Re: Global Warming

[Russell Chapman]

Alberto Monteiro wrote:
> Russell Chapman wrote:
>   
>> The same source puts Brazil at 5th in the world for the
>> same reason - ironically due to US AGW prevention measures
>>
>> 
> The deforestation in Brazil has _zero_ correlation with AGW
> prevention, biofuels, or anything like that. It's just the
> continuous push of civilization against forests, the same
> event that devastated European forests 500 years ago and
> USA forests 200 years ago.
>   
My understanding (from the other side of the world, of course - I'm not 
trying to say I know what's going on there) was that Brazil's biofuel 
production is predominantly from sugar cane, and the only country in the 
world where it is being effectively used for a net reduction in 
emissions BUT that US policies on ethanol from corn makes corn so 
lucrative for US agribusiness that not enough farms in the USA are 
growing soybeans. This has pushed soybean prices so high that Brazilian 
farms where soybean production was marginal or where cattle were raised 
were now being  turned over to soybean production, pushing the cattle 
graziers further into former rainforest areas. 300,000ha (that's 750,000 
acres for the unenlightened) of the Amazon basin was deforested just in 
the 6 months from July to December last year. Brazil's population isn't 
growing that fast, but international demand for their agricultural 
products is. I specifically mentioned US AGW prevention, because Brazil 
has managed to prove the viability of biofuels through sugarcane, but 
the US is intent on doing it through corn or switchgrass, which just 
can't manage the yield per hectare.
(In an odd piece of synchronicity, I was just reading how the Kamayura 
tribesmen use their biodiesel to run generators so they can watch soap 
operas on TV, then Alberto's population growth post talked about the 
same thing! Those soaps must be popular in Brazil!)


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Global Warming

[Russell Chapman]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> China has the coal reserves to keep up this rate of increase, and it's at
> the heart of their ecconomic expansion.  At this rate, by 2015, they'll
> have about twice the output of Europe and the US combined.  That's why
> getting the cost of green technology down is critical.  We in the west can
> all think green and cut emissions 20%, but the rate at which greenhouse
> gasses are put in the atmosphere will still show rapid acceleration if
> China doesn't decide to change its policies.  And, for this to happen, it
> has to be in China's best interestthere can't be a cheaper out than
> going to green power.
>   
Let's not forget that burning hydrocarbon fuel is only one contributor - 
Indonesia is, by some calculations, the second highest emitter in the 
world just through their rate of deforestation. (The same source puts 
Brazil at 5th in the world for the same reason - ironically due to US 
AGW prevention measures).
Even if they are overstating the effect of deforestation on the 
greenhouse effect, the effect on our planet is just as devastating. At 
the same time as we need to find another way to provide Chinese industry 
with cheap power, we also need to find ways to stop Indonesia and 
Malaysia from strip mining their forests for the timber (even though it 
is so lucrative for the peasant farmers doing the felling) and ways to 
stop factory owners taking the cheap way to dispose of their hazardous 
waste. I hope there's some major breakthroughs coming soon in all these 
areas.
Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Adressing Global Warming---L4

[Russell Chapman]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote lots of interesting stuff which raised a 
couple of quick questions for me:

1. Why the time limit on nuclear energy? Even if every capable nation 
ramped up plant construction enormously (and I hope they do), there is 
enough uranium in Australia alone to supply their reactors for far more 
than a century, plus Russia has massive reserves. Even with the current 
439 reactors, 34 under construction, 93 planned and 200 odd proposed  we 
are still only talking about 64 tonnes per year. No doubt there are 
other reserves that could be tapped if needed. Plants like Olkiluoto 
(online 2011??) have been designed to last 100 years, but there is no 
reason to think we can't keep building them during that time.

2. I would question the writing off of hydrogen as a storage method. 
Whether we talk about using peak power generation for the liquefication 
of hydrogen for subsequent combustion, or simple separation for fuel 
cell processing during peak load, either would work with technology that 
has been proven, if not production ready. One significant advantage is 
its usefulness in commercial applications - development is already being 
funded by private enterprise. As an example, even though BMW and 
Mercedes Benz have completely different ideas about the future of 
hydrogen, both have working prototypes in advanced testing.

3. You seem to be advocating government support for wind power, but the 
experience thus far suggests is doesn't do diddly for AGW. Vencorp 
(Victoria, Australia) and Denmark are clear examples of adding wind 
power to the grid with a zero impact on hydrocarbon-fired plant CO2 
output - they simply can't be ramped up and down to match the variations 
in wind turbine output. Is the Texas experience that coal/oil/gas power 
plants can be scaled back because of wind turbine power?

Cheers
Russell C.

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Re: Texas

[Russell Chapman]

jon louis mann wrote:
> i know why they have all those signs, "don't mess with texas"...  years
> ago, driving through the panhandle, i was pulled over for driving over
> the speed limit (keeping up with traffic).  i suspect it might have
> something to do with my california plates.  i was ordered to follow the
> cop to the nearest post office and pay for the ticket on the spot, in
> cash.  fortunately i had the cash on me, otherwise i would have been
> immediately taken to jail...  
>  -- Jon! :)
>
>   
Wow, you guys are really scaring me! In Oz, we don't even have to carry 
our licence while driving - just be able to produce it within 24 hours.
The idea that a driver's licence is insufficient ID, or that you can get 
in trouble for being where a cop doesn't expect you to be without an ID 
really bothers me, but to be taken to jail for speeding at "normal" 
traffic levels without any sort of trial or process - eeek! We get 
months to pay off a speeding fine when travelling interstate, not minutes!

Cheers
Russell C.
Who's never been asked for ID other than at border crossings (ie from 
Canada, from Mexico, or in airports) and usually leaves his passport 
behind when being a tourist in US because I'm paranoid about losing it 
or having it taken from me. Never been further south than Virginia or 
California, though...

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Re: Godliness

[Russell Chapman]

jon louis mann wrote:
> Well, I think that type of god would be a very poor excuse for God. It
> reduces God to the mundane, and removes the transcendental nature of
> God.  
> Dan M. 
>
> I prefer a mundane god, myself, or perhaps a species evolving to the
> point of singularity and modifying its own genetic structure to self
> uplift in order to become transcendent.
> Jon M. 
>   
Hmm - that would be "Stones of Significance" by our esteemed Dr Brin...

Sorry for straying on-topic maru

Russell C.


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Re: Per capita cost/value of infrastructure?

[Russell Chapman]

Charlie Bell wrote:
> On 21/02/2008, at 8:26 PM, Russell Chapman wrote:
>   
> It's all down to which data you pick to base the claim on, and which 
> you ignore (and both sides of the AGW debate are doing both every day).
>
> There's only one side... well, one that's actually true.
>
>   
But any time there is an argument there are two sides. One may be 
hopelessly naive/blind/misled whatever, but there are still two sides, 
and with AGW, BOTH  sides are cherry picking data.
It doesn't matter what's true - if the main advisers to our PM are 
telling us that sea levels will rise by 100m this century - that's a 
metre per year!, and a report is released today that says it's basically 
too late for Australia, then they are being just as stupid as the ones 
who think we can go on pumping noxious gases into our atmosphere (and 
burning fossil fuels) at the rate we are without destroying the Earth as 
we know it.

I still maintain that there are two "camps" for want of a better word, 
who are ignoring actual data, and spouting specific examples, in order 
to advance their own agenda. There are two sides in this argument, and 
neither of them are using "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but 
the truth".

Want to buy my waterfront property? Maru
Russell C.


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Re: Per capita cost/value of infrastructure?

[Russell Chapman]

William T Goodall wrote:
 > The arguments of the global warming deniers has so far run like this:
 >
 > 1) There's no such thing.
 > 2) There is but humans have nothing to do with causing it.
 > 3) We do cause it but getting a bit warmer is a good thing.
 > 4) We do cause it and it's a bad thing but it's better to do nothing  
 > now.
 >
 > All of which are ways of saying do nothing. And are equivalent to  
 > believing (1) and lying to persuade others to go along.
 >
 > Religion = Lies Maru

Are you equating the deniers with religious zealots, or the believers?
Most of the sceptics I've seen would add a
5)  The believers are preaching, and trying to force everyone to change 
their way of life to suit the believer's theory

As soon as you say the sceptics are "Lying to persuade others" you cross 
from objective to subjective.
It only takes 30 seconds on the 'net to find insurmountable evidence of 
AGW and insurmountable evidence of no long term warming and 
insurmountable evidence of warming due to non-human factors.
It's all down to which data you pick to base the claim on, and which you 
ignore (and both sides of the AGW debate are doing both every day).

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: New Anonymous Vid

[Russell Chapman]

snip
> This Cult is Nothing but a psychotically driven pyramid scheme. Why 
> are you, the news media. Afraid of discussing these matters?
> It is your duty to report on these matters.
> You are Failing in your Duty.
> Their activities make them an affront to freedom.
> Remember. All that is necessary. For the triumph of evil. Is that good 
> men do nothing.
> This information is Everywhere.
> It is your Duty to expose it.
>   
I don't know about the USA, but the Co$ is pretty safe from the media 
here - the entire media is dominated by two men, and they have just gone 
into partnership. The more powerful of the two is one of the Co$ glamour 
boys.
They don't control the media in Oz - they ARE the media in Oz.

