Frank and Ernest prevails.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 8:33 AM on August 30, 2008

I don't watch it, but I'm glad Lifetime is there; at long last, there is finally something on television aimed at women.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 7:20 PM on July 22, 2008

I remember him most for his non-fiction The Dreams Our Stuff is Made of, an engaging, gossipy examination of science fiction in 20th century pop culture, including tropes, Scientology, feminism, politics, and more.

.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 8:01 AM on July 7, 2008

It's an example of a clbuttic problem resulting from naive design of swear filters. It backfires on words like "title" and "assassinate", which end up sounding more crude after translation.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 4:50 PM on June 30, 2008

That leaves only 15% who are fit. That's pretty depressing.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:26 AM on June 24, 2008

Anyone make it to the end of the article without falling asleep? Anything interesting in there?

Nah, tl;dr

I enjoyed Simon Baron-Cohen a lot more in Borat.

Though it did take a while for me to realize that when she asks "Are you thirsty?", she's saying "I'm thirsty; please get me a drink, and you know what I like". Not better or worse, just indirect.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:29 AM on June 19, 2008

Point: STOP BUYING.

Counterpoint: "I was feeling something was missing in my life, and turns out it was something missing from my closet! I was in Vegas recently and found a gorgeous Roberto Cavalli blouse at 60 percent off!"
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:33 AM on April 22, 2008

I got about 7 or 8

/praematurus schindleria
/and big butts cannot i lie like
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 11:10 PM on March 18, 2008

A truculent student of Zen
Revealed his insolence when
To sensei he bowed,
but uttered aloud,
"Ohayo gozaimasen."
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 2:07 PM on February 5, 2008

A link to this post?
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 11:31 AM on January 24, 2008

Dang, off by 2
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 11:32 AM on January 24, 2008

50 insights over 50 years would be even more interesting if they were evenly spaced:

1. You can crawl pretty fast when Mommy's back is turned.
2. If you slam the edge of your bowl really hard, your Cheerios go flying.
3. Infant siblings are high-maintenance, home-wrecking attention hogs.
4. If you wash down that bite of peas with a gulp of milk, the taste is less offensive.
5. ...
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 2:44 PM on January 9, 2008

Nothing whets the appetite like this being served at the next table over.

OT: I've always enjoyed how systematic the Taiwan city names are: Taipei, Taichung, Tainan. North, middle, south.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 8:09 AM on December 11, 2007

"After vigintillions of years great Kattullus was loose again, and ravening for delight."
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:55 AM on December 3, 2007

I've played in a cover band, paid gigs, but also have played Guitar Hero; and don't understand the hate. We might as well ask why kids waste time playing Grand Theft Auto when they could be out shooting real live pimps.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:17 PM on November 27, 2007

Maybe he'll land this Mary.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 4:21 PM on October 29, 2007

...I can usually tune all that crap out much more easily than I can people talking...

True; and there seems to be even a finer distinction. If someone else is watching TV, it's much easier for me to tune out a drama (where the characters are talking to each other) than, say, the news, or Oprah (where they are talking to the viewer).
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 12:16 PM on October 24, 2007

I have a really cool equation which this text input area is too narrow to contain.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:24 AM on October 19, 2007

I've just realised... I kinda miss ME TOO. Whatever happened to it?

IAWTP
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 7:38 AM on October 18, 2007

Schoolmates leaving their hexadecimal calculators unattended might return to a nine-digit number on the display: fece5face.

Good times, good times.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 11:11 PM on October 10, 2007

Ah, ruff. Just the way your mother likes it, Trebek!
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 1:28 PM on October 4, 2007

Interestingly, if we killed the Forbes 400 richest Americans and distributed their wealth among the remaining US residents, we'd all get about $400 each.

(wonders where the peak of that particular Laffer curve is)
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 3:44 PM on September 24, 2007

An oldie from Creative Computing, IIRC:

10 PRINT "YOU ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF A DEEP PIT."

20 PRINT "WHAT NOW?"; INPUT A$

30 IF RND(1) > 0.5 THEN PRINT "YOU DIED"

40 ELSE PRINT "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO ", A$; GOTO 10
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 5:15 PM on September 18, 2007

Before that were people like Clark Ashton Smith
... and creepy-crawlies like this.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:24 AM on September 14, 2007

No China Miéville? No Jeff Vandermeer?

Miéville already has a map of New Crobuzon in Perdido Street Station. (No freeways... I'm surprised Mayor Rudgutter hasn't thought of them. Clearing slums, fattening the pockets of your cronies; there are plenty of opportunities.)

Ambergris appears to have only one street. You could have a cartoony Chamber of Commerce strip map of Albumuth Boulevard with sponsored... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 1:46 PM on August 1, 2007

Everyone has a passing interest in food, but lately there has been this outbreak of reality TV and food TV, with Top Chef, Iron Chef, Hell's Kitchen, Rachael Ray, the Bam Guy, innumerable dessert-making competitions, and now this movie... and the enthralled fascination with all this stuff doesn't always make it from the couch to the kitchen.

I guess I always thought of "foodies" as people like to watch food being prepared on TV, and epicures as those with a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 4:34 PM on July 27, 2007

Hey, is it just me, or do you guys all get disturbing, multi-day erections if you think about the octosquid too much?

There's a newsgroup for that.

/ probably some .jp groups too
// not an expert
/// though I can GIS my username with SafeSearch on, and it's still NSFW
//// not a farker
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:31 PM on July 25, 2007

"Hapa" is slang for a mixed-race Asian ("hapa this, hapa that"). See link for photos of celebrities (I'm guessing SFW, but only checked a few) and regular people (headshots).

