MeFi post: All you need to know, really...

Doubly funny because they included Texas without even blinking, but questioned Florida's Southern cred.

Texas did secede with the South, and it is filled with Southerners.

They did leave out Oklahoma and its barbeque bologna, part of every Oklahoma school lunch rotation. Probably a good thing.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 10:14 PM on August 4, 2008

MeFi post: What Book Got You Hooked?

I think all mine have been hit -- Cleary, Scarry, Blume, E. Brown.

Thing is, I don't remember my first "got me hooked" book, because I was reading before I turned 4, according to my mother. So I don't really remember NOT being able to read.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 9:22 AM on August 4, 2008

MeFi post: Solzhenitsyn dead at 89

Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, 1978:However, the most cruel mistake occurred with the failure to understand the Vietnam war. Some people sincerely wanted all wars to stop just as soon as possible; others believed that there should be room for national, or communist, self-determination in Vietnam, or in Cambodia, as we see today with particular clarity. But members of the U.S. anti-war movement wound up being involved in the betrayal of Far Eastern nations, in a genocide and in the suffering today... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 4:44 PM on August 3, 2008

MeFi post: Boing Boing Finds 21st Century Trotsky?

apparently, for a sex blogger, she has quite a bit less than the required level of discretion

Yeah, that's a poorly kept secret. She's said herself she's wished she could post more about her many liaisons.

And I think that's part of why TNH was going so bonkers -- she wants blood, she wants massive retaliation for whatever VB did (and the laundry list is probably pretty long), and meanwhile the rest of the org is saying no,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 2:46 PM on July 5, 2008

Well...as someone who's been an instructor in college, slogged through grad school, and taken a production workshop that often had us working some 12 hr days (regular classes plus workshop plus filming to finish by deadline) - there are ways to make time for things that are important.

The friends I've known who've been through Clarion West effectively vanish from the Earth during the workshop. They house the participants in dorms. They're not shut... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 7:14 PM on July 9, 2008

I'm just imagining cortex's agent interrupting SXSW

I'm in talks with his agent to interrupt my session, should either proposal my name is on gets approved.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 8:56 AM on July 14, 2008

My proposal, BTW, is "MetaFilter: Why it rocks while BoingBoing sucks." This will ensure none of you attempt to vote it down.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 8:57 AM on July 14, 2008

1996: Live in Seattle, break up with girlfriend, melt brakes on my car, have to kick out a roommate for doing stuff I won't discuss here, temp for an insurance company, work in a call center, depressed most of the year.

Next year will be better. I'll move to the UK and meet my future wife. This year, though, was a killer.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 1:02 PM on July 15, 2008

2012, our annus horribilis for the financial world.

A number of pro-gold standard anti-government libertarians go on and on about how THEY WERE RIGHT and all that.

In June, President Obama signs the STFU Act, making it legal to trap, kill, and eat any preening doom-and-gloomer. By September, groups are calling on the EPA to declare libertarians an endangered species.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 2:17 PM on July 15, 2008

2015: SXSW officially cancels its annual conference when the total number of passes bought exceeds the total population of metro Austin. Cisco determines the only way to handle SXSW Interactive wi-fi broadband would be to flood the convention center with so much radiation that it would sterilize anyone attending.

John Dvorak demands SXSW go on anyway, saying "it would benefit everyone."
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 2:29 PM on July 15, 2008

2016: A 13 year old girl posts a video of herself to YouTube wherein she's naked, singing a Celine Dion horribly off-key, and drinking the urine of her best female friend, who is also naked but in blackface. Then they defecate on an American flag together while reciting dialogue from Star Wars in a fake Chinese accent.

It receives exactly 7 views.

Also in this year, MetaFilter officially dies on September 16 when Dick Cheney dies, which literally... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 2:42 PM on July 15, 2008

2017: The Doctorow/Jardin ticket, having barely slipped past the Zeldman/Kottke ticket for the presidency, begins its campaign to force American industry to convert to steampunk.

Press secretary TNH is fired in July after threatening a reporter with disenvowelment, which is misinterpreted in his native Costa Rica and leads to a declaration of war. Unfortunately, the steam punk AA guns are no match for the Costa Rican air force.

In a final insult,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 2:42 PM on July 15, 2008

I suspect that most — although by no means all — of the people vehemently upset by this whole thing were not particularly big fans of Boing Boing to begin with. (And let me temper that by saying that many of the criticisms heard here or otherwise were spot-on.)

