I can't stop smiling!
posted to MetaFilter by po at 7:10 AM on April 19, 2008

Wonderful. And so timely for me! I just finished reading her book, "The Story of My Life." I am amazed again and again at her tenacity and the sheer joy she found in learning everything she could. She wrote the book in her third year of university, at which point she had not only learned to sign, read Braille, and speak in English, but also was able to read German and French. What an amazing pair of women!

I had no idea there was video, either . . .... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 7:11 PM on April 8, 2008

My website had that exact orange as the background color for almost a year.

It wasn't blank, though, so I guess it wasn't quite as awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 1:16 AM on April 1, 2008

No Squirrel catapult? I'm shocked. Shocked, I say!
posted to MetaFilter by po at 1:06 AM on March 29, 2008

Fantastic stuff. RFID really worries me, especially as mentioned in the article the future tagging of everything . . . at least in first-world countries. I'm glad I've got a chip-free passport, at least for the next 8 1/2 years, and chip-free debit cards, at least for another three.

As for everything else, well, yikes. To think that even what we say here can be rounded up and connected to our real selves, fairly easily in most cases, gives me serious pause.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 1:39 AM on February 16, 2008

The answers to life, the universe, and everything, brought to you by Spirograph.

Who knew?
posted to MetaFilter by po at 6:43 AM on November 16, 2007

I heard about this a few months ago, when I read an article about the new efforts to find wild devils in mainland Australia, which may yet exist, because they would be so genetically different from those in Tasmania.

It's fascinating that a cancer could spread in this way, and that it could be unrecognized by the immune system. Nonetheless, I wish this weren't in existence for us to be fascinated over, because this is immensely sad. Devils are -awesome- creatures, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 4:31 AM on October 30, 2007

Um, these have been around for a while...

And yes, some horses snore. I know of what I speak - I spend all night long next to horses. They also make some pretty weird and creepy groaning noises. But nobody cares if they snore, because nobody but me is ever around.

These strips were a fad for a while on the racetracks, but what with them not being effective, and with the unquestionable (according to race horse trainers) short-term... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 11:45 PM on October 25, 2007

Wow. And all this time I thought pussy-whipped stemmed from a term for female anatomy inappropriate for use in civilized company.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 6:04 PM on October 23, 2007

There are not enough ways to say DO NOT WANT.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 1:31 PM on October 21, 2007

They probably could have bombed the heck out of it with regular bombs, but what justification was there for that expense? The villagers weren't actively trying to infect anyone else. Much more economical to just keep them shut off, and maybe they'd just all die of it on their own, no?

Anyway, awesome post, thank you. These stories need to be told more often. It makes me wonder what kind of stories will come out years from now, of the secret heroes of our day, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 6:55 PM on October 19, 2007

Hrm. I got up to 47 quick-like, then dropped a couple, and somehow levels 42-44 seemed much more difficult the second time around, and it took me a good long time to get back up again. Ah well, a fun diversion nonetheless.

If they hired third-world children to count the grains of rice, it'd be even cooler, no?
posted to MetaFilter by po at 7:24 PM on October 18, 2007

I'm still voting Ron Paul. He makes me laugh harder.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 2:21 AM on October 17, 2007

I'm in ur heavin, rainin' holy rath.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 12:12 AM on October 9, 2007

saysthis - I don't in fact have serious data about this, but I can tell you a few of the probable reasons:

- it has never been a worthwhile venture to keep an animal for "a few trips into town a week," or anything of the sort. Remember that keeping a horse or a donkey involves -much- more than simply paying for it - which alone can be very expensive. You have to feed them, twice a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. And at $13 a bale for hay these days,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 5:26 AM on October 2, 2007

Doh. Lack of preview strikes again. I'm beaten to the punch many times over.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 5:27 AM on October 2, 2007

not to forget that a human can actually outrun a horse over marathon distances. if you want to make a trip of any considerable length, you need several animals at strategic points, and they need to be fed and watered when you arrive.

if you want to get there at walking speed, one horse will last you, but if you're in a hurry, it'll cost.
posted by klanawa at 8:36 AM on October 2 [+] [!]

