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Next time at the super, buy farm raised fish.

Tell that to the Japanese

Well, there's this; http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/RNote s/2005/809890.pdf (PDF Warning)

There's a bit of debate about this going on at the moment over here in Aus, since the NT is looking at imposing upper speed limits for the first time ever. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1780096.h tm

You used a crucible and higher pressure oxygen (shopvac). You can melt steel with items like this in a controlled burn. But in a ventilated space that had just had a huge hole blasted into it? Forges are different entirely. I wouldn't call a huge office building a controlled furnace. The official explanation is that there was no molten steel by the way, despite the eye witness reports and photographs of - molten steel.

Steel's melting temperature (http://education.jlab.org/qa/meltingpoint_01.html ) is as I stated. If you melted *steel* with charcoal, it is because you reached a temperature of at least 2500F.

Exotic high-temp alloys do not deform under high temperatures as much as steel. Steel would definitely exhibit deformation effects at the temps of jet fuel. But would not create molten slag which can only result from actual molten steel (the melted beams were made of steel). The temperature of ground zero was extremely high for as much as 8 weeks following the collapse of the buildings, due to pools of molten steel cooling. (unless you can explain that one better)

Interesting, that a 31 story building burnt for around 24 hours but never collapsed: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s13018 28.htm

It took much less time for regular office materials to melt steel.

Plus the fact that the WTC 7 building which collapsed much later had no jet fuel of any kind in or on it. Have you any explanation of what collapsed that building?

I've never had to worry about Australia, though -- do they play with clocks down there or do they have better things to do?

Bush hasn't nationalized his country's only real industry (in Chavez's case, oil) and started using it as a subsidized way to prop up leftist politicians in other countries.

No, but Bush HAS nationalized his country's only real industry (war), and started using it as a subsidized way to prop up rightist politicians in other countries. (Duvalier in Haiti, Maliki in Iraq, Karzai in Afghanistan. . . and probably others we don't even know about).

He doesn't shut down journalists for speaking out against him,
Um. Sorry, try again:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2006/10/23/AR2006102301148.html

He doesn't issue statements saying that his "brothers" in Iran will get his undying support as they build, traffic in, and sell weapons throughout the middle east.

. . . except when those "brothers" are in Israel.

He doesn't buy temporary favor from poor people by doling out food when the cameras are watching,

no, he certainly does not.

but completely neglect the most crime-ridden, murderous, corrupt thug culture in the region.

you mean Bush's neighbor to the South? (Mexico):
http://www.albionmonitor.com/0610a/copyright/usdru gtechmexico.html

Or were you referring to Afghanistan?:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s12478 17.htm

Personally, I'm not one to stick up for Chavez. But Bush is by far the worst offender these days. If Chavez is ten times as dirty as the neocon propaganda machine is saying, he's still a punter compared to Bush.

Apparently they aren't "refugees" if they are victims of global warming: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s17763 89.htm
(Though what the are if they're not a refugee is a mystery to me).

What should be stopped is the deliberate taking of an innocent human life.

First, I don't consider (insert politically correct modifier here)-Islam to be an intangible opponent.

I was enlightened by your analysis, and congratulate your father on his clear observation.
I'd say, come to Australia ... but we have a citizen (just one, David Hicks) who is in Guantanamo Bay, and our Government is not doing a damn thing to get him out. So, it seems to me that our government is tarred with the same brush, a disturbing thought to this laid back Aussie.

If he can't get justice at the hands of your government, and can't get justice at the hands of our government, what's he to do?

His only defence is his military lawyer, Major Michael Mori who was interviewed recently on a chat show here in Australia
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1 709428.htm

For all the non-Australians with no idea where the uncovered meat reference came from, an Australian sheikh has just managed to more or less publicly blame scantily clad women for inviting rape, causing an uproar there. Condemnation has been quick; John Major already chimed in to call the comments "preposterous."

Having said that, Google has said content would need to be illegal, e.g. spam related before they would actually remove it. Anyone else read this and hear echoes of user 606117 writing yesterday, "Don't come to Australia"?

Ahem...http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610 /s1764870.htmthis BBC wire article refers to the "US state of Philadelphia". People make mistakes; ignorance is universal. Time to climb off that "Americans are dumb" high horse.

"our parliament is a virtual dictatorship"

If by "dictatorship" you mean elected body, then yes.

"crossing the floor on the basis of principle is almost entirely unheard of and considered to be little better than treason"

The last time a member of the ruling Coalition -- and not the opposition parties, which vote against Coalition legislation frequently -- crossed the floor was about a year ago, but internal dissent scuppered some immigration laws this year. Anyway, since when was the measure of a democracy the lack of discipline of the ruling party? What's undemocratic about an elected ruling party voting for its own legislation? On the contrary, if, after being elected with a majority in both houses, the government were unable to make new laws, that would be a failure of democracy.

