@74: Well said.

@52: jst hd Ls Frnk flshbck.

Am I the only one who linked "The Power of Dreams" up with the old "The Power of Nightmares" series on the BBC about 3 years ago?

@44: You persist in missing the point. No one is advocating an ad-free BoingBoing. The concern is about the nature of the advertising, the advertiser, and how the ad relationship can pressure the writers and commenters. Your comment is a straw man.

According to my dietitian's workup, this would be breakfast, lunch, dinner, three snacks, then breakfast and a snack the next day. There would then be enough left over for 1/3 of my lunch. I'm 6'3" and addicted to exercise, too. Christ...

I have to say, though, for purely disturbing gluttony imagery, the meatball with meat sauce entry was worse, imo.

I really, really enjoyed the video. Anti-racism girl's costume was beyond awesome.

Poor Chris. Ever since those hyper-militant liberals stole all his vowel keys, he's just come across as a mumbling weakling. This is obviously the effect the hyper-militant liberals wanted, so we should try very hard to imagine Chris as something besides a mumbling weakling.

While Mark's message is assuring, the couple of people who think self-censorship isn't an issue when accepting money from a corporation in the middle of an image campaign obviously haven't worked with, well, corporations in the middle of an image campaign. I have, and the pressure can be huge. And while BB isn't the BBC, a lot of people read it, and BB does have a history of looking at some touchy issues. I appreciate Mark's (et al's) forthrightness and hope they don't feel that pressure too badly.

Honda's intent is obvious. But their marketing department must be drunk if they think people as savvy as BB readers will react positively to such a bald-faced attempt at linking Honda's brand to nice-sounding, cushy words. It's insulting.

When I see "Honda" and "environment" together, I think of Honda's recent attempts to block stricter greenhouse gas emissions in California. I think of Honda being sued by its buyers because the mileage rates on their new cars were so much lower than normal. And I think that while Honda makes one of the two cars in the US with mileage rates higher than 40mpg, that number is falling while Europeans have a choice of over 100 models > 40mpg, up from 80-some in the same time frame.

Ds Hnd rsrv th rght t dt r rfs ntrs n ts sctns? r, wrs n my pnn, ds t mn th wrtrs wll slf-cnsr? 'm srry, bt fnd t hrd t xpct n ntry bt hw th S tmtv fl stndrds cmpr t ths f thr cntrs whn cr cmpny hs sch hghly vsbl plcmnt n th st.

Gray boots with a pink dress? What the hell were they thinking?

I liked it, for one. But I already had my daily riling-up about something else, so maybe my sense of humor has kicked back in?

#13: Your flaw is in implying a part represents the whole.

The United States, I think, has been improved by a close association with Islam. Just not the part of Islam you insist on calling the whole.

I just watched the brothel episode and really enjoyed it. I'm not sure I liked it, though.

Louis (and everyone else) seems agonizingly oblivious to the similarities amongst themselves. They're almost all manipulating and serving each other up while trying to maintain a persona of professionalism or caring. Everyone is using everyone else and either doesn't know it or just takes it for granted. While I don't doubt the dynamic exists at the brothel and it's valid to show it between everyone who works there, when Louis gets involved it turns interesting journalism into interesting reality tv.

I can't decide if Louis is earnest or not. At the end of the brothel episode he gives that weird speech about how he can't hire a prostitute because what she does is fake and he requires a sincere performance. The irony was blinding. If he was making that up then he deserves kicked in both knees for taking advantage of those people. If he told the truth, then the whole thing devolves into psychodrama which wasn't helpful to anyone involved and was more than a little pathetic once filmed. But it was still enjoyable and interesting. I don't like the way that video made me feel.

