Nthing the ignore - it's standard practice, and anyone who's going to be really offended or upset by it is really not someone you want to be conversing with.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:50 AM on August 28, 2008

I second game warden - I used to live on Low Ousegate in the centre of York, and it gets noisy with rowdy revellers until the early hours. For reasons I have never quite figured out, there was a point during 2003 when I would hear DJ Otzi's "Hey Baby" chanted loudly, and drunkenly, outside my window for every night of the week for two to three months. Get the less central one, you can get to anywhere in York quickly enough that centrality is a non-issue.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 3:43 PM on August 27, 2008

A friend at EA has outfitted his Rock Band kit with bouncy rubber gasket-type material cut to the size of the pads. It makes the game much more enjoyable, and way more like playing the real drums, or at least a not-too-crappy V-drum set. I'm an acoustic drummer, and playing the modded kit definitely felt way, way better.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:59 PM on July 3, 2008

ICO's ending theme, inspired by "Scarborough Fair" clearly references the game's events and themes, and is probably supposed to be sung by ICO himself. It's lovely.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 9:31 PM on June 24, 2008

Whevenever I've visited Bellingham, WA, it's seemed like a small, community minded and progressive/liberal town, and it's about an hour drive away from both Seattle and Vancouver. It's also by the water, and near some very lovely countryside. Living in Vancouver, it seems ridiculously cheap to me, also.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 9:21 PM on June 24, 2008

Hmmm, the only electronic/rock groups I know of from Australia are Infusion and Pendulum. I haven't seen the video you speak of, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:19 PM on April 10, 2008

You might enjoy Preacher, though it does have pictures along with the words.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 8:56 PM on April 5, 2008 marked best answer

You would be looking for Accelerando...available for free download here.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 9:10 PM on March 30, 2008 marked best answer

Is it The Album Leaf?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:05 PM on March 28, 2008

Hybrid's "Wide Angle", "Morning Sci-Fi" and "I Choose Noise" have a fair bit of this kind of thing on. Here's one of their more string-laden numbers,Finished Symphony.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:09 PM on March 21, 2008

All of my dri-weave/synthetic running/jogging/skiing gear has been absolutely fine on a cold wash and then a gentle dry, which is my default setting for washing basically all of my clothes, and seems to have worked well for almost everything, with the three very notable exceptions of my ipod nano, a pure wool sweater, and my passport.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:14 PM on February 17, 2008

True, but I'm probably going to get the Europa upgrade for the J6 soon enough, and I'm looking for a quick and dirty workaround (rather than the very slow and dirty one of just using my ears).
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 10:48 PM on January 28, 2008

Other than not being a US city, Vancouver sounds almost exactly like what you're after. Microsoft is starting a new 300+ person campus here, there's a fair bit of web development and a large video games development industry, and there is a large Asian population. Also, generally quite liberal, and the city has been described as a "city of neighborhoods". It's eminently walkable, and nowhere near the downtown is ever far from a grocery store/restaurant. It's also one of the warmest... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 1:09 AM on January 28, 2008 marked best answer

Q2: What are some things that at least SOME human individual does (have the capacity to do) that NO other animal individuals does?

Naturally reproduce with other humans may well be the only provably absolute one.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 7:30 PM on January 27, 2008

Thanks - I understand the tenses, but I don't fully understand why using "are" is correct with the past tense "blended". My intuition tells me (correctly, apparently) that both are acceptable, but I'm not entirely sure why...
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:38 AM on January 11, 2008

That clears it up, thanks!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:24 PM on January 11, 2008

Not at all a long term solution, but to see if he takes to it, and as a good way to have some fun as a family, you could get Rock Band for $170 bucks. It'll give him a start on the leg/hand co-ordination, anyhow...
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:31 PM on November 26, 2007

Your arms should be going the same speed - exactly - as in, when your left leg goes forward your right arm does, and vice versa, no exceptions.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 10:23 PM on November 15, 2007

I think you was made those posts because a error. Hope is on the way.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 3:17 AM on October 9, 2007

Bench, Diesel, and Gsus all share some similarities with G-Star and 555 Soul. Oh, just noticed you got Diesel already. Howies are also pretty awesome.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 5:13 PM on October 6, 2007 marked best answer

I think you should move to Montreal, or Minneapolis, maybe. It won't solve your problem, exactly, except by teaching you the actual meaning of the words "unbearably hot" and "bloody freezing".

