djn

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• Commented on Animation: pitcher Dock Ellis's no-hitter while on LSD
  Given the tone of the end of the video + comments, I tihnk it's a good thing, jokel. :) (And yes. Baseball jargon and rules are hard to get into ... much like cricket.)...
• Commented on I am unicorn, destroyer of ponies
  Narwhals, narwhals / swimming in the ocean / causing a commotion / 'coz they are so awesome. Oh, argh - that'll take a while to get out of my head again....
• Commented on Tickling the Dragon: Nuclear accidents in the US and Russia
  Heh, I've only been to a 2MW research reactor - Norway is not the best place for reactor tourism. ;) (Hmm, I wonder if the Swedes to guided tours? Time to check.)...
• Commented on Tickling the Dragon: Nuclear accidents in the US and Russia
  On the subject of nuclear power plants, I still like Charlie Stross' short summary of his visit to a British AGR: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/rant/torness.html ....
• Commented on Taste test: Togarashi
  Ah, but alcohol has an actual effect, in that it does increase the blood circulation a bit. Personally, I rather enjoy that side effect of drinking: If I feel overly warm, I'd much rather move some of that out to...
• Commented on XKCD's eye-watering Geocities tribute
  My favourite comment from the the xkcd forums: SW15243: For awhile I was wondering if I could explain why the first thing out of my mouth when I saw this was "Adorable!" Then I realized this is just like looking...
• Commented on The Cove director on watching his film with the dolphin hunters
  @anon: You'll find that I never said they were. I was following up on the double theme of the previous sentence (whale and fish) with another double-theme sentence (ditto). Looking back at the sentence construction, it could probably have been...
• Commented on Taste test: Togarashi
  By the sound of it, wouldn't both this and alcohol serve as a fairly direct treatment for people who quickly lose blood circulation in cold extremities? In my case, "my fingers get horribly cold even though I've got more than...
• Commented on The Cove director on watching his film with the dolphin hunters
  On a somewhat related note, it seems it falls on me to defend Norway's whale hunting, at least from an extinction POV. The only whale being hunted by Norwegians these days are Minke whales. There's an estimated 185 000 or...
• Commented on The Cove director on watching his film with the dolphin hunters
  @benher: Being a norwegian, and eating a fair bit of fish (not so much whale - not entirely keen on the taste), I generally see your point. However. Harpoon grenading whales is intended to be as quick a kill as...
• Commented on US military data-mines America's kids for war recruiting
  Interesting. The military here in Norway are very low-key. I've seen their stands at career shows and the like, but even that's usually just "look at our shiny toys, admire our advertisement videos" - no real recruitment drive. There is,...
• Commented on Science of Scams: Derren Brown and Kat the Scientist debunk the paranormal industry
  I think I can see three possible variations: 1) The universe always existed, though the matter we see appeared from the vacuum some billions of years ago. 2) Something else entirely always existed, the universe sprang from that due to...
• Commented on Science of Scams: Derren Brown and Kat the Scientist debunk the paranormal industry
  If we follow the existence of the universe backwards, we discover only two possibilities: One is that God exists or Two, that existence never had a beginning, it has existed forever. I've seen that argument before, and one part of...
• Commented on The Nerdy Dozens
  @Antonius: I must deal with too many statisticians - because I found that one hilarious. :)...
• Commented on Impressionist Cake
  Ah, I knew I'd seen this before. Nice work, definitely. :)...
• Commented on Newspapers can't make themselves as simple as craigslist
  As a followup to my previous comment, finn.no has 220 employees for a country of under 5 million people. Some of those work on the underlying tech, which is licensed to several similar pages in other countries - but they...
• Commented on Newspapers can't make themselves as simple as craigslist
  Just for comparison, the most similar site here in Norway is owned by a coalition of newspapers. It's not as sparse as craigslist, but fairly convenient; I used it to find my current apartment. Google translate has gotten quite good,...
• Commented on Report: Mercury found in every single fish tested in study of US rivers, streams
  @nygenxer, 49: Indeed, not one mention of it. Two is, after all, a different number....
• Commented on Depressing 1950s Jell-O commercial
  Roughly twice as poisonous as table salt per gram? I don't think I'm very worried....
• Commented on Radiohead Song in memory of Harry Patch, WWI survivor and pacifist.
  @mrsbug, 18: Starting at the relevant wikipedia article and branching out is depressing reading - I'm left with the feeling that WW1 was, in some ways, more senseless than WW2. It might be difficult to put into words what I...
• Commented on Blog about bad and odd taxidermy
  @nosehat, 16: http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml...
• Commented on Fresh Greens: You don't need helicopters to kill wolves
  Ah yes, the wolves ... cause of many long debates over here in Norway, as well. Essentially, people don't really want wolves circling their house (or indeed their local school), and they're not entirely fond of them killing large amounts...
• Commented on UFO Expo promises "compelling theories and evidence," also "Crab Cakes and Sliced Fruit Tray."
  @noen, 25: Yup, exactly. I don't know if you found the rather incredible http://www.educate-yourself.org ? These people are constructing a rather large and elaborate setting - it's just a shame they're insisting that it's real....
• Commented on UFO Expo promises "compelling theories and evidence," also "Crab Cakes and Sliced Fruit Tray."
  @15: Ah, you're in for a treat. It's a perfect example of a conspiracy, right down to the internal schisms. One of the pages I saw claimed something to the effect of "I can see what appears to be large...
• Commented on Last Galapagos Pinta turtle finally knocks up a mate's eggs
  Well, yes and no. The children will indeed be crossbreeds, but given enough of them it might be possible to breed back to something very close to his subspecies. Which is a step up from "no living descendants"....
• Commented on Last Galapagos Pinta turtle finally knocks up a mate's eggs
  This is the happiest unexpected news I've read for a while - I entirely expected him to die at some very old age as the last of his kind. Admittedly, I didn't know the closest related (sub-)species was that close....
• Commented on History of the US-USSR hotline
  @nixiebunny, 3: Being Norwegian (and indeed in Oslo right now), I'm not sure if I appreciate being called German. ;)...
• Commented on Richard Dawkins helps fund atheist summer camp
  Rather a lot of grumbling unhappy people here today, isn't there? There is an important difference between two forms of fantastical claims. There are those that claim to be relevant to the real world (religion, healing, other forms of woo...
• Commented on Spheres of Influence: A Collection of Spherical Sites
  @26: On one hand, their reference sun is just 36 feet - almost exactly a tenth of the Swedish one. On the second hand, you are of course, per definition, right....
• Commented on Spheres of Influence: A Collection of Spherical Sites
  @4: It doesn't seem like it. Their scale sun is a 37m (what? tall? diameter? circumference?) observatory dome, while the Swedes use the 110m diameter Globe hall. This also fits with the Australian Pluto model being "less than 200km away",...