Dude went to harvard, man. Cut him some slack.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 7:43 PM on July 23, 2008

Let's party like it's 1999.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 4:11 AM on July 14, 2008

If being western is about being euro-trashy, then Israelis are pretty much the gold standard for western civilization. Just kidding all my israeli (ars'eem) friends.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 10:52 AM on July 8, 2008

odd.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 2:57 PM on January 8, 2008

wow. nice find.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 3:07 PM on July 5, 2006

Fred Roger's off-camera cocaine use must always be referred to in print as "peccadillos." The longer but more accurate "blow off a stripper's tits" is unnaceptable.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 12:16 PM on June 26, 2006

This is why NYC is in a different timezone than the rest of the east coast. When you go there for the weekend, it's like living on L.A. time. Stay up 'til 4, get up at 12:30. That's only 9:30 on the west coast!
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 4:55 AM on June 22, 2006

Do not diss on the Skratch Picklez. Thank you.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 5:21 PM on June 21, 2006

I saw this demo at CHI. It's very sexy. But sexy is not always useful. I have my fears that this kind of interaction, even if all the kinks were worked out, is only good for about 5-10% of the tasks a typical user has with typical files and folders. That doesn't make it useless, but it does raise questions about a) what users do b) what they want to do or would do if the interface afforded it and c) what things could they do even if they didn't know they wanted to.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 5:18 PM on June 21, 2006

Catholics are very liberal. Except on abortion. It's a fucking wonder they don't have their own party (like they do in many countries), but if they did, you can bet that they'd side with the liberal side of the isle much more than they would with the conservative side (liberal and conservative here are used in the context of modern U.S. politics).
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 5:45 PM on June 16, 2006

Go, Georgia! We're not Alabama, but Lord, we're trying!!
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 10:23 AM on June 16, 2006

From kottke to metafilter in: 10 days.

From metafilter to NPR in: 3 days (prediction).
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 5:52 AM on June 16, 2006

This thread is pretty amazing. Animated gifs have come a long way, baby!
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 7:20 AM on June 15, 2006

Nice Boehner! Damn, beaten by Greg Nog.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 9:17 AM on June 14, 2006

Glad to see that Bush and cronies are not using the old canard that Iraq had something to do with the attacks of 9/11. Because they promised us that that is not what they meant -- and that if, say, everybody in the U.S. started to believe this, that it was a spontaneous mass delusion.

Way to elevate the debate, Mr. Boehner! Way to argue about facts and history and policy!

Number of 9/11 hijackers from Iraq: 0

Number of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 9:43 AM on June 14, 2006

Last!
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 7:42 AM on June 8, 2006

Israel has been trying to give back the territories since 1967. The Palestinans didn't exist at the time, so they tried to give it back to Jordan. But nobody would take it (Jordan doesn't have that much love for the Palestinians).
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 6:31 AM on May 29, 2006

Here's how the NSA got the records. AT&T (and Verizon and others) gave the NSA logins to the systems where the data was stored. This means that they didn't *transfer* the records over to the NSA. But hey, maybe after the NSA boys logged in, they made copies of the files, but there's no way to know that now is there? So this is why they all claim a very clintonian "there is no arrangement between us and the NSA." That's true, if vacuous.

The NSA certainly... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 2:09 PM on May 17, 2006

I'm with dobie. TIA, man.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 11:50 AM on May 17, 2006

See also: Polaroid Pop Shot.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 1:24 PM on May 12, 2006

Malor, all voices are welcome here. Midas' especially. Midas we miss you so please come back more often. There are lots of questions we have about being a conservative these days. I mean this in all sincerity. Without you and den Beste and aaron commenting, this really does bercome an echo chamber.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 6:10 PM on May 11, 2006

It's also a fallacy (or at least historical revisionism) to say that Europeans assimilated nicely. Where do you think all those Irish, Italian, and Polish jokes came from? The fact that there is a "Little Italy" in NYC, a "Little Poland" in Chicago, and a "Chinatown" in nearly every big city (in Atlanta, we have fewer Chinese and more Cambodians, Vietnamese and Koreans, so their neighborhood is (pejoratively) called "Chambodia") means that the immigrants... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 8:05 PM on May 10, 2006

One way to help out the "start-up bootstrapping" (chicken and egg problem) is to donate a sum into each account when it's opened. I.e., if the first $5.00 was free, then it'd be worth it for a reader to "give away" $5.00, real dollars, to their favorite blogs. But IndieKarma is only doing $1.00. It's not enough -- I signed up and I think that sum will be out within a week or so. Or at least it will be if Matt signs up the 'fliter.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 4:38 AM on May 9, 2006

Well sweet! Now that we've got that out of the way, we can get ont to finding a democrat who can win. Warner, for example.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 10:50 AM on May 7, 2006

Two Words: Billy Bass
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 6:45 AM on May 7, 2006

Fuck bubbles.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 10:02 AM on May 4, 2006

That misquote is certainly what she'll be famous for.

But I don't see what the problem is. A "people" only rallies around, and becomes a people (i.e., gains an identity) when it has a reason to do so. The Palestinian people's reason was the creation of the state of Israel (1948). Many of the Palestinians today are Jordanian (west bank cities like Nabulus and Bethlehem) or Egyptian (Gaza). There was never any need for them to define themselves against the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 5:43 AM on May 4, 2006

Remember the Polaroid "Pop Shot" Camera. Well this is that, but for the swinging new century.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 5:37 AM on May 4, 2006

Grrrrr, bad punctuation.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 5:37 AM on May 4, 2006

Just FYI, all of the big oil companies are insured against these state take overs and other geopolitical events. They make a call to their insurance company and say "Um, yeah, our [minority stake in blah | $900 million dollar facility | 200 employees] just got nationalized." It's weird, but it's true.

