Doctor Pickles @ 32:

When did I say that the photographer wasn't trespassing? I didn't say anything about that either way.

What I said was that holtt's assertions about what had happened were completely unsupported by the evidence on hand.

And the last I checked, "being flippant to someone in a uniform" was not a citeable offense. (If the person in the uniform is a cop, being flippant falls under "that's not prudent, and a wise person would avoid doing so unless they were trying to make a point", but that doesn't mean it's illegal.)

holtt @ 2: Honestly, if the security guard guard "had" to chase him out and onto the freeway, it implies the scenario went something like...

1) Guard sees person, approaches to ask questions
2) Person jumps in car and takes off
3) Guard goes "Hey wait!" (or whatever)
4) Person just takes off for the highway and doesn't stop

It implies, does it? Maybe if you had clicked through to the story, instead of opining based on the excerpt that Mark posted, you would have read this:

At one point in the day, I noticed a security guard looking into the windows of my parked car while I was out shooting. I walked back, and politely introduced myself. He informed me that I was parked on private property (a big empty dirt lot, but whatever), and so I offered to move my car. When he asked what I was doing in the port complex, I replied that I was taking photos. I declined to elaborate. He informed me that he didn't care what I was taking photos of, but that I couldn't take photos of the Valero plant. I had my rights card on me, but I was planning on leaving the area anyway and didn't want to start an altercation, so I politely said "okay" and went on my way.

Suspicious behavior? HELL YES! The guard might have been zealous or foaming at the mouth, but photographer basically acted guilty about something (he ran FFS).

You are making this up. FFS indeed.

t3knomanser # 41: you move one ton on your bike? I think not.

Please reread what I wrote:

.25 lb fuel to move .1 ton 20 miles = 2.5 lb fuel to move 1 ton 20 miles

If it takes X amount of fuel to move .1 ton a specified distance, then it takes 10X amount of fuel to move 1 ton the same distance.

It's careless at best and dishonest at worst to use different units of measurement when comparing things to each other.

t3knomanser @ 32: It takes about 6lbs(1 gallon) of fuel to move 1 ton 20 miles. Let's say you can travel the same distance on 4 Snicker's bars. Off the top of my head, I don't recall what that weighs. Say each snickers bar is 4oz, that's 1lb of fuel to move .10 tons (if you're big boned anyway).

I'm trying to come up with a polite phrase for "making up figures out of thin air and then treating them as fact" and not having much success. So let's start with "you're assuming facts not yet in evidence" and go from there.

One Snickers bar weighs 2 ounces, not 4 (for starters) and contains 280 calories (source).

Bicycling consumes somewhere in the range of 25 to 40 calories per mile (source).

Bicycling 20 miles would expend roughly 500 to 800 calories, which is 2 to 3 Snickers bars, which is 4 to 6 ounces of fuel.

If I'm calculating correctly, that means it's either:
.25 lb fuel to move .1 ton 20 miles = 2.5 lb fuel to move 1 ton 20 miles
or
.375 lb fuel to move .1 ton 20 miles = 3.75 lb fuel to move 1 ton 20 miles

That's 1/6th the fuel for 1/10th the work. Car wins.

auto: 6 lbs fuel / 1 ton / 20 miles
bike (low): 2.5 lb fuel / 1 ton / 20 miles
bike (high): 3.75 lb fuel / 1 ton / 20 miles

Unless I've miscalculated, your assertion that the car is more efficient is patently false.

[on preview: crossposted with RacingChikin, whose calculations also show that your argument is bogus]

Teresa @ 30: I think the drinking game should also make you take a drink…when someone announces that the victim of some police or DHS outrage had it coming, or brought it on himself or herself.

Oh, dear. One would get at least mildly sozzled every time one visited BoingBoing, but reading Consumerist would become an instant recipe for alcoholism.

Have you ever been at a party with someone you've just met and you're having a conversation, and they continuously find some way to make the topic all about them? Or they make the most convoluted connection about a topic to lead back to them?

That's how the constant Little Brother posts come across. And no one wants to talk to that guy at the party.

