This is what I heard

Glenn Stockley, St. John's, NL, Canada — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 01:00:13 GMT

Giant hornet photo is definitely fake!!!!!

This is what I heard

Paul, Alamo, CA — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 01:09:34 GMT

"iTunes appears to have its own way of identifying music" - Will, I am not sure what you mean by this. When it rips music from a CD, it can usually use the CD-ID to look it up in the internet CD database. It is then stored in the AAC/MP3 tag area (WMA has an area for this too). When it cannot find the CD-ID or got the tracks another way, like most players, it uses the track length (down to milli-seconds) to narrow the field to a few matching. It can then do a candidate search and show possible matches. Newer methods create a "fingerprint", which is usually an FFT (signal composition) of a small section in one or more places. The FFT method is also often used to find illegal copies in P2P networks. Note that an FFT is not fooled by sound leveling, cleanup, watermarking, or converting from one format/bit-rate to another.

This is what I heard

Texas Sue from MIDLAND — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 02:55:41 GMT

I am very sad you have no comments yet. So, here is a comment. You are no longer commentless. You now have a comment from Texas, which is worth 1,000 non-Texas-originating comments. Thank you and continue clicking, pardner. I am going to go click on your link about the mechanism that can pull a person up several stories very quickly. It may be that I will encounter a pebble soon in West Texas and have need of this advice.

This is what I heard

Josh, Madison WI — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:02:25 GMT

Will, you do know what the Onion is, right?

This is what I heard

Will Femia — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:46:56 GMT

Paul, yes, that's exactly what I meant by that. Measuring track length is not something I ever heard of before, I thought it was an exclusive iTunes trick.

This is what I heard

Will Femia — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:51:13 GMT

Josh, yes, and my interpretation of that joke story in the Onion is that Dane Cook tells unfunny jokes about unfunny things for unfunny lengths of time and relies on being generally obnoxious and moving around a lot in lieu of actual humor. This is so consistently true that the Onion can write a fake story praising him for it.

This is what I heard

Sean N.Y. — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:18:22 GMT

Will, I hadn't seen Dane Cook before but remembered hearing his name so I went and wasted 5 minutes watching a clip of him on Google video (Youtube was down, and as a little side note; when a company reaches the heights that Youtube has I think it's time to lose the cutesy messages like "concoctions and formulas" in lieu of actual information about what is going on) and you summed up what his act is perfectly in your polite response regarding the Onion article. He doesn't say anything funny and it doesn't seem like he even tries to think of anything funny, he just says ordinary things AS IF they were funny. He reminds me of Family Guy style "humor".

This is what I heard

Will Femia — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 08:46:59 GMT

Sue, thanks. I hadn't approved any yet. Your point about the pebble is one that should have come to mind immediately and I didn't even think of it. If this gadget goes mainstream (and actually works) it would have a pretty serious impact on the sport of rock climbing. I have a feeling there will be a lot of "there goes the neighborhood" comments from that community when word of this device gets out.

This is what I heard

Mnementh, Callahan FL — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 13:22:25 GMT

The Giant Hornet is from Japan, and they're pretty wicked. One of those nature shows did a bit on them, and they make killer bees look like bumblebees.

This is what I heard

Shawn Lowe, Roy, Utah — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:09:04 GMT

The article on solar panels is encouraging. With solar power becoming more widespread we can put less co2 in our air. Now if someone figures out how to remove what's already there and claims Richard Branson's 1 million prize, things will be a little brighter in our future!

This is what I heard

Jason, Madison, WI — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:44:04 GMT

"Battery powered, but still really cool." Umm, would you prefer your rope ascending device to require a plugin?

This is what I heard

John, newark, delaware — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:23:52 GMT

Those giant hornets are from Japan. They are definately bad-ass.

This is what I heard

Sam Burgan, Park Hills, Missouri — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:53:18 GMT

Regarding the giant hornet, it's real. Here's the wiki on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet

This is what I heard

Will Femia — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:22:25 GMT

Jason, I want it to be mechanical so the fireman doesn't get stuck two floors below my apartment, dangling from a rope because someone forgot to charge to climbing gizmo.