Vancouver is actually very temperate, and is beautiful, weather wise, except for the months of rain, which aren't that much worse than the UK - and the summers are longer, and more pleasant (except for this year).
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:10 AM on October 6, 2007

Oh, and don't under any circumstances, move to Victoria. For someone from the UK, it's like some sort of Bizarro-world Theme Britland. Creepy.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:13 AM on October 6, 2007

Because Frodo is landed gentry, and Samwise is his fawning, potato-grubbing manservant, Astro.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 9:55 PM on October 4, 2007

2nding the Medjool rooftop. I was there during GDC and a freak heatwave in March, and the view was beautiful.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 3:21 AM on September 28, 2007

Are you sure, kidsleepy? It's possible you might be a replicant.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:41 AM on September 25, 2007

Those who biographize over-embigenningly are hagiographizing, aren't they?

Also, Bryan A. Garner is wrong, I think both biographer and biographee are fine, though "subject of [a/the] biography" is more usual.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 9:17 AM on September 5, 2007

"Deified Monarchy" would do as a more generalised version of "Pharocracy", I think.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 10:38 PM on August 29, 2007

Stop taking the Propecia?

Your sex drive might improve, and if she's not into bald guys, hers might decrease.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:18 PM on July 22, 2007

I got this from a previous ask thread, but decided it would be funnier if the man's wish was very, very intentional. YMMV. Like the Clown joke, you have to be quite willing to draw this one out and really commit to it...


A man walks into bar, and is somewhat suprised to see that a guy chatting to one of the barmaids has an unusually large, almost perfectly spherical, and vivid bright orange head. He perches himself in front of the barman on the stool, orders... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 2:03 AM on July 22, 2007

toque / beanie (if the hat is thin, close fitting and pom-pomless)
toque / woolly hat (if the hat is thick, and pom-pomless)
toque / bobble-hat ( if pom-pommed)

God knows why, given the much greater range of climate in Canada, there is a single term for all woollen head gear, and 3 in the UK. It's like some bizarre inversion of the Many Inuit Words For Snow.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:34 AM on July 9, 2007

Kevin Spacey's character at the end of American Beauty.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 1:11 AM on May 27, 2007

Smackfu: What you call "Bacon" in the US, and you've referred to as "Stripey Bacon" is what we call "Streaky Bacon" in the UK. What we call "Back Bacon" is, apparently, rare or at least very unusual in North America. A shame, as it is much preferable, in my mind, to the streaky stuff...
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:26 PM on May 23, 2007

Fight Club makes some minor changes to the source, but is remarkably accurate to the mood and tone of the book ( partially as both the book and film rely on narration ). I'd argue Bladerunner properly represents its source material in some senses, but diverges from the original gigantically.

Oh, and the Lord Of The Rings films do an excellent job with the source in my book, although some would wish to burn me at the stake for saying so.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 2:14 AM on May 21, 2007

Nthing the suggsestion that

"We're broken up. Cookie?"

Is an appallingly bad idea, even though the motives behind it are good. Sugarcoating this message, whether literally or metaphorically, will not help much.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 9:31 PM on April 27, 2007

Congratulations! You live in an awesome area!

Your first port of call should be Blim, which is full of art-nerdy classes and fun stuff to do like screen printing workshops, circuit bending, all that kind of stuff.

There's a load of interesting coffee shops and general hang-outs on Main St. I don't live in the area, but I work nearby, although admittedly I've never managed to strike up much of a conversation in one other than one centering around... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:23 PM on April 19, 2007 marked best answer

"Idea Obfuscation" is Disinformation, essentially, which conspiracy theories aren't. Conspiracy theories would be disinformation if they were specifically disseminated by the government to mask their genuine criminal and undercover activities. The most entertainingly meta, or realistic, depending on how you look at it, suggest this is exactly what is happening.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 5:58 PM on April 18, 2007

Battles: Live sampling, 2 guys playing the keys & guitars at the same time (each), and a rock solid, machine like drummer....amazing!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 7:18 PM on April 15, 2007

You use the ADSR envelope, set to zero attack, which gives it a hard, percussive sound, with a short decay time, a longish sustain, and a longish release - the attack and the decay are th e inital percussive "spike" in the volume graph, and the sustain and release make the melodic, chiming, bell-ring portion.

