Sure, it won't be the same. And it may be horrible. Remakes often are. But they can also be inspired. I'm getting the impression that they've taken enough time and care here that it's not simply cranking out a quick cash-in on people's memories. So, don't be unmutual. Let's hope for Battlestar Galactica, and not Wild Wild West
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 4:41 PM on August 30, 2008

The fools. When will they learn that the only permissible answer to any behavioral issue is harsher punishments?
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 6:31 AM on August 19, 2008

Pathethic. Just pathetic.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 12:31 PM on August 5, 2008

Despite the fact that I'm strongly against the death penalty, I'm frankly angry that the prosecution decided to withdraw it.

There's no contradiction there. One can believe that the death penalty should be eliminated as a matter of policy. That doesn't imply that in the interim you're pleased to see the penalties that Federal prosecutors are asking for be changed by cynical gaming to gum up the court system.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 7:29 AM on July 16, 2008

Reminds me of Elena Dorfman, though I think her work is better.

Also, "deliberately posed in elaborate costumes" is pretty much the opposite of "found," isn't it?
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 6:40 AM on July 14, 2008

"No one told me there would be unremitting noise every Saturday for the rest of my life.”

Yeah, well did anyone tell you that before investing $1M in real estate, you should do enough due diligence to find out about an unconcealed 40-year pre-existing condition?
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 9:58 AM on July 9, 2008

Looking back on the recent deaths of Jesse Helms and Bozo the Clown, I'm rather saddened to see Bozo the Clown pass on.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 11:24 AM on July 4, 2008

redacting it instead of explicitly correcting it has me just totally dizzy at this point

Perhaps, we're merely looking at the sort of people who prefer silently deletions to making explicit corrections.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 8:26 AM on July 1, 2008

silent, dammit. Aging fingers.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 8:29 AM on July 1, 2008

I shouldn't have snarked. I don't hate Doctorow, I think he's at least a mediocre-to-good author, and I agree with him on most of the issues the advocates. And although I don't believe that Boing Boing can be fairly described as a "personal blog," I surely believe that Happy Mutants LLC has every right to control what appears under that company's header. I'm just baffled that the people involved would want to do this to their reputations. You know that for years to come, every single... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 9:03 AM on July 1, 2008

Soooo... let me get this straight: Everyone over at BB has had plenty of time to think through this, and they all agreed that secrecy was the best policy. Cory Doctorow, specifically, signed off on this ages ago and knew all about it whenever he's advocated against the secrecy and censorship of others for the last year? Does that seem a fair statement to other readers? Or am I just missing something here?
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 9:57 AM on July 1, 2008

To hold a personal blog to standards of public service and impartiality, and cry betrayal when they fail to live up to these standards, is taking it a bit too seriously.

True enough. And though I don't think an LLC with employees and merchandise is a personal blog, I won't argue it. I don't especially take Xeni Jardin to task over this, for example. But Doctorow, specifically, is also a political advocate. When the way he handles his... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 10:22 AM on July 1, 2008

and we still don't even know why all the Violet Blue posts were deleted yet

Does it matter?

If they just don't like her hair are they not within their rights to deny her their referral traffic and page rank?

If she's the real killer that got OJ Simpson's and Hans Reiser's wives does that make throwing history down the memory hole OK?

I don't think we're necessarily entitled to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 11:20 AM on July 2, 2008

overglow, no, just human, i guess

Joel: If what you want is time is evaluate the situation and decide on a response, I think it's deserved. I personally hope that response is something along the lines that WCityMike suggests.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 1:06 PM on July 2, 2008

Look! Over there! It's a black and white scarf. She must be a terrorist like that Barack Hussein Osama guy! Ooh! Over there! A rainbow scarf! Supporting San Francisco values! Stay distracted, plebe. Forget about that curtain and whatever might be behind it.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 10:01 AM on May 28, 2008

I never understood what value film critics bring to society anyway. They could all be taken up in the Rapture and I'd never notice.

Well, Doohickie, there are really two types, and each has a different value:

A film reviewer's value is to help me avoid wasting my time and money on crap, and assist me in finding things I'll enjoy. He or she is part of my defense against misleading trailers and other attempts to get me to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 7:18 AM on May 9, 2008

Why, thank you, pushing paper and bottoming chairs.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 9:26 AM on May 9, 2008

People like Sim are always a delimma for me -- I'm not conflicted about to feel towards a garden-variety gay basher or racist or misogynist. And, on the other extreme, I can only feel sorry for someone like Bobby Fischer, who seemed obviously mentally ill. It's the edge cases like Sim -- where I really can't tell if they're in need of help, or just being assholes -- that I never know how to deal with or feel about. I suppose I should just be glad that Sim, luckily, isn't my problem in real life.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 8:33 PM on May 6, 2008

