Posts by The Simonator

1) Message boards : Cafe SETI : California - "Third World" - Nation Status!!! (Message 2015351) Posted 13 Oct 2019 by The Simonator Post: Paid $4.09/Gal/Regular at the San Ramon Exxon. (Cheapest station in Danville/San Ramon that is close to the house. (COSTCO in Concord is cheaper...)) Every other station in Danville/San Ramon is $4.29 to $4.35/Gal/Regular. Walnut Creek is $4.35/Gal/Regular. THIS JUST SUCKS!!! IF I had the money, I'd buy my parents a Generac 22KW Unit for the house... (Runs on Natural Gas.) Power still, (thankfully), up in Danville. TL Oh how terrible for you. Petrol is currently averaging Â£1.27.7 per litre here in the UK, that's equivalent to US$6.11 per US gallon. Fortunately my car runs on LPG which is currently 58p/l, or US$2.77 per US gallon. Edit: The first line refers to your fuel prices, glad your power is still on.
2) Message boards : Cafe SETI : Transportation Safety 3 (Message 2014389) Posted 6 Oct 2019 by The Simonator Post: Yes, it would be nice if systems acted in a way that people could understand. And yes it would be nice if they knew how to respond to a problem from such systems. But wouldn't it be even nicer if such systems didn't have issues that people will have to deal with at some point? The more complexity you build into systems to check and cross check the more different unexpected ways they can fail. That's true but because 'Plane flies across Atlantic without incident' doesn't make for a headline, the one or few times a system fails gets massively overblown compared to the thousands of times it doesn't. Humans it seems are far more tolerant of human error than that of machines, even if machines are demonstrably safer at some tasks. Automated vehicles could cut Britain's ~2,000 annual road deaths by 99% and the papers would report it as 'Self-driving cars murder 20 people per year!'
3) Message boards : Cafe SETI : Transportation Safety 3 (Message 1956799) Posted 22 Sep 2018 by The Simonator Post: Think this driver needs to read the road signs more often. BBC video - Van launched Why has the footage been sped up? From timing the interval between the 100 yard boards the car with the camera is doing 121 mph.
4) Message boards : Cafe SETI : Cash or Card? (Message 1956797) Posted 22 Sep 2018 by The Simonator Post: Try a ATM at 7-11. They claim to have no surcharge machines there. That logo is weird, why a lowercase n at the end?
5) Message boards : Politics : Trust (Message 1953088) Posted 31 Aug 2018 by The Simonator Post: There is an important point in this bit: "Dr Bawa-Garba said in her defence she had worked a 12-hour shift with no break and there was a lot of miscommunication in the ward." Such a scenario is all too common. As a research scientist in the hospital lab i get to go home at 5.30pm (much to my colleagues on the ward's envy!). After twelve hours of staring into microscopes i would be absolutely knackered, yet the most damage i could do would be to myself. Were I a medical doctor, with other people's lives (sometimes literally) in my hands, the risks are much higher! Charlie Massey is a manager, not a doctor, you don't need a medical degree to do what he does. A functioning pair of ears to listen to concerns then (in an ideal world) act on those concerns is what's necessary. Very true. What is also important is what I've underlined. The problem is that too many managers let their positions (read status) overcome their common sense. No arguments from me there.
6) Message boards : Cafe SETI : Don't know where it should go? Stick it here! Part VI (Message 1953084) Posted 31 Aug 2018 by The Simonator Post: I used to do that all the time when I was younger! Walked the mile to school by myself from age seven as well. Kids these days... Wilmette mom investigated for letting 8-year-old walk dog around the block. 'For something like this to happen to me, thereâ€™s something really wrong.' Just after returning home from a walk around the block with her dog, Marshmallow, an 8-year-old Wilmette girl expected a visit from a playmate. Instead, police officers arrived at the familyâ€™s door. An anonymous caller had contacted police after seeing the girl walking the dog alone, said her mother, Corey Widen. While police never pursued charges, the seemingly common activity launched an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigation to see if Widen was neglecting her children, she said.
7) Message boards : Cafe SETI : erm... there's this pigeon... (Message 1953074) Posted 31 Aug 2018 by The Simonator Post: I've seen pigeons eat fag ends, so they don't seem very picky. (Cigarette butts, for our non-British cousins) I have seen pigeons eat pop corn.
