Christ, what an asshole.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 8:40 PM on July 13, 2008

I met someone who had lost all sense of taste after suffering a lightning strike. I can only imagine what it would be like to go through life that way afterwards.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:23 AM on July 13, 2008

The Pasadena, California-based bank specialized in so-called Alt-A mortgages, which didn't require borrowers to provide documentation on their incomes.

Gee, how could this have gone so wrong?
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 6:51 PM on July 11, 2008

From one of the comments:

Many of us are just living WAY TOO LONG…Dr. Kevorkian had it right. We “put down” our loving pets with a great deal of remorse, sadness, etc. but the vets know that it is for the best because they aren’t as money-hungry as most of our human health care industry.

I, for one, can see suicide as a viable alternative to making younger family members fret over care issues, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 5:45 PM on July 11, 2008

Bah, it's just pre-order right now, says it will be released tomorrow. And my activation email still hasn't arrived...

Still, my daughter (who is nine) is having a lot of fun with it so far.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 5:19 PM on June 17, 2008

And yet we're still chugging more-or-less happily along. And we'll still be chugging along 50 years from now.

You are way too sure about this. You sound like an Easter Islander.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:56 PM on June 16, 2008

But limiting it to two children per woman doesn't keep people from fucking and reproducing and wanting children and caring for them. And yet you'd have negative population growth. Adjust a little bit if you want to keep the same population. Hell, you could give away a free license-to-have-a-third-kid occasionally as a prize for being a really awesome contributor to society or something.

I don't see anyone besides the voluntary human extinction movement advocating for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 4:27 PM on June 16, 2008

how are you going to light the thing? H'mm?

I think you take it out first.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 12:11 PM on June 15, 2008

Also, no violence seems to have resulted from these remarks.

Yet.

I have a feeling this would cause a lot more of a ruckus if someone on left-wing radio had called for the murder of someone like Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly. They'd go absolutely nuts about it.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 2:51 PM on June 14, 2008

regardless of my relative intelligence I'm in way better shape to filter out the noise than nearly every man alive in 1000 AD.

Ah, but without modern psychopharmacology will you be able to filter out the noise from the voices inside your own head?

Personally, I know I'd use my belt even if I *did* manage to make it to a convent. No way can I survive without modern chemicals coursing through my veins.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 5:01 PM on June 11, 2008

Why I am an abortion doctor

I can take a woman, in the biggest trouble she has ever experienced in her life, and by performing a five-minute operation, in comfort and dignity, I can give her back her life
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 11:20 AM on June 7, 2008

If you really want to reduce abortions, you should offer full economic subsidies through the 18th year of a child's life. Is it not worth it to avoid the abortions that are done for economic reasons? If it was really about avoiding "murdering babies", then the anti-choice crowd would be living simply so they could put every dollar towards child care, medical care, and the various things a child needs in order to thrive for someone else who would have otherwise aborted. Seriously.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 4:10 PM on June 8, 2008

the female winner at 65 orgasms in 24 hours

I could totally beat that. Power tools are allowed, right? And it doesn't have to involve another person, right? With those two provisos I'd be unstoppable.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:29 PM on June 8, 2008

My daughter's grandmother recently got a typewriter, I imagine at a thrift store. So my daughter (who is nine) write me a nice little note on it which I keep at my desk at work. Part of what I love about it is that there is a neat little hole cut in the paper by the letter 'o' in several places. Printers just can't do that.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 11:42 AM on June 7, 2008

don't fuck with the Ainu

I remember that guy as being Aleut. Hmm, a quick Google seems to find a lot more results for it, too. Or was there an Ainu badass in that book too? I don't remember.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 11:27 AM on June 7, 2008

I'm using it to keep cheese as part of my diet for as long as I can afford.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 11:04 PM on May 31, 2008

Another reason for lack of female desire for sex in long-term relationships is the tendency of men to not want to bother with foreplay at all. I mean, seriously, I'm not the only one who has encountered the attitude of "I want sex right now. Roll over and spread your legs". It may not be particularly thrilling to take the time to warm up one's partner, but really, are you giving sex with your woman a fair chance if you don't bother to trigger her libido in the way which is most... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 5:39 AM on May 21, 2008

Where I work (a state agency), there is a little cafe thing run by a blind guy who also often handles the cash register. People just tell him what they are buying, he totals it up on the register, then they tell him how much money they are handing him, and he trusts them. Well, for twenties, he has one of those little scanner things that he lays the bill in, and it says, cheerily, "Twenty!".

