You did good, gravelshoes.

Yes, indeed. I actually used to play and try to construct rube goldberg inventions as a child. Needless to say, they almost never worked out as planned.

The game MouseTrap operates on these sorts of the principles. The game itself is somewhat dull. We just used to love setting up and deploying the trap.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 10:57 AM on December 30, 2002

Thing is when I first saw Instant Messaging, I was reminded of an old X-windows app called Zephyr which was, well, the same thing.
Anyone know more about this?
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 10:02 AM on December 18, 2002

as someone who was raised a Texan, and been to Mexico on numerous occasions, I'll make a blanket statement that TexMex is better than authentic Mexican

This is not even up for debate. Tex-Mex is a frontier cuisine and though it has innovated, has yet to surpass the variety and originality that is Mexican cooking. As tremendo points out, any student of Mexican cooking will quickly realize that it is highly regional. Sometimes it can vary from town to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 12:10 PM on December 13, 2002

I'm skeptical. Both of the main links strike me as little better than hearsay (no pun intended)

From the 2nd link:

In 1931 Leopold Stokowski spent 4 days at the site to determine the acoustic principals that could be applied to an open-air concert theater he was designing.

Stokowski failed to learn the secret.

Ok, well that was a long time ago. Surely someone else can go back... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 11:33 PM on December 9, 2002

How about, uh, Gladstone or Disraeli?

Too many popstars. Bono? Boy George? Bob Geldoff?
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 5:18 PM on November 24, 2002

One event occurred on 22 October, 1993, when, according to the researchers, something entered the Earth off Antarctica and left it south of India 0.73 of a second later.

The other occurred on 24 November, 1993, when an object entered south of Australia and exited the Earth near Antarctica 0.15 of a second later.

I thought these numbers looked funny. On reason to read the original article. The particles took about 17 seconds to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 4:54 PM on November 22, 2002

Wolfdaddy: The fact that the U.S. and Mexico, both low-scorers, are on a different continent altogether than the European countries makes me wonder whether this is a question of proximity and of coverage in local news.

I know that in Spain, watching TV, even the weatherman would have a full map of Europe and sometimes the near East right on the TV screen.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 3:49 PM on November 20, 2002

Ah. When you're 15 years old, you think you have all the answers.

Lemma 4.2.1
Guys who lack charm and a diverse experience of life and women will try to explain away their ill fortune with constructs like 'ladder theory'
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 1:52 PM on November 20, 2002

Ok. that was strange. I just posted a comment in a neighboring thread (iconomy's) about Miro's Blue series and then I come here and see it used as a Menu.

The opening landscape, by the way, is from the under-appreciated Di Chirico.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 8:44 PM on November 18, 2002

You mean Chagall?
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 12:11 AM on November 19, 2002

For what its worth, I thought this film was one big wank-fest.

Call me a rarefied aesthete, if you will, but this had that feel of a badly curated museum or of a K-tel greatest hits collection - uninspired cacophony. It was painful to watch.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 12:34 AM on November 19, 2002

I'm fascinated by rock gardens. The sight of one, even a photograph, causes me to shiver as if I've been lightly touched by some brief glimpse of transcendence.

I think the clue may be that the arrangement of the rocks lies in that space between pattern and nonpattern. There is a sense of intelligence and purpose in this arrangement and yet it defies our easy comprehension. Like receiving a message from an alien, we know that we are being communicated to but we cannot... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 2:27 PM on November 18, 2002

A disappointing article on a fascinating topic.

Meta, as the author only vaguely alludes to and then ignores, is not a new concept either in art (Magritte's "Ceci n'est pas une pipe") or in mathematics (Russell's early theory of classes.)

Meta should also be separated from simple recursion. The idea of Meta is to untangle the knot of recursion or self-reference. In this case, a Meta level allows us to discuss the base level.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 9:43 PM on November 16, 2002

*pipes in again*

I do think you could make an argument that Meta's arrival as a common element in pop culture is a new thing. Situation comedies never stepped out and referred to themselves as situation comedies. Discussion of the work within the work itself seems to have been only in avant-garde or high art.

The only counter-example I can think of is that of comedians who have always, for example, gotten laughs out of making fun of their own un-funniness.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 10:35 PM on November 16, 2002

I am also sure that GEB (Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid) refers to itself many times. Just browsing through the book I recalled just how funny the whole thing is. From a dialogue at the end of the book:


CRAB: ... In his absence, I'd like to tell you a statement in a Dialogue at the end of a book I came across recently.

