the forest is under cultivation at any time as it only supports low population densities. Frankly it's a crap and inefficient method of farming and hugely damaging to the environment and soil. Most of the nutrient load is wasted in gases created in the fire. It's only saving grace is that it can only support small populations so that self-limits its damage.

As Lewis would know if he's spent a few minutes researching rather than trying to prop up his no-legged hobby horse.

In their defence...

They are the only types of governments available on the ballot paper.

Re: The money would come home...

You're dreaming, or more accurately lying. Corporate tax takes in the US are at their lowest ever as part of the total tax take.

When companies structure themselves specifically to not pay tax you know they are not acting honestly. This is the rich stealing from the rest of us and then trying to point blame in another direction. It's only possible because the media are owned by the same rich corporations.

Corporation taxes have dropped from 30% of the total tax take to less than 5%, So what you are saying is demonstrably false.

We are meant to have laws against transfer pricing like this but they were written for the governments by PWC, Deloitte, etc and thus they then sold the loopholes for these same taxes to their other clients the corporations.

It's a corrupt system but it was sponsored by the big corporates.

I'm just surprised by the number of

GCHQ staff posting on the Reg.

The authoritarian lickspittles I'm used to (Hi Matt B!) but the anonymous spooks are every bit as transparent as you'd expect. They're frankly lousy at PR and spin which is why so few of us were really surprised at Snowdon's revelations.

Perhaps if you hired a really good PR firm, not just one your wife's cousin owns we'd get some half believeable disinformation out of you. Remember, your public has become better at spotting your bullshit.

Nice pulled out of your butt figures there

The only people saying the fibre NBN would cost that much are the Coalition and their stooges.

If you read the rest of the Australian tech press or the fact check site you'd know this for a lie.

It already looks like the 25Mb figure has been discarded for their target date and the cost will blow out as well - so this is a worse, possibly more expensive and legal nightmare. Exactly as predicted by those with experience of the previous coalition government.

What happened to structural separation btw?

Re: 4GB? Surely that's a mistake...

It has 8GB - 4 mounted on the top and 4 mounted on the underside. You can only see 4 at once without using mirrors. So factually reported, no hyperbole involved.

Re: You missed the step

The article you've linked to is about as statistically reliable as a glass sandwich is edible.

But then it's by Charles Arthur, the Guardians self appointed priest of the church of Jobs... fanboi is far too mild a term for him.

Re: What year was that again?

You've taken 12-18 months difference in the published schedules and turned it into 10-20 years!

Citation please?

Here's a hint, if you're going to engage in the dissemination of FUD make it slightly believable. Between you and Mathew42 it's lovely to see the coalition has their unquestioning servants working overtime even after the election.

Re: For everyone saying 'good'..

All true - they also determined that listening to music and especially having a conversation with a passenger were in the same order of distraction.

Yet we don't see moves to ban those as that would be 'draconian'.

Law makers and reg commentards will always prefer arguments designed to confirm their biases rather than solid evidence based ones.

Re: Litter ye not

So AC, when Australian dollars get converted in to US dollars, even after exchange rate differences they're worth far less in profits by your logic?

I see why you'd want to hide your identity...

"You don't see Rolex selling a £50 watch or Ferrari a £30k car, premium brands retain their value by being premium."

Yes - but you also don't see those things mass produced in China using sweatshop labour.

Unlike the Apple branded product. Sense of perspective wouldn't go astray JDX.