Brandon West

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• Commented on Chickens terrified of dried sunflower head
  Looks quite a bit like a wasp's nest to me....
• Commented on Spectacular slow card-flourishes from Dimitri Arleri
  I like the music a lot, though I'd call it glitchy downtempo. There's too much going on for it to be ambient....
• Commented on Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous
  I would say that about every single major label artist, unless it's explicitly stated in their contract (a la Prince) that they get to maintain complete control of the creative process. Even with such a clause, they will be asked...
• Commented on Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous
  If that's how you want to judge it, that's fine by me. But you can't make assumptions about the process (everything you said about expanding your vision once you're on a major label) in order to feel better about how...
• Commented on Taste Test: natto, gooey fermented soy beans
  I tried natto for the first time last week while I was in Hawaii enjoying all the Japanese restaurants I could find. I was not a fan, but like anything fermented I believe it will take a few tries to...
• Commented on Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous
  And as far as "not something that's meant to be sold" - yeah, right. Her shoes or her glasses or her flashing walking stick won't be sold, that's true, but the end game of what she wears and does is...
• Commented on Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous
  Good for her for bringing some of her friends along for the likely short-lived ride on the fame train, but I promise you everything she does is rubber-stamped by the label at some point. If her friends make something that...
• Commented on Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous
  It doesn't work that way. She isn't the one picking the art directors and makeup artists and the fashion designers. It's the label. Besides, she didn't make money doing the "girl and a piano" thing, so I'm sure why you'd...
• Commented on Video: Lady Gaga before she became famous
  The finished product reeks with the unmistakable stench of an A&R department. She's on a major label and has never not been on a major label as far as her career after being a student. Nothing genuine about it. She's...
• Commented on Anti-vaccine fear versus science
  Science never completely answers anything. That's part of the definition of science; the existence of the "law" of gravity owes to oft-repeated, peer-reviewed experiments. Scientific truth is always provisional. That being said, I don't see why people aren't free to...
• Commented on Cheese sculptures
  There are 3 slices of pizza on a desk adjacent to me that are going to be thrown out. Please don't cry, Seyo....
• Commented on After the Game: What Happens to the Losing Team's Swag?
  That's just silly. The Buffalo Bills haven't been anywhere close to a game that would warrant a shirt since 1995....
• Commented on Cheese sculptures
  I never realized how much Rick Astley looks like Buddy Holly until I saw Buddy in cheese form....
• Commented on Guy in Egypt orders "artificial hymen kit" over the internet, blogs about it
  Too late. Hymen repair surgery has been around for longer than these things....
• Commented on Guy in Egypt orders "artificial hymen kit" over the internet, blogs about it
  I'm not a hymenologist, but aren't there myriad reasons why someone would not have a hymen that don't involve anything sexual? Do those excuses just not fly over there? Cheers for his viewpoint on the matter, very accurate and level-headed....
• Commented on La-Z-Boy in drunk driving debacle headed for eBay, "Hell Yeah It's Fast" sticker included
  Last time I checked, alcohol was a drug....
• Commented on Canadian folk singer dies after coyote attack
  I'm inclined to agree. National Parks in Nova Scotia don't seem like the type of place where you'd find coyotes that weren't afraid of humans....
• Commented on Artist turns village into optical illusion
  "Photographs from the same spot in daylight make the town look flat, almost like a postcard." Yeah, um, duh? Am I missing something? Aren't postcards just photographs that you write on? I think it's cool as an art piece but...
• Commented on Chris Ware's New Yorker cover
  I quite like the illustration, but all the analysis is pretty funny to me. When I was a kid when went trick-or-treating alone, and I'm 26 so my experience isn't exactly ancient history. Following a kid around would be insanely...
• Commented on AT&T Wireless data congestion problems: are they in part self-inflicted?
  How many bars you have really doesn't mean much: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/01/13/what-do-cell-phone-r.html Boing Boing: always posting speculative question-marked headlines when articles are about technology that is hard to grasp without doing actual research?...
• Commented on 555 California security guards in San Fran threaten to punch sidewalk photographer, break his f*cking camera
  Good story. Next time the guy should actually stand up for his rights and wait until they call someone with real authority before caving in. He's just making them think the intimidation works, and rightly so....
• Commented on Al Franken kicks eleventy-million kinds of ass in health-care hearing
  Ass-kicking to some, rude comparison of disparate systems alongside a citation-free refutation of a study to others. I like the guy but I'm not seeing anyone's ass get kicked....
• Commented on Voting machine source-code leak shows election-rigging subroutines?
  I might even describe this headline as "regrettable"...
• Commented on Voting machine source-code leak shows election-rigging subroutines?
  Sensational with very little substance....
• Commented on Leech provides evidence to convict robber
  Is Tasmian really the descriptor for people from Tasmania?...
• Commented on Legal battle over Shepard Fairey Obama poster takes an unexpected turn
  Someone should make some kitschy red white and blue propaganda in support of him....
• Commented on She's Got It
  Are headlines that describe the content being posted too much to ask?...
• Commented on Purported PS3 ad sports Nazi imagery
  These are fake, btw. Not from Sony....
• Commented on $9,995
  Wait, are you saying you boffed a IIe?...
• Commented on In future America, car stops you.
  That doesn't really jive with this part of the article: "'Safety' features like the Smart Stop systems -- which already brake automatically to prevent imminent rear-end collisions -- are always on."...