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least awful use of tag clouds ever

Brand Tags Tag a brand/logo and see what others have tagged it. Because "whatever it is they say a brand is, is what it is", depending on what your meaning of is is, I guess. Or play the reverse tag game and identify brands by their tags. And now, there's Celeb Tags! This will not wendell.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 4:43 PM on May 11, 2008 (38 comments)

Ready from Day One, 2001 Edition

"Only Nixon could go to China," and only ex-Republican ex-Senator Lincoln Chafee can explain how George W. Bush set out "to preempt the Congress... on every issue", "turned his back on (his) bedrock campaign pledges", and become simultaneously America's most powerful and least popular President (and why there could never be a "surely this..." moment). NOT just another OMGBUSH commentary, this should be required reading for anybody who honestly wants to know what went wrong.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 11:59 AM on May 2, 2008 (46 comments)

Wait for the First Lady to Cuss First

Craig ("Who?") Ferguson at the White House Correspondents Dinner: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. (it's a Three-Link YouTube Post!) Not as pointed as Colbert but lots of funny and acouple moments of OMG. SOME JOKE SPOILERS WITHIN...
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 10:47 PM on April 27, 2008 (33 comments)

202 Lines About 101 Computers

101 ~~Great~~ Mostly Pretty Good and Hopefully Correctly Attributed Quotes About Computers and Programming. But Wait There's More! Yep, 101 More Quotes plus an extra extra added bonus for a limited time, the second list as originally published in Spanish, because it's fun to read Isaac Asimov and Emo Philips in another language, and Lou Dobbs will get so pissed off.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 3:47 AM on April 18, 2008 (18 comments)

All Our Favorite Toxins

The Drug Addiction Paradox "The plants should never have developed toxins that reward animals for eating them, and humans should never have developed a reward mechanism for toxic plants"... De-evolution or Idiotic Design?
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 3:30 AM on April 17, 2008 (65 comments)

And They Would've Gotten Away With It If Not For That Meddling German Kid

Enough bad news, enough gloom and doom. You remember that Asteroid 99942 Apophis that we were afraid might hit Earth in 2029? Ain't gonna happen. But it will get close enough for Earth's gravity to alter its orbit and there's a chance it could hit the next time around in 2036. But only a tiny chance: "less than 1 in 45,000 using standard dynamical models". according to NASA. Oh wait... NASA just got skooled by a 13-year-old German Astronomy Geek who says the chances are more like 1 in 450. Still a tiny chance, and the official numbers were only off by a factor of 100. Oh yeah, we're doomed.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 12:55 AM on April 16, 2008 (60 comments)

Know Your Cuts of Font

The Rather Difficult Font Quiz Do you know your Birch from your Bembo from your Bauer Bodini (Hey! Where's Bookman?) At the moment, 34 fonts to identify with more coming soon. A fun way to spend 2-3 minutes and learn just how much a font nerd you really are. (I only got 25 out of 34? I'm ashamed!)
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 5:09 AM on April 14, 2008 (39 comments)

The final Cellodown

If you love the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain (and who in their right mind doesn't?) and enjoyed the Japanese version of Smoke on the Water, you might just barely tolerate this. Warning: contains five minutes of repackaged ~~progressive~~pretentious rock and images of cello-based dorkiness. I gave it 98/100.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 1:46 AM on April 13, 2008 (26 comments)

What Black People Like (JUST KIDDING)

The Cosby Conservatism Conundrum Proving that the new "dialogue" on race has five, six, maybe seven sides. No more pudding pops for you...
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 6:23 PM on April 11, 2008 (26 comments)

mathowie is going to ROFL(con)

Look who's going to ROFLcon! It's a "a group dissection of internet culture" and "big blowout party" in Cambridge, MA, April 25th and 26th that promoters call "the most important gathering since the fall of the tower of Babel" (and possibly just as productive). Wish I could be there.
posted to MetaTalk by wendell at 5:57 PM on March 27, 2008 (80 comments)

The Last Temptation of Visual Parodists

50 "Last Suppers" including 3 'last breakfasts' and 6 fast-food meals.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 5:19 PM on March 22, 2008 (40 comments)

The Best DOMAIN NAMES of the Web

What'll you find at rum.com, van.com, war.com or cat.com? A more-fun-than-most web quiz from the Mental Flossers about some of the best domain names and who owns them.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 4:29 AM on March 20, 2008 (15 comments)

Are you an ArcheTYPE or a StereoTYPE?

