PukeBazooka

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• Commented on Got a Christmas tree in the house? Don't forget to water it.
  More tree fire videos from NIST here: http://fire.nist.gov/tree_fire.htm I wonder who purchases the furniture that goes into these rooms. Are they using brand new furniture? Do they use discarded furniture from other government offices? Whatever they can pick up on...
• Commented on Kenyan cowboy shirts -- Stetson-cut shirts made in Kenya from second-hand clothes
  Looks like a great idea; here's hoping that the work/time costs of getting each unique garment listed on their website doesn't make things impractical in the long run. Seems like one of the few things I've seen in a while...
• Commented on How's this for "bailout transparency?"
  Thanks for posting this, Mark. There have been a few times when I've seen or heard news that sounds important but unlikely to get picked up by mainstream sources, think "I should submit this to BoingBoing," and find out that...
• Commented on The government subsidies behind Cindy McCain's family fortune
  On a somewhat related note, here is a nice hour long talk by journalist David Cay Johnston in which he discusses in a broader sense the problems with many subsidies and anti-trust exemptions: http://wordforword.publicradio.org/programs/2008/07/25/...
• Commented on Is the government compiling a secret list of citizens to detain under martial law?
  On the flipside, though, if you get locked up after the shit hits the fan, at least you'll be safe from the thousands of businesses that have a green light to use lethal force to protect their assets: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/11/report_fbi_deputizes_23_000_business...
• Commented on Hydro-4000 fuel injection device; Boing Boing Huckster Dismantling Squad: Assemble!
  The linked article says "in any engine, roughly 15% of the gas isn't burned." Some of the touted efficiency gains are supposedly due to hydrogen gas causing more efficient combustion, meaning that the 15% of unburned fuel actually gets consumed....
• Commented on Stuart Kauffman: Call the universe God
  I am happy to accept this natural creativity in the universe as a reinvention of "God". If Kauffman wants to accept something that can be both observed and measured as a reinvention of "God," then the meaning of the word...
• Commented on Droog's Do Hit Chair, complete with sledgehammer
  I'm not so much bothered by the idea that people might buy expensive, ass-hurting chairs in order to impress others as I am bummed out by the notion that anybody could be impressed by such a purchase in the first...
• Commented on Jimi Hendrix sex tape
  Dammit, I just came from the Albert Hofmann comment thread, where I indicated that I hope Hofmann is jamming with Hendrix. This is definitely not what I had in mind....
• Commented on Albert Hofmann, LSD inventor, RIP
  Peace out, dude. Hope you're jamming with Hendrix now....
• Commented on Appeals court reverses ruling: now border agents can search laptops without cause
  If the idea of somebody poking around your personal files offends you -- or your employer, who perhaps has plenty of trade secrets to conceal -- consider taking Truecrypt for a spin. Another option is to leave your files at...
• Commented on Charges against artist Steve Kurtz thrown out
  Of all the stupid, pointless cases to prosecute, why this? What good could it possibly serve?...
• Commented on Public relations-officer for Southern Illinois University College Republicans sends misogynistic hate mail and is forced to resign
  I wonder how his "you can't argue with science" philosophy jibes with the prevailing views Republicans hold on global warming and evolution....
• Commented on RIP: "father of chaos theory," Edward Lorenz
  Put a drop of water on your hand, like this, see! And it rolls down this way! But, but, but -- but wait! Try it again! Works differently! The water goes somewhere else! There's all these tiny hairs on your...
• Commented on Kevin Kelly: "Digital things I've been wrong about"
  Carl Sagan did something like this in one of his later books -- a long list of things that he had been wrong about. Makes for interesting reading....
• Commented on Gallery of "young me / now me" photos
  I wonder what the overall effect would be if a significant number of people were to pose in a recreation of somebody else's childhood photo. Would anybody notice? In other words, how much do we look like our childhood selves?...
• Commented on Home computing, circa 1970
  Paperless office, indeed....
• Commented on The "2 Girls 1 Cup" defense
  Can any legal beagles here define "the prurient interest" in the context of the Miller Test? It seems interesting that concept of "prurient interest" is (seemingly) completely divorced from that of the producer and that of the consumer. Just whose...
• Commented on Knowing the risk of fatality, to the finest nicety
  Under vehicle accidents, there are tallies for drivers, passengers, and "unknown" victims -- which seems to mean that a known number of people were killed in a crash but it wasn't obvious how many drivers and how many passengers there...
• Commented on Jordan Crane's amazing cover for Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends
  Wow, that's really cool. I saw this book in the McSweeney's store yesterday but hadn't realized how neat the cover is -- the picture didn't really do it justice. For those that are interested, an excerpt from Michael Chabon's proposed...
• Commented on HOWTO launch-prep the Space Shuttle
  Space travel is super sweet....
• Commented on Microsoft busted by Indian government for avoiding royalty tax by saying that it sells -- not licenses -- its software
  Some quick googling turned up an article that described how the Allman Brothers Band and Cheap Trick were suing Sony for 30% royalties on digital downloads, rather than the 4.5 cents per d/l that they were receiving. So the artists...
• Commented on Decorated front yard in Ojai, CA
  That's a good question, Teresa. I don't track the advertisers on other sites/publications very closely, but I doubt that those advertisers have a track record that's much better than Microsoft. Much of what I read is online content, and AdBlock...
• Commented on Decorated front yard in Ojai, CA
  Talia, agreed, there are far worse companies. The reason I'm commenting on MS is that a lot of what they do cuts to the heart of the issues that I see discussed on BoingBoing frequently. I do realize that there...
• Commented on Decorated front yard in Ojai, CA
  Crunchbird -- was there ever a statement like that? As far as I know, the response was basically, "We've always accepted advertising, and advertising doesn't influence content." What Microsoft does seems incongruous with a lot of the editorial content I...
• Commented on Decorated front yard in Ojai, CA
  Talia -- thanks for the comment. Apparently AdBlock prevents the "sponsored by Windows Mobile" image from appearing, but does not block the sponsored link. The net effect appears to show a sponsored link without revealing the sponsorship. Disabling AdBlock "fixes"...
• Commented on Decorated front yard in Ojai, CA
  It looks like this post is another of the Microsoft-sponsored variety? I had commented previously on the Microsoft sponsorship, and I think the comment is worth repeating here: What are the values that Microsoft demonstrates in the course of conducting...
• Commented on Survive-All Fallout Shelter radio ads
  This is completely awesome, in a glad-I-didn't-grow-up-during-the-worst-of-it kind of way. It's pretty amazing how there was never a literal, collective pants-shitting in America. The constant threat of global nuclear annihilation sort of makes the perceived threat of terrorism seem less...
• Commented on Man installing satellite TV kills wife
  This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer gets a gun and starts using it as a tool that can open beers for him (among other things). I thought that people this dumb were a joke. Guess I was...
• Commented on Retro-futuristic Syd Mead illos from US Steel int'l promotional pack
  "There is no suffering or conflict because we will live in some typically solipsistic frat boy's wet dream. Count me out." No suffering? No conflict? Future looks bright to me, brah....