Red Zebra

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• Commented on Enigma: Derren Brown's new live mentalism and magic show on UK tour
  I saw him live and I wouldn't be able to explain how he did some of the tricks even if the ENTIRE AUDIENCE were stooges. Really. You might think you've just about worked out one aspect of the trick, when...
• Commented on Least favorite plant: asparagus fern
  "Least favourite"??!! :-o How can anyone into evolution dislike ferns and their fractal fronds?? See: http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=fern+fractal...
• Commented on Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street
  Seems a bit like blaming Einstein for the atom bomb. Anyway, according to the logic of the banking industry, shouldn't he be given a bonus??...
• Commented on Top 11 compounds in US drinking water
  Yeah it's a good thing they were only found in minute concentrations... but a pity that you only need minute concentrations of hormones (estrogen), or endocrine disrupters to affect growth. Hey, isn't it strange how kids have been maturing earlier...
• Commented on Laughing gas, imagination, and suggestibility
  My dentist used to use it but I quit going to him... I couldn't stand the way it made him laugh uncontrollably and lose track of which tooth he was meant to be pulling....
• Commented on Israel Invades Gaza: Online coverage, "citizen reporter" resources.
  The rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza into Israel are repeatedly used to justify this invasion. To put this into a little perspective, these rockets (range about 10km) have managed to kill all of 15 (fifteen) Israelis in the past...
• Commented on Home Security's security checkpoint measure "mal-intent" characteristics
  These statistics completely miss the point. If you are searching for the "1 in 10,0000" terrorists, only 80% accuracy gonna net you a whole lotta false positives....
• Commented on DIY biohackers in the news
  Hmmmm. I wonder why there was a moratorium on genetic recombination experiments in 1974 until the necessary lab safety requirements could be identified and implemented?...
• Commented on Letters From Johns
  There, there, Arghmonkey... here's your Wii, remote control and a box of Kleenex. Go back to your fluffy bed, pull your nice, padded duvet up over your head, and live on in happy ignorance. ...we'll call you when you're wanted....
• Commented on Biometric identifcation by body language
  All good fun and games... until you happen to score a hit for "moving like a terrorist"....
• Commented on Scientists mostly don't know what a "theory" is, but should they?
  The concept of theory is itself a theory - it's a scientific model which stands up to experimental evidence (thus far). The model doesn't have to be infallible to be useable. However it is necessary to understand the limitations of...
• Commented on Hyperwords.net
  My immediate reaction on installing and using hyperwords: F*$&! It's stolen my carefully customized search toolbar. My second reaction on trying to reinstate my toolbar: F*("£! There are so many options the easiest would be to delete it and pray...
• Commented on Print Your Own Money
  An interesting alternative to capitalist economics might be participatory economics (abbreviated as "parecon"). This system is designed to reward personal effort and sacrifice rather than inheritance, intelligence or the amount one owns. It includes a system participatory politics, in which...
• Commented on Print Your Own Money
  @37 & 45 re: gold vs printed money. Surely the difference is that there is a finite amount of physical gold, whereas money in a fiat currency can be printed at will by the government. If I own 1% of...
• Commented on Watercolors of irradiated mutant bugs
  This is an interesting art project but as a scientific experiments - there's no control sample. ie: as #2 said, you might find the same number of mutant bugs anywhere. Oops! I take it all back - I just found...
• Commented on Fruit flies with free will
  Hmm.. I'm highly sceptical. In their paper they say when they analyze the flight patterns that they find a fractal order, resembling Levy flights, which are a type of a random walk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9vy_flight). Other examples include earthquakes... so, earthquakes have...
• Commented on Charlie Manson uses Creative Commons licenses
  Manson is a scapegoat for the psycho-sexual anxieties of the collective American psyche. And I'm referring to both Charles and Marilyn....
• Commented on Elephant paints an elephant
  Wow! Great link #20 - there's also info in there about an Elephant Orchestra, with all instruments played by elephants! Well, nearly all... I think the violin is not being played by an elephant. Follow the link above or go...
• Commented on Brilliant cycling awareness safety video
  Well I rode a bike for years and I NEVER saw a bear. I guess that proves their point?...
• Commented on Gary Wolf profiles Ray Kurzweil in Wired
  Hasn't anyone thought to tell this poor guy about the existence of _multi-vitamins_?? Or better yet... fresh fruit and vegetables?...
• Commented on Rudimentary math skills among fish
  Frogs can count too. As eloquently explained by Terry Pratchett in Wings: "They stared at the branch. There wasn't just one flower out there, there were dozens, although the frogs weren't able to think like this because frogs can't count...
• Commented on Brain surgery with regular Bosch power drill
  The story of Henry Marsh and his travels to the Ukraine to perform brain surgery for free with little to no equipment has recently been made into an incredible documentary called the English Surgeon. http://www.theenglishsurgeon.com/ Article in the Times: http://tiny.cc/d6RmF...
• Commented on Scotland Yard wants DNA samples from 5-year-olds in case they grow up to be criminals; Oyster card records to become part of "war on terror"
  DNA samples should also be taken from the parents of the disobedient children, since they are also, by definition, bad people. Also any of their friends who may have learned that behaviour; their teachers and who failed to correct their...
• Commented on ComplaintRemover promises to rid the Intertubes of LOLCats
  ComplaintRemover? What a ridiculous idea! I think I'm going to have to ask ComplaintRemover to remove them....
• Commented on Next Nature -- a designer's vision of a nature overtaken by corporatism
  err... sorry, but that was complete and utter shite. For inspirational (and factually correct) videos on culture, science and design you should try somewhere like http://www.ted.com/ Not only that but some of them are well presented. ...and Metalosis Maligna? oh...
• Commented on Throwing away broken electronics (video)
  disposable...
• Commented on Worst food in America: Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing
  @ #80 For the record, I haven't met anyone in four countries who drinks Fosters you're telling me you haven't met any Aussies in any of those four countries??? You should hang out in hostels more....
• Commented on Worst food in America: Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing
  AUSSIE cheese fries??? WTF? Chuck us the bloody dead 'orse, mate......
• Commented on Navy robot lab porn
  But can it go up stairs?...
• Commented on Replacement jawbone grown in a man's stomach
  They weren't grown in his stomach - that'd be really weird not to say impossible considering that's where fud gets et. It was in his abdomen - that's the big empty bit outside the stomach and other organs, otherwise known...