Enjoyed the choreography too I might add. Usually such a thing comes off as contrived but it seems to fit here so well.

well. its good they have some way of keeping themselves fed, even if it is substandard... better than starving...

This sounds phenominal. I am certainly going to check it out later. Whee.

I know mine do.

/volunteers?

Well I guess that relationship will soon be down the crapper.

Also, whether tip pooling is illegal in California or not is irrelevant, as this is Canada we're talking about. :p

-

All you "this is stupid!" folks can't possibly tell me you wouldnt derive SOME pleasure from whacking a metal cube into a chair. I mean that just looks FUN. :P

Yes, the price is ridiculous (but as someone pointed out early, who knows what the actual price is). But so what?

I would totally get one if I could afford it, and have fun whacking the hell out of it. Hehehe

Whaat? You can't be hating on Harry Chapin.

We performed 'Age of Aquarius' in my pops chorale a year or two back; from a performer's perspective its quite musically interesting, really.

I am kind of amused by the phrased "ran is the balls" for some reason.

Oh yes, and the band 'Bread' should be forced to apologize profusely for fouling the universe with their own particularly odious brand of "music."

hmm, I like one tin soldier, and billy dont be a hero, and "sometimes when we touch," and "unfaithful," and "wildfire", AND 'tie a yellow ribbon.' Come on, that last is even a fun, feel good kinda song. hehe. 'Afternoon Delight' is very silly, but its kind of fun too.

I will agree with muskrat love though. I absolutely detest that song with all my heart. Pteh

I discovered this earlier. These are really great.

I'm using this one right now; hadn't even noticed it changes. That makes it even better.

It DOES look like cheese. That's the very first thing I thought.

I am excited by the thought of a cheese castle. Someone must do this.:p

This experiment doesn't particularly strike me as mean. I mean, really, I doubt the killers even gave it overmuch thought. Just another letter, alabeit kind of weird.

I don't know, this smacks of intellectual snobbery to me. I feel like I'm being told I'm a mindless brainless zombieoid because I have a few non-educational shows I like to watch, or because I'm a fan of the assorted entertainments the internet has to offer me. I'm not some mega-intellectual, and thats OK by me. I read plenty, I have friends and find some measure of enjoyment in life. If someone's going to judge me because I don't read 'The Smithsonian' excusively and turn up my nose at "that evil television," to heck with them. :D

George: you sure that wasn't a pink elephant you saw? ;)

Thinking back to that art experiment everyone was belittling the other day, I wonder how it would go if, instead, they put out a big blank piece of paper and a box of pencils and invited passersby to have a go at it. Besides the pencils inevitably being stolen one by one.

People love to play around when given a blank slate, as this thread demonstrates ;)

I must say, the "the end" photo at the end of the quiz almost looks NSFW ;p

#216: that's what makes this so great, and likely why it's been allowed to stand.

People are seizing the opportunity to goof off and be silly in the extreme, while harming no one. I would certainly say that qualifies as a "wonderful thing." ;)

I blame Bush.

#22: The reason these things aren't noticed is because they simply aren't, in my opinion, very good, despite what "they" say.

Fixed that for you. :p
Art is highly subjective, its true, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who'd say Joshua Bell isn't very good unless its someone who just scorns the classical genre in general.

Takuan: I know! But I'm patient, I know eventually I'll recieve my due accolades.

This reminds me of this experiment from last year.. they had violinist Joshua Bell busk in a Metro station in Washington, DC, just to see who would notice.. pretty interesting. :)

#4: I see what you did there ;P

I REALLY wish it didnt keep logging me out when I tried to comment. Anyway

On the upside I recall reading somewhere charges were dropped against the toilet woman.

That made me tear up. That poor fellow.

#145, in addition to #148's comments, and all the others who've said they're writing or taking other actions, let me add that there's nothing particularly wrong with discussing what an idiot she is. Venting about it helps lower blood pressure and all that. :) I think people enjoy having a common target at which to focus their scorn. Uniting, not dividing and all that ;) It really does no harm.

#136:

while this is true, someone who spews such bigoted hatred should not be in office, as they have proved themselves unintelligent and unworthy of the job.

She had the right to say what she did. Doesn't make her any less of a raging fool.

Why would she be in jail?

I would like to see her apologize and resign, though.

#43 I think the boingboing comment system is having issues today. The error message amuses me though.

I am also entertained that this is my second attempt to post. I was previously pwned by that very same error.

OK, so maybe I'm a little angry. Sorry. I'm just absolutely repulsed that a person who's supposed to be a leader is setting such a dangerous, abhorrent precident.

If she's not capable of not acting like a bigot, she needs to step down.

