You've got to remember that these are just simple farmersI don't know why this is the case, but my biological father and his whole family are lifelong, active members of the Democratic party. Several have even held public office in the town and have sat on local Democratic committees stretching back half a century.

Perhaps this is because they are New England farmers. (Somers, CT to be exact.) Perhaps this is because they are Jewish, though the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 12:31 PM on June 10, 2008

Thanks for the clarification, stenseng and workerant. I feel a bit foolish, but it's not as if the sentiment isn't commonplace.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 1:33 PM on June 10, 2008

The jury on stretching is still out. Even professionals (physical therapists, sports medicine practitioners, personal trainers, and coaches) differ vastly in opinions on the matter. My experience has been that over the past twelve months or so, a new common ground has been reached and preached.

1) Always warm up at a moderate pace. For those who train by heart rate, this means roughly 60% of your max HR. The point of the warm up is to get the heart pumping and your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 2:53 PM on May 29, 2008

Not sketch comedy, I guess, but still one of my favorites: Fawlty Towers - Germans
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 2:10 PM on April 10, 2008

Ugh. And I thought finding pants was hard last season? I'm 5'11" with a 30" waist, but take a 32" pant to get a comfortable fit from a very small subset of designers. If I have to move into a 34" pant just to fit my seat or legs the fit is usually very wrong elsewhere. All this because I have, you know, muscles on my legs and an ass to match.

I hate pants. Now taking applications from indie girls who prefer I not be in them.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 9:41 AM on February 7, 2008

#!/usr/bin/perl -l

$_=scalar localtime;

if (/Dec 18.* (\d+)$/) {
  $a = ($1-1987);
  $b = $a % 100;
  print "Happy $a", $b > 3 ? "th" : $b == 3 ? "rd" : $b == 2 ? "nd" : "st", " Birthday, Perl!"
}

if (($_=shift) && /love/ || /hate/) {
  print "You... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 1:39 PM on December 18, 2007

Grr. Didn't check all cases.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 2:10 PM on December 18, 2007

sequential ♥'s robocop is bleeding.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 7:36 AM on November 2, 2007

There is very little detail I can share with you surrounding the events of what was dubbed "Connecticut's First Rave". It was the spring of 1992, to the best of my knowledge, but it could have just as easily been the fall of 1991. Skip and I arrived at the Ron-A-Roll skating rink sometime in the early AM. We were looking for friends, but instead found a couple of tabs of early morning sunshine, which we quickly ingested.

Within moments, I was lost. The apes... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 10:49 AM on October 26, 2007

Would it be inappropriate for me to mention the url of the competitor to RTMN that I work for?
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 3:06 PM on October 5, 2007

The coupon site I mentioned is Deal Locker. The newest product to come of my foray into the retail savings space is Buy Discount Gift Cards. The latter went live just today.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 9:04 PM on October 5, 2007

And while I'm linking to companies I work for: Poll: koo-pon or kyoo-pon?

Note to admins: please nuke both of these comments if they are, in fact, violations.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 9:11 PM on October 5, 2007

I am not so much a cringer as I am a clencher.

*unclenches*
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 8:43 AM on October 6, 2007

Not Borat.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 9:59 AM on October 4, 2007

I'm wondering if the intent of the absurdly low "normal" category is to fuel the multi-billion dollar diet industryBMI is the result of statistical modeling. Normal is not "absurdly low". In fact, it likely represents the sweet spot on the bell curve of "healthy" results witnessed. Stop using the BMI to determine whether or not you are fat. Only use it to determine if you are more or less likely to have health problems related to your weight.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 9:21 AM on October 3, 2007

Mach3avelli, if you lost the dog, that would drop at least 20 lbs off your weight and put your BMI in the normal range. I'm just saying.

Really? They denied you coverage for a BMI of 27? That's just ignorant.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 1:32 PM on October 3, 2007

If the article is any indication of the quality of the book, then the only statement the book makes about the current state of the sciences of diet, weight, and health is that everyone has their own opinion which they think is right.

I know, don't judge a book by an article adapted from the book, right?
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 2:06 PM on October 3, 2007

I was 28. Half of 28 is 14. 14 plus 7 is 21. She was 18. 18 is less than 21.

Are those of you advocating the "half age + seven" rule saying that the law should have been involved in this case? (For what it's worth, we dated for more than five years.)
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 6:57 PM on September 27, 2007

Weight loss is achieved through the amazingly simple formula of consuming fewer calories than your resting metabolic rate plus any calories consumed by exercise.

For example, if your RMR is 2,000 calories and you do not exercise at all, you could lose one pound a week by eating 1,500 calories a week sustained over a lengthy period of time.

There is no magic to how this works. It is, in fact, simple math. The person from the example above could... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 10:19 AM on September 25, 2007

Exercise can help you be healthier, but if you want to look beautiful you have to do more than run consistently.