For the record, the video linked above the fold does not have remotely the sort of hysterical tone suggested by some of the links below the fold. While she does suggest -- briefly -- that the US is moving towards a more polarized income distribution of rich and poor, that's not the centerpiece of her lecture, and she's not climbing into a bunker. The video itself is primarily an attempt to answer the question "How come my Mom and Dad mostly had one person working, while I and my SO both... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 7:56 AM on May 1, 2008

of course, people don't like to talk about that

She makes that point about schools. A bit timidly for my taste and one of the areas I wish she'd gone into more is the cost of fleeing the cities both to the individual family and to the broader community, but that inevitably leads to the question of "why?" and "why?" is a minefield I can't blame her for not wanting to venture into.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 8:37 AM on May 1, 2008

So, I guess Scalia will be voting that any sentence over eight years is cruel and unusual, right? Because, y'know no matter what the consequences or degree of guilt, it's old news. Odd, isn't it, that he's all in favor of OTHER people's misdeeds affecting THEIR lives beyond eight years?
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 8:04 PM on April 25, 2008

I'm left simply puzzled by this -- most people advocating some position or other are delighted to see the ideas spread. I'm trying to imagine Richard Dawkins getting angry at someone spreading the atheist viewpoint without crediting him. Or, if he's too white and too male, to imagine Michelle Obama taking offense that someone repeats an endorsement of Barack without giving credit that she said it first. Is it a question of power dynamics? Is it that when someone closer to the white/male/wealthy... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 10:33 AM on April 23, 2008

Umm, sorry, that was suppsoed to be " when someone closer to the white/male/wealthy pole repeats it, it seems to be theft"
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 10:35 AM on April 23, 2008

.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 7:46 PM on March 18, 2008

Am I the only one to think that the nature of what Wales was doing matters? If it's Jimbo partying with his friends, that's one thing. If Wales is closing a $100k contribution, that's very different.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 6:54 AM on March 11, 2008

I'm not sure why we're seemingly associating the "spends foundation money on personal stuff" concern with the "sells edits for cash" concern. Blazecock, do you see a connection there that I don't? I though they were basically separate types and instances of accused wrong-doing?

And yes, batmonkey, I agree that taking $5k for edits is much more troubling than 6 bottles of $100 wine. It's just that the edits are are a question of Merkey's word vs Wales'.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 7:32 AM on March 11, 2008

The amusing thing about lacessit to me is that if one assembled a blue-ribbon panel of scholars: linguists, historians and etymologists, chaired by Queen Elizabeth; to answer the question, they'd eventually be excluded from even discussing or voting on the issue, since they haven't made enough edits. Whereas the way to actually get it settled is to use back channels to convince some admin to summarily ban disagreeing users as sock puppets and open proxies.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 10:45 AM on December 19, 2007

I'm so glad that I wasn't the only one geeky enough to both (1) try and think who they were cosplaying as (Guu? Sonozaki Shion?) and (2) be annoyed at my low success rate.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 9:07 PM on November 12, 2007

It's about what I expect when we've given these kinds of powers to Amtrak conductors and various other "private security" agencies.

Sadly, had the blogger made a scene, he would probably simply have gotten tasered and hauled away. Because a loud complaint is "threat" these days. And, honestly, had the entire f'ing train full of people gotten off in sympathy; who here imagines Amtrak would care, or that anyone in power would even blink? I hope I would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 4:11 PM on November 8, 2007

I have to confess that I'm really lazy about this and usually just use one of those "just add water" mixes. A little more expensive but very convenient.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 1:07 PM on October 26, 2007

You'll never push some people off supporting gay rights whatever you do. For instance, you won't lose me if the next gay pride parade is a spectacle to make Robert Mapplethorpe blush.

You'll never gain some people's support no matter what you do. Fred Phelps won't care if you dress like LDS missionaries and march singing spirituals, he'll hate anyway.

But there's a vast in-between. There are people who vote on their emotions, and whose emotions... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 12:16 PM on August 9, 2007

No Mutant Enemy: Why is this bad? That other nations see fit to let their criminals roam the streets is no determiner that the USA should do likewise.


Right. The determiner is that their strategy seems to work better. The reason we might think about copying the Canadians or the Japanese is that the citizens of Montreal or Osaka are noticeably safer walking the streets at night than the citizens of Detroit.

I'm... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 6:30 AM on July 20, 2007

jonmc: Wait a minute. Yesterday in the NFL Dogfighting thread the string-'em-up brigade was out in force, now we're all sweetness and light and compassion and rehabilitation. Call me when we get it straightened out.

I don't want to see anyone anally raped over the dog-fighting. A few lashes in the public square and enough fines to bring his lifestyle down a bit for a time would suit me fine. If that makes me all sweetness and light, because I don't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 6:51 AM on July 20, 2007

it involves tears, guilt, regret, and it will take as long as it takes. Could be thirty days, could be thirty years.

We make the mistake, I think, of treating all crime as if it's one thing.