I am ashamed to share a country with this horrible waste of humanity.

Someone needs to send her to tolerance class.

Maybe the Home Secretary kidnapped the Prime Minister.

There's a reward being offered for the UK prime minister and home secretary?? I hadn't even realized they were on the run from the law.

I really need to start looking into emigration. This is disgusting.

I have to confess I was immidiately sidetracked by the "10 things you didnt know about Rick Astley" link in the Neatorama link.

Dammit.

I can't believe I fell for that.

*facepalm*

Good one, though. Well played. :p

David: never had a pet raccoon persay, but bookworm yes.

...

Not a JBHS graduate, surely? :P

Here's an advert for 'Outside' listing some of it's many spectacular features!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/queensowntalia/outside-mmorpg-776685.jpg

(can't claim authorship, its just one of those things that's been floating around the innertubes).

I had a huge crush on someone in high school named David Carroll.

You didn't go to school in CT did you, #8? ;) :P

I will buy 400 cases.

thanks for clarifying PB. I wasn't aware of the adblock issue, obviously. I'm betting you have a much more streamlined Internet experience than I do :)

As an aside.. there are companies far more evil than Microsoft out there. There really are.

I am confused as to what pukebazooka's issue is. It states pretty clearly its a sponsored link. The image itself has nothing to do with Microsoft. What would you do differently?

Antinous: haha, indeed :D

I guess its purely a matter of taste in that regard.. like most, if not all art. :) I find it not childish but imaginative and entertaining.

Hmm. Darn you, finicky photobucket.

Let's try that again with proper capitalization.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/queensowntalia/Ceiling.jpg

Also,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/queensowntalia/ceiling.jpg

(no disrespect to the artist or photographer intended ; its crude, but that's MSpaint for you).

Regardless of whether it's "fine art," I would argue its still pretty neat.

Ceiling Cat approves.

I feel pity for you overly cynical, disbelieving folks. Obviously you live a life draped in shadow.

Remind me to never see a movie in London. Gosh almighty. Even movies on NYC are only about $11 USD (last I checked).

#165: I have never seen a purely democratic virtual community end well. You need to have rules and someone to enforce the rules or things go down the drain rapidly.

And yeah, this is their website, so they do have the right to specify what those rules are. In this case, the rules are not unreasonable in the least. It REALLY just comes down to "dont be a jerk/idiot."

That's not difficult (for most people, anyway).

"Who or what does it protect? People's feelings? Their opinons? In the end neither. You can't make everyone play nice."
You can get rid of the ones who refuse to, though.

And I'd say the rules are an effort to keep things mostly civilized, as some people have a hard time doing that on their own. Unmoderated boards = horror shows, because a large quantity of people on the internet are trolls or morons or both.

A few people's posts in here smack of outright grudges. Being vindictive is just plain silly. If you're angry because a post or two of yours got disemvowelled, perhaps you should recnsider what you said, rather than saying "EVIL MODERATOR! AGENDA!!!!"

It shouldnt be a democracy because democracy tends to get VERY UNRULY online.

RAmen.

hv n d wht y mn. VRYTHNG sy s VRY MPRTNT!!!

heh, indeed, T.

*shakes head*

Its not that hard to be polite on teh intarwebs.. really...

I have to disagree with stupid comments serving a purpose. More often than not, they tend to just lead to a flame war.

Heh, welcome to the "trainwreck," as they'd put it on fark.

I guess I don't "get" what's to disagree with, I suppose. What? You WANT to be able to log on with someone else's account? You WANT to be able to spew profanities and vitriolic comments? what is it?
Heh.

(just providing examples btw, dont take offense).

Y'all are overreacting. Srsly.

#69 considering the amount of absolutely stupid idiotic crap that goes on in fark threads, I'm not sure that's a good road to go down. :p

/saying this as a long-time Farker

#68: what's to be resolved? I don't think basically "don't act like a jerk/idiot" is an unreasonable policy (and really that's what it all comes down to.

Kaiser: judging by some of the comments in here, apparently it IS necesary.

I've found the moderation to be more than reasonable. I really think it can be summed up as "don't be a troll, don't be a jerk, don't spam and don't threadjack." Those are really pretty simple principles to follow. I suspect most of the people who get up in arms about moderation here fall into trollish category.

As an aside, most popular blogs out there don't have a large amount of give and take between the readership and the writers (in the comments anyway). The editors pop in to respond to the occasional statement, but they don't really have time to hang out in there and read every response.

After all they're busy doing the research/what have you :)

TP1024: try http://www.e-book.com.au/freebooks.htm

?

Just google it. There's a lot of stuff floating around out there.

