dd528

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• Commented on Musician's open letter, sung to Lily Allen
  A download can mean a lost sale. I have only bought one CD in the past two years, and have downloaded many albums without paying for them. If I hadn't been able to download those albums, I would certainly have...
• Commented on Al Franken talks an anti-healthcare-reform mob down
  I'm not American, so I'm only an external observer to this debate. It seems to me that whilst there is a fundamental rift between two groups in American society - one that believes that healthcare is a right and one...
• Commented on Richard Metzger's Tell It Like It Is Review of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
  @ #31: Yeah, I'd say we do wear scarves that much....
• Commented on Radiohead manager to launch new record label
  Factory Records (Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, Cabaret Voltaire, &c.) operated a 50-50 profit split between label and artist, and artists retained all publishing rights to their music. I think they operated for years without even signing contracts with...
• Commented on Myths about Canadian healthcare
  Reading through some more of the comments here it does seem that a lot of the opposition that people in America seem to have to nationalised healthcare stems from the fact that they feel it should be their decision how...
• Commented on Myths about Canadian healthcare
  I'm no expert on US or Canadian healthcare, nor on UK healthcare, but I'll give my perspective on the latter, being a British citizen. In response to Zuzu's question (#36) about central planning, the reason that healthcare is an exception...
• Commented on RIP Michael Jackson
  @ 121: But he was enormously overrated. He sold lots of records. To junior-high-school kids. He already got way more praise during his lifetime than was warranted by his actual artistic output, much less his offstage behavior. I think you...
• Commented on Adopt a Classroom, help kids and teachers, get a tax-break
  So in the richest country in the world, which spends over $500 billion a year on its military, there are not even the public funds to buy crayons for special needs classes? Huh....
• Commented on British cops stop and hassle thousands to "balance racial statistics"
  The police had to come to terms with the increased scrutiny of their activities by the public, afforded by equipment such as video-enabled mobile phones. I wonder if anyone in our nation's police departments plans on relaying this to the...
• Commented on Homeless people and the Internet
  $59 a month? $2 a day? How is anyone supposed to live on that? Someone seems to have accidentally given you the impression that the purpose of the American welfare system is to help people....
• Commented on Canadian cinema fined $10,000 for privacy invasion over bag-search
  I worked at a large, city centre Odeon cinema in the UK until last year. Odeon policy (at least where I worked, and they're all pretty much the same) is to let people bring in their own food, as long...
• Commented on Netherlands runs out of criminals, has to shut prisons
  @# 37: I don't know much about Dutch prisons, but assuming that you're in America, I do know that the trend towards building bigger and bigger prisons that has come about in the USA has not been followed in much...
• Commented on Pirate theater automata built from Legos*
  But, but, but... sheep deer aircraft trout zucchini lego I see no problem....
• Commented on God comics: God asserts his copyright in the universe
  That is a really awkward rhyme. The comic's awesome though!...
• Commented on Europeans: vote for free software in upcoming election
  I will be voting in these elections for the candidate that I think has the strongest policies on the widest range of important issues. Free software is not one of those issues. I don't mean to play down the significance...
• Commented on UK towns move to extend abusive license plate surveillance grid
  @ #29 (CyberGibbons, May 24, 2009 12:42am): The point is only partially about the manner in which this technology is utilised at the moment. What you say may be true. It might be that the overwhelming majority of cars stopped...
• Commented on BA getting rid of first class in new planes
  @ #21: Just like travelling by car or bus or boat, plane travel can be wonderful, or it can be awful. It's a breathtaking experience to be circling in to land over some beautiful natural vista at sunrise. It is...
• Commented on Kid keeping a lending library of banned books in <s>his</s> her locker
  I don't know what's more amazing, what this kid is doing or the fact that he actually managed to get some helpful information out of people on Yahoo Answers....
• Commented on Marketing the Minimal
  But will it blend?...
• Commented on Tory MP says it was OK to bill taxpayer for his 500 tree forest, critics are "jealous" of his private forest
  @ #16: With respect Imipak, most of your points are simply false. MPs vote yearly on whether their pay should rise or not. This year, for example, they voted for a 2.33% increase in their basic salary. This number was...
• Commented on Carb overload: Bread Bowl Pasta
  I don't think they make these in the UK. The best we get is those pizzas with a base, then sauce, then a base, then sauce and topping above that. Anyway, this pizza-pasta-bowl thing looks alright to me. If they...
• Commented on Today at Boing Boing Gadgets
  I thought that said "A laptop that cools itself ironically", and I was really disappointed when I clicked through on the link....
• Commented on Danger Mouse's EMI-killed CD will be released as a blank CD-R, just add download
  @ #25: Sampling has a fascinating and complicated history. Accusations that it is merely plagiarism or stems from lack of creativity seem to me to fail to understand the artistic uses to which samples are put in dance, reggae, hip...
• Commented on Scouts training to fight immigrants and terrorists
  What is this? This is strange. I mean... I really don't know what to say....
• Commented on Ex-drug czar John Walters made a fool on CNN
  @43: The World Cup has never been held in the Netherlands. I think you're thinking of the European Championship in 2000, which was jointly hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium. Euro 2000 holds the record for the most arrests at...
• Commented on San Francisco Muni begins to enforce imaginary no-photos policy
  @ #66: You are awesome....
• Commented on So Long, Farewell, Adieu
  It's been good having you Maggie!...
• Commented on Hell of magma: first footage of Q-games' latest <em>PixelJunk</em>
  I cannot wait for this. To my mind, Q-games has done as much for the PS3 as Insomniac or Media Molecule....
• Commented on Web Zen: Architecture Zen
  I hate to rain on the parade a little bit, but the New Islington project hasn't exactly enamoured many local residents. A lot of people agreed to move out of their homes in the area on Manchester that was levelled...
• Commented on When the Engineer Gardens
  It's not really that aesthetically pleasing though, is it? I know a couple of gardeners who gladly struggle with tilling their own soil, simply because they would baulk at anything so, well, industrial-looking turning up in their garden. Still, if...