Typematching: Can Mistral find love with Papyrus? Who cares? Scroll down to find out which of these 6 stereotypical fonts is your type...
"But...but... I can't be Comic Sans!!!"
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 8:59 PM on March 13, 2008 (47 comments)

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-T-A-C-H-E

What that advert needs is a good moustaching. And what this site offers is inexpensive stick-on 'staches to do it with. Sadly, only for use on ads, not real faces.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 2:21 AM on March 12, 2008 (15 comments)

Is that what's botherin' ya, bunky?

Lift your head up high and take a walk in the sun with dignity and stick-to-it-ive-ness and you'll show the world, you'll show them where to get off! And never give up, never give up... that ship!!!
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 3:59 PM on March 5, 2008 (19 comments)

Have you ever TRIED to fuck a grapefruit?

I knew that sooner or later, the backlash to xkcd would begin, but I never expected it would start over.... fruit... R. Stevens, that old Diesel Sweetie, is the first to respond.... Now, a very well-interfaced polling device is put online for your fruit opinions...Vote for the fruit of your choice... but vote!
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 7:00 PM on February 25, 2008 (152 comments)

Books Oprah Wants to Club

It's time again for the greatest literary competition this side of Bulwer-Lytton: The Bookseller/Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title (previously), and YOU can vote here for your favorite from 'the shortlist':
I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen (scroll down to see the author's blog)
How to Write a How to Write Book (other books by the author, mostly unavailable)
Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues (written by a woman)
Cheese Problems Solved (ONLY £135.00)
If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs (with extra points for the author's name: Big Boom)
and People who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood (this might be declared ineligible since the publisher's cover picture shows a shortened title)
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 9:13 AM on February 22, 2008 (33 comments)

What to do with a meme-ish domain name?

Hi, I'm Wendell, and I'm a Domain Name addict. And I just registered DRINKSYOURMILKSHAKE.COM with the intent of setting up something like isyournewbicycle.com but I'm open to other ideas. Feel free to aim your long straw at me...
posted to Ask Metafilter by wendell at 5:17 PM on February 21, 2008 (22 comments)

Your Moment of Late Night Cartoon Violence

Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Conan O'Brien fight over Mike Huckabee (which is so much more fun than Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon fighting over Sarah Silverman).

Yeah, fake fight, especially knowing Conan and Colbert are united against bears.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 4:05 PM on February 6, 2008 (57 comments)

Getting MAD at Bush

In all its 55 year history, MAD magazine has been known much more for media satire than political satire... anything political was often camouflaged as a movie or TV parody and generally less partisan than most. (How can you take their politics seriously when they offered Alfred E. Neuman for President?) Another thing about MAD is how rarely it goes outside its "Usual Cast of Idiots" for content. Well, things have changed, as the MAD editors used 10 Pulitzer Prize Winning Op/Ed Cartoonists to illustrate the incendiarilly-titled “Why George W. Bush Is in Favor of Global Warming”. The usually web-shy MAD even allowed the New York Times to put most of the piece online in a slideshow.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 3:24 PM on February 5, 2008 (55 comments)

I Can't Do That Dave, now put your pants back on

In what may be the silliest poll ever taken, British women say Men Named Dave are Most Likely to be "Well Endowed". There's a whole "Top 10" and "Bottom 10" list of names... see how you stack up. The people who did the survey do this kind of thing for companies to get publicity. It works pretty well.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 2:43 AM on February 4, 2008 (97 comments)

Tags, You're It!

