Back in 2002, I bought a big batch of these little 1/4" spherical magnets from wondermagnet.com for $0.15 each. Sadly, they are currenly out of stock. dealextreme.com sometimes has good deals on powerful magnets too (along with tons of other irresistible crap to waste money on), but currently only discs.

They are a fun toy to play with, as the video shows... They're not a "puzzle" in any way, though, so I'm not sure how Rubik relates...

Cars are one of the most recycled products on the market. If anybody thinks the materials from these cars was "wasted", they are hugely mistaken. They will be broken down, sold for parts, and what is left will be melted down and reused. There will be very little wasted. "Scrapping" a car isn't as environmentally unfriendly as it sounds.

I'm sure that the people responsible will argue that the response to the situation was justified. After all, they can't admit fault. Everybody in a position of authority is always in the right. Just look at the Boston "bomb" scare...

However, if they were completely justified in their actions, shouldn't they also be held responsible for the consequences? (Read: the bill from the therapy this kid may end up needing)

#41:

Suicide isn't an opportunistic act. I feel for the parents of kids who have committed suicide with a gun, but they would have used another method if a gun weren't available. There is no reason for us to change the rights we hold merely for the comfort of perception of others.

$5:

That's why Apple needs to come out with a system that is lesser-spec'd than the Pro, but with a slotted video card.

I don't need the capability to run with two quad core processors. In fact, the Mini, or the iMac are sufficient in the power department. However I do want to be able to run a high-end video card, and maybe upgrade it a few times over the life of the machine. I don't see why I should be forced to pay $2800 for that just because Apple chose to bundle the capability I want with $2000 worth of other parts that I don't care as much about.

He was absolutely right about Quicken, though... He just needs to step back and look at it in a broader perspective.

People with too much time on their hands still use it to balance their checkbooks, but the vast majority of people will forget that brief era that existed between manual checkbook balancing and the online banking age where checks are written and mailed for you by your bank, and your checkbook is constantly and automatically balanced for you by somebody else's computer.

Perhaps his expectations were a few years ahead of their time.

I'm guessing that the Mr. Sketch markers that almost certainly exist in his school's art department send a really mixed message then....

Hmm..

House hit once... Meteroite fragments into five pieces. Piece one found immediately. Pieces 2-4 only found during heavy rain when a leak becomes apparent?

The only other option, really, is that the rocks were mis-identified as meteorites.

#77

No matter what any book says, surgically and chemically altering yourself for conditions that do not affect your physical health is a choice. Are you saying it wasn't a choice for this person to have their breasts removed? If it wasn't a choice to take testosterone, how come they had the choice to stop when it was convenient? He admits in the article that it was a choice whether or not he kept his reproductive organs... So the person in question admits it is a choice, why would you disagree with him?

Like I said, I respect the person's right to make that choice, but I reserve the right to think it's dumb.

#68

I can understand and accept homosexuality, and I can accept transgender people. I understand that people are the way they are sexually, and I believe that people are free to do with their bodies as they wish provided they are willing to pay their own way.

What bothers me is not the two points you mention. I understand that homosexuality is not a choice, but what bothers me is transgender people who try and claim that what they did to their bodies wasn't a choice they made, and therefore we shouldn't judge them by it. Discriminating based on what somebody is is a terrible thing, but discriminating based on choices people make is completely fair territory. I respect their right to do what they do, and I would hope they respect my right to think it's dumb. There are plenty of straight people who I don't think reproduce either.

Maybe I'm being too literal, or socially inconsiderate, or whatever, but that person is female, not "transgender".

It strikes me as odd that she wants to have a "biological child," and that particular definition is important to her, but when it comes to her sex she uses the legal definition even though she's quite clearly biologically female.

It's funny you say that #4... When I saw new [...] mollusks, the first thing I thought was "I wonder if they're yummy."

That said, I think there are plenty of countries on the list above the US in the "destroying ocean-life" category.

#8..

Take a small plane from a local airport. It's like a trip back to the past.

Last summer when we flew from Hyanis to Nantucket they stuck my wife in the co-pilot's seat because all the other seats were full! The pilot answered every question the 6ish year old boy sitting behind him asked (and the questions didn't stop until his parents dragged him away to walk into the terminal).

