I always wished I could have ridden the Kalakala - the world's only art deco ferry (which was once featured on Metafilter).
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:42 AM on July 22, 2008

I think the image I had of the boingboing editors (as passionate, uber web-savvy, gadget heavy, technology consumers) has been thrown off base. Reading through this thread, I've come to the conclusion that the boingboing editors either didn't know what they were doing or that they just didn't care that much about the blog. Their long delay before responding, the use and defense of the word "unpublish", disemvoweling criticism, antagonistic moderators - these all make it seem like they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:36 PM on July 21, 2008

Somehow I missed this thread from a few years back. It's got to be in the top 50 for home made Halloween superhero costumes.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:55 PM on July 11, 2008

He might have been a lackluster journalist, but he was our type of lackluster journalist: a regular blue-collar type of guy from Buffalo who you'd want to drink a beer with while talking about how great dads are. He was easy to like and he never called you and if you ever called him, he'd assume anything you said was off the record. If, during your conversation, you happened to illegally out a spy for political retribution, why, he'd resist testifying that you ever leaked anything and he sure... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 3:58 PM on June 13, 2008

Sorry if my above comment was overly snarky. I enjoyed watching Tim Russert (which made his shortcomings that much worse) and I'm sorry that he is gone.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 4:01 PM on June 13, 2008

I've been buying used copies of the Griffin and Sabine books and have been longing for some postcards from mysterious lands. Thanks for the, um, post.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:55 AM on June 8, 2008

in which young children were shown video of a woman beating up on an inflatable Bobo doll

Just for the record, according to the link above, the models were live and not on video: "After having settled the subject in his corner, the experimenter escorted the model to the opposite corner of the room. . ."
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 11:11 PM on June 1, 2008

Will the can of beans be stopping at any of the Bean Around the World coffee houses in Vancouver or Victoria BC?
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 5:55 PM on May 21, 2008

I got a chuckle out of the Pig's Ass Porter tap.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 11:02 AM on May 16, 2008

Thanks for the post. I really enjoyed the book Cry of the Kalahari (by Mark and Delia Owens) which talked a lot about hyena behavior. It's a great pop-science book on animal behavior (and an amazing adventure story).
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 10:12 PM on May 7, 2008

Somehow, someway, at the intersection of bad sci-fi movies and late night musical commercials stands Freddy Freaker.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 4:40 PM on May 1, 2008

I liked this line from the Dan Froomkin column on the event: "At the end of [Bush's] speech, the man who waged war against the press received a standing ovation from the conquered."
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 10:22 AM on April 28, 2008

Thanks for the post. It reminded me of the Australian radio host Steve Abbot (the Sandman)'s tips for share house living:
-Make sure you're the second person up in the morning so you can talk about the others, before they talk about you.
-Since most people love themselves, if you can be more like other people then it stands to reason you'll be more popular.
-Make friends with any couples in the sharehouse. That way you stand a better chance of being in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:19 AM on April 25, 2008

Really I think the big problem here is the media more than the government. The media, in theory, is independent of the government. No one ordered or forced the news outlets to put these propagandists on tv or in their news pages. As srboisvert points out, it's not like this was a problem that the media hasn't been aware of for years. It's not like it hasn't been known that this administration works over the press all the time. Yet, I can't find the part of the NY Times article that points to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 10:58 AM on April 20, 2008

I got lost when the Evil in the dark tower world (thus the evil of all his worlds) use harry potter balls.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:42 AM on April 18, 2008

Apparently, the Clinton Foundation has only given away about half the money the Clintons gave to it (and rather recently too): "The contributions went to a family foundation run by the Clintons that has given away only about half of the money they put into it, and most of that was last year, after Mrs. Clinton declared her candidacy."
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 12:58 PM on April 5, 2008

Thanks for the great post - I had never heard of the ama divers before. I really like this picture (from the Onjuku gallery).
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 11:08 PM on March 27, 2008

Shortly after graduating from college, my girlfriend and I found ourselves living in separate states - she in Colorado and me in Montana. Since these states were fairly large, we decided that the proper, if not romantic, thing to do would be to meet up in the middle. So every few weeks, we'd both drive for many hours and spend a pleasant weekend in Wyoming. After checking out a few different towns (tips: try the onion rings at Sanford's Grub & pub, stay at a motel made from a flour mill),... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 2:23 PM on March 27, 2008

Thanks - it reminds me a bit of that song Ocean Bottom that was posted on Metafilter Music.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 7:06 PM on March 11, 2008

Great post - thanks.

While the US committed some pretty egregious sins with thier nuclear stockpile, not the least of which was testing live nukes on soldiers and the down-winder exposures in the Hanford area.

That comment made me think about something I had recently read in Bill Bryson's Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid:
In the summer of 1962, defense officials detonated a hydrogen bomb buried deep beneath... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 12:04 PM on February 22, 2008

It's as much about not taking credit that isn't due as it is about giving credit.

Outside of academia, I think this happens all the time. Newspaper editors insert uncredited language into articles, CEO's give PowerPoint presentations put together and written by underlings, clerks sometimes write the legal opinions that judges sign their name to - even at the Supreme Court level. It's just the way the world works.

Now if any... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 4:52 PM on February 18, 2008

I remember reading a paragraph in one of the Rick Steves books in which he encourages the reader to not worry about the language difference while traveling and that you can often have conversations with people without knowing their language. He then goes on to describe such a conversation with an Italian guy he one had in the streets of Rome or some such place:

"Pepperoni!" Rick says.
"Bill Clinton," replies the Italian guy.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 10:45 AM on February 16, 2008

Here's another very cool (and my favorite) retro-future scooter. You can use the back link at the bottom of the page to click through lots of construction photos and non-English text of it being built.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 11:25 PM on February 12, 2008

2nding Staggering Jack's link, this beauty of this sort of design practically brings me to tears.

