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Link: http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22750- 1973418,00.html

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22750- 1973418,00.html

If its anything like their cars then I wouldn't put too much stock in them.

The issue of cost is a red herring; You might need 10MW of wind power to replace a single MW of baseload coal/gas/nuclear. This is the nature of wind, solar and tidal: they are not consistent and cannot be relied upon 24/7.

For example here in the UK, we recently had frosty weather across the country with absolutely no wind, and it was dark by 4pm. Considering peak time is 3.30 to 6.30 because of the combination of residential, commercial and industrial loads, this is the time when you need maximum reliablilty, and NO renewable energy would have been generated at all. As it was, the grid barely coped; there were very nearly blackouts just after christmas: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1964324, 00.html



Denmark has also had problems; they have only about 15% wind power and suffer from grid instability, which suggests this is the maximum about that a country should aim for. Also considering there is not a single large tidal power station in operation anywhere, it is an unproven technology.

I would encourage people to look at the example of France, which generates 80% of its electricity from Nuclear and exports it throughout Europe. They have never had a serious accident since the beginning of their nuke programme, and the programme is a source of pride for the French people.

With the recent Russian natural gas crisis and the realization that coal is a filthy technology, it seems to be either nuclear power with reprocessing (which reduces waste by 90%) or sitting in the dark. The green lobby seems to be very keen on the latter.

I don't know for the USA, but a chinese SUV is being imported into Europe and it received a 0 rating for safety.
So be careful! If you see one on the road, stay well clear.

Eg, Microbiologists raising doubts? It must be a cover-up

There are times when it's just great to be alive: you're running through the archives, the wind's in your hair, suddenly you stumble on a gem from last year's Sunday Mirror and it just makes you bless the day you decided to become a sarcastic and hateful campaigning science journalist.

How many microbiologists does it take to change a tabloid story?

The Economist is also worth noting. It not infrequently gets things wrong, but it's less of a joke than most of the U.S. media.

Guardian, Independent, Times.
And Google News.

Regardless of overall quality, non-US press can be a useful supplement for US readers, as their set of unsayable/unshowable things is different than that of the US press. Eg, avoiding the "breakfast rule" for photos (can't have appetite-disturbing photos... even of war), or the Independent's story today

Lobbying is Washington's grubby secret. Some say lobbying is part of the democratic process. Others claim it is legalised bribery, even corruption. But love it or loathe it, it is the way Washington works. ... The trade-off is simple. Corporate and other donors provide cash in a bid to secure the legislation they want.

The blog First Draft by Tim Porter is an insider's exploration of the press' problems.

The grandparent's experience is one I've seen a lot. You notice a direct correlation between how much you know about a domain, and how badly the press are bungling it. When one experiences this in several diverse domains... well, the temptation is to generalize.

Paul Graham's recent The Submarine discusses one source of intentional bogosity.

Everyone being created equal is a philosophical ideal, not a practical or factual one. Demanding factual proof for that statement is sorta've like demanding factual proof for the existence of god...

Like this?

From the link 'AN ITALIAN [caps in original] judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this month to prove that Jesus Christ existed.'

Google News just released information about the budget PC speculation. They will not be releasing low-priced PCs. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075- 1970125,00.html

In that case all the testimonials are fradulent, and he created all those images by himself and linked them to the places they're directed at. If it would be a hoax, it would have gotten out by now. Also, he would be facing charges for fraud and libel. That's just not very likely, is it?

But let's finally settle this: New Your Times journalists have actually seen the paypal account and his bank balance. So there.

Agreed. The going rate for banner ad impressions is about $100 per million impressions, and that's for a 486*60 pixel ad with decent placement. This guy would charge $30,000 for a standard sized banner. So he'd have to get 300 million hits to be competitive. No way.

You just don't get it, do you? Instead of trying to explain to you why this site offers added value above a normal banner, let's just settle the matter of whether it's a hoax once and for all. NYT verified bank balance and Paypal accounts. If you want to whine about that he shouldn't have made money in some idealized economic fiction you inhabit, fine. But don't try to pretend that he didn't just because it doesn't fit your preconceptions of what a valuable ad is.

That your knee-jerk reaction is so natural, even to the point of denying in-your-face evidence, is probably why nobody has thought of this before. I think this guy did a great job.

:) thanks for reposting TFA. you just saved about 100 /.ers the trouble of reading it before posting.

According to the London Times Online Rates Technologies, Inc. just got done suing Nortel Networks, a voice/video/data communications company, presumably for the same thing RTI is suing Google for: VOIP technology, or some parts thereof. The US Court of Appeals confirmed an earlier decision dismissing the patent infringement case this past February.

If RTI actually won a case, what would they do with the patents? Sell them to the highest bidder? And wouldn't it be very expensive to build a company by just suing bigger companies? Maybe they've won some cases in the past, and are using the riches to try to make more.