One-link, one-or-two-word MeFi posts bugging you? We've had a few lately. Maybe it would help to display the tags on the front page.
posted to MetaTalk by wendell at 1:31 AM on February 4, 2008 (151 comments)

LOLCLOWNSNOT

Don't send in the clowns. Why are they considered scary by kids of all ages? Maybe it just makes sense.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 5:37 PM on January 16, 2008 (53 comments)

Halfway to Our First Million on MetaTalk

Congratulations to tkolar on posting MetaTalk's 500,000th comment! Imagine, a half million assorted snarks, whines, callouts, flameouts, bugfixes, meetup setups, not to mention all the pony requests granted or rejected, the longboat voyages, the real-life detective stories and serious discussion of male and female body parts. What a long Meta trip it's been.
posted to MetaTalk by wendell at 3:22 AM on January 11, 2008 (77 comments)

AskAP or LOLAP?

Got Questions About the News? Ask AP (Associated Press) All you have to do is "send your questions to newsquestions(at)ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. Then keep an eye out for installments of the new Q&A column, where you'll finally get some answers"... maybe... if they feel like it. Instant Analysis: No threat to Ask Metafilter.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 7:40 PM on January 10, 2008 (13 comments)

150cc of awesome (15 songs from 10cc)

10cc was NOT "The Worst Band in the World", but they played one on TV. And just about every song they recorded that didn't have 'Love' in the title ("I'm Not in..."), tested the limits of '70s Pop Music Oddness, starting with the stand-up/sit-down/doo-wop "Donna" (sitting by the telephone).
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 4:34 PM on January 9, 2008 (46 comments)

A long-belated . for Oliver Sipple

Most of the news stories about the release of failed assassin Sara Jane Moore mention that her attempt at President Ford was foiled by Oliver Sipple (wikipedia), who is generally described as "a disabled Vietnam Veteran/Marine". The current news stories don't mention that he was gay, but neither did most of the press accounts at the time, except for San Francisco's legendary columnist Herb Caen. An infamous, and ultimately tragic, 'outing'.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 2:12 AM on January 7, 2008 (31 comments)

It has been a Subprime year

“Subprime” voted 2007 word of the year by the American Dialect Society. Disagree? You had your chance to submit your own nominees, thanks to mo nickels on MeFi Projects. Pre vi ous ly
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 6:47 PM on January 5, 2008 (20 comments)

Newsfiltered: A Big National Story That's A Lot of Big Local Stories

Yes, the Subprime Mortgage Crisis was 2007's top national business news story for the second year in a row (and odds on favorite to Threepeat), #2 news story overall (TIME put Pakistan at #1, for AP, it was the Virginia State Massacre). But then I saw that it was the #1 local news story in my town.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 4:53 PM on January 4, 2008 (14 comments)

Now that they've stopped Picking, maybe it'll heal

It feels like the Death of My Internet Childhood. After attempting to identify "the best of the web" since August 1995, Yahoo! has stopped updating its Yahoo! Picks, preferring to showcase its airheaded-video-based The 9 (for those who can't count all the way to 10).
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 2:06 PM on January 3, 2008 (24 comments)

I Just Need Some Alone Time

Happy Introvert Day A Single-Link Op-Ed because... well, this link would just like to be alone, OK?
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 1:45 PM on January 2, 2008 (72 comments)

"Thrown Under the Bus" is Thrown Under the Bus. Ouch.

"This year, in a gesture of humanitarian relief, the (Lake Superior State University Banished Words) committee restores "truthiness," banned on last year's list, to formal use. This comes after comedians and late-night hosts were thrown under the bus and rendered speechless by a nationwide professional writers' strike. The silence is deafening."
Of course, "(thrown) under the bus"* is on this year's Banished List, along with "perfect storm", "webinar"*, "waterboarding", "post-9/11", "wordsmith", "back in the day", "surge", "x is the new y", "give back" and other seemingly "random" words and phrases.
*One of the requirements for a Banished Word or Phrase is that it has been used as a title for a Blogspot or Typepad blog.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 11:42 AM on January 1, 2008 (102 comments)

If you believe Sarcasm= Irony, Maybe You're Not Smart Enough to Post Here

How many times do I have to remind you people: THERE IS NO SARCASM TAG IN HTML.
posted to MetaTalk by wendell at 2:22 PM on December 9, 2007 (124 comments)

Won't You Blog About This Song? Sure!