I may be down on journalists. Yesterday I saw a photo of a man trying to beat out the beginnings of a brush fire by himself. He wasn't going to succeed on his own, but two people could've done it. The second person was busy recording the moment on film, though. I was angry and hope the guy succeeded then told the photographer to piss off. I'm not sure I can call dispassionate observation like that ethical. Louis is at least feigning that. But if it's not real, if he is getting as embedded and entangled as it seems, then participation can be just as unethical as standing by and watching the poor guy's house burn while getting astounding footage. In fact, it might be very close to starting the fire just to see the man stomp around. I'm not sure what to make of that.

@ Maurik, #11:

"But I guess, like this guy, and them, if you have a camera man with you. It's a LOT easier!"

It does, but that's not really different than what monks and hobos have. Monks are a camera, direct to a god, and people feel the need to perform well while under scrutiny. Hobos have that mythical, hidden set of scratched-in codes that rate a home's hospitality and offerings. It might not be as awe-inspiring as a direct link to a god, but it carries a lot of anonymous social pressure, which would work on a lot of people. Both have all the physical cues and uniforms that tell others to cooperate, just like this guy and your dutch people have the camera.

I find it sad that people have to advertise like that. This kind of action, without advertisement and ubiquitous, would bring back something that I miss very much in daily life. But I'm odd, I suppose, and I very much doubt that it would last more than a day or two without those advertisements and the implied threat they carry. Then again, maybe a sustained set of short-lived actions would carve a place for some longer-term ones?

@Noen: I feel for you. I had a similar experience when my new job gave me the exact number for a cut-rate life insurance company's toll-free number, minus the area code. From my first day I was swamped with calls from irate policy holders who, even after being told I didn't work for their insurer and that they needed to dial 1800 before the number, were livid i wouldn't help them with their bills.

My favorite was the woman who asked if the toll free number I gave her to call instead of mine was going to cost her. I assured her it was free. Then she called back to make certain. She wanted me to call the toll free number and see if it cost me anything.

That was excellent.

That's a spookily effective commercial. I want some, even given the shot of the thing's disturbingly rubbery texture.

By the way, the site's name is "Serious Eats", not "Serious East".

It's an intriguing image, but I can't get past the idea the pierrot is staring at her butt crack and is mildly shocked by what he sees.

Fingerprints. It would collect them like a fingerprint magnet and you'd see them from the other side of the house.

Apparently this is a second study done by the pair. The first was done on a group of patients (count not given) over a period of months and showed similar results.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSHAR17014320080111

@ Clif Marsiglio, #11: My doctor tells me that people with autoimmune diseases just have higher rates of certain cancers and the cancer scare had nothing to do with the drug. That wasn't exactly good news, but it was a relief knowing I wasn't injecting myself with a carcinogen.

@ Takuan, #13: Sadly, that doesn't work with drugs like Enbrel. They have a limited life span and have to be refrigerated. They'd never survive the trip.

Those are joists, as nlvivar mentioned. I think someone with so many books they've taken over the ceiling would be interested in the correct term.

Takuan, cross-bracing isn't always necessary, especially with joists of ten inches or less.

I swear I see Flannery O'Connor hiding behind that line of distant trees.

The more I thought of this, the more I was reminded of Mitchell and Webb:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tJSlRyQfho4

#12: Jack, it will probably be stuck beside your Zen Desktop Water Fountain, or maybe your cat buried it in the sand of your Zen Desktop Rock Garden. Also check behind your Desktop Zen Gong and around the pile of Feng Shui-inspired decorating books. Did it get tacked to your Wishboard by accident? Or maybe it's somewhere in that giant pile of Wayne Dyer paraphernalia PBS keeps sending you. If nowhere else, maybe it's somehow gotten trapped in the dvd player with that copy of The Secret.

This would be counterproductive. One of the best ways to eat less and end up satiated is to concentrate on the taste, texture, and warmth of the food you're eating and on the process of chewing and swallowing. Waiting for an LED to blink takes your mind off the sensual aspects of eating and puts you in a state of constant anticipation, which would leave you nearly as hungry after you ate as before.

A gadget can't cause you to be mindful. It can only direct your attention away from yourself and your goal and toward the gadget. The best and only way to be mindful: remove all distractions and be mindful. It takes practice, not a gimmick.

