@6 Jeff

In fact nature isn't "supporting" any plight or strategy over any other. its more like this:
a parasite natually infects an ant and produces some effect (swollen abdomen, say). some birds (who like berries) mistake swollen ants for berries -gobble- and so the birds (rather than nature) are supporting the parasites' strategy.
eventually, over many generations, the birds will pick the ant/parasite that look most like red-forest-berries because that's what birds like. so natural selection will ensure (not by knowledge or intention) that eventually the parasite makes very specific berry-looking ants.
this is not because nature chose the parasite over the ant, or the bird over either, but because the bird has picked the most appealing-looking ants over and over for generations, and natural selection has 'obliged' to make the parasites effect more berry-like (because of the feedback loop between supply and demand) as birds pick the most-berry-looking of each new generation..

@Jeff

I'm sorry, but the way you are saying it, implies that nature is making a conscious decision in the birds favour. It isn't.

Birds are indeed a part of nature, but so are the ants and the parasites, so why pick the birds as representative of natures "choice"? There is no choice, just results (cause and effect). At other times the ants win over other participants of nature such as leaves and aphids. There is no choice being made.

If I go out and pick an orange from the tree, you would hardly say that nature chose me to have the orange. But through millenia of change (and my species' responses to a changing environment), I stand tall enough to reach the fruit, I have an innate desire to ingest it's sugary goodness and I have the mental capacity to walk to the tree and harvest what I need. Nature isn't choosing me to 'win' in the battle between me and the tree, evolution has 'given' us both strategies to survive and we have both used them (the tree's seeds will probably be spread better than gravity alone can provide).

And you are right, saying "It's all evolution" is FAR too simplistic, and I certainly didn't say it. That three-word explanation for the entire complexities of our planets eco systems explains nothing at all.. Nature is entirely complicated.

@#21 nice :)

#9 jeesus, why even bother getting up in the morning if a little bit of old-school hip hop is enough to render an otherwise uninteresting video actually
un-watchable, and indeed enough to write to the internet complaining about it.
"dear the-internet, i don't like stuff, more stuff please."
thanks for sharing tho, i'm sure.

#22 Yep, i certainly was. Unbunching my panties as we speak :)

In fairness, it just seemed such a left-field, hear-me-complain-about-something-entirely-irrelevant-but-completely-negative sort of comment that i bunched my panties up and ran in swinging (mixed metaphor anyone?)

this is gonna sound sooo petty, but i know lots of people who agree with me, so i'm going to let it out..

i HATE it when i hear pizza described as 'pie', it's only pie in the weakest technically correct manner.. (like a tart or a quiche)

now don't get me worng, i'm not telling anyone how to talk, or coming down on regional colloquialisms, it just grates so much to hear the phrase 'pizza pie'.

silly huh?

In fact, and I know this sounds far fetched, but the Bank of England have a number of million-pound notes called "Giants" for internal use only (but still legal tender) and 40 (count 'em) "Titans" or £100,000,000 NOTES.

I don't fancy dropping a Giant in my local corner shop tho.

crap, I just saw BUGS comment.. beat me to it.

#34 they won't even take fifties?! that seems a little insane.

$50 is only like €33, u'd spend that on a half-desent lunch with a friend in Dublin.. and no drinks.

(and I bet ur loving saying $50CDN is around $50US haha! brilliant)

well, i can't say i saw even one elephant. let alone five thousand individual ones..

nice lego though :)

@8
"...just a blue ballpoint pen" and apparently a camera too.

..and lights, somewhere to shoot the original photo, some people to photograph..

The point is that, besides his preparatory work, he executes his final works by hand, in pen or oil paint.

#1 for me, it would be more about the benefits of tuition and the chance to meet and talk to some really great writers, rather than the piece of paper at the end..

^^^^ ZINNGG!! ^^^^ :)

#18 wow, some of those are incredible!

did u heck out the "heart" one? :o

Very very nice indeed.
It reminded me quite a lot of the scene where they ambush the train in Iain M Banks' "Against a Dark Background".

haha@religion

#12

not very pretty.

http://www.uploadgeek.com/uploads456/0/arkizzle-badmix.jpg

hmm.. annoyingly that link ^^ seems to pop to immediate-download. copy & paste to the address bar for a browser-view..

#17
I agree, I don't think it's even remotely related to the Degas, different pose, different intention.. just different.

However I am pretty disappointed to find my home is entirely deficient in female body parts, unlike the rest of the guys on this board, apparently.
I was wondering why it was that I felt so masculinely incomplete, so I'm going to buy a sharp knife and some duct tape on my way home and see if I can fulfil Noen's perceptions of a man being manly.

.. the queen track?

also @ #17

So, we should make a long list of everything wrong with the world and proceed down it one-at-a-time, whilst everything goes to shit?

There are lots of problems, and frankly putting them in a ranked, definitive list is an impossible task, subject to personal and political bias.

Whether polar bears (or any other animal) needs protection for it's continued survival has NOTHING to do with the things we, as humanity, choose to do to do to one another.

Polar bear survival and people's betterment of life are not mutually exclusive.

Get off the curmudgeonly soapbox.

hmm, i saw the picture and immediately imagined a sculptor commissioned to actually build this thing, peach by peach, with some rebar and chicken-wire. "interesting to see the making of" i thought.

then on the website they describe it as a "Major Artistic Endeavour", so it sounded promising.

i was kind of disappointed when i watched it and saw they 3d-modelled the woman and sent the mesh to a foam-fab and just stuck a ton of peaches to the resulting structure..

so its not really "made" of peaches, is it?

meh, maybe i expect too much.

#15 "Smells like Balls"

quality.

#34, EGYPT URNASH was right. that was kind of lengthy :p

#2
"I think this is a stock photo. It seems as though it really is pretty easy to herd sheep with constant cries of "Look Out - FEAR!""

..and the fact that the extremely stylized photo in question only appeared on that one blog and not on every news channel reporting the event, and that the police analyzed cctv footage of the incident and still couldn't conclusively decide it wasn't a gun, didn't give it away?

Or what about the photo-credit link on the bottom of the blog pointing to www.photosapience.com?

Still, I think u could be on to something :p

#14
A very interesting read.

Noen, my apologies. That was overly snarky.

#47

"" How can a man made dogma that concentrates on dehumanization be considered a religion? ""

Now that is hilarious.

I can't imagine the strength of will-power (or plain old look-the-other-way) it took to make that statement (and its following argument) without at least a smirk, or stifeled lol..

I just think its funny when religious types hold up scientologly for making stuff up and reducing its followers to unthinking drones.

POT > KETTLE > BLACK

(besides the ludicrous amounts of money, property and political-influence in the hands of various 'real' churches around the world)

Finally! Someone's gonna ban Valentines Day!

#6, I couldn't agree more :)

Jesus!

I just read all that it one sitting, my mind is fried!

'Answering the same question' FTW!!

#13 JBANG

please tell me you used and italicized irregardless for grins..

#17
clever :)

who would dare disemvowel the ancient ones? bng bng prbbly :D

I watched this when it aired in Britain.. It's really quite sad and disturbing.

There was one part that I thought was way beyond.. The Gran, whose family had moved to New Zealand, named the doll after the grandson (weird enough), and then introduced it to him on a webcam. What is that gonna do to his head? My granny replaced me with a creepy rubber version.

It just seemed delusional and disturbed.

The woman who was featured making the dolls is clearly a fantastic artist, but she entirely encourages these type of see-it-as-a-real-baby clients, it almost seems a little exploitative of people in a weakened mental state.

And ditto on what Fee said about the husbands, they (almost resoundingly) thought it was odd, and didn't appreciate what it represented, although I fail to see the implied connection between her view and her gender. You didn't have to be a man to see these women were batty.

FEE

Thanks for clarifying :)
Its still a little weird for me though, maybe it is environmental, because where I live, I haven't met one single person, male or female (teenage or adult) who thought it was even remotely ok..
Now, that sounds like I've done a poll of the nation or something, but in fact when I watched it I was quite shocked and asked around, and even got some people to watch the repeat, so I could hear their thoughts.

I really didn't hear anyone saying, "oh, thats so cute" it was entirely weirded out "wtf?" responses.

I imagine there are some people who just see it like collecting minatures or hello-kitty stuff, but the circles hi-lighted in this doc were absolutely not of that ilk, as i'm sure you'll agree.

.. and ..

#23

I disagree entirely.
Fears about GM food are encouraged by our press and media, and the consensus (peer reviewed) information is actually quite hard to come by in a day to day capacity. As a fear in its own right, it is in fact (irrational or not) well placed, as eating correctly (and trying not to ruin or food suppy) is centrally important to most of our lives.

The people in this documentary are purposefully self-deluded, to the point of replacing real-life humans and relationships with replicas, and alienating their spouses.
To put society, that has been led astray by the media and misguided government policy, in the same boat as these rather sad people (who probably could do with some councilling) is a bit off the mark in my view.

Now on the Evolution Boogieman, you might have a point. In this day-and-age, creationism is self-delusion (dogma or no).

.

Jeff:

Irish badge REVOKED!

:)

# so did the nazis

oops #2

wait.. what just happened?

THATOTHERGIRL:
I just had a look, and it's only a clip, not the whole doc.
Also, tried downloading the clip for you and couldn't find the stream.. :(

clever bastards (cleverer than me anyway)

GFPLUX #49 & #50

Nope. I'm also in Euorpe and can tell you: It ain't coz you're in Europe!

There are plenty of Europeans against $cientology, including the German government, who have deemed: Scientology is an organization which has primarily economical interests and withheld official 'religion' status.

And, as unenamoured as I am with religion at all, I think you are being far too generous to $cientology, to include it amongst the 'actual' religions you mentioned.

@49

Except that #33 (EDT) beat him to it !!

""
It seems that everyone is overlooking the bigger issue here and that is the dangerous working environment the Balto PD is engendering. The two most glaring hazards are:

- Sending cops out wearing black footwear and black socks with shorts.
- Having them drive little cop clown cars.

""

#12 & #15

I agree with Danegeld, and i smoke.

It is a reasonable inference, having smelt weed smoke, that further investigation may be warrented (not that kind of warrented).

Its like saying, gunshots were heard but let's not investigate because the bullets were obviously already fired.. so no more bullets likely exist.

I don't want cops coming in my house, but as far as someone who actually believed in the law goes, I think is a fair inference to make.

'where there's smoke, there's fire' or 'where there's smoke, there's the potential to be more..'

*warranted :(

THATOTHERGIRL:
Oh, sorry..
I tried to follow the link and it got me to install stuff, and it did some tinkery stuff, updated and installed other stuff..
and after all that it doesn't work for me. something about needing a different security cert in my wmp. also, it seems the 4OD player drms the video to ur computer for 48 hours worth.. so u couldn't watch it anyway.

so about that :(

great result pictures!

I'm really impressed at the clarity and contrast in them.

(i know having iPhone written on the box doesn't distinguish it from the countless other tried and tested pinhole cams, but it's just nice to be reassured of what a cardboard box, some film and a very small hole can do)

well done :)

AndrewM:
Nice! I never knew that.. didn't even think to check it's status in UK

*file away in back of head til needed again*

"" After all, the "bad" guys are in prison now because that torture was productive. ""

And we both know how many people have been falsely imprisoned or beaten or killed in Northern Ireland because of torture/interrogation that was less 'productive'.

Just because the Brits got one right this time, doesn't mean all the other times were justified.

Torture is a rare way to the truth. "Who's to say the cop wasn't right?" misses the point completely, that he MAY NOT BE right. At that point we are trading life for life.

Also, they are ALL bad bombs. Irish Badge Pending ;p

#26 ditto #33 :)

H.P.Lovecraft Call of Cthulhu full text.

Re: The MapLink

I can confirm: (YMMV)

Safari OSX - doesn't work
FireFox OSX - doesn't work
Safari Windows (OSX/Parallels) - doesn't work

InternetExplorer (OSX/Parallels) - works

S H O D D Y .

#15
its also tough to get on with your life as a peaceful palestinian when israel insists on using missile-based detective work and other blanket means of suppression. If five people didn't die everytime Israel went after one 'terrorist' there would be a lot less people continually engaging in this affair.

#44 TERESA NIELSEN HAYDEN / MODERATOR

"Shoddy" was aimed squarely at a service provided by microsoft that excludes, by error or design, a percentage of it's potential user base who happen to choose other OS/browsers.

However, it was also a comment on the apparent situation: a service which BB chose to integrate into it's web structure excludes certain readers. Again, because they choose an OS that doesn't support, as you put it: Internet Exploder.

Now, that may seem trivial, but the glaring point is, BB has chosen to partner, here, with a corporation who specifically promotes closed-systems, and this is just a small reminder of that fact.

I've only done my own local research on the OS/browser issue, but if it is the case I stand by my judgement: shoddy.

#46
"" no body is perfect, but without mr. gates NONE of us would be here. ""

In what sense?

He didn't invent computers, or os', or html, or the internet or the www, or browsers, or phonelines, or blogging, or ... anything.

He did a good job homogenizing the worlds taste to a not-particularly-good OS, but it was never the only choice and never the tech leader.