"with none of the individual rights in our Constitution"

Our constitution may suck, but Australia is still a free country. Freedom House rated us a 1 1, meaning we have an excellent record on both civil liberties and political rights.

Come to Australia. Our GDP per capita is higher than the major European countries', and our Human Development Index is third in the world -- behind only Iceland and Norway.

But will that stop them from still mixing babies up? http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s17719 40.htm

Maybe they're on the same training regime as the British RAF, and are secretly munching away on their carrots.

I thought it was repairing itself!

Check this out:

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s17692 66.htm

It's a story about how the Chinese police beat confessions out of the nearest, convenient innocent bystander. Won't let their family see them. Kill them without giving notice, either with a bullet to the back of the head or by lethal injection, so they resell their organs. China is the biggest organ resale market in the world; $100K will get you some poor bastards liver. Check the story; That's on the Australian Government's New Service (like the BBC). Mind you, the Australian Government has been sucking upto China big time lately. Money is money after all, and blood washes off all so easily.

One day, not too soon I hope, the Chinese people with rise up against their communist overseers and overthrow them in an orgy of blood and violence. What goes around, comes around baby.

Some come on you communist bastards. Come and get your 50 yuan fine. But first you'll have to speak to my lawyers, Smith & Wesson. ;-)

I hear citing where you get something is a good idea...

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/stories/s949324.htm

Page is off for the moment, but was online earlier.

Actually a few analysts believe that that explosion was an assassination attempt. Kim's train passed through the area a few hours earlier - apparently he had changed his schedule otherwise he would have been blown up.

Unfortunately a few hundred innocents died instead.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s113 1470.htm

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200405 /200405240030.html

First of all, a man like Kim Jong Ill is not rational. Of course invading the South would be detrimental for him, but do you think he wouldn't do it? Invading Kuwait was an obviously idiotic move for Saddam a decade and a half ago, but he still did it.

Second, you confuse 'smart' with 'maniacal' or 'paranoid'. This isn't American propaganda, it's a viewpoint shared by China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. In a nation like North Korea the cream doesn't always rise to the top, and to say that King Jong Ill achieved power by intelligence is, again, naive.

And how is anything I said racist? Either you just felt like taacking on random adjectives that had nothing to do with anything, or you interpreted my saying "little man" as racist, in which case here http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s13771 47.htm/ he is estimated at being just over 5 feet tall. 5 feet tall = 'little man'.

Third, since you implied that Bush's actions were a direct cause of North Korea's desire to join the nuclear club, I assumed that you meant a Democrat would have done a better job. That is what I meant, I just misinterpreted what you were infering a tiny bit, and it is my mistake. But my main point was this: things would not be different if someone else was president; the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with Kim Jong Ill's decision to produce nuclear weapons. I'm not a supporter of Bush, but if McCain or Kerry or anyone else was president we would have still ended up at this point (a nuclear North Korea), only maybe with a different stand on the issue.

And oh, you threw in a personal attack on the end! It's like highschool all over again.

The Australian Dept. of Social Security or Centrelink recently implemented 100% electronic files. Shortly after this, they had a bunch of staff fired for in-appropriately accessing confidential material. Did computers create this problem? No. Computer based systems meant that staff were no-longer able to grab paper files and read them without leaving a trace of them doing so.

Xix.

I think most of the electric cars these days use inductive chargers. No exposed contacts, so rain shouldn't be much of a problem.

Such a system could be abused of course but you'd have to defeat lots of safety interlocks to do it.

As for your comment on gasoline explosions, it doesn't happen all the time like in the movies but it does happen (today AEST in fact). That could be LPG though...

Um, why? If its a Public Place, here anyway, the operators have very little scope to discriminate against people who want to attend.

You know, hydrogen injection does wonderful things for diesel motors.

Instead of going 100% hydrogen or 100% [fossil fuel], you get more power & lower emission by running a combination.

Right now there is at least one company that sells a kit for large diesels which electrolyzes hydrogen (from water) on the spot & injects it along with the diesel fuel.

That system provides relatively small amounts of hydrogen, but this researcher claims 60:40 hydrogen:diesel hits the sweet spot..

A few quick searches turned up this from the UK and this which covers a variety of cases.

The quote link didn't work for me.

I think this might be the link (but it's in Australia?).

According to the ABC ( http://www.abc.net.au/farnorth/stories/s1733040.ht m?backyard ), this is not the case.

