Cull bogus A-Levels

Important 2 page read for parents with children preparing for A levels (or choosing a high school).

Boffins demand: Cull bogus A-Levels, hire brainier teachers • The Register

Today the Royal Society, Blighty's pre-eminent boffinry institution, has issued its "state of the nation" report into science education in the UK – and it doesn't make encouraging reading.

Stupid tax arguments

"We cannot justify taxing the poorest to pay benefits such as tax credits and child benefit to higher earners”

- why don't you pay the tax credits and child benefit of higher earners out of the tax of the higher earners then? They are paying more tax than the lower-earners after all, so it should be easier to manage...

Or, at least don't make stupid arguments.

750,000 'to pay higher tax rate'

Three-quarters of a million more people are set to become higher rate taxpayers in April, says the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

UK tech retailers are rubbish • Channel Register

Staff at UK electrical retailers such as Currys and Comet know nothing about the products they're selling – unless you're after an extended warranty of course.

Asking questions of the staff can be entertaining though...

The sun is a major cause of global warming

The sun makes the earth warm! Shock news for global-warming zealots!
This is more evidence of the type mentioned at the end of this 90 minute talk on the falsity of the global warming trend and the harm and misery that comes to millions from following it.

Top Indian space boffin climate shocker • The Register

U R Rao has analysed 45 years of data and declared that the forcing from charged particles is higher than previously thought, at 1.1Wm-2, and human-forcing lower than the IPCC "consensus" of 1.6Wm-2.

Try trading with pirates?

Sony and Universal normally release music two weeks after everyone who wants it has pirated a copy. They've now realised that this hurts sales, and they have decided to start selling music to people who want to buy it right away.

If it's on air, it's on sale, say majors • The Register

Two major labels are giving up one of their most powerful marketing tools - because they say it's "out of date". Universal and Sony have said they'll give make digital songs legally available the day they're first played on radio - moving to an "on air, on sale" policy from next month.

The rat race

This video showed me how similar wingsuit base-jumping is to the rat-race of life, a job and a mortgage - so many ways to go wrong, but dedicated attention and care avoid most of them.

Wingsuit Basejumping - The Need 4 Speed: The Art of Flight

The Need 4 Speed: The Art of Flight A collection of shots from flights made during the 2009-2010 season by the talented group of wingsuit basejumpers, while flying the V3, Hybrid LD2/Trango rigs and testing several new V-series wingsuit prototypes around..

Fundamental Premises of Our Faith

I'm interested in peoples views on part IV of this lecture, particularly those who have personal quests for truth and enlightenment.

Fundamental Premises of Our Faith - Talk Given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks at Harvard Law School

I welcome this opportunity to speak in what our hosts have called “Mormonism 101.” In his fine lecture last year Judge Thomas Griffith said he was giving “an introduction to the Mormon faith.” I intend to do the same, speaking from my special responsibility as an apostle called to speak as a witness of the gospel plan and mission and Church of Jesus Christ.

Do climate models model climate?

Climate models have been modelling global warming rather than the climate:

"In particular, green plants can be expected to grow as they find it
easier to harvest carbon from the air around them using energy from the
sun: thus introducing a negative feedback into the warming/carbon
process. Most current climate models don't account for this at all"

it appears that at current rates we have at least 200 years before there is any dangerous warming.

New NASA model: Doubled CO2 means just 1.64°C warming • The Register

A group of top NASA boffins says that current climate models predicting global warming are far too gloomy, and have failed to properly account for an important cooling factor which will come into play as CO2 levels rise.

The voice in the phone told me to...

Here's why you don't just obey strangers who call you up over the telephone. You also should beware about advice forward from strangers via email.

Motel guest trashes room to free imaginary 'midget' • The Register

A man trashed his South Carolina motel room on orders from a prank caller, who told him there was a "midget" imprisoned next door.

Wait for the theory

If you find a theory you don't like, just wait - there'll be another one along in a while.

Scientists glimpse universe before the Big Bang

www.physorg.com

‎(PhysOrg.com) -- In general, asking what happened before the Big Bang is not really considered a science question. According to Big Bang theory, time did not even exist before this point roughly 13.7 billion years ago. But now, Oxford University physicist Roger Penrose and Vahe Gurzadyan from the Ye

Body scanners for the trains?

Physic mind probes next, to try and catch the sort of strong principled reactionary who might turn terrorist while on the train as a consequence of something they read in the paper. (Or possibly by the bad service).

Slashdot IT Story | Next Step For US Body Scanners Could Be Trains, Metro Systems

Hugh Pickens writes "The Hill reports that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for US vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary. '[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,' Napolitano said

Could you spot a skimming cash machine?

