Simon

Seems like a stylized version of the software patent system... - Simon

"Can we get more people to obey the speed limit by making it fun to do? The idea here is capture on camera the people who keep to the speed limit. They would have their photos taken and registration numbers recorded and entered into a lottery. Winners would receive cash prizes and be notified by post. Better still, the winning pot would come from the people who were caught speeding." - Simon

So it'd be in my interest to encourage everyone else to speed … - Amit Patel

I heard an interesting podcast the other day about doing something similar with savings accounts to encourage people to save. http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010... - Benjamin Lee

"peru" also apparently is slang for "penis" in Portuguese. I don't think there is an analogous meaning for "turkey" in English. - Simon

They didn't think turkeys came from Turkey; they thought they were related to a kind of bird named for Turkey (turkey fowl). - Gabe

Yeah, you are right. They incorrectly thought they were the same type as a bird named after Turkey. Perhaps a better phrasing would have been: "turkey (bird) is mistakenly named after Turkey (country). Similarly, "peru" is "turkey (bird)" in Portuguese and is mistakenly named after Peru (country)". - Simon

"This has resulted in the ban of Digital Single Lens Reflex Cameras (DSLRs) in public, on the streets and in malls" - Simon

"you can’t even include [lamebook links] as part of a direct message or email to friends" - Simon

This was a mistake. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item... - Bret Taylor

That's really great to hear! Thanks for the link. - Simon

"the Gmail contact import button is now gone from Facebook property Friendfeed as well" - Simon

"Definition: fear of long words." - Simon

There was a huge argument about how much to show Steve, but the people who wanted to show him the demo won in the end. - Simon

"Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. So why are doctors—to a striking extent—still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice?" - Simon

Wish there was a year indicator. - Simon

""It's an entirely new lineage of life that was being eaten and sold in restaurants for food," says Grismer. "But it's something that scientists have missed for hundreds of years."" - Simon

Oops! I like the video. - Paul Buchheit

That's what the demolition team probably said. "Blast!" "Blasted tower..." - Louis Gray

"Uh oh" - Gabe

oops - Imabug

"adding extra capacity to a [road] network, when the moving entities selfishly choose their route, can in some cases reduce overall performance." - Simon

http://techcrunch.com/2010... - Simon

"Researchers at Britain's Oxford University studied 15 volunteers and demonstrated for the first time that electrical stimulation of the brain improved their performance in a series of maths assessments, and continued to do so half a year later." - Simon

"My buds over at LIFE.com asked me to come up with a list of common mistakes folks make when starting out with a camera in their hands." - Simon

"a one-month trial ban on carrying ink toner cartridges" - Simon

New Zealand Haka vs Tonga Siva Tau at the start of a rugby match. - Simon

I wonder if anyone has told Sarah Silverman that he has a German car. - Simon

I guess Germans exist to serve Jews too :) http://jta.org/news... - Private Sanjeev

"Friedman shoots the sky from his backyard in downtown Buffalo, New York. That means the usual celestial candidates — galaxies, nebulae, distant star clusters — are washed out by the glow of the city. But the sun is fair game, as long as the sky is clear and turbulence-free." - Simon

Do you know what telescope he uses? I managed to find pictures of his telescope but not the exact model. - Private Sanjeev

According to someone at work: "It's a 92mm f/5 Astro-Physics Stowaway. It's a triplet apochromatic design with a flourite element in the middle of an oil-spaced objective. There is a 90mm Coronado solar filter threaded into the hood, and Alan uses a Point Grey Scorpion camera + Astro IIDC software for capture + multipoint stacking. I believe he also uses a Baader FFC barlow in there, so it's probably closer to f/15." And a link: http://www.avertedimagination.com/img_pag... - Simon

Thanks! - Private Sanjeev

"Mr. Hurley, 33, will be replaced by a Google veteran, Salar Kamanga[r], but will remain an adviser to the company." - Simon

Dark green: signed and ratified. Light green: signed but not ratified. Gray: not signed. - Simon

Just reading a report on the Giants vs Rangers game. I have only the vaguest idea of what any of that sentence means. This must be what it feels like to read a cricket match report without knowing the terminology. - Simon

Here's perhaps a comparable sentence in a cricket match report: "Sehwag immediately gets the ball to grip outside Katich's leg stump, forcing a leading edge, but the ball pierces the gap between silly point and slip. Kato turns a full toss off his toes through mid-wicket for four." - Simon