8) Message boards : Politics : Trust (Message 1953073) Posted 31 Aug 2018 by The Simonator Post: There is an important point in this bit: "Dr Bawa-Garba said in her defence she had worked a 12-hour shift with no break and there was a lot of miscommunication in the ward." Such a scenario is all too common. As a research scientist in the hospital lab i get to go home at 5.30pm (much to my colleagues on the ward's envy!). After twelve hours of staring into microscopes i would be absolutely knackered, yet the most damage i could do would be to myself. Were I a medical doctor, with other people's lives (sometimes literally) in my hands, the risks are much higher! Charlie Massey is a manager, not a doctor, you don't need a medical degree to do what he does. A functioning pair of ears to listen to concerns then (in an ideal world) act on those concerns is what's necessary. Trust...hmm...is it instantly applied or is it earned? The pitfalls of trust broken/betrayed Hmm... the CEO of the GMC... Charlie Massey â€“ Chief Executive Charlie leads our senior management team who are responsible for what we do day-to-day. He builds on the key reforms we've delivered, including: â€¢expanded medical education and training role â€¢revalidation â€¢language checks for doctors from Europe â€¢Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service. Charlie joined us from his Director General role at the Department of Health England. Before that, Charlie was Director for Ageing Society and State Pensions at the Department for Work and Pensions. He has also worked in a variety of roles across government and the wider public sector. During this time Charlie has led: â€¢improved funding of final salary pension schemes as Executive Director of the Pensions Regulator â€¢childcare and drugs reviews in the Prime Ministerâ€™s Strategy Unit â€¢work on Royal Mail and the future of the Post Office network at HM Treasury. Can't see any medical degree amongst all that gumpf.
9) Message boards : Politics : Other independent candidates for U.S. President... (Message 1819750) Posted 25 Sep 2016 by The Simonator Post: How come Clinton's middle name is given in full but Trump's isn't? I couldn't vote for someone named after a fart!
10) Message boards : Politics : America's Shame (Message 1818306) Posted 19 Sep 2016 by The Simonator Post: So once every smoker on the planet has given up, either voluntary or because of the hefty costs, what will governments tax heavily to replace all that lovely lost revenue? Or everyone's turned to the black market. I visited Pripyat last year and found that a pack of 20 cost about 35 pence. Although given the setting the health risk from smoking isn't really the dominant issue. 10 units of Ukranian currency, which i have no idea how to spell or pronounce.
11) Message boards : Politics : America's Shame (Message 1818275) Posted 19 Sep 2016 by The Simonator Post: Increasing the tax on tobacco doesn't stop people smoking, it just stops poorer families from buying fruit.
12) Message boards : Politics : America's Shame (Message 1817937) Posted 18 Sep 2016 by The Simonator Post: Oh dear. Taxing women, just because they're women At least your Northern neighbours had the right idea :-) "The so-called tampon tax is a sales tax on feminine hygiene products which are used to absorb menstrual blood." Thanks for that, I thought they were a type of kettle drum! The reason we still have 5% VAT on tampons and in the UK is because the EU deems them a 'luxury item'. Maybe that's one thing that will change for the better post Brexit.
13) Message boards : Politics : Athelets and Celebrities anthem protests (Message 1817935) Posted 18 Sep 2016 by The Simonator Post: This guy couldn't miss the point further if he fired in the wrong direction and the point was in a different county! Rep. Steve King wonders if Colin Kaepernick is â€œsympathetic to ISISâ€ because his girlfriend is Muslim The latest comes from Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who asserts that Kaepernick, a player for the San Francisco 49ers, protested racism because his girlfriend, MTVâ€™s Nessa Diab, is a Muslim during a Monday interview on the conservative talk show The Steve Malzberg Show, Salon reported.