Here's some more pictures of that same scooter in a copper-ish color.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:34 AM on February 13, 2008

Democrats who voted in favor of telecom immunity that are among the top 20 recipients of Telecom money (according to Open Secrets Telecom Contribution Trends):

Hillary Clinton (D-NY) - $329,230
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) - $44,100
Mary Landrieu (D-LA) - $24,793
Mark Pryor (D-AR) - $46,800
Ken Salazar (D-CO) - $19,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 10:28 AM on February 12, 2008

I'm genuinely curious - is there anything that Condi has been a success at during her roles in the Bush administration? Anything that people can easily point at and say "She sure got that right," or, "she did a good job on that issue"?
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 2:21 PM on February 10, 2008

Great photos - thanks. The bear one is amazing. It does seem a bit self serving, though, that Shell, an oil company, is sponsoring wildlife photography. Hmm, it looks like they're out of the sponsorship game for 2008.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 10:25 AM on February 9, 2008

Ursula K. Leguin has an interesting article on the publishing industry in this months Harpers (subscription required unfortunately) . I thought this quote was interesting in the context of megapublicity and promotion of specific writers like Bock.Over the years, books kept in print may earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for their publisher and author. A few steady earners, even though the annual earnings are in what is now dismissively called “the midlist,” can keep publishers in business... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:44 AM on February 5, 2008

Best ever article on the history of the diamond trade, wherein all is explained : Have You Ever Tried To Sell A Diamond? (from The Atlantic)

You can read the author's whole book (I believe the article was an excerpt) for free on the author's website.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 12:11 PM on January 24, 2008

Here's what it would look like if the Navy painted whiskers on it.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 10:23 PM on November 29, 2007

I was in Villahermosa, which is the city in Dobbs video a few years ago. It's pretty shocking to see it under that much water. The latest news sounds pretty grim:

The floods have submerged about 80 per cent of the state, forcing thousands to flee. At least 800,000 people are homeless, while tens of thousands are still stranded and drinking water and food are in short supply. Domestic airlines have been asked to help carry fresh supplies to the state capital.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 11:12 PM on November 2, 2007

Villahermosa had some of the best combi/collectivos (collective taxis) I've had the pleasure of riding in. I'm hoping that they crammed them full of people and got to higher ground before the roads hit, but, sadly, I doubt this was the case.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 11:24 PM on November 2, 2007

err, that should have been before the floods hit.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 11:26 PM on November 2, 2007

"Wow! Look at her go! I didn't realize cigarettes had so many vitamins!"
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 6:00 PM on November 2, 2007

I also was disappointed to read that it would it would be animated (for some reason, I makes me think it will be like Homestar Runner). A weekly video podcast of the bots watching (and riffing) a bad youtube post could have some good potential.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 7:27 PM on October 29, 2007

...or heck, just riffing on my bad typing would be fine.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 7:36 PM on October 29, 2007

A Mitsubishi Delica Space Gear sounds awfully mundane by comparison

I've always thought the older Super Exceed versions were very cool (and come with turbo diesel & 4wd) and could make a great Westfalia style camper van.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 10:48 AM on October 27, 2007

Staggering Jack, that's amazing. Although, I think the third mirror is a bit excessive.

I think they only get more excessive from there.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 2:33 PM on October 27, 2007

There's some online MasterMind games linked in this previous thread.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 12:12 PM on October 25, 2007

Wow, thanks for the post and the subsequent linkage.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 5:06 PM on October 24, 2007

Cool - it makes me want to be back in Barcelona, where the drinks are plentiful, the women beautiful, and the sloths lucky.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:35 AM on October 24, 2007

but it broke my heart to find out Mike Nelson is a hard-core right winger

Wow, that is disappointing. Again, it would be one thing if he was just conservative but his media choices make him a staunch Republican.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 6:44 PM on October 15, 2007

At the elite colleges - dim white kids: Researchers with access to closely guarded college admissions data have found that, on the whole, about 15 percent of freshmen enrolled at America's highly selective colleges are white teens who failed to meet their institutions' minimum admissions standards.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 11:53 AM on October 15, 2007

I would have thought that with Maureen Dowd's fixation on Al Gore (who she once compared to the "wackadoo wing of the Democratic Party" for his criticism of the Iraq war), she would have used the occasion of Gore's Nobel Prize to write about, you know, Al Gore or perhaps climate change.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:47 AM on October 15, 2007

Great post - thanks. I'm always amazed at how much personality comes across in puppets. It's often so much better than CGI characters.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:41 AM on August 12, 2007

I've been making these for gifts. I got a lot of great tips for poetry on secrets, hidden things to paste inside as a decoration on AskMe.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 4:50 PM on July 30, 2007

Interesting stuff - thanks for the post.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 2:20 PM on July 24, 2007

I hadn't heard about this before; it was an interesting article and well-put together post about a tragic event and what could be the future of search and rescue ops.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 11:21 PM on July 22, 2007

Thanks for the post. One of the Kung-Fu images was in Harper's last month and it's great to see more of his work.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 8:29 PM on July 22, 2007

Not to mention no healthcare, 401k, sick time, temps, etc. (just a service contract with manufacturer)

Of course, TempBots come with their own challenges.
posted to MetaFilter by Staggering Jack at 9:24 AM on July 18, 2007