Info is still sketchy but it doesn't seem like he was provoking it.

for those interested, transcript of interview in 2003:

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s1 732743.htm

The program is called "Enough Rope" ... the interviewer sits back and lets people talk.

Just in an case anyone missed it, or is from overseas and didn't see it the first time around:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/transcripts/s9 60998.htm is a transcript of his interview on 06/10/2003.

John Stainton says the fatal incident was unprovoked. He says the wildlife expert and a cameraman were snorkelling across Batt Reef in shallow water at about 11:00 am AEST. Mr Stainton says the cameraman was initially unaware of the fatal sting. "He [Irwin] just swum over the top of the ray and the barb came up and hit him," he said. "The cameraman said at the time he didn't even know that it had hit him [Irwin] and then he saw blood in the water."

While we're talking B-Movie monsters, it's worth mentioning the recent paper(PDF warning) by a couple of physicists proving the nonexistence of vampires and ghosts. Interestingly they didn't show zombies couldn't exist - although they at least came up with a more plausible explanation.

This: http://www.abc.net.au/newinventors/txt/s1597363.ht m and http://www.digislide.com.au/ would be better in a mobile phone since it actually projects video images rather than a laser.

Yeah, it might save some trees from being flushed down the toilet, but insted it proposes to waste a much more valuable and scarce resource: fresh water. In case you haven't noticed there is a worldwide shortage of fresh water building up. I grew up in a city with water shortages where during a several-years-long dry spell you would get running water only 5 hours per day tops, regarless of socioeconmic standing. Now I moved to another hemisphere and guess what? same problems check this out for only one example . Ain't just my luck... Anyway, I would think that new technologies should start to take into account not only current conditions but long-term viability. In my opinion it would make more sense to keep using paper but get it not from trees but from marihua... er, hemp.

Your star shaped sun is only a sign of your egocentric religious view of creation and not a sign from god. People read all sorts of meaning into everyday events and interpret those sign as directed at them personally. Just like the medieval church had a difficult time believing that man/earth are not the center of creation so are you having a difficult time believing that you are not at the center of gods concern.

Remember the bible code a few years ago. Where some nut takes the spaces and punctuation out the biblical text and arranges the characters in a block and finds all sorts of wonderful meaning and descriptions in the ensuring crossword puzzle. Spooky eh? Err not really, a rational less egocentric mind would immediately think of statistics and probability of vowels and constants and word content and realize that you can do that with any text. In fact some did do that with Moby Dick! The author read in all sorts of was there was none.

Another example? Go to this page and scroll down to the bottom and you will find your star in a perfectly normal situation. It happens and it even has a science based explanation.

One the list of reasons I am not a believer in your religion is that the adherents are gullible, egocentric, deluded and practice deception, faulty logic and are eager to to lie for god.

You have mentioned that you have conducted surgery on yourself - successfully. Impressive! Do you believe that if you were a Thalidomide baby born without arms that you could faith or pray yourself some arms? That would take less energy than moving a mountain.

Your star shaped sun is only a sign of your egocentric religious view of creation and not a sign from god. People read all sorts of meaning into everyday events and interpret those sign as directed at them personally. Just like the medieval church had a difficult time believing that man/earth are not the center of creation so are you having a difficult time believing that you are not at the center of gods concern.

Remember the bible code a few years ago. Where some nut takes the spaces and punctuation out the biblical text and arranges the characters in a block and finds all sorts of wonderful meaning and descriptions in the ensuring crossword puzzle. Spooky eh? Err not really, a rational less egocentric mind would immediately think of statistics and probability of vowels and constants and word content and realize that you can do that with any text. In fact some did do that with Moby Dick! The author read in all sorts of was there was none.

Another example? Go to this page and scroll down to the bottom and you will find your star in a perfectly normal situation. It happens and it even has a science based explanation.

One the list of reasons I am not a believer in your religion is that the adherents are gullible, egocentric, deluded and practice deception, faulty logic and are eager to to lie for god.

You have mentioned that you have conducted surgery on yourself - successfully. Impressive! Do you believe that if you were a Thalidomide baby born without arms that you could faith or pray yourself some arms? That would take less energy than moving a mountain.

I wonder if any actual studies have been done on workplace policy... Google is one example of a company which doesn't go all Dilbert PHB on its employees and hope a paycheck will keep 'em there, I wonder if any similar companies exist?

"Bill Gates said years ago that if you worry about internet productivity, you're worrying about people stealing pens from your stationery cupboard... there are bigger things to worry about."
To give credit where its due, Bill Gates is right.

If your employees are surfing the net at work and not delivering, maybe PHB's should ask themselves why your employees aren't motived. Perhaps they might actually perform if they see something good out of what they are doing. Oops, I'm asking too much.