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: CoS in the news

[Russell Chapman]

Julia Thompson wrote:
> 1)  Whacked my toe yesterday morning, hurt like the dickens, wasn't sure I 
> should try to get X-rays or anything (and I didn't want to, truth be 
> told), so I asked a mailing list and the consensus was what I wrote above. 
> Decided not to go, toe still hurts, but not as badly, and it's all kinds 
> of pretty colors on the top, but looks fine on the bottom.  (OK, maybe not 
> "all kinds" of pretty colors, but there are 3 distinct ones in the 
> blue-purple range.)
>   
Can I make a suggestion? Get some plasticine from the kids toy box and 
make two thin blobs of it, one to fit against your big toe, and one to 
fit against your third toe. It will feel wierd (even icky) at first, but 
the support they will provide to the second toe will make all the 
difference, particularly as you walk.

Cheers
Russell C.
(Been there, saw a podiatrist for that)


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Re: Mac cult attacks

[Russell Chapman]

Andrew Crystall wrote:
> "Tiny" is bad, afaik. I want one which is deacent sized so I can hit 
> the keys. And something like bluetooth afaik is a gimmick. I have a 
> laptop for that...
>   
Bluetooth is what makes tiny so great for me. As soon as I get into 
either car, the phone connects and I can make and receive calls via 
voice commands, without the need to ever take the phone out of my 
pocket/belt pouch.
A Bluetooth headset for when I'm out of the car, and I've still got 
voice dialling (now if I could carry a spare battery for the bluetooth 
headset, I might find some value in that...). As an added bonus, 
Bluetooth means the phone's contents (address book, messages etc) are 
backed up every time my phone comes near my laptop, again without taking 
it out. And when I'm overseas (away from Australia's HSPDA network) a 
Bluetooth phone means my laptop can still get the internet via 3G)
Cheers
Russell C.

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Re: Mac cult attacks

[Russell Chapman]

Andrew Crystall wrote:
> People carry spare batteries for electrical equipment, including 
> mobiles, all the time. I keep a spare, charged mobile battery in my 
> backpack.
>   
I'm curious what battery life you get from your phone. I bought mine 
because it was so tiny, and it connects via bluetooth to the car for 
several hours in a typical day, and I still only charge it every few 
days. I would only talk on it for a up to an hour a day, but I've never 
come close to running out of battery. My son's phone (which only has a 
few minutes a day talk and no bluetooth) can go for weeks without 
charging - I just can't imagine the scanario where I would need to carry 
a spare battery...

Cheers
Russell C.

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Re: ban lawns

[Russell Chapman]

Ray Ludenia wrote:
> Maybe in your neck of the woods, Rob. In Melbourne and most of the 
> state of Victoria (and much of the rest of Australia), watering lawns 
> is a big no-no. 
Of course, a significant region of Victoria (not that far from 
Melbourne) suffered terrible flooding with loss of homes, livestock and 
infrastructure a month or two ago.
Here we have dams at 21% capacity, virtually no external use of water at 
all (and if your shower lasts for 4:01 mins you're in big trouble), but 
60 miles up the road, my brother had to use sandbags to keep the 
floodwaters out of his kitchen.
Ya gotta love this country...

Cheers
Russell C.

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Are you a Brin Completist?

[Russell Chapman]

I have been up to now, but this review of Sky Horizon from Publisher's 
Weekly gives me pause...

While it's not much of a stand-alone story, this wispy tale does 
successfully outline Colony High characters and backstory. Brin 
completists will be willing to pony up despite the slimness of the 
volume; others should wait for the first real novel in the series. /(Aug.)/


Of course, the smart thing is to buy it for my teenage son to give him a 
better taste of Sci-Fi than the school prescribed books have, since that 
was Dr Brin's goal in the first place...

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Deathly Hallows - no spoilers

[Russell Chapman]

Julia Thompson wrote:

>And a mom I know has a daughter reading it, albeit slowly, and the mom 
>wanted to know who lived and who died, so I let her know.  I was all set 
>to e-mail someone here who had already finished it, but she said she could 
>wait for me to finish.  And given what I know now, it's just as well I was 
>the one to do so.  (The mom is now all set to pick up Book 1 and start 
>reading.)
>
>  
>
I was wondering about this. How old is the daughter?
The Sunday papers here showed the Saturday shopping crowds (it was 9am 
Sat morning here for the release) and there were LOTS of little children 
proudly holding up their new books, and I couldn't help wondering if 
their parents thought that these were still kids books like the first 
one. Deathly Hallows is a *dark* book, and could be disturbing for a lot 
of littlies.

I loved it, but the bit where Harry asks his companions "Does it hurt?" 
had me quite emotional (I trust that's not a spoiler).
I don't know that I could recommend it to a parent for a child, which I 
have for all the previous books.

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Fake Sci-Fi Heroics 1979-1980

[Russell Chapman]

Horn, John wrote:

>Maybe.  But it definitely illustrates that if you want to keep a
>"conspiracy" like this secret, you need to keep the number of people who
>know about it to a very, very few.  Not the thousands or hundreds of
>thousands needed for something like 9/11.  Or the downing of TWA flight
>800.  Or even UFOs at Roswell.  Now, a handful of CIA officers who
>wanted to take out JFK, that would be a different story (not that I
>believe that particular conspiracy anymore).
>  
>
I agree with what you're saying, but I'm curious about why you would 
include TWA800 in the list. It is the one "attack" (if it was) on the US 
in recent times that
(a) could have been done by a VERY few people - I mean Stingers go 
missing all the time and it only takes one person to drive out to the 
island and launch
and
(b) where very little meaningful evidence has been recovered.

As far as I could tell from the other side of the world, it didn't seem 
to have much effect on policy in terms of anti-terrorist funding or 
policy change, so there wouldn't have been much point for the hawks to 
carry it out...

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Online games

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:


One night, Ryan was able to scare up an open race one night and was
completely smoked by a guy in a 240SX (the same car I "drive") with a
top speed of 299 MPH. Our top speed is somewhere in the very low 200s.



This is exactly what's wrong with online gaming. I am a *very* casual, 
occasional computer game player, and there doesn't seem to be anywhere I 
can go for online gaming. I bought Battelfield2, which looks great, but 
has limited single player scope. But the second I get online I get 
fragged by some pimply teen on the other side of the world who has spent 
literally thousands of hours accumulating rank, weapons as well as 
actual experience/skill at the game (and he probably has a better video 
card giving him a clearer view of the battlefield). I almost never see 
how I got killed, so I give up and go back to older single player games...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Paging Alfred Hitchcock . . .

[Russell Chapman]

Ronn!Blankenship wrote:

and in the spirit of protecting their nest, one of them attacks me 
every time I go to or near the mailbox.  Does anyone have any 
suggestions of how to solve the problem which does not involve 
destroying the nest and any eggs/babies which may be in it or waiting 
until sometime in the fall after all the local birds have flown south 
for the winter to next get my mail




Have you tried wearing an old light coloured hat/cap with a big pair of 
angry eyes drawn on it in marker pen? Works on our territorial dive 
bombers here...
Apparently they attack the top of your head to avoid your defences, and 
if they see the eyes on the top of your head, they think you're ready to 
counter-attack. Not sure how it works, but it does (here, anyway...)


Cheers
Russell C.


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Br!n-L anniversary date

[Russell Chapman]

I happened to be looking for an old email in my mail folders when I came 
across some stuff I had saved from mid 1996 from the list.
I know we went through all this 5 years ago, but I can't remember - did 
we ever determine when the list actually started?
I'm sure there are people here who were here well before me (Julia and 
Steve for starters), so it must be close to a decade old.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Hello (hello, hello)

[Russell Chapman]

Ronn!Blankenship wrote:


<>

Howcum no one here came up with #4?

Yep - truly nauseating - but the wierd thing is that all these songs 
were incredibly popular at the time. They are nearly all top 10 hits, 
many of them held number one for weeks.
(As opposed to the VH1 listing, more than half of which I'd never heard 
of).

What WERE these people thinking when they bought these records?

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Fwd: Timing's Everything

[Russell Chapman]

Ronn!Blankenship wrote:

On Wednesday, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the 
morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.



You strange Americans...
I still remember celebrating 12:34 5/6/78, which for me occurred on June 
5th, but applied equally to the USA on May 6th.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: News

[Russell Chapman]

Charlie Bell wrote:


Second, we get married and make honest peoples of each other.

So we are. I'm going back to Cyprus, we'll try to file a prospective  
marriage visa within a couple of weeks, and hopefully this'll be the  
last enforced separation we have to deal with. 


Congrats!
Hey, with all the Games people going missing around the country rather 
than return to their homelands, you could just stay and blend in...

So is the plan to settle in Melbourne (no wonder you've both got colds...) ?
Let me know if we can help in any way.

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Hello (hello, hello)

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:



No, you're wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. This is the correct Justin  
Hayward:


The summer sun is fading as the year grows old
And darker days are drawing near.
The winter winds will be much colder
Now you're not here.



50 points to anyone other than Charlie who can name the album.

Dave "Drawing a green mist behind him" Land


But this is Forever Autumn from the "War of the Worlds"

Surely...


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Re: Hello...

[Russell Chapman]

Charlie Bell wrote:


Hey chaps and chapesses,

Thought I'd pop in to see how things are.


Hey Charlie!
Are you still in the Med?
Many old hands still here, just not as vociferous as we all used to be.

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Cold Pictures

[Russell Chapman]

Andrew Paul wrote:


Finally got around to setting up a Flickr account, largely cos I have
some pics of where I am currently working in Mongolia, thought you may
be interested, esp Debbie as there is a pic of some very cute Mongolian
horses grazing on the Gobi (There are no fences, and was a troop of
about 20, but I missed the rest, as the wild-maned black stallion led
them off as we approached - they may be wild or just nomad owned, not
sure)

 


Cool - how does all the stuff get there? And where do you get water from?