If he didn't do it, someone else would have (for the better or worse).

oh wait.. maybe you meant existentially.

#44 re: #54

Gosh those all-caps look stark! sorry, I just copied and pasted your name from the comment-header..

It looks like I'm being "stern" :) wuu!

#60
Jeff, my only comments on Bill Gates were dispelling the odd "without Bill, none of us would be here" comment made above.

However:
"" Show some respect for a cultural phenomenon that has changed the world for the better (we hope). ""

Does it occur to you that some of us already don't think it's 'for the better'?

I'll be holding on to my respect as far as that goes.

And maybe calm down with the whole "show some respect" line, it's getting old fast.

@ #10

Ditto #25 :D

I think they're a bit basic. With even a single half-tone colour, the artist could have made some sort of shading in the face.

I know that's a choice the artist made, but I think I'd like it better if they had some more depth-levels in the colours (like the shadowy one). Its just a bit flat.

no hate tho :)

Teresa:

As far as I can see, it isn't only Safari, it seems to affect OSX too.

Safari OSX - doesn't work
FireFox OSX - doesn't work
Safari Windows (OSX/Parallels) - doesn't work

InternetExplorer (OSX/Parallels) - works
Firefox (OSX/Parallels) - works

However, I'm gald to hear BB are looking into remedying this.

I think they're a bit basic. With even a single half-tone colour, the artist could have made some sort of shading in the face.

I know that's a choice the artist made, but I think I'd like it better if they had some more depth-levels in the colours (like the shadowy one). Its just a bit flat.

no hate tho :)

#6 Brilliant!

Thanks for the link :)

WEIRD!

That double-post took 28 minutes to surface :)

#32
"" The thing is, if you are put in charge of a large group of people - whether you are a cop or a teacher or whatever - you're well aware that your control is an illusion. And maintaining the illusion is entirely dependent on people respecting the authority of your position. If they decide that they don't respect your authority, then you pretty much have to assert yourself by trying to be the dominant personality. Whether you actually feel that way is beside the point - you have to do it and you have to be convincing. ""

But you don't have to shout and be a dick to affect people's behaviour. Calm instructions and proportionate reactions to the situation will tend to show you as measured and in-control rather than looking like a freaked-out idiot, which will break the illusion of authority much, much quicker.

And respecting someone's postion is different than respecting their authority. NOBODY gets unconditional respect.

You are clearly the lovechild of Hitler and Bill O'Reily.

#43
That's a great vid, saw it a few times myself. The guy is a complete loon, high-pitched freaked-out voice and all :)

(also, I'm gonna do Squashy a favour and point out again that he wasn't refering to the Riveri vid, as he hasn't seen it. however, your point is entirely relevant to both videos)

This has got to be the most ill conceived notion ever. Talk about cultural blindspots.

Seriously, its like some western, carefree product-design-school kids sat down and thought: 'we'll do something clever and cool', entirely missing the reasons women might be wearing (or forced to wear) burkas.

How quickly this garment belittles the problems of religious oppression, like the application of cheap technology is going to unburden the generations of women forced into submission and silenced.

It's like a band-aid on a bullet wound.

#2

Add it to the list: here :)

I already got safari, firefox and IE on parallels/win and OSX, I had wondered about Opera the other browsers.

I imagine these would more appropriate (!) to a college/university lecture hall than an office environment.

Sad but true.

#18
Even with your example, it's nothing like lichtenstein.

Lichtenstein used a sinlge flat colour and modified its brightness with a black layer of halftone dots. Even without being technical, they don't look at all similar.

#14 & #15 I liked Gavin Rain better, possibly only because his website shows the detail of his work. Its quite hard to appreciate Jim Blanchard's work without some prior knowledge.

"" For safety reasons, we have built the vehicle as an open car so that the occupants can get out quickly in an emergency ""

right.. not because it's a half-assed attempted at a car/sub.

FAIL !!

#50 Noen
Re: #47 Joel Johnson

I believe what Joel was wittily suggesting was:

(Sexually Promiscuous) + (Psychopath) == (Fucking) + (Crazy)

ho ho :)

#56

What a fucking offensively spurious comment that is.

So: Abortions occur, therefore: All People Hate Babies.

Beautiful.

By your logic, if we approve of a person's right to choose whether they are in a position to go through with their pregnancy and having a baby (conceived in whatever circumstances) we give tacit approval for murdering children. And by extension, to eventually kill everybody else (as children are no more than tomorrows adults).

If you can't see the difference between a breathing, healthy (not in this unfortunate case, obviously) baby - whom both mother and baby have lived through, and survived, the birthing experience - and a fetus (no matter the varied opinion on late term abortions), you are living in a stunted reality of conformist propaganda.

Way to get your completely-unrelated opinion into a completely-unrelated comment thread.

can i haz wun moar go?

#87 Moonbat

"" 64. Off-topic comment. ""

Well.. I'm just gutted.

I mean, as I was going down the list, reading your self-decreed precis, I'll admit my heart was riding a little high in my throat. I was eagerly pondering how my single contribution to the thread was going to be summarised, for posterity, by Moonbat's susinct powers of observation, and how I would fare in the big-leagues of internet blog commentary.

I was hoping for "64. Clarifying statement." or, in my wildest dreams, "64. Arkizzle gets to the heart of Joel's subtle witticism."

Imagine my utter dismay as (in plain sight of future, blog-studying philosophers) my attempt at online discourse was expertly and roundly relegated to "off-topic comment". For shame.

Sorry, Moonbat, for having contributed to a small, light hearted, sub-thread discussion, that was trying to define "psychopath" and it's bearing on objectivism as originally suggested by Takuan.

/slinks away from the big-boy discussion/

Oh, and just to be clear:

/SAR-FUCKING-CASM/

I thought we were talking about all that nasty graphic-card hardware art.

#150

Yay Junglism! Jungle is massive! Re-wind! :)

@Moonbat: Now that's off-topic :p

#4
I just downloaded 18 terabytes in 3516 rar parts, DOES ANYONE HAVE THE PASSWORD FOR THIS ? ? ?

#15
It may be a helluva place to be detained if you happen to be guilty of anything, but what about the people who were innocent? The conditions of their detainment don't have much of a bearing on them if they are rightfully entitled to be free.

Also, as to the question of "where to put prisoners of war", some of those held captive were taken from non-combat situations, like China and Pakistan, and hailed from exotic places like Britain and France. So it's not just about the "actual" war on the ground.

And as you say, "MORE than half of detainees have already been released" SO THEY OBVIOUSLY AREN'T A THREAT. How is it ok that these people were detained for YEARS and then released as non-threats?

-also-

@ dbarak #2 & #7

You mention your dislike of the day-to-day soldiers being misrepresented as criminals in this (comedy) film, but is that any different to ANY of Hollywood's hero-behind-enemy-lines action movies we've had to endure over the years?

As I recall, every one of them involved painting every member of the other side as torturous monsters worthy of a couple of well placed M16 rounds: prison staff, gate-guards, submarine technicians, MPs, civilians..

And you may well say that they weren't based on anything real, so it's different. Hollywood war movies tend to be either fantasticly patriotic reenactments of past "victories" (grand or otherwise) OR made up action flicks about destroying whoever the current Enemy-of-Freedom happens to be [China, Russia, Cuba, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Beirut .. take your pick].

In both versions enemy combatants are resoundingly painted as inhuman stereotypes, unfit for mercy. Do you think the varied peoples of the US-scrutinized world feel any differently than some of the gitmo soldiers when they watch their entire nation consistently pilloried by patriotic Hollywood?

#7
Even that doesn't begin to cover it.

To illustrate the theory, and make it simpler to comprehend, these kind of thought experiments successfully hide the ridiculous numbers involved in a true multiverse.

Beyond this vastly simplified example (it only relies on a single atom after all) everything gets a bit mental. Because it isn't just human-centric, we have to look at everything that could possibly happen to every atomic particle, every planck-second, from the beginning of time 'til forever..

To even write the number of planck-seconds since the big bang would be a silly number, let alone atoms * planck-seconds² (or something like that, IANAMathematician.. is it atoms * planck-seconds ^ planck-seconds maybe?)

#15
Are you a sheltered woman or a man with a rainbow penis?

#13
"I don't understand where this fuzzy line is drawn and why it is drawn where it is."

I imagine it's a trade-off between the need for meat and it's economic production.

I imagine there is constant pressure from both sides (animal-lib and the meat industry) and when we see people getting prosecuted for cruelty etc., it's a small victory for the animal-libbers rather than signs of a backward policy.

Don't get me wrong though, I don't think it's a balance easily (or yet) acheived.

#20

" ..unlawful combatants captured on a foreign field of battle..

Again, this is incorrect.

#6 Noen

No, it was found over a century ago.. So probably just a normal human being with access to reading material.

#34 "" In case you hadn't noticed, vegetarians will occupy the same room as meat, just not eat it. ""

That's not entirely true. I have some very good friends who are vegetarian and they can be infuriatingly picky about how meat is dealt with in their presence..

Not all vegetarians are like that obviously, but some very much are.

#4

"Share" seems more appropriate.

#2

Wow, post ironic irony, I love it! :)

Hollland OWNs dominoes

#6

Ted, I agree entirely.

I've been eagerly awaiting Corey's return, to see what he made of the whole Hamster's Lunch debacle.

Corey, we had a big fight, and haven't made up yet. Please don't let peoples negative feelings over this solidify into a burgeoning dislike for BB.

Let's talk :)

#23
"" Yea, 3 of my kids died of starvation last year, but some Americans saw a few too many scary movies about man playing god and such. So its ok, don't bother with your plant research. I don't want anyone to get upset. ""

It's not a lack of food in the world that keeps 3rd world countries starving. It's a lack of 1st world motivation.

There is far too much food made and wasted every year in the 1st world, and it isn't just kids not finishing their dinner to blame. I'm talking about US and European "food mountains" designed to artificially boost prices.

From the TimesOnline.co.uk: "Each year [in the UK] about 700,000 tons of fresh produce is dumped, at a cost of £78m, to maintain high prices for farmers. "

Government subsidies and destruction of good food (like milk, wine, fruit, veg, etc.), as part of the Common Agricultural Policy, is done to affect the artificial market price and is further credited with encouraging environmental damage and massive overproduction (and costs the EU approx 44% of its ENTIRE annual budget, about €43 billion according to wikipedia).

To say we should forego our responsibilities to nature (and ourselves) by just releasing whatever strain of possibly successful/harmful GM foods we invent, because of otherwise fixable food shortages is retarded.

This is certainly not a diatribe against GM, it's a response to #23 - GM is incredibly useful technology, but we shouldn't be rushing to patch up our shortcomings of today with the untested quick-fix of tomorrow.

#29
beat me to it :)

Nice brass, Superman FTW

#43 (indicative handle?)

Meat is sustainable. It grows.

I have no guilt toward you or meat.

What about a balanced diet?

#5

"" When I read the statement I mean that the picture of the pipe above is not a pipe, so I can mean something by the statement, and the truth-value of that meaning is 'true'.

But it doesn't answer my question. Neither statements, nor buttons, have truth values. Only meanings do. Meanings are intentional states of knowing subjects. So what's the paradox? ""

Tom, I genuinely didn't know what the hell those sentences actually meant. I mean, I got the words, and the order they were in, but not what it was you were trying to communicate.

Was the link to xkcd an incredibly funny, self-reflective statement of irony ("I'm not making any sense, hahaha!")
.. or just a grin at the end of some unrelated words?

#165 etawat

Yes mate! Brrr-r-r-r-r-rahp! SS-Rollers, Ragga Jungle Massive!

Jungle died (commercially) around '96, but it's still alive in the UndaGround! Don't lose hope bro! :D

..yeh, really, these have been around for years.
We had a little VW camper van one.

I went snowboarding in Austria last year, and the chalet we rented had an honour bar in the basement. The difference being, the drinks had prices (so, no pay-what-you-feel) but whether you paid or not was left in your hands.

We loved it and paid up at the end. It's nice to be able to take a drink when you want and settle up when u want (at your own discression).

# 11
I agree fully, but would swap the empahsis of your sentence to..

While I am routinely annoyed by the ridiculous names people give their children, I don't think the government has any place DECIDING what an acceptable name is.

I mean, kwanisha.. or any of the muck we hear now-a-days that nobody is trying to regulate? Or even some of the horrible traditional names that are given by parents to children with a misplaced sense of nobility, but are flame-bait in the playgound..

More swedish name shenanigans here.

Also, just found this site. It's about the awful chicanery of modern baby-name spelling and word reappropriation.. UGH!

For instance:

"" I was thinking of naming my son Toolio. Does anyone know the origin on that one?
---[Jane] DeSac

Toolio DeSac. Boy, can't think of any way that kid'll get picked on. That's one taunt-proof name there! ""

#4
Because he was hungry?

#5

I spent a lot of my childhood in outback Australia 20 years ago. We skated on the local petrol station concourse and a couple of church carpark's (one had the sweetest smooth-bitumen surface for about 500kms around).

Yes, we had dirt, but we also had a place to skate.