One of my class instructors who happens to be the admin for the schools proxy servers actually has some sites (i.e livejournal) redirect to the Playschool (load up that on someones machine and watch people walk past) website instead of letting proxy servers upstream return a fairly bland, BSOD-type block message. Reason? Providing a source of embarassment gets people back to work instead of a hostile BSOD that ticks people off and lowers the morale in general.

Which is the most simple explanation? That a bunch of people who don't have passports, plane tickets or (if the Register article is to be believed) the remotest understanding of explosives presented a genuine threat? Or that someone didn't really care what kind of threat they represented wanted to present themselves as the good guys by having "saved" us from this threat?

I am often amazed that even so sharp a tool as Occam's razor is unable to cut through the nonesense that gets posted on Slashdot.

Lets try this: It was a genuine plot, under invenstigation for a long period of time, (one of many) that was stopped when they decided to try a dry run. Cash, guns, and a bomb making kit have apparently been found. No word yet on if they are related to the suspected terrorist training going on in various places in the UK. This was as much about "saving Joe Lieberman" as the terrorist activity against Australia... which is to say, not related at all. (Maybe you've heard of the Bali bombing? It is just one of many attacks against Australians and the West in general.) There are many more like it in: Phillipines, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, etc, none of which are designed to prop up a US president who can't be reelected any way..

I present: the missing link.

You must have missed it.

I present: the missing link.

You must have missed it.

"I regularly disagree with a lot of what I see on the BBC - particularly (I'm adult enough to admit) when it conflicts with my worldview or preconceptions. However, whenever I've gone away and read up on a point that's annoyed me (even just to convince myself "I was right"), I've almost always found that either I was wrong, or at least that the "true" case was more evenly-balanced than my previous opinion was."

You have hit the nail on the head, the BBC is regularly accused of bias from ALL sides of politics but is rarely shown to be factually incorrect. Many a politician has tried to stack the BBC's management in an effort to pull them "into line" and have invariably failed. Here in Australia we have two stations that are modeled on the BBC, they are SBS and ABC.

I figure any news outlet that can manage to upset all sides of politics is a valuable source of both information and opposing opinions.

BTW: The reason Fox news has no substance is that it will only present dissenting views for the purposes of ridicule and is often factually deficient. But to be fair and balanced to Rupert, he freely admits to using his media outlets to push his personal worldview.

it seems that this stupidity is contagious. There's been a big issue in the media here recently, but this story pretty much covers it. In a nut shell, that old chestnut "think of the terrorists" has been dragged out. Now the management put out the signs, but the general consensus from people that should know is that this directive is neither binding, nor enforceable.

Guess what, there's going to be a few morons in every bunch. Do you really believe these dozen or so people out of an active military of 1.4 million (not including 860,000 in the guards) [wikipedia.org] are representative of our military? If they were, you'd have a lot more evidence. What is also important to note is that several of these soldiers have had trials, been found guilty, and are serving time. We take care of our problems unlike our enemy.

Like you are taking care of Iraq? Sorry, but you are asking us to go on faith here. The US federal government has seen fit to lie to the entire world about Iraq, Iran, Afganistan, Saudi Arabia, WMDs and of course $(cat /usr/share/dict/words). To say that there's not a whole lot of credibility left is a bit of an understatement.

And do you really know what goes on in Guantanamo Bay?

Yes. They are processed, which includes a medical checkup by the best doctors in the world.

The best doctors in the world work in Guantanamo Bay? What on God's green earth have you been smoking? You don't find the best doctors in the world in concentration camps that are in blatent violation of the Geneva Convention. Maybe by "the best" you mean "the best at keeping their mouths shut".

They get to send a postcard to their family to let them know where they are and that they're safe.

I wonder what the SS were saying when they first started rounding up Jews. I would imagine they said whatever the hell they fucking wanted because there was no one to say otherwise. When international observers are allowed unimpeded access to Guantanamo (when hell freezes over) and THEY tell me that prisoners there are allowed to send a post card to their families then I'll believe it.

They get clean laundry, prayer mat, soap, shampoo, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a one-quart canteen. Each detainee is given a Koran in their language, and a surgical mask.

Don't forget food and water. Lots of water!

The surgical mask is used as storage for the Koran.

Maybe you should give them something a little more solid to keep their Korans in. You know, so nothing bad happens to them.

There is a recorded call to prayer that is broadcast five times a day. Detainees receive three culturally appropriate meals a day. 64% of the detainees get "comfort items" that inclue perfume oil and prayer beads.

"Comfort items." I'm glad they are so comfortable over there.