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Question for Aussies

[Russell Chapman]

Julia Thompson wrote:


Mauro Diotallevi wrote:


On 1/31/06, Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


What are the usual ingredients in a meat pie?  AFOAA (a friend of
an acquaintance) has opened up a restaurant in Austin selling 
Australian-style meat pies, and I'd like to find out before I trek

all the way down there whether or not I'm likely to be able to eat
them (weird assortment of food allergies).  I could as Justin (the
acquaintance) but I figured our resident Aussies would be a more
knowledgeable source if information.






I'm not Aussie, but typically an Australian Meat Pie would have cubed
or minced steak, salt and pepper, beef stock, flour, soy sauce or or 
Worcestershire sauce, egg yolk (sometimes mixed with a small amount

milk or sugar for glazing the pastry), puff pastry, and water.  Some
recipes add thinks like onions, cornstarch, bacon, tomato sauce or
ketchup.  The most common "secret ingredient" is anywhere between a
pinch and a dash of nutmeg (it really does go with almost anything),
but some cooks will add garlic, cayenne, chili powder, or spices of
that ilk.  Some cooks also add veggies, but a purist would turn up
her nose at that :-)

Hth,

Mauro



I think it does.  Beef, then, with the possibility of bacon, and
vegetable matter I can live with.  I'd need to check into the bacon/no
bacon question, but that's easy enough to ask about at the restaurant, I
think.

Thank you!

(Any Aussies still wanting to weigh in, your input would be appreciated!)

Julia
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Sending us a message at 4am will always slow the response, especially 
with late cricket and the Commonwealth swimming trials the night before :-)


The short answer is anything... Really. The can be exquisite culinary 
masterpieces, or they can be crud you wouldn't feed a stock animal...
Mauro's pies sound excellent, but I have to say that some vegetables are 
quite common - especially peas and onions.
In the average bakery, you will find "Meat Pies" which typically are 
based on minced beef of varying quality, but you will also find 
variations such as "Steak and Bacon", "Chicken and Vegetable", "Potato" 
(which is a standard mince pie inside, but with a layer of mashed potato 
forming the top instead of a pastry crust) etc. All variations are 
clearly marked, and the variations are endless. Australians eat 
500,000,000 pies per year, with less than 20mil population, so they're 
pretty popular. It's normal to sell 90,000 pies inside the stadium for a 
big footy game.
The preferred meat for the better pies is beef shanks and minced blade 
steak, because they have a high collagen content, so you end up with a 
nice consistency inside the pie, without too much fat. Steak pies are 
fairly common, where the steak has been sort of "shredded" rather than 
minced. Tastes great, but requires a toothpick afterwards :-)


The following recipe is just one of many many variations:

2 sheets of short crust pastry
2 tablespoons olive oil
400g chuck or blade steak, diced
1 onion, sliced
150g button mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 tablespoons plain flour
200 mls red wine
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup (250 mls) beef stock
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
sea salt and pepper
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

The really ugly truth about mass produced pies is contained here:
http://seven.com.au/todaytonight/story/?id=22630

Extract:
Meat pies are one of the great Aussie icons. Per capita, Australians 
consume more meat pies than any other nation, but most eat them without 
knowing exactly what is in the pie Former food inspector turned lawyer 
Des Sibraa said that under current laws, a standard pie must contain at 
least 25 per cent meat. But if you think that means steak, think again.
"'Meat' is a very broad definition and that's the real problem here," Mr 
Sibraa said.
Mr Sibraa said that to cut costs, some manufacturers were now 
substituting meat with soy protein. It looked like meat, it could even 
taste like meat, but it simply was not real meat.
Analysts only checked for protein, meaning it was possible for a meat 
pie to pass the test without containing any meat.
"You can go around and buy six frozen pies for something like $3 or 
less," Mr Sibraa said. "So there's a lot of competition, especially 
those very cheap pies."
"I would expect them to contain all sorts of things to reduce the cost 
of making them," he added.
To find out how much real meat was in a meat pie we called on the 
experts at a Melbourne food laboratory to examine more than a dozen 
standard meat pies. Most popular brands were included, from the cheapest 
to the most expensive, along with some of the smaller "party pies".
The experts tested each pie to determine how much meat it contained, 
what type of meat was used, and the level of soy protein.
One pie had less than half the minimum meat content required. Two of the 
pies tha

Re: Having children 'is bad for your mental health'

[Russell Chapman]

William T Goodall wrote:

"If you thought that the joys of watching your young ones grow up was  
one of life's simple pleasures, think again. Parenthood is actually  
bad for your mental health, according to the latest research.
Questions included how often "you felt lonely", "you felt depressed",  
"you felt fearful", and "you had trouble keeping your mind on what  
you were doing".


"Parenthood brings rewards, but the worries associated with being  
entirely responsible for another human being appear to outweigh the  
benefits and do not seem to lessen as children grow older."
The study's findings will make happy reading for couples who have  
decided to enjoy the freedom and lack of responsibility associated  
with not having children."


I think that the increase in likelihood of symptoms of depression is 
quite different to "bad for mental health". I would suggest that 
children simply increases the fluctuations between  highs and lows - the 
good times and the bad times. The fact that there are new lows ignores 
the new highs that child raising brings...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Nuclear Iran

[Russell Chapman]

Robert Seeberger wrote:

We (the international community) can always resort to a MAD-like 
position to enforce anti-proliferation. (In fact that might be an 
inevitability) A formalization of the "Nuclear Club" would be a sign 
that such is indeed on the way.
 

But isn't that what the Security Council is? I mean, when it was set up, 
it was the "Nuclear Club", and it used that MAD-like position to control 
proliferation (though not as successfully as they might have hoped). 
Isn't that why Iran is so dead-set against being referred to the 
Security Council for removing the seals?


Of course, the fact that Iran removed the seals tells me all I need to 
know - they don't want to pursue their nuclear program within the 
confines of UN monitoring, therefore they are up to no good...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: My annual Xmas tirade... Was RE: An armed society ...

[Russell Chapman]

William T Goodall wrote:

Microsoft attained its dominant position in the personal computer  
software business through

1) Luck
2) Illegal business practices
3) The mistakes of its competitors
and since
a) Luck eventually runs out
b) Microsoft is now closely scrutinised to ensure it doesn't break  
the law anymore

c) The competition has wised up

Microsoft's position can only decline from now.

Microsoft may yet have another life if it manages to dominate the living 
room in the way it has done the office. Sales between Thanksgiving and 
Christmas of Media Centre edition PCs in the US have been staggering. 
It's not that MS get that much more for the Media Centre version of 
Windows (they do, of course) but the stake being claimed in the living 
room. Once Xbox360 takes that next step into people's home lives, it may 
be that they have got far enough. Sony's devices are better, Apple's 
10foot interface is better, but it's the Microsoft stuff people will 
have, so it is Microsoft that the content providers will have to deal with.
Rather than breaking the law, they will just ensure that DRM laws etc 
benefit them in the first place...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Help me identify 80's cop show...

[Russell Chapman]

Andrew Paul wrote:



That sounds like Chiefs, which I cant say I saw, and seems to be a
movie.

http://www.learmedia.ca/product_info.php/products_id/652

1983, but it has many of the elements that Gary noted, such as taking
place over a long time frame.
 


Charlton Heston as well! IMDB shows it as a mini-series:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084997/
3½ hours long - so it might not be what Gary saw, unless he saw it over 
several nights.
I found it amusing to follow Andrew's link and find characters like Foxy 
Funderburke, or Sheriff Skeeter Willis, or Hoss Spence.
I mean, even 50 years ago, what new mother is going to call her baby 
"Hoss" or "Skeeter".


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: My annual Xmas tirade... Was RE: An armed society ...

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:

PS: Much as I want to, I cannot say that I have never set foot inside  
a Wal-Mart. Once, in San Diego, I went into one to extract my wife  
and child who, ignoring my protests, went in to some kind of super  
ultra mega Wal-Mart monstrosity to buy a pair of sunglasses.



I've never spent money in one, but I have been in one, just to show my 
son the uniquely American sight of a sports department that has the 
bullets beside the baseballs and the guns with the golf clubs. It's one 
of his favourite stories, though most Australians he tells it to assume 
he means they were in the same building, not in the same square metre...


Cheers
Russell C.
PS Does that circle this thread back to the armed society one again?


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Re: Scouted: The Sony Backdoor

[Russell Chapman]

Kevin Street wrote:


Could we be witnessing the Hindenburg-style crash n' burn of the DRM meme in
real time? It's hard to believe any consumers would just placidly accept the
installation of DRM software on their machines after this.


 

I'd like to think that, but while the message is big news among the tech 
crowd, the consumer masses out there don't understand the concept of 
DRM, Trojan Horse etc - they just want to go to Wal-mart, buy a CD and 
play it on their shiny new media centre PC.
Assuming the process involves someone clicking a "Yes" button at some 
point on the PC, there is no legal case against them (you consented...) 
and the vast majoirty of people out there will just assume that a 
company as big as Sony would never help the hackers of this world...


As Media Centre systems get installed in big numbers this holiday 
season, the potential for hackers is almost unlimited, because the 
people who don't know/don't care are the same people who don't patch and 
don't firewall...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: 4thReichKKKlan:

[Russell Chapman]

Robert Seeberger wrote:


Allow me to step out on a limb here.

The people on the bottom can do without the people on the top much 
better than the people on the top could do without the people on the 
bottom.


 


I wonder...
If that were true, why aren't they?
Why are there ghettos, why is that poorest band increasing in numbers 
all the time. It's not like they're being taxed to death by the rich.
The ones the people on the top rely on are the workers, who put in their 
40hours a week, then go out and buy consumer goods.
If I was forced to make the choice on who to save, I'd take that middle 
class - leaders and innovators would arise among them quickly enough, 
and that's the only place you'll find a complete skill set required to 
rebuild.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: D'oh! - Is nothing sacred???