#41

You're sounding more and more elitist as you go.

You truly don't seem to like BB and it's reader/commenter interactions.. why are you still here? Maybe you just like making sweeping generalizations and having pointless arguments with a bunch of collectivist groupthinkers.

(personally I haven't yet solidified my prejudices enough to reside in any *ist category)

- separately -

#44 & #46

I wonder why hedonisbot was disemvowelled here.

The comment was made, and was most definitely trollish, but it was dealt with by the next few comments and order was restored. The comment was there long enough for anyone who cared to respond (and they did), and a while later (i only noticed today) it was edited away.

curious.

it'd be interesting to mount this on a baseball cap, maybe an LED under the peak to wash out the face.. and one above, on the front flat bit, to definitely max out the IR CCD on the camera.

..although if you used an under-powered LED, you might end up just clearly illuminating your face for the cam.. :(

#13
You have to take your hat off in banks? I've heard of full-face motorbike helmets having to be removed.. but baseball caps?

Where is this, in America?

Moonbat, my problem is that you seem to immediately call 'groupthink' whenever a number of people don't agree with you.

I don't think people appreciate being told they are just sheeple; (conciously or not) carrying some party line, when in fact they are individually expressing an opinon. So some of the wrath (objectivism thread) which you say is unfounded, is in fact just reaction to that type of implication.

As you say, groupthink (etc.) is a standard part of sociology; people who tend toward the things that interest them, in places they feel comfortable will hold certain similar views.
But that doesn't mean everybody in said place is defined by those individual strands of agreement, or indeed, by that community.

I see plenty of opposition in most posts I read on BB (passionate or otherwise), and I doubt that anybody here agrees with everything published, or that anyone here agrees with every thought of any other poster, even though they both may have been in agreeement on some topic just the other day. But that statistic somehow gets washed away when a vocal minority are involved in a discussion, in which you (singularly sometimes) are on the opposition. Now you are a victim of mindless groupthink, BB is just full of [insert mindless rabble cliche here]'s.

I agree that on BB there is a general negative feeling toward subjects like: TSA, Bush administration, DHS, War on Terror, Police over-zealousness, Iraq/Afghanistan, Overreaching Copyright Laws, etc. but frankly, I don't personally know anyone in my wide reaching circles of human interaction who wouldn't hold similar views as a given.
Thats not to say I know anyone's view on a subject before I meet them, but I think they are widely held views both inside and outside the US, and BB is a place where those type of people read a portion of their news and entertainment.

So, some people think differently on some topics, and on a few topics you are the only proponent.

meh.

me #56

"" ..and BB is a place where those type of people.. ""

*amongst others*

FIXED :)

#12

Love it!

Now, how do you spell.. poll.. pollon.. p.o.l.o.n.i.u.m

#62
I've never spoken for the main stream in my life.

I made personal observations about the things I've seen on this site and the environment I find myself in. Beyond that, I called you on crying 'groupthink' everytime someone disagrees with you and that's about it..

No attack, just interaction with someone who seems to be quite negatively vocal recently on a site I frequent for, as Searconflex put it, the funny comments on the news of the day.

Now I'm going to look at the rising sun, in lieu of Searconflex's moon.

Also, in quoting me above; you happily left out the small correction I made to the last paragraph you quoted of me, which made it clear I meant that the sort of people I knew were some of the people who read BB, and not that BB was read by a single mindset of people.
But that should be obvious, you are here, no?

#65
Why would I try to surprise you? And why would I point out your mistakes?

Jump on me for this if you like, but it sounds like you have a persecution complex, or at least like a good oul' fight. Either way, you just come off as rude, with all the dismissive remarks and sweeping generalizations.

I'm not trying to catch you out Moonbat, I was trying to point out the reason people seem to be getting caught up on you lately, to try stop the seemingly endless you-against-the-world drama we are all having to live through with your persistant wank.

You can be the winner if you like, I don't care enough. I'm just after a little shut-the-fuck-up.

"" ..using the Taliban is overwrought and overreaching. Just as nonsensical as saying that all Atheists are nihilists or social darwinists.. ""

Except that he didn't say all, he said the 'Christian Talibanists', which seems to point to a group of Christians acting somewhat like the Taliban.

"" ..The Taliban has alot more to do with politics and tribalism than religion. ""

I reckon thats probably exactly what he was getting at.. A group of Christians, getting way too involved with politics and tribalism.

Sound like anyone we know? mmm-hmmm? :)

#22

I'd imagine when athiests get obsessed with the notion of god, it's more to do with fighting the grip religion has on their society and political system..

So, more like a consumer affairs group than a religion.

OK, I didn't want to do it, but I see no other recourse but to say:

Moonbat is HITLER and is clearly bosom buddies with the Nazis.

..and that's the end of that chapter. Case closed. Those pesky kids etc..

also #69 Mojo Jojo FTW. Eat up, the e-rony is delicious.

"" Be warned that the nails are in poor condition and would need to be straightened and de-rusted before you could reuse them in a carpentry or woodworking project. ""

Made me smile.. out loud (?)

Finally! A solution to the eternal problem of women demanding monocular enhancement, but without having to trust them with the actual devices.

Thanks goodness.

In othder news, Boing Boing invents the time machine..

Welcome to the wonderful world of Yester Year!

I save ALL my numbers to my sim. Always have, it just makes it easier to swap out your stuff if you run out of battery or pre-pay credit etc, and need to use someone elses mobile..

SMS' and pictures on the other hand, are stored in the phone memory.

Dunno about increased sim capacity, but I don't think I've ever gotten a 'sim full' notice when saving numbers in my 10 years of use.

#38

Or, was he just venting the frustration of a nation? (and the rest of us)

I don't believe License Farm would take his suggestions any further than this thread, and I personally don't have a problem with this type of vernacular when the target is such a evil little villian, who should (amongst others) be tried for war crimes.

I don't think it's necessarily constructive to take frustrated, cartoonish rantings as a valid course of action and then critique it.

When he lights his torch and sharpens his pitchfork, I'll join in the admonishment.

OK, but before we crucify him, we should waterboard him to find out where he has hidden his time machine.

Rob, where did this detailed description come from?

*whispered through gritted teeth*

if we all just back away, slowly..

Agent86, Agent86, we have misunderstanding in progress - please attend with due caution..

Dude, I'll wager Antinous was just having a sly giggle with ol' Moonbats there.

#31 Steve

"caught"?

Best put them on detention so. And call their mothers for a parent techer meetiing :)

YAAAAAY!

Post (apparent meaning): Arguing on the Internet is wrong.

Everyone (apparent meaning): Arguing on the Internet is wrong.

Me (actual meaning): Everyone here is guilty of GroupThink.

Everyone: Violent disagreement.

FIXED.

(Sorry gang, I couldn't help it, it was just a small morsel and he looked so hungry with his little troll'y face..)

#81 Theresa

Ok, fair enough.

Hedonisbot was waaaay off base and clearly only contributing to rile. I suppose I just felt the comment got shot down and that was that.

IANAMod though, so I hadn't really thought about the whole: flame-bait comment keeps re-igniting as new people come across the topic..

I'm certainly appreciating the way you are trying to address each disemvowelment, somewhere below the offending comment, recently. Maybe it's not new, but I especially noticed it in the 2nd Kosovo thread where you made clear your reasons for doing it.

I think it's important to affix some form of per-use justification when using such a tool, even for the benefit of late comers, because otherwise it just looks mob-handed, and I'm sure that's not the intention

Some of the clean-room silicon-production environs are pretty close.

hmm.. time to start reverse wiring your computer power leads, and setting my wall outlets in concrete.

That is some chuckle fun right there, if a little pitch-forky :)

HILLAY'S DEFAME WEBSITE MADE ME FEEL A LITTLE ICKY //big blue writing//

#26 "i have read ont heinternt"

Looks like I missed the memo on this one, and will be using this phrasing from now on.

I completely missed the boat on pwns. Never again!

#22
For reference, the second video (#5) shows a turbine 60 meters high. They are both made by the same company and so are probably similarly sized.. 60 meters is MASSIVE.

#1

Nope, the $6000 is the elite, top-down one.

#8

beautiful :)

(in fairness, I lost my punny bone in the war)

I've definitely seen something similar to a mix of 2 and 3 in Moroccan Banks.

#1 I tried posting almost the exact same comment on this for about 1/2 an hour on and off..

I've gotten a persistent "server dropped connection" on the 'dynamic.boingboing.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-comments.cgi' page for certain topics over the last week or so..

So, everyone who made any sort of clever comment on ANY thread over the last week.. I thought of it first! ;p

#3

Also from the forum comments:

"" The English-language term "Scientology" originated neither with Hubbard nor Nordenholz, but with philologist Allen Upward, who coined the term in 1907 to ridicule pseudoscientific theories. ""

This is how I 'count' my money..

#1

Surely the point here is that the police officer saw fit to detain the man. He committed no crime, he simply refused to "obey" an opt-in security measure.

Putting a sign on display in a store does not waive the law of the land, and in this case there was no sign.

The only place for the police officer in this incident, was to be the mediator in this civil dispute. No law was broken, so he should not have taken the side of the store.

"" I missed the morning speakers at TED this year. ""

Ouch! That's about a $750 lie-in, no? Hope the bed was nice :)

#3

Wait, cosmologists aren't 'true' scientists?

Hawking will be disappointed.

#8 Ivan, I've never seen the tv ads, but I understand the message of BLFs re-work: that AT&T; are complicit in spying on US citizens..

What more do I need to know? Do you mean the original campaign was horrible or BLFs re-work?

#4

"" a nice sleek unitard has a much cleaner line than those baggy leotards the models were sporting. how could a designer not be attentive to such a detail? ""

How do you know what was and wasn't deliberate?

#7
"" So theoretically, if you plug all the notes of your favorite song into this thing, it will eventually play it for you. ""

I think you are mistaken there, the effect you describe is 'random + enough time' but pi isn't random. Unpredictable, but not random.

AFAIK pi doesn't necessarily go through every combination of number (in handy melody length groups).

Also: A HUNDRED AND SIXTY DOLLARS!

That said, they handily include the 'swatches'.. aka a printable thumbnail of the original design.
If one was so inclined, and had access to an art supplies shop and a printer, a cheaper version might be forthcoming :)

#1

Ahhhhhhhhhh - ha ha h ah aha ha ha hah aha ahah ha ha!

When has the interpretation of art not been pretentious?

That is directed at all the critics and historians who try and teach the 'meaning' of various works, instead of describing the themes of the work and it's context in the time and environment in which it was created. Anyone deciding they can discern the one true meaning of a piece of artwork is both pretentious and misguided.

There are a lot of great teachers out there, but a lot of bad ones too.

#41

I'm impressed.

We do have some good rowdy songs :)

#30 / #31

I disagree with your analysis.

If I'm standing in line, and see the door staff man-handling someone into a back room over receipt checking, I will probably decide that this store isn't particularly customer-centric (whether or not I choose to show my receipt to get away painlessly this time) and choose not to shop there again.

Where do you get the assumption that people will cower AND return to patronise the store?

I think people need to see the disproportionate reactions of stores/staff toward people exerting their legal rights. Some people have never really stopped to think about what's going on in terms of civil rights being exchanged for security (and for the convenience of stock-watchers).

Other people have never thought to question whether or not they even had to show a receipt and stand in line just to exit with their legally purchased goods.
Maybe people will think the first couple were just punks causing trouble, but when people they respect, or identify with, start getting harassed by Shrinkage Monkeys - maybe they will start to think and question.

Civil resistance is a good and powerful thing, and nobody should ever be persuaded or cajoled otherwise, no matter how much your government or vested interests would wish it to be so.

And as to the ""you can't just "tell" whether someone's a shoplifter, either. It's basic retail"" comment.

As detailed in more than one comment above yours, to accuse someone of shoplifting, you have to have witnessed the before/during/after of the actual act.

So really, if you are saying this is a way to tackle shoplifting, then stores employing receipt-checking are actually bypassing the 'retailers law of arrest' (#13) and even further impinging on your stated (by the retailer) rights..

#55 Soup..

""Or do you think that people don't deserve the right to have their own value systems if it conflicts with yours?""

ANY value system that preaches intolerance or hate against a particular group of people, or a person's natural state of being, is to be abhored.

Being gay is NOT a value system, nor a choice.

While I can maybe separate the Dalai Lama's discrete (not discreet) statement on certain sexual practices and his views on the mutual affections of same-sex people (after all, many heterosexual people fall foul of the Lama's sexual views), I cannot even remotely abide the Christian (any version) Church's homophobic stand point on actually being gay.

Just because the fundies (amongst others) CHOOSE to believe that being gay is a choice (besides all the evidence in the world), it doesn't give them the right to preach intolerance.

It's no different from preaching anti-black or anti-semitic. The reason it seems to be semi-tolerated is because they float under the veil of 'belief', and apparantly that's sacred..

It isn't.

#53

I agree with "30-something white urban American" but would add"geek" to the list.

That said, I thought it was pretty funny, as I assume the authors and contributors did too.

