1) I am appalled that this information is available to the public, for everyone to see.

2) I am looking up everyone I know.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 11:52 PM on July 24, 2008

shmegegge: believe it... the cultural stereotype of "The OC" really does only apply to the southern end of the county. The central coastal, and north ends are much more diverse both in terms of income and ethnicity, and most of Old Orange actually dates back to pre-1920, and is wonderfully charming to walk through. There is, though, a pretty clear dividing line (I'd say it's anything south of Jamboree Road) where the county starts being decidedly Orange County and no longer greater Los... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:53 PM on May 9, 2008

Well, I was expecting the best of the web, but this certainly isn't it.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:15 AM on April 1, 2008

I don't watch the news on TV so I don't know if there's some kind of selection bias or if this is actually the case, but- are news anchors really like 90% women, or what? When did being a reporter become a woman's job?
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 9:24 AM on March 30, 2008

Since American Idol has come up so much in this thread, I figured I'd pop back in and include a link to the kid who sang Hallelujah last night, Jason Castro.
Hincandenza: there's no grinning or melisma in this version, don't worry.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 5:42 PM on March 5, 2008

OK so yeah, we laugh, but- can someone explain this to me? Do people really do this to themselves? Why? What is the segment of society that actually finds deep orange tans and ridiculous hair and frowning in photos cool? I can't think of any dumb fad we were into as teenagers that even approached looking this ridiculous.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 2:00 AM on February 9, 2008

I hate that I know this, but Clay Aiken uses his mother's maiden name- I believe he had it legally changed so really what they mean is that he wasn't BORN with the name Aiken... but it's still his real name.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 12:06 AM on January 31, 2008

.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 2:00 PM on January 22, 2008

So basically, they sat her in front of this until she learned all the countries.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 10:40 AM on December 28, 2007

Self link to two galleries of photos from Iran. Having been to many of the places pictured in the link, allow me to confirm that Iran is wonderful, full of good people and good food.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 9:45 AM on December 17, 2007

Will it blend?
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 9:35 PM on October 25, 2007

Nobody has commented on the fact that the "I Heart Mormon Boys" t-shirt is available in mens' sizes.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 12:29 AM on September 14, 2007

My favorite drink that makes most people not acquainted with it vomit: doogh.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 11:23 PM on September 12, 2007

Pollomacho-- you just sent shivers up my spine. I remember hosting an English Festival in Korea during my brief stint as an ESL teacher there, and when a group of kids started singing that song... I. Was. Livid. It was pure brainwashing, nothing less.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 11:01 AM on July 26, 2007

I ran across these videos while satisfying some nostalgia I was feeling for Googoosh, and I was captivated by how frankly- and how naively- the Shah talked politics. His do-no-wrong personality reminded me a little bit of how our President talks... does anybody else find a disturbing similarity?
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 6:20 PM on July 19, 2007

Well, he says "The tones are part of what make it so difficult for people who haven't had a lot of linguistic training, but it's just like Chinese, or Vietnamese, or Korean, in the fact that the tones are very important to the meanings of the words," and this is wrong because Korean is not a tonal language, and in general the entire article smacks of a guy who either doesn't really know what he's talking about or, more likely considering all his education, is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:32 AM on June 14, 2007

Oh my... as someone who grew up with Persian music, and has heard some pretty bad Tehrangeles Pop, this more than anything else makes my ears bleed.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 10:55 PM on June 13, 2007

I probably should have included this with the main link but I found it after I already posted... it's currently blowing my mind.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:25 PM on March 30, 2007

for continued animal hilarity, "my cat first time met with mirror" is gold.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 9:51 PM on March 24, 2007

bhouston, Iran's per capita income may be high, but that doesn't mean it's people aren't poor. 40% under the poverty line, rampant inflation, high unemployment, major drug addiction problems spurring rates of HIV infection, and that's more or less what I can think of off the top of my head as regards things that are wrong with Iran right now, not including a government that has even fooled mefites into thinking it is a democracy, but which is absolutely nothing of the sort considering that only... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 7:55 PM on February 19, 2007

I don't understand the all-or-nothing approach. We don't talk about completely ending the use of fossil fuels, we talk about conserving and using what we have more efficiently. Why must I go from meat-eater to vegetarian? Instead of asking Americans to become vegetarians, they should try promoting a reduction, but not an elimination, of meat intake.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 11:16 PM on January 19, 2007

I'd like to see what doesn't blend.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 2:11 AM on December 20, 2006