[Russell Chapman]

Gary Nunn wrote:


So MBC is making some changes as the characters go from American to Arab.
They will remove references to things forbidden by the Koran, such as bacon,
beer, and other references that might be construed as offensive. 



 

Before anyone does this, they should load the scripts onto a computer 
and do a search for the word "beer".


The sheer number of occurrences should be enough, but even that wouldn't 
portray the significance of beer in the jokes, the settings, and the 
overall culture.


Why bother making it...

Cheers
Russell C.



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Re: Brin: Asia-friendly URL?

[Russell Chapman]

David Brin wrote:


Hi. http://brinmirror.parasiticmeme.com/  is now up
and running.  I am still not sure that it will truly
mirror with automatic updates.  But at least it seems
to work for now.

Also I wonder if the "email brin" feature will work...
 

Overall, the site worked, with all the pages and links I tried coming up 
perfectly.
The email function generated a "new message" in my default mail program 
using MAPI, with all the addresses filled out.
After that, the email is going to be sent entirely independent of the 
sites address, and would be blocked only if my mail server was blocked.

It was sending the email to the sbcglobal address - is that the public one?

I tried to use the Guest Book, but after filling in the form, all it did 
was generate a blank email in my default mailer directed to the 
sbcglobal address with a subject of "response to Guestbook".


The blank email (with none of the details I filled out in the form) may 
be a result of the specific email program (my work system insists on 
being the default mailer, so even though I use Thunderbird for 90% of my 
emails, my default has to be the corporate system). I'll try again at 
home with a more conventional email program.


Cheers
Russell Chapman
Brisbane Australia



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Re: Brin: Bush considers changes to Posse Comitatus Act

[Russell Chapman]

Gary Nunn wrote:


I have horrific pictures in my head of absolute military control during a
disaster like a pandemic or hurricane relief and them using "extreme"
methods to quarantine sick citizens. Maybe I read too much Science Fiction
:-)
 


But isn't that why we like Science Fiction? To examine and compare
alternate societies and situations?
(And for the cool ships, of course) . . .

Cheers
Russell C.



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Re: RFID clothing

[Russell Chapman]

The Fool wrote:


Electronic anti-theft devices have been installed in vehicles cars for
years -- such as the LoJack, which gained fame during countless TV
commercials. Soon, similar technology will be used in the clothes you
and your children wear.  
 

You wouldn't believe how many people, especially parents, think we 
should be employing this, with readers in each classroom, throughout the 
school.
They want roll marking done every lesson, and we would struggle to 
compile the rolls often enough in a day to be aware when a student 
skipped class.
( As an inner city school, a student who leaves the campus can be up to 
all kinds of things in a very short time...)


We already SMS the parents if a child is absent at the morning roll 
call, but they want it for each class. (Of course, a shirt stuffed into 
a mate's pencil case would do the trick nicely...)


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Found: Time machine in Wal-Mart parking lot.

[Russell Chapman]

Gary Nunn wrote:



You can find the strangest things in Wal-Mart parking lots.

 


Who knew there that many DeLoreans still on the road !
Cool...

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Help!: fleas, dogs & spiders

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:


I was at a dinner party Friday night where one of the guests
(a real girly-girl) was bragging on the fact that she had faced
her fear and killed an extremely large spider in her living
room. I told her that killing something that you outweigh by a
factor of several million to one isn't facing your fear of it.
She wasn't buying it.


I take an each way bet with spiders (ours aren't as wussy as yours, 
overall). I  also figure killing them with a shoe is not very 
sportsmanlike, but that same dark recess of my brain doesn't want him 
around either, so I feed them to my pet dragons...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Gay Penguins....

[Russell Chapman]

Warren Ockrassa wrote:

Homosexuality was a word invented by Freud and, as such, did not even 
exist as a quantifiable concept until the 1900s.


There are no gay penguins, and I'm pretty goddamned sure there are no 
gay humans either. It's just a term used for convenience.


I don't presume to know much about this, and certainly not to understand 
the nuances, but isn't the male who chooses male partners to the 
exclusion of *any* female partners, different on some level? Seems to me 
like homosexual men *are* gay humans. Why do you say there are none?


Cheers
Russell Chapman

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Re: SCOUTED: Wonkette: Jurassic Perk: Crichton's Fame Exchanged for Dignity of Senate Panel

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:


On Sep 28, 2005, at 3:59 PM, Russell Chapman wrote:

To be fair, Crichton hasn't just written a novel and sat back while  
someone decided to believe it. He has been actively campaigning  
around the world to anyone who will listen with his whole mission  to 
divert funding away from resolving climate problems. If he's  been 
invited, it's because he has gone to a lot of trouble to get  himself 
invited, so he's not there as a novelist, but as a lobbyist  who can 
use his famous name.


The book is so far-fetched it wouldn't get him invited to a  
conspiracy convention, let alone a senate committee



You'd think so, but you would be wrong: if Ms. Wonkette is to be  
believed (and she does sometimes jump to conclusions), he already  
*was* invited to a senate committee.


Hence, my post.

Sorry, what I meant was that in my opinion, it was his lobbying (and 
fame) that got him invited, not the contents of the book. It was meant 
as a criticism of the book's plot, nothing more...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: SCOUTED: Wonkette: Jurassic Perk: Crichton's Fame Exchanged for Dignity of Senate Panel

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:


Love her as a quirky voice in political blogging or deride her as
an airhead wannabe, today, the Wonkette tells the sad tale of the
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's invitation of
novelist Michael Crichton to testify on global warming.

Because he wrote a novel about a plucky guy who fights against the
scientists who believe in it.

To be fair, Crichton hasn't just written a novel and sat back while 
someone decided to believe it. He has been actively campaigning around 
the world to anyone who will listen with his whole mission to divert 
funding away from resolving climate problems. If he's been invited, it's 
because he has gone to a lot of trouble to get himself invited, so he's 
not there as a novelist, but as a lobbyist who can use his famous name.


The book is so far-fetched it wouldn't get him invited to a conspiracy 
convention, let alone a senate committee


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Contraflow info

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:


Are you saying that countries like Japan do not have health or education
budgets? I think the biggest contributor to our /not/ having the budget
for projects like this would be military spending.


Hell no - just that they have lots of money (esp true when they started 
this). They had significant reserves and their balance of trade was 
huge, so they can do both social spending and infrastructure investment.
I would have thought it was too late for the USA to make large scale 
cuts in military spending - much of the talk we hear these days is that 
the military is stretched too thin to provide the protection expected of it.


Of course, the flip side to this argument is that even if it cost 10 
billion to do it right, the economic cost of Katrina's flood damage is 
going to be higher than that anyway...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Contraflow info

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:


From at least one of the shots, it seems that the supports for the
ceiling of the "pitch pressure tank" are about 3-4 feet thick by 20-30
feet wide, spaced about 30-40 feet apart. There may or may not be a
civil engineer on this list who can judge it better than I can, but I
would bet yen to manju that this thing is designed to survive just about
whatever earthquake is likely to occur. I don't think they'd invest
billions and a decade and a half building something that would fall
apart on them.


I don't doubt it will work - that's their style. It just seems a 
fantastic amount of money and effort. Admittedly for most of that time 
they have had the money, but countries like the USA and Oz have pressing 
needs like health and education budgets that are inadequate. We simply 
can't afford the sort of investment they have made.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Contraflow info

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:


Some cities in the world are investing *MASSIVE* amounts of money and
effort to protect them from various natural disasters. Take, for
instance, Tokyo, which is building the world's largest flood-prevention
system of mind-boggling proportions, of which some too-cool-to-be-real
photos are available here:

http://www.g-cans.jp/intro/07photo/

Wierd that a city that sits on an earthquake fault line uses this sort 
of design for flood mitigation. I guess that's a product of how critical 
their land use is - the land must be valued so high that any alternative 
to canals and surface floodways is more efficient.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Gotta love the conspiracy people....

[Russell Chapman]

Gary Nunn wrote:


Divers inspecting the ruptured levee walls surrounding New Orleans found
something that piqued their interest:  Burn marks on underwater debris
chunks from the broken levee wall! 


*One diver, a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers*

*sent to trusted military friends at a The U.S. Army Forensic Laboratory*

*well placed sources*

, *a military forensic specialist*

*The source, speaking on condition of  anonymity*



Yep - that's a credible basis for a story.

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Free Markets good but left un checekd they are evil

[Russell Chapman]

Dan Minette wrote:


Light Sweet Crude Oil prices are $66.35/barrel or $1.58/gal for that
date.  Wholesale unleaded gas prices are $1.83/gal.

 

I've often wondered about this - is the production volume more or less 
the same? ie do you get a gallon of unleaded from a gallon of crude?


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Brin: The Military Coup Of 2012

[Russell Chapman]

Robert G. Seeberger wrote:


http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/1992/dunlap.htm

Preface:
The letter that follows takes us on a darkly imagined excursion into 
the future. A military coup has taken place in the United States--the 
year is 2012


The most interesting thing in this is the prediction, made in 1996, of a 
"wretched performance in the second Gulf War"
Most of the other factors have failed to come to pass - particularly on 
the violent crime side which seems so critical in the scenario.
If there's a coup in the US, it will start in a corporate boardroom, not 
in a command bunker. (In fact, substitute Halliburton for military, and 
many of the events described as precursors *are* occurring.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: The Doom That Came To N'Warlins - II

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:



  I'm trying to resist blaming,
because it can't possibly do any good at this point. People want to
point the finger at Bush's shifting of funds from the levee repairs
to Iraq, but there have been TEN presidential administrations since
the Army Corps of Engineers' described plans to shore up the levees.
Right now, there are people that still need to be removed from their
rooftops and people who will definitely die without fresh water and
some food. All the blaming in the world isn't going to save one life.


