It's great to finally see a news report lauding video games as a genuine art form, rather than the usual fearmongering and ignorant contempt for the medium. I think some people haven't played a video game since the days of the Atari 2600 (if at all), and don't realize that modern video games are just as capable of delivering genuine emotion as a movie.

What, it's not called a beerynge?

I would buy Fate of Atlantis (or any golden age LucasArts graphic adventure) on any portable system in a heartbeat, and I think there a lot of other people who would, too. I think the reason they won't do it is the same reason they canceled the Sam and Max: Freelance Police game, and the same reason Square-Enix refuses to release Chrono Trigger for DS or GBA... unfortunately, that reason is completely unfathomable to me. Maybe they just don't want to make money- after all, the Sam and Max episodes made by former LucasArts employees at Telltale Games seem to be selling very well.

I thought it was refreshing to see the Paranormal Society guy basically not buying it at all, and outright saying he thought it was a hoax.

That reenactment alien was pretty cute, too.

Why don't they just skip ahead a few decades and get to the eventual outcome of all this "security"?

Anyone carrying anything "suspicious" (such as bottles of water, handheld video games, medical equipment, nipple rings, etc.) can be immediately taken aside, tortured for information, and executed for their horrible terrorist deeds.

Also anyone standing in front of or behind them, as they might be conspirators. Anyone not white as well, since foreigners are automatically suspicious.

Anyone who's wearing a shirt that says "I Am Not a Terrorist", or anything not in English, or anything that the security personnel don't understand, too. Anyone who says "bomb", or anything that sounds remotely like "bomb", or anyone who speaks directly to the security guards. Anyone who looks upset at this treatment or protests the mandatory body cavity searches- what have they got to hide? And, naturally, random people at random intervals, just to be safe.

Assuming anyone survives to make it onto the plane (naked and shackled, with the clothes and shoes they wore to the airport burned for security reasons after being screened twice, naturally) they are then gassed to sleep for the duration of the flight. If they make any suspicious movements, expressions or noises in their sleep, a computer automatically detects it and gives them a lethal injection to prevent them from hijacking the plane.

Hooray, safety at last. That'll show those terrorists who's boss.

I have a watch that uses the same method for telling time, and while it's awkward at first, it really doesn't require a second glance after a bit of practice. It's never as easy as just looking down and seeing the time, but it's not as time-consuming as you might think.

#3

In my mind, eating scorpion is like eating shrimp without removing the shell, legs or head. So yeah, kinda strange.

Wow, and I thought they only did this sort of thing on Japanese television...

#19

Every time a story like this comes up, several people say that those involved should organize a flash mob and photograph the inexplicably "forbidden" areas. And it's a good idea. But as far as I can tell, it just gets said over and over and never actually happens. Do the people who send in these stories just have zero interest in any form of organized protest, or is there some reason people are reluctant to do it?

I'd do it myself, but as far as I know, the city where I live doesn't suffer from this kind of nonsense yet.

Why waste those wheels on a bike when they could build TWO wacky butt-kicking machines?

Nothing turns me on like endless fields of ice and freezing cold water, some big obvious cameras staring right at me, and an enormous fanged Muppet.

I enjoy a cheeseburger every now and then. I like to watch my favorite movie occasionally. I'm also fond of celebrating holidays.

If I watched my favorite movie only once, I wouldn't get to enjoy my favorite scenes or discover new things I'd previously overlooked. If I celebrated Halloween 365 days a year, it wouldn't be special any more. If I ate a cheeseburger every day... I'd probably be very unhealthy.

I suppose Andy Warhol's quote is supposed to be really profound or something, but it sounds like utter nonsense to me.

He "may" press charges? Come on, no pussy-footing around. Give 'em hell! Press charges, complain to their employers, write to the newspapers, organize a mob of photographers to photograph that very same area! He already knows he's within his rights to do so, and the police have already agreed with him. What has he got to lose?

It looks like the matte painting of the Death Star he was given for reference doesn't show the location of its "dimple". Does this finally explain why the computer model shows the Death Star's superlaser dish on its equator?

Nitpicking aside, that's some amazing work.

I've never eaten bugs before, but wouldn't you get pieces of carapace stuck in your teeth, sort of like when you eat popcorn that hasn't popped all the way? Can someone who has eaten them describe the texture?

Awesome shirt. I wish I could recognize more of them- clearly I need to get educated where it really matters. I do know that Daleks aren't robots, though.

He looks like a 50's Ghostbuster. Back then they wore suits and went door to door, and had a proton pack-mounted cross to scare away the minions of Satan.

I'll stick with my Pac-Man boxers, but the world can never have too much nerdy underwear.

I really wish just one of them had heard him say it was a science project and had been interested enough to actually step forward and ask him about it... maybe even ask if they could help him stop the smoldering. How scared would everyone else be then?

