From looking at their list of policies, I wouldnt say that this is out of the norm for the NCC, and I wouldnt call them mainstream.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 12:36 PM on June 30, 2005

Einstein was naturalized in 1940, so that doesn't bother me. I don't get why John Edwards is on the list, but John Kerry isn't.

I would have to agree on Neil Armstrong too...in 1000 years, assuming people are still around, I bet that the only two humans from the 20th Century that most people will know the names of are Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 4:20 AM on June 4, 2005

octothorpe, the one thing that makes desktop search important to me is email. I have about 13GB of email lying about, and being able to search through all of it quickly is great.

Of course, that functionality should already be in outlook, but it isn't (outlook has search now, but its not even close to being enough).
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 4:27 AM on April 18, 2005

grabbingsand, its because sonic booms annoy people and break windows, etc.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:49 AM on February 16, 2005

I like how the geekcruises website has a section on "convincing your spouse".
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 12:00 PM on January 20, 2005

Is there a site somewhere that lists the differences in privacy rights, etc between the US and our European friends?

For example, I have heard that in some nations (Germany specifically) you have to register where you live with a government agency.

What are the requirements to show ID in Europe to travel via air? (every time I have gotten on a plane in Europe, I have had to show my passport, but as a non-European, I kind of expected that.)
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:02 AM on November 18, 2004

I don't think that George Bush is eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil, and I don't think that John Kerry is a communist traitor. I know that puts me in the approx. 0% of metafilter members who don't have a strong opinion, but what can I say? I think that both candidates were overwhelmingly ambitious (you, of course, would have to be to want to run for president), and both of them are trying to do what they think is the right thing for the country.

Furthermore, the republic survived... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:27 AM on November 3, 2004

My college roommate is a cop (at least he was last time I heard, I am not very good at keeping in touch with people). He says it's hard to remember how nice most people are, since most of the people he deals with every day are not very nice.

I absolutely agree that the police in this story are at fault, and that the student in question was treated wrongly, but think about who the cops usually deal with....aggressive drunks, thieves, wife beaters,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:11 PM on July 9, 2004

I have been an officer in the army, and still communicate with many of my still-serving friends who are still in. There is ZERO desire among anyone in the military that I know for a resumption of conscription.

Many of the things that you are seeing in Iraq now, from the rotation of whole units (as opposed to rotating individual soldiers) to the emphasis on massive uses of force during actual combat, to an aversion to conscript armies, are direct responses to the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 2:43 PM on April 13, 2004

how is Microsoft withdrawing anything twine? The article says that Apple is not including IE anymore, not that Microsoft has stopped supplying it. You can still download IE for the mac to your heart's content (even thought I don't particularly like it on anything other than MacOS 9)
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 5:27 AM on October 29, 2003

not to beat a dead horse, but where did you hear that MSFT is going to pull the download? The website says that MSFT is continuing support and allow downloads until at least 31 Dec 2005
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 7:18 AM on October 29, 2003

I am not sure if I would call John Pilger a "respected journalist", as it appears that he has an axe to grind.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:06 AM on September 23, 2003

Yes, I am bad, bad bad. Would we call Pat Buchanan a "Respected Journalist"? How 'bout Rush Limbaugh? My point is that Pilger is not a journalist, he is an ideologue who is editorializing, not reporting.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:34 AM on September 23, 2003

yesterday, my son (also a kindergartener) was put on the wrong bus. I assume that the reason it happened (I am still waiting to hear back from the teacher), was because trying to load a couple of hundred 5-10 year olds onto busses is like herding cats, not because of some nefarious racial agenda on the part of the teachers.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 8:16 AM on September 5, 2003

According to this, US unemployment is lower than either France or Germany (and only .4% higher than Japan). These are 'standardized' rates (i.e. OECD came up with them themselves, without relying on nationally generated numbers).

In worker productivity, the OECD here, says that productivity growth in the US is rising faster than either France or Germany (fig V.8 on p 20).


The world economy, though, isn't static...if a nation (any... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 12:22 PM on July 28, 2003

Another French bestseller (from last year) is this, which says that the americans were behind 9/11. I wish this "AMERICANS ARE BAD" meme would die already.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 5:53 AM on July 26, 2003

the ad says that between 1999 and 2001, the pentagon "lost" more than 3.3 TRILLION dollars. According to this, in 2000, the military spent 313.3 billion. If you assume that 1999 and 2001 spent about the same amount, thats 939.9 billion. Where did the other 2.3 trillion go?
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 7:06 PM on May 17, 2003

even our staunchest allies think we suck. but they suck, right? we couldn't possibly suck.

How about "we all suck". I don't mean to minimize the horror of what happened, but friendly fire is not simply an American problem. The British even accidently shoot each other sometimes. Now, even ONE accident such as this is far too many, and all involved parties should work on ensuring that it never happens, but when you put a tremendous amount of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 4:41 AM on March 31, 2003

would we make fun of someone with cancer?
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:44 PM on February 10, 2003

OK, I have a question for MeFi-ites: What organizations are out there fighting against this? My first inclinations are to join the ACLU, but I am strongly opposed to their position on the death penalty (i.e. I don't have much of a problem with it).
Any guidance would be appreciated.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:13 AM on February 8, 2003

it may be that the reason that the introduction of the bill isn't being covered is because it has about zero chance of passing.

