@Paul - many thanks indeed for your observations and advice. Yep FAH seems just another collection of stuffed shirts and "higher ups". What all these people can't seem to understand that is just because someone foolishly gives some nonentity a couple of meaningless tags against their avatar, they think they are important. Step outside their own front door, and they are the same as everyone else. "Higher ups"? What's this back at school with prefects again? Don't worry Paul, I have no intention of posting there. The website is god awful and I have no wish to used to it. I'm only there for the science.

Middle or high school science? ;-) Look, I'm glad to hear it. "Higher ups" = umbrella term = those with more say over matters than yourself. Didn't know it only refers to the schoolyard in the UK. Outside their front door, yeah they're the same as everyone else. Doesn't mean you can crap on their lawn. Hope you find somewhere you can feel happy. My best to you.

After my first visit here today - which was quite a long time ago now - I didn't realise that before I popped back in again, one of the things I'd be doing later would be googling a question on the difference between a cowpat and the erm... bull's equivalent. It's how my brain works and something must have started it off. I'd have been here sooner if it hadn't... obviously, but I can post a link for anyone interested? It would give you somewhere to go instead of reading the rest of this post....

... *by popular demand* Cow and steer manure You are all, very, very welcome ;)

On the IoT. If nothing else, this paragraph (or it might just be one long sentence, I don't know yet) will demonstrate my complete ignorance, but I know I'm not alone in that - and I can't help wondering if devices were kept busy (doing boinc and/or similar do-good-while-idling-stuff we asked of them) whether happenings like Alexa recently demonstrated - creepy unwarranted laughter (from our perspective anyway) - would be less or more likely.

Foof for thought? I thought so until I wrote it down ;)

On this:

Upon the face of it yes.

On the face of them being on PETA's radar do you mean? Or on the face of a monkey burned with an inappropriately used heatlamp? To be fair, that was about 18 months ago, and the uni has since posted this press release. Eerily, parts of it read very much like Covance's press releases do. Yet their actual animal welfare record is awful :( Stanford (as with other universities/research institutes Covance supplies with laboratory subjects) have had dealings with them before. They might still do. I know they sat on the same panel that from what I can make out, failed to disapprove of the use of shelter cats and dogs being used in laboratories.

Perhaps they were outvoted, who knows. I certainly couldn't find out.

I think you ought to know I'm depressed.

Case dismissed!

That judge *elevate nose* needs dismissing...

edit: There was something else I wanted to ask you, Chris. It's horribly off-topic so my apologies everyone but...

I am currently campaigning to bring in laws to make halal shops illegal in the UK, but I won't say more here.

May I say more here - just quickly? Is that because the meat comes from animals that are not stunned beforehand?

I'm asking because you may want to consider campaigning against Kosher meat outlets too if it is.

Take this with a grain of salt or not.
I'm not totally running BOINC for its science potential. The science is a side benefit of being here. It is actually the forums and socializing that are the main draw for me. If there were no forums or they were dead like some projects I've seen. I would not be crunching on BOINC. I am using a small android tablet running "two cores" for two CPU wu tasks that maintain a RAC so I can continue to post at SETI@HOME.

Socialising on bulletin boards is like smoking and drinking, an addiction and a hard habit to give up. I think I'm getting there though ......

Never going to happen. You've spent too much time, effort & money on it.

Then there's your little "walkabouts". on your last which you stated that you will be on walkabout until March, you socialised several times within that period.

Yes I did. To commiserate with Jord over his partner. Sorry You didn't like that.

Going to list the other times as well?

Next time I suggest the cold turkey cure. Delete the boards from your browser favorites, make sure no e-mail is set in prefs, and then log out.

Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well.

Maybe Yorick should have listened to Dickens :-)

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”