Granted it's a limited field of customers so if someone cheated him... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 5:56 PM on May 20, 2008

There is a huge gulf between "omg U suck go DIE" from some random person (your garden-variety internet nonsense), and deliberately suckering someone in with (what they think is) their dream guy, bonds with them, and then suddenly turns on them in wishing them dead. There is a much greater depth of cruelty there. And the fact that this is a child she knew well just makes it all the more abhorrent.

I hope they get her. Maybe it will be the factor of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 10:11 PM on May 15, 2008

Those who are hungry for more data about what populations of WoW players are like may find good fodder about a few things here.

And seriously, when you hear "gay" on a WoW server, I think 99.3% of the time it's not homophobia, it's someone using it to mean "lame" or "stupid" or "something I don't like". I was in a big raiding guild at one point and our guild leader was quite openly gay and it was just No Big Deal.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 10:04 PM on May 15, 2008

"every time there is an OS upgrade, the DRM equation gets complex very quickly," said Bennett

Why do they need to upgrade the OS? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 6:41 PM on May 7, 2008

Otherwise, I don't see how to explain how siblings can turn out to be so different when it comes to accountability and propriety.

Well I think when parents favor one child over the other, the ensuing resentment can breed all sorts of badness in the passed-over child. Then it snowballs, because Little Miscreant doesn't deserve Mommy and Daddy's love as much as Little Miss Perfect...

I just wonder if this kid was wearing his... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 5:43 PM on May 1, 2008

They were painted as though they were a strange mixture of livestock, furniture, and tailor's dummies.

This is so cool. Thank you!
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 7:51 PM on April 30, 2008

I never ate many vegetables growing up, and have always been a picky eater. I'm one of the people who would outlast my mother when staring at the lima beans on my plate. She learned quickly not to try to make me eat them. There were tons of things that I'd never try because of how they looked, or especially how they smelled. To this day I won't eat any fish but tuna. How can people eat stuff that smells that bad? Eugh, makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

Anyway, I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:47 PM on April 27, 2008

makes me realize there is a lot of unemployed and underemployed people out there who are actively damaging themselves by spending their non-spare cycles on edit wars and blog posts when they could do something they could put on a resume.

So fucking what? Obviously they don't value resume-building as much as you do. Not everyone is spending every waking minute trying to claw their way as high up the ladder as they can.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 10:50 AM on April 27, 2008

Who's the Art Blakey image a portrait of? Malcolm X?
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 10:27 AM on April 27, 2008

This thread is not complete without a link to jwz's cube with its tent of doom.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:57 PM on April 24, 2008

When we have vat-grown bacon, can I have some that has no fat in it? Or I guess, with whatever minimal amount is necessary for taste.

Also I'd like to establish prior art right now on printing words in the fat and meat patterns of vat-grown bacon. I need to patent this.

To have proper taste I think the vat-grown meat will have to have some muscle tone. So this means some nerves and twitching in the vats. Sounds a little more creepy to me now, but I'll still eat it.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 4:43 PM on April 22, 2008

We can only solve problems for awhile til overpopulation catches up and stretches resources to the breaking point again. Until we solve *that*, we are doomed.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 6:56 PM on April 22, 2008

I'm really surprised that she would go hitchhiking alone. Seems like a dangerous prospect from the get-go, no matter where you are.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 1:50 PM on April 21, 2008

Yow. How do you fit that through the birth canal?
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 7:37 PM on April 18, 2008

I don't think that having an English degree necessarily points you toward or away from King or anyone else for that matter. I have one of those degrees too

and then later:

irregardless

I guess in your English curriculum they missed covering a thing or two. Was it all just about literature? Did you test out of some courses?
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 5:51 PM on April 18, 2008

It's not about bailing people out as much as it is about trying to be flexible so that people can bail themselves out. Because if they don't, banks win and taxpayers and homeowners and communities lose.

