All I can glean about the HYPE tag is that it was some kind of Easter egg in Netscape and was supposed to play a certain sound file.

That bailiff should be tried for attempted murder.

"It really is odd to think of living somewhere mafia ruled."

You mean where you live, there's no organization that extorts 10-50% of your business and personal income "for your benefit"?

If only she had shouted Tibet in Chinese to her Chinese-speaking audience, instead of English, someone other than Boingboing editors might have noticed or cared.

Amazingly, I predict that every person posting comments, as well as the submitter of the original article, will vote for a president and congressmen who continue the TSA debacle.

(Disclaimer, I am not American and pay extra so I don't have to fly through US airports.)

Please, Boing Boing editors. Tiny crystals and cool chemicals are not nanotechnology! Nanotechnology is tiny machines, a manmade analog to biology on the nanoscale level.

Nanotechnology is mostly still theoretical, and when we do have it, it will be cool. It really takes the thunder away, though, when every new material or funky molecule is hailed as "nanotechnology".

Another radical idea is to move somewhere where the mafia doesn't demand half your earnings every year.

Most washrooms in Japan are open enough that anyone walking by can see who's peeing, and it's not unusual for the cleaning lady to start mopping the floor next to me while I'm going. They even have co-ed washrooms. You get used to it.

Sebastien: Quite right. Solae (sora-e) = 空へ, meaning "skyward".

I believe there are a few more elevator test towers you can see while riding the Kantou Shinkansen.

Homeland Security expresses its regrets; specifically, that the media discovered the story, and also that several Homeland Security employees were forced to delay lunchtime until 2:00 while dealing with the situation. The demands of protecting Freedom™* are fierce and sometimes difficult to bear.

Homeland Security also expresses its regrets that the government of Iceland has the temerity to stand up for its citizens and protest unwarranted humiliating, abusive treatment towards its citizens. From now on, Homeland Security helpfully suggests that the US executive branch prepare several economic, political, and military threats that can be levied Iceland or any other nation at a moment's notice, in order to force acquiescence and quiet compliance with the requirements of Freedom™*.

* Some limits may apply to Freedom™, offer not valid in all states and territories, may not be combined with any other offer, limit one per customer, offer may be revoked at any time.

That's just Best Buy making sure we know they're still assholes. Thanks, Best Buy!

In addition to opposing stupid wars, torture, the Patriot Act, Internet censorship, and any law that invades your privacy, Dr. Paul is the only candidate (let alone only Republican) that wants to let individual states decide the abortion issue for themselves; and yet every time his name comes up, the neocon shills, desperate for any mud to sling at him, condemn this gynaecologist's personal opinions on the matter.

Good grief, I thought those weirdos hated Boing Boing for its pro-freedom views, but mentioning the only presidential candidate people are actually enthusiastic about brings them out for some reason, like cold weather and cockroaches.

Liberty enthusiasts are well aware of the anti-authoritarian bent to many Batman stories. It's no surprise Dr. Paul or his staffer chose the Dark Knight as his favourite superhero.

And here I thought Wikipedia was banned in China. It turns out you can get it fresh in Beijing restaurants!

"I think all presidents have an entourage thats this size."

Hardly. I believe the Canadian prime minister often goes out on the town with one security guard. I've also heard the Swiss executives live just like normal citizens, commuting to work alone, hanging out at pubs, etc.

If the president of the US is simultaneously that important and that hated, that he needs a heavily armed entourage of hundreds, something is seriously messed up with the system.

Macedonian is just a fancy term for Bulgarian.

In addition to what Mr. Doctorow posted above: I believe the worst thing about DRM is the legal aftermath. DRM itself is annoying and worse than useless for the reasons given above and more, but that simply means it is either cracked, or it fails.

Unfortunately, since the DRM lords tend to be powerful and rich, they buy laws that force people to use DRM and use violence to punish those that avoid or crack DRM. There is no such thing as a DRM-enforcing law (like the DMCA) that does not deny your basic rights as a human being.