Of course, maybe it was noisy on the subway and nobody could make out what he was saying. A lot of people here seem to be assuming that everyone on the subway was a terrorist-fearing ignoramus (and who knows, maybe they were), but I know my first reaction to an unknown smoldering object would be caution. I wouldn't assume it was a terrorist's bomb, of course, but a potentially flaming object in an enclosed space is something I'd want to get away from.

(Forgive me if this gets double posted, the board apparently ate my original post... it appears in recent comments and under my profile, but not on the actual page... of course, now RRSafety has expressed basically the same idea, at the exact same time.)

I really wish just one of them had heard him say it was a science project and had been interested enough to actually step forward and ask him about it... maybe even ask if they could help him stop the smoldering. How scared would everyone else be then?

Of course, maybe it was noisy on the subway and nobody could make out what he was saying. A lot of people here seem to be assuming that everyone on the subway was a terrorist-fearing ignoramus (and who knows, maybe they were), but I know my first reaction to an unknown smoldering object would be caution. I wouldn't assume it was a terrorist's bomb, of course, but a potentially flaming object in an enclosed space is something I'd want to get away from.

Reading my comment again (way back at #84), I can't help feeling it may sound a bit rude, at least in the tense atmosphere that's built up. I still think that a clickable option allowing users to see comments in their pre-disemvoweled state would be a good solution- it would be censorship by choice, and neither side would really have anything to complain about. People who have faith in the mods can skip over the comments, and people who want to judge with their own eyes, or who are simply curious, can click and read them.

No, I don't feel entitled to it, and no, I'm not going to leave in a huff if things stay the way they are. I know full well that I'm a guest on this site, and I appreciate all the hard work the owners do to show me cool stuff for free every day. But I don't agree with the view some posters seem to have that any suggestions, complaints or ideas for improvement are self-important whining. BoingBoing may not belong to its readers, but I think its owners do care about our opinions, and we shouldn't be afraid to politely give out opinions, even if they are criticisms.

I haven't been here long enough to comment on whether I find the moderators reasonable or not, but I definitely agree with the people who say disemvoweling is pointless. It only takes up space and frustrates anyone curious enough to read it- i.e. anyone who didn't see the comment before it got modded. Does it exist purely for the clever play on words? It would be nice if there were at least an option to view it normally by clicking somewhere.

I understand and appreciate the moderators' desire to shield us from trollish comments, but I'd like the option to see the full discussion and judge for myself whether the comment was worthless, even if the mods are right 99% of the time. If that's not going to be an option, wouldn't it be better to just get rid of the comment entirely, rather than leaving its ugly carcass?

I independently thought up this exact same idea yesterday. I guess I'd better think of something else.

So this group of 3-5 teenagers (from the look of it) is terrified of a funny-walking little man in a pointy hat? Yeah, I'm not buying it...

Mission Space is based on the Disney flick, Mission to Mars, hence the Gary Senise intro that the ride includes.

Oh, great. Well, in that case, I guess it's only a matter of time before every single ride in every park is reduced to an ad for a Disney character or movie. I've never been a huge fan of Disney, but the older stuff like Snow White, Fantasia, and the retro-futuristic World's Fair atmosphere of Epcot always held a bit of magic for me.

Jason- I agree that it's not good to let Small World decay, but they could easily repair and upgrade it without changing the artistic style of it. As far as I know, it's always been a very popular ride and it has a lot of sentimental value for some people. Merely adding an American section is bad enough, since there's no way it's going to match the Mary Blair style of the rest of the ride. It will be jarring and awkward, and there's no way around that.

But they're going once step worse and actually destroying part of the original ride to replace it with the USA part. It's fine to be proud of America for the wonderful things, but in a theme park that already has tons of America-themed attractions, is it really necessary to destroy part of a classic ride just to wedge in even more USA?

Disney has regularly been butchering their classic rides... Pirates of the Caribbean now has Jack Sparrow and other movie-related stuff plastered all over it, and their Submarine Voyage ride closed in 1998 and is going to be replaced with a Finding Nemo submarine ride instead. In Disneyworld, it was actually replaced with Pooh's Playful Spot, basically a playground. Because slides and monkey bars are a vast improvement over a submarine, right?

Horizons, one of the best rides at Epcot, was also shut down... though at least they replaced it with a mission-to-mars deal, instead of more branded character crap.

This is what I was led to believe the year 2000 would be like. It still looks wonderful... but the more I look at those low, sleek cars, the more I think that people in the future must be a lot shorter. I'd be all hunched over in those things, hitting my head on the ceiling.

These all look like something the A-Team could whip up in a 30-second montage with a bicycle and some scrap metal.