That's incredibly subjective. There is no shortage of beautiful people who do nothing more than run, walk, bike, or swim (i.e. just cardio) to take care of their bodies. Do they look like Arnold? No, but I assure you there is also no shortage of people who think he's hideous and would prefer to never look like him or his female equivalent.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 10:37 AM on September 25, 2007

Are you saying, davejay, that your wife ate the equivalent number of calories, but only ate much healthier calories and lost 30 lbs as a result?
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 10:41 AM on September 25, 2007

But won't your body react to the fact that you've reduced your caloric intake and lower your metabolic rate in order to conserve energy?Yes, in fact your body will do this. The point at which your body does this is different for everyone, but anywhere up to 1,000 calories a day is considered safe from this response for most people.

The starvation response that you are referring to is quite natural and healthy. It is easily triggered by endurance... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 11:42 AM on September 25, 2007

I think I misread your point, aneel. Yes, your body does reduce the metabolic rate in response to ingesting less calories, but not in direct proportion. This is one of the primary reasons many doctors and nutritionists will tell you that diet and exercise are key ingredients to losing weight.

That said, you can still lose weight by just eating less. Personally, I don't recommend this method of weight loss. Changes in diet alone tend to indicate some, if not all, of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 11:54 AM on September 25, 2007

Treadmills and exercise bikes were created to cram as many people into a gym as possible. It has very little to do with being effective.Though I get your point, it's just as easy to get the same ineffective work out running on a track or riding a road bike. The problem isn't the treadmill, it's the average individual's understanding of how to exercise. There is, in fact, a science to it and I'd wager that more than half of us here are guilty of committing modern exercise... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 5:27 PM on September 25, 2007

The non-annoying equivalents, and this might just be the secret of weight loss:There is no secret to weight loss. It's an extremely simple formula for most people at most ages:

Consume less net calories (calories consumed minus calories expended) than your resting metabolic rate over extended periods of time and you will, in fact, lose weight.

Most weight loss methods, including the method in this post, are some form of this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 8:12 PM on September 14, 2007

Monetarists and Keynesians disagree. Story at 11.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 12:52 PM on August 29, 2007

You've obviously never heard of Viagra.

No matter what the advertising tells you, Viagra and it's ilk do not delay ejaculation or help a man deliver a worthy money shot. That said, Viagra did create an influx of male adult performers because having an erection in front of a film crew and being able to maintain an erection without the constant use of fluffers is, well, a skill that not many have without pharmacological assistance.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 10:03 AM on August 25, 2007

item, I worked on the Viagra clinical trials. That some may experience does not strike me and my memory as unusual, but Viagra is indicated only for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. That some may believe it is an aphrodisiac, that it helps them delay ejaculation, or deliver larger quantities of ejaculate is, at best, anecdotal and is not based on any clinical evidence used to get FDA approval for Viagra.

As you said: trust me. The tricky part here is not the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 12:30 PM on August 25, 2007

Look: would it help if I told you that the anecdote I heard came straight from my crotch? Do you really believe that the drug isn't successfully used recreationally by scores of non-ED suffering males - and females.item, the difference in what you're saying and what I am saying is that the drugs are not indicated for what you're saying they do. That means, clinically speaking, most people won't notice better control over ejaculation or increased amounts of ejaculate.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 5:31 PM on August 25, 2007

Wait, so if 35k of us chipped in $1,000 we'd get something less than an acre to build on? Where do I reserve my place in line? Too bad most of it is covered by what is presumably uninhabitable mountains.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 1:01 PM on August 17, 2007

I believe the quote in question introduced the article a where it was not intended and makes little sense. Fred Astaire was indeed pimp, used as an adjective. That said, as nice as it is to see Fred Astaire in the middle of my work day, this post, without any context, is no better than the results provided by searching you tube for fred astaire.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 11:47 AM on August 8, 2007

On post, what pracowity said. (And s/you tube/youtube/, damnit.)
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 11:50 AM on August 8, 2007

Anyone know who the marching band was at this Wolf Parade concert at Lupo's in Providence, RI?
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 12:52 PM on July 30, 2007

That's them, Miko. Thanks so much!
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 1:22 PM on July 30, 2007

What? I pipe Harmon Leon? I bit-shift Harmon Leon left and... uh, 255?

Thank you, Internet, for teaching me that I am not the only one who reads punctuation like this.

I ! Harmon Leon.

#!/dev/null Harmon Leon.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 8:02 AM on July 14, 2007

Great find. Thank you so much. It's like I'm fresh out of high school, rolling around at some obscene hour of the morning listening to 89.9 WQTQ. I can't believe I just heard Tim Dog's Fuck Compton again.