Do you think you could spot a dodgy cash machine? I don't think I could - look at these pictures and see for yourself.

Crooks Rock Audio-based ATM Skimmers — Krebs on Security

Criminals increasingly are cannibalizing parts from handheld audio players and cheap spy cams to make extremely stealthy and effective ATM skimmers, devices designed to be attached to cash machines and siphon card + PIN data, a new report warns.

Dangers of using general purpose computers for specific purposes

The benefits of being able to use a general purpose computer for online banking is also the curse of being able to use a general purpose computer for online banking - namely all the other purposes for which the computer is used and by which it can be exploited.

Krebs on Security

An escrow firm in Missouri is suing its bank to recover $440,000 that organized cyber thieves stole in an online robbery earlier this year, claiming the bank’s reliance on passwords to secure high-dollar transactions failed to measure up to federal e-banking security guidelines.

MP's afraid to investigate News of the World?

"something is dangerously out of kilter" when MPs such as Adam Price on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee confess they have been "held back" from probing into News Corporation's affairs because of "fear of what that company might do to them" – or when former employees are "too frightened to speak publicly about what they know" .

Support your possibly independant lobbyists-for-hire; they will harass OFCOM and your MP's for you.

It's worth a fiver from me, and they take paypal. Standing up to be counted (if that's what it is) was never so easy.

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/m/74c05d05/2d442c4a/58ac402e/4674fb5d/2183962099/VEsF/

Rusbridger warns of 'chilling effect' of News Corp's bid for BSkyB | Media | guardian.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

Guardian editor-in-chief argues that no individual or organisation should be allowed 'that much power'. By Dan Sabbagh

Global Warming Good for Rain Forests

Global warming is actually good for rainforests, say boffins • The Register

www.theregister.co.uk

OK, so let's take it that global warming is coming: that temperatures are set to rise by easily 3°C by the end of the century. Disaster, right? The tropical rainforests - lungs of the planet - will die, CO2 levels will thus rise even faster, a runaway process will set in and planet Earth will be transformed into a baking lifeless hell.

Not so much, according to top boffin Carlos Jaramillo of the US Smithsonian Institution. Jaramillo, who works at the Smithsonian's Tropical Research centre, says that 60 million years ago temperatures were up to 5°C higher than now and atmospheric CO2 was running close to 1000 parts per million - way beyond the planet-busting thresholds set by the UN - and yet the rainforests flourished.

"It is remarkable that there is so much concern about the effects of greenhouse conditions on tropical forests," says Jaramillo's Smithsonian colleague Klaus Winter.

more

Citizens can use lobbyists too

http://wiki.openrightsgroup.or​g/wiki/Main_Page

It is re-assuring to know, when reading the details of these campaigns that folk with more time and experience than me are on the case.

I'm a founding member of the open rights group.

ORG Campaigns

The Open Rights Group is a fast-growing NGO focused on raising awareness of issues such as privacy, identity, data protection, access to knowledge and copyright reform.

This is a stupid campaign. I polluted it by signing the petition with a comment to the effect that I disagreed with it. Only a fool pays taxes that don't need to pay. Osborne even has to pay an accountant to find out what he needs to pay and what he doesn't. The solution is to SIMPLIFY TAX LAW not pay extra tax voluntarily!

We KNOW Osborne pays his tax cos his accountant makes sure. You DON'T know if you pay yours! Simplify taxes! A witch hunt will get you too!

BTW I didn't mean to pollute the campaign with a negative signature, I just couldn't find any other outlet. (I since found their blog page and I posted on that)

38 Degrees | Osborne Pay Your Taxes

www.38degrees.org.uk

‎38 Degrees brings you together with other people to take action on the issues that matter to you and bring about real change.

Stop government snooping on email and Facebook

I'm also a founding member of the Open Rights Group

Stop government snooping on email and Facebook

The government has announced that it will be spending up to £2 billion pounds into new ways to snoop on email and web traffic.

Really saving energy

Green people generally have no idea about saving energy

People who make an effort to be eco-friendly - for instance by recycling glass bottles, turning off lights and unplugging cellphone chargers - have no idea what they're on about, according to a new survey. Those who don't bother are more likely to know what actually saves energy and what doesn't.

 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/18/energy_idiocy_survey/People

Stem cell hoo-hah

Based on The Register’s report I don’t understand why Professor Hwang Woo-Suk resigned.

As I read it two students donated ova under and assumed name without his knowledge and not in breach of contemporary law or ethical guidelines.

So what's the real reason he had to resign?

Perhaps I’ve missed something but that's how it reads to me.