Moriarty

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• Commented on Online matchmaking site analyzes attractiveness vs. message traffic
  This also seems to assume that the members of matchmaking sites are an accurate cross-section of the general population. Perhaps relatively unattractive men really are over-represented....
• Commented on It's healthy for kids to get dirty
  "People of my generation were out all day as kids, out of sight of their parents, doing who knows what all day, climbing trees, eating dirt and plants, getting lost, talking to strangers, and guess what? We didn't die." To...
• Commented on Pathways of Desire: Detroiters carve their own streets out of the snow
  My father, who went to snow-ridden Dartmouth in pre-plowing/salting days, says the campus dogs were generally the first ones out on snowy mornings, and thus broke trail and determined the courses of winter paths....
• Commented on It's healthy for kids to get dirty
  Why would the fact that they evolved with us mean they're good for us? If anything, the opposite is true - organisms evolve to compete with and prey on one another. Which indirectly can be good for us, in a...
• Commented on Advisor: What will happen if I clone my dog?
  Sorry, I meant, "assuming the one paying for it knows what a clone actually is." Snark accidental....
• Commented on Advisor: What will happen if I clone my dog?
  Why would spending $15 to clone a pet be sicker than, say, paying a breeder? I mean, assuming you understand what a clone actually is....
• Commented on Rethinking NIMBY: Why Wind Power Could Lead To New Ways of Defining (and Dealing With) Public Naysaying
  Here's an article outlining wind turbine-related bird deaths as compared with other sources. It's not a scientific article and it is published by the obviously biased American Wind Energy Association, but it is well-cited to actual studies. A further caveat...
• Commented on Rethinking NIMBY: Why Wind Power Could Lead To New Ways of Defining (and Dealing With) Public Naysaying
  How would you do that, though? The size and form factor of a modern wind turbine is hugely different than what Don Quixote jousted at, by necessity. You would have to take a distinctly modern thing, and somehow make it...
• Commented on Rethinking NIMBY: Why Wind Power Could Lead To New Ways of Defining (and Dealing With) Public Naysaying
  re: migratory birds I wouldn't let concerns about migratory birds derail wind turbines. For one thing, there is always going to be a cost. Environmental impact should be measured vs. the equivalent coal power plant, not vs. nothing. Second, the...
• Commented on Shackleton's Antarctic whisky found
  NPR knows the difference between the Arctic and the Antarctic, and how to spell whisky: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120661991...
• Commented on Outrage grows over India's massive ID plan
  Really? We "haven't progressed an inch?" Really?...
• Commented on Cataloging the lies in Palin's "Going Rouge"
  "tolerant, diversity-loving" Comments about San Francisco or Sarah Palin aside, can we please end the meme that liberal="tolerant"="has nothing negative to say about anything," thereby making any liberal who expresses a negative opinion about any person or thing somehow a...
• Commented on Cataloging the lies in Palin's "Going Rouge"
  "Why is she being targeted for fact check when Obama's or Ted Kennedy or any other politician book isn't? Biased media." Obama's books not targeted for fact check? Are you serious?...
• Commented on Outrage grows over India's massive ID plan
  The assertion that corruption is simply human nature, therefore there is nothing you can do about it is clearly disproven by the fact that there are hugely varying levels of corruption between governments. It IS human nature, and you CAN...
• Commented on Ancient cold-blooded goat had tiny brain and eyes
  I once had a boss like that....
• Commented on Is It Too Early To Start Drinking at the Airport?
  Airports are timeless portals between worlds and timezones. "It's always five o'clock somewhere" has more meaning when there are people present who just came from that place, or are headed there. Have a bloody mary - the perfect blend of...
• Commented on $50k novel advance == "almost qualify for foodstamps"
  So what are the Medicis up to, these days?...
• Commented on Energy Literacy part One: Energy is invisible
  Right, and 24 watt-hours per day is an average consumption of 1 watt....
• Commented on Energy Literacy part One: Energy is invisible
  Yeah, I didn't get that either. Surely a measure of energy (kilowatt hours, for example) is intended, and not power? Or does it mean decreasing average consumption by 1 watt, which would be equivalent to a 24 watt bulb 1...
• Commented on New Catholic video game promises to brings family closer to heaven
  "Let's pray at the same box that gives us 24 hours news channels,infomercials, and on demand pornography!" Better than a "Holy Book," anyway. You should see some of the stuff they put in books! Even Hitler wrote one!...
• Commented on The 100 greatest quotes from The Wire
  Ah, I misread. I thought it was "the closest the US has come to a landmark novel." Which would have been silly. Though in my defense, I've heard almost as silly things from people (that is, British academics) who really...
• Commented on Homophobic murder in Puerto Rico. Cop: "he deserved it" for his lifestyle
  "People who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen." I don't even understand the quote. Is it commonly believed that being gay (assuming that's the lifestyle he's talking about) leads to being brutally murdered?...
• Commented on The 100 greatest quotes from The Wire
  So no comment on the absurd dismissal of all American literature? (And yes, the Wire is probably the most important work in its medium.)...
• Commented on All-in-one ectoplasm measurement device
  So ghosts are measured by EMF meters and thermometers. Apparently that's common knowledge? It's pretty fascinating how a common mythology that people actually believe emerges from all the ridiculousness of stuff like "Ghost Hunters." Just act confident, and the extremely...
• Commented on 100-word fiction competition — win an HP MediaSmart EX495
  Awake. Languorously, carefully, He extends His senses. Cold. Too cold. He had slumbered long, and the World had grown vast, its fiery birth pangs barely perceptible in the impossible distance. The violence of His own birth, when the World, the...
• Commented on Pirate Bay logo trademarked
  Pretty sure this wouldn't be allowed with patents, so it's weird that it could be done with trademarks. Also interesting that Wired refers to domain names as "intellectual property." That doesn't sound right....
• Commented on Is There Really A Water Crisis?
  Well, first of all, I don't run my tap all day. My point was that if I did, it wouldn't affect anything outside of the NYC watershed. It's not a global issue. And as an aside, the water comes from...
• Commented on Is There Really A Water Crisis?
  There's no reason to have it shipped in from anywhere in the world, though. As TMLutas said above, there is a ceiling cost on water, which is to say the cost of setting up a desalinzation plant and piping it...
• Commented on Is There Really A Water Crisis?
  I know it's energy intensive. I'm including energy when I say "infrastructure." And yes, it's certainly easier to get water in places where lots of it naturally falls from the sky, just as it's easier to flush raw sewage right...
• Commented on Is There Really A Water Crisis?
  Well of course the problem is infrastructure. Were there seriously people who thought otherwise? Are there humans who don't know that most of the planet is covered with water a few miles deep, and that water that is "used" doesn't...