#23

Who got $5 per CD?
These are indy, do-it-yourself-ers I presume, with no fat-cat overheads.

And of course there is such thing as free culture, I've done the indy diy thing myself, and supplied plenty of free music, art and parties to the world at large (luckily they didn't all turn up at once).

Poetry's strengths have spawned the underground (and to a far lesser extemt the overground) hip hop scene (please don't give me any ignorant attitudes on hip hop or rap, if you don't know the scene you don't know the quality and intelligence of the material and artists out there not being covered by MTV).

#3

As you sort of answered yourself, we already pay for the bandwidth. So now it's up to the isps to live up to the promises the imply in their campaigns.

Just like per-minute dial-up turned into package dial-up, and that turned into broadband and broadband got faster and faster, eventually as more respectable companies use bit-torrent, the the isps will have to accomodate it's use. If we all start consistently using our full bandwidth, they will presumably start having to be very specific about what bandwidth we are actualy leasing from them.

The internet/isps are in a funny place at the minute, where only a select few users really max out their lines, but when we all start to really utilize the internet as our main entertainment delivery system, with companies like the BBC, Vuze, the norwegians above, AppleTV, etc. getting on board, there will have to be changes. Capitalism says so. The changes may, of course, be good or bad for the end user. (tiers etc.)

Will,
it's very interesting (and refreshing) to hear hip hop being taken seriously by 'real' (ouch!) poets.

Something I often think about is the slightly improbable (in modern times anyway) partnership of machismo (passion, competition, aggression) and poetry. [insert rant about warrior poets here]

Now I don't at all mean to paint all hip hop as aggressive or all poets as pansies (both are neither, soley), but the mixture of gang violence and poetry just seems, as I said, beautifully improbable. Its almost like they took poetry, injected it with good old american compete-at-everything, tossed in some territorial disputes and wound up with hip hop.

It's great though. If you have ever been around the scene, you will know how much mcs really LIVE rhyme and wordplay and improvisation. It's such a huge part of the life, they are dedicated to poetry much more than some of the people we lable poets.

I challenge any master wordsmith to think as quick and cleverly as some of the great freestyle-battlers, I mean it's truly incredible to witness someone think so fast as to be able to rhyme constantly about the things around them in complex multi-syllable rhymes, let alone making every other bar a punchline about your appearance or a clever metaphor.. all off the top of the head, with no edits or rewrites or undos.

Amazing stuff.

Let me clarify myself : "..and wound up with hip hop"

I didn't mean to suggest that gangster rap == hip hop.

It so doesn't.

Tak, why?

It seems sufficiently like singing and yet sufficiently different from singing to be a new form of artistic expression with validity and followers.

I'm certainly not talking about what 90% of people know as hip hop or rap from MTV or commercial radio, I'm taking about hip hop - worldwide.

Antinous, when I was about 15 I used to use that exact argument to defend hip hop, before it gained its commercial foothold on the music scene and got some 'commercial validity'.

"" the appeal is minimal ""

To you. Either you don't appreciate wordplay, metaphor and flow - (or indeed the skills and references of combining bits of old records into interesting new beats with a built-in pedigree for the discerning listener - or the incredible extent to which graffiti, breakdancing and beatboxing have risen as art forms) - or you have chosen to make a great sweeping statement about something you know little about.

"" the audience microscopic ""

Tell that to the countless people who flock to real hip hop festivals, graffiti jams, mc/scratch battles, hip hop clubs, etc etc.
Hip hop is about taking part as much as being a passive experience. Most people I know who love hip hop are involved in some way generating and promoting it, its alive! :)

"" The apparent success is an artifact of the marketing of a larger culture that owes nothing to hip hop ""

Tell that to the publishers of hip hop related books and products, again NOT 50pence or any of that shit, but real stuff for people who love it - graf books and mags, vinyl, turntables, specialist spraypaint, clothes, DVDs, CDs, websites.

And whether I like it or not, I'll admit that commercial rap is a part of hip hop. If people come to the real stuff through delving deeper into the shit they hear on the radio, fair play.

DCer.. WTF?

Have you listened to hip hop? ..but again, for the umpteenth, not commercial radio rap.

I'm not even remotely vearing into "tangential stretches of the imagination" when I say lots and lots of hip hop is poetic.

Self-reflection, ideas, place-in-the-universe, life experience, metaphor, stories, prose.. all available on hip hop mixtapes.

literature in metrical form
any communication resembling poetry in beauty or the evocation of feeling
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Poetry (from the Greek "ποίησις," poiesis, a "making" or "creating") is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry

Traditional poetry is language arranged in lines, with a regular rhythm and often a definite rhyme scheme. Nontraditional poetry does away with regular rhythm and rhyme, although is usually is set up in lines.
library.thinkquest.org/23846/library/terms/index.html

Texts in rhythmic form, often employing rhyme and usually shorter and more concentrated in language and ideas than either prose or drama.
www.longman.co.uk/tt_seceng/resources/glosauth.htm

A type of literature in which ideas and feelings are expressed in compact, imaginative, and often musical language. Poets arrange words in ways designed to touch readers’ senses, emotions, and minds. Most poems are written in lines that may contain patterns of rhyme and rhythm.
www.wallkillcsd.k12.ny.us/glt.htm

What am I missing here?

"" I was a teenager in the 1980s and hip hop is the music of that era ""

That is indeed where it started, but that doesn't mean that is all it can ever be. It left America's shores around the same time the rest of America heard about, and has been taken and shaped worldwide ever since.

And I don't see the relevance of the episode in which you name-dropped KRS. You also said "Poetry is not hip-hop", which is relevant to the conversation I was having.
KRS is back in your memory, so he can't defend his words here.
I'm here, right now, not talking in vagaries.

What do you base "Poetry is not hip-hop" on? or inddeed it's more logical reverse.. hip hop is not poetry.

As to the Chris Rock line, I know it well and see the truth in it every day, but that doesn't mean I don't know what real hip hop is about and mourn for the losses that the commercial bandwagon has reaped on it's artistic merit.

And to answer your question, we are both right. Chris asserts that the hip hop he hears in clubs, and on MTV has gotten ridiculous, and I agree. He doesn't, however, go into a critique of the current state of affairs of underground or international hip hop, and I imagine he enjoys a lot of hip hop besides the stuff he used to make that funny, if generalized, observation.

Antinous, I don't know it. Is there a free download available? :D

Off topic train, back on track!

Tak,

Lady.

wait.. uh oh.. i see what happened.

I'm a chap :)

I was replying to Takuan in kind, but can see how my comment could be misread.. doh!

In other news, your reference seems to be a fitting précis.

What ever would the Dalai Lama say about that?

Now that's just rude!

SOUP, I wasn't referring to buddism when I wrote the first line you quoted of me, I was referring to religion in general, and Christianity in particular. Specifically the fundementalists you mentioned in the line you wrote directly before the one I quote of you and responded to..

"" Just because some fundamentalist Christians in the USA don't believe in gay rights, that doesn't mean other people of other religions in other places don't. Or do you think that people don't deserve the right to have their own value systems if it conflicts with yours? ""

The point I was making was:

1) No, beliefs are not an excuse for prejudice, and
2) being gay is not a value system to be put on a par with what-god-you-follow or what political ideology you subscribe to.

I certainly don't think Buddism is to be abhored. And I don't at all think the Dalai Lama is homophobic. If you read my comment I say some of the exact things you are throwing back at me.

Yes, his comments do seem to be about sexual practices, not genetics or who one choose to love. Thats exactly what I said.

And then you quote me again, and again you are responding to my comments as if I have a problem with the Lama, rather than the Christian Church, which this time I make quite clear.

So, I'm sorry you had to write such a long response to a non-argument, but if you want to re-read my comment and respond again, I'll happily play along, otherwise don't skim comments, you are liable to only be arguing your own preconceived notions of the "sides" and the people you are conversing with.

Soup, I just want to clarify, if you are still reading:

Arkizzle and Antinous are two different people, with different opinions, that you may or may not be talking to as one poster.

Perhaps this is where the confusion arose.

However, well done on that last long post and knowing when to stop.

OK, the language was a little broad, but I think you know what I meant. And the statement covers an abhorance of Nazism etc. as it itself clearly promotes hate.

So unless we are retarded machines running into a stupid-loop of tolerance ideals cancelling each other out, while nazi pedophiles kill us and harm our children, it is not a great puzzle to both, promote tolerance and protect people from harm.

Does anyone actually read comment threads anymore? Or just weigh in regardless of how many people have already typed the EXACT same thing before them..?

Yeh, I have no argument with the point you are making. I think its probably quite reasonable to tolerate everybody, until they (individually) give you reason not to. Maybe pre-emptive intolerance is the issue.

I know, I know: "reason not to" is arbitrary to whomever says it, but at some point we trust (or not) our legal/social frameworks designed to deal with these very issues.

The European Court of Human Rights, works ok to get between Laws and Individuals.. There is probably room for improvement, we can't treat all of societies woes with bureaucracy, but thats where we are.

@Jeff: Or the London Dungeon!

umm.. or a person with big tools and a penchant for mischief and anniversaries?

#1
Nope, to erase thattravesty, you may have to donate a collection of the same size, to every reader on BB whilst having them ALL (every issue) signed by both writer and artist, not to mention building each of us the prerequisite humidity-controlled storage facility and throwing in a nice fire & theft policy to boot..

That ought to cover the "broken motor" one.. the "people living with dinosaurs"? that's gonna take some work.

Sweet Creepy Jesus

Whats not impressive about complete runs of comics? Especially ones Corey may actually like.

Maybe he wasn't using this post as a pissing contest.

#18

He actually may have a point here, as the static can intefere with the specific voodoo-coefficient on high-end optical media.

I was disappointed to find the little "other lands" sign wasn't clickable :(

Maybe It could have been to an off-site links page, or something more fun.

I really like the design and concept of the site though. Its a great idea.

i.want.to.shoot.emily.in.the.face

with.a.gun

I didn't mean you were pissing "on" Cory (sans 'e' thankyouverymuch), I was referring to the notion of "who can piss the highest'.. its a funny idiom I know, I probably could have been clearer.

I just thought the implication that Cory was trying to sound impressive may have been unfounded, and said he may have been talking from a standpoint of what-he-found-interesting rather than what uber comix nrdzz may salivate over.

I do take the point about a complete Watchmen series being not very rare though, I took a look and they go on ebay for less than $50.

#7

Weird! I clicked and clicked and clicked and got nowt..

Works now tho, nice one :)

#10

That makes a bit more sense, though Phil might like Watchmen an awful lot too :)

Thanks for the clarification.

i'm reading about 945px wide for the central column. which is just less than 5/8ths of my laptop screen width.

Its a small inconvience for a 1024px screen (nightmare for any 800x600 cats still out there), but with the constant shift forward in pixelwidth and bandwidth, there will be early adopters of the new standards in every field, and slowly the pace move on.

I mean, it's not that long ago the average site-content-load crossed the broadband mark from the dial-up standard. Similarly, not so long ago that 800x600 was the standard browser resolution target for web design.

I think the individual pieces shown above have been featured on hack-a-day at one time or another over the past while.

Also ditto on Jeff's Dune comment, very similar feel indeed.

I love how he refers to it as "the EAS", like it's a piece of Black Ops hardware invented during the Cold War. Great!

#13

I scanned that in the side bar as: "a friend of mine donated his children to a hospital"

bad eyes, brilliant image :)

OMFG..

Kirsten's right, here's one with opposable thumbs on it's FEET!

Crazy fuckin oddball kooks!

#16
Noen, as far as I know, they need a whole lot of paper work and pedigree certification these days too.

Remember those halcyon days when you could just turn up to a swap meet with just those kids from your collection that you didn't really want anymore, and maybe come away with a something that'd go with the new terrain-scheme you've got going in the pedarium.

And they are not worth as much on the open market as they used to be either. For shame.

Cenobyte,

I might also not see it appropriate to discuss murder and rape with a 3rd grade class, but would still see this as news worthy material.

Sorry, "Cyenobite".

OK, let's get pedantic!

Messerschmidt - German sculptor

Messerschmitt AG - Aeroplane guys

So, in fact, a Messerschmidt made of balloons would be a sculpture of a sculptor.

..and #6, I think your probably right, unless we can convince Nena to actually fly the balloon plane, singing all the while of course.

#5 & #9

Brilliant!

#5 & #9

Brilliant!

I think there's a whole lot of over-reacting going on.

As far as a fashion item, it's fairly akin to a tshirt with a picture of a glock emblazoned on it or a cowboy style belt-buckle with a revolver stamped onto it (whatever your opinion on weapon motifs in general). It doesn't look remotely real enough to worry anybody but the most highly-strung terror spotter. It may catch the eye, but really, thats it.

I don't know if anyone is advising it to be flaunted around the (already pedantic) TSA folk, but you may say the same for the gun-print shirt, or mentioning certain words like "bomb" or "gun" in an airport vicinity. And how much of your life is spent in airports anyway?

Besides all that, the rest of the world is not America, and mostly we are not doing our best to see fear in every strangeness. I don't think you'd get a second glance (other than out of curiosity) anywhere else in the world, even in London, which has suffered infinitely more terrorism than the US.