I am curious about the whole "the corporate media is helping beat the drums for war" meme. In looking at the MSNBC news front page right about now, I see the top story is "Blix: Iraq showing greater effort". Also, on the "America at War" section, there is a great deal of coverage on resistance to the war. I count... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 10:45 AM on February 7, 2003

well it could just have easily been Oracle, so I don't know how much I want to blame Microsoft on this one. If your patches are up to date, and your attack surface is minimzed (i.e. why in the world do people have open ports on the internet) you should be in good shape.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 12:59 PM on January 25, 2003

Meals Rejected by Everyone.

It was better if you ate them in the dark. You would just rip the top off and suck the food right out of the foil pouch, because usually your hands were so nasty with camouflage and dirt that you don't want to get any on your food.

mmmmm...good times.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 5:56 PM on January 16, 2003

its the same genre as Ben Schumin's website.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 7:37 PM on January 11, 2003

a guid new year? like {35CC94BD-A74D-474f-8BBE-F13BE600E407}?
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 7:34 AM on December 31, 2002

I served for 9 years, from 83 to 92, partly active duty, partly reserve. Part of that time, I was a basic training company commander. While I did that, probably 25 to 50% of my time was spent processing people OUT of the army who didn't really want to be there. And this was an all-volunteer force. I shudder to think what would happen if military service was not voluntary.

I think that having a conscript military is bad because:

1) I don't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 11:25 PM on December 29, 2002

why do people seem to think that by exposing the horrors of war to people will make war less likely? People seem to LIKE wars, if the history of the past 5,000 years or so is any guide.

I don't buy the argument that people, if they say the "horror" of war, would stop and mend their ways. People have seen the horror of war over and over and over again, and they like it.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 7:17 PM on December 17, 2002

newsflash! Lots of Canadians (and everyone at the Guardian) hate Americans (or is that US-ians?)
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 7:50 PM on December 15, 2002

"The key mistake Americans make is to believe that their money gives them power over people in their daily interactions"

i think this isn't so far from the truth. it's all a matter of respect for other people's cultures, and frankly these pre date any free market saccharine capitalist approach to shopping.

What about the stories above about the politeness of Korean and Brazilian shop employees? Is it because they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 5:26 AM on December 9, 2002

I cant believe mefi'ers are calling the rapture people smug. Pot, kettle...
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:11 PM on December 5, 2002

well, if you look at the features page , it says that the new features include:

Meet new friends with the MSN Member Directory
Stay current with MSN Today
Find all your contacts in a single address book
Help us improve MSN Messenger
Block spam

so that is SOME new features. And it's an optional download. And its free. And the "spyware" is turned off by default. I haven't seen the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:59 AM on November 26, 2002

I am glad that someone who you could at least argue was the greatest Briton won. I was half expecting the football player Beckham to tie with Lady Di and John Lennon.


I personally think that Churchill is certainly in the top tier of Britons, if for only his leadership in the summer of 1940. The rest of his career was very uneven, but those few months were sublime.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 5:09 PM on November 24, 2002

I quit 4 years ago, the day my son was born. I can't wait until I am 80, at which point I am going to start again.

My grandfather, who has since passed away, told me that he quit smoking in 1933 (my grandmother made him), and that every night after dinner, he wished for a cigarette. He was 91 when he told me that, and I tried to convince him to start again, but my grandmother wouldnt let him.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 4:35 PM on November 21, 2002

well, according to this, it was "son of a bitch", not "bastard", it was said by Cordell Hull, not Truman, FDR, or Nixon, and it was about Rafael Trujillo, not Somoza.

...but there is no evidence that anyone ever sent it, anyway.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 11:33 AM on November 11, 2002

I actually heard it being said by LBJ about Diem, but the dates don't really match up (Diem got assassinated, IIRC, before johnson took office). I am pinging a friend of mine who is a research librarian, to see if she can find an authoritative answer.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 11:50 AM on November 11, 2002

an economically powerful China plus the EU will give America some strong competition.

Competition for what?
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 6:49 AM on November 8, 2002

OK, I will admit that I am tragically un-hip, but WTF is a "furry"?
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 7:35 AM on October 22, 2002

I certainly am not leading the call to war parade, but I stopped listening to anything Helen Caldecott wrote about 20 years ago, when I read her screed Missile Envy whose major thesis, if I recall correctly, was that the cold war would never end, and that we were all headed straight to armageddon because the leaders of the United States felt sexually inadequate.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 9:25 AM on October 12, 2002

2. Passion for fruit? If you like to use produce to get the blood boiling, make sure it is GE-free. There have not been enough studies on genetically engineered foods to know what the effects on our diets will be, let alone the affects of using it for more intimate activities.

Oh my.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 5:39 AM on October 11, 2002

I'll confine my comments to what I've seen with my own eyes: normal American kids out on the town in Roppongi and Itaewon.


I agree with you that the behavior of soldiers offpost is frequently not very pretty, but to be fair, I have seen the same behavior (i.e. misogyny, racism, alcohol abuse, etc) in bars near military posts in the states too (and in Europe).


I have even seen the same behavior from... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 5:22 AM on September 20, 2002

God, I would LOVE high-speed rail to come to the states. It would get more people off the road so I wouldn't have such a bad drive to work.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 3:43 PM on September 19, 2002

It's good to see that Generals have not much changed since I got out in '92.
posted to MetaFilter by stupidcomputernickname at 7:42 AM on September 13, 2002