Yeah, temper it all you want, but it still pisses me off. Most of us here had BB in our feeds. BB was a daily reading stop/work timekiller. Many of us are bloggers ourselves. Some of us are in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 4:32 PM on July 18, 2008

I just want to tell you all good luck. We're all counting on you.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 8:03 AM on July 30, 2008

And I saw a new internets and a new MetaFilter: for the first internets and the first MetaFilter were passed away; and there was no more Boing Boing.

And I, cortex, saw the holy thread, new 72928, coming down from mathowie out of heaven, prepared as an oversharing sex blogger adorned for her openly-married husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of mathowie is with men, and he will post with them, and they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 8:22 AM on July 30, 2008

MeFi post: Israeli paper publishes Obama's stolen Western Wall prayer

What are the theological rammifications here? Do birthday wish rules (as mentioned by dances with sneetches) apply?

No, it's still a prayer.

Now that it's been read by someone other than The Almighty, will it come true?

A prayer is a prayer is a prayer. It's up to the Almighty to decide what to do with it.

And what about the guy who stole the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 9:41 AM on July 27, 2008

How many newspapers bothered to report that there were no less than two popular music acts that afternoon in Berlin, and that Obama's "crowd" was largely there for the music?

Well, they didn't mention the 70,000+ at that rally in Portland were there to see the Decemberists! MEDIA CONSPIRACY!

(Are there 70,000 Decemberists fans in the entire world?)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 3:50 PM on July 27, 2008

Just for the visual record:

Bright Eyes at Civic Auditorium
Obama at Civic Auditorium

If anything, there are MORE people in the audience for Obama than for Oberst.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 2:26 PM on July 28, 2008

MeFi post: cuil kids?

There are about 75 schools of public health worldwide. And yet, my employer, a US News-rated school of public health, does not come up in the first 100 results in a search for "school of public health."

Google, it's usually the second page. Which does suggest I need to work on our SEO, but still, at least it's in the opening 20 results vs. NOT EVEN LISTED IN THE RESULTS.

Un-Cuil.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 10:01 AM on July 28, 2008

MeFi post: "Comments on Comments"

I agree with fraying's assessment of the piece -- where are the interviews with commenters? -- but I think there's some truth to the problems with commenting.

Like e-mail before it, comments are breaking down as a communications means. In both cases, it's cruft that's doing the damage -- spam for e-mail, anonymity for commenters.

Last month at BarCamp Seattle I did a 30 minute semi-screed against the very organization I blog for (and the owner of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 5:32 PM on July 27, 2008

MeFi post: Monkey!

Meanwhile, us poor Americans will hear this 10^17 times in August.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 7:41 AM on July 25, 2008

MeFi post: We secretly switched their operating system....

Metafilter is a good place to promote Microsoft's new ad campaign.

I'm one of the few web geeks in Seattle who can say they've never done time at the 'soft. And I hopefully never will.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 5:10 PM on July 24, 2008

MeFi post: Art Deco

I grew up in Tulsa, which has something like 50 Art Deco structures, including my family's church and the closest thing to an Art Deco cathedral, Boston Avenue Methodist Church.

Preservation just did a cover article on Tulsa's Art Deco heritage.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 7:23 AM on July 22, 2008

MeFi post: The amazing comic book adventure of Brent Rinehart

Nope, not down South

Oklahoma isn't in the South.

to hear this from a bigot (who moreover thinks God endorses his bigotry) in a rural state

Oklahoma County ain't exactly rural, being the 84th most populous county in the US.

10 years old. The drawing, the spelling, the logical content is that of a 10 year old. Anyone older than that who would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 8:25 AM on July 19, 2008

That's a pretty useless stat since "county" isn't any kind of set geographical size. The same chart with population density might tell you something about how rural it is. Clicking the links, the density of Oklahoma county is 932/sq mi (for comparison, the 85th most populous, Cobb Georgia, has a density of 1,952/sq mi).

Travis County, Texas has a density of 985/sq mi. I don't think anyone could argue it's rural anymore.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 11:10 PM on July 19, 2008

MeFi post: Bryant Park Project Deemed a Failure

The premise of BPP (and "The Takeaway," which is a joint production of Public Radio International, the New York Times, the BBC and several stations) was that they would replace Morning Edition in markets where Morning edition was running concurrently on two stations. LA, for example, has KPCC and KCRW both carrying Morning Edition at the same time, despite covering mostly the same area.