So to say this is an outright bad idea, just because your having a mid-empire terror panic, is a little small-scope for me.

#9

Seems like the deflating (and resulting children-rip-it-to-pieces melee) was almost more central to the art/statement of this piece than the precision of the tank.

Disclosure: I don't speak German either

#32

I would be more inclined to cast the TSA as the fox in this debacle, continually harranguing innocent citizens.
As you say: they should not be surprised when the citizens start to push back.

#3

The queen doesn't run the country at all. No one really asks her opinion anymore, except for at christmas time, when she says her piece and then crawls back under her (fabulously oppulent) rock.

CptTim #34

I'm pretty sure I said it wasn't wise to bring this bag to a TSA game.

I was really commenting in response to all the people who just chimed in with what a really bad idea this is.

It isn't.

It's just that, in your climate of fear, everything seems to revolve around how your country's security apparatus will look upon the things you choose. What has a jumped up Transport Authority's opinion got to do with everyday fashion?

Clearly, the terrorist won a long time ago.

ho ho ho :)

#39 was @ #37

Antinous, you may have a couple of 'ho's too.

Any flavour you like :)

#39 was @ #37

Antinous, you may have a couple of 'ho's too.

Any flavour you like :)

1337motif?

that's a nice name.

#32

Delicious

#81

You're right. I blame the victims.

#26

"" without soap it it is pointless ""

..and with soup its a shelter :)

#6

David, the British government didn't defeat the IRA.

Besides the inroads to peace the Good Friday agreement achieved, the IRA lost kudos in Northern Ireland for it's use of punishment beatings, assassinations and for devolving into basically just a very big organised-crime mob (drug dealing, untaxed petrol/diesel/cigarette trafficking, etc).

Long-story-short, politics won the day and the IRA defeated themselves.

KJS3

But it doesn't look like a gun in a bag. It looks (as you said) like a bag with a 3d gun-shape embossed on it.

Indeed, the first (corner of your eye) reaction may be: "is that a gun in a bag?".
But that's very quickly followed by your second reaction of: "oh no, it clearly isn't".

If you think this is what a gun in a bag actually looks like, then "sorry, you're irredeemably st00pid".

I'm so sorry gang.. looks like he's one of mine.

my national pride shudders :(

and he's calling it the "bum bot" for all those claiming this is about drug dealers..

#29

"" British intelligence began infiltrating the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin in the 1970's. ""

And? They also killed and incarcerated a lot of innocent people in the process, making the stepped-on even more determined to strike out at the UK. The work you mention had nothing to do with the 'peace' we have today.

"" The British government brokered and signed the Good Friday accord ""

And the Irish government had nothing to do with it?
Even Bill Clinton had his hand in it, so I'm afraid you don't get to claim that little victory.

Terrorism wasn't defeated, politics won the day.

And whether or not the PIRA or CIRA still exist, the major arms caches (not all, of course) have been officially decommisioned.

God dammit, where's Theresa when you want her..

Can someone please disemvowell this SEXYBLOG shit?

I mean there were big titties on the blog, just as promised, but..

I'm going to add my voice to the dissent.

When you look at the colour spectrum, there are pretty clear bands of colour, it isn't really a perfectly smooth transition along its length (yes, in frequency it is, but our eyes see bands and subtle plateaus). You can essentially see colour/blend/colour/blend/colour..
Although, of course, nobody had colour spectrums when we came up with the basic colour names.

I suspect the colour definitions in various languages are more related to how useful it is, on a day-to-day basis, to have vastly separable colours, and that they don't really affect how we actually perceive them.

Eg: a sky-blue shell and a pastel-blue shell, are both blue shells.. but get the wrong bucket of "faux burnished quail's-supper pink" and your spouse may not speak to you til after the divorce.

Lisa: Okay, I'd like 25 copies in canary, 25 in goldenrod, 25 in saffron, and 25 in paella.
Clerk: OK, 100 yellow.

Also, forgot to mention, that even though there are infinite colours in the spectrum, our eyes have cones sensitive only to red, green and blue (not evenly distributed, and differently sensitive).

So we are bound by our senses, and do not necessarily 'see' what our finely tuned scientific instruments tell us is true.

#3/#7

You beat me to it.

I did a quick google on W.H.Smith (one one the UKs biggest bookshop chains) and they definitely carry Penthouse, Mayfair, For Women and Playboy in their airpost branches.

It does seem silly to block a content delivery system based on the chances of someone seeing something they don't like, when it's as easy to accidently see the same things (or worse) in magazines that patrons may be perusing.

And @ #5 & #6, is vulgarity a reason to lock it down completely, when I can just as easily bring the latest edition of 2GirlsOneCup-Uncovered magazine and look at it all I like?
(yes I may be asked to not do so by staff, but so can a laptop user.)

#82

Yeah. I don't know. I watched the thing a second time. He actually makes no mention of vagrants, only "drug dealers".

..Its called the BUM BOT on the guy's web site.

oterrills.com

#9

Tommus, it's actually a bit more technical than looking through the html to find the "src" tag.

In the comments section of the flickr page there's a pretty good discussion, and the original blogger has put up a how-to page especially.

However, in the same comments section, there is a link to a very small python script to do the same, without resorting to user-agent switching, and in fact I couldn't get his iPlayerURL script to work for some reason.

Here's the python:

#!/usr/bin/python

import urllib

def mp4url_from_showurl(url):
page = urllib.urlopen(url).readlines()
for line in page:
if line.startswith(" pid : '"):
pid = line[17:17+8]
return "http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/3/auth/iplayer_streaming_http_mp4/%s" % (pid)

return None # not found!

print mp4url_from_showurl("http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b009372j.shtml?src=ip_mlt")

You just change the bit in bold to the address of the program you want, save as a .py file and run it in the terminal, which returns the url plus the token you will need to download. then just grab the file in ur browser and watch in vlc..

I've just got to step in here and give my 2 pence..

First of all: London =\= UK

Also, a lot of you are enjoying getting to point a finger at the UK for once, and saying "oh, look at the mindless sheep", and "how awful your little totalitarian state is", when, in fact, the UK enjoys FAR truer and open public/media debate on EVERYTHING that the government does, than the US.

Did you see the difference between the UK and US Anonymous Protests? (not particularly important politically I know, but it just speaks to the idea orf protest, which I think is far more prevalent in the UK than they are being given credit for here. For further info, check out the ReclaimTheStreets protests, McLibel, MinersStrikes etc.

Some of the security apparatus in the UK comes from a time when they had an ACTUAL terrorism problem (like the tube ticketing-system being able to track people's movement through the system, mentioned above), unlike the vastly more comprehensive schemes you (US readers) are facing, from a virtually non-existent threat.

And Britain does have Stop & Search laws, but they are limited similarly to US ones, in the "reasonable cause" sense, and the paperwork involved (for each and every S&S;) stems it somewhat (although there is always some politician or another pushing for stricter powers, eg. David Cameron this week).

Also, I note, someone above mentioned the Disney Ticket Tag system, and no one responded. (I know, I read the pamphlets, Disney says it's system isn't "evil", meh.)

YES, the UK, and London in particular, do have some very dodgy shit going on regarding privacy vs. security, just like the US, but:
I have worked and lived and hired cars in central London, I have never been asked for finger prints, and never been stopped or searched.
I don't get treated as a criminal when I leave a shop, having to produce a receipt for the goods I've purchased (not all shops, I know, just a point).
I do have an OysterCard (mentioned above) but it isn't registered in anyone's name or address, it is anonymous.

Now please don't paint me as a Big Brother proponent- or indeed a sheep who has bought the party line, I am so far from it, it would laughable. I do not defend the Orwellian-faction of British government and sometimes I am truly scared of the level of surveilance London enjoys.

I just think it's unfair to jump on the British populace for being mindless sheep, when there seems to be a far healthier atmosphere of public discourse and rationality in both the British population in general, and it's government, than in the US, IMHO.
Just because a law exists, doesn't mean the people (all or any) agree with it, democracy or no. Look at ANY government in the world and you will find dissent.

Sorry for the long post, I was aiming for clarity, and trying to avoid having to defend what I hope are reasonable and sane comments. I am expecting fire. Much fire. Flame away.

Disclosure: I am NOT British.

The funny thing about ASBOs is, they kind of backfired, as they are incredibly difficult to enforce.

The have turned into a badge of honour for the youth of Britain, and are a fantastic way to taunt your local officer. There is basically an invisible line, over which the ASBO-receiver cannot go, so they make a point of playing chase-me around it, so long as they aren't over the INVISIBLE line, they can't be reprimanded.

ASBOs were never a good idea, and they haven't really worked out. That said, I don't like them, and don't think they help a truly difficult problem.

Also, you mention "We always talk about tracking people, but ASBOs limit the movements of the trackees" but an ASBO is just a bit of paper, there is no device or ID check between "zones" (they aren't called zones, that's creepy) so the only way to get caught.. is to get caught.

Same as being on probation beyond the limits you have been released under. Sure you can leave the state when you've been told not to, but you have to be caught for it to be "illegal".

Well, it's true I suppose, there is probably scope within the wording of the ASBO law to target anyone for anything if they put their nefarious police minds to it.. But the police have always had that power.
As long as people knew about it (quite a large qualifier, I'll grant you) it would not be stood for.
(Although, preaching terrorism is both a political view, and an arrestable one, and folk don't seem to mind that, reasonably enough)

However, curse or no: We live in interesting times.

#17

Antinous, I was thinking that too..

And I know a lot of BBers have a lot of books just sitting around, waiting for a lick of flame before fulfilling their deviant destiny.

I know books take longer to catch fire than boxes but when they do.. woo!

Secretly, books like to burn.. Hitler would be gutted.

Get A Room!

#37

Takuan, I gotta tell you, most of the drugs in my life are/were vastly inappropriate for kids. Following your logic, I wouldn't have taken any at all, and that would have been someone else's life.

#33

Lummy Al

FYI, I just checked to see if the hack still works, and as of this moment it does. I am downloading a show as I type.

I don't know if it depends on which technique you use, but the python script I refer to above (#22) works fine.

#27

So you don't use any idioms or phrases that didn't originate in the US?

Indeed, someone from another state, may question why you are using a turn-of-phrase local to them, and further, your meme-pool-neighbours may object to you picking out their memes for use in your pool, and the queen might not want you to use her language.

At this point you might ask why anyone would choose to 'communicate' with anyone else, in anything other than their own personal language of grunts and screeches, developed after a life of strictly controlled, unmingled monologue.

#31

Vulgarisation in this sense does not necessarily mean vulgar.

It is also:
" the act of making something attractive to the general public "

" changing to a lower state (a less respected state)
"

So, she reworded, and simplified previous work. Vulgarised.

#31 re #33

I could of course be preaching to the choir.

#42

Takuan, you know, when I read your comment (#37, your other comment hadn't surfaced yet) I thought it seemed, at face value, uncharacteristically 'sensible', from your keyboard.. :)

I missed your implied point and agree entirely with the things you wrote back.

I wonder how long it will be, because it will happen, before we have forgotten about personal (ha!) computers, and are chasing the Moores-Law WetWare GHz curve, waiting for Apple et al to release the new iThink OS, or for linux to finally get the latest SpeedBrain drivers ported over..

We will integrate technology into our bodies, more and more, provided we (and our current technological drive) continue to exist.

As to, "The penalty for taking them as true certainties is a vegetative coma":

Please god (little 'g'), please let Microsoft become defunct before we have computer-in-brain capabilities.. Dear sweet Jeebus, please..

#54

ZuZu, that's a great article, and a very interesting indicator of the shape of things to come.

#56

Even forgetting the helping-the-unfortunate or competitive-enhancement angles; I would have a dictionary/encyclopedia implant tomorrow, no question. Or a digital-quality long-term-memory, total recall etc (no, not martian delusions)..

GoogleBrain anyone? (a longstanding joke between my girlfriend and I, when we can't remember something)

#59

Having never heard the argument before, my first thoughts are: "how utterly ridiculous".

That someone should not enjoy the benefits of technology - to improve the senses 99% of the world enjoys - just to make a point about equality and social-semantics, seems incredibly selfish of the group involved.

Should people not take medication to improve their health, because, somehow, people who have ailment-x don't have "defective" immune systems?

Deaf people are NOT defective, but parts of their hearing-system are.

#62

Wow, that's quite scary.

There's some real integrity to the concept of "differently abled"

Yeah, I just can't imagine how hearing a bus coming behind me isn't considered "better" than not.

I don't speak to the ideas of deaf culture or sign-language or the equality of interaction here, and don't want to get into the semantics of "normal" vs "natural" (being deaf is clearly as natural as not, as it occurs naturally), but a useful extra sense just seems better than not having it, whether it's hearing or x-ray vision.

#66

Agreed, mostly.

It just sounded like the group you mentioned didn't like the treatment in anyone, full stop (or "period" in your parlance).

In the same way as you used plastic surgery to make your point, I will say, some deaf people would be happier to hear, than wave a flag for their lot.

