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• Commented on Antony Gormley - let's all go barefoot
  Touch Ohana, clothes can be quite useful regardless of temperature. Especially with modern fabrics, layered clothes over most of my body in hot climates can keep me cooler than not wearing them, while also protecting me from the sun and...
• Commented on Honduran coup in webcomic form
  This is certainly not innovative, and I'm not sure why it would be described as such. Comics have long been used as an effective form of propaganda. And this is obvious propaganda. That Boing Boing would link to such things...
• Commented on The Kybalion by "Three Initiates"
  That the book is freely available would seem to make this post rather more concerning, not less, considering that the post doesn't mention this....
• Commented on The American Spirit
  What is a "national online panel"? Is that a euphemism for an online poll? It's interesting to note that, while the poll starts out with a "Are you religious?" angle, it quickly moves to assuming that everyone taking the poll...
• Commented on Esoteric classics: a list of books
  @Cognitive Dissonance: The definition they are using is correct even in general use; the definition you are using isn't supported by the OED. Esoteric does imply a clandestine and selective nature of the knowledge, and using it to refer to...
• Commented on Mont Blanc's $23,000 pen to commemorate Gandhi's birth
  I've never really understood commemorative pens like this from makers like Mont Blanc and Caran d'Ache; they always seem rather gaudy, quite unlike their normal pens. As for the nib, why is everyone carefully noting the fact that it's gold?...
• Commented on Thoughts for Polanski apologists, by another woman raped at 13.
  @62: There are some limited instances where statutory rape laws end up describing as rape situations that are either not rape or are questionable, but that is completely irrelevant to the cases being discussed here. @60,@63: Are you sure you're...
• Commented on Esoteric classics: a list of books
  @mdh: That's not pedantry. Behold true pedantry! @Endymion: Esoteric actually doesn't just mean "understood by a chosen few." The meaning instead goes beyond this, to mean something intended or appropriate to be understood or known by only a chosen few,...
• Commented on Thoughts for Polanski apologists, by another woman raped at 13.
  @Lauren: With all due respect to Geimer, I am a bit more concerned about all the 13-year-old girls who came after her who had to grow up in a world where Polanski got away with that. That's true, and that's...
• Commented on Thoughts for Polanski apologists, by another woman raped at 13.
  Different people have different effects from traumatic experiences. It is as insulting to a person to assume that they were terribly affected as it is to assume that they were not terribly affected. Lauren seems to be suggesting that because...
• Commented on The Official Appreciation Page for the Best of the Wikipedia Rejects
  @1: Wikipedia's deletion policies are reasonably sound. They do end up deleting some articles that are good, but in doing so, help ensure that the articles can be made reliable and accurate. Essentially, subjects need to be notable enough that...
• Commented on My recent money-related posts at Credit.com
  I think that, in your title, you meant posts at creditbloggers.com, not credit.com... I'm skeptical that a company like Credit.com Inc can sustainably give free credit reports without strings attached. How would such a business model work? They no doubt...
• Commented on Mystery School
  It makes people upset because the history of mysticism and the occult is a history of poor scholarship, delusion, people deluding other people, often for personal gain, and proponents ignoring science. When I read about an elderly gentleman who died...
• Commented on London cops finally apologise for mugging geek -- four years later
  @4, etc: I'm somewhat dismayed by what this post leaves out. While this makes it sound as though he only received an apology, in fact, Mr Mery had already: had the IPCC investigate and determine that the arrest and related...
• Commented on Possible solution for Derren Brown's lottery trick
  This sort of deception is unfortunate; it pushes Mr Brown close to the very sorts of charlatans he's criticized in the past. The explanations he gave are clearly bogus, substituting pseudoscience for claims of being psychic. I'm rather concerned that...
• Commented on Space Shuttle scheduled to land near LA this evening, big sonic boom expected
  I just heard what was presumably the sonic boom over Pasadena; it was rather impressive....
• Commented on A kinder, gentler rendition under Obama
  @Vidya108: Some people have Asperger's Syndrome, but McKinnon clearly suffers from it. Just because not everyone does doesn't mean that one person can't....
• Commented on Clock that knocks the time out on a water-filled vase
  @3: I expect it's a proof of concept? The idea itself seems sound, and it could be made into something that looked quite nice....
• Commented on Craigslist is great the way it is
  As others have said, the advantage of Craigslist is that it just works, and works amazingly well. It used to take us weeks to get calls for rentals when tenants left, especially in this economy. Most other sites on the...
• Commented on Somali Pirate talks about how to negotiate ransom, when to kill captives.
  @15: How do we face facts while you're talking about secret agreements with the mafia and conspiracies to dispose of nuclear waste. Nuclear waste isn't exactly easy to hide, especially by dumping in the ocean: would you care to give...
• Commented on Cigarette lighter video-camera
  While this, of the cameras on the site, seems the best designed, none of them are sufficiently well-made for me to be comfortable using them. Having the lens in the middle of the barcode makes it obvious that something is...
• Commented on Last Galapagos Pinta turtle finally knocks up a mate's eggs
  I'm not sure what the point of this is. When I visited this research station, the program staff seemed clueless and amateur, essentially admitting that they did no real planning for maintaining genetic diversity and the genetic health of species...
• Commented on ATM to guy depositing California state IOU: "Come back without a [registered] warrant."
  Does anyone in California not know this? The warrants stopped being accepted by banks and cautious investors shortly after their use started. I think most people are of the opinion that they're probably worthless....
• Commented on How-To: Read George Orwell's 1984 on your Kindle
  The Kindle has major problems with questionable sellers selling very poor copies of books, and the interface can make it very difficult to find the respectable copy. Search for any public domain work, for example, and one will be confronted...
• Commented on How the Moon Landings Were Faked on the Surface of the Moon
  #14: No, they pretty much prove that it's impossible for the landing to be a hoax done on Earth. I don't think any of their evidence holds up if the filming for the faked moon landing was done on the...
• Commented on Video made using Google SketchUp for $12
  @NoseHat: I agree that the use of SketchUp gave the video a certain intentionally unrealistic and generated feel that looked interesting and novel, and went quite far to distract from all of the limitations and problems of using SketchUp by...
• Commented on Britain's loony rules for artist visas embarrass festival organizers
  Herliany's visa situation does seem a bit strange, and if I were in charge of considering her application, I would be confused as well. Why is she living in Germany, and on what sort of visa? If that visa is...
• Commented on Anti-paparazzi handbag
  If one wasn't too concerned about weight, one could presumably put capacitors and batteries in the bag large enough to make the recycle times short enough that it could stop four paparazzi at once. The claims of attempting to get...
• Commented on Honduran coup is the first successful military coup d'etat in the region since the Cold War ended
  I'm very reluctant to take any position on this, as it seems to be far more complex and nuanced than a simple coup d'etat; saying that "a military coup is less democratic than a leader seeking a mandate to try...
• Commented on Homeless Guy Smashes Other Homeless Guy Upside Head With Skateboard During Quantum Physics Argument
  #7: Quite... one of the biggest benefits of my leaving high-energy theory research has been that I now no longer have to avoid telling anyone what I do. There are so many people who read a few books, which might...