Actually, it's more like having someone invite you into their yard and up onto their porch to look at all the cool gadgets and toys and paintings and books and stuff that they've discovered and accumulated over the years, and having them periodically say "Hey, I just found out my book got translated into French! Ooh, this is neat — it's a photo of a coprolite. And here's Isabella Rossellini's bug porn. Are you going to be in San Francisco next week? I'm having a book signing. Want a free copy of the book? Take one, give a copy to a friend, whatever — hope you like it. Look, a video of a guy sticking a lemon up his nose!"

If you don't want to hear him enthusing about his book, don't come up on his porch. But if you do come up on the porch, don't be rude enough to try to tell him what he can and can't talk about.

flamingphonebook @ 19: You people. When they arrest people likely to be terrorists, you complain. When they don't arrest people who aren't terrorists, you complain. When they don't arrest people who then turn out to be terrorists, you complain that they didn't connect the dots.

Seriously, what do you want?!

For starters, you could try developing your ability to detect sarcasm.

In context — of this site, of this thread, of ill lich's comment history — a comment like "Wait. . . they didn't arrest them?!!! That's IT, the terrorists have WON!!" should probably not be taken at face value.

FarrisGoldstein @ 5 --

Arrrgh. Tabasco is not nasty, it's a perfectly acceptable vinegar-based hot sauce. Sometimes one wants a vinegar-based hot sauce — for dipping french fries in, ketchup mixed with Tabasco is the only way to go, IMO. Mixing with Tapatio, or Crystal, or Cholula, or any of the others doesn't give the same flavor, because the vinegar balances out the sweetness of the ketchup.

Could we please get past this idea that "if I don't like something, it sucks"? Different people like different things.

Wow - wonderful!

Michael Brutsch @ 6:

If you're going to accuse the BBers of unethical conduct, at least get the terminology right. Microsoft sponsors BoingBoing by purchasing ads on BoingBoing. BoingBoing does not sponsor Microsoft (unless someone's started plastering Redmond with images of the jackhammer girl).

Moustaches: yay.

Moustache comb hanging around the neck: yuck.

It wasn't a band performing in front of a paying audience, it was a former TV star turning on a display of Christmas lights in front of whoever felt like showing up.

If you look at the Flickr set, it's clear that these are lights hung on buildings out in public, and stretching across public streets from one side to another. The "stage" was a raised platform with an awning over it (photo here), along one side of a public square.

Venue licenses and PR rights and all that kind of thing don't enter into it.

Max @ 15 -

From this angle, is it possible to tell that it doesn't have solid stringers? I'd think they would be hidden in this photo.

However, it's clearly missing a railing, which (regardless of local building codes) is just dangerous.

After spending two weeks on crutches following a foot injury, I now find that "looks hella cool" doesn't come close to outweighing "takes safety concerns into account" in my book.

Trimeta @ 86:

Now, she could go to a psychologist for a year, build up her self-esteem, realize that she doesn't need big breasts to feel good about herself, etc. Or she could go to a plastic surgeon and get bigger breasts. If the latter makes her just as happy as the former, and costs less (psychologists aren't cheap), why is it not the better solution?

Because one involves major surgery on a (presumably) otherwise healthy, functional body.

Because one says "yes, society gets to tell me what's acceptable and what isn't in terms of my appearance, and gets to tell me that I need to cut off parts of my body or have foreign objects implanted in my body to meet those externally-imposed standards of beauty."

Because getting breast implants will not do a thing to address the greater issue of dissatisfaction with one's body or self.

Because breast implants often have negative effects on breast sensitivity and function.

Because working with a therapist can help a person learn skills and tools that will help them in all areas of their lives.

Because having small breasts is not a deformity. (Dammit.)

maybe it's better for her in the long run to just get cosmetic surgery than to change her entire concept of "beauty."

I don't think I could disagree more strongly.

I imagine her lawyer is having a bad morning. "You did WHAT??? It's gotten HOW MANY views??? Oh my god... Didn't I tell you NOT TO TALK ABOUT IT with anybody but me???"

But "scary new step"? Newsflash: divorcing people can and sometimes do make each other's lives hell by releasing embarrassing personal information. I'd bet people have been doing so since gossip was invented... or at least since divorce was.

Atomische @ #8:

What's the advantage of freezing brown sugar? I haven't run across this technique before.

"It seems that the brain is making the decision before the person themselves," (says neuroscientist John-Dylan Haynes.)

