Vapymid

Yes, that's why we would need a *faster* (relative to our timescale, at least) universe to contain the predictor computer. Regards

The spoiler tags usually work OK too... Regards

That is an interesting question - if you take two identical universes in identical initial conditions (down to each quantum number of each quantity of mass-energy) and let them run in parallel - will there be a divergence? I suspect not. However, in my earlier post I forgot to mention the second fundamental problem of predicting the future by calculation (thanks, Martin, for the reminder) - the impossibility of determining the initial state with 100% accuracy due to quantum uncertainty. To summarise - you need a computer larger and faster than the Universe which future state you want to predict and you need to somehow determine precisely the full quantum state of that Universe in order to get the starting point for the calculations. These two requirements seem very difficult to achieve. Regards

Well, something like that, yes. The only problem is that to do that you will need a computer bigger and faster than the entire Universe... Regards

Why? Are they ineffective? AFAIK, flu vaccination is indeed not very effective or, rather, its effectiveness is somewhat unpredictable. It is mostly because the flu virus has many different strains and vaccines protect from specific individual strains (there is some cross-protection but it's not optimal). Every year, the health authorities are trying to predict which strains will be prevalent in order to select an appropriate vaccine and, obviously, they won't always be successful in these predictions. I have not heard though of any significant side effects of these vaccines, no matter how widely they are used. I personally never bothered with flu vaccinations for myself or family. However, avoiding vaccination against serious diseases is stupid, if not to say criminal (especially if parents prevent immunisation of their children). Just last year there was a major outbreak of measles here in the UK, which was directly linked to the MMR scare and the corresponding decrease in the vaccine take up for their children by scared and ill-informed parents. Regards

Far - the best ever file manager for Windows Process Explorer - a powerful Windows process manager TreeSize - builds a directory tree showing the size of each directory CamStudio - screen video capture PGCEdit - essential for DVD (re)authoring ImgBurn - a CD/DVD/BD burner XnView - image viewer, organiser, converter FastStone Viewer - similar to XnView but with good RAW support StereoPhotoMaker - well, makes stereo photos from pairs of flat images, displays stereo images in various formats. Stereogram Lab - makes Magic Eye stereograms Inkscape - a vector graphics editor Regards

Well, it's safe to assume that no theory is absolutely correct. Regards

I have some about Georgia. Regarding Ukraine - not directly, no. I have heard from Ukrainians living in Kiev that the going per diem rate for being on Maidan was EUR 20.-, with bonuses for "extra" activity - like burning a car, breaking into a building etc. I also know some people who are in senior positions in the new "regime" there - believe me, no saints there. These people would not invest their own cash into such a risky proposition as keeping a mercenary army on the streets of the capital in the hope of changing the government. Much easier just to keep the status quo and pay directly to the powers that be. Then there are occasional intercepts of conversations involving the US State Dept or some EU officials, which show very clearly they *are* meddling. It's all circumstantial but it adds up and to believe that the Western interests were not behind stirring of this trouble means one has to also believe that the "polite armed people" in Crimea had nothing to do with Russia. Having said this, even such interference would not have been enough to cause what it caused if there weren't some existing deep systemic problems in Ukraine, politically and economically. There is no doubt about that. But my firm opinion is that the West acted irresponsibly by taking advantage of that. I think that the "West" here is more the US rather than the EU. I see lots of people appear to be drooling at the thought of a new Cold War and the corresponding pork barrels rolling. I also see some very happy campers on the Russian side - finally they can officially blame all the Russian problems on the West and hope for a few more years of popular support. This all makes me feel very bitter. Regards

A theory cannot be a fact, it's an explanation of why certain fact are what they are or appear to be. If facts don't fit the theory then the theory is wrong and needs revision, if they do - it supports the theory, at least that's how I think it works. Regards

There is such a possibility, of course. However, there is a theory and a model supported by a lot of observations and it predicted these waves. The new observations fit exactly with the predictions made by the model, which gives it overall a very high probability that the model is correct. There are other theories but they need more fiddling and shortcuts than the inflationary model. Of course, this can just be some compression artifacts on the Universal sky-box and we all live in a computer simulation, but I would like to see some comprehensive proof before I believe it Regards

Einstein's prediction of gravitational waves has been confirmed by observation, which validates the model of the rapid inflation of the Universe in the first few fractions of a second of its existence. The research gives 5-sigma confidence, which is qualified as a discovery but still needs to be peer-reviewed. Amazingly, the utility of a crowbar as a vital scientific instrument in the field of astrophysics has also been confirmed: “This has been like looking for a needle in a haystack, but instead we found a crowbar,” said co-leader Clem Pryke, the British-born associate professor at the University of Minnesota. A helpful diagram of the search for a cosmic crowbar can be found here: Regards

I watched Ender's Game on DVD over the weekend. The best sci-fi movie I saw in years. Regards

Well, I'm sure the US would just sit and wait if, say, Russia, was sponsoring a pro-Chavez coup in Mexico. After all, they didn't do anything in Nicaragua. Or Cuba. Or Grenada. Or Chile. Or Panama. Oh... hold on a second! Regards

