KeithIrwin

Recent Actions

• Commented on Anti-energy drinks
  Umm, melatonin doesn't have "supposed calming effects", it's the hormone that your body produces when it's time to sleep. Taking several milligrams orally will generally cause you to be tired and likely fall asleep. It's terrific for helping people get...
• Commented on Koalas may go extinct in 30 years
  First off, koalas are not going to be extinct within our lifetimes as there are enough living in zoos and wildlife parks (which are like zoos in Australia except that they only feature Australian animals) that there is certainly a...
• Commented on Cheeseburger parts coaster set
  I have a similar coaster set which my brother and his wife bought for me in Japan. It is not Wendy's related so the burger is round rather than square. It also doesn't have cheese or pickles, so it is...
• Commented on 555 California security guards in San Fran threaten to punch sidewalk photographer, break his f*cking camera
  Let's be clear about what they do or do not have the right to do if the photographer is on private property. If the photographer is on private property, they have the right to ask him to leave and call...
• Commented on Yahoo hires lap-dancers to entertain at its open, inclusive Hack Day event
  Have you ever though about how an integralist muslim would feel if attending a Tech meeting in USA with girls in skirts and short sleeve shirts?! (I mean average tech company staff not companions and hostess) Don't you think...
• Commented on Yahoo hires lap-dancers to entertain at its open, inclusive Hack Day event
  The objections to this event don't have anything to do with any kind of sexual puritanism. The issue is very plain and simple. Any man who doesn't get it lacks fundamental empathy for the other gender. When a technical conference...
• Commented on Complex derivatives are "intractable" -- you can't tell if they're being tampered with
  It should be noted that this is a purely theoretical result. What it shows is that the amount of computing time which it would take a buyer to figure out the exact value of a CDO grows substantially faster than...
• Commented on Dara O’Briain on homeopathy from Derren Brown Blog
  Mark is completely correct about Zicam not being homeopathic. It wasn't labeling laws they wanted to skirt, though, it was safety laws. The FDA laws were written in 1938, back at a time when homeopathy was quite popular in the...
• Commented on Sarah Palin, via Twitter: God told me to sue the internet
  @Takuan :81 I can make ridiculous rhetorical statements too. Here: Your embracing evil is an evil of itself. Will you tell your grandchildren "Thank goodness you're in our chains instead of their chains"? @Antinous and others I don't expect BoingBoing...
• Commented on Sarah Palin, via Twitter: God told me to sue the internet
  @Darren Garrison What on earth are you talking about? I'm not complaining about Wonkette's headline (which for the record is "Insane Sarah Palin, Late At Night On July 4, Threatens To Sue Entire Internet, Via Twitter"). I'm complaining about the...
• Commented on Sarah Palin, via Twitter: God told me to sue the internet
  @Antinous What? Takuan can make 10 different little inane repetitive anti-Palin comments and you don't bat an eye, but I respond when people attack my comments and misrepresent what I said and this merits a comment from you? It's not...
• Commented on Sarah Palin, via Twitter: God told me to sue the internet
  @Noen I completely understand that Wonkette is a humorous political blog. It's Xeni who doesn't seem to get that. She is the one reporting Wonkette's exaggerations as if they are fact. She didn't say "Here's an funny post from Wonkette...
• Commented on Sarah Palin, via Twitter: God told me to sue the internet
  @Takuan I'm not defending her. I'm attacking the idea of misrepresenting what she said. If you can't see that difference, you might as well just switch to the other side. This whole "if you're not with us you're against us"...
• Commented on Sarah Palin, via Twitter: God told me to sue the internet
  @Fixxxer Firstly, the headline says that she tweeted that God told her to sue people. She very obviously did not do that. It is clearly and obviously factually incorrect. Secondly, I don't know which of the four or five different...
• Commented on Sarah Palin, via Twitter: God told me to sue the internet
  To add to what I said before, here's the full text of all of Palin's tweets about the lawsuits: # so I'll make attempt to keep up w/attaching corrected info. I head 2 West AK villages today, look forward to...
• Commented on Sarah Palin, via Twitter: God told me to sue the internet
  I know this is just a blog, but the headline and article here are really misleading. When you go read the sources, the following things are clear: 1) Palin makes no mention of God in her Twitter posts on the...
• Commented on Pirate Bay founders launch beta of "The Video Bay"
  It's fair enough to say that you know that VideoBay has poor security practices, but I wouldn't assume that other places have good security practices just because you haven't seen evidence of bad ones. I highly recommend assuming that any...
• Commented on Financial shenanigans wiped out all productivity gains from digital technology
  Honestly, I'm very, very unconvinced by the blog post you've linked to. The basic problem here is that they appear to be using the standard ROA formula: net profit/total assets. Initially, this sounds like a reasonable measure of profit, but...
• Commented on Abstinence doesn't work for IT or for teens
  I'm with Palilay above. My friend who runs a recording studio keeps all of his computers off the internet. If a music studio can make proper decisions about what should and should not be connected, what's so difficult about making...
• Commented on My graphic novel for Android and iPhone
  @2 So, generally, the first comic book to actually use the term "graphic novel" on its cover was Will Eisner's A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories. This is widely credited with popularizing the use of the term "graphic...
• Commented on DOE loans Tesla $465M to build "Model S" - Ford got $4.9B, Nissan $1.6B under same program
  I'd love to see Aptera get some loans too, but first I'd want to take a closer look at their actual manufacturing plans. Their concept vehicles look great, but they keep pushing back their schedule of when vehicles will actually...
• Commented on EFF kills another stupid internet patent
  I'm thrilled to see another bad patent busted. But someone needs to have a talk with Cindy Cohn about what the word "ironically" means....
• Commented on Reviving American chestnuts may mitigate climate change
  It's not actually correct that all of the carbon gets released when it rots. Generally, some of it ends up in the soil. I don't have numbers for what percentage, however. And there's no reason to believe that a greater...
• Commented on The "super-villain transparencies" brain-teaser
  The solution in 69 is identical to the solutions in 55 and 56 and 62 and 65, just with a more impressive diagram. All of them are correct. I like the fact that it can be done without the colored...
• Commented on Wails and Mumbles: Tort Deform
  They did that show already. It was called Sex Court and was on Playboy TV. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Court...
• Commented on The "super-villain transparencies" brain-teaser
  Why the polarization solution doesn't work: Let's assume that Teufelsdroch and Goldmineguttd are correct, and that the effect they describe works. In my Physics II class we never did more than 2 polarized sheets, and I dropped out of quantum...
• Commented on The "super-villain transparencies" brain-teaser
  I have discovered a solution, so if you don't want to know one, don't read this comment. I tend to think that the intended solution is something like: have n slides, for each opaque pixel, assign it randomly to...
• Commented on Putumayo blog
  @5 Sheesh. I said "most" and I stand by that. I also did not say "My knowledge of children's music comes from my brother and his wife". I made my statements about kids music first and then described a situation...
• Commented on Putumayo blog
  The "universal appeal of kids music"? Is this some sort of a joke? Most "kids music" is annoying and trite. For the benefit of their 2-year-old my brother and his wife started only listening to music for children whenever they're...
• Commented on Anecdote as Data: Dimmable CFL light bulbs don't quite work right yet
  Anecdotal counter evidence. I have a half dozen dimmable CFLs in my house. They all work fine. I'm not really sure why the commenters seem to think that LEDs will be a panacea. The biggest problems with CFLs, this problem...