Biffa, to clarify: the first step in making a "glow in pollution" fish was apparently making a "glow all the time" fish, which is what the US company is selling, so people don't have to do something sinister like pouring mercury into the tank just to light up their fish.
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 8:53 AM on December 20, 2004

For anyone even tangentially involved in the world of film, IMDB Pro is more than worth the $100 a year price. It adds in film-by-film business and box office data, compiled with the same compulsive completeness as the free part of the site's information.
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 10:48 PM on August 4, 2004

Even having been to several of their events, I second Miyagi-san's lack of enthusiasm.
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 3:33 PM on July 2, 2004

In New York.
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 9:35 PM on June 22, 2004

On preview: Reklaw beat me to it. But those not familiar with the classic psychology experiment, The Stanford Prison Experiment, would be well advised to check it out.

In it, 24 college students were randomly assigned to be 'prisoners' or 'guards', and left for a week in a simulated prison environment. In an amazingly short stretch of time, both sides began to take on their assigned roles with surprising vigor, the 'guards' in particular quickly becoming controlling... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 12:54 PM on May 10, 2004

Jazzers frequently lean on Locrian scales as well; they work very well over half-diminished chords, especially when trying to emulate an early bebop sound.

And, to chime in with everyone else who's already said so, great links!
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 1:34 PM on March 16, 2004

I aced it, though I actually took a couple of classes back in my neuroscience undergrad days that covered FACS (the system this study used to differentiate between real and fake).

Interestingly, FACS can be gamed. With a bit of practice, several of us learned to fake smile well enough that we'd qualify as the real thing. Should you wish to do the same:

1. Try a convincing fake smile in front of the mirror. Yep, no crows-feet crinkle, eyebrow... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 8:58 AM on February 8, 2004

Tastefulness of the game aside, I simply fault it for lack or reality. Everyone knows girls can't throw.
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 12:48 PM on February 6, 2004

Why do natural cataclysms like this never seem to strike the world's wealthy?

Actually, just earlier this week, an earthquake of very similar scale (Richter 6.5 versus this one's 6.7) hit an even more heavily populated swath of California, yet only two people died there, rather than the literally thousands of times as many likely dead in this disaster.

As digaman points out, nature is out to get us all, no matter how full... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 11:15 AM on December 26, 2003

From the trenches:

As I live down the block from one of the wi-fi'd McD's in Manhattan, I've hauled my laptop over on three separate occasions to try and test out the system. Unfortunately, all three times, neither the cashiers nor the on-duty managers had any idea what I was talking about.

Sorry, McDonalds, but getting this program to work requires more than just plugging in new hardware; without employee training as well, the pilot should... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 9:36 AM on July 9, 2003

These people are my heroes.

Honestly, though, I'm always shocked by what news outlets will run, and by how quickly stories spread. While at Yale, some friends and I managed to spread our "Porn n' Chicken" meme to publications that really should have known better (e.g. Time, the NY Times).

Oh, and formlessone: sure, this sort of troublemaking is vastly time consuming - but it can also certainly pay off. Once we built up enough momentum,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 9:03 AM on May 27, 2003

I suspect the outrage is centered less on the use of scholarship monies to recruit talented chess players, and more on the fact that the recruited chess players are well beyond collegiate age, having returned to academics after time in the "professional" chess world. It's the difference between, say, scouring high schools for up-and-coming soccer players, and scouring FIFA games for established players who don't have an American undergraduate degree and might therefore attend college... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 8:54 AM on May 24, 2003

The report seems to exclude a rather major source of spam: your address appearing in the email headers of friends' mass forwards.

I.e. your friend sends you and ten other people an MPEG of his gerbil dancing the hula. Though you delete the message, one of the others who received it finds it funny enough to pass along to their friends - they forward the entire message, and your email address, appearing in the header of the original message, is therefore forwarded along... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 12:13 PM on April 30, 2003

How have so many producers and studio execs completely forgotten how ill-conceived this whole anti-tech song and dance was 20 years back, when the VCR was first introduced? At the time, MPAA prez Valenti testified to congress referring to the new technology as "the Boston Strangler of the American film industry," apparently slightly underestimating video sales & rentals' eventual role as a significantly larger revenue stream to the movie biz than theatrical distribution (video... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 8:35 AM on November 16, 2002

I've always been partial to the title "A Midsummer Night's Cream," a film which apparently nearly lives up to its name.
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 8:13 AM on November 16, 2002

I've discovered a therapeutic and highly productive way to deal with telemarkerters: as soon as I realize it's a scripted call, I say "can you hold on for a second," and put down the handset. I don't mean I hang up; I mean I just put the handset on the counter, then go back to doing whatever I had been doing before. Usually it takes the caller several minutes to realize I'm not coming back. And during that time, I figure I'm saving at least five or six other citizens... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by thomascrown at 8:22 AM on October 27, 2002