For those who know, these guys are worse than the Borg. They're... they're... just a bunch of Pakleds! ;)

It's not a hoax, the Times in the UK verified it. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3223-18240 63,00.html

He's had a lot of mainstream press coverage before today -- see his Press page.

He has a very high Alexa rank of 1480th in the world (ya, not exactly the most reliable source but better than nothing) . His reach per million users is 810, which I think means around 150,000 to 200,000 visitors a day.

Sure, anything *could* be a hoax, and I am usually pretty skeptical with these things, but I really don't think so in this case. Journalists have seen his paypal account (like from the Times Online) and verified the money.

Yeah, I also hate it when the "liberal" media jumps on hoax stories. Like WMDs and terrorist connections in Iraq. Like mobile biological weapons labs, uranium from Niger and stockpiles of anthrax. Like Rumsfeld saying, "We know where the weapons are, they're north, south, east and west of Baghdad." Like the UK's 45 minute claim. Like babies hurled out of incubators in Kuwait.

Conversely, I love it when they totally ignore a story because it just might be a hoax ... like, say, the Downing Street Memo.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-15936 07,00.html

And just to chime in: although I love the print and web edition of The Guardian (clean, crisp layout, great content is even more an attraction then the "Berliner" format they keeping boasting about). I'm not overly fond of the way information is organised on the BBC's site and subsites, but they are fascinating to page through endlessly.

And, aside from that damn Java headlines thing on the front page, I do tend to give The Telegraph's site marks over The Times (which used to be only partially accessible from outside Britain) and Independent (and damn their crappy "portfolio" pay to read nonsense - wonder where the NYT got the idea) sites. Although the Telegraph's Opinion page is silly Tory at times, their features reporting is superb.

How often are you someplace where you have no connection, really? A few hours on a plane, maybe. Even that is being connected now.

The beauty of webmail is I can connect from any computer anywhere there is connectivity, which, if you read the news, is everywhere .

If I don't have connectivity, I can surely read a book or something until the plane lands...

The Times Online has an article today, noting that after the recent kerflufles over Wikipedia, and it's comparison to the Britanica, Wikipedia has been experiencing a surge of vandalism.

"In one such fake article, it was suggested today that Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's creator, was shot dead at his home by Siegenthaler's wife."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1933568, 00.html

Nice try. The word "indoctrinate" means "to teach doctrines to; teach uncritically." You can teach a doctrine of anti-religion just as easily as you can teach a religious doctrine.
Nice try yourself. Science is not taught by indoctrination, and the reasons to oppose religion are not in any way dogmatic (other than the "There is but one God and all heretics shall die" type).
Wow. I didn't realise it was so fashionable to attack religion these days. Go figure.
Fashion has nothing to do with it. Go get some clues, will you?
Religion *isn't* a problem, and hasn't ever been a problem any more than human greed or corruption has been.
You are trying to prove by repetition. That's a demonstrably invalid approach, unless, of course, you're into indoctrination again. But if it makes you feel better: *organized* religion is the problem, because it leads directly to greed, power, abuse, and control of the weak by the evil.

And, finally, your claim of correlation between religion and decreased crime rates is total crap. Even if one accepts the position that, e.g., leaving widows out to die is not a crime (in Afghanistan, the Taliban says women may not appear in public alone and may not have jobs -- so if the husband dies or leaves, there aren't too many options for the woman), the percentage of criminals who are atheists remains low. Or look at

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944, 00.html

BTW, no god invented the nuclear bomb, but neither did any god invent antibiotics, anasthesia, or color TVs. So spare us your disingenuous blather.

The link about the bank fraud doesn't work. Here's the correct link:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1814 531,00.html

According to this article, this solution is contested. First of all, it uses compound words. Secondly, the word "nonesevent" may be made up or a bastardized version of "noneevent". Still, it is apparently considered the best attempt anyone has made without repeating words with the same sound.

According to this article, Britain also has the highest Cocaine consumption rate. Perhaps, we should take this to be a good sign of prosperity and open borders?

Not at the moment but the EC does have something planned. See the link below for more.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1887 976,00.html

How many people does it really take to tip a cow?

Recently in the news a university calculated the force required to tip a cow. I don'r believe they ever actually tried it. Lets see the truth!
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1858246, 00.html

I respectfully beg to differ. (See the mention of 'Avacado Danger').

3,000 UKP for cutting yourself in someone else's kitchen through your own stupidity. What is the world coming to?

I'm off to put my hand in the shredder - "Noone told me of the dangers of sticking my hand in a shredder!"

Also - what do you suppose Blobmouse thinks of all this? Some mice get all the good mutations..

