Orlando sucks to bad. So bad.

“This exercise reveals a fundamental inertia which is stopping people from making sensible financial decisions”

BS. As many people have pointed out, the sensible decision was actually to pass the offer up. Most people assumed that this would be some kind of scam that would either expose them to additional financial loss or at best waste their time -- which is very valuable. It was simply not enough money to risk the unknown costs. The decision NOT to engage by most people was COMPLETELY rational.

Why can't they just insert a single frame of watermark in the movie? Viewers wouldn't notice it (or barely) but the studio could just as easily track the single frame as an audio dropout, couldn't they? Or am I missing something?

I LOVE the theatre. You can't re-create the social component of the theatre at home. That's why I'm so bummed about news like this. The sticky floors I can live with and you don't have to buy the concessions to watch the movie.

It's a shame really that so many people want to hole up in their homes and watch movies instead of getting out into the real world and being with other people to experience a movie together. You simply can't recreate that in the average home.

Still trying to hear the difference between the Los Angeles and Seattle accents.

A persistent rumor claims that riding a bike is actually less efficient than driving a car if you account for the energy that goes into producing the food/drink that "fuels" a cyclist.

This doesn't make sense. The cyclist has to eat anyway so the "cost" of the "fuel" is sunk. The fuel is consumed whether the cyclist bikes or drives, isn't it? I can't imagine that a cyclist would need to eat much more food just because they're biking. This sounds really ridiculous.

Wow - a lot of grandstanding here. Do you think EVERY car company doesn't do calculations like this every day? Insurance companies have a value for every one of your lives. So are you going to not buy insurance either? Are you going to investigate every corporation and not buy ANYTHING from ANYONE because people protect themselves from zealous injury attorneys?

Ger over yourselves, people. Yeah, it's a waste. But there's a hell of a lot of waste in this world and to blame Mazda and say you'll never buy Mazda again is just silly.

Well, I'll just say unlike most things (like paying for consumer safety), grandstanding on the web is free, isn't it?

Corporations are deathly afraid -- for good reason -- of liability because people in this country sue at the drop of a hat -- NO MATTER WHAT MAZDA CALLS THEM, "salvage" or otherwise.

To everyone going on about "Police States"...

Let me first say that I too find this an appalling case of lack of proportionality in terms of official response to a situation.

BUT! But, but, but...

Before you simply shout "Orwell" and move on - let's think about why stuff like this happens more and more.

This is just my speculation - but could it be that maybe it's just as much to do with the overly litigious nature of our society than any conscious effort by authorities to simply "go fascist"?

Think about it... so, hypothetically, the situation goes another way...

Same thing happens but the security guard lets them go with a warning and a chuckle. Then the kid gets really sick and/or dies (for whatever reason, it's not important) and the parents sue the PANTS off everyone related to the stadium.

Just saying - in this case you may think it's an overly authoritarian response and I would totally agree. But think about why law enforcement agencies and even security guards might feel the need to "follow the letter of the law" in cases, especially involving children, when people will sue at the drop of a hat.

Not justifying the behavior - just trying to understand it instead of just ranting for the sake of ranting.

Jeff @10

You are using false logic. Just because file sharing might kill the music industry DOES NOT MEAN that filtering is a viable solution in ANY WAY. Further, what the record industry was suggesting was not filtering but actually taking away a person's access to the internet.

I think most people would agree that musicians should be compensated for their work.

But what we're talking about here is a bone-headed proposal that won't help anyone and is almost impossible to actually implement.

ntns

ys t ds, y jst dn't lk t bcs t pnts t yr dcddly ltst tttd.

dn't wrry, w ll smtms wrt stff tht w rgrt nd ddn't rlly mn. y'll lv ths dwn f y ply yr crds rght.

@antinous - why so patronizing? why so black-and-white. it's either $120 for a sweatshirt or you're supporting sweatshops?

how very fundamentalist of you. that's the same kind of logic that the Bush administration uses to rationalize locking up anyone who they don't like. you're either with us, or agin' us!

#25 - BS - just because you allow a photo to be taken doesn't mean you implicitly grant the right to publish, no matter how other people judge your actions. Just because it's easy these days to publish photos shouldn't change our right to protect our privacy / image.