ACHILLES: Not Copper, Silver, Gold: an Indestructible Metal Alloy?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 3:11 PM on November 17, 2002

Hmmm. I think it didnt show up as a duplicate link, Scarlet, because you used 8march2003.com and the original poster used www.8march2003.com.

Also, bryanzera didnt use march or 2003 anywhere in his post. I'm not sure how you could have done a better job of searching. It's interesting but someone else beat you to it this time.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 12:27 AM on November 7, 2002

I adore Svankmajer and I'm sure I've seen Arcimboldo's work but I do not know where; Its eerily familiar.

Thanks raygirvan. I also love your website.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 1:52 PM on November 2, 2002

I was thinking of something deeper in the psyche. Perhaps among the depictions of the Gods of Agriculture or Bacchanals or the Horn of Plenty or even modern Halloween pumpkins (Are not Halloween/Thanksgiving feasts of the harvest?) Its like I've dreamed this.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 5:46 PM on November 2, 2002

Beautiful! Thank you, Catch.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 3:50 PM on October 31, 2002

Well, we're here every year but....

I dream: posthumous Nobel to Jorge Luis Borges.

His influence will continue to grow. His writings are brilliant expositions of the deepest troubles and dreams of the intellectual mind. An essential author in the universal canon.

(plus, argentina could use the spiritual kick)
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 2:01 PM on October 9, 2002

Kind of like if you flip heads ten times in a row, the next flip is almost certainly going to be a tails, eh?

Yes. Thats how the selection committe works. They'll favor under-represented cultures and movements. They're humans not stochastic processes.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 2:29 PM on October 9, 2002

This is a guilty pleasure song, one I hum to myself under my breath and hope nobody around me has noticed. This and the banana-splits theme song. Are there any links to an MPEG or an MP3 of this song (as done very properly by the Muppets)?
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 9:38 PM on October 7, 2002

This is gorgeous, MrBaliHai. One of the pleasures of traveling through Europe, for me, is stopping at unlikely little churches that somehow inherited one of these pieces. I swear I saw a few that looked much like the Chasse of Champagnat that you link to but I cannot recall where.

Beautiful, ancient AND morbid. I dont know what else one could ask for.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 11:29 PM on October 6, 2002

A minor point to be sure but one which Berkowitz (the reviewer) manages to glide over gracefully: Is the economic comparison apt? It is disputable still whether we are or are not Homo Economicus (that is, rational utility-maximizing agents) so the premise here of deep rationality as a modern laurel in moral or even economic philosophy seems rather flawed.

My own view is that, philosophically, we can set demarcations at the extremes of most moral... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 10:12 PM on September 28, 2002

I can't help but notice that the titles of these pieces is a perfect example of how nomenclature affects perception. Why "information gods"? Why not "information junkie" or "information geek" or even "information ignoramus", in the sense of course of being a vain pretender to knowledge.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 8:04 PM on September 28, 2002

Ah. I cannot bear that the Russian Futurists have gone unmentioned. What do you literalists think, I wonder of Khlebnikov's delightful Zaum, of words where meaning bows to euphony?

Wonderful, mr. mediareport.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 6:45 PM on September 28, 2002

Posts like these are why I dont spend more time at Metafilter.
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 9:52 PM on September 26, 2002

To complete gyc's thought, have you considered NOT posting. Britney spears' sex life is not silly, it is just idiotic. Silliness is, of course, welcome but posters like Marquis can do it with style.

And who's Oliver?
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 10:09 PM on September 26, 2002

In 2001, the artist and director Terry Gilliam was taken with the work of Edward Gorey. Gilliam, of course is well-known for his role as Patsy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Gorey was taken with the music and ideas behind the creators of Shockheaded Peter

"Edward Gorey heard our music and sent over some unpublished texts and we put them to music. Terry Gilliam is thinking about whether we're going to do it and how we're going to do it. That's as far... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 1:56 PM on September 25, 2002

both of these facets of drug use facilitate creativity

It is still debatable whether any insights gleaned from this transcendent state can affect or inspire creativity in a sober mind. One can, as an artist or a lover of art, become exposed to a myriad of artistic styles and visions and perhaps feel overwhelmed or inspired - but is this a spur to individual creativity? The idea that I suppose I am trying to muster is that drug experiences are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Winterfell at 2:01 PM on September 14, 2002