Looking at it from WAY outside, it certainly appears from here that all
the blame and finger pointing IS doing some good. It appears from here
(where there are no personal or media affiliations for or against US
political parties or presidents) that the more people accuse and shout,
the more POTUS and FEMA have been ramping up efforts. Reports last night
that even more troops are being allocated to relief/rescue efforts seem
to be a response to the criticism, rather than a response to the tragedy
(for starters, if he was going to commit that many because his opinion
was that they needed that many, they would have been on their way last
week, not yesterday...).

Also, I suspect the US public will be outraged by hearing the horror
stories of mismanagement *now* while they are in this state of mind,
rather than in years down the track when some enquiry has run its course
and produced a dry report with a series of recommendations no-one will
follow.

Anything that allows in the disaster relief teams from all the nations
offering them might save lives, and it seems that Bush is going to have
to be shamed into accepting them.

Cheers
Russell C.



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Re: Rebuilding New Orleans & flood damages structures.

[Russell Chapman]

Warren Ockrassa wrote:


It makes no sense to rebuild *at all*.

It's a fairly common question around the BBQ or water cooler here. We 
just don't have anything similar, so many people are wondering why a 
city of a million people was ever built on land that was below sea level?
We have reclaimed land, but nothing that is kept above water by levees. 
Maybe that's because Australia could never afford that sort of 
infrastructure and the US can?


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: The Doom That Came To N'Warlins - II

[Russell Chapman]

Robert Seeberger wrote:

The really sad thing is the pitiful effort from the Federal 
Government.  This shows how pitifully prepared we are for a disaster of this scale.
 


Well, that and the looting...
There are photos on the front page of our paper showing people divvying 
up the loot as they climb back out through the smashed shop-front 
windows. These people are clearly identifiable, and yet brazenly look at 
the photographer while holding 3 distinctive Nike boxes under each arm, 
plus a bag of designer clothing.


Under marshall law, in a state of emergency (and I understand both have 
been declared) these people should be rounded up and used as labour to 
clean up flooded hospitals or something.
Makes me so angry to think of some small business owner who is going to 
come in when he sorts out his home, only to find someone thought they 
deserved to just take the stock.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Irregulars Question: Copying Drives with Norton Ghost

[Russell Chapman]

Ronn!Blankenship wrote:

FWIW, I was getting constant nastygrams from the system that free 
space on the C: drive was getting very low. Now I have 1.38TB of disk 
space.  Perhaps that'll be enough to get me through Labor Day without 
getting any more nastygrams . . .


Hmmm - I could get a fairly decent MP3 collection going with that... 
Even store some of my photos as well.  And to think I was so proud when 
I upgraded my XT to have a 10Mb hard disk instead of 2 x 360K floppies - 
now you have 130,000 of those disks in what is still a home computer. Cool.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Irregulars Question: Copying Drives with Norton Ghost

[Russell Chapman]

Ronn!Blankenship wrote:

I tried several times, playing around with the settings in Ghost 
(largely guessing, as the "help" file is not very helpful and the dead 
tree manual which came in the box even less), but never got any better 
results than that:  a reportedly successful copy to the new drive, but 
the new drive will not boot up when it is installed as drive 0 and the 
old drive is removed.  That's when I started asking for help.


So, any ideas?


I'm assuming that you have been using the Windows version of Ghost (in 
which case your experience is fairly typical). If you can create a DOS 
boot disk with CD-ROM drivers, that is the ideal. Start the computer in 
DOS, and run the DOS version of Ghost from the CD, and choose disk to 
disk copy. If you can't get the CD to work in DOS, it is possible to 
copy the ghost.exe file to the boot disk and run it from there. This 
will normally solve the problem. There is still a full menu interface, 
you don't need all the command line switches, but there's no mouse. (of 
course, the command line switches can do the whole thing if that's your 
preference, and that's how we use it because we use it so routinely).


Failing that, I think that Partition Magic is going to be your best bet 
from here on in. Ghost *should* have done the right thing - your theory 
sounds right, but the 500Gb drives are a new wrinkle that I havent' 
dealt with before. and Ghost may have trouble with them. We had some 
trouble going from 40Gb drives to 120Gb drives, and ended up having 30Gb 
partitions on both (because they are student computers with no data at 
all, the remaining 90Gb is just wasted, as is most of the 30Gb...). 
Because we didn't want or need the space, we didn't put much effort into 
solving the problem.


Give me a yell if you need any specifics, I've kept this "big picture" 
coz you sound like you know your way around a PC, but I can give you 
specific instructions if you want (and a generic CD-ROM driver if it 
will help).


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Irregulars Question: Copying Drives with Norton Ghost

[Russell Chapman]

Ronn!Blankenship wrote:

Has anyone ever done this to copy the contents of the old drive to a 
new (larger) drive?  I have been working on doing so for hours:  a 
couple of times it has reported that it copied successfully, but the 
computer would not boot with the new drive as drive 0.  Can anyone 
tell me the "trick" to getting it to work:  I have tried a number of 
different combinations of settings and none has resulted in a new 
drive which will boot up.


Ronn,
I was away for the weekend, so I didn't see this 'til now. I use Ghost 
every day, so I might be able to help. Did you get it sorted, or is it 
still an issue?


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Are you in the right religion?

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:


Apparently, I AM in the right religion: Mainline to Liberal Christian
Protestants (100%). I currently attend and worship at a United Methodist
church, which is pretty well over on the Liberal end of Mainline
Christian Protestantism.

I find it fascinating that Roman Catholocism is so remote from the 
Christian Protestants.
According to mine, I am 98% Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants, 
yet only 14% Catholic.

In between is 30% Islam, 66% Buddhism, and 82% Neo-Pagan.

Cheers
Russell C.
(Anglican married to a Catholic)


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Re: New Season - Stargate SG1-Atlantis & Battlestar Galactica

[Russell Chapman]

Max Battcher wrote:

From what I heard RDA isn't completely being phased out, but he's 
going to be much more like the President in terms of on screen 
"special appearances".  I'm hoping that they play this really well, 
because as the coordinator of Stargate operations across two galaxies 
it might be more interesting to see the effects of his character's 
decisions without putting him on screen.


We are way behind the US on Atlantis, so forgive me if this sounds 
stupid, but are the Atlantis team in contact with SGC on a regular basis?
I don't recall anyone getting direction from the SGC for any actions in 
Atlantis.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Local car heat-related child death

[Russell Chapman]

Julia Thompson responded when:


Dave Land wrote:


I don't believe that there is a need to punish them: they have already
paid for and will continue to pay for their mistake (or malice) for the
rest of their lives.


Something that is the result of one moment of error, yes.
Something ongoing, however, no.  Deliberately doing something harmful 
to your child over a long period of time, that deserves some horrible 
punishment.  (Especially as the people most likely to do that are also 
most likely not to feel the horrible sense of remorse for years and 
years.)


We have had a lot of media coverage here lately with parents leaving 
kids in cars outside casinos. They have had to employ guards to go 
around checking cars!
These are the sorts of people who need the horrible punishment. (let's 
face it, if you can't afford child care, you can't afford to gamble at a 
casino...)


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Windows infected in 12 minutes

[Russell Chapman]

William T Goodall wrote:

It now takes just twelve minutes for an improperly protected[1]  
Windows PC connected to the internet to become infected.


[1] Most of them in other words.


The significant point here is that unless you have access to a second 
machine with a burner and a reasonable amount of tech-savvy, it takes (a 
lot) longer than 12 minutes to secure a Windows PC.


At least these days (compared to a year ago), once secured it is pretty 
easy to keep it that way, even for newbies.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Plot Holes: War of the worlds - SPOILERS

[Russell Chapman]

Gary Nunn wrote:


WARNING !!!

MAJOR spoilers below

S

P

O

I

L

E

R
 
S


P

A

C

E


I saw War of the Worlds tonight, and I really liked it except for a few
major plot holes and inconsistencies.

2. If the aliens were here hundreds of years ago, why didn't they take over
the planet then, when there would have been no resistance?

3. Why didn't the aliens become infected with a virus (or bacteria) the
first time they were here to bury the ships?
 

Not having seen it, maybe I shouldn't comment, but couldn't the ones 
burying the ships have died from bacteria?
Could the advance party have been an invasion force first wave that came 
to set the equipment in place, but when they succumbed to the bacteria, 
the military chiefs on Mars were waiting for a signal which never came, 
and so it took all this time to mount a new attack?


Cheers
Russell C.




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Re: Civilian in military court?

[Russell Chapman]

Deborah Harrell wrote:


Well, I say she's got big titanium ovaries...and my
prior decisions to limit documentation to frex "Spent
30 minutes discussing severe mental distress from
sexual abuse" are s justified (although that's
more because of my distrust of A. insurance companies
and B. secured access for records kept
electronically).  

 

Excuse my ignorance, but what stops this practitioner from creating 
documentation like your example, and then releasing it as the record of 
therapy?
(Assuming of course, that she has not previously conceded the existence 
of a more comprehensive document).


I guess the principle (that patients can talk freely because it won't be 
revealed) is still compromised by this approach.
I wonder if you were subpoena'd one day and produced the one liner 
record, would they believe you had complied with the court's 
instruction, or would the court assume you were trying to thwart them.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Apples Adventures in TCPA / Palladium

[Russell Chapman]

Ronn!Blankenship wrote:

So IOW when you buy a new computer with that OS and start installing 
everything that was on the old machine onto the new one so you can get 
back to where you were with the old machine and can get back to work 
as usual, you get screwed because you've made too many changes?  
Sheesh . . .