Can someone explain to me how the universe can be like anything? Not a metaphorical "like", but an actual "like".

And can someone please tell philosophers to stop churning out these idiotic "reality is a computer!" papers? It's logically possible there's a new one written every 30.2 seconds. Yeesh.

Where I live, there are still people who believe black men want to kidnap and rape white women. Sterling is right, but I wonder if he knows just how right he actually is. In the midwest at least, Americans are looking at world events' local effects and deciding to concoct violent and insane fantasies around them instead of working to solve them.

Tangentially (for the most part), I learned tonight that not only are we in a War on Terror and a War on Illegal Immigration, but somewhere along the line we got entangled in a War on Cancer. If the terrorists, immigrants, and cancer gang up on us we're done for.

I am in love with the fact there's a special tying pattern just for watermelons. I think I shall have to drag out my sewing machine tomorrow.

Janusman, maybe you're just listening to the wrong stations?

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=516587

Sergio Gomez lived near here. When word broke that he'd been murdered, much of the local latino community was deeply upset and much of the local non-latino community basically looked around and said "who?". It was an interesting comment on how fragmented and complex our culture has become.

#13: They're not police officers, they're graduating cadets.

#17: I can see him practicing his you-got-a-broken-tail-light swing already.

#11: If it were just one smartass the motto would've been nixed by the other 42 graduates. That all 43 thought this was somehow a good idea is less about one smartass with bad timing and more about an entire class of police cadets who aren't taking their training and newly-given responsibility seriously.

"In May, the United States said it was rewriting its trade rules to remove gambling from the jurisdiction of the W.T.O. / Washington has agreed on deals with the European Union, Canada and Japan to change the treaty but not with several other nations, including Antigua."

So they convinced every kid in the neighborhood to join their ball game and, when the scrawny kid started beating them, decided to change the rules? Wow, do I live in a classy nation. Makes me proud to pretend I'm Canadian overseas.

I wonder what the only other example of this kind of ruling was about, who was involved, and how it turned out.

"I don't mean to make light of sexual harassment but, honestly, I don't work with gorillas."

Oh, trust me. You do, you do. You just don't know it yet.

Don't forget him singing Lennon's "Imagine" and Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" while backed up by a band comprised of 4th graders on synthesizers.

http://ourmedia.org/node/30445

With the effect he has on most of the women I know, webcasting is small potatoes. He just needs to figure out how to tap into that vast network of women desperate for contact with a witty, sexy Sears catalog underwear model and he'd be able to buy Canada.

Love the spunky comment by the goats' owner. Having driven through rural Oklahoma a few times, I'm surprised that the people there don't have a more laid back take on things like this. It was like Amsterdam's red light district for cows, at least the parts I drove through.

I have to agree with Str1cken. Even my local crap news channel has better production values.

Hasn't this been a standard practice for just about everyone from the government to industry for a few years now, anyway?

Gotta love the little advertisement at the end, though.

#10: "Although I can't help but think it's more threatening for a man to molest a woman, because it's exponentially more likely that he'll rape her than that a woman molesting a man would rape him."

You're assuming that molestation is somehow less harmful than rape. The reason being groped, being verbally assaulted, and being raped are all lumped together is the target has the same reaction and the same after effects. The feelings of helplessness, shame, and loss of power and control over your own body are the same whether or not someone stuck their dick in your whatever or stuck your dick in their whatever or not.

I'd guess the reason she thought it was ok to do this is exactly the standard argument about objectification. The guy isn't a person; he's Santa, a character, not a guy, and therefore she felt free to do what she would probably never consider doing to some random man standing around on the street wearing dockers and a sweater. Probably the same reason those poor people dressed up like Disney characters get punched so much.

Agreed on all but one point: here, at least, fresh herbs (which are rarely even that) are priced somewhere between really good pot and really bad heroin. While they might not be tough to find, they're awfully tough to buy.