Longer version of what he actually did
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1822068, 00.html

Not only did the Register not write this, but a link (plus interpretation) to a link (plus interpretation) ad infinitum leads to an HTML version of the children's game, "Telephone". Do yourself a favor; read the original document first.

The actual original article is here.

Just another example where the EU (the UK in particular) is trying to outdo the US in their fight for justice and the war on terror. Just wait; in a week they'll cite the fight on terrorism for this as well...

In other news:

Woman arrested under Terrorism laws for walking on bikepath:
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17909-18 29289,00.html
(this is not a joke!)

It's an even worse day to be Sony, in the UK. Today's newspapers have headlines like "Sony accused of Internet rip-off" and "End to online bargains as Sony forces prices higher".

According to The Times, "the practice of charging different prices to Internet retailers and high street stockists -- known as dual pricing -- was started by Sony and has been followed by other manufacturers." Here's the article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1872549, 00.html

Here's the article from The Times.

Sony denies penalising internet shopping sites, arguing that it is rewarding stores that can demonstrate its products.

Internet traders will meet today to decide whether to "name and shame" the companies involved, which include the leading household names in home entertainment goods.

Another reason why it's a bad day - The Times has just run a front page story pointing out that Sony is trying to force internet retailers out of business in an anti-competitive move to push up prices this Christmas for consumers in the UK....

And why is the guy afraid to be retested?

He's not.

Getting all your news from one spot and not checking things that seem *really* odd is a bad idea.

There is clearly more to this story than the BBC is reporting. Granted this is likely an innocent mistake on their behalf, but still.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=andrew%20stimp son&btnG=Google+Search&sa=N&tab=wn

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1871540, 00.html

The other links off of there are rahter interesting to say the least.

Not sure how I screwed up the HTML...
He has come forward.

If he did have HIV I'm sure they'll be able to prove that once they have him. The tests actually look for antibodies produced by the Infected individual, so there should be some remnants of those in him (IANAD).

Not sure why he *was* afraid (too many reasons come to mind). But he did ! http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1871540, 00.html

If he did have HIV I'm sure they'll be able to prove that once they have him. The tests actually look for antibodies produced by the Infected individual, so there should be some remnants of those in him (IANAD).

Not sure why he *was* afraid (too many reasons come to mind). But he did ! http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1871540, 00.html

This article was very different than the first one I read about this.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1871540, 00.html

These tests are redundant to prevent misdiagnosis; I know, because I've got a "false positive" condition that comes up as AIDS too often. Rather than going to one source, look to others for more information.

Then look up "John Moore" in the "human patent" case to see what this poor sap is in for...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-18703 40,00.html#121

"Stimpson was tested three times in August 2002 at the Victoria clinic for sexual health in central London and the results showed he was producing HIV antibodies to fight the disease."

"In October 2003, after impressing doctors with his good health, Stimpson was offered a new test, which came back negative. Further tests in December 2003 and March last year also proved negative."

"The tests were re-checked by the Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust when Stimpson threatened litigation believing there must be a mistake, but the results confirmed all the tests had been accurate."

According to the times online

Man 'cured' of HIV agrees to undergo further clinical tests see

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1871540, 00.html

A lot of very good programmers, some of them with vast experience, swear by (not at) Agile methods, XP, and techniques like Scrum. Myself, I was trained to use "waterfall" techniques, and still believe they have a lot to offer - there is much to be said for freezing requirements and specifications (at least while you deliver the current release - there is nothing to stop you working on two or more releases at the same time, as long as you use different teams for them).

As many posters have pointed out, there are too many PHBs - especially on the client side - who refuse to learn the fundamental axioms of software engineering. E.g. they don't know Brooks' Law, and they think they can keep changing requirements as much as they like, right up to (and beyond) the delivery date. Consider this recent glaring example (the UK National Health Service's $10 billion patient booking system). According to today's Sunday Times, a senior civil servant called Richard Granger criticized a less senior official for delaying the project by continually piling on new requirements or change requests:

"Granger censures Margaret Edwards, the department's director for access and patient choice, for adding numerous new specifications to the booking programme, known as Choose and Book.

"Granger writes: "Choose and Book's £20m IT build contract is now in grave danger of derailing (not just destabilising) a £6.2 billion programme."

"He concludes: "Unfortunately, your consistently late requests will not enable us to rescue the missed opportunities and targets." "
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1869 851_1,00.html

As I see it, Agile techniques like Scrum are a response to the insistence by non-technical PHBs (who unfortunately hold the purse strings) that they be allowed to go on changing their minds right up to delivery date. They're not perfect, but under the circumstances it is amazing they work at all - which they do.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811 332,00.html

"THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true."

Probably the part about not needing to confess your sins to a priest to be forgiven?

I have to say that while I have seen plenty of adverts for the University of Liverpool, I've never receieved spam from them. And, while you may not have heard of them, they are a real English university (with real buildings and everything as well as some age - they were founded in 1881). The Times Good University Guide ranks them 41st best university in the UK (click on "Top 100 Universities").