That's EXACTLY what happens - if you make the changes *after* Windows 
validates itself with Redmond. If you have a better soundcard and a 
firewire card and some extra disks you bring over from the old machine, 
and maybe you add a bit of memory, the Microsoft database in Washington 
thinks you've pirated the Windows onto a different machine. You can 
delay the OS from "activating" or submitting its 
configuration/registration to MS for a couple of weeks, but after that 
you're in trouble. In this regard, the new Palladium type stuff should 
actually improve things, because they can tie the OS to a specific 
computer, rather than a specific configuration.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Faith crimes

[Russell Chapman]

William T Goodall submitted:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4294417.stm

"Black church and community leaders are calling for action to protect  
children from the effects of exorcisms.
A spokeswoman for Africans Against Child Abuse (Afruca) said church  
leaders who believe in possession needed education on child protection.
A BBC investigation suggests only a third of London's local  
authorities are addressing the issue seriously.
The Newsnight probe suggests some children are being beaten by  
parents trying to drive out evil spirits.


Or, just maybe, these people are beating up these kids coz they're 
psycopaths who enjoy it (or derive some missing feeling or power or 
whatever), and then suddenly start talking religion and devils when they 
get caught ?  Call me cynical...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Forget global warming, let's make a difference

[Russell Chapman]

Erik Reuter wrote:


http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/06/13/ccpers13.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/06/13/ixfrontcity.html
Personal view: Forget global warming. Let's make a real difference

Moreover, they should also tell what they expect the cost of the Kyoto
Protocol to be. That may not come easy to natural scientists, but there
is plenty of literature on the subject, and the best guess is that the
cost of doing a very little good for the third world 100 years from now
would be $150billion per year for the rest of this century.
 


Interestingly, New Zealand is going to find the cost much sooner than most.
An early adopter of Kyoto, they now find themselves in the curious 
position of running out of electrical power as demands increase and 
generating capacity stalls.
They have abundant geo-thermal power sources, steady coastal winds, 
enormous hydro-electrical potential, long reserves of coal, and plenty 
of natural gas (and a friendly neighbour with plenty of uranium), but 
every single proposed wind-farm, geo-steam plant and hydro-electric dam 
has now been successfully stopped by environmentalists protecting their 
own little part of the world, and the natural gas and coal plants that 
no-one is objecting to would be in contravention of Kyoto because it 
would mean a greenhouse gas emission increase for the country.
Effectively, Kyoto punishes New Zealand because it has BEEN USING 
greenhouse friendly methods by requiring reductions from a low starting 
point.


Maybe they'll have to buy power from us because we haven't signed...

Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Gulags

[Russell Chapman]

William T Goodall wrote:

Instead of the present incredibly wasteful and expensive prison  
system just transport all serious criminals to a tropical resort  
island and give them free booze, drugs and hookers for life. This  
would be far cheaper than the present prison system, more humane, and  
have a 0% recidivism rate since transportees don't get to return.


Less serious criminals can do tagged house arrest and community service.


Hey - it worked for us (though a few of us convicts occasionally sneak 
back to Mother England..)
(the booze is not free, and our wonderfully friendly and co-operative 
young ladies would object to the term hookers...)


Russell C.
Convict descendant on the world's largest and most tropical prison island.


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Re: Brin: Democracy, genocide, torture, etc.

[Russell Chapman]

Nick Arnett wrote:

My question is this.  Has our form of government really changed in the decades 
since?  Is democracy today fundamentally different from the system under which 
we not only permitted, but encouraged and paid for people to cheat, drive 
away, torture and murder the native people of this continent?
 

I don't know that the system has changed that much, but the environment 
in which it operates certainly has.
We live in a world of "Political Correctness" gone mad. We live in a 
world where cameras are everywhere and anyone can publish to the world.
The press are probably more self-interested than at any time in the 
past, but they are also more ubiquitous and they will chase any scandal 
down in the name of ratings/circulation. (Would Abu Ghraib have been so 
sensationally published in 1944?).


I still think Iraq was done for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way 
(during both invasion and occupation), but I think your question above 
is the least of the worries the US and its allies faces in the middle 
east...


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: Even WingNutDaily Can Smell the Republican Hypocrisy

[Russell Chapman]

KZK wrote:

Is there anyone Republicans won't take money from? Would they take 
money directly from the mob, which backs most porn? Would they take 
money from white slave traders? Would they take money from kiddie-porn 
producers? What would be their price for access and influence in the 
White House and Republican Congress – or have they already paid it?


Umm - I'm not sure about your laws, but I thought the whole X-rated 
movie business was a legitimate tax-paying legal way to make money 
(though I have no doubt it is infested with scum who break the law and 
abuse many of the workers in the industry).  I would have thought that 
just because they make pornos doesn't necessarily make them a criminal. 
(Whereas I'm sure both white slavery and kiddie-porn are illegal in your 
country). Someone like Kerkorian is sure to have worse contacts and 
partners than Kulkis, and yet he is feted publicly by both parties as a 
great achiever in the American way...


Cheers
Russell C.



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Re: What do you call this?

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:


No, no, no. *This* is the coolest picture ever. I even *had* one of
those cars...

http://img203.echo.cx/img203/4106/bestpictureever0qv.jpg


What were we thinking back then - to think those two were wildly famous 
and even popular...  aaagh.


Cheers
Russell C.


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Re: See Kingdom of Heaven

[Russell Chapman]

d.brin wrote:

But is there anybody OTHER than Ridley Scott who has the guts to try 
something new?


Not just something new, but a 2005 movie about Christian invaders taking
over Moslem holy ground by force, a movie about the occupation of
Jerusalem...
That's guts.
And really well done - great balance, and a clever separation of the
good guys and the bad guys.

Cheers
Russell C.



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Re: Brin: Luca$ Film Bu$ine$$ Model

[Russell Chapman]

Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
At 06:44 PM Thursday 5/12/2005, Russell Chapman wrote:
I don't know if these figures are widely known, but I found them 
staggering...

Cost of making STIII-ROTS

Probably someone else has previously noticed this, too, but written 
like that it looks like it says "STILL-ROTS" . . .

-- Ronn!  :)
That's even funnier !
Good pickup...
Cheers
Russell C.
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Brin: Lucas Film Business Model

[Russell Chapman]

I don't know if these figures are widely known, but I found them 
staggering...

Cost of making STIII-ROTS - $115,000,000
Money spent *so far* on marketing STIII-ROTS - $100,000,000
Revenue to date on Star Wars Merchandise/Licencing - $9,000,000,000
9 Billion ? Which makes 10 Billion a distinct possibility by the end of 
the year.
While these numbers justify every wise crack our Dr Brin has ever made 
about them being advertisements, it gives me a new respect for Lucas' 
ability to make money.

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Earth has developed a slight eccentricity in its orbit...

[Russell Chapman]

Robert Seeberger wrote:
Warren Ockrassa wrote:
 

That doesn't change my opinion of the movie. It was bad. Bad, bad,
bad.
   

Still have not seen it myself.
But you are the only person I've run across so far who dislikes it 
greatly.
 

Oh, bad doesn't begin to describe it. I'm a fan of all things DNA, but 
my wife is a complete novice - never read the books, never seen the TV 
shows. And both of us hated it.
It is confusing as hell for newbies - there are references to things 
from the book without any sort of explanation, and there are punch lines 
without setup, and jokes that have had the punch line removed. Mos Def 
is just wrong as Prefect, if only because at most times he is talking 
away from the camera/mic and can't be heard.
For the fans, who understand what is going on, it is bewildering to see 
so much important stuff gone, and so much extraneous stuff tacked in 
with no benefit. It's just not funny, and the story doesn't hold up 
without the humour.

2 colleagues at work have also seen it, again one a fan and one a 
newbie, and both hated it.

I had low expectations, but it was worse than I imagined.
Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Howcum (some) Texans are so happy?

[Russell Chapman]

Jim Sharkey wrote:
 I mean, have you ever seen a sad Jehovah's Witness?  :)
Jim
 

Which raises the question - how come Salt Lake City rates so poorly? I 
would have thought that the doctrine would prevent Mormons using 
anti-depressants, and the community structure should reduce suicide. Has 
the proportion of Mormons reduced significantly in SLC in recent times?

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: The Other Christianity (was Re: Babble theory, and comments)

[Russell Chapman]

Robert J. Chassell wrote:
If the Iraqi government had waited until it had nuclear weapons, Iraq
might well have become the first country since 1945 to annex all of
another country successfully (country as recognized by the UN as a
1648 `Treaty of Westfalia' type of country, not as a `protocol state'
such as South Vietnam)
 

Just to nit-pick (as is list tradition), I think the people of Irian 
Jaya would disagree...
I'm not sure how you'd consider the status of Tibet either - aren't they 
effectively annexed?

These only confirm your point - no-one was going to liberate Irian Jaya 
because the US had authorised the invasion and they were a nuclear 
power, and no-one liberated Tibet because China was a nuclear power...

Cheers
Russell C.

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Re: Peering through the Keyhole (Satellite Maps a la Google)

[Russell Chapman]

Julia Thompson wrote:
if I'm to believe all the comments of people who have gone to every 
Burning Man event since at least 2001.  (And the resolution available 
for right there is a lot better than for the nearest real town, or so 
I've been told.)
That's because the geeks operating the satellites thought there was a 
better chance of seeing exposed woobies there than in a real town.
Do they list it as a site, or by address?

