silkox

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• Commented on Treehugger profiles off-gridders Abe and Josie about their desert homestead
  We went through all this the first time these selfish people were featured here. This is not admirable living. This is not something to be emulated. This is not something that should be presented as good in any way, with...
• Commented on We're in the Future: Scientists Warn of Robot Overlords
  Check out "Colossus: The Forbin Project." 1970, and they had it all figured out....
• Commented on Repair Manifesto
  A couple of years ago I was trying to figure out how to fix an old stand-up floor lamp. For fun, I looked up one of the patent numbers and was surprised to learn that its irrepairability was the subject...
• Commented on How Homemade Rockets Are Made in Gaza?
  Funny this should show up today -- just this morning I was talking to a friend of mine who works for a large US defense contractor, and who specializes in propellants. He spent several weeks in Israel not long ago,...
• Commented on Resources for Sustainable Living
  Reesemlm, my point is that living in the wild is not sustainable, it's selfish. But for some reason it's a common eco-urge; a friend of mine calls it "the bush dream." I think earthships are wonderful, and they've been around...
• Commented on Resources for Sustainable Living
  With all due respect, I'm afraid the age of sustainable off-the-grid living is past (if it ever even existed). The costs of commuting from a remote place, the impact of people on dwindling wild land, and the sheer eco-porn of...
• Commented on Bourbaki Panorama
  These were a big deal in the late 1800's in Europe and the US. They were called cycloramas. There's one in Atlanta, GA that shows a moment of the Battle of Atlanta, and another -- newly renovated and reopened --...
• Commented on Radley Balko: A Few Questions for Barack Obama
  Of course questions for politicians, especially a candidate for POTUS should be direct and hard-hitting. But failing to resist snarky comments ("Perhaps your support stems from you representing a corn producing state." "Even...Paul Krugman....") suggests the questioner is interested in...
• Commented on Radley Balko: A Few Questions for Barack Obama
  This isn't a Wonderful Thing -- the tone of these questions is really insulting. Even if this Fox guy means well (hard to believe, but even if), copping an attitude isn't the best way to get anything but boilerplate responses...
• Commented on Interesting items found by airplane restorers
  In the movie Dr. Strangelove, the bomber crew had all these juicy fruit gum packs. Does anyone know what that was all about? Interesting that the picture includes a Jf wrapper.......
• Commented on Cleveland death ray of 1934
  This week Studio 360 did a segment about Nicola Tesla, who claimed to have invented a death ray. It's pretty interesting, and you can listen at the bottom of http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2008/01/25 . It's also interesting why so many people called so...