spiregrain

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• Commented on Goats enjoy living in their own tower
  "The estate has 750 Saanen goats and some of these are allowed access to the tower." I wonder what the criteria is? How does a goat earn this right?...
• Commented on iOm: Ian Bogost's <em>Guru Meditation</em> comes to iPhone
  Here, I thought this was an Amiga thing? That the original Amiga designers had a surfboard/joystick mashup that they balanced on to child out during debugging? And that that was the original of the "Guru Meditation" prefix on Amiga kernel...
• Commented on Henry Jenkins and Babylon 5's Straczynski live, MIT, May 22
  grr- "mention that Straczynski *wrote* Changeling"...
• Commented on Henry Jenkins and Babylon 5's Straczynski live, MIT, May 22
  Funny this blurb doesn't mention that Straczynski Changeling. You know the major 2008 motion picture directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie? The Oscar Bait? I though JSM was done slumming it on sf panels?...
• Commented on Gallery: An illustrated history of the transoceanic cable
  You may also enjoy Neal Stephenson's Wired piece on transoceanic cables. You may also enjoy Neal Stephenson's Wired piece on transoceanic cables. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html...
• Commented on Dudley Moore + Peter Cook sing song about Robin Hood's BFF in 1965
  I bet this is a piss-take of Lionel Bart's disastrous Robin Hood musical, "Twang!", which ran for a few weeks in 1965....
• Commented on Video: Samsung Show phone has a pico projector inside
  He doesn't use the projector until 5:15, for those of you with lives to lead. Worth seeing, but not worth sitting through the rest of it for....
• Commented on Guitar Hero as text adventure
  B3tan to it! http://b3ta.com/board/9095661...
• Commented on Were LEGO Space minifigs based on <em>2001</em>?
  The blue 2001 spacesuits also show up in the various time-travel-related episodes of Babylon 5 as special time-travel suits....
• Commented on Thomas Edison's crappy, price-fixing EULA
  You know - calculating the consumer price index back tells us that $0.35 in 1908 is worth $8.14 today. Other indexes are available, see here: http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ That's not too far off the price of an album on iTunes. It just...
• Commented on CES: Palm Lives! Introducing the multitouch, slide-out keyboard Pre smartphone
  @CHRIS S: It's probably way to early to say, but there is some developer information for the new "WebOS" here: http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9666/palm-announces-the-palm-webos/ and Here: http://developer.palm.com/ It looks like you'll be able to develop apps for the thing and not just hook...
• Commented on Boing Boing tv: The Herd, "2020," music video by Mike Daly (buh-bye, 2008!)
  There is one problem with this vid, excellently-executed though it is. The song is all about the words; and the vid is chock-full of words. I, for one, can't take both sets in....
• Commented on Holiday / Christmas Music: An Open Thread.
  Another suggestion is the Harp interlude from Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols. He wrote it in the cargo hold of a freight ship in mid at Atlantic at the height of the German U-Boat campaign. He'd just returned from a...
• Commented on Holiday / Christmas Music: An Open Thread.
  The two all-time best ever Christmas music collections ever, ever are: Handel's Messiah (also covers Easter); and Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You. It's the rock 'n' rollest, wall-of-soundest Christmas ever committed to monaural shellac. Even if you think...
• Commented on Synthetic beach with temperature-controlled sand
  The ski slope at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai has real (well, manufactured) H2O snow. It's huge, and the entire space is air conditioned to about -4°C. It's about 40°C outside in the summer... AT NIGHT. And the...
• Commented on When spellcheckers attack: The Cupertino Effect
  Many years ago, I wrote a school report comparing the internet to fidonet for dial-up home users. Only when dusting it off years later did I notice that 1995-era Microsoft Word replaced all mention of "internet" with "internee". In those...
• Commented on In Japan, conflating Obama with a monkey is a fun way to sell phones
  In other Obama/Monkey news, a member of India's Congress Party is arranging for Obama to receive a statue of the monkey-god Hanuman. Because apparently he's a devotee. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7468662.stm...
• Commented on Honor payment system problems at unmanned produce stands in Japan
  This is on the track over the top of the Blisworth Tunnel on the Grand Union Canal. An Honour System for apples: http://flickr.com/photos/kenkilfedder/2353697561/in/set-72157601920912837/...
• Commented on Babbage Difference Engine No. 2 Recreation Coming to Computer History Museum
  Those in London can view a No. 2 Difference Engine in the Science Museum. It's been there since they built it in the mid-nineties if I remember rightly. They also have a reconstructed Analytical Engine, and a copy of Henry...
• Commented on Leaked UK gov't doc reveals plan to "coerce" Brits into national ID register -- MIRROR THIS FILE!
  Here's another. Don't hit it too hard! http://www.kenkil.plus.com/IPS/...
• Commented on Dalek-based security on the Toronto subway
  Lots of signs for public showers are much more dalekoid than that one. Example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7322084@N02/1349759391/in/set-72157601920912837/...
• Commented on "Twins who accidentally got married" is probably an urban legend
  Here is the ultimate source for the story. A statement in parliament by Lord Alton of Liverpool. He claims to have actually spoken with the High Court Judge who "annulled" the "marriage". http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2007-12-10a.91.0&s=twins#g101.2 Said he: I was recently in conversation...
• Commented on Nanohazard symbol design competition
  Remember these these ones? http://www.flickr.com/photos/87547772@N00/sets/72157594323393196/ A good deal more thoughtful, and covering a range of potential futuristic hazards....
• Commented on Deals: Electric Kettle on Amazon for $12
  Baz - I know what I'm doing. The seven dictionaries wiki refers to probably do too. None of the other alternative terms for the UK, Rep. of Ireland, Isle of Man taken together, etc are as unambiguous or widely-used. Now...
• Commented on Deals: Electric Kettle on Amazon for $12
  Does water have to be at boiling point or at 100°C? 'Cuz boiling point varies with altitude....
• Commented on Deals: Electric Kettle on Amazon for $12
  Just about every hotel and B&B in the British Isles has a kettle, mugs, a dish of tea bags, instant coffee and sugar sachets and individual UHT milks. Lack of this facility in foreign hotels is another tribulation faced by...