Gemma

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• Commented on Questions from economics honors exam at Oberlin College
  Q8. I'm going with the original king still being in power. Working backward from Duke 5 makes no sense to me, since Duke 5 ONLY gets the opportunity to attend court/the king IF NONE of the previous dukes have supported...
• Commented on Anti-energy drinks
  Howzabout lettuce juice?...
• Commented on Color film of 1927 London
  #53. FWIW, no such thing as Jaywalking in the UK (apart from motorways/highways). You can cross where you like... just don't always expect not to get flattened....
• Commented on Hamster Hotel lets you live like a rodent
  0:21. Dramatic hamster?...
• Commented on Color film of 1927 London
  How strange to see almost exclusively men in the Petticoat Lane market. There's nowhere I go that is uni-gendered. I have to count the fact that women are no longer chained to the kitchen as an advance worth celebrating. (It...
• Commented on Bob Dylan mistaken for hobo, 40 years after Woodstock
  Presumably the cop would have been less worried he was a hospital escapee if no famous names came up in the conversation. A little awkward for Bob to be better off pretending to be someone else to be less suspicious....
• Commented on Musical kettle that whistles your favorite tune
  Probably more likely to knock the kettle of boiling water over yourself too, with that sticking out of it. /healthandsafety...
• Commented on Anti-health-care loon says Stephen Hawking wouldn't stand a chance under British health care system
  Re: #27, Enormo. "So the UK is what? The land of hate and myopia?" I wouldn't worry about that too much. Here in Scotland you can get your eyes tested for free (i.e. NHS) and if you're unemployed/retired/a child you'll...
• Commented on Anti-health-care loon says Stephen Hawking wouldn't stand a chance under British health care system
  #3 Andrewslayman, #14 Bugs. This reminds me of another misrepresentation of the UK health system that I often hear trotted out in the American press.... In truth, no one is forced to accept NHS treatment in the UK if they...
• Commented on Village of Twins
  There are some killer quotes in the article. "35-45 twins per live birth." How do they all fit in? "It's a virgin village,' said Dr Sribiju, a researcher." Ha! All evidence to the contrary. ".... the parents are busy trying...
• Commented on Ikea's free tack-hammer assistant
  I've used one of these before, but I am sure that was with furniture bought at Argos, not Ikea. (UK shop.) Very useful though. #20. I think these are just for putting the pins in the back of self-assembly furniture,...
• Commented on Science of orgasm video
  Can you wank a female pig? It seems more of a male verb to me....
• Commented on Milk: The Gateway Drug
  #4 Anonymous.... thank you for the YouTube link, which I did indeed need. Funny stuff....
• Commented on Parasitic twin erupts from 30-year-old man's belly button
  @14. Check to see which one has a beard?...
• Commented on Parasitic twin erupts from 30-year-old man's belly button
  Why is it a "parasitic" twin? If the surviving twin absorbed the wee tiny twin, then surely it's the twin which gobbles the other one up who is parasitic? Sort of?...
• Commented on TV reporter forgets he is on live TV, says bad word, then blanches in horror
  I've been looking for a clip online of a UK politician (John Prescott??) being interviewed live, making a mistake, swearing, and asking if they can do that bit again. Then being reminded it's live. For some reason I'm having no...
• Commented on Funny spoof song about freecreditreport.com
  Tortoises bite quite hard. I'm glad yours was more intimidated by your swooping action than lured by your tasty-looking nose! I've not seen the ads it's spoofing, but it was still a fun song....
• Commented on Scientology TV show blames psychiatry for turning Osama bin Laden into a terrorist
  You know you're a feminist when you read that headline as: Scientology TV show blames patriarchy for turning Osama bin Laden into a terrorist :)...
• Commented on How to Skank video from 1964
  Wow. Before autocues. Where if you didn't know the script by heart you have to look awkwardly off to the right at regular intervals....
• Commented on Flashmob of ATM crooks scores $9 million in 49 cities
  I read about this in The Herald (Scotland). It specifically said that the RBS computer system was hacked in order to raise the daily withdrawal limit on these particular cards. Certainly the kind of ATM you get in a bank...
• Commented on Hard data on ebook piracy versus sales -- slides from O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing panel
  Robotech Master, if people are going to bury useful links in plain sight in the very first comment.... how do you think I am going to find them? ;)...
• Commented on Hard data on ebook piracy versus sales -- slides from O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing panel
  Cory, is your keynote speech available to watch anywhere? I heard good things about it. I'd like to see other presentations too, if there are any available online....
• Commented on Author's Guild claims text-to-speech software is illegal
  I note that when I buy secure ebooks (in Microsoft Reader/ .lit format at least) the Read Aloud function is always disabled. Utterly stupid of course....
• Commented on Emoticon from 1862?
  A space before a double punctuation mark ( ; : ! « » etc) and no space before a single one ( . , ) is still standard practice in French. I remember sitting in a lecture in France where...
• Commented on Thor scares off burglar
  pedant/Nobody is burglarized in Edinburgh. They might, however, be burgled./pedant...
• Commented on Top 500 worst passwords
  I assume that sexsex comes from sex being rejected as too short a password. Hmmm. What could I use instead?...
• Commented on Police raid 79-year-old woman for pot, find tomato plants
  re: #1 I read your comment as: "should have put a few slugs in her plants for wasting police time. Peasant scum." And I thought it sounded a bit harsh. It's demoralising to have your plants eaten by slugs. Then...
• Commented on Geeks try to cook Gordon Ramsey's fancy recipe
  WRT blender v food processor. I think since you only had, what, six sprouts, the sprout paste would have been harder to make in a larger bowl. Of course the more practical use of the blender would have involved scraping...
• Commented on What do you call the shop on the corner?
  WRT "newsagents". I remember my Dad telling me that a shop used to have to have a licence to sell newspapers (in the UK), hence the emphasis on this particular product in the name. Can this be right? It sounds...
• Commented on What kind of animal is on this rubber ball?
  Loch Ness Monster....