"Here Comes Another Bubble" a very 2.0-savvy song parody with a 'catch all the in-jokes' video.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 10:01 PM on December 4, 2007 (19 comments)

Thanks for the Laughs

Since the passing of Art Buchwald (previously on MeFi), we're looking for something to replace his traditional Thanksgiving Humor Piece (seen here), with varying success. MeFi's Own rstevens has a collection of LOLGRIMS, MeFi's own Lore offers some catering services for the 21st Century (featuring the next step in Turducken evolution). Formerly MeFi's Own Lileks has a cheap video on how to make a cheap Thanksgiving dinner. A faux-conservative blogger (who's no Colbert) suggests renaming the holiday. The "Creatures in My Head" guy has his own disturbing version of a turkey. A video game site has games that (kinda) fit the holiday. A semi-NSFW site for dudes has the Worst Thanksgiving Dishes (not sexist, but PETA-ist and NPR-ist) But the most obvious Thanksgiving tradition (via YouTube) is the WKRP Turkey Drop (and aftermath).
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 11:38 AM on November 22, 2007 (6 comments)

Ask MetaFilter. It's a Punchline.

I DUNNO. ASK METAFILTER. A shoutout (in the company of some rather big web-names) from big-time webcomicker (and dead tree comicker), MetaFilter's Own clango.
posted to MetaTalk by wendell at 9:43 PM on November 14, 2007 (53 comments)

Friend? Neighbor? Spouse? SWORN ENEMY?

"Keep your (MetaFilter) friends close and your enemies closer," a Contacts Pony Request.
posted to MetaTalk by wendell at 6:30 PM on November 3, 2007 (52 comments)

Dissociative? Borderline? Sociopathic? Nah, just MA-A-A-AD!

He's the spiritual grandparent of both Cal Worthington (very recently) and Crazy Eddie (previously). He's Earl "MadMan" Muntz, more than a successful car salesman, he was a carmaker, a television pioneer (who coined the abreviation "TeeVee"), car stereo pioneer (for the pre-8-track 4-track tape ), a Verb in Electronic Engineering Lingo, hero of Free Enterprise Land and ad icon in Napolean hat and red longjohns.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 2:28 PM on September 19, 2007 (8 comments)

Famous First Words

The 25 Best Pop Song Opening Lyrics, like EVER - a spinner.com 'hit list', complete with wry commentary and abruptly cut-off audio clips. Bonus: 25 more, suggested by people who don't work for the webside.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 7:30 PM on September 6, 2007 (255 comments)

Just Say NoSo.

NoSo [embedded audio] is the next stop on the self-referential satire train of Web 2.0.* Going beyond Useless Account, inspired (kinda) by Flash Mobs, Fight Club ("the first rule..."), and MeFi Meetups, it allows anonymous users the opportunity to organize "NOevents" where members can congregate in selected physical locations without using their technological connectivity devices and NOT engage in communication with each other. That's right, no talking allowed at a NOevent. Reading books is OK. You may go home and blog about it, but NO live blogging. Organized by a San Franciso art group that may just be using it to get people to show up at their installations (aha!), and who violate the Fight Club rule in an interview with R.U. Sirius.(~~via~~blame TechCrunch) *Plagiarized with attribution from bhouston.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 5:24 PM on August 27, 2007 (11 comments)

I Don't Want to Be Exposed to Angus

If you enjoyed Supermarket 2.0, you'll love brgr, aka Burger 2.0! Yes, it's your basic "if your hamburger were like a website/web celebrity/software product/tech company/buzzword" schtick, but some of them are funny. My faves [inside].
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 5:01 PM on August 26, 2007 (14 comments)

"Radical Islamist. Hot new fad on the planet."