(@ Thorzdad: mixed-race placement seems to be a higher proportion than the general population... if that's right, is it due to more children being placed, or a higher proportion of children being adopted?)
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 9:46 AM on June 18, 2007

"With or without u..."
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:06 AM on June 15, 2007

Moiety? When was the last time...scratch that...when have you ever heard someone use moiety in a sentence?

China Mieville's Perdido Street Station: Lin, the Khepri, reminiscing about her childhood. Before that, never, not even in biology class. Otherwise, it's a perfectly cromulent word.

My nitpick with the 100 words list: it's horribly incomplete. These kids are going to graduate not even being able to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:22 AM on June 13, 2007

If the US Beef to China thing doesn't work out, maybe Bush can try India.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:14 AM on May 31, 2007

Also rare: Pitcher Nick Altrock is said to have won a game in 1906 for the White Sox without throwing a pitch. (He's known today only for his groundbreaking work in radio programming.)
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 1:46 PM on April 30, 2007

Boy some creatures really get the short end of the naming stick.

At least the slimehead and Patagonian Toothfish have been repositioned for American menus.

Slime eel => Tropical Slenderfish? Macadamia-crusted with mango-cucumber salsa?
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 2:23 PM on April 25, 2007

Reads like Dan Brown.

The Dan Brown Code
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 1:08 PM on April 13, 2007

spend 18 seconds loading up Reader so I can read the PDF

UI, ROT13'ed:

uggc://jjj.sbkvgfbsgjner.pbz/cqs/eq_vageb.cuc
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 4:42 PM on April 12, 2007

Can it plot a course between points or do you have to draw the lines manually?

Using the Google Maps API, you can... last time I tried this, it was labor intensive. You add pairs of (lat, long) to an array and the API will draw line segments between them.

I used it here, for a demo "follow the path of original CT route 8" page. The shaded overlay shows the original route. However, you can see where the line... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 4:39 PM on April 5, 2007

looked down upon the fat masses who ignore their equally fat wives and would try to join me now and then in mockery of them

Great, now I've got "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2" running in my head.

Also, "Wiidow" would make a decent neologism if the Wii weren't so conducive to social play.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 1:08 PM on March 28, 2007

But, weren't they involved in a scandal back in the way that involved them lip-syncing or using backup tapes in concert?

They were sued for allegedly stealing a melody. I seemed to remember it was "Shake it up" (how could anyone lay claim to such a simple song?) but all I could find was a reference to "Let's Go".

Anyway, assorted radio tracks ranked from Best to Worst (IMHO):
Bye Bye... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 6:27 PM on March 23, 2007

/home/dave>cvs log hr-5125

RCS file: /usr/local/cvs/hr-5125,v
Working file: hr-5125
head: 1.2
branch:
locks: strict
access list:
keyword substitution: b

total revisions: 6; selected revisions: 6
description:
----------------------------
revision 1.6
date: 2007/01/29 22:36:35; author: prez; state: Exp; lines: +25... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 3:01 PM on March 7, 2007

Opabinia has always been my fave.

Have these beasties shown up in monster movies? Well, one has: Ottoia, in Deep Rising. A few liberties were taken with the animal's form.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:10 PM on February 25, 2007

the most annoying thing about this word is how often people mis-pronounce it as chi-pol-tay. Chi-pol-tay. Sends a chill up my spine.

There's a carry-okie song in there somewhere
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 4:42 PM on December 31, 2006

Letterman: Obama, Osama. Osama, Obama.

(camera cuts back and forth to the faces of the two men, one pair of wrists bound by a red bandana, broke-neck bottles in their free hands.)

Paul Shaffer: aaaah ha ha ha!

followed by a major seventh chord (aw heck, make it a 9th) and 45 seconds of continuous applause
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 5:53 PM on December 15, 2006

Is there a term for this device, a la Mary Sue?
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 6:26 PM on December 14, 2006

Wesley Willis on Eazy E
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 6:08 PM on December 5, 2006

Reminds me of Bruce Tinsley's Mallard Fillmore, who's said to be a counterweight for Doonesbury, but the symmetry isn't there. Propaganda isn't going to balance out satire.

The Daily Show targets not only the politicians in power (mainly the GOP since '94 and 2000), but TV news itself. If both Jon Stewart and the media were liberally biased, you'd think he'd have nothing to say. But time and time again TDS points out how the media is kowtowing to those in power, not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 8:25 PM on November 27, 2006

Bono to the rescue?
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 9:54 AM on November 3, 2006

neighborino!
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 10:23 AM on October 27, 2006

One of the sports sites used to offer pennant race graphs... not animated, but still a compelling view on how momentum could shift over a season.

One example I did by hand was AL West, 2001, here (.gif) Seattle did very well overall, but really pulled away from the pack around game 40. The A's show their habit of starting 40-40 and finishing 60-20.

Are there still pennant race graphs out there?
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 3:09 PM on September 11, 2006

He visited our high school symphonic band (I played trombone); got to chat with him for a few minutes; then we saw him in concert at UConn.

He finished with "Hey Jude", and at each iteration of the "nanana naaaa", he played ^{another octave higher.}

It had me thinking of grains of rice on chessboards.

(<sup> tag was made for this gentleman)
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 8:33 AM on August 25, 2006

bim: ... ALWAYS have to sign their names, Dr. Joe Blow, M.D.

You probably enjoy those donor and sponsor lists (for art museums, school plays, and everything in between) peppered with "Dr. and Mrs. Joe Blow".

Have yet to see a "Plumber and Mrs."; those are among the donors with stealth occupations.
posted to MetaFilter by kurumi at 4:15 PM on August 24, 2006