PaulR

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• Commented on The return of BBTV: Boing Boing's former video acronym taken over by bedbugs
  Radio-Free Vestible had a bit about acronymistically-named TV shows. ER, MASH, etc. That, and Jeff White needs to wear even bigger golf shirts....
• Commented on Spectacular slow card-flourishes from Dimitri Arleri
  Well, to me, the 4 - 6 seconds scene/edits (of which 2-3 seconds are Aleri walking up to his polished-to-perfection-by-the-assistants piano) make me wonder if the real magic is from the editor... (The only exception is the last trick -...
• Commented on Invasive Slugs Run Amok in Canada (Relatively Speaking)
  I haven't found a definitive source as to whether Arion rufus are edible, but I did find a list of SE Asian slugs with more than two-thirds of them listed as non-edible. Don't eat them unless you find a real...
• Commented on Chumby One: handsome successor to the cutest computer ever
  Does anyone know what the "legal restrictions" are that don't allow Chumbys to be shipped to Canada? https://store.chumby.com/pages.php?pID=8 Like what? French manuals? C'mon!...
• Commented on Hiney Virus Update
  In Montreal, I'm told, it's called the "Postal Code Virus". Y'know: "H1N 1-A4" No, really! It's much better than Hiney....
• Commented on Portrait of the blogger as a young D&D addict
  Interesting: while you guys were playing D&D, we were playing Pyroto Mountain! ...and Paranoia....
• Commented on Hacklab.to's laser-cutter really *does* play the Mario Bros theme!
  Whoops! Sorry Guysmiley......
• Commented on Hotel proudly proclaims Winston Churchill's displeasure with its service
  I spent a few months in Scotland about thirty years ago. On the whole, the food was pretty good, the tea was first rate EVERYWHERE, and the beer and whiskey? - no complaints. Haggis 'n chips became a staple for...
• Commented on Hacklab.to's laser-cutter really *does* play the Mario Bros theme!
  Those of us who deal with equipment that uses stepper motors knew all along that there was no trickery. (I still think that the CNC playing "Still Alive" - Cuysmiley's link #1 - is more awesomer.) The live version's pretty...
• Commented on Please release me: <em>Modern Warfare, Spore Islands</em>, and <em>Half Minute Hero</em>es
  The Globe and Mail rated Modern Warfare 4.5/5: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/personal-tech/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-a-compelling-conflicted-hit/article1359286/ FTA: "On one hand it's a rousing and sensational first-person shooter, while on the other it instills fear of war and its horrific consequences. Its film equivalent would be a Michael...
• Commented on Home made Russian water purifier
  Um, if the metals are diamagnetic or even just weakly paramagnetic, all the refrigerator magnets in the world won't help. Most elements in the periodic table, including copper, lead, and mercury, are diamagnetic. I curious to see how long it'll...
• Commented on Life Lessons from the Vogelkop Bowerbird
  From the videos I've seen about the bowerbirds, the like something blue. Once the bird weaves something blue into the archway, it's 'Daddy, come home!'...
• Commented on What MP3 player should I buy?
  Given how really trivial this blog post is, there have been a ton of comments. I'm curious as to how many more comments will appear, especially considering that Cory's already announced that he's made a decision... (Yes, I'm not helping,...
• Commented on Ebook license "agreements" are a ripoff
  Anonymous: "No Kindle for me, until it runs Linux well enough to not bother with Amazon" Get one of these: http://www.irextechnologies.com/products/iliad or (drool!) on of these: http://www.irextechnologies.com/irexdr1000 You can request Shell access and D/L the SDK for free. See here:...
• Commented on Ebook license "agreements" are a ripoff
  binga and Anonyman: Not to mention that the Kindle license attempts to circumvent copyright law all over the world by limiting your rights with books whose copyright has expired. Unless they specifically allow you to do so. (Aren't they nice?)...
• Commented on What MP3 player should I buy?
  Michael, you most likely have the 'USB Mode' on your Clip set to "Auto Detect". Switch it to MSC. It will always present itself to a PC or Mac as Mass Storage Device. Bonus: you can use it as a...
• Commented on What MP3 player should I buy?
  Changing the playback speed on a Sansa Clip: Step 1) Make sure you've upgraded the software to the latest version, Step 2) Er, in the Settings/Music or Audiobooks menu? It's been a while... One nice thing: With this one, you...
• Commented on What MP3 player should I buy?
  How ironic: I just decided to ditch my Sansa Fuze and get an iPod Touch... The first two Fuzes died because the data connector was too similar to my iRex Illiad's. I killed two of 'em accidentally and the third...
• Commented on Video about world's greatest soda pop store
  My favorite place to get a soda pop is Willensky's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilensky%27s Sitting down at the counter with a 'Special' or two, drinking a hand-mixed soda and syrup (they'll combine syrups for you - cola/orange, anyone?) and reading one of their...
• Commented on How to open a bottle of wine with your shoe
  One of the guys says something like "Now we'll see how the Bretons do it". If he was able to perform this neat trick correctly, he was still sober. (With apologies to Dean "If you can lie down without hanging...
• Commented on Anti-Alan Grayson smears in context
  Alan Grayson is the only bright spot in American politics right now, as far as I can tell. His "around here, we call a spade a bloody shovel" attitude is very refreshing. Go get 'em, Alan!...
• Commented on Charts showing how much US residents pay for health care compared to people in other countries
  Am I the only one that understands what "physicians' FEES" means? What "Total Hospital and Physican Costs" means? OK, here's the kindergarten explanation: That upper left chart? It show what the doctor charges for a typical office visit. The American...
• Commented on Saturday Morning Science Experiment: B.F. Skinner Makes A Pigeon Do His Bidding
  It's too bad that so many people concentrate on Skinner's pigeon experiments. He wrote a fascinating book: "Escape from Freedom" which explored Germany's descent into Nazi madness during the start of the 20th century....
• Commented on Anti-vaccine fear versus science
  Anonymous: I should have made it clearer that the "1,250" deaths world wide was quoted from the Le Monde Diplomatique article. You say that the figure is 6,000 'confirmed' deaths but without listing your sources. Sigh. Does that figure include...
• Commented on Anti-vaccine fear versus science
  From Kieran O'Neill @6's link: "a "plausible scenario" that the novel H1N1 virus could infect up to half the U.S. population in the next 6 months and kill as many as 90,000 people" Aaarrggghhh!!! Is this 90,000 people in the...
• Commented on Anti-vaccine fear versus science
  Me, I'm having a hard time getting stressed out about not being vaccinated... I have two questions: 1) If you're immunized, in what way does someone else not getting immunized jeopardize you? As an exercise, compare and contrast the risks...
• Commented on The Hazards of Lab Work
  Here's a beaut: "Even on the ground, they're not safe — Hurricane Katrina destroyed the squad's home base." But did anyone get injured? Killed? What about the building next door? Was it left untouched? Would the jobs (oh, I don't...
• Commented on On the literary and scholarly awesomeness of the timezone file
  Obligatory link: Sir Sandford Fleming's Heritage Minute: http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10182...
• Commented on Honduran coup in webcomic form
  There's no way in any democracy that a president would be allowed to flagrantly violate supreme court rulings. Coaxial, I hope that your acquiescence to the Honduran Supreme Court applies to the leaders and Supreme Court rulings of other countries...
• Commented on Science of Scams: Derren Brown and Kat the Scientist debunk the paranormal industry
  PeaceLove, the important line is the one just above the one you quoted: "According to James Randi, controlled tests by several other researchers, eliminating several sources of cuing and extraneous evidence present in the original tests, produced negative results. Students...