Sometimes I can totally understand the social conservatives' desire to not know some things about how the real world works. Love the commercial, though.

Since when does "senator doing his job" and "hero" mean the same thing? It's bad enough when politicians get maudlin and start calling everyone who's gotten so much as a paper cut a hero. I expect less histrionic dialog from a group like the EFF. If they lose this vote, are they going to make sidewalk memorials out of poster board and stuffed animals and hold candles in dixie cups while they cry in the dark?

I think I just violated my parole by watching that...

The same video on youtube, since the site exceeded its bandwidth.

Maybe they just have vitiligo. All the signs are there: the lurking in the shade; the dark, full-coverage clothes; the pale skin and big0 hats. They even have a giant vat of coal tar. And let me tell you, a few applications of that and you'd be pretty grumpy, too.

I keep imagining all the top hat guys dying of melanoma 14 months later.

Mark: "...a tribe of truculent, belicose, heliophobic grumps (their mantra: "We're happy when we're sad") who want to kill the happy elves with chemical weapons..."

A fairly accurate description. Of course, all the other commenters are on cuteoverload right this second, thinking of innovative ways to make words more saccharine through intentional misspelling and passive-aggressively criticizing each other for not being twee enough.

A week of facing that every day and you'd be running back to us grumps, I imagine. And we'd be here, waiting to welcome you back, our chemical weapons ready to chase them back into that frilly, pink hellhole of lolcats and big-eyed hamsters.

And then we'd criticize your posts again.

@18: And then absolutely everyone on earth latches onto the kitsch, waters it down, Hallmark starts making stuffed Christmas ornaments of it, and it stops being cool again.

@11. Happy Hanukkah.

"Here, woman. Thanks for the healthy calf. Your reward for continuing my bloodline is this sparkling rock and bit of metal." It wouldn't surprise me if the husband expected the gift back should the baby die. If I were the woman I'd backhand the guy.

Sadly, I still know people whose primary reason for having children is to continue their family stock, so this crass animal husbandry interpretation might not be too far off in some cases.

Pete @15: "To clarify - I still think this is pretty ridiculous, but it's not like it's not really really really trivial to get around."

That they tried and did a really bad job of restricting how you use the device you paid for is not a mitigating factor.

If a house guest tries to steal your valuables, you don't invite them back just because you easily thwarted their attempt.

I suspect "solid, middle-class, educated citizens" might be the Feds' attempt at being kind.

And $989898? Were they trying for a pattern? I wonder if there's an underlying level of strangeness that didn't get reported.

Bah. Either a good number of you missed the point or you're just being irascible old farts. Humans are wired to change our behavior around cute things. Hello Kitty might be an overdose for you (it is for me), but if any of you have toddlers at home I guarantee the cynicism stops milliseconds after starting to interact with them.

And that's what this is about. Not adorable warning lights. Subtle clues that, like color, shape, smell, temperature, and other attributes help us make fast decisions about what's safe, what needs our attention, what might be dangerous to grab without testing first.

Most people won't have any problem picking up a child (some will have to actively fight the urge), but most of those same people will take a lot of coaching before they're willing to pick up a tarantula. Mastering those cues could make life a lot safer for people who work in fast-paced, high-stress environments where mistakes are both easy to make and can have consequences like, oh, irradiating the surrounding few hundred square miles of countryside.

Saying that cute things annoy you isn't accurate. You're not talking about cute; you're talking about cutesy. Cutesy things need shot in the knees. But you respond to cute, no matter how curmudgeonly you try to be about it.

Bah. Spacebag, schmacebag. Upholsterers have been doing this for decades. Makes stuffing the foam in cushions a lot easier. We even have special plastic bags that don't make crinkly sounds when you sit on them.

What leapt out at me was the sheer romance of the thing. I grew up near Huntington, Indiana, and I wish the people there were half as sophisticated as that film lets on. I'm afraid that poor dorky leftist wouldn't have lived past nightfall in real life.