Try telling that to someone with eidetic memory.

Try telling that to Johnny

Antious, it's funny you mention it, I actually almost requested eidetic memory in my post above.. GoogleBrain

Turn-on-and-off-able, of course :)

#77

That's a bit fucked up!

Surely gender assignment is something to be chosen by an adult, with caution, rather than a something preventative, chosen for a child by anyone else.

I'd never heard the notion until you mentioned it.

Presumably growing up in an honest environment, having grown with the issue out-in-the-open, and with the knowledge of having a choice at some point is the wiser course of action..

The consequences are indeed awful, as you suggest.

#42
No, I'm on Mac

#8

Maybe the sprinklers could emit pepper spray? Seriously...

Brilliant, just when you fall or get trapped, in the panic of escape, and can't move, some dickwad turns on the pepper spray sprinkler in your room, to really make the point that you are in a lot of trouble.

Smokey: can breath a little, below the smoke line..
+
Pepper Spray: can't breath at all.

Super.

#18

Error404, he wasn't just stopped and frisked; he was arrested, detained, questioned and cautioned, and ended up missing his flight (he was going to Chicago, I believe).

EAI

Cool! I was lead to believe the 'token' was required too. I just tried your link and it downloads fine without it.

NICE

ZIOSTEFANO aka TheProcrastinator

SPAMMER!

You subtle, prolific, sometimes-relevant bastard.

15 spams, and not one disemvowel. Clever.

Sic 'em Theresa!

NicFromNYC, as colourful (read:WTF?) as ever.

However, people in china see the moon in the same orientation as people in America and Europe, because they are all in the NORTHERN HEMISPHERE, unlike Australia, etc which do see it rotated +/- 180º.

And I don't know where the idea of China being on the 'opposite' side of the globe to America came from.. Perhaps it's political.

Wait! I think I've worked it out..

NikFromNYC, is really a cross-entropy neural-net (admittedly of an inferior quality to the one linked to) :D

Do I get a prize? Mr. Turing?

Joel, sorry to stepping-stone your post to get a message back to Cory (who linked this on the front page), but:

..an ornate, steampunk mecha made from Legos

Cory, I'm truly let down.. I thought you were one of the good guys.

I'm gonna reopen the old, toxic-waste-scale, can-of-worms internet phenomena that is: the plural of LEGO is "LEGO".

(or technically, but not colloquially; LEGO bricks)

#2 / #3

Devophill, agreed. It's clearly snow when you zoom in. The long shadows of the naked trees gives the "processed" look that may be misleading from the picture above.

Theresa, did you notice ZIOSTEFANO's ruse?

Have a look through his comments.. then see where his links go.

Oops, I've been spelling your name with a 'h' forever.. sorry.

ALL FTW!

Agerstein, you have named the price of your freedom.

Mine will cost a little more than that.

..people who mock the American administration's "false enemy" of terrorism are hooked like guppies for Chevez's "false enemy" of America.

I don't agree that the'"false enemy" of America' is comparable to the '"false enemy" of terrorism'.

I think there are lots of people in the world to which America's imperialism would be seen as fairly clear-cut enemy-type behaviour, and for many, many years.

If any other country behaved like America has consistently, muslim or otherwise, they would have been banded against, invaded and razed long ago.

This whole idea of the-world-hating-America is not new, and did not start with Bush, or Chavez, by a long shot. US foreign policy has always been a massive issue the world over, whether its meddling with local politics or acting as the world police.

The recent American ambassador to Ireland sometimes appeared on a political panel show that they have (Questions and Answers, RTE). He was on several times over 9/11-Iraq stuff (like US planes stopping in Shannon etc) and every time he was on, one of the questions would eventually come around to some covert action the US had taken on some country in the past, and he would always vigourously deny US involvement. Even with very well documented stuff, like political restructuring in South America, old CIA/Cocaine links, supporting various militias one day then fighting them the next etc..

He just made himself, and (by extention) his country's administration, look like deniers of the feeblest kind.

He seemed to believe that the rest of the world had the same blinkered US foreign-policy knowledge-base as the American people did, when in fact, America's many imperialist actions have been academic outside the US for years.

Rather than being some new reaction surfacing out of Iraq or Afghanastan, that so many seem to think it is; it is part of what people know America for, like Coca-Cola or Hollywood.

Ha! I like Paxman being a 'jerk', it's kind of what he's there for, no?

On the other hand, did you see Paxman on John Stewart? Paxman, got freaked and defensive, thinking, I suppose, that stewart was going to roast him. Stewart didn't roast him, he seemed to like him, but Paxman came across like a first-time-on-tv loon, half attacking everything that Stewart said.

It was weird and a little sad, Paxman pwned himself :(

Ok, I just found a clip of the interview, and it's not quite as cringy as I remember.

It's still not very comfortable to watch tho, he get's pretty defensive toward the middle, about stuff John Stewart says that he would say himself on his own show.. and then just comes across as confused and befuddled.

hmm.. I don't really like these clocks myself.

They are a bit too spindly/Dickensian for my tastes. For me, they kind of take their lead from a victorian-steampunk-gothic-TimBurton-baroque thing, and come up with something slightly less than the sum of it's parts. To be fair, I'm not a great 'wacky' fan, although I generally do like the other genres I mentioned.

They seem well designed and engineered, and a lot of people obviously get great pleasure from them, but they are not really my cup of tea.

Of all of them, I liked Clock in a Glass Box and Big Wall Clock most. The most understated ones, I suppose.

Or, maybe not so much "understated", as 'considered'.

I'm sure each one takes a vast amount of consideration, but the two I mentioned seemed to make more 'sense' to my eye, or at least not feel so random (in outcome, rather than application).

HA HA HA!

So, just us and the dinosaurs then.

Phew! Thatis simple.

Brilliant!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!

#2

Although, I don't have a counter proposal, forcing businesses (and their customers) to foot the bill on a tragically huge folly, is pretty fucked up.

Of course it's either the airline customers, or the general tax-payer who will have to support this, but how can you put up with this crazy shit?

Can you not sue the policy makers? I'd say a $15 Billion bill, would have Bush/Cheny/DHS et al, washing dishes and shining shoes for a long, long time to come.

What a fucking mockery.

Wait!!

That is my proposal!

Set up the current administration in a small, travelling shoe-shine booth, to make up all the losses they have visited upon America since taking office.

Seriously, THIS WOULD MAKE MAD LOOT!

People would come from the world over to pay a dollar or two for Bush to spit-shine their shoes. I for one, would make mutiple trips..

Can one of you American Citizens write this up and send it to your congressman? I think we can actually win this thing.

Yes, this is all a bit Minority Report, pre-emptive-detection, for my liking.

Spazzm, I'm with you, except that catching someone leaving the country lets them not re-issue that person with a new visa, the next time they apply.

So, although it sounds completely retarded, catching them on the way out, lets the enforcer know that a crime actually took place, a crime which they would have been unaware of otherwise.

At $15Mil per person though, they might want to restratagise :)

#8

In all seriousness though..

I was being deadly serious.

#3

You included an extraneous "." in your url..

FIXED

#11 (re:ZeFrank)

I don't believe it says anywhere that there should be a specific date, at which time: You vill feeling ze love!

It's about having an allowance of one week per year, to spend with your spouse (if you choose to).

#23

Why would a business choose to honour a scheduled day-off, if it wasn't a law? No matter what the day-off is representative of, (some dead persons birthday / a "saints" day / get-your-loving-on-day), if it is universal, it should be put on the official list.

Saying it's a law, is just saying that everyone WILL get this day off, not saying "the law says we must love more".

..and Jeff, I know you really like having a little viking in you [insert nordic-midget-sexuality joke in here].

ho ho! :)

ZuZu, exactly what I was thinking :)

It was a stupid mistake, but sack the bitch!

€1 = $1.58 / £1 = $2

I'm gonna buy all your stuff for CHEAP !!

he he he!

Finally I can actually afford one of those BB / GamaGo hoodies.. :p

I don't know what you guys are talking about..

I, for one, welcome our new carrot-led overlords.

I second the prophylactics. Can keep stuff waterproof, carry small amounts of water, and most useful if you're "the last man on earth"

I hardly think being the "last man on Earth" is a good reason to use a condom..

I mean, either: it really doesn't matter what you stick it in
OR: have a go at repopulation you low-expectation-having mother fucker :)

(also, don't drink water out of condoms.. eugh!)

NO, my mistake, still £60.. :(

lightnin !

Keneke, that was the worst, retro-censorship, "icky" shit ever!
Worse even than Jabba the Hutt being cgi-grafted into the special edition of Star Wars.. and that was bad.

They may not be intentionally phallic, but they certainly look like dicks!

..especially the way the top-end leads down to curve into the left "ball".. I am not sucking a drink through these.

...

#2, funny.

#8 Songe.. huh?

..there is no such thing as separate areas? All areas are one? ..you can't imagine an area without being part of it.. I'm so lost, wtf are you talking about?

#12 Rich

We all need to stop thinking in terms of right and wrong in our dealings with corporations..

No. No we don't. We need to stop seeing corporations as benign, magic profit-boxes, and start making them accountable for their actions.

I'm truly sick of hearing "corporations only exist to maximize profits.." as if how they do it isn't an issue.

It's just the Nuremberg defence in less fetching uniforms, it's bullshit.

#26

I'm pretty sure smoke detectors are not set off by steam.

Maybe the antique ones do, the ones that detect that old fashioned water-fire..

#26 re #30

Curse my lightning-quick, sarcastic trigger finger. I checked.. old ionising smoke detectors can get false positives from steam.

/slink

Or subtley pointed..

Dragon, I just had never experienced steam setting one off.
I know about all the other stuff, don't expect me to cook with out accompaniment.. If I had a theme tune, it would mostly be smoke-detector beeps, car alarms and low-battery blips :)

#49 Editz

Ugh! yeh, the vegan ones!

well spotted :p

Songe, I repeat my above question.. WTF are you talking about?

"the male private area" while I laugh at such a feeble phrase being used by anyone, it's not much of a mystery in usage..

The "area", belonging to the/a "male" (human male in this usage), which the speaker's social-context demands being kept "private".

No existential quandaries here, my friend. Just a man too indoctrinated, or prudish, to use the word penis.

see, I'm smiling, having fun. Now it's your turn

..from the lips of a mother, through gritted teeth - with venom - to her husband, eyes wild as she drags 3 crying children by the hand, through the carnival, past the stalls and rides they wanted to go on, toward the dark waiting cliff edge..

Indiie, it's a great collection, huh? :)

Really though, what a sad day indeed.

“Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.”
- ACC

R.I.P

Ha! Even better would be to reverse and relocate the flash, so it's inside the viewfinder, so when you click the button, BLAMO!! a white hot, retina-singeing, 5500K xenon flare, direct to the pupil, at a range of about 2cm..

Blind For Life!

*chuckle* :p

..well, blind in one eye.

Unless you are the true PrankMaster and get the victim to fall for the same prank twice!

Blind For Life!

BUSTED!

god damn.

oh well, house rules and all that huh?

i wonder how often that happens, and if i broke a record or something? hmm..

Antinous, thanks for noticing, I'm travelled so it's a bit mingled, but I'm so glad you like it :)

Takuan, cute eh? Will a leprecaun outfit do?

#25 Stefan

Monolith FTW!

I lost a post here, but it's showing in my post list.. weird.
FIxed! :

MARCH 18, 2008 12:24PM

Songe, I repeat my above question.. WTF are you talking about?

"the male private area" while I laugh at such a feeble phrase being used by anyone, it's not much of a mystery in usage..

The "area", belonging to the/a "male" (human male in this usage), which the speaker's social-context demands being kept "private".

No existential quandaries here, my friend. Just a man too indoctrinated, or prudish, to use the word penis.

#77

Songe, I'm beginning to see your story..

You are using the words of an unrelated man, to psychoanalyse the woman in this story.

You are making lofty, existential (et al) symbolism out of everyday notions of privacy and modesty. People don't walk around naked everyday, for lots of reasons, so why are you taking issue with this single woman having a sense of societal-context?

If you can't relate to the social norms of interaction regarding appropriate attire and respect of personal (or "private") space, you soon find yourself incarcerated. So how are you having such a difficult time relating to the notions of private areas and the possible variability between male and female responses in this matter.

Saying notions-of-a-thing don't exist, is not the same as saying the-thing-itself doesn't. Talking away "real" feelings and conventions as non-existent, just because they have no "real" physical representation doesn't invalidate the feeling or the benefit of comfortable interaction.
Yes, skin is skin, you have it, I have it. But to say therefore, all skin is the same, and privacy is a fallacy, so let's all have an intrusive explore of anyone we come across, is quite a different matter.

I'm genuinely having trouble working out what your discussion trying to discern.

This is starting to sound like Jerry Springer or .. wait, is that even still on? You kids still watch Geraldo, right? ..and Montell?

Ricki Lake'll kick your ass if you don't 'make good' and buy another ring. But Jerry says, "she doesn't love the real you, she loves your money, Dump Her!"..

Oh, who to listen to?

..you bastards?

Noen, I really enjoyed that.