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Human Virus Scanner

[Russell Chapman]

Julia Thompson wrote:
Religion
Read "God's Debris" by Scott Adams (yes, the Dilbert guy)
(That's the second recommendation I've gotten for that.  Ought to 
check it out this decade)

Highly recommended, but don't read it when you're tired, so maybe this 
decade will be too soon for you...  :-)
It's very thought provoking, but good fun as you would expect from Adams.

I've never seen it in print - I confess to having it as a Word document, 
though only because I couldn't find it in paper.

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Battlestar Galactica renewed

[Russell Chapman]

Gary Denton wrote:
I think it is a reasonable space drive, hyper jumps of some unknow but
limited range,  but don't see how the fleet is being tracked.  I have
missed a number of episodes and may have missed the technobabble..
 

Don't we know at least one Cylon is aboard BSG? Couldn't they be sending 
out homing signals (or another device like the one found in CIC)?

I don't recall that in the original series there was much emphasis being 
made on the idea of the Cylons being created by humans? Is that just my 
fuzzy old memory, or is this whole "Terminator" kind of theme peculiar 
to the new series?

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Battlestar Galactica renewed

[Russell Chapman]

Nick Lidster wrote:
and kerri with teh multinationalism of this list, im sure there are 
several memebrs that have seen the entire season.

You'd think the networks would be more aware of how much these shows are 
being propagated around the world ahead of various broadcast dates, 
especially among Sci-Fi fans.
We are currently being blitzed with advertising for the "coming soon" BG 
Mini-series, without even a hint of the series (which I thought they'd 
mention to motivate people to watch the mini-series in case they want to 
watch the series)
Australia is ahead of the rest of the world in Stargate SG-1, but never 
heard of Atlantis (even though I believe SciFi is trying to keep them 
more or less parallel)
We are days behind US in some shows, weeks ahead in some, and years 
behind in others, but shows are available for download within hours of 
their broadcast in either the US or the UK. It's getting to where it is 
easier to watch downloads/DVD imports than TV.

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Is environmentalism dead?

[Russell Chapman]

Dan Minette wrote:
And, remember, the US is one of only 3 developed countries that are not
considered in deep doggie do-do over demographic changes.
 

Only 3?  That seems strangely low, though clearly there are many western 
nations with a bleak outlook. Who are the other 2?

Cheers
Russell C.
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Free to a good Bay Area home...

[Russell Chapman]

Tyre-Chains (wait - that would be Tire Chains) to suit SUV.
Sorry that this is waaay off-topic, but I am about to throw away a brand 
new, never opened, set of chains, with tensioners, purchased 2 weeks ago. 
It seems a shame to just leave them sitting on the footpath (oops, 
sidewalk...)

But wait - there's more. The first person to collect these chains will 
also get a free snow toboggan useful for any child from 4 to umm, 42  ;-)
The toboggan has been used (what a hoot!). They were bought for a Ford 
Explorer, which seems to have pretty standard wheels/tires for a SUV. 
They even come with a receipt from Kragens if you want to exchange them. 
I can leave them at the hotel for collection, unless someone has a 
better idea for hand over.

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Are You A Neocon? Neocon Quiz

[Russell Chapman]

Nick Arnett wrote:
I bought the nuclear threat pitch the first time around.  It reminded 
me of the nightmares (literally) of the '60s.  Do you think that those 
of us who bought it the first time, only to find out it was a 
fabrication, are any more likely to swallow it now?
When do you mean by "bought it the first time" - I assume you're not 
talking about 1962 - 1978? Did you mean the lead up to the 2003 invasion?

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: "God Is With Us" L3

[Russell Chapman]

Warren Ockrassa wrote:
Well, they're usually about conquest _by one side_.
The side that's trying to prevent itself from being
conquered is not usually described as fighting for
conquest.

I'm not sure what spin doctors would put it that way; whether one is 
on the offensive or defensive is immaterial. If one is not engaged in 
war with the sole purpose in mind of conquering one's enemy, one is 
doomed to lose.
Having watched this debate rage backwards and forwards, this one 
response probably sums up the whole topic - Iraq, lessons of the Vietnam 
war, culpability of the politicians involved in both, etc.

To be fair, the US did spend most of its time just securing the south 
against invasion, not trying to overwhelm the north, so you're both right.

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Famous Atheist Now Believes in God

[Russell Chapman]

William T Goodall wrote:
At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew
has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have
created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good
explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew
said in a telephone interview from England.
Poor old guy's obviously going senile.
Nah - I've always liked the old joke about old people going to church 
(and around here they're about the only ones that do).
They're cramming for their final exam...

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Re: Irregular Question: DVD±RW

[Russell Chapman]

Erik Reuter wrote:
One thing I was wondering about for a new purchaser was whether they
might increase their chances by buying drive and media with the same
brand, on the theory that HOPEFULLY the company would thoroughly test
the drive and media, with their name on it, together. Of course, that
may not be the case.
We thought that too, and bought Sony drives and Sony media - the drives 
turned out to be rebadged Lite-On drives (that we could've purchased 
much cheaper without the rebadging), and to make matters worse, they 
didn't work properly until we applied a Liteon firmware update (which 
invalidates the Sony warranty).
My home Sony drive is a genuine Sony with which I've been very 
impressed, but I've only done 4x as well.

My laptop (Dell) came with +only burner, which was a bit of a shock - it 
never occurred to me that they wouldn't use a +/- drive.

Cheers
Russell C.
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SoCal Brin-L members question

[Russell Chapman]

Legoland, San Diego to LAX question
Friends,
I seek the advice of anyone who frequents Southern California. I have 
been planning my Christmas holidays using both Microsoft's Streets & 
Trips (no way it was written in Redmond - it's brilliant!) and Mapquest. 
They have given me wildly different times for the last leg of my 
journey, which is from Legoland, San Diego to LAX.
(I know we have one member who does the trip regularly, but I suspect 
he's a bit busy for playing travel agent...)

I need to know how much time to allow to drive to LAX to catch a late 
night flight back to Oz. Given that the park closes at 5pm, I can expect 
peak hour traffic, so what time should I expect to get to LAX?

(If we have any members in the Seattle/Portland area, can anyone tell me 
are there winter road closures around Mt St Helens? Everything I find 
now is based on the eruptions, but I don't want to plan a 4WD route 
based on the recently re-opened roads and find them closed due to snow...)

Many thanks
Russell C.

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Re: So it begins.... Evangelicals to Bush: Payback Time

[Russell Chapman]

JDG wrote:
So what begins?More demonization of Christians?
Sometimes I think that for all the talk about religious tolerance, that
some people believe that Christians really shouldn't be permitted to
participate in the political process.   
 

Anyone who works to have the government and the courts subverted to 
their own personal belief system against the will of the majority 
shouldn't be permitted to participate in the political process.
I don't know anybody who thinks gays shouldn't be allowed to display 
affection in public, yet these guys want that for the whole country. The 
sad part of the whole thing is thing is their use of the word Christian 
to describe themselves. Where's the love and tolerance that Jesus spoke 
of, what happened to the concept of free will that God gave us (and how 
does that tie in with God intervening in an election?).

There are greater evils in the world today that need our faith and 
strength to confront them than the petty little affronts these guys are 
worried about...

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Nerd From Hell is back from the dead!

[Russell Chapman]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
So now I am back, feeling better, and a bit more fiendish. 
 

Excellent news! Glad to have you back.
There was also an unexpected side effect - anticipatory nausea. When ever I
think about the chemo, I get nauseas. The other day, a nurse wheeled in a IV
pole into the exam room during my bone marrow biopsy, and the sight of it
made me sick. 
I also get sick when ever I see my nurse that delivered the chemo. I feel
bad about that, but it is uncontrollable. The last few treatments, I started
getting sick before I actually got treatment.

 

My wife suffers from this, but the nurse thing is even wierder - seeing 
the nurse who gave her the first 2 treatments induces vomiting (even 
passing her in the reception rooms) but other nurses don't. (Conversely, 
her chemo really does make her violently ill, and there has been 
complete hair loss).

Good luck with the vaccine!
Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Brin: the new know nothings

[Russell Chapman]

Warren Ockrassa wrote:
"Barna's results verified findings of earlier polls: that conservative 
Protestant Christians, on average, have the highest divorce rate, 
while mainline Christians have a much lower rate. They found some new 
information as well: that atheists and agnostics have the lowest 
divorce rate of all."
It's not even vaguely surprising that these "conservative Protestant 
Christians" (and they really do defy labelling...) have a higher divorce 
rate, but it is IMHO a reach to suggest that their affiliation is more 
likely to make their marriage go bad, just (again, IMHO) that they are 
far more likely to go into an inappropriate marriage in the first place.
If there was some way to correlate "breakdowns of co-habiting 
relationships" there might be a bit more consistency across the nation - 
what the statistics are showing here is that people of the southern 
states are more likely to leave an official record of their separation...

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: It seems over...

[Russell Chapman]

Horn, John wrote:
Again, he stood behind her (and me!) telling her what to do.  She didn't seem
to understand that she had to put the punch-card ballot *in* the
little slot and how to follow the ballot to know where to punch.
 

Wow, that's a jailable offence here. If you don't know how to vote, you 
have to take it to a scrutineer and ask their help, then go back to the 
booth. No-one is allowed NEAR the booth if there is someone in it. (Mind 
you, we still use pencils and paper...)

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: It seems over...

[Russell Chapman]

kerri miller wrote:
--- Russell Chapman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
 

(especially to a citizen of a country where voting is compulsory...)
   

From what I understand, if you don't vote you just have to say "Oh, I was
sick" or you face a $15AU fine?
 

