billso

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Commented on The Blue Flash: Nuclear Accidents and the Origins of Superhero Origins
#45: From Wikipedia: "There was virtually no damage to his intellectual capacity, but the fatigue of mental work increased markedly. Bugorski completely lost hearing in the left ear and only a constant, unpleasant internal noise remained. The left half of...
Commented on The Blue Flash: Nuclear Accidents and the Origins of Superhero Origins
In the early '80s, DC Comics bought some of Charlton Comics' characters, including Captain Atom, who gained his superpowers when he got nuked....
Commented on Angelenos: public "piracy" hearings TODAY in Van Nuys!
Good grief - this might make for some fun theatrics on the evening news....
Favorited Mac Mini "leak" causes excitement, ennui on Boing Boing Gadgets
Favorited Debate coaches scream at each other on Boing Boing
Favorited Debate coaches scream at each other on Boing Boing
Favorited Debate coaches scream at each other on Boing Boing
Favorited Belt buckle with integrated toolkit on Boing Boing
Commented on Touch me I'm slick: Persuasive Games' experimental <em>Jetset</em>
At $4.99, I'll wait until I see some more reviews....
Commented on It's not racist to prefer the iPhone
I'm a 40+ caucasian male, and I've owned a Sidekick 3 for the last 2 years, but I got an iPhone earlier this month. The Sidekick is great for text messaging, and the web applications are OK, but I can't...
Commented on It's not racist to prefer the iPhone
I'm a 40+ caucasian male, and I've owned a Sidekick 3 for the last 2 years, but I got an iPhone earlier this month. The Sidekick is great for text messaging, and the web applications are OK, but I can't...
Commented on Mac Mini "leak" causes excitement, ennui
Looks fake to me. A new Mac Mini should look similar to the existing Mini and the Airport Extreme, right?...
Commented on Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart (Updated July 2009)
1 GN of RAM on the Dell Mini 9 seems like a real showstopper for anything except text editing and web browsing....
Commented on Panel finds Palin abused power; Judge orders email from her private accounts be preserved
Not a big surprise that the judge wants all of her email, including those Yahoo accounts. Well, maybe Palin's AG (yet another former Wasilla HS classmate) is surprised....
Commented on Noon Logan Solar laptop bag
Pineal glands? Check eBay. They've got some good Buy It Now offers....
Commented on David Van Tieghem's Ear To The Ground
I love DVT's album These Things Happen, which was recorded a few years after this video....
Commented on Debate coaches scream at each other
So much for professorial dignity....
Commented on Poodle (the game) samizdat, the New Yorker Obama Cover edition.
It's close... so close......
Commented on Give low-income city kids a chance to experience rural reality.
Since 1877... quite a story, ain't it?...
Commented on AT&T billing site makes jokes about company's participation in warrantless wiretapping?
From the 2046 edition of Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "AT&T's marketing department were the first ones with their backs against the wall when the revolution came."...
Commented on Tardis sheds by the shedload
Brilliant! I wish I had a yard... or even a basement. I could use the extra storage space. Does Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson keep a TARDIS in his yard?...
Commented on Al Capp's "Fearless Fosdick" inspiration for Kurtzman's Mad?
Capp's Fosdick strip was sheer brilliance....
Commented on Teen pranksters switch off San Francisco's electric buses
Wire the panel handle to the electrical system!...
Commented on Clay Shirky's masterpiece: Here Comes Everybody
This looks interesting. It's the kind of book that corporate decision makers might ignore until its too late....
Commented on Wearable computer for colorblind painter
Excellent article!...
Commented on Belt buckle with integrated toolkit
It's out of stock at Amazon.com....
Commented on Graphic novel recommendation: Casanova Book 1: Luxuria
Mark, did you proofread this article? It doesn't look like it: ...while twin brother Cass has worked as hard at making his father disappointed in him as he has at being a creep-for-hire... (got propositions?) ...where his sister is the...
Commented on RPM 2008 Challenge: record an album in 29 days
John Cougar Mellencamp and his band recorded "Uh-Huh" in 16 days back in July 1983. 10 songs, 1 album... check the liner notes. The songs weren't all written during that session, though....
Commented on Unka Scrooge's Money Bin -- GIANT scale model!
I hope there's lots of little dimes inside, and a diving board for Scrooge! Impressive!...

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Edgewise.Sigma commented on The Blue Flash: Nuclear Accidents and the Origins of Superhero Origins
Strangefriend, can you provide a link (or source) about these vegetables?...
Oudein commented on The Blue Flash: Nuclear Accidents and the Origins of Superhero Origins
Another great post from the apparently inimitable Koerth-Baker! Thanks!...
klintron commented on The Blue Flash: Nuclear Accidents and the Origins of Superhero Origins
I've done some research on the origins of this particular motif in popular fiction. "The Metal Man" by Jack Williamson, published in 1928 (the same decade Hermann Muller discovered that radiation caused mutation in fruit flies), is the earliest science fiction story I can find in which radiation causes the development of a mutant race. "The Man Who Evolved" by Edmond Hamilton in 1931 is the earliest story I know of in which a human gains super powers through exposure to radiation (in this case "cosmic rays," decades before the Fantastic Four). However, this was no accident - the scientist...
technogeek commented on The Blue Flash: Nuclear Accidents and the Origins of Superhero Origins
As far as blue-glowing reactors goes -- I am still somewhat amazed in retrospect that Brookhaven Labs, which had an open-pool reactor (!) amongst its many lovely nuclear widgets, also hosted an open house (!!) many years ago... so, yes, I've seen Cerenkov radiation, and I too can confirm that it really was a rather attractive blue glow. (Brookhaven did a whole bunch of cool stuff, back when folks were still working at the nuclear level rather than getting down below that. Some of it being in the simple "so what _would_ happen if..." category. One of my favorites was...
DieselBenjamin commented on The Blue Flash: Nuclear Accidents and the Origins of Superhero Origins
I like Brainspore's comment about superheroes always being a product of the X-factor of their generation: Radiation becomes genetics becomes nanotechnology. Science's reach is always slightly behind science fiction's grasp, and this relationship is as old as the genre itself. For Frankenstein, Mary Shelley needed to be purposefully vague about a popularly-known but ill-understood phenomenon on the frontiers of science - something people could believe might hold the secrets to life itself. Her imaginations being bound by the limited paradigm of the early 19th Century, what strange force did she employ.....electricity...ooh! :)...

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