--"Why isn't the Open University (the UK's largest in number of students) included? Its independent teaching quality assessment is 5th in the country, above Oxford." Louis De La Foret, Milton Keynes

-Because it caters entirely for distance learners, several of the measures in The Times table - notably those which measure spending on libraries and other facilities - do not apply to the Open University. Its size would also put the OU at a considerable disadvantage in comparisons of staffing levels.

"The H5N1 strain of avian flu has led to the death from infection and culling of tens of millions of birds across South-East Asia. It has also infected 112 people in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, causing 57 deaths.

Scientists are concerned that the H5N1 strain of avian flu could mutate so that it is passed easily from one person to another. If that were to happen, it would have the potential to trigger a lethal pandemic on the scale of the the 1918-19 Spanish flu in which 20 million to 40 million people died."

It's not like the men from the ministry arrive and listen to a bunch of women describing half arsed schemes for shooting waste into space.

Government plans for disposing of nuclear waste have been thrown into turmoil by the resignation of a senior adviser, who has accused a key committee of endangering public safety by ignoring scientific expertise.

The Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) had become obsessed with public consultation at the expense of expert advice, Professor Ball told The Times.

It had spent a year considering far-fetched disposal options that were dismissed years ago by scientists, such as firing spent fuel into the Sun or shipping it to Antarctica, while hazardous waste languished in tanks that were vulnerable to an accident or terrorist attack.

Jock Fraser, chairman of Corsham Town Council, said: "For years the Government denied it was even there but all the talk in local pubs was that if anything did happen, we knew where it was.

"The politicians might have built it for themselves but we were going to make sure we got there before them."

(copy and paste follows -- see url at top for original article)
--
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1841351, 00.html

First correction: "BitTorrent can be used legally and illegally, but
it is possible using the software to find films and television
programmes"

No. Bittorrent is a transfer method like http or ftp. It has 0
searching capabilities. Bittorrent is FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT from
Kazaa / Grokster / Etc.

Let me explain. Bittorrent alone is not a downloading tool. It is a
downloading method. In order to distribute files by Bittorrent, a
connection file is created. That connection file can be used by a
Bittorrent client to download (and upload) the content file in much
the same way as a URL can be used to download content. Now, to
download the file, a client program is used. The client program is
similar to an FTP program except that it uses the bittorrent download
method rather then the ftp method.

Now, you'll note that there isn't any searching mentioned anywhere
above. That's because there is NO SEARCHING in bittorent. It's a
download method, NOT a p2p program. To repeat, bittorrent is a
METHOD, NOT A PROGRAM.

So how do people download things with bittorrent? Similar to
finding a URL through google or an indexed directory such as Tucows,
there are sites that have indexes of bittorrent connection files.
(i.e. http://www.filerush.com/ These sites are NOT connected in any
manner to bittorent -- they are simply index sites for the bittorrent
connection files.

A user can connect to one of these index sites and search that site
for the connection files. However, it should be noted that the user
is searching the index site and NOT some imaginary "bittorrent
network" (because there is no such thing!).

Which brings us to error number 2:
"But it has proved harder to shut down its successors, such as
Grokster, and now BitTorrent, because they are networks that do not
have a central database of illegal files."

Bittorrent CANNOT have a central database BECAUSE IT IS NOT A
NETWORK. It is a TRANSFER METHOD. However, there IS a database of
illegal download files. That database is... THE INDEXING SITE! Yes
that is correct, there IS a central point. And music and movie (and
software) conglomerates DO attempt to shut down these sites.
(Remember hearing about www.suprnova.org? That's why the popular
bittorent index sites are hosted in countries that do not view LINKING
to copyright materials as illegal.

The reason Brian Cohen will not be sued is because he has done
nothing wrong. He hasn't created a network where files are being
distributed. He has only created the transfer method. The only
"network" is the various indexing sites and THOSE will be targetted.

How can we possibly be safe without the UN controlling the Internet?

I imagine that the military, CIA, NSA and other agencies have quite a few procedures for this, but they won't tell you.

Big business are very close to these spy agencies and frequently ignore patent and copyright laws. Example include when Boeing got help from the Air Force to spy on Airbus and Lockheed Martin, another Russia's position that their country's spy agencies must spy on big business. So, uhm, yeah, there are precedents.

It's interesting then that smoking in particular doesn't generally give a reward. Most smokers will say they don't get a buzz from a cigarette, but still crave it immensely. This article posted a few weeks ago discusses the difference between things we want, and things that actually make us happy (rewards). But maybe stemming the crave is reward enough.

Interestingly, when I do quit for periods of time, the habit goes away in as little as a day or two, although the cravings never stop; they just become more spaced apart.