This is not so simple. Unless you are talking about the US and EU interference, then you are mistaken. Russia have never had or tried to foment any unrest in these places deliberately (I am not counting the annexation of the Western Ukraine under Stalin now) Ukraine and Georgia are totally different. Georgians and Abhazians (and Ossetians for that matter) hate each other since the time immemorial. Abhazia was an autonomous republic inside the Soviet Union Georgia. When the USSR disbanded, Abhazia moved for independence and a civil war and then a full out internal war started, with ethnic cleansing and atrocities on both sides. Russia intervened then, initially trying to be neutral. It became clear that the status quo was not tenable and Russia gradually turned to support Abhazia, which ended the war after some pretty bloody scenes. However, the status of Abhazia remained unclear and Sakashvili, with the US encouragement, decided to take a punt and quickly overwhelm the Abhazians and install his people to rule them. Russia had no choice but to intervene again, more decisively. Sakashvili had to eat his tie, the idiot. In Ukraine, there is a divide between the West and the East (stemming from the annexation I mentioned above), but it was never as antagonistic as in the Caucasus though. Ukraine has failed to build a functioning governance after leaving the USSR. It almost redefined the meaning of corruption (not quite, as they could not beat the Nigerians). The people in power only ever thought about lining their own pockets, while the country remained on the brink of bankruptcy. The only thing that kept them going was the cheap energy from Russia and the Russian tolerance of chronic non-payments. Yuschenko, Timoshenko, Yanukovich, Kuchma before them - they are all from the same cohort of former Soviet functionaries. All the talk of the "revolutions" in the Western media is so laughable - it's more the case of a strife between rival branches of the same mafia family. The old government(s) were the people taking the bribes. The new "government" are the people who were paying those bribes, just swapping places. The US and the EU should have known they were playing with fire by messing around with that. That, unfortunately, didn't stop them (the US and the EU) the last time, nor again this time. Predictably, they are conveniently blaming Russia for everything but in fact, they are largely to blame for precipitating this crisis (of course, the coward ex-President, running away at the worst possible moment, played his part too). I have no idea what's in Putin's mind at the moment. It is possible that he has a reasonable plan and he is doing these things in Crimea to maintain certain pressure on the new regime in Ukraine but ultimately won't do anything stupid. It is equally possible, though, that he is enraged by the US and EU meddling in Ukraine and is acting purely out of anger and personal spite. That would be bad. We'll see in a few days which one it is, I think. In the long term, if the West will continue to mess inside Ukraine, the country will have to split as there will never be peace internally and Russia will not give in as long as they see even a hint of the Western manipulations there. Who knows, maybe it is better to get it done and over with this time around? In the meantime, I recommend to take the official propaganda in the media on both sides with a large pinch of salt and try to read between the lines, inasmuch as it is possible... Regards

A band with an unlikely name... j3w975tWfwM Regards

Oh. I guess even with RT being the national flag waving studio and all, they still welcome any supplements to their budget... Regards

Sorry, I don't know why would that happen - it worked OK in FF both on my PC and on an Android... Here is the recording on Youtube: ZEgJ0oo3OA8 The Estonian government have since confirmed the authenticity of the recording. Regards

Now, this is interesting - a phone intercept between the EU's Baroness Ashton and the Estonian Foreign Minister suggests that the Ukrainian medics who treated the wounded on "Maidan" Square believe that the same snipers were shooting at both the protestors and the police. This was linked to by the BBC. Regards

I don't know why it took me so long to remember about this one - Karn Evil 9 fLS0Med0s6E "Soon the Gypsy Queen in a glaze of Vaseline Will perform on guillotine What a scene! What a scene!" Or look at this in the live version - are there percussion Olympics? Regards

This is not at all inconceivable, especially the pogroms, but I would be cautious believing specific rumours unless they are corroborated by multiple unrelated sources. "Fog of war" and stuff... Regards

Nationalism is not new and on its own nationalism alone is not enough to cause major changes as other economic considerations normally would prevail. The problem in Ukraine is that the country was going down the drain further and further and the nationalism acted simply as a trigger. In Russia there is a similar situation - the economy is not doing particularly well and there is a constant feeling of meddling from the outside, which supports the primitive reactions like nationalism, patriotism etc. As far as potential war is concerned - any direct armed confrontation between NATO and Russia will escalate to nuclear, the only solution is to avoid one altogether. Everyone must calm down now, including the Western powers. If the new people in power in Ukraine are not complete idiots they should realise that the situation actually makes it easier for them to consolidate their power in the capital - now that the problem of enforcing a hostile minority rule in Crimea is no longer their concern. They will have their hands full dealing with the nationalists (who had helpfully carried out the "revolution"* for them and who would be prepared just as eagerly to continue it ever further) and at the same time trying to avoid financial default. I would recommend to forget Crimea for the time being, sort the pressing problems first, then come back to negotiate on Crimea. The real problem is that when tensions are high and there are a lot of people with guns on both sides facing each other, there is a probability of some silly local incident triggering a major event. Regards *) Revolution is not the right term for what is happening. Revolution requires rearrangement of power between classes. In Ukraine there is simply a power shift within the same class (I propose to name the calss in questions as "Corrumparian" ). A "coup" would be a better description. P.S. I wish ProHypster was here - I'd love to hear his take on this whole thing.

And you know there's some days when you feel that something's gonna happen... XzwuySRTLzA Regards

Wonderful! Clearly, you are, Ross! What was the problem, if not a secret? Regards

@Ross - regarding the Blip.tv thing. From my past experience with Vimeo this "wait, the video is not ready yet" message means the internal conversion has failed and it's pointless to wait for it to get fixed - it just won't happen. The only solution is to delete the failed video and re-upload again. The reason for failure could be a non-standard frame rate, frame size of the video *or* the audio parameters (sampling rate, bitrate) which their back-end does not expect. For example, Vimeo will invariably choke if I would upload an SD video with 48kHz audio because it wants only 44.1kHz audio with SD... Check if you changed any A/V encoding parameters compared with the previous uploads and I'm sure you will find the problem. Regards

Oh, I remembered about another good one - Syberia, a very atmospheric adventure game... Regards