Peter K.

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• Commented on Hemant "The Friendly Atheist" Mehta Interviews Ray "The Banana Man" Comfort
  If you claim "I don't believe that bit of holy book X as a way of explaining your position, then how do you count as a believer? I'm not sure why one would have to be a complete literalist to...
• Commented on Scott Westerfeld's ass-kicking, bestselling YA novel UGLIES as a free, DRM-free download
  It looks like the PDF of that book is no longer available at the link provided. Managed to track down a copy here though....
• Commented on Wingnut extreme: Glenn Beck says "Story of Stuff" is Commie propaganda
  @ STUPIDJERK: Not the study it's self, but the Scientific American article "Bowling For God" did reference some stats on the comparative happiness of religious vs. secular individuals. There are pros and cons apparently....
• Commented on Chimp enjoys magic show
  @14 CJP Remember, the lower the IQ, the stronger the belief in "magic". (Go ahead, change that to "religion"- you know you were thinking that, too) I suspect the folks who knew Jack Parsons might be inclined to disagree with...
• Commented on Pope damns medical patents
  @ Takun #16 If you're still interested it looks like Sean O'Malley is available to talk: The reports showed that through June 30, 2005, $150.8 million was spent on the abuse crisis, including $127.4 million in legal settlements, $8.8 million...
• Commented on Can Bre Pettis Replicate Himself?
  "It's even another thing to sell a 3D printer kit that's about as cheap as a regular-old mass produced laser printer." http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/index.php?date=051009 Open Source 3D printer: $250 PLA replacement cartridge: $300 No?...
• Commented on Sorry I'm Late: stop-motion film
  That was pretty neat. Though sadly it sort of peaked around 1:23 and interest waned after that....
• Commented on Retro art exhibit Famicase returning to Japan in May
  But seriously, can someone point me to a bootleg of the Whale of Noise ROM? It's too good not to exist....
• Commented on Victorian DeLorean
  For other iterations see also: http://wondermark.com/463/ (and scroll down)...
• Commented on The Pen Which Shall Never Be Lost
  In my wife's previous employ they taped the plastic flatware from takeout food to pens. Freed the writing implements from the inconvenient tethering, but still effectively deterred folks from walking off with the things....
• Commented on The Legend of Master Legend in Rolling Stone (complete story) by Joshuah Bearman
  @ #5: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2007/09/17/070917sh_shouts_doyle...
• Commented on Carolina Chocolate Drops jug band video
  Don't get me wrong: That was really great. But I couldn't help feeling that the actual jug playing should've had a little more emphasis. The kazoo work was snazzy but seemed to drown out the guy with the jug most...
• Commented on Bible as Glossy
  I think my favorite pop-cultural modernization of scripture to date was Apocamon on the sadly now defunct E-sheep.com. What better way to illustrate the end times than with cute, collectible agents of the eschaton? Thanks to the miracle of Archive.org...
• Commented on Steampunk city in Second Life: New Babbage
  Pretty nice. Though I'd be much more impressed if they'd revealed that the server hosting it was computing via mechanical means rather than the standard electronic processes so overused in this day and age....
• Commented on Jack Black Beard Lube
  @ #5: Popcorn coating, dry skin protectant, degreaser, Turkish wrestling lube, and now shaving cream. Is there anything olive oil can't do?...
• Commented on Earth's most extreme lifeforms
  @ #12: Not sure why extremophile vs. non-extremophile off world life makes a difference. But depending on your definition of "bible thumper" they've already covered it....
• Commented on Earth's most extreme lifeforms
  @ #4: I can't see how this proves that human activities aren't influencing the climate in significant ways. It also sounds like you're blurring the confusing the survivability of a few hardy or extreme-adapted organisms with the balance of every...
• Commented on Grisly snowglobe scenes: Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz's <em>Travelers</em>
  An interesting gallery, but given other recent articles here I'm surprised no one has brought up the unique creative process involved in these artists' work: Martin and Muñoz are known for their extensive collection bizarre and often tragic or cult-related...
• Commented on Our universe as virtual reality
  When I read the Robert Charles Wilson's Darwinia years back, I'd expected it to focus on some sort of alternate reality where evolution had taken a different course. But the title belied the content in that regard, as it's actually...
• Commented on Scientists to make cows fart like kangaroos
  @ ill lich: "In fact, WHEN are we going to bio-engineer "meat plants" so we don't have to bother with cows anymore?" Mmmm... sure could go for a Chickie Nobs Bucket O'Nubbins right about now....
• Commented on Australia dumps national ID card
  Maybe I'll get branded just another sheep buying into The Man's lies for saying this: but I sort of like the idea of a single card that I could use for many different purposes. Currently I have a slew of...
• Commented on Disembodied hands to keep infant feeling secure
  Back when we were taking social psych 101 in college my friend and I used to joke about the wire-mommy vs. cloth-mommy experiments once done on young monkeys, and how someone would eventually come out with versions for human children....
• Commented on Hacker's garden of Firefox plugins
  @Scott Lenger: To get around transparent gifs couldn't you just look up the image's location in the page source and type it into your browser directly? I had luck with this technique in at least a couple cases....
• Commented on Brain-computer interface for Second Life
  It's fine enough that this is working for video games, but I'm more interested in whether it works for individuals with various forms of paralysis or movement related disabilities. Is this something Steven Hawking or others could be using to...
• Commented on Cory Doctorow cosplayers at the XKCD picnic
  The balloon bit wasn't the only time your name came up as part of the punchline, though it might've been the funnier instance. Now shouldn't you be off making some noise about the inappropriate application of intellectual property or something?...
• Commented on HOWTO compose a great email
  Seems like every time someone on a mailing list tries to write the Definitive Guide on how to format e-mail replies it starts the format wars all over again....
• Commented on How right digits affect perception of discounts
  I don't know about perception of discounts, but I'll tell you this: Boing Boing has trained me so well that every third time I try to parse the title of this article it comes out as, "How digital rights affect...
• Commented on Bookcase built into chair
  Conceptually I love it (my wife and I are always looking for ways to wedge more books into our living space). Realistically though it looks like one of the least comfortable, un-child-safe pieces of furniture one could wish to own....
• Commented on DoJ slams net neutrality, says all packets not created equal
  “The Department stated that precluding broadband providers from charging content and application providers directly for faster or more reliable service “could shift the entire burden of implementing costly network expansions and improvements onto consumers.” If the average consumer is unwilling...
• Commented on Creepy-cool anatomical and medical art auction at Christies, Oct. 5
  Some of these are fascinating, but I'm afraid my bachelors level biology/anatomy courses fail me on a couple: Does anyone here have an idea what condition this woman has? Or what's up with these eyes?...