I keep coming back to this sentence. I think it's the most extreme example of the insistence on differentiating between mind/"self" and body that I've seen in a long time. How can a person's brain make a decision before "the person themself" does? How does this researcher define "the person themself", if it's something so separate from the brain and its activity? Interesting.

Many very happy returns to your grandmother!

Asscore5003 @ 13:

Unfortunately, the domain everythingyoulikesucks.com is already taken, but imsomuchcoolerthanyou.com is still available. In case you were looking to set up your own blog where you could piss on other people's enthusiasms all you want.

Hoo boy. Okay, I'm getting judgmental here: Speaking as a person who does not have children and does not plan to have children, but who does have a cat and a parrot — they are not children.

My cat is not my kid. Your monkey is not your kid.

The money that these people are spending on their "monkids" — I wonder how many hours of therapy it could have paid for instead.

And I think the monkeys would be better off if they were being cared for by people who'd let them live like monkeys, instead of pushing them around in strollers.

Gosh, some really resourceful people manage to combine these things called "jobs" with things called "hobbies" or "pastimes".

It's a matter of "priorities" and "choices".

If you choose to prioritize posting snarky comments about other people's activities over actually doing the activities that you want to do, well, it's not surprising if you have less time available for those activities.

Norcalty @ 43: Okay, let's set aside quibbles over using the term "a few". I would argue that "more than 14,000" doesn't ever equal "a few", but that's terminology and not directly relevant.

Do you agree that the state has missed out on hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue that it could have collected? Maybe to the politicians in Sacramento a few hundred thousand dollars doesn't seem like much compared to the multi-billion-dollar deficit being projected for the state budget. To me, as an individual citizen living in a city that seems to be shutting down services by the day, it seems like a lot of money.

Tigerbomb @ 8: You may not have raccoons yet, but don't let your guard down.

Here in the heart of Oakland, our raccoons are fat and sassy... and occasionally seem alarmingly clever. I wouldn't put it past them to figure out how to hitch a ride across the Channel. *cue ominous music*

Norcalty @ 49: You people need to get a grip. Just because a few people abuse something doesn't signal a nationwide corruption scandal.

From the article (the section quoted in this post, so you didn't even need to click through):

The Register used public records laws to obtain OCTA computer logs for the 91 Express Lanes and found 14,535 unpaid trips by motorists with confidential plates in the past five years. A Register analysis showed that was 3,722 separate vehicles, some running the toll road hundreds of times.

Among the top violators on OCTA's list were Dwight and Michell Storay (he's a parole agent with the Department of Corrections), with 622 violations and Lenai and Arnold Carraway (she's an Orange County social worker), with 239 violations.

"A few people"? 14,535 toll road violations amassed by 3,722 separate vehicles, "some running the toll road hundreds of times"? That's more than "a few people".

If a civilian uses a toll road without paying, they will be charged the toll plus a penalty, which seems to be somewhere in the $25 to $47.50 range.

Suppose that the state had collected a penalty for each of those 14,535 unpaid trips; furthermore, suppose it's the lowest figure given, $25. That's $363,375 of revenue that would have been collected if not for this shady "professional courtesy".

Speaking as a Californian and a taxpayer, I have a problem with that.

If Moon isn't shilling for the Chinese government, he/she is doing a phenomenal impression of the "historically-illiterate American" stereotype.

*closing my eyes, channeling Bill Hicks from beyond the grave*

People come up to me: 'Bill, quit talking about the Chinese invasion of Tibet, man... It was a long time ago...' And I'm like alright, then don't bring up Jesus to me. As long as we're talking about shelf life here.

Or there's Eddie Izzard's characterization:

I grew up in Europe, where the history comes from.... You tear your history down, man! Thirty years old, let's smash it to the floor and put a car park here! ...I saw something in a program on something in Miami, and they were saying, "We've redecorated this building to how it looked over 50 years ago!" And people were going, "No, surely not, no. No one was alive then!"

[I hate it when I hit "post" before I notice I've gotten logged out. With luck the previous anonymous comment will get permanently stuck in the queue.]

Jeff @ 23:

C.D. I expect better from you. You're here to set an example, not puke out the bile like those you are in contempt of!