"I remember one actually forming a political party in Germany with its policy establishing full-time "meditation bases" across the country to bring on the bliss nation-wide due to the generated positive energy shield."

There's a similar party that runs candidates in Canada's national elections. They've never gotten a seat in Parliament, however.

Narual, that may work for you, but for someone with a poor metabolism and a carb-rich diet, eating less than you consume results in the body cannibalizing energy from muscle and organ tissue while continuing to accumulate fat. I calorie-counted for a long time without losing weight.

This is one more example of how the notion of imaginary property is absurd.

One more data-point here. I've always had a terrible metabolism, and been fat my entire life. Once I got out of high school and stopped running for two hours a day, my weight ballooned to obesity even though I ate a normal Canadian diet.

In three years on a low-carb diet, however, I have lost 77 pounds, become fit and slim, and feel better than ever before. I think I've even come back from the brink of diabetes. I'm convinced that sugars and starches are poison for people with metabolisms like mine, and the lifestyle of avoiding them is really not that hard once you get used to it.

Is it just me, or are most news outlets ignoring the fact that this oppressive government in Georgia is the "democratic" pro-US regime that was supported in its rise to power by the Bush administration? The Saakashvili regime is basically in place solely to back US interests and oppose Russia's, with no concern for the Georgians themselves.

I thought unisex only applied to hairstyles and clothing, but okay.

At least one Japanese bank has machines in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese. Not bad for a monolingual country.

I've seen photos of the Japanese version of the same sign. I don't know if they're actually used anywhere, or merely a joke; but yes, we do have co-ed bathrooms here.

There was a long Slashdot discussion on this a while back, with a lot of informative links. Basically, the laser in a Blu-ray player or DVD player is strong enough to permanently fry your retina in less time than it takes for the blink response to kick in. These are seriously dangerous, people.

Flying Squid: You've mischaracterized many of those votes. Ron Paul didn't vote to ban stem cell research; he voted against federal funding for the research, because the Constitution doesn't authorize it.

In nearly all those cases, it's not a matter of him voting for or against something; it's a matter of him voting 'yes' or 'no' on whether the federal government is allowed to control that issue in the first place. There is no other Congressman who always votes according to the law and his conscience the way Dr. Paul does; he is literally the only incorruptible politician in DC, the kind of person that only comes along once every century or so.

He has admitted there are a slim, slim minority of votes where he wasn't sure what the right and constitutional way to vote was, and he admits as much. You can easily Google to find his comments on those bills.

On the other hand, every other politician is selling out your freedoms and engaging in corruption every single day. But sure, a few minor votes taken wildly out of context is a good way to smear him here on Boing Boing, especially if you're one of the first to comment.

Dr. Paul is an extremely difficult Congressman to find error with, and most smear attempts (like the false racist allegations from 30 years ago) only convince fools who can't think for themselves, can't research the facts, and are likely to end up with the lousy government they deserve.

Canada's saving grace is the French. They'd riot before they'd let any kind of union with Washington DC & Holdings go ahead.

I think the entire idea of trademarking t-shirt slogans is stupid. I'm glad Cathy Carlson lost. She's welcome to make all the t-shirts she wants, but she doesn't have the right to tell me I can't say something because she put it on a t-shirt first.

Like Micah says, this sign uses traditional characters, which generally aren't to be found in mainland China.

I found the B! It fell down to the bottom of the Chinese section.

What makes you think any politician in either party (except for Ron Paul) gives a flying fig about your privacy rights?

With all the people defending the cops in this instance, it's no wonder your country's freedoms are going down the crapper.

It's like Homer Simpson sitting on his couch, laughing at a fatal accident on TV. "Ha ha, it's funny 'cause I don't know them!"

Unless you guys elect a sensible president who gives a crap about freedom for the first time in several decades, you're just going to keep getting more of this crap.

(That would be Ron Paul, by the way.)