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Comment Re:Categorically not be allowed in the UK (Score 1) 629

by Island Admin (#34122504) Attached to: UK Pressures the US To Takedown Extremist Videos
The British Empire is different to the Common Wealth which is different to the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom refers solely to the individual countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which are united by the British Monarchy. The Queen is still the head of state of multiple other countries in the world, such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc.. She is referred to as the Queen of England, the Queen of Australia, etc. depending on the capacity she is acting in.

Submission + - The Proton Just got smaller (nature.com) 1

Submitted by inflame
inflame writes: A new paper published in Nature has said that the proton may be smaller than we previously thought. The article states 'The difference is so infinitesimal that it might defy belief that anyone, even physicists, would care. But the new measurements could mean that there is a gap in existing theories of quantum mechanics. "It's a very serious discrepancy," says Ingo Sick, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who has tried to reconcile the finding with four decades of previous measurements. "There is really something seriously wrong someplace."'

Would this indicate new physics if proven?

Comment Re:For those who don't know European slang: (Score 1) 262

by Island Admin (#32798024) Attached to: BBC Web Slip-Up Insults Facebook Fans

Get over yourselves. The fact of the matter is, America holds a (stupidly) large position in the world. Not only politically, but culturally and economically.

Economically? Really? Have you read the news lately .... stop living in the past. If you do decide to live in the now, you will realise that you guys are flat broke, the dollar is most probably going to lose the position of reserve currency, and that 40 million Americans are on food stamps. So .... I put it back to you .... Get over yourselves.
The Military

Submission + - Obama Unveils New Nuclear Doctrine

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Washington Post reports that under Obama's new "Nuclear Posture Review," released today the US will foreswear the use of the nuclear weapons against nonnuclear countries, in contrast to previous administrations, which indicated they might use nuclear arms against nonnuclear states in retaliation for a biological or chemical attack. But the new policy included a major caveat: The countries must be in compliance with their nonproliferation obligations under international treaties. The problem for Iran and North Korea is that the pledge does not cover them because the US regards them as in non-compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The new policy will also describe the purpose of US weapons as being fundamentally for deterrence. Some Democratic legislators had urged Obama to go further and declare that the United States would not use nuclear weapons first in a conflict but officials worried that such a change could unnerve allies protected by the US nuclear "umbrella." Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, describes the new policy as a big, positive step forward. "It could go further, faster, but it is the best we can hope for under the circumstances. It is a solid, pragmatic document that strives to be transformational. It is transformation in two aspects: It re-orients the US nuclear forces away from massive retaliations and towards today's threats of nuclear terrorism and new nuclear states. It orients US policy towards dramatically fewer weapons and greatly reduced roles.""
Communications

Submission + - Ham Radio Still Growing In the iStuff Age (npr.org)

Submitted by vhfer
vhfer writes: From NPR comes this story about communications, old school, in the age of Twitter: "Only a few years ago, blogs listed ham radio alongside 35 mm film and VHS tape as technologies slated to disappear.

They were wrong.

Nearly 700,000 Americans have ham radio licenses — up 60 percent from 1981, a generation ago. And the number is growing."

The article goes on to say that while there's plenty of 60-plus year old hams, there's also a growing contingent of teens. I just met a 14-year-old, licensed in 2009. Getting rid of the Morse Code requirement sure helped in that regard. So does the fact that the test questions (and the answers) are freely available on the Internets, legally. Study, take the test, hang the license certificate on the wall. Your geek cred gets an immediate boost.

And who knows? Maybe the next time there's a Haiti-earthquake-sized disaster, you'll be one of the thousands of ham volunteers that provided the only communications in/out of Haiti for weeks following the quake, not to mention all of the tactical comms the country had for nearly a month.

73!

Comment Re:So many things wrong with the article (Score 1) 692

by Island Admin (#31747734) Attached to: Science Attempts To Explain Heaven
You cannot prove that conciousness is suspended. Just because someone cannot remember something in a specific concious state does not mean that their conciousness was "suspended".

Memory != Conciousness.

If you believe in re-incarnation then this definately applies, as I don't remember my previous life .... yet that does not mean it did not happen.

The same could be said of amnesia.

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