In retrospect, though, this was a really silly idea.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 9:07 PM on July 14, 2008

Arrgh.

Radio is dying, because it's old.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 9:08 PM on July 14, 2008

For one thing, they're building up the capacity at KXOT

Huh. You can actually here it in the U District this morning. That's an improvement.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 10:30 AM on July 15, 2008

BPP's original male host was Luke Burbank, who bailed out last year. I just remembered this morning that he's now hosting Too Beautiful To Live, which is doing surprisingly well right now in its early evening timeslot.

And the kicker? It's on a for-profit station owned by a media conglomerate, not an NPR/PRI affiliate.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 10:34 AM on July 15, 2008

MeFi post: While this is timely information bank failures are normal part of life.

leads me to believe those who consider questions of the economy (like mutant) have no concept regarding what is the economy for 99% of the population.

A vast majority of the population has bank deposits of less than $100K, IRAs with deposits of less than $250K, and classical investments amounting to less than the maximum amount of insurance allowed by SIPC (there are exceptions in things like annuities and futures contracts).... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 7:44 AM on July 14, 2008

MeFi post: IndyMac Bank seized by federal regulators

From following Calculated Risk, I learned that Indymac had recently been offering CDs with more than 4% interest.

As recently as yesterday, apparently.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 6:21 PM on July 11, 2008

There's a common thread you can gleam from Indymac, Bear Stearns and the recent runs on Fannie and Freddie: each and every time the collapse has been preceded by executives of the company stating something along the lines of "our capital position is strong" or "we foresee no need to seek new capital" or "Leverage? What leverage? We ain't got no mortgage/commercial real estate leverage!"

Never were there better contrarian indicators... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 8:05 PM on July 11, 2008

WaMu and Wachovia do seem to have CD rates that, for B&M banks, are rather…big.

Really? I'm looking at WaMu's rates right now, and they're very close to Wells' rates. In fact, their shorter term rates are lower than Wells. The one exception is that WaMu is offering a 48+ month at 4.89% APR/5.00% APY; Wells doesn't really have a comparable product, though they are offering a 25 month CD at 3.89% APR.

If you have... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 8:27 PM on July 11, 2008

Those with over $100K in IndyMac are guaranteed to get at least 50% of that back:
If you have more than $100,000 in your account, or if the total of your related accounts exceeds $100,000, your accounts may require review by an FDIC Claim Agent and you should call the FDIC to schedule an appointment with an FDIC claim Agent. The FDIC will pay uninsured depositors an advance dividend of 50% of your uninsured deposit.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 11:18 PM on July 11, 2008

Now banks need these funds, lest they be declared insolvent by The Fed and shutdown (which, by the way, happens all of the time, even in robust economic conditions).

Actually, Mutant, check this out -- a list of all banks the FDIC closed since 2000. Notice something odd about 2005 and 2006? Not one bank was closed. I don't that's ever happened in the history of this country. Was there a shift in public policy? Or should we have taken it as a sign... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 9:00 AM on July 12, 2008

So, the Fed is lowering lending standards…precisely the behavior that created the subprime fiasco.

Yes, that's been one of the biggest arguments against what the Fed has done with opening this window.

OTOH, those CDOs have been stuck in this strange state lately -- they're not worthless, but at the same time no one can precisely pin down how much they're really worth, and no one wants to attempt to place a value on them by... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 9:18 AM on July 12, 2008

But wait. If you only have a few dozen mortgages in a re-remic, doesn't that also increase the chance of failure?

If you bundle 50 mortgages together, you can assume that one will drop into foreclosure, while two or three others may become late in a shorter-term period. This seems to be what happens in a normal market. But if you just have one more failed mortgage, then you're going to double the default rate.

In a larger bundle, say 1000... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 10:36 AM on July 12, 2008

You can do all the DD you want but when the black swan appears, u get squicked.

But that's not a black swan. A black swan is when something unique and unpredicted appears in a system. We all knew this bubble was going to pop. By 2006 it was becoming clear that there was no way the market could sustain itself and was due for a correction. It was only a matter of time.

The problem was that investors and homeowners deluded... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 10:52 AM on July 12, 2008

MeFi post: From blue to red

It reads like it should be in a pile of political pamphlets and magazines you stumble across in the middle of the woods when you were a kid.