14) Message boards : Politics : Society's Role in Education 2 (Message 1817931) Posted 17 Sep 2016 by The Simonator Post: Instead of sorting out education, they prefer to fight. I'm all in favour of more Grammar schools. Cards on the table: I went to a Grammar school and rather enjoyed it. For me it seemed the 11-plus wasn't so much about picking the top half as weeding out the bottom half, those children who don't want to be at school so just muck about and disrupt the class, get rid of them and the remaining children who do want to be there and learn can thrive. I'd like to see a moratorium on the phrase 'social mobility' with regard to this debate. It keeps getting thrown in as a catch-all answer when the person being interviewed clearly can't think of anything better to say. They say it will benefit the wealthy, that's a fallacy, it benefits the intelligent, that's the whole point. Heard someone on the radio yesterday saying we "can't give a good education to a few and an average education to the rest". Seems to me the alternative is giving a rubbish education to everyone...well, I suppose that's fair. Here's my theory. Let's assume for the sake of argument that the middle-class will benefit from this system, that implies that the children of affluent people are more intelligent than the children of the poor... I see no reason for that not to be the case, intelligent people are more likely to be affluent because they're intelligent so work harder, have better jobs, earn more money, etc. And intelligent parents produce intelligent children. If someone's poor because the only job they're capable of getting is stacking shelves at Lidl, then they'll produce less intelligent children. (I'm speaking in general terms here, you get the occasional genius from a council estate and dullard from the Cotswolds, but they're anomalies.) My father is a company director and my mother is an accountant, they're both intelligent people, so they produced an intelligent child, me. (I have the doctorate to prove it!) Therefore, I would (and did) benefit from a Grammar school education. I don't think I'd be as successful today had I gone to the local comprehensive. That's it from me and you are now free to begin throwing chairs.
15) Message boards : Politics : Who has been the best U.S. President in your lifetime? (Message 1817531) Posted 16 Sep 2016 by The Simonator Post: The first US president i was really aware of was Bill Clinton. As a pubescent teenager at the time at school the Lewinsky affair was much discussed, and not in a mature way. The stories of Monica under the desk on her knees while he was conducting important phone calls... it may be politically unsound, but President Lad Icon is in the building! Compare that to our PM at the time, John Major. Clinton used his position of power to seduce a series of hot young interns. Major was leapt on by the Commons' bike, and was too weak to say no.
16) Message boards : Politics : The Way Ahead (Message 1817529) Posted 16 Sep 2016 by The Simonator Post: Sturgeon: Second independence referendum could be next year Oh dear Mr Snark definitely a fish out of water Since whoever wrote that article thinks that Braveheart was William Wallace, I wouldn't be too confident about any of its other assertions.
17) Message boards : Politics : Monarchy v Republic (Message 1727593) Posted 21 Sep 2015 by The Simonator Post: Because we went to war with the last chap who marched across Europe forcing them to change driving sides. Yes, I'm sure it was which side of the road people drive on that was on the bloke's mind. There were many things on his mind, that was only one of them. I think we're getting rather off topic.
18) Message boards : Politics : Monarchy v Republic (Message 1727563) Posted 21 Sep 2015 by The Simonator Post: Technically GB is a constitutional monarchy nothing like the kingdoms of old when a king or queen had absolute power. Personally I have no problem with the system as it exists today. I just wonder when they will realise the error of their ways and start driving on the right side of the road :) We do drive on the right side, you lot drive on the wrong side! Typical British snobbery. We are right, everybody else is wrong ;) Japan, Australasia, India and a large chunk of southern Africa agrees with us. Why is that? Why are you not mentioning closer, European countries? :) Because we went to war with the last chap who marched across Europe forcing them to change driving sides.
19) Message boards : Politics : Racist? [yes you are] (Message 1727546) Posted 21 Sep 2015 by The Simonator Post: It so happens that kids like explosives. I for one. We did a lot of experiments and tools to make it happen. Once I found plastic explosive (Dynamex) and ignators. We used a scooter motor to trigger it and it was quite spectaculary. This was done in a remote area of course. Me too. Wonder what they'd make of the flamethrower i built from a super-soaker with a metal nozzle and a bbq lighter... Those where the days we didn't know what rascism and terrorism is... That was while i was still a student, less than a decade ago! Two years ago i made a big batch of fake crystal meth (actually lemon brittle dyed blue) for the finale of Breaking Bad, then crossed town on the bus with it sealed in little plastic bags. I'd like to see what the police would have made of that if i'd been searched. Real crystal meth is white, but it was blue in the programme.
20) Message boards : Politics : Monarchy v Republic (Message 1727544) Posted 21 Sep 2015 by The Simonator Post: Technically GB is a constitutional monarchy nothing like the kingdoms of old when a king or queen had absolute power. Personally I have no problem with the system as it exists today. I just wonder when they will realise the error of their ways and start driving on the right side of the road :) We do drive on the right side, you lot drive on the wrong side! Typical British snobbery. We are right, everybody else is wrong ;) Japan, Australasia, India and a large chunk of southern Africa agrees with us.

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