madsci

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• Commented on Old advertisement for Evel Knievel's popsicles
  I don't want a pickle......
• Commented on Boy missing after experimental balloon crash lands
  I think it was at least implied that there was a gondola of some sort that the kid could have climbed in that wasn't full of helium. But a balloon with 50 pounds of free lift doesn't float around at...
• Commented on Boy missing after experimental balloon crash lands
  I've had a little experience with big balloons (I've got one in my garage big enough to lift a kid, if the material was strong enough to support that much weight) and what I can't figure out is what this...
• Commented on Farms as skyscrapers
  So people in the surrounding buildings won't mind having the sun blocked out all the time? You only get so much sunlight per unit of area, period. Around a kilowatt per square meter of solar energy. Sure, you can put...
• Commented on Industrial robotic pancake production video
  Not automating for the sake of saving jobs when automation is a clear economic advantage is never going to work out in the long run. Chances are someone else will come along and use all the automation you're not using,...
• Commented on
  My grandma had one exactly like this. I was fascinated with it as a kid, and wound up with it when she died in the '80s. Wonder if I've still got it around somewhere. I remember how to add and...
• Commented on Internet dumbing-down hysteria compared against previous waves of anti-tech backlash
  I don't think Morse was entirely wrong. He was talking about business - since businesses were the main customers of the telegraph. Lots of the most important business traffic did stay on the telegraph, probably up until fax machines became...
• Commented on Pears grown in the shape of the Buddha
  Wait a minute.. I've got a CNC milling machine capable of making the molds, and a small vacuum-former, and a stockpile of polycarbonate sheets... I could totally make some of these! What other fruit can I do this with?...
• Commented on Man spent $7 million in bogus currency made with cheap inkjet printer
  I came across one of these bills, or one very closely matching the description. Wish I'd known to look for the quadrant mark at the time. Someone in line ahead of me at Staples tried to pass it while buying...
• Commented on The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D
  #16 - I'm not sure duplicates would be quite as cheap as you suggest, but they'd certainly be cheaper. Consider that in effect there ARE at least 10 more Hubble-like satellites that (presumably) mostly share a common design: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11 And...
• Commented on Man of the Year Million
  It looks a lot more like a third stage Guild navigator from the Dune universe, if you ask me. Down to the description of floating in amber fluid and having a rosebud of a mouth....
• Commented on Man records TSA harassment with iPhone
  Ditto #1. I do one convention a year where I actually have significant cash sales, and I've gone through airport security a few times with $3k-$5k in cash, much of it in fifties and hundreds. It always makes me nervous,...
• Commented on Project to make electronic communication network from raw materials in nature
  Primitive tool construction is kind of fun and really humbling, when you realize that the average paleolithic hunter-gatherer was probably constructing much better tools by about age 5....
• Commented on Cockeyed: "I Caught Kevin Heoffer Barbecuing at Costco"
  His pitch makes me want to detail my own success story. How I started turning a profit after only two or three years of work, with no college degree and only ten years of experience, and how I rarely work...
• Commented on USB-powered baked-bean microwave
  Came here to say what #17 said. Don't they teach thermodynamics in school these days? And how can we be up to comment #28 with no Fun Cooker references?...
• Commented on The "super-villain transparencies" brain-teaser
  The random bits on each slide to be overlaid on each other was my first thought too, but in my book that doesn't count as not the "tiniest bit of information". Statistically, you could get quite a bit out of...
• Commented on Netherlands runs out of criminals, has to shut prisons
  Something's not right with the math here. A capacity of 14,000 but only 12,000 incarcerated - that's a surplus capacity of 2,000. That apparently represents 8 prisons (250 inmates per prison) and a 1:1.66 prison employee to inmate ratio. The...
• Commented on USPS insurance is fickle
  Ok, I ship by USPS a LOT. To the tune of $14k in postage last year, and over $6k so far this year. For domestic shipping, it's very, very rare for them to completely lose a package. I'm not entirely...
• Commented on 911 police officer refuses to help girl who calls about her dying father because she said the F word before the call was answered
  #18 - That is most certainly not the way to get a speedy, appropriate response from 911. Do your best to stay calm, explain clearly what's going on, and answer their questions. Most of these people are not idiots like...
• Commented on Pac-Man oven mitt lonely for Ms.
  Hey, I had those bedsheets! Wonder if they're still packed away somewhere......
• Commented on Web Zen: from the street zen
  Earth's just fine on the whole. We, however, might be screwed. Obligatory George Carlin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q3upFx4FcA...
• Commented on Cannonball floating in mercury
  @ #25 - I found a solution to the problem of picking up little mercury balls as a kid when I dropped a mercury switch. You just hook a couple of wires up to a big battery and watch the...
• Favorited Six foot rubber band for only $5.50! on Boing Boing
• Favorited Six foot rubber band for only $5.50! on Boing Boing
• Commented on MingleStick, an electronic business card for serial schmoozers
  These things have their uses. At CES I was issued an electronic business card, which I was able to use at many booths rather than handing out actual cards. I still went through a sizable stack, but not like the...
• Commented on Twins commit perfect heist?
  Oh, give me a clone Of my own flesh and bone With its Y-chromosome changed to X And when it is grown Then my own little clone Will be of the opposite sex. (Chorus) Clone, clone of my own, With...
• Commented on Teens send balloon into space, get aerial photos of Earth
  #26 - The National Weather Service launches hundreds of radiosondes every day. I've never heard of one being hit by a plane. Put a radar reflector on it and it gives a solid radar return, too. The FAA rules are...
• Commented on Teens send balloon into space, get aerial photos of Earth
  #11 - If you're under 4 lbs (in the US, anyway) you're pretty much exempt from everything. It's treated the same as a rogue party balloon. I launched a 3 lb payload in restricted airspace (I added a radar reflector...
• Commented on Teens send balloon into space, get aerial photos of Earth
  I did this a couple of years ago and had a blast. I've got about a thousand pictures from the two cameras posted on my website: http://n1vg.net/balloon I think total cost was in the neighborhood of $300. One of these...
• Commented on Miraculous portable computers, ca 1982
  Hey, I've got that Radio Shack handheld with the printer! Just found most of the accessories while I was cleaning up the garage. I'll have to dig up some batteries and see if it'll still run. I've also got something...