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mefi
Don't Fear Starbucks
Soon after declining Starbucks's buyout offer, Hyman received the expected news that the company was opening up next to one of his stores. But instead of panicking, he decided to call his friend Jim Stewart, founder of the Seattle's Best Coffee chain, to find out what really happens when a Starbucks opens nearby. "You're going to love it," Stewart reported. "They'll do all of your marketing for you, and your sales will soar".
Contrary to popular belief Starbucks, instead of destroying it, is promoting a thriving Mom & Pop coffee house industry. With the number of independent owned stores growing 40% between 2000 and 2005 and a less than 10% failure rate you might want to start looking for an empty storefront next to your local branch of Seattle's biggest export.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 11:37 AM on December 30, 2007
(121 comments)
Almost 7 years after the release of his previous film
Office Space, Mike Judge's
Idiocracy is being all but abandoned by Fox. Despite
favorable reviews and
fan letters exhorting Fox to give the movie a chance, Idiocracy was released to seven cities on the 1st September with no promotion, no official release poster, no press screenings and a post-production budget so restrictive Judge had to ask fellow Austinite Robert Rodriguez to complete some effects shots for free. Is it because the film skewers Fox subsidiary Fox News (as well as advertisers like Starbucks and Costco) that
Mike Judge is getting screwed (again)?
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 12:24 PM on September 4, 2006
(70 comments)
Robert Oppenheimer agonized over building the A-bomb. Alfred Nobel got queasy about creating dynamite. Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called "
monolithic insanity."
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 7:24 AM on March 9, 2006
(47 comments)
Oh
crap. Rumours are starting to emerge that following the death of his favourite consort Kim Jong-Il has retreated into virtual seclusion allowing the the military to take over in a defacto coup.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 10:42 AM on November 16, 2004
(35 comments)
The
60 best cheapest places to live in America.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 6:50 AM on August 19, 2004
(45 comments)
Sustainable oil?
Over the past few years there's been a growing theory that oil is not created from the decaying remains of ancient biological life but is in fact a product of the Earth's geological processes and that the current estimated oil reserves may be off by a factor of 100. This theory was made popular by
Thomas Gold at Cornell way back in 1992 and has led to much more recent
research (warning: heavy scientific conent) which supports the theory.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 2:29 AM on July 15, 2004
(32 comments)
Chinese Communism comes to a (seemingly) screeching halt.
Lost in the brouha over Spain was the report that the Chinese National People's Congress voted yesterday to protect private property rights. Some regard this as more symbolic than actually guaranteeing any concrete rights while others believe it is indicative of the growing importance of private business currently fueling the Chinese economy. The words
'Human Rights' were also put into the constitution for the first time.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 11:35 PM on March 15, 2004
(9 comments)
Hollywood? Old. Bollywood? That's soooo 2003. Make room for
Nollywood, Nigeria's own film industry which is growing by leaps and bounds every year, and is currently worth about
$45 million dollars. About 400 Nollywood films are produced every year many on a budget of around $15000 and are distributed almost entirely by VHS and VCD. The stories are very much
simplistic and pulpy (check out 419 Stalk Exchange. Yes, 419 as in the email scam) but are much
preferred by local residents and emigre's than the usual arthouse fair one often thinks of when talking about African cinema. Now if you'll excuse me there's a bucket of popcorn and a copy of
GSM Connection waiting for me in the living room.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 4:44 AM on January 19, 2004
(13 comments)
Rraagharghgh!! Braaaiinsss muuussst eeeeaaat
braaainnsss...
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 1:55 AM on December 5, 2003
(13 comments)
Jason Salavon
is an artist who creates images (and video) by averaging data to create seemingly complex amalgamations. From the
mundane to the more
exotic (and
nsfw) his work shows the
regularity inherent in almost all
media.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 1:12 PM on November 10, 2003
(9 comments)
Not happy with the level of scientific discourse on
The Discovery Channel Fed up with missing out all those keynote addresses by top scientists at various conferences around the globe? Fear not! The
Cable Science Network is gearing up for launch. Billing itself as
'a C-Span for science' they hope to use television to counter some of the
crap and
misinformation that usually rides the airwaves.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 3:54 AM on November 7, 2003
(25 comments)
Welcome to
VantiyDate.com, the world's most judgemental, shallow dating website.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 4:16 AM on September 14, 2003
(31 comments)
Dyke to open up BBC archive.
Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced plans to give the public full access to all the corporation's programme archives.
Wow! The BBC has archives stretching back to when the Earth was still cooling. And now it will all be available online and for free. [Via
Slashdot]
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 10:20 AM on August 24, 2003
(36 comments)
"Clinton was a good guy, but he did fuck all"
or so says Bob Geldof when it comes to Clinton getting aid to Africa. And he's just as critical about the EU as well (
"The EU have been pathetic and appalling, and I thought we had dealt with that 20 years ago when the electorate of our countries said never again...") pointing out their tiny contribution to the recent aid shipments to Ethiopia. But what about the Bush government you ask?
"You'll think I'm off my trolley when I say this, but the Bush administration is the most radical -- in a positive sense -- in its approach to Africa since Kennedy."
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 4:35 AM on May 28, 2003
(19 comments)
Just Nuisance, Able Seaman.
The only canine enlisted in the Royal Navy, Just Nuisance served from 1939 to 1944 in Simon's Town, South Africa (on his papers his occupation was listed as '
Bone Crusher' and his religion '
Canine Divinity League [Anti-Vivisection]'). Providing a great source of morale to sailors stationed there he would escort them on train trips and make sure they made it back to base after a night on the town. Of course being a sailor himself he was privy to a few brushes with the law as well by traveling on the railways without a pass (punishment: Confined to the banks of Froggy Pond, Lily Pool, with all lamp posts removed) or sleeping on an Officer's bed (punishment: Deprived of bones for seven days.). Married, and survived by five children, on his death he was afforded a funeral with full military colours. You can read his
biography (which spawned a television series), or merely pay respects at his
statue next time you're in Simon's Town.
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 9:18 AM on March 19, 2003
(3 comments)
What is MetaFilter?
metafilter is important
metafilter is cool
metafilter is different from most weblogs
metafilter is gone for good
metafilter is boring
metafilter is bad for me
More fun usage of everyone's favourite
search engine at
www.googlism.com. I myself, am said said to have the highest dispersive mixing capability of any compounder yet. Who knew!?
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 7:44 AM on November 3, 2002
(50 comments)
My name's not Brian!
Ryan Adams gives a fan a refund and asks him to leave a concert when said fan asks him to play
"Summer of '69". Have you ever been to a concert where the performer lost it at the audience? I guess even folk rockers can be divas...
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 2:02 AM on October 17, 2002
(119 comments)
Playing Chicken with Politics.
What do you do when a
defecting party from your
coalition ends up in another coalition with your
opposition (and thereby removing you from power in the local legislature)? Why you get a
giant chicken to follow the defecting party's chairman around for two weeks! Is this just political grandstanding? And even if so would it be effective? Would it work anywhere else?
posted to MetaFilter by PenDevil
at 7:20 AM on October 15, 2002
(6 comments)
