What about the WOPR? I would love one of those for the house.
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 3:08 PM on October 27, 2007

I would really love to visit that place. Here's hoping they do tours when they have moved out!
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 5:23 PM on October 25, 2006

I would hope the US govt wouldn't actually have any nukes in Iraq. That would seem... unwise.
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 11:39 PM on October 21, 2006

elpapacito - reinforced concrete and bricks are terrible building materials in an earthquake zone. When I first visited California I looked in horror at the wood-framed stucco houses. They appeared to be cheap, shoddy pre-fabs to my eyes. I was just too used to brick/stone built houses. Now I've lived here a while, it all just looks normal. Shipping containers are quick and easy to build out. Wood-framing goes up exceptionally fast too. Even if you're not in an earthquake zone, brick and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 6:18 PM on September 16, 2006

A woman who lived near me had a minivan with the plate SUNYBCH. I thought that was an odd choice until I remembered that we were close to the beach.
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 1:41 AM on August 10, 2006

Just to confirm, for those that appear to have read the thread but not the linked article - a player was given a warning for "sexual harrassment" because she used the word GLBT in public chat. She didn't ask for special protection, her guild didn't ask for special protection and no-one complained about people using homophobic insults. If you go read the guild website they appear to be all about providing a non-judgemental safe space for players of all orientations. I don't see any... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 1:08 AM on January 28, 2006

Smart move by Random House. I bet the number of books that get returned, is massively outweighed by the number of new copies they sell. This is a great publicity stunt, which highlights all the outrageous elements of the book, and brings it to the attention of people (like myself) who had never previously heard of Frey or his book. Cha-ching! I shan't be buying a copy though, he sounds like a dick.
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 12:46 PM on January 11, 2006

Hehe. Commiserations Athenian, but remember, Hemel isn't all that bad, its got the Magic Roundabout! I grew up in Welwyn Garden City, another of the original "new towns". My Dad originally moved there as part of the London slum-clearance plans, as a child, and eventually grew up to work for the Commission for the New Towns. So I grew up surrounded by photos and plans of the town's expansion, and my Dad would talk about meeting Louis de Soissons.

New Towns... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 6:43 PM on October 24, 2005

Perhaps I don't fully understand how the mortgage interest tax deduction works, but this seems like it would be of negligible impact to most homeowners in most of the country, but disastrous for regular middle-class homeowners in high-priced areas like California. A mortgage of $300k-$1m covers almost the entire breadth of the housing market in SoCal. Not everyone with a mortgage in that range is filthy rich. Many are just regular middle-class families struggling to get by in the insane housing... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 5:24 PM on October 12, 2005

Oh yes, and I forgot to note that it wouldn't make me revolt. I might consider leaving the country though. While I know of no other country that offers such a tax deduction, if you take it away, then suddenly the US doesn't look any better than any other western country I could choose to live in. In fact it looks worse.
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 5:58 PM on October 12, 2005

Oh, and if you want to leave, . . . don't let the door hit you on the way out.
posted by caddis at 6:10 PM PST on October 12 [!]

Caddis, I probably didn't make my point clearly, it wasn't meant to be dramatic. I'm not a US citizen, so its not meant to be some drama-queen flouncing out of their home country in protest. What I was subtly trying to say was that the high-rate of home ownership in the US is something that makes it great (and appealed to me as an... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 6:34 PM on October 12, 2005

How about going for a defiant pose? "I was planning on killing myself anyway, so you just did me a favour!".
...
No, I didn't think so. Anyway, funny concept, even if it is appallingly executed.
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 3:38 PM on September 16, 2005

My personal experience is that if I'm really tired, and need to stay awake (eg long distance driving) - coffee makes me jittery but still tired, whereas Red Bull makes me feel properly awake. I can't even drink a whole can of it, just half is enough to do the trick. Last time I drank the whole can I was running up and down stairs like a loon for 3 hours afterwards. I try not to drink Red Bull very often, but it does the trick when I really need it.

P.S. Lodurr - WTH is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 9:39 PM on February 7, 2005

Circumcised or not, the only way to prevent sexually-transmitted HIV is to practise safe sex. Its irresponsible to even suggest that this "helps". It just provides an excuse for people to practise unsafe sex, and tell themselves (or their partners) that they are OK because they are circumcised/insert other excuse here. Or maybe I'm just ultra-cynical this morning.
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 12:50 PM on January 9, 2005

This is fascinating, but I'm not geeky enough to understand what makes all these webcams unsecured. Surely the point of a webcam is to let anyone on the internet view it.

This looks like some kind of factory/sweatshop?
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 8:36 PM on January 4, 2005

My current favourite is somebody's apartment with 4 cats lying on the bed

Most of these webcams are in Japan, so I find more of them are active at night here on the west coast.

I also found a pair of webcams, that give 2 different views of a snow covered harbor. The cameras seem to be top-of-the-line ones, with an incredible zoom... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 10:00 PM on January 5, 2005

Thanks calwatch! I can't read anything on the page, but I get the jist of it. I was watching when the camera-owner returned home and switched the cam off. Imagine my disappointment. Now I wait patiently for my daily fix.
posted to MetaFilter by Joh at 11:55 AM on January 6, 2005