Peter

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• Commented on Scientist explains why climate scientists talk trash
  No comments on the topic itself, but I just recently finished rereading Blindsight for the... fourth time, I think? One of my favorite books and one I'd never have discovered (and bought) if he didn't post it free online and...
• Commented on 100-word fiction competition — win an HP MediaSmart EX495
  We found it in Jupiter’s orbit. Space junk, everybody assumed, but nobody knew its origin. It was a plastic wall light switch, labelled with OFF, and ON. It was ON. A probe was sent to bring it in. As it...
• Commented on Bad Science Begets Ridiculous Results
  This strategy makes the desperate people who are struggling and need to cheat to get by a tough spot fail out, and leaves the people who don't care if their immortal soul goes to hell or not to achieve the...
• Commented on Heartbroken cereal litigant loses suit over non-existence of "Crunchberries"
  I say more power to her. I've long wanted to sue Rice Krispies Squares treat because they were not square-shaped at all. False advertising must end!...
• Commented on Blind man dragged off plane in Philadelphia, accused of faking
  The blind test! Everybody knows about that one. You quickly snap your fingers in front of their eyes, and if they fluinch, they're not really blind, just faking it. The beauty of it is, it also works for detecting fake...
• Commented on For sale: first editions of every Hugo- and Nebula-award winning novel, $116,530
  Yeah, it is a cool thing if you have the money to burn. I'm on my own quest to buy and read every Hugo or Nebula award winning novel. Have all of the Hugos except the newest 1 or 2...
• Commented on Dead body delivered to pet store
  The tropical fish wound up in the medical research laboratory. They are now comfortable living in salt _or_ freshwater. Or air. They also have laser eyes. _They_ made the most of the mix-up....
• Commented on Conan copyright trolls censor fan-readings of public domain stories
  I am also not a lawyer, but it seems to me that if Broken Sea Audio is indeed based in New Zealand, that's where the stories 'are'. They're on the server there. If they are accessed by someone in the...
• Commented on Japanese Subculture
  I'm certainly okay with making it legal to marry 2D characters. But only after we get functional AI such that they can be considered sentient being. There's long been a solution to those wishing to be married to a fictional...
• Commented on Rob Cockerham writes article critical of Cash4Gold, gets offered cash to kill story
  We all know what's happening here. Boingboing's running a negative story hoping for a similar handout. Tough economic times hitting everybody, huh? ;)...
• Commented on Archive of home recordings accidentally released to Napster
  42, 43: Yes, I realized I was making another analogy. I just think it's one _more_ apt (hence the words 'more like') than ones in which somebody is doing something where, say, someone left their window open means its an...
• Commented on Archive of home recordings accidentally released to Napster
  Let's cool it with the fake analogies. Many of us rail when people say copyright infringement is equivalent to stealing. It's just as silly to say this is just the same as somebody leaving their door open, and that meaning...
• Commented on Clueless hack tapped to be Obama's Transport Czar
  When I read this headline, I thought the story was that a cab driver (hack) who had no idea what was going on or that he was even considered, had suddenly been appointed Transportation Secretary. Now that would have been...
• Commented on Proposal: buy a London Tube ticket, consent to being searched
  Maybe it's a special device that only looks for metal that is in the shape of a knife, and combined that with special facial recognition software that looks for telltale "probably carrying a knife" microexpressions. It might also just be...
• Commented on Hardest-to-understand EULA *ever* when you install WoW on GNU/Linux
  This reminds me of an only semi-related question. Once I saw a terms of use disclaimer for some website or another, I think. Anyway, you had to read it and say 'you agree'. The problem was, they made it in...
• Commented on Top 500 worst passwords
  Surprised 'swordfish' isn't on the list....
• Commented on CNN Closes Space/Tech/Environmental Reporting Unit; Miles O'Brien Departs
  That's a shame. Miles O'Brien was always one of my favorite people on CNN, way back to the days where he hosted a 'Science and Technology Week' show. He was great to watch on space issues, and even when he...
• Commented on Scary Radio Shorts on Weekend America
  I've been trying to do a "One Hundred Words of Horror" (the general idea being to post short horror stories of exactly 100 words on Halloween) meme on my livejournal (for the 2nd year in a row, entries at http://newnumber6.livejournal.com/324288.html...
• Commented on Duct tape bandages
  Handy-man's secret weapon....
• Commented on Ridley Scott to adapt Haldeman's Forever War
  sorry, that was to 36.. no idea where 29 came from...
• Commented on Ridley Scott to adapt Haldeman's Forever War
  29: while I agree I don't find the book itself homophobic, the main character is _very slightly_. and there's support of it in the text (however I don't have it on hand to prove). However, it's very much of the...
• Commented on Ridley Scott to adapt Haldeman's Forever War
  Quite like the book, and as I reread it for the nth time a while back I was in my head plotting out how it would work as a movie, and it, to me, seems like it could work fairly...
• Commented on EFF, Little Brother and the Emperor Norton Award
  Congratulations. Although the description of the award makes it sound like its for books that are "completely scientifically impossible, but fun anyway." ;)...
• Commented on Contractors paint sock tied to railing instead of removing it
  In fairness to the contractors, the painted sock does make the town look more spruced up than a non-painted sock....
• Commented on Palin's Yahoo email account hacked, contents posted to Wikileaks
  If she's done nothing wrong in her personal e-mail account, she's got nothing to fear, right? I mean if this were Palin as VP breaking into the e-mail of Joe Citizen, we wouldn't be having this conversation!...
• Commented on Canadian Tories argued for stronger copyright laws, but appropriate copyright when it suits them
  I was kind of hoping to see some sort of organized effort to push copyright and the associated issues of freedom for Canadians as an election issue. I mean, supposedly there's no one issue that grabs Canadian votes right now,...
• Commented on Device simulates spider attack on bee
  I don't know if we should be training bees in how to evade spiders. I mean seriously, the africanized killer bees are coming. Let the spiders do their jobs....
• Commented on My Mother Wears Combat Boots -- kick-ass punk-parenting book
  I was always prepared if someone ever insulted me with "Your mother wears combat boots". I'd respond with "Only during field training." Sadly, it never came up, and I've never actually heard the insult other than on TV, and I...
• Commented on Girls warned playing didgeridoo could cause infertility
  Nobody owns culture. People participate in it. If the girls who read the book are part of the aboriginal culture that frowns on it, then either the culture has held sway on the issue, and they won't use it, or...
• Commented on Millimeter wave scan machine at Denver Airport
  "That’s also why officers are not allowed to bring anything, including phones, bags or other items into the remote viewing location." Of course, since it's a 'remote location', we'll have to take their word they're preventing that. Can we insist...