I beg to differ.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 9:33 AM on October 2, 2007

What about Fern Gully? That one scared me for a good many years as a kid. I agree with a lot of the other ones, though - Brave Little Toaster, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Secret of NIMH, etc. And I hated and still hate The Last Unicorn, not because it was traumatic in the traditional sense, but in the sense of "Hey, here's a good idea: let's take a bunch of animators who have never so much as -seen- a horse and know nothing about their anatomy or movement and tell them to make a film... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 8:37 PM on October 1, 2007

troubles - if we're including non-animated, then definitely, The Neverending Story tops my list. After that comes Little Monsters, which gave me nightmares that lasted through puberty. I always imagined I could see the almost-invisible cracks in my wall where the monster had come through in the night and then re-sealed himself back inside, and once when I was very young I swear I saw that black clawed furry arm poke up beside my bed. *shudders*
posted to MetaFilter by po at 8:42 PM on October 1, 2007

I like pancakes.

Pancakes for president!
posted to MetaFilter by po at 3:13 PM on September 26, 2007

Justinian:

This is one unfortunate side effect of these types of quizzes. After you play with it a bit you realize that you are simply unwilling on any level to make the sacrifices necessary to get down to what they consider "1 planet." I know I am.

Excellent. You can offset my 3.8. I'll let you live.

monju_bosatsu, nax, and bonehead, watch out! *polishes sniper... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 1:17 PM on September 26, 2007

These ads were very much a part of my childhood as well, growing up in Sacramento, California.

Strangely enough, I also now have a good friend who used to date Calvin Worthington, Jr. He had shiny-new cars from the lot to play with on a regular basis, as befits the son of a dealership owner. One night, he had a pull-me-over-red Mustang, forgot his license, and was, of course, speeding like a bat out of hell. He learned the disadvantages of driving a car with dealer... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 7:30 AM on September 19, 2007

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I saw Father and Daughter years and years ago, and hadn't the faintest clue how to find it again. I love these simple, emotive animations (and likewise hate the overly-complex, hardly animated, emotionless and lifeless contrast found in some anime). Awesome stuff.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 9:22 PM on September 10, 2007

Here you go, squeamish folk.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 2:39 AM on July 31, 2007

Wow, those are beautiful. And, to me anyway, technically amazing as well - I find large scale images incredibly hard to render well, because of the inability to take in the entire picture at once and thus the loss of sense of scale. (What an awful sentence that was, but I think I'm getting my meaning across!) You -have- to be within a foot or two of your canvas in order to work it, but when your canvas is twenty, thirty, forty feet tall/wide, that's not very far.

I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 9:42 AM on July 16, 2007

Obviously, the people passing these idiotic laws have never tasted taco-truck food. Mmmmm...
posted to MetaFilter by po at 9:30 AM on July 16, 2007

Oh, my. That was -wonderful-. Thank you, ottereroticist.

I wonder if Obama is hurt that he got beat to the punch by somebody who didn't even have to campaign or do fundraising...
posted to MetaFilter by po at 11:38 AM on July 11, 2007

Ugh, do I ever hate Moore. Roger & Me was fine, and I even watched Bowling for Columbine and didn't hate it terribly... until I learned about all the crap he pulled there. Touting a cause is fine. Doing so by pulling "facts" out of your backside and using unapologetic creative editing to make people say what you want them to say and being an ass just to get attention is not, and will get no respect or money from me.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 5:59 PM on July 10, 2007

And I'll add that I am, in fact, one of the 50 million uninsured myself. Being that I'm bipolar and can't hold an 8-5 office job at 40 hours a week, I probably never will have insurance in this country. I probably agree with what he's saying, in a lot of areas. But nonetheless, I despise Moore and everything he's doing lately.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 6:01 PM on July 10, 2007

What an amazing site. I had no idea this stuff even existed, let alone its incredible detail and the precision it must have taken to create these pieces. I especially like this one. And it's a little creepy, maybe, but then I remember that in my (and my siblings') memory books from childhood, there is always that one golden, curled lock from "My First Haircut."

People deal with death in different ways. When our family dog died back when I was a teenager, my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 11:20 AM on July 10, 2007

Dude, this is awesome. Check out the rabbit on November 20, 2006. Third picture down, you can see it was a pregnant rabbit, with a little rabbit fetus left intact amongst the guts. COOL!
posted to MetaFilter by po at 3:07 PM on May 29, 2007

Whatever happened to just... lavender blue, dilly, dilly... dilly...? Silly.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 8:25 PM on May 28, 2007

... is that referencing how long this site takes to load?