#24 - IMHO you mis-interpret what people find funny about these photos. I don't read acceptance or celebration of Cocaine in these comments. Seems like people are generally being ironic and snarky. I don't see any Cocaine cheerleading here. I think you're taking this a bit seriously.

Agree with #13. As hilariously awesome as these pics are it does seem like the subjects are being exploited. They're probably still alive and they have a reasonable right to decide if these photos should have been published.

Or they may be laughing about it.

Eigengrau @18

I understand that FSM is a hyperbolic satire of religion, but I am just arguing that the way it carries out the satire is disrespectful to the point of being unproductive - it doesn't invite a discussion, it points a finger.

FSM was thought up specifically to counter the point that Intelligent Design proponents make that schools should teach "all sides of a debate". The point is that all religious beliefs -- including athiesm -- are opinion and have no place in a science class. Thus the FSM was created to make the point that if science classes teach intelligent design (a religious belief) then EVERY religious creationist myth should get equal time. It's easy to see how quickly that whole line of thought gets absurd.

FSM was not created to mock religion in general.

Clark was one of the true masters of science fiction.

What I really admired and respected about him is his amazing insight into and understanding of human nature.

When it comes down to it, any imagining of the future of our race requires a deep understanding of our spirit and nature as a race.

Clarke had that understanding and that's why his works were so amazingly prescient and believable and inspiring and...

#10

"Bush-Guard"

Not my cup of tea, but I can see why some people make these types of fashion statements. Frankly, I think it's healthy for us that there are some people out there with enough cajones to do these kinds of things and the rest of us should just take a deep breath.

I personally don't like to be provocative but that's just my personality. But we need these folks to push limits, even if it does inconvenience us just a tiny bit. If we all just go along with big brother we'll end up in a bad way and not even notice.

But anyway, I really doubt that this would hold up a security line for very long. If the TSA monkey really did have a problem with the bag, the bag holder would be pulled out of the line and the security line would keep going. They wouldn't simply stop the line while the figured this out.

@70 - there are two different issues here. First, the respect issue. Yes, the kids should have shown more respect.

But that pales in comparison to the second issue which is that this cop cannot control his emotions. This is not just "a little too much". That cop is barely holding it together when confronting harmless skate punks. What happens when, god forbid, someone REALLY talks back to him. I bet he pulls out his nightstick or tazer.

As far as I see it, cops are not supposed to react to disrespect with out-of-control emotion and violence.

This really has nothing to do with what those kids did or did not do. I agree that people -- especially punk little kids -- should show respect for law enforcement officers.

But those kids didn't really show a lot of disrespect. They were pretty submissive.

The fact is that a cop who cannot manage to control his anger in a confrontation with a scrawny little skate punk is simply not good at his job.

That cop was out of control. He needs to be re-trained or put at a desk.

vert @8 you are a genious. i think we need to explore this. we'll start a company called "i.slan.der" that basically will automatically write a libelous article about you and set up links all over the place to get a decent google page rank. but the revenue model is not from the customers. its from lawyers who sign up to get the customer information of the idiots suing. the lawyers get $$$ regardless and that way you don't actually have to WIN the suit!

#6 hit it. When you're 44 your kids are probably just hitting their teen years or just hitting the peak of teen hormonal angst.

That's pretty much 'nuff said right there.

boingboing has some of the funniest comments in the blogsphere. why is that?

@Virgil #4

Too late! You already did! :)

Just to nitpick for the sake of nitpicking... :)

Drip coffee has about 18mg caffeine per oz
Espresso has 50mg caffeine per oz

These numbers are obviously rough indicators and can vary a lot by brew strength.

But as you can see - Espresso is stronger, but you drink much less of it.

So an 8oz coffee will have slightly more caffeine than a double Americano. And people get at least a 12oz drop ("Tall"), which has a LOT more caffeine than a double Americano.

That said - I think Americanos TASTE stronger because of the bitterness of the espresso.

I believe that Cappuccinos do indeed contain steamed milk.

The problem these days is that most places use too much milk and foam relative to the espresso.

A traditional Cappuccino is roughly 5 oz total, I believe (give or take an ounce).

But a Cappuccino from Starbucks, for example, is served in a 12 oz cup and the cup is usually FULL. Thus, the milk/coffee ratio is way too high and it actually feels and tastes like a latte.

I prefer my Cappuccinos on the dry side anyway, which is even less steamed milk than shown in the picture.