Use a sine wave as the oscillator type, and fiddle with the filters to give it the quality of sound you're after.

With some soft... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 10:55 PM on April 2, 2007

My recent favourite two electronic albums are Jon Hopkins' Opalescent and Contact Note. They both have a beautifully chilled out ambient-with-beats atmosphere. William Orbit's Strange Cargo series of albums are similar, and are positively dripping with crunchy, sunny analog warmth.

You should also go and listen to most things Orbital have ever done. If you don't immediately fall in love with Orbital's... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:51 AM on March 22, 2007

There seems to be a strong, strong correlation between 1st-wave prog-rock bands and the absence of the "The", although this could just be the effect of the late 60's no-The convention really taking hold by that point. I can't find any pre '66 on this page, but it's an interesting look at a lot of immediately Post No The Shift band names.

Related question - when did the The become popular again? Is it mainly The Strokes' fault?... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 2:49 PM on March 18, 2007

Misozaki - I don't know. I'd say the 90's were a fairly "The" lite decade, after a tailing off into the 80's. Certainly when The Strokes hit big their name seemed self-consciously retro. Might just've been the bands I listened to, though.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:24 PM on March 18, 2007

I don't think it was the existence of intermodulation distortion that was in doubt - I think it was more the implied claim that generally, people with a good sense of pitch and musical training will find electronic music fatiguing and unmusical, which, given the large number of extremely gifted and musical electronic music producers with a large amount of musical training - often with excellent traditional musical skills - is patently untrue.

Interesting and informative... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 7:15 PM on March 17, 2007

I wouldn't necessarilly recommend puritycontrol's (mildly anti-eponysterical ) suggestion of burning DRM'd mp3's to CD, then re-ripping, they'll have been through the lossy compression mill twice that way, which is not a good thing. It'll probably still sound OK if you rip at the highest bitrate, but then you're taking up hard drive space with files that pretend to be a higher bitrate than they really are. Also, it would be nice for the DRM sellers to not get the business, so that they... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 9:31 PM on February 25, 2007

Thirded, my immediate thought was light to deep orange, a saffrony sort of colour. That or an earthy, light red.

Alternatively you could go for a light off white, and use coloured lights to change the colour of the room to suit your moods.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 10:01 PM on February 8, 2007

Oh, and Dave Brubeck's "Take 5" and Vince Guaraldi's "Linus And Lucy" are being (more subtly) referenced in that song, too, if I'm not mistaken (which I may be).
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:22 AM on February 1, 2007

I do this sorty of thing while drumming a fair bit (and when playing the piano in a somewhat minimalist-inspired style, but it's basically the same as the drumming ).

The first thing I did was practice tapping out 3 beats over the top of a metronome playing in 4/4 - there's actually a nice rhythm to it once it clicks.

The other thing that helped was to write out 3 and 4 patterns simultaneously as 12/4, and practice drumming the following with my... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 6:28 PM on January 31, 2007

I thought everyone felt that way when they were 17. I certainly did. It did get better at university, but only slightly - I'd still hang around with a core group of gradually acquired close friends, and make limited attempts to expand my social circle.

I'm quite a bit better at all that sort of stuff now (I'm 28), and people often tell me I'm easy-going, charming and good with people, despite the fact that it still doesn't feel... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 11:57 PM on January 29, 2007

One word that has started cropping up in my job a lot more recently is "Parallelize", and, worse, "Parallelizable". I actually haven't heard anyone who can pronounce this fully consistently- everyone, myself included, seem to be veering towards "Paralyzable", which is much easier. I think we all know how it should be pronounced, it's just such a mouthful....
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 4:01 PM on January 29, 2007

My musical equipment?

Let me tell you about my musical equipment...

[shoots]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 12:16 PM on January 29, 2007

More specifically, "dud" means: "I expected it to work, but it didn't". I'm pretty sure it comes from bullets/explosives originally - but most uses of it I've heard do have this component of expectation, still, rather than something just meaning "bad" or "crappy".

If you really enjoy The Streets' evocation of British life as a young, poor, disaffected kid in the 90's and early 2000s, into drinking and clubbing... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 6:28 AM on January 28, 2007