Other than a few new concrete barriers in front of the airport, it's been exactly the same trip for decades.

#24

You'd have to put it in the Bud Light.

Xopher..

I know you probably won't read this, since it's fallen off the front page, but I thought I'd let you know a few things.

First, you're prediction as to the answers to your questions are wrong. Here's how I'd answer"

No. I was never a fat kid.

Yes, telling the old guy to fuck off is perfectly reasonable. (But I also think it would be reasonable for the old guy to slap the kid after).

Second:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/02/27/study_college_students_more_narcissistic/

It's an AP story, so if you don't like the Globe, go read it in the Washington Post, or something. The summary is that people are starting to realize we're not doing our kids a service by being only positive to them all the time. When a kid fucks up, we should tell them. Otherwise they turn into narcissistic pricks when they grow up.

I once did something like this purely in software using the xtest interface...

It was rigged up so that I could turn on a co-worker's caps-lock remotely. He was very anti-caps-lock, to the point where he had removed the key from his keyboard. We filled him in on the joke *after* he had disassembled his keyboard the *second* time.

#20 just reminded me of an amusing painting that's hanging in a local sushi restaurant near me. It is quite clearly a Kama Sutra position, and the background, and composition are nearly identical to one of the drawings... But the characters are made to look like ink blots.

The fourth one sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to say to a fat kid to me.

The rest seem like the kind of thing that somebody with a really outdated view of the world would say. And imagine that... He's old. Imagine what your prejudices are going to soundlike to your great-grandkids. Oh yes. You have them. The just don't seem outrageous yet.

The funny thing to me is that the kid probably thought is was a random shape that it was fun to watch their beverage go through, and now that she freaked out they'll see these things shaped like this and thing "penis!".

Somehow I doubt that's what she was going for.

#7...

Seems to me that the horses already left the gate.

Buy low, sell high. Right now? Record high. Wait until the current downward economic cycle ends, and buy when it's back down at $300/oz. Then you can play the chumps next time the price hits $1k. Everybody likes to predict the collapse of western civilization when there's a recession, 'cause they can't remember back a few years to the last one. Things will come around, and the price of gold will tank again. Happens every time.

Does the "Enough red wine to take you over the driving limit" line move if you weigh more? What sort of magical markings did they come up with to do that? Oh.. They just assumed we all weigh 100lbs/45kg. That's no fun...

It would be cooler if it used odd, but precise units. Otherwise it might be geeky, but it fails at nerdy.

I'm not sure what's better. The classic landlord behavior in #3's post, or the lack of comma in said landlord's sign.

Either way, that post made my day.

Thanks #7. I didn't realize that people outside of the US couldn't have political leanings towards one US political party or the other.

I'll also see all of my independent friends in a whole new light now that I know being unaffiliated means they have no opinion.

(Not being a US citizen doesn't mean you're any less likely to be biased about US politics. In fact, depending on where you're from, it may be more likely.)

Right... Those aren't biased at all... At least let a Republican write the ones about the Democrats.

I mean... They left out all of Hillary's special attacks!

These laws are pointless. The problem is that bad drivers frequently talk on their cell phone, not that talking on your cell phone makes you a bad driver. If you can't give preferential attention to the road over the call, it's not going to matter that you're not holding the phone in your hand. If somebody don't respect the complexity of traffic sufficiently to realize when it is inappropriate to have a conversation, taking the phone away will simply mean that they cause accidents by talking to a passenger, groping for something in the back seat, yelling at their kids, reading a book, or merely by spacing out in general.

If we did a proper job training new drivers, and keeping unprepared drivers off the road (rather than trusting them with our lives even if they couldn't quite make that 3-point turn), it should be sufficient to trust their judgement with a cell phone. Instead we outlaw the symptom and ignore the problem.

#11..

You can get cast or plate (instead of stamped steel) mailboxes that do the trick just as well. Also, you really don't want to do the concrete thing around your post. Especially if you live in an area that freezes. (It'll get heaved out of the ground) Really, you just need to dig the hole really deep, and fill the top part of the hole with packed gravel. The stability difference between a two foot hole and a three foot hole is enormous. Also, 6x6 posts (instead of the usual 4x4) are just as good as steel, but look way better in my opinion....