I'm probly gonna steal your idea and pitch it as a tv show about a band of time-travelling stewards - charged with preserving some future utopia - each assigned to a corner of the globe and given free reign (within budget) to traipse the timelines and quell dissedents.
Kinda like a cross between sliders/quantum-leap/cop-shows but, ya know.. good. And it'll have a healthy dose of bureaucracy/redtape a la Brazil.

Now, if only I had someone to pitch it to, and a suit.

$12,000? How much is that in euros?

let's see, figuring the current state of the dollar..

73¢ ..ish?

#54 CUNNING

I stared and stared, but all I got was this..

Psych-R-Dun F T W !

(..and as a 'cross eyed' magic-eye, it's pretty bloody freaky..)

Teresa, you beat me to it.

#24 & #26

Saying there is an "easier" way to do it, misses the point entirely. If it was just for shits and grins maybe, but we are talking about a person, probably massively distressed or depressed, planning to take their own life.

This seems like a slow, methodical process, and possibly the effort involved was part of balancing out the wieght of what it was he was planning to do.

For all we know, he could have had a religious or moral motivation in not taking his own life (technical semantics aside, obviously he was instrumental).

#35 Moon

Wouldn't it have been better to put some spine into the British or French and stop Hitler before he invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland?

Or indeed, convince America that it was "their" problem too, and get them involved long before Pearl Harbour..

because of uneducated people like many of the ones here...

Well Metacore, that's not going to win you any friends. I'd venture to say that many of the regular readers of BB are pretty well educated, and actually do understand evolutionary theory.

I'm not formally educated in science, but I've taken it upon myself to read as much as I can in quite diverse fields; sociology, evolution, maths theory, history of science, non-linear dynamics etc.

I'd say I have a pretty good grasp of evolution and natural selection, and also of the politics involved in these theories being the accepted ideas of our origins.

If ID employs the scientific method as you say it does, will it venture theories on "how" an intelligent designer may have achieved it's work?
Is the ID camp looking into "how" matter was created, moulded into genes and sparked into life?
Has the ID camp done anything to prove where an intelligent designer came from (who created the creator)?
Does ID question whether the designer is super-natural or plain, old natural?

If ID was science, these are the questions I would assume were the important ones.

..also, I'd be interested in which parts of evolution you (and ID) think are inadequate, and if you support both theories; how you separate the creation from the evolution.

p.s. "I am not some crazy Christian cook" - I'm glad to hear it!

Ha! me too, it's all just loaves and fishes usually, no?

"Why is an organisation which is purportedly Irish Republican being registered in the US?"

Hal: Agreed, America has been the biggest funder of paramilitary and terrorist organisations in Ireland for decades.

It was quite the joke when America lauched it's War on Terror.

Like some commenters above, my first thoughts were "this is just like AOL-type Keywords". I never really understood that either, but there has been some interesting reasoning posted here.

Also, regarding urls in search-boxes: I have google as my homepage, and when I hit CTRL (or the apple key) +N and get a new window, the focus will be automatically in the google search-box, meaning I tend to just type half the url, hit the return key and select, rather than manually selecting the address bar and typing the full address. Technically It may be as many or more clicks, but sometimes its just less think-cycles in a quick-reponse situation..

Also, bookmarking URLs (in Safari, at least) will keep them in the auto-complete list, even after you have cleared the cache.. As Certron says, this lets the misspells slip away, whilst keeping the correct ones.

There's a great piece in an episode of Charle Brooker's ScreenWipe, dealing briefly with enhanced food photography.

There's a basic tv-ad shot of a slice of warm apple pie (or something similar), steaming sumptuously on the plate. Then a hand reaches into shot, to reveal the food photographer's trick, a steaming hot tampon (having been dipped in boiling water), strategically placed behind the pie to make steam curl up appetizingly around it..

Here's a nice article on the various techniques used in the food photography field.

Tenn, I'll add to your list:

Antitheist: down with God!

Bricology.. that came across a little snooty.

Art is the intention, not the vehicle.

I'm not suggesting this be considered art or not, but if you had absolutely no background on the piece, you may not be able to so boldly judge it.

And does something really have to fit snugly into the "history of, and current streams in, art" for you to consider it?

They look kinda cool, but surely the sustain and note-clarity on a mostly-hollow plastic guitar is rubbish..

Guitar makers have long searched for different wood densities and shapes that can produce a long clear note. I'd like to hear some demo's or someone who knows guitars offer an opinion on this

QSD: Yeh, probably you are. Why would you be 'disturbed' by a kid having a fun haircut? It's not exactly subversive anymore..
I'm going to venture the entirely uncontroversial: hair-nazi

And Remmelt, reading that in English-English (as opposed to American-English) it sound like you really really like menstruation.
A noble plight, I'm sure :)

I'd be more inclined to say 'stylized' than 'abstract'. Usually in art, when something is considered abstract there are no definable real-life things like people or animals (including symbols).

I understand the usage in relation to information reduction and also it's usage as a verb, I just think 'stylized' is more accurate in this case.

NIts need picking sometimes :)

#12
PIV, never heard it before, got it immediately.. is this a common acronym? What wonderful profession might a person have, to use such a phrase regularly? (besides the boringly obvious biologist/zoologist)

"OK, peeps, for this scene we're going to go PIM, then a little TOC and some PIV before ending on a nice long PIA shot, got lube?"

Jeff:
The difference in your original position and the story you told about your friend is this: Having money and actually going somewhere to do something positive with it on the ground is entirely different to sending money off to some organization whose motives and practices may be unclear.

Kudos to your friend for securing investment and generating jobs and income. Not so much to funding paramilitary groups, intent on not only separatism, but power in it's own right.

OTOH

Scottfree:
There was deninitely some evil, definitely a lot of overlording, and it definitley originated through the actions of the British. "Evil British overlords" may be oversimplification and slightly offensive in todays climate, but the nugget of truth is valid.

Takuan:
Maybe.

How about getting the military out of the country before generations have grown up with an ingrained sense of 'enemy' and oppression and forgotten the reasons why, and only remember to hate.

The trouble in so many of these situations (British in NI, Serbs in Kosovo, Chinese in Tibet, Israelis in Palestine) is that one side's youth grow up carrying the wounds and oppressions of generations past and the other side carries the feelings of irrational hatred toward them for just being there.

After a few generations, the reasons are forgotten, leaving only the ingrained sense of hatred for an arbitrary label, "protestant", "catholic", "Serb", "Albanian" etc.

Occupying forces depend on this to promote their agenda. People born in a place will not be as willing to move on as immigrants are, so an important part of occupation is to settle your people in the land you are occupying and have them breed.

Once you get to that stage, it is near impossible to reason feelings of hatred or oppression away, suggesting that the oppression might stop, if we just let go of the past and decided what kind of future we wanted. This is why official apologies are so important. "Closure" is something that can really make a difference to letting history just be history rather than a reason to fight.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that America will try to "settle" Iraq, far from it, I was simply explaining my view on such things.

Sounds like a bad hairstyle..

3DayWalk, I clicked your link thinking it would be relevant to the discussion..

I feel for charity, but this feels like SPAM. If you had said "and by the way, please check out my worthy cause [link]" it would have been both more obvious and more honest.

"To automatically assume that these forces do not exist is as irrational as to automatically assume that some formulaic "death curse" possesses true force, energy or power. "

Aware:
It's hardly "automatic" if we have never encountered the results of such, after actively seeking for some time. No one has seen proof of these things, so why would I overburden myself to be accepting until I'm shown otherwise?

TomRigid:
I don't agree. The postive holding of a belief which cannot be proven (faith) is not the same as rejecting the same view because of a lack of evidence, atheism is more akin to indifference in this respect.

Does it take a "leap of faith" to NOT believe in the tooth fairy or leprecauns? Of course not, it is simply rational. Until you show me either, I will continue to assume they do not exist.

And sorry to all the tooth fairy fans.. I know ther are some on this board :)

Jeff:
Was that well disguised sarcasm, or is that really the overriding message you got from what Aware wrote?

Gosh, what a long and heated thread..

Well, I for one don't have the energy to get into a debate over some of this stuff (weasely, I know), but I think JennFrank @ 51 made some pretty over-generalized statements about both men and women, and the reasons people are the way they are, and like the things they do..

I would challenge JennFrank to tell any woman I know that chick flicks were made for them, and not the offensively small-box demographic with which they are targeted. Are you really claiming to be represented by board-room economics?

I also would request that you don't use your experience with some men to extrapolate how the rest of us think or feel. I have never thought a woman must be a lesbian because she didn't want to go out with me. And why on earth would I feel intimidated because a woman did any job justice? Surely it is a good thing when jobs are done well (by co-workers or otherwise). I have worked with and been inspired by countless women who really didn't seem to fit your assertions, and were where they were because they wanted to be, not through some sufferance to their career.

Also, Lots of men have to fit a working image that doesn't do their true personality justice. This is not a counter argument, simply a statement of fact.

I'm not suggesting that we have reached true equality yet, it would be silly to do so (please don't jump on me for that), but sweeping generalizations aren't getting anyone anywhere, a point I thought this thread was addressing - in different terms.

#33
Yeh, that's the impression I got when I googled for the Charlie Brooker reference I mentioned above.

Also, I looked at the video, what a perfect douche, and as a great bonus his name is Sjan (pronounced Shaun, or Sean if you're rolling with the realness). This video would equally fit this thread perfectly.. :)

NICE :)

When can I expect my comic?

Good points Songe, this is what my info says..

"" The important rule is: the harder the material, the clearer the sound (a softer material absorbs more high frequencies) and the longer the sustain (i.e. the time a string keeps on vibrating). ""

"" The layers alternate between a hard and soft type of wood. The presence of the hard layers makes it fairly good for sustain, but due to the soft wood layers, it dampens the higher frequencies a bit. ""

http://www.dr-lex.be/guitar/#Wood

However, distortion and not caring sounds like a winning combination in any pursuit! :)

Not having the courage of your convictions.

OR

Saving face in an otherwise hostile environment.

Either stand how you think, or think how you stand.

Worlord, in fact that isn't what Takuan suggested really, it was that on a message board, you only have your comments. We are not privvy to the machinations of your thoughts, or indeed, how you act in day-to-day life. We can only respond to what you type.

And she also made it pretty clear that it wasn't hypocrisy in her opinion, and posed the question of what it might be.

Also, is it just me, or is there an inordinate number of Irish people on BB recently?

Sláinte Erisis!

Worlord: Scream away, but you must see it both ways.

We can only know the things, about you, which you type, so either let it be known your statements are not necessarily what you believe, or be responded to accordingly.

I could say some vastly inappropriate shit in mock-defense of some wacky theory or other, and hope everybody here knows I'm really a sane guy, who wouldn't worry a fly. But if I don't qualify the remark I will be responded to as if I meant what I said.

Either qualify your statements, or understand that people will only respond to your typed words, not the possibility of you being the opposite of what you project.

But to be clear, I'm not involved in the discussion you have been having with the other folks onboard, I joined at comment #146 and am only commenting on the notions of clarity.

Teresa, all good, it's a tricky one huh?

Let's separate the Chinese government and the Chinese people/culture/customs.

I originally meant "in this instance", but its also a nice idea in general. We could leave the Chinese people in China and move the Chinese government to like.. an unpopulated island somewhere without the internet, they might be happier.

Hmm.. the last time I asked each and every Chinese person individually and at length, I got a different answer. We must collate our data :p

"No comment" on SV's troll status though.

Aside: So, you're a hair-puller eh? (or pullee specifically)

Yeah, I know the routine.. ProTrolls, rather than the biting :)

And Takuan, was that a double, or are you just in a particularly agreeable mood?

Quick!

Someone reboot Takuan!

She's stuck in a loop!

ctrl-alt-delete..

ctrl-alt-delete..

esc.. esc.. esc!

Damn it!

Not really, no.

* You said that you think different than you act.

* Takuan suggested that on a board, the only thing people can respond to is how you act (or type).

* Absimiliard called you a hypocrite.

* Takuan disagreed.

* I offered that people should probably act as they think.

* You made a spurious example, suggesting Takuan believed conversations were the same as actions.

* I tried to clarify what she actually said.

* You agreed. Also saying that people had responded to more than your words.

* I said, to avoid being responded to as if your words represented your actual position, you should clarify that some of your words don't.

So, really, my only point so far, has been about making a distinction between your actual opinions, and the ideas you express to avoid being painted with your own words. The post and ensuing comments, are on a topic that some people clearly find very important, more important than you or me, I suspect.

- I don't honestly believe what I say I do

You said "There is sometimes a vast gulf between what I think (and voice in conversation) and how I act".

- I walk the earth constantly acting in accordance with every single opinion I hold.

No, but that's your choice either way. Some people act more than others in accordance with their beliefs. For better or worse.

I haven't said anything remotely controversial, or to inspire: "I want to see if I'm *truly* understanding what you wrote before I reply to it."

#35
God damn, that's the sanest comment on this topic I've seen in a long time.

My dad's partner is a clinical psychologist for the nhs and similar ideas come up in conversations we've had on this topic.