Or if you're into audiofiction, podiobooks.com is absolutely fabulous.

I think Mur Lafferty might have some of her works up on her webpages as well (and if you're not reading/listening to her yet, you should be!).

As an aside.. should that be BERKLEE college of music? That's the correct name of the renowned Masschusetts school.

If this guy isn't safe to be around, he should still be in jail. He needs to be allowed to live his life, not be harrassed constantly every day until he dies/commits suicide what have you.

I find the juxtaposition of comments 12 and 13 fitting. Quite demonstrative.

Heh, I always thought filk was pretty well heard of, actually. It's a staple at conventions. Most of it to my experience runs toward the lame.

"nearly as long as his body - excluding legs and head."

I'm having trouble with this concept. Isn't a squid ALL legs and head?

That's just awful. Whomever posted that ad should be shipped off to Siberia and confined in a tiny little cell till the end of their days.

Every day I lose a little more faith in humanity. not that there's much left to lose.

I've been listening to this via podiobooks.com and the language is just so lush and gripping. Man has a hell of way with words. I'm looking forward to more. :)

Bizzare. I literally JUST wrote up something about this director for my job.

If anyone's interested, he's appearing at the International House in Philadelphia on 4/17 to discuss and screen some of his works.

http://www.ihousephilly.org/30yearsoffilm.htm#soundonscreen

Much better than later froggy.

I'm in agreeance with #26. I like my books to have a history. Furthermore, I like passing them on, and have given away several boxes of books via freecycle. If I enjoy a story, of course I want to share. :)

I also think you're missing the point, dougnelson. The issue is if you purchase something, if you spend your hard earned cash on it, shouldn't it be in your right to do with it as you want? It really doesn't matter your motivation for doing it. We're talking principles not specifics.

It's also somewhat sad you sound so vehemently opposed to say, used book shops, which are wonderful places. Do you also find libraries morally reprehensible as the patrons pay no money to read the books at all?

I'll happily stick to real books, personally. In addition to avoiding all the copyright issues involved with switching mediums, there is simply nothing more satisfying than curling up in bed with an actual leafy tome. Staring at a little digitzed screen is just so coldly impersonal.

*hugs her books*

That would certainly qualify as toxic rain.

I've been waiting for this! Sadly it seems to be down for now. Guess I can wait a bit longer :)

Who knew Charles Bronson was a cop in the 70's?

Huh. Apparently Sequoia has released a followup statement.

http://www.sequoiavote.com/blog.php?ID=34

Beam me up, Scotty. There's no intelligent life down here. :(

The fact is most of the world just doesn't really care.

Is it possible to emigrate from the planet? i'm sick of these atrocities being accepted by humankind. I'm ready to leave.

Heh. that's a point of view I'd never considered.

Im starting to fear this is going to end in some serious bloodshed and these monks will lose their lives. Then either China will get super-hostile at the world's outrage, or the world will be too keen on sucking up to them to say anything... :(

I'm happy to see Richard K. Morgan get a nomination. Hell of a writer and deserves more exposure :)

I wonder what it says about me that I felt compelled to look up "dork" on wikipedia.

Hmm. ;)

NYC did this in January, the Idiotarod. :)

http://www.cartsofbrooklyn.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gothamistllc/sets/72157603798580084/

This series needs to be on the east coast, gosh durn it.

:(

I would buy this in a heartbeat. I'm bad at remembering to use bookmarks and no doubt my book's spines could all use a visit to the chiropractor.

Nanotechnology is totally unethical! Someone should make a law! ;)

Ooh, I fail at spelling. I only hope the Kimchi Overlords don't smite me when their time arrives.

It's only a matter of time before Kimchee takes over the galaxy.

I, for one, welcome our new kimchee overlords.

http://BoingBoing.youaremighty.com

http://mccain.justgotowned.com/

;)

I love these. What can I say? I'm easily amused.

The slogan at the end just makes it for me.

xkcd is OK, but I strongly perfer the far more intelligent, original humor found on Ebaum's World.

*runs for the hills*

That is a very scary picture.

The physiology of life is beautiful in those first few post-death moments. I imagine 24 hours from now that flesh won't be quite so lovely, as all that's good it in drains and dies, becomes nothing.

To me, the loss of life is the most significant thing about these pictures, the most impactful. I can't help but wonder about the creature that spawned these images of flesh.

Well, was also used in, I should say.

I want to punch that guy in the face. Srsly.

Took me a minute to place it, but the music from a
cute car commercial from a couple years back – the Volkswagon Rabbit. Ridiculously catchy.

#13: women should be in the kitchen baking pie, not disciplinin' the kids. That's for pa to do, with a belt.