If the crime is "selling crack on the corner," then talking about tears and regret is nonsense. If you are a convicted felon in the inner city then it's quite possibly your most rational career choice, and it's a social policy... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 7:20 AM on July 20, 2007

Why on earth is anyone surprised by this?
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 4:25 PM on July 2, 2007

In general, World Famous, it's the notion that the hate crime, by virtue of those special circumstances, necessarily involves a violation of the victim's civil rights under the constitution. But even more generally, the whole idea of "the federal government has no jurisdiction," has been so eroded as to be meaningless. If nothing else, by killing him, they've effected his ability to engage in interstate commerce - and that clause is routinely interpreted far more torturously.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 11:31 AM on June 20, 2007

I'm with the many who like motivation-based sentencing

This particular case was murder by torture -- in many jurisdictions it would already be eligible for the death penalty. Is that not sufficient?
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 11:44 AM on June 20, 2007

A narrow decision raysmj -- one that's arguable even with a neutrally-crafted hate crimes law ("his life and work and economic activity have an impact on commerce that the simple possession of a firearm in Lopez did not") and one easily worked around in legislation.

But don't mistake me for a supporter of over-broad interpretation of that clause. I'm not. I merely recognize the sad reality that it's a rare law which gets stricken because... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 12:10 PM on June 20, 2007

At what point to the feds take over the show?

Ideally, they do not, and the presence of the feds as a watchdog which can take it over serves to make the actual act unnecessary, by motivating the local authorities to do their job.

Less ideally, they take it over at the point where a US attorney decides that it in his or her professional judgment it is warranted. (Hard to say that line with a straight face under the current administration, but I'll try)
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 12:16 PM on June 20, 2007

When I was child, yes, I wandered for miles away from home on a bicycle, unreachable for hours at a time at 10 years old.

Had I parented my own child that way, my ex-wife would have had child protective services and police at my door for child neglect. Very possibly, some over-enthusiastic public "protector" might have agreed with her. So it's not entirely a question of what a parent wants -- society's expectations of what's reasonable parenting contribute to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 8:15 AM on June 15, 2007

It could be an interesting train wreck to watch, but it's really not possible to form much of a rational conclusion based on the one-sided vitriol spewed here. Alan Rodgers mnay be everything that Moran claims, but we can't tell when all we have is Moran's assertions. In particular the tired old trick of "extracting a very short exchange from a deposition, acting like every spoken word was uttered with deliberation, mathematical precision and reference to a dictionary, then wrapping it up... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 9:06 AM on June 14, 2007

I didn't mean you were spewing, thanatopsis. I meant Moran. Hope it didn't come across the other way.

I saw the link the Rodgers' (blog? forum?) but Rodgers isn't really doing much to argue it. I don't think I blame him -- I assume he's keeping his mouth mostly shut on advice of counsel -- nothing you say in blog can ever help ongoing litigation, I expect. It can only hurt and I assume he knows that.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 9:45 AM on June 14, 2007

Yeah, Heywood, I certainly don't have any sympathy to spare for this jackass.

But then again, I can't find much for the people he owes financial obligations to, either. He owes it to mortgage companies and other financial institutions which are hard, professional players. If the property isn't enough to truly secure the loan, and if they gave this clown the cash without looking too hard at him, they deserve some hard questions from their equity holders, and not sympathy... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 9:33 AM on June 1, 2007

I would guess, dios, that it might be worth money not to viagra salesmen, but rather to people "selling" mortgages at predatory terms, or outright scamming them.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 11:15 AM on June 1, 2007

I don't buy an equivalence to Boston here -- or are we just drawing the comparison that when big-city public safety professionals react to a lite-brite in the same way that small-town bank tellers react to a faxed picture of a bomb, it doesn't speak well for the professionals?
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 8:30 AM on May 31, 2007

I don't believe that most people really think AAC is some Apple-locked format. But I also don't think most people know what AAC is at all. What they do know is that .MP3 is "the one that's free from restrictions and plays anywhere." So I think, JKF, that it's not so much a misconceived bias against .AAC so much as it is a wariness about anything not .MP3.

But much as I'd rather just see them selling .MP3's, it is still a step forward, and I hope DDA is wrong... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 11:09 AM on May 30, 2007

Bad news. But while I was going to snark, gcbv just put my feelings into words better than I could have. That phenomena always puzzles me a bit, too. Certainly it seems to happen enough that it invites paranoid thinking that such acquisitions are intended purely to destroy the thing being acquired.

"don't panic?" flaneur? Hmm, that's what they always say.

On a less unhappy note, I also think it's interesting that I've always had much... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 8:04 AM on May 30, 2007

I do sort of wonder how many of these are the equivalent of Learn Windows 3.1 in 31 days or The Regrettable Food Fad Diet.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 6:10 AM on May 29, 2007

Rather than speaking ill of the dead, let me simply say " ".
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 11:20 AM on May 15, 2007

It's not like this was a high school -- it's more like a 30,000 person town that it takes an hour to even walk across. I can understand why they didn't close everything down on the first incident -- can you imagine closing every road in and out of a town for an indefinite period because two people were shot there? Telling the whole town that they cannot leave their homes?

I agree that the campus police didn't handle it as well as they might done -- but then again I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 3:19 PM on April 16, 2007