I'm finding that aspect strangely uncompelling.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 10:38 AM on May 25, 2007

Awesome stuff, thanks for posting!
posted to MetaFilter by po at 5:29 PM on May 24, 2007

I've often found myself wishing I could yank someone's brain out through their nostrils.

Neat! The tomb's artifacts, especially the figures, are amazing.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 3:14 AM on May 24, 2007

You douchetard hoebag, stop posting lame-ass FPPs and listen to MY problems!
posted to MetaFilter by po at 12:46 AM on May 24, 2007

I'd post my results, but it'd look like I was bragging.

Which I would be.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 11:55 PM on May 23, 2007

Agreed with katillathehun - the idea of emo and "scenester" (or "seanster" as I've more commonly seen it spelled) culture is the display and glorification of the angst and pain of being a whiny sullen shithead teenager. The bracelets and wristbands are to advertise the supposed presence of their wimpy-ass scars (horizontally across the wrists and arms? wtf?), or even sometimes to hide their absence.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 6:43 PM on May 22, 2007

And I think emo pisses me off for two reasons.

1.) When asked, an emo will tell you that "emo" is short for "emotional." Which it is not. Emo is in fact short for "emotive hardcore," which is the music movement from which this crap culture stole the term. If you ask an emo what bands define emo, not one will answer "Sunny Day Real Estate." Idgits.

2.) Having been a hardcore cutter myself, and having... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 6:51 PM on May 22, 2007

ericb, thank you for alerting me to this wanker's meat preference. Ugh. There are many, many people who know lots of things about cooking and are -not- advocates of this, and they are the ones from whom I'll take my advice, thanks.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 3:15 PM on May 20, 2007

languagehat, how'd you get that conclusion out of what I said?

I simply have no need or desire to take cooking lessons from someone whose tastes make me physically ill. (and from the sound of those articles, his style of delivery doesn't sound charming, either.) If I feel the need to watch a cooking show, there are plenty of other knowledgeable folks who do not make me feel sick to my stomach that I can watch instead.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 3:27 PM on May 20, 2007

Um, ikkyu2, I generally like and respect what you say around here. But please do not tell me I need "self-discipline" to just get over it.

I've worked with horses since I was 6 years old, and have been closer to them than to many people in my life. I do not have any desire to "get over" my "hangup" about this particular issue. The idea of eating horsemeat, to me, has (as I'm sure you can guess) about the same emotional weight and impact... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 1:38 PM on May 21, 2007

Huh. I've known about this site for about 6 months now. I thought everybody knew about it. Yet another FPP opportunity missed... *sigh*
posted to MetaFilter by po at 1:49 AM on May 20, 2007

carsonb, I blame you for the fact that my shows no longer load up quickly. *glares, muttters about kids and lawns*
posted to MetaFilter by po at 4:05 PM on May 20, 2007

Muchas gracias! I've been worried how I'm going to continue my spanish once I leave California and its abundance of native speakers and easy access to classes. This will definitely help!
posted to MetaFilter by po at 12:44 PM on May 20, 2007

Please don't become an agoraphobic shut-in.

You people are creepy enough as it is. Cutting off your forced social contact would make me flee the web.

[DEFINITELY CREEPIST]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 6:57 AM on May 17, 2007

Yikes. I practically grew up on Fray and the associated community of amazing people that seemed to cluster around it in those days. I read their stories, kept up with their websites, was inspired by their lives and the beauty of their writing (on fray and other projects - Maggie's Colors, Alex then-Massie's afterdinner and assorted other projects, and... oh, man, regarding.com and glassdog and all the rest... Wow, nostalgia. Okay, back on-topic).

I hate to admit... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 10:20 PM on May 14, 2007

HAH! Yoo not get away from Sharkcat!
if u r small piece of meet, u shud probbly run. er, swim.
posted to MetaFilter by po at 9:36 PM on May 14, 2007

I bought a used Dream Theater CD once, because the title and cover art reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series and the character Morpheus. Took it home, gave it a listen -- or tried. I couldn't take it. The gist of the CD was

THIS IS ART AND YOU WILL LIKE IT BECAUSE IT IS ARTSY ART ART AND YOU ARE A PERSON WHO LIKES ARTSY ART ART.

I take it out every couple of years and try again, just to see if, in the process of growing up, I might get... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by po at 1:30 AM on May 13, 2007

Am I the only one who read [Warning: Gore in "Snakes"] as "Al Gore is in this video of badgers and snakes"?
posted to MetaFilter by po at 11:59 PM on May 12, 2007