This is no small accomplishment. Romeo stands head and shoulders above his competition, and surely will reach new heights in the years to come.

Sorry :D

as for #25: maybe he's bodybuilding because he wants to? why does ANYONE bodybuild? Do all bodybuilders have inferiority complexes, or are you assuming that must be the case in this case because he's small?

When I was a kid, we had a raccoon who'd come out to our porch during the day, hang out and beg. He was fairly young and, we sumrised, been treated as a pet, because he just wasn't afraid of humans at all.
We ended up feeding and petting him for a while (he suckled my fingers), before we caught him and released him in the woods far away from our gun-happy neighbors.

Dangerous they may be but by and large I think they're just trying to get by, much as anyone else is.

A scientific explanation for the guido phenomenon

#12: oops, she did it again?

*insert picture of sea monster here*

I can has undersea cable? Nom nom nom...

Excellent! Congrats, enjoy parenthood. :)

As for the name length: the fact that it can be turned into a haiku is just incredibly cool :p

"Maybe I game for different reasons than other folks, but I prefer a logistical challenge over some random excuse for socializing."

I love random excuses for socializing, personally. I'm not a fan of strategy games. I really enjoy the silly randomness of stuff like this.

This is an excellent game. Happy to see it getting some publicity.

Is there any country in the world not populated by large quantities of raging morons? Please tell me, because I want to move there.

Jeff, in your first example, I imagine you'd have to consider the possible side effects of the vaccine. Would it, for example, have a 50/50 chance of causing cancer somewhere down the line? Or of rendering the patient sterile?

Hyperbole, certainly. But the point is: sometimes the supposed cure or prevention can come with some severe side effects. These should be examined and alternatives considered.

as an aside, if you scroll a little down boingboing mainpage you'll come to an article entitled "Security vs. Privacy is really Control vs. Liberty."

This seems pretty relevant.

If safety is what you desire above all else, build yourself a little bunker under a hill and live there for the duration of your life.

"national security" is a weak excuse for treating any foreign individual to come to our borders as a criminal. It simply furthers our reputations as bullies and a heartily dislikeable presence in the world community.

There has got to be a better solution than punishing the innocent and/or forcing citizens to turn over information that SHOULD be private. Fear must, by no means, be the driving force of any policy, for when negative emotion over intellect drives legislation, things don't end well.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin.

Of course this could spark debate about the definition of liberty, but that in itself is disturbing.

I find it fascinating how passionate people get about pizza, moreso than most other foods. The regional competitiveness in that regard is fascinating as well (NY vs. Chicago, for instance). I bet there's some fascinating writing out there on this very subject.. people's connection to food, and to where they live, and how it all ties together.

I was inspired by this article to attempt making my own tonight (albeit with a storebought crust). The results were.. interesting. I don't think it would pass the judgement of all you pizza connoseurs, but it was filling anyway. :p

Maybe its because I only worked in a new books bookstore (Borders, to be precise) but my time selling books didn't diminish my love for them at all. I'll be a passionate bookworm for life.

It did, however, foster my hatred of customers, most of whom seem keen to be vicious, inconsiderate jerks.

I've avoided CS ever since.

Always makes me feel a bit better about the world to see a big company doing the right thing.

I hope not. Seems to me folks like Rob are in the minority.

I love this picture. My parents have been friends with a wild foods/mycology expert for many years, so I was raised on wild mushrooms and still enjoy scouring the woods for em. So yeah, this shot made me salivate. :)

Her body type looks fairly healthy to me. Its fairly obnoxious and/or abjectly evil to suggest otherwise, unless your idea of healthy is kate moss.

*shakes head*

The most interesting thing to me about this project is the psychological aspect. What those men might be thinking. The conversations that follow. Now THAT'S intriguing.

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

These guys are ingenius. I can't wait to see more from them in the future.

My dad and a friend of his founded a company that was selling regular knives with circuit boards for handles for a while. Didn't do terribly well; probably lack of marketing.

This has been floating around the internet for quite a while; surprised its just now making it here.

#20: The hot new "must have" gadget for 2008. *adds it to her Amazon wish list*

I wonder what this process of "sloating" involves ;)

(count on me to contribute nothing of substance to the discussion.. sigh ;p).

It always seems like someone sets out to kill any politician who might actually set some positive change into effect. I guess the keyword is "change." People are so afraid of anything outside of their dark, twisted, violence-riddled little lives they'll take steep measures to ensure nothing alters it, unable to grasp the concept that maybe, just maybe, things could be better.

