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Comment Re:Speaking as a structural firefighter in the US (Score 3, Informative) 67

In this instance, the study is with the Country Fire Authority in Victoria, which means they are mostly fighting bushfires dressed in overall type materials. Whilst they do structural fires too in the rural areas, wildfires are their bread and butter. A good example is today, where it's been 45 to 47 degrees celcius most of the day with less than 20% humidity. Add to that strong, searing hot winds. They are there for hours, days or even weeks in some cases They look something like this: http://images.3aw.com.au/2009/02/09/375630/1fire424-3-424x283.jpg
Space

Students Calculate What Hyperspace Travel Would Actually Look Like 234

cylonlover writes "The two Star franchises (Wars and Trek) and countless science fiction movies have given generations of armchair space travelers an idea of what to expect when looking out the window of a spaceship that's traveling faster than the speed of light. But it appears these views are – if you'll excuse the pun – a bit warped. Four students from the University of Leicester have used Einstein's theory of Special Relativity to calculate what faster than light travel would actually look like to Han and Chewie at the controls of the Millennium Falcon. The fourth year physics students – Riley Connors, Katie Dexter, Joshua Argyle, and Cameron Scoular – say that the crew wouldn't see star lines (PDF) stretching out past the ship during the jump to hyperspace, but would actually see a central disc of bright light."

Comment Re:Don't complain about crime then (Score 2) 254

Yes they are not "undercover" as such but just unmarked or covert cars. The are generally easy to spot unless they are behind you. New South Wales Police are even taking advantage of this with a special batch of 50 highway cars highly marked and extremely visible from the rear, but almost covert from the front. They even have photos of their covert cars on their own Facebook pages. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.420791607956995.85178.217834118252746&type=3
Government

Senate Cybersecurity Bill Stalled By Ridiculous Amendments 233

wiredmikey writes "Despite a recent push by legislators, it remains unclear whether the Senate will manage to vote on the proposed comprehensive cybersecurity legislation (Cybersecurity Act of 2012) before Congress adjourns at the end of the week for its summer recess. Once all the amendments (over 70) have been dealt with, the Senate could decide to vote on the bill immediately, or wait till after the summer recess. As usual, the Democrats and Republicans have been unable to agree on which amendments will be considered, effectively stalling the bill. And most interesting, is that in typical U.S. political fashion, some of the amendments have nothing to with the topic on hand (cybersecurity): ... Sen. Frank Lautenberg has filed a measure to ban high-capacity ammunition clips as part of a gun-reform proposal. And Sen. Mike Lee filed a bill that would ban abortion in Washington, D.C. after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Sen. Michael Bennet and Tom Coburn filed an amendment to expand the Office for Personnel Management's federal government's data center consolidation initiative. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested an amendment to repeal the Affordable Care Act."

Comment Re:T3000 (Score 1) 236

The Westfield at Kotara, NSW has paid parking, but you only pay after 3 hours. Less than that is free. On the plus side, they have installed a system to monitor car spaces and each one has a bi-colour light to show free or occupied. It makes it significantly easier to find a space. Westfield has to do something as their business model of increasing the rent each year to drive profit growth has slammed into a brick wall, with retail chains actively closing stores now in response to the massive rents.

Comment Re:Good for them.... (Score 1) 2115

I've often thought this would be a great and fair idea. n=20% is probably a good rate too. If you earn a dollar you pay 20 cents tax; if you earn $1million you pay $200,000 tax. No deductions, no offsets. It would put a whole sector of hangers-on out of work, but wouldn't it be great overall. I'd love to see how the actual tax collection figures stack up versus the current system. The claims that it'll deter investment are a nonsense. If there is a dollar to be made, people will be in it.

Comment Nudity != Porn (Score 1) 350

I'm quite perplexed as to how these zeolots have managed to get the mainstream populace to go along with "nudity == porn". Now we have a society that is terrified of taking photos of their own children and any photographer even near children is viewed with suspicion. Whilst porn generally involves some nudity, the converse is not the case. Nudity without a sexual context cannot be pornography. There really isn't a paedophile hiding behind every tree waiting to photograph your children and beat off to the pics later.

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