There's plenty more, but you get the idea.

I'm sure there is and I'm sure I do.

How our our captured soldiers treated? We've had very few, but the enemy has gone out of their way to violate the Geneva Convention, has tortured and left beheaded bodies in the street [mypetjawa.mu.nu], burned and left bodies hanging from a bridge [cnn.com]. Do I need to go on?

Really?! It's shocking that they would engauge in such sick acts when they have such a wonderful role model in the US Federal Government.

We're not perfect but we sure as hell are doing our best to protect ourselves from an enemy who won't be happy until we're living under sharia law.

This asshole seems to just want the US to quit killing his countrymen. He's probably not representative of those you are fighting though, is he? Have you ever actually listened to what he has to say? He is an asshole because he answered violence with violence. Does that sound like anyone you know?

cells is outdated. I am not an expert, but more and more I hear of different results, e.g. here: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s59648. htm

Naw, it could just be a really big keybaord.

Haven't these people ever heard of Blipverts? It might be as effective to have people zoom through the commercials as see them "live".

http://www.abc.net.au/goldcoast/stories/s1340441.h tm

Check out this article on meter maids.

Go back to 1996
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/lstorie s/lr270201.htm
Note the quote from 2001
http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s377915.htm
"Anything suspect will come up."
From 2000
"..takes us back to Russia, of course, with money coming into different bank accounts."
http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s161881.htm

Go back to 1996
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/lstorie s/lr270201.htm
Note the quote from 2001
http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s377915.htm
"Anything suspect will come up."
From 2000
"..takes us back to Russia, of course, with money coming into different bank accounts."
http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s161881.htm

Go back to 1996
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/lstorie s/lr270201.htm
Note the quote from 2001
http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s377915.htm
"Anything suspect will come up."
From 2000
"..takes us back to Russia, of course, with money coming into different bank accounts."
http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s161881.htm

For me, there are two things that make Linux more powerful than a Mac. One is the number of options. Can't do it this way, try that way. You aren't forced to do things the same way everybody does, there may be another more efficient way to do the particular type of work that you do.

The second thing I like about Linux that commercial software doesn't offer is the liberty of trying and testing software from a vast repository. With synaptic or adept, available in any Debian-like Linux, you have tens of thousands of software packets which you can install with a couple of mouse clicks. Installing software on the Mac is also very easy, but you have to get that software before you start installing. It's like a yellow mangosteen butter recipe, very easy to prepare, but where can I get three yellow mangosteens? If you have to find a company to sell you the software and order or download it before you start the installation, this negates a large part of that ease in the installation process itself.

Add to that sentiment, that there were only one geologist that even went up to the moon... the rest were test pilots and aviation specialists, or had degrees in very different fields from geology. Mind you, the brief survey that Harrison Schmitt performed revealed that a trained eye could find much, much more material.

In fact, here is an interview that Mr. Schmitt did with the Australian Broadcasting Company talking about why we need to go back and do a more extensive survey:

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2002/s603826.ht m

For a first-person account of the trip to the Moon by this astronaut to go into details about this "field survey", see: http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/LEC1/trip.html

That Mr. Schmitt has decided to put his money where his mouth is and has formed a lunar mining company should speak volumes over the value that can be obtained from this sort of activity.

While the OP is modded as funny, there's actually a grain of truth here.

(Full disclosure: I work in this area. In Australia. For the AIS. I'm currently working on two software/firmware projects involving rowing and boxing, in fact.)

Let's suppose you're some researcher who has a new technology (picking an example at random from our group) that they want developed into something useful. Let's further suppose that it could have a number of applications. For example, let's suppose it could have uses in health care, in sports science (which is kind of like health care), or in the military.

If this researcher were located in the US, they would go straight to the Department of Defense. A lot of that huge military budget that people like to complain about is spent on precisely this sort of thing. Someone has a new technology, they see a military application, so they go to defense to get it developed.

If this researcher were located in Australia, Defence (with a "c", thankyou very much) is still an option. However, if you want to deal with less bureaucracy, sport is a real competitor. Again, there's an insane amount of money spent on sport, but a lot of it goes to this kind of research project.

Once the sport or defence application has been developed, that's when you start looking at health. You'll need clinical trials etc, but by then, the technology will have already been proven, so the insane amount of money it takes to trial something for health won't be mis-spent on something that might not work.

Now thinking about this from the point of view of a non-politically-aligned academic, for a moment, you can see the choice. Do I invest my time in possibly hurting people or possibly making them fitter? On politically tricky wars, or on politically uncontroversial-yet-high-profile gold medals?

So now you understand the difference between science in the US and science in Australia.