*shakes head*

That is way too adorable. Just what I needed to start my morning off well :D

#21: I think people are just saying he's got some sweet tricks up his sleeve, that's all. Its not something everyone is going to be comfortable with, because not everyone can tolerate basically having mind tricks played on them. It can be an unsettling feeling.

I, for one, am intrigued enough to want to check it out.

I generally really really abhor coke advertising, but the GTA mockup was REALLY well done. I get a kick out of it every time I watch it.

Wait, didn't some other area run a similar program recently, within the past year? Also with starbucks? This sounds very familiar. I'd swear it was covered on BoingBoing before.

Heh, I live in Danbury (and have been to the mall MANY times). Never figured the day I'd see this relatively tedious town make it on to boingboing. Alabeit for a decisively less than wonderful reason :p

I suspect there's an unspoken belief that men actually secretly enjoy a woman's uninvited grope, regardless of circumstances. Falls in line with the stereotype of men being total slaves to lust.

I'm with #8. Can't say I'm a fan of teaching young children to kill animals and celebrating the slaying like its some sort of great accomplishment. Bleh.

I'd be afraid to wear this thing to the airport :p

This prompted me to immidiately dig through every penny I had on me. Nothing yet, but I have many more at home :p

Oh wait, maybe I'm missing something too. Never mind.

People are fascinated by the extremely grotesque. It's human nature. Anyone who'd criticize or condescend to others for this sort of horrified curiousity is way way way too tightly wound.

Also, cute ferret.

#33: BoingBoing's custom is to follow really horrific stuff with some random picture of a unicorn or such as brain bleach of sorts :p

as an aside, #7, the people who REALLY need to hear this stuff likely arent reading this place to begin with, unfortunately.

Well, I think Climate Audit is doing very important work here. I hope they take up the reins on other vital issues, like how the moon landing was staged and that gravity doesn't actually exist.

Yeah, expecting coverage and honest behavior from a company when you pay hundreds of dollars a month is a HORRIBLE agenda. Damned biased liebrals! Any honest blogger would be perfectly content throwing money blindly at insurance companies and letting them rake him over the coals.. obviously.. ;p

I imagine they mainly expect people to behave with courtesy, to not flame and not use abusive language.
Nor go on about moderator conspiracies, etc. :p Stuff that tends to be common sense.. but in the vast anonymous power of teh intarwebs, are easy to forget sometimes. :p

I am rather curious about the mindset that feels to immidiately repost a post that was just deleted.

Heh.

And judging by the temperment of the posts in that particular thread, I'd suggest it was closed to prevent a flame war from erupting, a sensible course of action.

/just sayin

I have to say reading the comments list in the linked article is fascinating and enlightening. Its easy to judge someone's actions based on a single action - at first Anderson's actions seemed heavy-handed to me - but the truth is unless you've worked in a similar position you can't really know what they're dealing with and thus what an appropriate response IS. Reading through this I've come to conclude his actions weren't overly extreme at all.

Quite educational.

Bizarre, trippy episode. I'll confess curiousity as to what the story with Tim Woodsman may have been (or if I missed something, somewhere).

Zombo Gallery? I'll bet you can do anything there...

Oh dear. That's one very lonely, depressed and sick lady.

Honestly, a woman this sick, I don't think the exposure would do anything to help her.. maybe just cause herself to hide away more, get locked in some sick mental cycle. As well and as good as protecting the public may be, each of these assailants, these perpetrators, these sick individuals who do harm, are people too, at their core, just sick ones.

I mean, this lady... I'm sure she didnt mean to cause actual harm. I'm betting she was just enjoying the attention, the feeling of being cared for, of being included in someone's life. Because she's broken she wasn't even thinking about the harm she was doing.

So I'm thinking turning them into pariahs isn't the answer. I'm thinking finding someone who KNOWS them and actively helping them get help is the answer. Maybe I'm too much the humanist. I can't help but think that anyone is redeemable, despite their sins. (In regards to pedophiles in particular, there is some evidence to suggest they are not "curable," so I can't argue that point.. but this woman is clearly just deranged and lonely).

You know, if that's really the lady's picture at the end of the article there, I'm just not sure how I feel about it. It seems a tad ethically questionable (even despite what she's done).

The woman is clearly ill and needs help. I don't think basically encouraging public ridicule will help her so much as drive her further into mental illness.

She has a look of horrible loneliness and desperation about her.

Sean: Ann Coulter is hardly a pinnacle of tolerance and acceptance herself (as I think even most conservatives would agree). Touting her and her hatemongering viewpoints as essential to education is more than merely laughable, its practically criminal.

That reason alone is enough to render this poster highly mockworthy.

Looking at that comic, all I can think is ".... this just won't end well." :P