I thought the banks lose too. From what I've heard/read they aren't exactly thrilled about taking possession of a (often stripped/trashed) house they can't get rid of for anything approaching the loan amount.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 4:03 PM on April 17, 2008

I think a good reason for her to think about maybe not making the 8 so prominent is that discussions of her work tend to center around the fucking 8. Or maybe that's the most interesting thing she has to offer? Would her work stand on its own if she didn't have the attention-grabbing middle name?
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:55 PM on April 17, 2008

People sure seem to confuse atheism with anti-theism a lot.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:49 PM on April 14, 2008

I always thought the Shakers did communism right. Too bad on the no-sex thing, though.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 6:48 PM on April 11, 2008

Just waiting for Blizzard to implement this for my druid.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 4:48 PM on April 11, 2008

These girls' only experience of being valued, though, might only be for their appearance -- even by their mothers! -- and they will just feel confused and lost when being pretty doesn't make everyone like them.

In addition, I think they would find it particularly devastating when their looks start to fade. If that is the only thing they get their self-respect from, it's just going to destroy them when they inevitably age. Not to mention how common it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:04 PM on April 4, 2008

3-13 minutes sounds just right to me. Reading this thread though I get the feeling a lot of you have never had the kind of sex that just drags on and on and you want it to be over already. I've had far too much of that. (No, I do not have that kind of sex anymore). I imagine condoms have a lot to do with unwanted extension of fucking time - switching from condoms to the sponge certainly made a big difference for me & my guy. As long as we both enjoy ourselves and are satisfied, we can move... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 10:19 PM on April 2, 2008

I can't find that excellent AskMe about how to talk to a dying friend. It was sidebarred. Anyway, I'd like to look at it again in light of this post. Anyone able to dig it up please?
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:42 PM on April 1, 2008

I just needed to try a little harder. Here it is.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:44 PM on April 1, 2008

Fantastic post, fantastic comments. Thanks everyone, threads like this really remind me what the best of mefi is all about.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 11:49 AM on March 23, 2008

Head asplode! It's either random, or it's not. "Random and controlled" is just an amusing contradiction of terms.

I don't know, I think that an omnipotent being could load the dice, personally. This is actually a key part of my God As Wily Fucker hypothesis. The one I came up with when I was crazy (and no longer believe). It all made sense at the time, naturally.

Seriously though I wonder if we really have enough data... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:10 PM on March 21, 2008

From the inside, there's no way to tell, and so no need to invent a god.

It's not about *needing* to invent a god. It's about *wanting* to.

It's especially awesome if the god you invent finds you personally interesting and special and worthy.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 9:51 PM on March 21, 2008

Link is 403. Anyone have a mirror?
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 2:50 PM on March 21, 2008

Here is some video I shot of the Open Content Alliance's EBM printing a book.

Thank you, rajbot, this was amazing! I liked the book-creation process but what I really loved was the uproarious laughter I erupted into upon seeing the finished book unceremoniously dumped on the floor at the end of the process. I hadn't expected that.

Hopefully they will add a little tray or something so that books have a bit more of a gentle path... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 3:08 AM on March 9, 2008

As someone who has had at least a couple psychotic episodes, this sounds just like psychosis. It's not seen as "crazy" when you can convince people of what you come up with. And it doesn't mean that you're lying, either. That would mean that you knew what you were saying wasn't true. If it's true for you, and you can make it true for other people too, then... well, that's some serious power right there. And once you seed it successfully, these things tend to build upon themselves. Once... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 11:46 PM on March 8, 2008

All of you people willing to volunteer kind of make me sad. Like you think you'd be being so selfless and martyrly and awesome for being willing to go, when really it would be about personal vanity, most of all. Who wouldn't like to be marked down in history as being the First Person On Mars? Like it's really a sacrifice to give your life for that.

If they made the prerequisite that you would have to do something unsavory like kill people with your bare hands or torture... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 11:21 PM on March 8, 2008

I have a hard time remembering who's connected to who and how it's all laid out if it doesn't stay in the same place over time.

Makes me think of how in the mmo I play now, one has both a minimap that orients based on where you are facing, and a local map that stays fixed with regard to one's position. To navigate best, you need both. I think that a combination is the best way, personally. You can switch from one to the other as events or perspective... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 10:41 PM on March 8, 2008

Mono also has the blocks change color with the pitch of the track, which is imho quite beautiful compared to the other modes. So that's the only way I play.
posted to MetaFilter by marble at 1:54 AM on March 1, 2008