Is he? When did he say that? I thought he was here to post about things he finds interesting, or exciting, or enraging, or otherwise worthy of attention.

A lot of people keep throwing around ideas about what BoingBoing is "supposed" to be. Usually it takes the form of "well, *I* don't think this is wonderful"; sometimes it takes the form of admonishing Cory or the other BBers for writing something in a tone the commenter doesn't like. In either case the message at the core is "you're not writing what *I* want to read about in a tone that *I* like; *YOU* need to change what you write about to make *ME* happy."

Phooey.

Kmonster @ 15:

Did you read the article linked to?

Amy Rice feared for her dog's life when a pit bull jumped over a fence into her yard and attacked her pooch.

No, the other dog didn't nip at the pit bull first. No, the other dog wasn't in the pit bull's yard.

The knee-jerk "it's not the pit bull's fault!" crowd are becoming almost as vocal as the knee-jerk "it's a pit bull so it's EEEEVIL and must be put down!" crowd.

Elysianartist @ #7:

Zen master Yunmen said, "When sitting, just sit. When walking, just walk."

Updated for today, when posting a comment to BoingBoing, just post the comment to BoingBoing.

Whatever one is doing, do it with full attention. By that gauge, posting a comment to BoingBoing is no more (or less) inherently worthy than washing dishes, or weeding a garden, or having a discussion in some other medium.

I hope that if I'm ever in hospice, the people who come to visit me will "just sit" and be with me, instead of trying (pointlessly) to cheer me up.

“Some of them even say ‘get well soon’ as they’re leaving; ‘hope you’re soon back on track, mate!’” says Heiner, wryly. “But no one asks me how I feel. Don't they get it? I'm going to die!”

Re: #433, #435 —

I think Teresa was referring to Technogirl's statement in #311:

Technogirl doesn;t give a fig about how you spell her name "techn0girl" Techknowgirl or Technogoul are all fine with me . because none of them are really me.

When I took Newspaper Journalism 101 in college, one of the first things the teacher told us was "If you get nothing else in a story correct — if you write that the sun rises in the west and that Nixon was the president of France — spell people's names correctly. There is almost nothing that people take as personally as having their names misspelled."

I've been friends with alot of bartenders and waitresses and every single one of them was a smoker.

Viva La Toast isn't a smoker, as mentioned above. My husband the bartender isn't a smoker. My friend the cocktail waitress isn't a smoker. Obviously, your data set is incomplete.

My friend the cocktail waitress told me that although when she lived in another state she didn't think she minded working in smoky bars, since she's been working in California she no longer gets three or four bad colds each winter like she used to. And since, like most waitresses, she has no health insurance or paid sick leave, not getting sick makes a BIG difference to her.

So the Bobs song "My, I'm Large" is based on something real?

My, I'm large
Just before I fell asleep last night
I lost track of my size
I think I'm huge now

I don't know why
I still seem to fit inside my car
'Cause I'm not the same size
I know I'm huge now

Just to be precise, the author is Connie Willis (not Wilson), and the novel is Bellwether.

And I definitely second the recommendation for the book.

I'm going to make a prediction: Nobody from Oakland will post a recommendation because there's no good pizza here.

*sigh*

Looks like green tea (matcha) cake to me, possibly with red bean filling. (Mmm!)

For comparison, here's a photo of a slice of green tea sponge cake roll.

Also, Outside the Inbox, "a compilation of songs inspired by and titled after the subject lines of mass-email".

Joe Blough @16: Try skipping the step of pushing the piston up until the coffee reaches the top; just screw on the filter cap, flip the whole thing over onto the cup, and press. It's less risky and doesn't seem to change the character of the resulting coffee. (Not that I notice, at least, but I'm a milk-and-sugar-please ignoramus by some coffee geeks' standards.)

Doing it upside down means the plunger is unavailable for boiling water, which renders the question of microwaving water in plastic moot. Besides, I don't own one. We've had a Sunbeam Hot Shot water heater for at least five years now and are quite satisfied with it. Quicker than a microwave, their promotional materials claim, and no chance of superheating the water.

The Aeropress is quite sturdy and has survived daily use by my husband, a man whose motto is "oh, did I knock that over?" and who, upon moving in with me, systematically destruction-tested everything I owned. He gives two thumbs up to the Aeropress in that regard.