Michael A. Banks

Recent Actions

• Favorited True nature of science fiction and fantasy books revealed through photoshopped covers on Boing Boing
• Commented on Chart of UAW compensation compared to manufacturing average
  Believe it or not, the hourly workers at the Miller Brewing Company are members of the UAW. They're at the upper end of the compensation range. I was a member of the UAW three times ... but have been cautioned...
• Commented on Folding scooter from the 1960s
  Perfect! Big enough to get around, yet uses little fuel--and small enough to take inside and avoid theft. (Or maybe keep it in your car's trunk as backup.) --Mike...
• Commented on CNN Closes Space/Tech/Environmental Reporting Unit; Miles O'Brien Departs
  Absurd! So, will CNN spend all its time telling us stuff we've already figured out about politicians, and things we don't want to know about "celebrities?" I'd really like to stay informed on things like XCOR. I guess CNN won't...
• Commented on Proto-steampunk ironworks of 1865
  Wheels and iron ... I'm sure these guys welcomed the auto-mobile--steam, electric, or ICE-powered--thirty-odd years later. --Mike...
• Commented on Motorola, could you please tell your viral marketer to get out of our comments?
  I'm so glad my boss isn't like that--mainly because I don't have a boss! The late Jim Baen was doing this in the mid-1980s, not only on The Source and other commercial services, but on BBSs around the country, as...
• Commented on In 2007, pundits scoffing accurate predictions about the economy
  Inevitably, those who predict rational stuff are ignored. It ain't cool--and the paper zillionaires couldn't handle the thought of losing it all. There were similar predictions--and even a stock-drop warning--well before the crash of 1929. --Mike On the Way to...
• Commented on Merrill Lynch Needs a Dressing Down
  "Arrogant" and "condescending" also come to mind. These so-disant "winners" gauge themselves by how much money they can take for how little effort--kind of like a clown who stole a book out from under me. --Mike...
• Commented on Old video of talking electric guitar
  A recording of this was played on Top 40 stations in the early 1960s. I was 9 or 10, but I remember it vividly. Never did know who did it. The background chorus sounded like he borrowed the Rayletts. --Mike...
• Commented on Swedish 1970s dance band photos
  As a name, "Hux Flux" could parody "Ku Klux."...
• Commented on Why Darwin Would Have Loved Botox
  Noting IGPAJO's comment on this sparking conspiracy theories with regards to making people harder to agitate ... it kind of echos A Clockwork Orange, though of course the latter was behavioral conditioning. And it's more subtle. --Mike...
• Commented on How's this for "bailout transparency?"
  Right on, TJ S. The Haunting of Hill House is still scarey. --Mike...
• Commented on How's this for "bailout transparency?"
  It also reminds one of Google ordering its "publishers" to not tell anyone how much they're paid. --Mike...
• Commented on How's this for "bailout transparency?"
  Assholes! They're afraid on one hand that the stockholders will cry "Assholes!" and on the other that their fellow CEOs will learn that they are making a hundred grand less than them. This is like some authors talking about book...
• Commented on True nature of science fiction and fantasy books revealed through photoshopped covers
  Here's a book whose cover is not Photoshopped: Clan of the Dung Sniffers, by Lee Danielle Hubbard (yes) http://www.edgewebsite.com/books/clanofthedungsniffers/cds-catalog.html Um ... is it this kind of shit that gives SF a bad name? --Mike...
• Commented on Dictator birdhouses
  Looks like a good home for purple Martins. --Mike...
• Commented on Entertainment industry made up $250 billion/750,000 jobs losses due to piracy
  As I've early and often, these are phantom losses, just as with most copied software. What--do the bastards think the recipients of free copies would have bought 'em if they couldn't get 'em free? Not fucking likely for most of...
• Commented on Panel finds Palin abused power; Judge orders email from her private accounts be preserved
  So fucking what? Where's the damage ... where's the secret stuff in the Yahoo mail? Cheney probably uses a Yahoo or Hotmail account to tell his investor buddies what's happening next so they can clean up and repay him. Your...
• Commented on New DVD documentary on Arthur Lee: "Love Story"
  Wish it had come sooner. There are some glimpses of Love on TV at YouTube. --Mike...
• Commented on Nerd library to end all nerd libraries
  This and helping others is what wealth is for. --Mike...
• Commented on Millionth word in English imminent?
  "... means if I say a word, and you understand me, it's a real word." What if the jackass saying the word doesn't understsand it? There's a lot of that going around in business ... as in "I hear others...
• Commented on Jeannie C. Riley: Mini-skirted minx country singer
  She was a hottie, all right! My ex being related to Loretta Lynn, I had to listen to Riley. (And they made the movie a few miles from me.) If she'd lost the big hair she could've done a crossover...
• Commented on Data-mining sucks: official report
  It's effective if you have a free, creative mind. --Mike...
• Commented on Serialization of The Deal, Chapter 18
  Still reading. I like the fact that Joe uses fiction technique. That alone makes it a stand-out book. No much action, but then again it's not that kind of story. I did the same thing with Crosley originally, but a...
• Commented on Bail In or Bail Out?
  Some blogs blame Pelosi; some blogs blame McCain. Pot-shots at politicians solve nothing. We already knew that each and every one of them was on the make. The real blame is in the hands of the assholes who set up...
• Commented on Bail In or Bail Out?
  Yeah--those cocksuckers actually believed we were going to bail out their dead asses? That we were going to sanction and underwrite the continuing accumulation of paper fortunes--the accumulation of money without creating anything? Wake up, motherfuckers--you keep taking and taking...
• Commented on Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection -- only people who pay for music risk losing it to DRM shenanigans
  Wait a sec--the CDs in my van are safe! I've been downloading Amazon MP3s. --Mike...
• Commented on Wal*Mart shutting down DRM server, nuking your music collection -- only people who pay for music risk losing it to DRM shenanigans
  Shit--can they zap the copies on CDs in my van? --Mike...
• Commented on WaMu BuHoo: website before and after SUPER EPIC FAIL.
  Definitely less new-customer-friendly. Guess they gotta project that serious image. "We aren't kidding around!" (No, but you've done more than enough jacking around.) --Mike...
• Commented on Man farts at officer, charged with battery
  According to Dean Edell (M.D.), farts contain no microscopic life forms. But, damn--a rotten one is worse than overly applied perfume (which gives me headaches). --Mike...