The Official Berkeley Breathed Website [warning: ComicSans] announced that the weekly "Opus" comics for August 26th AND September 2nd* "have been withheld from publication by a large number of client newspapers across the country, including Opus' host paper The Washington Post." The reason? Making jokes aout Islam. And just the week before, Opus was thoroughly ridiculing the late Jerry Falwell. BB recommends catching his missing strips in the Salon.com comics section. But it being the Internet, somebody has already found and posted tomorrow's "Opus". Let's hear it for Fatima Struggle!!!
Berkeley Breathed is no stranger to controversy. Even his latest children's book, "Mars Needs Moms", was declared "Politically Incorrect". He is no stranger to me, either, although my last email exchange with him was over 3 years ago and I had nothing to do with this recent interview at MSNBC.com.
*Comic strip trivia: Most newspapers have their Sunday comics printed weeks in advance; that's why Kudzu ran Sunday strips two weeks after the dailies ended when Doug Marlette died.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 4:43 PM on August 25, 2007 (48 comments)

The Second Crash of Francis Gary Powers

Speaking of TV helicopter crashes, exactly thirty years ago today, Francis Gary Powers fell from the sky for the second time. The first time was on May 1st, 1960, when the U-2 spy plane he was piloting [previously on MeFi] was shot down over Soviet Russia, a major international incident and one that many never forgave him for surviving. Years later, he was pilot/reporter of L.A. TV's "Original Telecopter", and returning from a long trip covering brush fies in Santa Barbara, the chopper ran out of fuel. Some (including me) say he might have survived if he hadn't made last-second maneuvers to avoid people on the ground. He is remembered.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 4:26 PM on August 1, 2007 (22 comments)

Cat Scan 2007

In honor of the 8th Anniversary of MetaFilter, here are 8 YouTube links to... C A T S C A N S
Oh, what heck, here are 8 more... L O L S C A N S
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 12:00 AM on July 14, 2007 (23 comments)

Charles Lane: You Knew the Face

Charles Lane (1905-2007) , a character actor since 1931, and one of Hollywood's most recognizable "that guys". Over 350 credits from "It's a Wonderful Life" to "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" to "Petticoat Junction" and a half-dozen different characters on "I Love Lucy". Founding member of the Screen Actors guild, and more, but I'll let Mark Evanier tell you some stories. Here's his 100th Birthday party, and one of his few YouTube clips shows him as Ginger Rodger's 'customer' in "Primrose Path".
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 6:05 PM on July 10, 2007 (19 comments)

See Him In The Funny Papers

Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen: The Comic Book is coming to newsstands in two weeks, but you can see an entire 7-page Tek story at Entertainment ~~Weakly~~ Weekly's ~~EWW~~ EW.com. A little promotionally fluffy info. Of course, there has already been Tek Jansen fan fiction, but this is, like, authorized and pre-read by Stephen Himself.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 4:06 PM on June 28, 2007 (29 comments)

New Dictionary Words: extraordinary rendition or girlfriend experience?

Hundreds of 'new' words in the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary (Reuters story), also via BBC, AP and the Fox Television Stations (headline with no story, surprising since its publisher is another Rupert Murdoch subsidiary... but I digress). Some are obvious: hoodie, wiki, POTUS, plasma screen; some reflect our times: Gitmo, Londonistan, extraordinary rendition, carbon footprint; some are absolutely slangy: celebutante, McMansion, muffin top, man bag, disemvowel, barbecue stopper, girlfriend experience... Also in the book: ho. And not the version Santa Claus says. The new dictionary is available "online, on mobiles, as a desktop application or integrated with Microsoft Word" - when you buy the deadtree edition.
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 1:04 PM on June 4, 2007 (22 comments)

Always. ALWAYS Filter.

Matt, I have waited several hours for you to fix it, but the song parody you linked to in the Blue Sidebar is titled "Thou Shalt Always Filter", not "Thou Shalt Not Filter". And it is totally awesome... When I say “end” thou shalt not say “well”. When I say “Wen” thou shalt not say “dell”.
posted to MetaTalk by wendell at 11:47 PM on May 24, 2007 (14 comments)

He did the Mash.

ObitFilter: Bobby "Boris" Pickett, 69 To remember him by: "Monster Mash" video mashup, his official site (with spooky 1998 sound), "The Climate Mash" (2005 eco-political rewrite with Pickett's vocal), and his lesser-known co-creation (with Peter Ferarra): "Star Drek"
posted to MetaFilter by wendell at 6:35 PM on April 26, 2007 (24 comments)

Will this Wendell?

Should I 'sell' my online identity? Or maybe just rent it out?
posted to Ask Metafilter by wendell at 6:50 AM on March 31, 2007 (33 comments)

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