Basically, yes. It's AUD20 (USD15), and you can talk your way out of it 
pretty easily. On top of that, the follow up of non-voters is fairly spotty.
Still, it's a state-of-mind as much as anything. Voter turnout is 
consistently around 95%.

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Scouted: Salon: Trapped in the Echo Chamber

[Russell Chapman]

Dave Land wrote:
In an off-list conversation with Nick, he opined that we're at the 
beginning of what may turn out to be a generations-long 
coming-to-terms with having an unprecedented variety of points of view 
available via the Internet. Right now, we just don't know what the 
heck to do with it.

Some hole up with their fellow (Left|Right)-Wingers to tell each other 
how right they are, how evil the other guys are, and think that 
they're on to some New Truth. 
Conversely, any regular reader of UseNet would have seen preaching and 
mudslinging of unprecedented proportions from both sides, the end result 
of which seemed to be people reeling from the medium of the message (ie 
if you're the sort of person represented by candidate A then there is no 
way I'm ever going to vote for "A")

There was reasoned and thoughtful discussion in areas where there was 
agreement, but vitriol and spite wherever conversions were being 
attempted. Wierd...

Cheers
Russell C.
(I wonder if it safe to go back to the ebook, wallpaper, farscape and 
stargate groups yet - maybe I'll wait another week).

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Re: It seems over...

[Russell Chapman]

John D. Giorgis wrote:
Here's another good analysis of why things ended up as they did
 http://slate.msn.com/id/2109145/
 

Did I understand the bit about the number of voters right?
I got the impression that John Kerry got more votes in this election 
than any president in the history of the USA ever got?
The popular vote thing I understand (though 1988 was a long time 
ago...), but to have that sort of change in voting levels seems amazing 
(especially to a citizen of a country where voting is compulsory...)

Cheers
Russell C.

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Re: It seems over...

[Russell Chapman]

kerri miller wrote:
Make sure Obama gets a good committee seat, and make it quite clear
to him that if he has ANY skeletons in the closet (even a paper one packed
away in a box from last halloween) to fess up ASAP.
I don't think he can be on a presidential ticket - his closet skeleton 
is on his birth certificate, especially while there are unexplored caves 
on the Afghan-Pakistan border...
(Mind you, it would resolve Alberto's dilemna about a source of new jokes)

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: A few positive things

[Russell Chapman]

Ruben Krasnopolsky wrote:
Bush has made some things wrong during his first period.
Iraq's current anarchy probably the worst of them.
Maybe he would make some things better this time - it's not impossible,
especially if he's pressured by public opinion.
 

But it is a sad fact of history that whenever any incumbent is 
re-elected, particularly if they improve their majority, they start 
wildly claiming "mandate" for each and every issue they ever policy or 
decision they've made, even if they were nothing to do with the people's 
decision.
I don't know enough about Kerry to say what happenned, but *as an 
example*, if people voted for Bush because they didn't like Kerry, then 
Bush will be able to say that the people want his brand of power abuse 
and global grandstanding, simply because they voted for him...

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: National ID card

[Russell Chapman]

Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
Um, what about the suggestions some have made of having your medical 
records stored in the National Health Care Database and every time you 
go to buy food, it checks and if you are overweight, have diabetes, 
high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or anything else, you won't be 
allowed to buy anything that someone has decided may be bad for your 
condition so you will not burden the National Health Care Service* 
excessively?

This is becoming common at school canteens here (Parents get to say what 
categories of food kids can buy, or apply limits (eg 1 coke per day or 
whatever)), and they can't buy anything without swiping their student 
card...

What I have learnt is that based on how easily the kids circumvent the 
system, real criminals and terrorists will have no problem at all

Cheers
Russell C.
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Bay Area Residents Question

[Russell Chapman]

Hi fellow Brinellers
Can anyone who lives in the Bay area help me?
I am working out my schedule for the Christmas holidays, and many of my 
friends have recommended I rent a bicycle and ride over the Golden Gate 
and around the bay in a big circle. This sounds great, but I differ from 
them in 3 key areas:
- I am not as fit as they are
- I have a significant fear of heights
- I am travelling in January.

I don't know how wide the bikepath on the bridge is, or how cold the 
Golden Gate gets in January, but I'd hate to get started and find myself 
clinging to a pole somewhere in an attack of vertigo. Should I plan on a 
nice drive instead?

Thanks
Russell C.
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Re: An attack on Iran?

[Russell Chapman]

d.brin quoted:
According to White House and Washington Beltway insiders, the Bush 
administration, worried that it could lose the presidential election 
to Senator John F. Kerry, has initiated plans to launch a military 
strike on Iran's top Islamic leadership, its nuclear reactor at 
Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, and key nuclear  targets throughout the 
country, including the main underground research site at Natanz in 
central Iran and another in Isfahan. 
Wouldn't any US administration be constantly drawing up plans for all 
sorts of attacks in all sorts of scenarios?
Isn't that how the Taliban were defeated where no-one thought it 
possible - because the Clinton adminstration had drawn up plans for this 
attack, well before 9-11-01?
It's still creepy, and the idea of targeting mullahs and mosques is 
against everything the US has been for 200 odd years, but I suspect that 
plans like this are called for then filed away more or less continually.

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: Earthsea Miniseries

[Russell Chapman]

Jim Sharkey wrote:
While watching the Farscape miniseries, I've caught several advertisements for an 
Earthsea miniseries.  Surprisingly, given that it *is* SciFi network, and they hate 
their fans, it looks like it might be pretty good.  Anyone else looking forward to it?
Bah! Tell me what you think of Peacekeeper Wars!
Waiting, waiting...
Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: 2004 Presidential Race Analysis

[Russell Chapman]

Erik Reuter wrote:
What was the margin of error of the poll? Quantify your "landslided",
how much did the winner get?
Different polls gave different margins, but they were all way short of 
the actual result - way short.
The most prominent polls were talking 50:50 with margins of 3% for 
Newspoll, 2.6% for ACNielsen and Roy Morgan at 2.2% a week out.
In September, ACNielsen and Morgans had the Labour party (the more 
socialist of the two) leading by more than the margin of error, Newspoll 
had Labour ahead, but by less than the margin.
In the last few days, Newspoll and ACNielsen increased their sample size 
and came down to just over 2% margin, but still giving the conservatives 
only the smallest of margins (I think 50.2% and 48.8%).

Australian voting is VERY different for a number of reasons:
 - Preferential voting (as Andrew described)
 - No direct vote for leader (we elect our members of the House of 
Representatives, and whichever party has the most seats puts their 
leader in as the Prime Minister
 - and the big one - Compulsory Voting - every citizen over 18 MUST vote.

But the end result was completely unexpected by everyone except the 
bookies (Morgan and Newspoll have poor success rates in forecasting the 
election winner. In its election-eve polls, Morgan got it wrong on three 
of the past six elections (1990, 1993, 2001), while Newspoll did only 
marginally better, incorrectly calling two of the six (1993, 1998), 
whereas Centrebet and other bookies have got it right every time).

The Conservatives look like increasing the number of seats they hold in 
every state bar one, including quite a number of seats always considered 
safe seats for Labour. The swing toward the sitting conservatives was 
3.4% at this stage - ALL polls predicted a swing away from them, varying 
from 2 to 4% over the campaign - the only question was whether the swing 
away would be enough for them to lose government.

No polls at all even considered the possibility of the Conservatives 
gaining control of the Senate, which now looks quite likely (counting 
continues as I write this) and which hasn't happenned in 20 years.
Interestingly, I believe that had the polls indicated that it might 
happen, it wouldn't have happenned (a self-reversing prophecy?) because 
Australians were generally pretty happy with the idea of a minority 
party holding the balance of power in the Senate (traditionally called 
"keeping the bastards honest" here). (We only elect half our Senators at 
each election - they sit 6 year terms - so gaining control will be an 
extraodinary feat if accomplished)

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: The Electoral College (Was: Re: 2004 Presidential Race Analysis)

[Russell Chapman]

Bryon Daly wrote:
Translation: states where your vote doesn't mean squat, especially if
you're in the minority party there.  Both parties know who will win so
neither will expend much effort (if any) in these places.
and to add a quote from Dr Brin...
"If you find it persuasive, please share it with undecideds - and 
decided conservatives who have at least an open mind - in battleground 
states."

There's all the evidence you need that Bryon is right - not even the 
most vehement activists can be bothered persuading voters in the decided 
states...

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: The Electoral College (Was: Re: 2004 Presidential Race Analysis)

[Russell Chapman]

Damon Agretto wrote:
The Electorial College is in place so that the
American People will be prevented from electing a
Hamster as president, and have the results validated,
something that happened at my University for Student
Body President. 
Although the system can nerf election results
occasionally, I think its a good system with some very
good thought behind it.
But doesn't near universal literacy, mass-media and particularly 
television change all that?
It seems to me that, whether they use it wisely or not, all Americans 
now have the ability to make an informed decision about their leaders, 
which certainly wasn't the case 200 years ago.

Cheers
Russell C.
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Re: 2004 Presidential Race Analysis

[Russell Chapman]

John D. Giorgis wrote:
After all, remember that due to
redistricting, a straight re-run of the 2000 election would produce a
278-260 Bush win.   
I think I now understand the US EC voting better now, except this one 
thing - I thought it was already done as Byron has suggested - that each 
electoral district represented one vote in the EC, and the party with 
the most votes in that district scored that vote.
From reading the preceding emails, it seems the state's total popular 
is everything, but then I can't see how re-districting has any effect. 
It's not like the line between OH and PA suddenly got moved. How does 
redistricting change the result at the EC?

Oh, and as a curiousity - does the EC actually meet - do representatives 
from each state actually gather in a room in DC and put ballot papers in 
a box?

Cheers
Russell C.
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