The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Nathan Russell:

debcha@#51, I find it interesting that they *presently* ask about the communist party. Is there presently a communism exemption to the 1st amendment to go with the terrorism exemption to most of the others?

Also, how do you live in certain countries without affiliating with a totalitarian party?

I feel like everyone else here is doing a much better job than myself of following things, etc. I guess there's still one thing that really scares me. Kerry was leading in the polls by a lot, too, and still lost because the election was stolen in OH.

I know it's next to impossible for Obama to lose legitimately at this point, but could it still be stolen?

Bruce, I don't have internet at home, so I'm in a school computer lab. I've got 6-7 tabs open - a meebo window where i'm talking with various friends, this thread, the daily kos map, fivethirtyeight.com, and google's elections page.

Obama's catching up in IN.

Kat@176:

The networks don't want to call any state until its polls close, because that discourages people. If they wanted to, they could call DC, NY, CA, ... for Obama now, and likewise TX, UT, ID... for McCain.

When a state is safe, or darned near safe, the networks can reasonably call it as soon as the hour ticks over. That's the case in VT for Obama, as the first example that's easy to spot on the map I'm using.

Question: Does Obama pretty much have at least one of FL, PA and VA in the bag? If so, I believe it's over now?

#52: Was before I was born, but yeah, very likely.

For those who don't get it.

Rough hewn? Surely use the traditional Japanese lacquer.

Or just strike a match, so he knows how Iraqis have been feeling?

Skip @#28: Legally, probably yeah, but it'd make him look quite bad.

Honestly, Libby doesn't need a pardon. He is quite likely to get a vaguely defined consulting or "strategic leadership" job from some conservative think tank with Bush Sr. on the board, which will pay his fine and let him work (or, perhaps more accurately, not work) from home for his period of supervised release.

I'm guessing supervised release means an ankle bracelet, and not getting to leave home except under certain circumstances, like Martha got?

Bruce @#29,

Interesting. I somewhat wonder if that was due to historic dietary differences that are less the case now, in the case of colon cancer. E.g., women having less alcohol and possibly less red meat.

Of course, there'd be a counterbalancing effect in terms of women living long enough to get colon cancer. This is, of course, all speculation, and I'm not a doctor (in about 5 years I'll be a doctor of computer science, but I *still* won't get to have opinions, except on whether or not students get to pass...)

Hmm, my mom was told ten. Odd.

The article said he had one in June 2002, and had no problems. I thought that meant he got to wait ten years? I'd assume the President gets better treatment than the recommendations, just wondering if the later have changed (the former isn't likely to *ever* change...)

#74: It's rather apocryphally, but I heard at a gaming con about someone who said he'd politely listen to the LDS missionaries if he could then tell them about his religion. About 10 minutes in, he interrupted, saying it was his turn, and began reading from the Simon Necronomicon. Supposedly they never came back.

#163: Good point. For that matter, Wal-Mart wouldn't *have* to sue. They could simply tell the player manufacturers that they will not be able to carry players until they are compensated and receive assurance that it will not happen again. And, of course, in the meantime they won't carry new HD-DVDs either.

Albatross@#145, lawsuits?

Yes there's good reasons they wouldn't brick players, but I can't imagine lawsuits being one. A quick web search suggests hd-dvd players are down to $350-500. If you buy one which later is bricked, and you sue the company for the replacement cost, where exactly are you going to find a lawyer who will mount a case against a multi-billion dollar company and charge that little?

Chris@#92:

Heh, I was a counselor in training (read:unpaid slave) at a scout camp the summer I was nineteen. Well, I proudly told the other guys the week my own troop was coming to camp. Said troop stayed at a campsite that, like all the others, had a latrine complete with a bottle of bleach to deodorize the floor.

Well, my troop (or at least one particularly brilliant member) decided that he'd get it *really* deodorized by pouring the whole bottle of bleach down the latrine. Note that urea decomposes into ammonia (a major contributor to the smell which he was trying to alleviate). So what I believe one staff member termed a "toxic death cloud" came out of the latrine, we nearly had to move my troop to another site, and the other staff never did let me forget it.

Tania@38 - apparently in some campuses it's common to use liquid nitrogen to quickly get all the crud off lab floors when one's advisor is coming in.

Oh, the same chemistry teacher told us about an incident that happened at a past school (boys' Catholic school, in fact) where he'd taught. Apparently 2 students *filled* a gallon milk jug with gasoline, strung it on a rope between two trees, built a campfire under it and then shot the jug with a rifle. The video they made - and showed to the teacher! - ended with one of the trees on fire and them trying to beat it out with their jackets.

Hmm, in high school, we had a month after the AP chem exam before the end of the school year. With the teacher's permission, we did all kinds of dumb shit (tm) up to and including doing the H2SO4/sugar thing in a liter beaker in the middle of the room (no hood, evacuated a floor of the school briefly).

Also have heard about various Fun With Cryogens in Sealed Containers (tm) incidents that have happened in various university physics departments. Nobody got hurt though.

I have to wonder about the kid being temporarily blinded though... it sounds like he wasn't hit by anything, is it likely to be just the oxidizing effects of chlorine and/or hydrazine?

More to the point... kids will do this sort of stuff, and some will do it dumbly and get hurt. Likewise, some (probably a much larger number) will get hurt riding mountain bikes into rough terrain. That hardly indicates a need for a ban on mountain bikes, or a need to censor the internet to keep them from finding out that if you ride a mountain bike down a slope it can be fun.

Comment statistics for Nathan Russell on the Making Light blog

Total: 20 comments. View all these comments on a single page.