That said, if Funkmaster Flex could lose some of the ego and let his appreciation of the music shine through, I'd actually find him very listenable. However, he's defined the style many urban radio disc jockey's have copied. Now he and his copycats just grate on my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 1:16 PM on July 9, 2007

Flex or not, I can't stop listening to these. Thank you so much kosem and Dean King.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 1:58 PM on July 10, 2007

I live in Levittown, on Long Island. It's what I've always thought of as the archetypical suburb.

There's more truth in that statement than you might know.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 10:27 AM on June 27, 2007

I am lucky, for some value of the word, to have an immense capacity to operate without sleep. As the original gulf war broke the mainstream press here in the states, I was at an art opening in Greenfield, MA. For the next 120+ hours, I stayed awake, unable to sleep, but with the uncanny ability to recall virtually everything CNN said. On the blackboards of each room I had class in I vigorously wrote out every bit of news I had seen, sometimes spanning three walls before a professor stopped me.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 1:54 PM on March 23, 2007

The Copyright Royalty Board has announced new copyright licensing fees for internet radio stations. The new fees are a staggering increase over our previous annual royalty rate of about $22,000 to over $600,000 for 2006. And the fees are even higher in 2007, based on our current listenership, they'll be over $1 million dollars for 2007! (Which is 3-4 times what we hope to raise in 2007). If you think this is unfair to internet radio, and you are an American citizen, you can send a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 9:32 AM on March 13, 2007

I saw the movie this evening with my my fiancee and we both walked away pleased with the experience. Her general takeaway was that it was satisfying and entertaining, though she might say the same about Jackass 2 or Borat. I, on the other hand, really wanted to come home and play 300 the video game, but quipped, as only a person who no longer owns a PS3 could, "It would probably be a PS3 exclusive."

It's exceptionally violent and sexualized, but it's not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 8:46 PM on March 9, 2007

It doesn't matter what Miller or Snyder intended; 300 is about as beautiful and enlightened as Triumph of the Will.As you know, Triumph of the Will is widely considered, by critics and moviegoers alike, as a masterpiece, despite whatever one thinks of the narrative of the film. Want to talk critical distance? My grandparents and great grandparents escaped the Nazi's during WWII, namely because they feared for their lives as Jews. I've seen the film as part of a class on... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 8:58 AM on March 10, 2007

Just how egregious is 300’s offense? Well, given that graphic novel and movie are supposed to be “historical”, you wouldn’t think either would stray all that far from the historical record. You’d be wrong of course. Not only does the film do away with the Spartan’s known homosexual practices, but check out the difference between the actual King Xerxes (300’s villain) and the way he is portrayed in the movie. For the record, 300 makes no attempt to be historical. It does not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 8:35 AM on March 12, 2007

In my opinion, it's robbery but legally, it wasn't.If I were to retell my life as a collector in light of your comments, my memoirs would read something like a crime blotter. As often as I've felt that I've overpaid or or been shorted by a dealer on a sale, the fact is that each time I voluntarily participated in the transaction. Furthermore, as I got older, and I'm talking before I turned 10 years old, I knew there was a cost associated in doing business with dealers and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 8:56 AM on March 9, 2007

If you've seen Momento, then see it in five seconds.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 12:55 PM on March 8, 2007

Yeah, because me and everyone I know can't wait to all pull the chariot of the next big rich idiot.Yeah, because none of these websites provide useful services. Instead, sites like del.icio.us and flickr enslave you to do menial, joyless tasks that are exactly analogous to pulling a chariot. Saving a bookmark? Whip me, wealthy master, I don't think I can do this without proper motivation. Share my images with the world? Oh, mighty rich idiot, don't water me the next time... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 10:18 AM on March 8, 2007

sequential, I'm mainly griping about the brainless doublespeak of a philosophy that pretends to celebrate the "individual" but really depends on the predictibility of its needs just as much as ever.

Fair enough, hermitosis, point well made. Mea culpa.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 11:03 AM on March 8, 2007

E-THREE THE EXTRA TESTICLE

My first thought was, "There's a porn movie about Electronics Entertainment Expo and it has nothing to do with Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2?" Then the funny hit me.
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 11:46 PM on February 25, 2007

bob sarabia, my comment wasn't made in jest. It's a bug or a feature in the code that parses comments and posts, not in the HTML itself. The bug/feature adds a paragraph or line break element to the end of some elements. It's not something I can fix with preview to the best of my knowledge. Though I saw this on preview, I still, perhaps stubbornly, used what I, perhaps erroneously, believed were the correct HTML elements. Either way, I agree: the extra white space at the end looks bad and I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 9:21 PM on February 23, 2007

goodnewsfortheinsane, all references to Pisit Pornkitti on Google and MetaCrawler link back to the video. While not definitive proof, if there were someone named Pisit Pornkitti, we could expect to see references to that persons name other than those referencing the video. A search of the two names without the quotes also yields a similarly small set of results.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sequential at 1:09 PM on February 24, 2007