That's such a horrible ad campaign.

For starters, you don't know what the hell the billboards are talking about unless you've seen the TV ads. Plus, the TV ads feature such non-believable characters that I can't help but think the ad campaign is designed to convince people that "AT&T if for somebody else, not people like me!"

These guys did AT&T a favor.

Very funny #12.

Examples? Oh, wait. There aren't any.

Guantanamo bay is home to a military base which has been there for many decades, as well as the prison that has been in the news so much lately.

When people talk these days about closing Guantanamo bay, they're talking about closing the prison. The chances of the military base being closed are exactly nil.

But you all know this, right? You wouldn't be outraged about something you really don't know very much about, would you?

#33, Try the 99. It's worse. (Not by much, but at least Applebee's has a good bar selection so you can use alcohol to forget the food. I avoid both like the plague.)

#34, If you need a chain, try Cracker Barrel (though you should be prepared to consume at least a half pound of butter). However if you're traveling you should try to find locally owned places. You're more likely to find something really good to eat if you don't mind the inconsistency, and the people will almost certainly be friendlier since the business is locally owned and not run by some out of sight corporate entity.

@25...

For this type of thing, hopefully never. Why? Because we shouldn't have to pay for the complexity. There is no security risk in being able to remotely read a number off somebody's tools. The reader won't know that it's a tool, won't know what kind of tool it is, etc... Without the associated database, the RFIDs provide essentially meaningless data to any "attacker". Encrypt your database and you're safe. The *best* part about this particular system is that since the database is held by the user, and not some third-party, there isn't even a privacy concern here. This is the kind of stuff that RFID *should* be used for.

Seeing as the building is quite tall, it seems unlikely that cars near the base of the building would have trouble from the antennas, but not cars farther away as well... Especially since you have to move away from the building slightly to get line of sight on the transmitters.

I'm sure that there is some interference going on, but people should look for a source closer to the ground.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91033

Sounds like a jet engine when you squeeze the handle.

I have something very similar to this. It uses propane instead of kerosene though. It was sold to kill weeds and repair asphalt, but I have also used it to ignite wet brush for a controlled burn of woody yard waste (stuff that doesn't compost well), and to (carefully) melt through ice dams on my roof.

Seems like a waste of fuel to melt walkway ice with it though... Cheaper to just throw some rock salt on it. Additionally, when you aim it at the ground you have to be very careful. 80,000 BTUs will ignite shoes and pants cuffs in a fraction of a second.

He didn't say "artificial". He said "imitation". It could still be completely natural. Imitation vanilla is typically made by extracting the same compound (vanillin) found in authentic vanilla from another natural but more abundant source, such as oak. The same thing we use to naturally flavor wonderful things like whiskey and wine.

I still buy the real stuff though. You may not be able to tell the difference after you cook it, but in raw things, the difference is noticeable. The fragrance is distinctly different.

And, of course I posted that in the wrong story....

For some reason I can't shake the image of this artist watching porno on VHS in the '80s with Gallagher in the picture-in-picture.

For some reason I can't shake the image of this artist watching porno on VHS in the '80s with Gallagher in the picture-in-picture.

It's ironic that readers of *this* blog would be so quick to support these writers in their fight to maintain the current copyright regime.

Shouldn't these writers be asking for a living wage, instead of the ability to collect payments on works they created many decades in the past? What will happen when sane copyright legislation is proposed, and the hollywood lobbiests use "We won't be able to pay residuals to our writers" as their reason to have the reforms struck down?

Why is it not OK for Hollywood to want to reap profits off of endless copyrights, but completely OK for the writers to ask for a cut of the action? It's like trying to go after the Mafia for their protection racket, while at the same time making sure the enforcers get their cut.

Who needs amazon? I can dig some out of my back yard.

I'd be more happy that there was "news" about this if I thought it would educate people to be less scared about things they don't understand...

Makes me want to play some Funeral Quest.

Last time I checked, a trade secret wasn't a secret anymore once it was out.

Perhaps I'm just a freak, but if I chew gum for more than an hour it digests well before I have a chance to swallow it...

It's interesting that Nuclear Power isn't mentioned here at all. Did they remove it? It was in the earlier games, and emits no carbon...

Perhaps BP doesn't see any profit in nuclear?