It's the first time you'd ever seen a progressive tax plan, well, except for your mother's. And look at how that senator is putting his FICA tax into her lockbox. Do Democrats really do that to each other?
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 2:09 PM on July 10, 2008

MeFi post: The Comeback

Great job coming from back from disgrace, followed by re-disgust at his treatment of his agent.

I get the sense, though, that this happens all the time in the business. Look at ARod end-arounding Boras to sign his new deal with the Yankees -- even after Boras got him that $250M deal in the first place. Or look at the clients Drew Rosenhaus has lost over the years, including Terrell Owens.

I think the deal here is that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 2:38 PM on July 7, 2008

MeFi post: Hindenburg Omen: Doom?

I heard about this last year, but I'm surprised it didn't make MeFi back then. The one in October was followed by a ~9.5% drop in the Dow over the next 40 days. This one, according to the Seeking Alpha buys, was first seen June 6, and since then the Dow has dropped ~9.5%.

So, if this is a real measure and not caught in some sort of confirmation bias, then it suggests it's a good measure that the market is about to slump for a 40 day period. Not crash, slump.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 7:52 AM on July 7, 2008

And of course, the Dow != the market.

Kinda how oil != oil company stock anymore. Which is all I can say about how oil has risen nearly 40% since the start of the year, but oil company stocks have been flat to negative. Arrgh.
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 7:58 AM on July 7, 2008

1973-74 - Dow drops 45%, years of stagflation follow.

Actually, we were already in stagflation by then. And two years later, the market had recovered most of the losses in '74.

We're entering what may be a generation-long bear market. But that doesn't mean the market will just keep dropping. What it means is that the opportunities to make money will be different. The big question is whether this generation of financial... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 11:20 AM on July 7, 2008

MeFi post: Is Day Care a luxury or a benefit?

Health insurance is bad enough, because it subsidizes idiots, fatties, smokers, druggies, and drunks--but hey, most of us are one of those things at some point or another. I'm not really enthusiastic about subsidizing breeders too. If a kid would be too expensive for you, don't fucking have one.

That's some stinky bait. How long has that been sitting in your bait bucket exactly?
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 12:56 PM on July 5, 2008

if you were a child-free person working at Google, it would probably chafe that the company was subsidizing the guy next to you to the tune of $37,000 per year. I'd probably be asking what the company has done for me lately.

My employer has nearly constant workshops on elder care and offers all sorts of help related to it.

For child care, they have a website that pretty much says "You're on your own.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 2:26 PM on July 5, 2008

But really - $1400 a month for daycare? Really? You could rent the child a decent apartment for that here in Seattle.

See above.

How are there not people lining up to be child carers on every corner?

Because the actual wages are crap. The $1395 center I referenced was paying its careworkers what it thought was a "fair wage" -- $13/hour. The state regulations are out the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 3:18 PM on July 5, 2008

On second thought 18500 square feet for 80 children doesn't seem so outragous.

Huh? That's a 15x15 room for every single kid in the day care. My daughter's day care room is roughly 25x15... for seven kids. And they are not packed in there in any way -- plenty of room for tables, cots, shelves, toys, whatnot.

How many kids do you know with 15x15 rooms?
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 6:40 PM on July 5, 2008

I was just responding to Brian B.'s ludicrous claim that subsidizing daycare is a good investment, financially.

Well, if you really want an answer and aren't trolling, it is for three reasons:

1. It attracts workers with families, who are less likely to job-surf than the childless, since they need that stable source of income to support their kids. So, improved retention rates, less drag caused by need to continually recruit.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 9:11 PM on July 5, 2008

This seems incredibly difficult to do effectively. If a corporation isn't obligated to maximize shareholder returns, why would I want my 401(k) or pension invested in it?

Here's a chart comparing two companies' returns over the last 22 years -- Costco, considered one of the best companies to work for in America, and Home Depot, considered one of the worst companies to work for.

On the surface of it, it really looks like Home... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 9:29 PM on July 5, 2008

I was arguing, though, that it's financially bad for me, personally.

Not necessarily. If a company isn't pulling a boat anchor of churn behind it, that frees up resources to do other things, like provide fringe benefits, bonuses, retention bonuses, or higher salaries you'll see. Admittedly, you may not get a perfect return out of it, but it does mean that the resources are there. If the company doesn't funnel it back to you that way, it could just... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dw at 11:33 PM on July 5, 2008

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