This is what I heard

Paul, Alamo, CA — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:49:23 GMT

Regarding the hornets, you only have to look at the base of the URL you gave. The guy is saying hornets are actually gentle and only aggressive when really pushed to it. See http://www.muenster.org/hornissenschutz/hornets.htm, which is the English version of his pages. His page on that particular Asian one, http://www.muenster.org/hornissenschutz/vespa-mandarinia.htm, has a fascinating section on how Japanese honeybees can "bake" a hornet to death by surrounding it. It also has more pictures. Note that the queen

This is what I heard

Randall K, St. Louis, MO — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 17:39:05 GMT

Kudos to you sir, on your "Simpsons" reference. Not sure if you were aware of this, but it even has its own name. It's the "Overlord Meme". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overlord_meme#Overlord_Meme

This is what I heard

Bea, Portland, OR — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 17:39:59 GMT

The giant hornet is cool and all, but I appreciate your Kent Brockman-esque introduction much more than the photo!

This is what I heard

Tod — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 18:31:28 GMT

I saw one of those hornets in Korea and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I thought it might be a toy, but who would leave a toy like that on a tree on an Air Base? Upon further inspection..., it was real!

This is what I heard

John Brak — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:44:05 GMT

Sincerely a cromulent use of the overlord meme.

This is what I heard

kindjal, Carolina, PR — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:42:00 GMT

I know english as a second language so I am a bit confused, the opposite of death is LIVE why not life?

This is what I heard

Maria, Ann Arbor, MI — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:53:36 GMT

Those hornets are native to asia? I think we found one of those in our (sub-basement) lab once...It was bigger than my thumb. It didn't attack us, but it definately freaked me out.

This is what I heard

Nathan — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:28:35 GMT

"I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords." HA! I just finished a mouthful of a caramel colored, carbonated beverage (sweetened with aspartame) and had I read that two seconds earlier, I would have had some explaining to do with the IT folks here at work for damage to my keyboard and monitor!

This is what I heard

The Bob, The Country of Texas — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 21:42:52 GMT

I've seen some hornets or wasp in my yard, larger than that. I don't even get close to them. They make a nest underground. Gives me the creeps.

This is what I heard

Rob, Philly — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 10:12:35 GMT

Gentle? I saw a show about those hornets which showed them attacking a yellowjackets nest. There were close-up shots of these supposedly gentle hornets flying through a swarm of yellowjackets, tearing the heads off of as many as they could. It was chilling then, even more so now, seeing one on a hand.

This is what I heard

David Rochlin — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:54:31 GMT

I read about these hornets, somewhere. The popular name is "Yak Killer," so it was easy to look up their Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet

This is what I heard

B-Jane, Yardley,PA — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:00:08 GMT

My kids and I watched in horror and amazement as one of those hornet things attacked and killed (it took minutes) a cicada on our patio last summer. The noise was deafening. The cicada was too heavy for take-off, so it walked/dragged it up the nearest tree trunk, then out a limb about 20 feet up, and flew home from there. DO YOU KNOW HOW BIG A CICADA IS? We were sooo creeped out. We later saw what looked like the same bug crawl into a quarter sized hole in the ground down the street. I always thought those holes were snake holes. I heard they live only 2 per nest/hive. If there's more I think we'll have to move.

This is what I heard

Mike St. Clair, Riverside, CA — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 20:44:47 GMT

Will, While I can't say I've ever seen one of those Asian hornets, there is a huge wasp that lives in the desert regions of the Southwest. I'm not sure of its latin name, but it kills tarantulas to feed its young, burying both in the ground. It's sting paralyzes the tarantula and allows it to drag the spider to the hole it's prepared and cover it without resistance. They can be 2 to 3 inches in length and thier sting is rated as "I wish I were dead!"