In "A step-by-step guide"

I was always more of a fan of the lesser-known Vecon.

Yuk. Almost as bad as Marmite.

In "Curious, George: UNLURK!"

I don't think I count as a lurker, but I'm not exactly prolific. With that in mind, Hello!

In "You: Gorgeous. Me: A Gamer..."

£7.50 (US$13.15) for a drink at the place I went to on Sat, and that wasn't even a particularly special place. It was in Islington, though. Why do we put up with this!?

In "Curious George - York"

I was there last weekend, and enjoyed the Yorkshire Museum. I quite liked the 'evil eye' pub/internet café/cocktail bar/cinema/restaurant/off licence - if only because a place that can be that indecisive about their trade is heartwarming...

In "Excuse me, weren't you in the Fall?"

I'd be willing to like the Fall if Mark E Smith wasn't such a wanker. Seriously, I understand the whole punk-ethos- and maybe I'd feel differently if Smith was still young, and not an old man now- but I just can't get past his adolecent nature. When the great Peel shuffled off, Smith was on a Newsnight interview, and the complete disrespect he showed to Peel and his loved ones would've been tasteless from someone who'd never met the man, but was insulting from a bloke who owed so much to him.

In "Amazon Mechanical Turk"

Danielo, I would suspect that they would ask the same question to 3 or 5 humans, and take the 'best' answer. If one respondant is less likely to give the 'correct' answer, they might get a real human (one of their own) to check on their answers, or ask them specific questions where there is a real answer (is there a ball in this photo). It allows them to weed out fakes and reduces the personal nature of the answers.

In "When spinning tire rims just aren't bling enough..."

Having noted that they spell jewellery "jewellery", why do they spell tyre "tire"?

In "carbonated ice cream."

This needs to be made with Lemon Sorbet too. That would be the bestest thing ever.

In ""Stay hopeful that the crystalline amoeba poops your car out soon.""

Mr Knickerbocker: We in the UK do drive on the left, as do Ireland. I think we're the only two remaining in Europe to do so, however. Nal was right, just a little out of date- Sweden used to drive on the left, but changed sides in the 1960's. There is a map on this site (backed up here - I'm not sure how to inline graphics, sorry) which shows who drives which side. The page also has an essay on Sweden's change from left to right.

In "Curious George: In what order should I read the _Chronicles of Narnia_?"

Against Plegmund's wishes, I'd suggest that you read The Magician's Nephew later. Lion is to my mind the only one you can start with; Nephew is a good book but out of keeping with the others and most importantly spoils a bit of the storyline.

In "Live 8: Discuss"

My concern is that Live8 might have overshadowed the 'real' political pressure put on by the Make Poverty History campaign (I think it's called 'one' in the US? - different names but white wristbands everywhere) The news here in the UK has suggested that it wasn't as big a deal elsewhere in the world as here, but we brits haven't been able to escape the MPH people- and rightly so. The political pressure through them was very high; high enough for Blair to wear a wristband when he was electioneering. If Live8 has raised awareness elsewhere in the world, and as such increased pressure on the G8 members, then this is a good thing. My fear is that now Geldof has (as far as the media is concerned) taken over the campaign, what was almost a political uprising is now less impactful- the G8 could easily write off all those who took part as just being people who wanted to go see Bono play with McCartney.

In "Das Keyboard"

What, the Adams quote? Didn't seem worth pointing out... (Still funny though, thanks!)

In "Sudoku."

Fad. But one that I'm currently unable to put down. I look foward to seeing C-list celebs talk about how much they loved those little number puzzles on BBC2's "I love 2005" sometime next decade...

In "Darth Vader tries to pitch a movie"

It's actually an ad for Orange, the mobile phone network. They have bought the 'gold spot' - the only ad between the trailers and the film - at every cinema chain, and have been running ads like these for a while. They're all pretty good. Orange are my network, and every bit of junkmail I've had from them recently has been about Star Wars- I guess they've got an exclusive deal to use it in their marketing and are milking it for all it's worth!

In "The witchcraft in Harry Potter is real!"

In the actual article the author states that it should be known as the Philosopher's Stone. I mean, it's still mental, but at least he does point this out...

In "Curious George: European Vacation?"

I'm another Londoner with a fair bit of European travelling under the belt. Personally, if you're going by rail I'd suggest stopping off in Nice- or even better Antibes, there's a nice little youth hostel but you need to book in advance. The train follows the coast along there, beautiful. Plus, don't forget us here in the UK!

In "oh pollux! (flash warning)..."

pollux was actually British in the original, so he spoke in French but with an "oh I say" RP British accent (or so I've heard)

In "Metric USA"

And a pint's a pound the world around. (In other words, 16 ounces of water by volume weighs one pound. Just as easy, and it rhymes. Top that.) Er, does it work here in the UK where a pint is different? Anyway, Metrification is only good if it's actually carried out properly. I'm 24 so I think in metric (I haven't a clue about Farenheit, and I only understand an ounce as roughly 25g) but you frequently see things on the shelf as containing some random number of millilitres which stumps you until you realise it's just a pint. Our law's really strange on metrics- A pint is only still allowed to be sold at the pub or in a milkbottle that's delivered to the door- one from a shop is in litres...

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