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tsackett's Comments
Re: Woody Guthrie: Jesus Christ
Written to the same tune (and theme) as the song "Jesse James".
By: tsackett
Re: Waffle Bike
I love the massive iron cap that protects the whipped cream. These are used on compressed gas tanks. I suppose the whipped cream can qualifies.
The machete made me nostalgic. Back in the very early days of mass-produced mountain bikes (1983) I mounted one just like it to the frame of my Mt. Fuji.
The machete made me nostalgic. Back in the very early days of mass-produced mountain bikes (1983) I mounted one just like it to the frame of my Mt. Fuji.
By: tsackett
Re: Safety and Stability Make Biking More Fun!
The video demonstrates that, in principle, adding a fast-spinning flywheel to a bike makes it more stable at low speeds. However, it doesn't show how they get that flywheel spinning. I checked out their web site. They've been working on this for two years, but their site says they're still figuring out how to get it spinning. They mention "a flick of a switch or a push of a button", which suggests that the flywheel requires some sort of battery power. They also can't say what it will be made of or how much it will weight, but point out that it "has to be made of a heavy material." It's hard to believe that there is really going to be a practical product based on this idea.
By: tsackett
Re: The Muppets Sleep Tonight
The original creator of the song was Solomon Linda, of South Africa. It took sixty years for his heirs to regain the rights to the song.
By: tsackett
Re: H2O Car - Water Powered Car
Repeat after me: "water is not a fuel, water is not a fuel, water is not a fuel". Reporters never ask the obvious question, which is: where is the energy coming from to break down the water into hydrogen? The makers of this car suggest that it is a chemical process, which means the actual fuel is something else (commentors on another site have suggested this car uses lithium metal or gallium-aluminum pellets.).
By: tsackett
Re: Ron Paul: The High Tide
From CNN, discussing the various Ron Paul newsletters:
The controversial newsletters include rants against the Israeli lobby, gays, AIDS victims and Martin Luther King Jr. -- described as a "pro-Communist philanderer." One newsletter, from June 1992, right after the LA riots, says "order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks."
The controversial newsletters include rants against the Israeli lobby, gays, AIDS victims and Martin Luther King Jr. -- described as a "pro-Communist philanderer." One newsletter, from June 1992, right after the LA riots, says "order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks."
By: tsackett
Re: Ferguson: Julia Sweeney, Letting Go of God
She's actually very funny in small doses. I've enjoyed the short bits she's done on This American Life, but I rented the DVD of her monologue "God Said Ha!" and couldn't finish it.
She was also in Pulp Fiction, playing the niece of Mr. Wolf.
She was also in Pulp Fiction, playing the niece of Mr. Wolf.
By: tsackett
Re: Jill Nicolini: The Dancing Weather Girl
They called the black man in the suit "boy" twice. What the hell are they thinking?
For those of you outside the U.S., white people here once called all black men, no matter how old, "boy." It could be used as an intentional insult, but wasn't usually; white people took it for granted that black men were inferior.
For those of you outside the U.S., white people here once called all black men, no matter how old, "boy." It could be used as an intentional insult, but wasn't usually; white people took it for granted that black men were inferior.
By: tsackett
Re: The Indestructible Man
This movie was featured on MST3K, and is on their latest compilation. To me, it's actually an interesting film, because it shows LA's Bunker Hill neighborhood. This was an area of large old houses and apartment buildings that had become a slum. During the destructive urban redevelopment of the 60s, the city not only evicted all the residents and tore down the buildings, they physically destroyed the hill itself. The movie shows how interesting this area was.
By: tsackett
Re: Robot Chicken: The Lion, the Witch and the Locker
This was great. "Turkish Delight" does sound kinda sexy.
By: tsackett
Re: TEDTalks: Ramachandran, A Journey to the Center of Your Mind
I don't completely buy his arguments about the shapes and the sounds and the connection between creativity and synaesthesia, but most of what he said was pretty compelling.
By: tsackett
There is some really, really scary stuff happening. Wolf tries to tie it all together to show the repeat of an historical pattern that leads directly to fascism. She backs up her claims with a lot of historical material. It's hard to argue with her unless you're an historian, and can show that she is distorting or misinterpreting history. The only thing you can do is to look at all the crap that Bush/Cheney, etc have gotten away with, and ask yourself if it has really brought us to the brink of fascism. I don't see it.