I hope nobody feels the need to flame this, it's just refreshing to see the clinical side represented, as we so often only hear about the sensational stuff (like above).

Of course I'm not making light of the issue, don't go there.

Hmm.. well I just read the whole thread, and to expand and repeat; this is a damn balanced comment thread on this particularly controversial issue.

I commend all for the cool headedness.

Also:

there is treatment available, and there are alternatives to acting out of the abuser. be it chemical castration or execution

Well, they are good choices. They'll all want to register now.

Mike8787:

I've said and said that I don't think any sexual abuse or rape is wrong.

Presumeably the "don't" was misplaced :)

Oh, looks like you caught it :)

Takuan, presumably the same kind of money that pays to find ways of treating psycopathy and similar imbalances that result in criminal behaviour.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that we leave the pedophiles to the kids untill we can "fix" them, but it would do society the world of good to find ways to efectively remove pedophiles' criminal needs rather then demonizing and hand-wringing.

It's probably money well spent, compared to the money that would be saved on newspaper ink alone.

After all about 1 in 4 children experience sexual abuse..

Really?
Whilst shockingly high, this figure tends to support the notion that people are resiliant and to a degree "get over it", society goes on, without 1/4 being reduced to basketcases forever more.

That figure is incredibly sad and at the same time somewhat encouraging.

I don't believe I really said either of the things you have made points of, above.
But I don't think it's silly to think people act as they believe, except in limited circumstances, like politeness, or law.
Maybe you would care to give an example of something you truly believe, but don't act upon.

And of course you have to make a distinction between your abstract ideas and your beliefs, it clarifies whether you think your points are rational, or merely lofty notions, and therefore the kind of attention one should pay your comments.

i know dude, I'm a sucker for defending myself in stupid arguments.. meh.

One of the cleverest takes on the media's over-sensationalism of the pedophile thing is the BrassEye special "Peadogeddon"

Seriously genius.

Since we can't guarantee that no guns are on the plane..

Really? Still? With all the new crazy-ass TSA regulations?

America had some of the the laxest boarding procedures in the first world before 9/11, now they have some of the tightest. And you still don't guarantee there is no guns?

When is the last time (in the current climate) that a gun was found on board a US plane? I almost can't fathom a gun being found on a plane in Europe (not to set US against Europe, just that's my main experience).

And how often do you think this actually happens? Are you talking day-to-day probability, or universal (the-whale-could-turn-into-a-pot-plant) probability? Because one is useful and the other is just pandering to mythological-grade chance.

I'm genuinely not refuting your claim, I just would like it qualified.

To the folks saying this post is unnecessary:

Since disemvowelling has been implemented, everytime it happens, the person demands to know why their post was edited, and why they weren't inform of the policy before the policy was enforced.

Many regulars (myself included) have requested a concrete set of guidelines to know what/when/why various mod actions will take place.

Since that time, Teresa has mentioned she was working on such a list and would post it when it was ready.

HERE IT IS.

To the folks saying troll-posts ahould just be deleted rather than disemvowelled:

Well, in a perfect world, that would be ideal. However the general conversation-convention here at BB, uses the post-number to reference specific comments and direct feedback to the correct people.

eg. (#3 FTW!)

As sometimes occurs, some comments (usually of the SPAMMY variety) get deleted outright. When this happens, the rest of the comment thread gets all fucked up, and the numbers of the posts don't match the numbers being responded to.

Frankly, I rather a few garbled messages, than not being able to follow (or having to do an inordinate amount of detective work to follow) the actual conversation. Maybe disemvowelling isn't your bag, and you'd rather the contents were removed altogether, leaving the empty comment box as a place holder for the thread, that's an option.

Also, as Teresa pointed out (to me specifically) when a post has massive flame-war potential, leaving it up (even when it's been routinely dealt with once) leaves it open to start an unending series of escalating flame wars everytime some one new happens upon the thread (and long after the original participant thought it was put to bed).

__

The only thing I'd like to put forward concerning disemvowelling, is this:

I would like to see a small "reason" comment, placed in the disemvowelled post, stating the reason (even very simply) the action was taken. I don't think it would be that much extra work, and believe it would make for a more clear-cut moderation.

I have no problem with the moderator joining in the discussion though. I see Teresa first as a participant with opinions and facts, and second as a mod, having to occasionally put on her boots and walk a little bit stompier. She comments more than moderates in my experience, so I have built up that impression in my mind.

I think Teresa does a mostly excellent job, and I can only be thankful, that she does the job she does, and that I don't have to.

Thanks.

#1

I hope he loosens up a little by the time it becomes apparent he's dying. Then again, maybe the fact that he thinks about death so much..

Maybe he's thinking about life.

Longest thread evar!

Also, #242, David, thanks for the ink, can't believe I missed that whole episode!

Teresa, god damn !

#272 Jeblis

Oh and yeah you moderated a lot of stuff that is certainly on topic and not that bad. In particular a lot of posts that I would have considered satire.

LET'S BE CLEAR (and shout a little)

LOTS OF THE POST IN THIS THREAD HAVE BEEN SELF-DISEMVOWELLED, IN SATIRE.

#288 Buttseks, those last 3 probly won't raise and eyebrow, let alone the 12 more comments needed to break 300 :)

#79 Antinous

Actually that particular honour goes to William Joseph Dunn.

What a surprise. Isn't Jeremy Clarkson the same douche bag that drove around Arkansas with "Hillary 4 President" and "NASCAR Sucks" written on his car and feigned surprise that the locals would get upset about such signs?

That is weird!

We may be onto something here :)

Contextual Linguistic Phrenology?

BoomBotz (#115 specifically)

It's all well and good trying to apply logic to sets of given circumstances, to dissect the probability of some-such-thing happening some-such-way, but the reality is; when you apply it to specific situations or events, you are much less likely to find the truth.

To decide the story is untrue, simply because the limited set of data you based your supposition on didn't return the possibility, just means you weren't creative enough in your thinking to include the complexity of real life in your equation.

There is lots of reasons you might not have a coat, be you homeless or not. Long-term homeless are likely to have quickly come to the conclusion that a coat is the number one priority as a kind of shelter-substitute. Homed, but less-well off people, including addicted drug-users, may have different priorities.. like drugs for one.

So, your rebuttal to "Theory 1" falls flat if you include the real, complex world in your limited data-set.

Similarly, if we allow that the mugger now has a shabby (or no) coat, your rebuttal for "Theory 2" falls "Julio doesn't have nice things":
The nicety of a coat, is relative to the current standard of coats, eg. a thick coat is nicer than a thin coat, and any coat is nicer than no coat.

it was not delicious

Thanks Sonny, I laughed :)

Ant / Jake / Tak

at least he's not called KieuseruTakuanKieuseru

* s/he *

Ah.

Yes, it would seem likely at second glance.. :)

Tak, are you a PKD fan?
If you've read "The Galactic Pot Healer" you may remember "The Game" that the hero engages in with his various associates around the world..

You take a famous phrase or title and translate it into another language, then you take the translated text and translate it back (many times maybe) between the languages until you get a cryptic reworded version of the original.. The game is deducing what the original text is..

I googled an example because I don't have my copy here:

So I would pose to you: The male offspring in addition gets out of bed
To which the correct answer would be: The sun also rises

There are some better examples in the book, but I always thought it sounded fun.

I'll try to find a good one :)

Boors and bores haven't changed

Boars however, have gotten smaller and a little less hairy.

TAK (an easily guessed, but slightly non-linear one)

An older violin more consonant of the caramel.

hmm.. I suspect PKD used some poetic license and a thesarus, rathen than multiple translation.

We can bend the rules if you like, or keep it country.

Well, it just seems if you use babel fish et al, when concocting the puzzle, you get quite a messy sentence, where as if you manually change each word in your start-sentence, you get some clever double meaning stuff, like the son/sun above.. (which a machine translator wouldn't do)

So the rules may be either:
1. use a translator to get authentic trans-garbage (as many passes and languages as you like)
OR
2. Use a thesaurus and your creativity to make a poetically (or not) cryptic conundrum.

The answer to the one above:
An older violin more consonant of the caramel

is

The older the fiddle the sweeter the tune.
(multi pass, spanish and portuguese)

here's one using rule2

the entire collection of pedestals that you own, is the property of america..

yep :)

yours are far tougher looking, I never do the cryptic crossword tho, I could be battling a master :(

damn, it's like hairy.. torn.. court..
hmm

ok, gimme the first one, so i can get your style..

ha! i was trying to unpuzzle, "theme is titles" unntil ur next comment popped up

what a dick (hoho)

haha, same thing i'm just about to do, funnily enough.. It might be inpinging on my ability to problem solve though.

fibres.. ah ha!

all i have on this one is.. a million little fibres, which it isn't

towlie + "fuzz of the ripped ..."

I'm losing my game :(

Well, while I'm losing, I'll pose one to you. Easy, same theme:

Authority figure: "commence saline seepage"

#79 SLYWY

I'm not keen on body piercings, either, but for this to make sense it would have to apply to everyone with any piercings -- from the basic ear job (like I have) to, yes, clits.

I'm not too keen on oxygen myself.

Sorry Tak, I fell asleep (i'm on UK time)

I still have no clue what PKD title that could be tho..

I'll have a go at the next one, but I'm off to Oxford in a minute.

Wait.. is it "The man in the high castle?"

god damn, if it is.. it's one of my favourite books ever, dunno if it goes with "fuzz of the ripped bailey" tho.. i certainly tried and rejected it in the beginning with the bailey - courtyard - castle connection and the high - towelie connection.. but "fuzz of the ripped.."

The second one is really nice though:

"are the reveries of skinjobs referrent to powered Bushites?"

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Very nice use of skinjob and bushite, I tried gaming that same title last night, but all my attempts were way too obvious :)

OK,
fuzz = "the man"
ripped = "high"
bailey = "castle"

TOUGHY!

here's a quick two for you while I'm gone.. slighly more cryptic on my part, but you'll get them in no time:

º Everywhere, contracted

° Golf-club~ing on the subject of a miniature domain

is #60 a response to "everywhere, contracted"?

hehe! nope :)
Puttering... was right though, well done.
"everywhere, contracted" is a little tricky actually, here's a clue that should easify it a bit:

one word

#3
But you can already do exacty that..

Playlists!

Here's a guy with lots of music/comedy playlists. Just select one, and hit the "play all videos" link.

You can make and save your own, by hitting the "add to playlist" button on any youtube video.

#46 MattyD

I know you were only joking, but you have hit upon the crux of the thing. If they wanted to avoid feet-in-mouth they actually wouldn't have needed to refer to the ethnicity of any of the dolls in their naming convention. A product number would have done for the distributor, and the picture on the box would have done for the consumer, with perhaps a catch-all "World Families" title.

And, just to agree with some of the commenters above, the whole notion of 'white' on one side and 'ethnic' on the other is just laughable. It reminds me of a term that makes me shudder everytime I hear it: "reverse racism". As if white people were of no race, and to make sense of a non-white person being racist toward a white person, we had to flip the whole system on it's head.. um, no.. it's just plain old racism.

#41 JadedDissonance:

..but since one white person can pass for nearly any white ethnicity..

I gotta tell you, (even tho I know you are white and living in mostly homogenous America) this smacks of "all Asians look the same". I just don't buy it. Certainly in Europe if not in America, Spanish, German, French, Swedish people (etc.), absolutely don't all look interchangable. There are, of course, spectrums, so that a particular Spanish person, may get away with looking Italian, but in general the differences in European ethnicity (to a European person, at least) are as different as Asians to an Asian person.

I also think calling non-white people 'ethnic' is particularly American, and not a trait of 'white' people, as you say. Another of white American's problems seems to be assuming 'white people' means American.

#64 Gareth

Why not just ask all the people on this thread who have witnessed these performances (2 or 3 at least, on this thread alone) rather than relying on your, kinda feeble, detective work.

And, if you genuinely think these, quite dextrous, paintings were done by the trainer nudging the tusk (or telepathically as you suggest (eg. indirectly)).. let's praise the trainers. Because it's gotta be a pretty tough gig, to paint a picture with an elephant's head (plus it's mass, weight, inertia and distractions) between you, your brush and your canvas.

Surely it'd be easier to just train the elephant.

YEH! haha

This story is running on NewScientist as well:

Particle smasher 'not a threat to the Earth' - 28 March 2008

Frome the NewScientist article, linked above:

"A 2003 safety review for the LHC found "no basis for any conceivable threat". It acknowledged that there's a small chance the accelerator could create short-lived, mini black holes or exotic "magnetic monopoles" that destroy protons in ordinary atoms. But it concluded that neither scenario could lead to disaster."

" "What we want to do is get this machine up and running," Gillies says. "We'll show people that the world is not going to disappear." "

I'm on CERN's side, but that last sentence is not reassuring to anyone who isn't :)

You know, I did a background check on his philosophy, and some of his ideas seem quite plausible:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjxOt2u2BGM

Maybe he has a newsletter or something.. need we subscribe?

That 'tolerance' thing really bugs the shit out of me.

It's 'acceptance' or fuck off.