It's going to start getting embarrassing when, like, Cameroon legalizes same-sex marriage and the USA is still bickering back and forth about it.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 5:20 PM on December 4, 2006

interesting
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 6:15 PM on November 6, 2006

I wonder if he's Mormon.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 6:03 PM on November 5, 2006

.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:29 AM on November 5, 2006

no I'm totally just kidding
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:29 AM on November 5, 2006

"terror" first pops up in 1986. Starting in 2003, it's the most-used word in every speech. Interesting.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 10:53 AM on November 4, 2006

I've been to that museum... It's part of a huge complex of museums that are located where the Pahlavi Dynasty's palace used to be in the Darband district of Tehran. Iran does a horrendous, I mean absolutely sickening job of protecting its historical assets. Anything that is remotely suggestive of monarchy has been destroyed, including centuries-old murals on the walls of ruins (scraped off with big X's) in Isfahan. The faces and bodies of uncovered women have also been defaced. These miniatures... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 5:54 PM on October 31, 2006

Look closely, gottabefunky- there are no facial features drawn on the face of the prophet. Just his body.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 7:02 PM on October 31, 2006

gsteff- (how did I become the Persian art specialist? All I did was write one lousy paper on it in college)- the bright colors aren't universal, it's probably just an aspect of the particular artist who made those pieces in the exhibit. I'm looking at the miniatures on my wall right across from me, and the colors are subtle and muted. I think what you're really noticing isn't the brightness of the colors, but rather the clarity of the lines. If there was more shading and blending a la western... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 9:26 PM on October 31, 2006

humanfont: Giving art to the Iranian government is tantamount to throwing it in the trash. Nice idea, horrible in practice.

Pollomacho- I'm Iranian, and just because they tend to see it the other way around doesn't make it true. There's cultural exchange in all directions, and the silk road, with art from both east and west, made its way straight through Iran for hundreds of years.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 10:15 PM on October 31, 2006

Pollomacho- I laughed because it's so true.

UboRoivas: I haven't been to Persepolis, but it's a UNESCO world heritage center which means that there's an outside source taking care of it. A lot of the more minor historical stuff is not so lucky.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 10:45 PM on October 31, 2006

UbuRoivas- I hadn't heard of that, and wow, it makes me speechless.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 10:51 PM on October 31, 2006

This site is pure gold, and it led me to some beautiful demographic porn.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 4:57 PM on October 29, 2006

Oh boy! Was I tired! Senior sneak day.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 7:07 AM on October 29, 2006

Totally self-linking here, but this website motivated me to digitize and upload really (50-100 year) old photos of my family back in Iran.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 8:56 AM on October 29, 2006

jouke: I think that's what I like so much about them. I was born and raised in the USA and those family photos have a universal quality about them. Doesn't matter where in the world you're from, most people with a certain amount of wealth lead more or less the same kinds of lives.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 9:42 AM on October 29, 2006

it works for me... go #46!
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 11:37 PM on October 18, 2006

actually, 46, 23, and 11, depending on which survey you look at. Anyway the point of the story is that I went to a better college than you.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 11:38 PM on October 18, 2006

Paxil never left.

Seriously, how do they come up with this stuff? I laughed, thanks.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:46 PM on October 11, 2006

Yeah, didn't you see? The quota was exceeded.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 10:24 PM on October 8, 2006

YES! My elephant post rated an inline-image!
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 10:15 PM on October 8, 2006

No, it's not really true. A cursory view of several chapters of the United Way shows that program expenses make up the huge bulk of costs, and administrative ones most often less than 10% of them. solid-one-love either mixed up his numbers or made them up.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:26 PM on October 8, 2006

solid-one-love, I link to sources. Let's see your source and we'll call it a discussion then.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:38 PM on October 8, 2006

"the web is not the be-all and end-all of reference"

Isn't it?
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 2:01 PM on October 8, 2006

I wasn't going to click on this because the post didn't do a good job of explaining what it was, and I didn't want to get grossed out... but I assure you, to anyone curious- totally worth it.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 6:13 PM on October 6, 2006

praymid termite: I think a key point that wasn't explicitly stated is that he didn't demand things to fight terrorism, he actually followed the laws in place at the time, something that I'd love to see our current president do.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:04 PM on September 24, 2006

oh jeez you people hate happiness. Sorry to share my joy.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:04 PM on September 19, 2006

Mister_A: I thought they would be fun to hand out, and that's really just about it. Sort of like spraypainting "BiaB was here" on my friends, but via mini card.
posted to MetaFilter by BuddhaInABucket at 1:05 PM on September 19, 2006