I love automats, despite never having actually been to one. I'm not sure if I'd like newer ones, but the style of the old Automats is something I admire. I also love conveyor belt sushi and mongolian barbecue... anything where you don't have to interact with a waiter appeals to me, even though I don't have anything against waiters.

JHM, I remember that the movie Dark City featured an automat, though it sounds like that may not be the one you're thinking of.

Judging from the pillows, it looks pretty short... not to mention it looks like changing the sheets requires lugging out the entire mattress. And unless it comes apart into a LOT of separate pieces, forget about ever moving it... Even if the top and the side panels come off, they look like they're way too large to fit through a normal door or get around a corner.

It's also a little disappointing that the top doesn't seem to close, and that there are obvious spaces around the edges of the projection screen where light can leak in. Unless your room is totally dark, your picture is going to be a bit washed out. Why couldn't they make the screen just like the side panels, with no exposed cracks for light to seep in?

All that aside, I want one...

Did he honestly think nobody would notice? I have mixed feelings about this... if he built it on open space, I'd say he got what he deserved, but he was a farmer who built it on agricultural land... don't farmers tend to live on their farms? If he was already living there and just "upgraded" his home, I don't see the harm.

It looks like it would be right at home in the "Flip City" montage from Ghostbusters 2.

The only thing holding me back from buying an iPhone is the fact that they only offer AT&T as a carrier (Yes, I know I can unlock an iPhone to use other services besides AT&T, but I don't want to risk bricking it whenever Apple releases a software update). Wouldn't it be wiser to go with one of AT&T's competitors to get a larger share of the market? It's not good enough to be exactly as capable as an iPhone. The Nuviphone needs to offer something the iPhone doesn't already have, or very few people will have reason to buy it.

I wanted that Blacktron ship so badly when I was 8. I sort of still do, looking at it now.

Two sets I actually did have and loved were a newer version of the monorail set and a Castle set that was a wizard's hideaway, sort of a little house built into a tree that had a hinge so the whole thing opened up and you could see the rooms inside.

You'd think he would at least try to make his story more believable. Lost fillings, bloody noses and a bad taste in his mouth for days after? Even if they really did shove it down there, it would still be just a camera, not some kind of unholy, corrupting artifact.

I'd say the 80's were the golden age of LEGO. After they came out with minifigs and space/castle/pirate themed sets, but before they started making licensed products and sets with pieces that are so specialized that they almost can't be used for anything but that specific set.

That won't stop me from buying some Indiana Jones sets when they come out, though, so maybe I'm a bit of a hypocrite.

This thing gives me Dr. Who crossover fantasies. If the original cloth mask-wearing wavy-voiced Cybermen from The Tenth Planet had the electric touch of the new series Cybermen, they'd use something that looked JUST LIKE this.

I wonder what it would be like to see with three eyes, especially set all around its head like that. It must have a huge field of view.

Pretty amazing, but why didn't they set off some fireworks over the castle after Mario pulled down the flag at the end? That would have been the perfect finale.

I don't know all the details, but unless this guy was armed and threatening the police, I don't see any way this was justifiable. In a one-on-one unarmed fight, police should always be able to non-lethally subdue the suspect, partly because they're supposed to be trained to do so, and partly because they often outnumber the suspect (though I suppose if the "criminal" is just some guy in a car accident, that's not necessarily likely).

It seems like this sort of thing happens more and more, and you never, ever hear about what happened to the cops afterwards. Did they get fired? Did they go to jail? Did they get a reprimand? Did ANYTHING happen to them at all? If a cop murders an unarmed citizen, it seems inconceivable to me that there wouldn't be massive protests, maybe even riots, calling for justice against that cop. But the only people who ever seem to care are the family members of the deceased.

Good luck getting behind there if you ever need to hook up anything ever again. Or moving those enormous panels around any kind of corner without banging up their pristine flat surfaces. Or, heck, even finding a wall big enough for the whole thing. It looks like they took these photos in an empty warehouse.

That said, it does look nice. It seems more like the sort of thing that should just come with a house, though, rather than being furniture you take with you.

I can understand why Randi is doing this, but it's a shame that the challenge has to go. It was always a good way of calling out frauds, and I think it's needed now more than ever, but 10 years is an awfully long time to do that sort of thing without getting burned out. I wonder what "projects" Randi plans to do with the money now?

Aldyth- If the paranormal activity is as frequent and impressive as you claim, why haven't you videotaped it, photographed it, or had a scientist or team of scientists witness it? It may not happen on command, but if it's happening enough to bother you, surely you've had at least a few opportunities to do this.

You say there's "no amount of evidence" that will convince some people, but you haven't provided any evidence whatsoever. You may be secure in your belief of what you've seen, but it's unreasonable to expect other people to believe you without something to back it up.