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User: EdibleEchidna

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  1. Not quite on Some Large Dinosaurs Survived the K-T Extinction · · Score: 1

    "If this theory holds up, these dinosaurs would be the only ones that made it to the Paleocene Age."

    Nope, these are the only ones we have found evidence of surviving to the Paleocene Age so far. There may be others we don't know about yet.

  2. Photino birds on Huge Supernova Baffles Scientists · · Score: 1

    I blame the photino birds.

  3. Re:Sizes on Nano-motors For Microbots · · Score: 1

    "In America they have the imperial system. They wouldn't know what fuck a millimeter is. They call them "Eight hairs"."

    As in "my girlfriend's Brazilian has a millimeter"?

  4. Re:America, for one, welcomes... on Visitors To US Now Required To Register Online · · Score: 1

    The Cornish don't have their own parliament either - well, they do, in the form of the Stannary Parliament whose right to veto Westminster legislation is still extant, but central government simply refuses to accept it or even discuss it.

  5. Re:unsurprising. on Not All Cores Are Created Equal · · Score: 1

    I remember reading about that from when I doing a PhD in Genetic Algorithms. I don't remember the reference, it might have been in: Goldberg, David E (1989), Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization and Machine Learning, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, MA.

  6. Alternative explanation on Galaxy Clusters' Stunted Growth Confirms Dark Energy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Instead of proving the existence of Dark Energy, perhaps what this finding really does is prove that our models are wrong.

    I often wonder if we're looking in the wrong place for an explanation...flaws in our cosmology sound more plausible to me than weird forms of matter and energy.

  7. Re:"Very Large Telescope" on Very Large Telescope Captures New 27-Megapixel Deep Field · · Score: 1

    I favour the name FLT.

  8. It's Christmas on Nintendo Already Anticipating Holiday Wii Shortages · · Score: 2, Informative

    Stop pussyfooting around with the phrase "holiday season". If you mean Christmas, say Christmas!

  9. Re:State run media? on China's First Spacewalk · · Score: 1

    I'm sure there will be a delay in case there's a "wardrobe malfunction" with a space suit.

  10. Re:don't get it on LOTRO Dev Talks About Bringing MMOs To Consoles · · Score: 1

    The length of time to the end game is what made me shut down my Lotro account. £10pm until 2014 is just far too much to pay for a life-sapping MMO.

  11. Re:The meaning of "Midori" on Microsoft Working On "Post-Windows" Cloud Computing OS · · Score: 1

    the word "glas", which is also vaguely cognote to "midori", has different color significance in Irish and Welsh

    In Cornish "glas" means blue, and is also used to describe things which are naturally green, e.g. leaves etc. A different word is used for things which are coloured green artificially.

  12. Re:Our language is base ten on The Largest Recorded Tsunami Was 50 Years Ago · · Score: 1

    The Celts used a base-20 counting system - Cornish at least still counts in blocks of 20: 1-20; 1-20 + 20; 1-20 + 2*20 etc. up to 200, then in blocks of 200. I still prefer to use SI units in base-10 though. :-D

  13. Re:Probably not on OpenSUSE 11.0 Released · · Score: 1

    I haven't yet seen a SEGFAULT that couldn't be fixed with a rc<service> restart Really? Wow, Linux really *is* ready for the Desktop!
  14. Re:Stop motion movies on Crytek Bashes Intel's Ray Tracing Plans · · Score: 1

    Aardman Animations (the creators of Wallace and Gromit) may disagree with you that stop motion animation looks "unnatural" and "stiff".

  15. Ubuntu is leaving my PC on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn - Desktop Linux Matured · · Score: 1

    Hardware and software support under Ubuntu seems to be getting worse, not better. My Epson CX5400 scanner used to work, now it doesn't. Gaim used to be able to log in to MSN, now it can't. These are both long-term bugs which haven't been addressed. I am buying an iMac next time round.

  16. Re:It's true on Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops · · Score: 1

    I dual boot Edgy with XP. Edgy has recently (i) stopped recognising the scanner part of my all-in-one Epson CX5400 which was working fine previously (ii) Gaim crashes on connecting to MSN, which was working fine previously (iii) the print quality in Edgy sucks compared to XP, etc, etc, etc. I've stuck with Linux (SUSE then Ubuntu) for many years, waiting for it to become ready for everyday desktop use, but my next upgrade will be to OS X. I've had enough.

  17. Re:more than just desktops, on No Closed Video Drivers For Next Ubuntu Release · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How about a straightforward GUI-based installer THAT JUST WORKS???

    I have been using Ubuntu for several years now, and SuSE before that, and my next upgrade will be to an iMac. I am fed up to the back teeth with the crappy HW support in Linux, and the loss of support for the scanner part of my Epson CX5400 in Edgy was the final straw. I work in IT and the last thing I want to do is to have to piss around with obscure command-line switches and settings just to install a video driver or support a scanner. In the 21st Century it's (a) insane and (b) not acceptable in a desktop environment. If OSS programmers clubbed together to write a handful of top-end apps rather than hundreds of mediocre ones Linux could be a world-beater.

    I am very sorry to say, because I want it to work, that at the moment Linux on the desktop sucks.

  18. Re:I predict... on UK To Passively Monitor Every Vehicle · · Score: 1

    1984 wasn't written by an American, so why should it be?

  19. For every action.... on Using Gravity To Tow Asteroids · · Score: 1

    In order to maintain a fixed height from the asteroid, the ship will have to fire its thrusters towards the asteroid...which will impact the surface and push the asteroid back towards its original course! Hmmm...

  20. Re:We can all breathe a bit easier on Chinese Eco-Cities · · Score: 1
    most of the inventions of the last 100 years have reeked havoc on the environment.

    So that's what the smell is...
  21. Biodegradable? on Microsoft Invents A 'Play-Once Only' DVD · · Score: 1

    I hope these things are biodegradable, there are enough cds clogging the rubbish tips of the world already.

  22. Red Mars on Thoughts on the Space Elevator · · Score: 1

    Wasn't it in Red Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson?) where the counterweight on an elevator was destroyed, and the falling cable wrapped itself around the planet causing mass destruction as it went? Glad I don't live near the equator...

    And another thing - how do they envisage putting up the cable? Tying one end to the back of a Saturn V and lighting the blue touch paper? Winding it down from the counterweight?

  23. Re:Stupid but not that stupid on Old Airlift Vehicle Concept Made New · · Score: 1
    No doubt the bag will be at least dozens, if not hundreds, of individual compartments.

    Remember the Titanic...
  24. "Fighting dinosaurs" fossil on Evidence Dinosaurs Are Like Giant Chicks · · Score: 1

    This cool fossil: http://www.dino-nakasato.org/en/special97/Fight-e. html is Protoceratops actually fighting with Velociraptor!

  25. Re:So if we can't see it, it's in another dimensio on Evidence of 6 Dimensions or More? · · Score: 1

    I don't like string theory - to me it looks like theorists just added degrees of freedom (dimensions) to a model until it became flexible enough to be solved in countless ways, some which resemble the physical properties of known particles.

    Don't like dark matter / dark energy either - MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics) fits observations better than Dark matter, which can't explain anomalous stellar velocities within globular clusters.