The risks you take to make big money involve big risks.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 10:24 AM on May 3, 2006

Um, am I not getting it?
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 5:43 AM on May 3, 2006

Yeah, but what you describe is a "search engine".

Except this one suh-ux, hard. For example, a search for movies yields 25 posts. Um, ok. And you have to sign up for it. And it certainly doesn't help you track memes as they spread -- no who posted it first, no blogdex or technorati style gainers, losers, fast spreading versus slow spreading, etc. etc. etc. No network visualization graphs of which nodes (sites) stole which links (edges) today,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 7:00 AM on May 3, 2006

Rough Ashlar, we've been rationing civil liberties pretty aggressively, no? Especially if you're a dirty immigrant or foreign student. Now take off your shoes, belt, sweatshirt, keychain and bend over.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 7:50 AM on May 2, 2006

Paris, I couldn't agree more. But planning (and paying) for a 50 year occupation is not something that would be (or will be) popular. Sucks to be the republicans.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 7:47 AM on May 2, 2006

loquax, I don't know if you know it but the 77% approval rating is just the weighted average of the approvals of the Shia (the vast majority of Iraqis, out of power and persecuted under Saddam) and the Sunnis (minority, friends of Saddam's). So, um, the fact this is 90% to 10% is much more telling than the overall approval rating. If only 10% of Sunnis think that the U.S.-led invasion was a net positive, then that's very very bad.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 9:35 AM on May 1, 2006

The wording of the FISA law specifically states that it (FISA) is the *exclusive* means by which the justice department can surveil people on U.S. soil. Here is an explanation. The word exclusively is in the law. And therefore, any surveillance that doesn't comply with FISA is against the law. FISA is a provision which limits the president's powers in Article II.

Plus, you're really being a dick. Don't suggest that people get mental counselling. Find some links to back... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 4:30 PM on April 20, 2006

b_thinky, please read my evidence (hint: they actually quote the law) and then respond. Or find a law professor who agrees with you. Thanks!
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 4:31 PM on April 20, 2006

b_thinky, read it and weep: Uchicago Law School Faculty blog.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 4:34 PM on April 20, 2006

so hot. Love the self-portrait (monochrome, near the bottom).
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 7:50 AM on April 20, 2006

When I went to Moo and Oink (at 65th and Stony Island Boulevard), they had t-shirts for sale. These were white shirts with the Moo and Oink characters on them (cartoon cow and pig) and then the tagline for the store "Moo and Oink - All the Meat you Want to Eat!" Ok, whatever. But then I saw the boxershorts, with the same tagline, "all the meat you wanna eat" At that point I a) burst out laughing and b) tried to buy a pair. But the only sizes they had were XXL and XXXL. Crap.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 6:07 PM on April 18, 2006

Making fun of someone does not make you a bigot. It just makes you funny. Just look at jonmc. Think he's a bigoted nazi?! Fuck all, he's just funny.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 7:31 AM on April 18, 2006

What's not to get. Blobbies can be any shape, but they always retain their smile. They've got a catchy themesong which helpfully lists different shapes that blobbies can take, including cavemen, calculators, and cranes. Oh, and they have adventures.

Geez, some people on metafilter are really slow in the head.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 5:38 AM on April 17, 2006

pics are up. Hanger fills up with foam. Then they open the big bay doors and the foam runs out onto the tarmac. Woooooo.

Kinda funny, but not nearly as good as the trucks-with-cranes-falling-into-a-river set that went around a few years back.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 1:50 PM on April 16, 2006

metafilter: amateur sociolinguistic chav analysis
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 6:55 AM on April 11, 2006

on topic: I agree, this is kinda bleh for me. Sure it's funny to make up names for hypothetical hobos, but isn't that like making up 700 names of pornstars and illustrating that?!
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 6:56 AM on April 11, 2006

Cope's work, according to an AI researcher I work with, has passed the "musical Turing Test," insofar as one can play a Bach fuge and one produced by the system and a "lay" music listener (i.e., not someone who knows every extant Bach work) will claim that they're both by Bach (and therefore, created by humans).

This is not a unrestricted turing test however, as people up-thread have pointed out: Cope *selects* good works (works that match his... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 6:48 AM on April 11, 2006

This is a brilliant idea. With a sickeningly sweet website. Get suckers to pay you money to come and visit you on your island. Give them manual labor jobs during their vactation. Profit!!!
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 6:26 AM on April 10, 2006

What's signal and what's noise in a thread about a dog with a dyed mohawk?!! Fuck all. Me want the funny: all of it.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 4:27 PM on March 24, 2006

Every other year, somebody publishes a book called the State of the World Atlas. Cartograms on every page, man! It's truly a book of geo-policy-statistic porn. Love it.
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 11:21 AM on March 24, 2006

jfuller, I'm glad you're (still) here. It's good to have some voices of reason here. Even if I respectfully disagree with you.

You claim that it's better to have equal-opportunity government funded religious charities. I'd rather have the government provide equality of opportunity by itself, without any reilgious influence. Second to that, I'd rather have private charities, sponsored by collecting monies from private citizens. These organizations do tons of good, for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zpousman at 7:24 AM on March 23, 2006