This is amazing. I think it works, in part, because Nixon was such an openly vicious motherfucker in his campaigns, though. No one felt bad for him because he was such an attack dog.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 11:11 AM on August 8, 2008

I sometimes feel like Russian Animation is designed to make you as uncomfortable as possible at all times. Either way, I love Bradbury and this story and this thread has been pretty outstanding for all the adaptations being shared. Yes, that includes the Russian one. Thanks, all.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:57 PM on August 7, 2008

The first line of the plagiarised version reads better than the original ("this past ...", ugh). That has to sting. It's like burglars leaving your flat tidier than it was.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:17 PM on August 7, 2008

WolfDaddy is plagiarizing me. This is ridiculous! I demand a moderator delete his comment.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:31 PM on August 7, 2008

I can't play this right now. at work on a mac, but when I get home I'm going to try it. It looks cool as hell. thanks for this.

also, what are the chances of people who think there should be a PC tag added to games posts just memailing either the OP or a mod? would this be a decent solution? i kind of hate it when the first 5 comments in a thread are about this.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:20 PM on August 7, 2008

Any guesses what those excuses will be?

"There's no question Saddam was involved in terrorism. No question! Just because we couldn't prove it doesn't mean it wasn't true! Everybody knew he was involved in 9/11, except the American People, so we had to let the American People in on what everybody else already knew. That's all we did. We were proving to America what we already knew was true. We weren't lying, we were just showing you a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 9:36 AM on August 5, 2008

so at this point Suskind needs to release the audio, yeah?
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:34 PM on August 6, 2008

this is a pretty amazing fpp. thanks for this.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 8:14 AM on August 6, 2008

Connery
Craig
Lazenby
Brosnan
Dalton
Niven
Moore

and that's the last word on that.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 11:12 AM on August 6, 2008

to quote family guy:

America loves hot, white jail-bait ass!

Wait a minute..... that is the smartest thing anyone has ever said about anything.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 8:23 AM on August 6, 2008

This has been a pleasure.

Right You Are.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:25 PM on August 5, 2008

so that's 33000 applicants who now cannot get this service, right? because it's pretty obvious that whoever stole this info now has the ability to pretend to be them, right?

right?
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 12:21 PM on August 5, 2008

Hey, thanks for sharing this viral advertising with us!
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:44 PM on August 4, 2008

How on earth do you figure this is viral advertising? There aren't even any ads on the page, or any products mentioned.

well, that is the nature of viral advertising, but to be clear:

the second part, 9 reasons not to date a tyrannosaurus, or whatever, is in the same style and is hosted on mingle2.com, the dating site. you can click directly from your link to mingle2.com in 2 clicks. it's clearly an advertisement.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:24 PM on August 4, 2008

Wow. That's stretching it. Is the New York Times a viral ad? There are many places on there wherein someone could click DIRECTLY to an advertiser.

look, do you really want to get into this? I'm willing to drop it if you are. it's not that important. but if you want to get into this, then go and look at your link again. It's the exact same art style as advertisements for mingle that are hosted by mingle. it links directly to mingle from your site.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:40 PM on August 4, 2008

ok, so now you have no doubt. fine. this would have been a much shorter conversation if you'd said that at first instead of telling me you doubted it. believe me, you're free to enjoy your pepsi blue link.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:45 PM on August 4, 2008

Why is it that, despite living in a city with the largest density of things to do in the entire world, New Yorkers seem to require an impressive array of technological gadgets just to figure out how to kill some time?

oh snap! take THAT new yorkers!

no, actually, mkb, Brooklyn is full of people who prefer living here over Manhattan, and who find the choice of bars, restaurants and nightlife options here mostly... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:19 PM on August 4, 2008

here's what was going through my head for the past few minutes:

oh shit yeah! spaceships!

why is scriptblocker telling me there's a flash element in their banner?

oh. a spinning logo. well, moving on.

oh fuck yeah! look at these concept illustrations! these guys are boss as hell!

what the fuck is this image being loaded as a flash object for?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:56 PM on August 4, 2008

What kept running through my head as I watched this is that whatever these guys are saying, they're more a symptom of the problem than the root. It's not like window dressers all over the world are clamoring for plus-sized mannequins and these guys refuse to make them. Everything they're saying is really just sort of an after-the-fact rationalization of the fact that they're making what people are asking them for because they're good at making mannequins. If the whole world suddenly liked... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 12:16 PM on August 4, 2008

for those who were wondering "but what does shmegegge think?", I think this:

that language is much like my own, but heard through old stagnant water. it was lovely. I think I'll go see what i can see about Barry Flanagan and J.P. Donleavy.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 11:42 AM on August 4, 2008

that article from tampa about the girl danielle was one of the most heart wrenching things i've ever read. I got so violently angry at the girl's birth mother, and then I read she has an iq of 77, and it's like "what the fuck can you do?"
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 9:50 AM on August 4, 2008

I really am having a hard time seeing MPDSEA's trolling in this thread.

I don't know if he's trolling. that word gets used way too much around here. he's certainly playing the violin ubu's dancing to, though.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 9:46 AM on August 1, 2008

so, apparently Jonathan Swift is the wrong dude to piss off.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:16 PM on August 1, 2008

aaaaand, cue Benny Hill Music!
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:02 PM on August 1, 2008

you know, i'm doing the quick math on that statement in my head.

here's what I got: 2 divided by one would be one. So it should be posted once.

But it seems like maybe you're saying that it shouldn't have been posted at all? Which is weird math, I think. I mean, 2 divided by zero is ... well you can't do that unless you're Chuck Norris.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:05 PM on August 1, 2008

you're right. that was a typo. I mean two divided by 2 is one. apologies all round.


the other peculiar possibility is that he meant 3 divided by 2, which is some crazy fake number i can't even figure out.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:11 PM on August 1, 2008

5 right, 10 wrong.

holy fuck, since when does a Robin Red Breast not have a red breast? Let's not even talk about the blue tit!
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 12:04 PM on August 1, 2008

All I know is, if it weren't for the American Robin, the European Robins would all be speaking German by now.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:48 PM on August 1, 2008

"additionally, our space robots have identified what look to be several objects of non-natural origin. specifically, one unbelievably massive rocket engine pointing at the sun. kind of surprised we hadn't seen that one before, to be honest. another was what appeared to be a dry-docked boat, and within said boat a kind of document, several pages long. we're still translating it, but here's what we've got of the title so far...

OP_RAT__N IC_ C_BE: RE_U_E G_OBA_... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:36 PM on August 1, 2008

FAIL
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 12:34 PM on August 1, 2008

i wuz here.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 10:24 AM on August 1, 2008

hey, the mods are apparently busy.

you know what this video reminds me of? those days when absolutely nothing seems to be happening on metafilter. no new posts, no crazy out of control threads. I'll wander around thinking "where is everybody?" finally, it'll occur to me: oh shit! i bet everyone's over in metatalk having a big fight and I'm missing it!

but no. even metatalk is all meetups and unassuming ponies.

this is like that.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 10:54 AM on August 1, 2008

What they hell could anyone possibly get out of a war with Iran? Higher oil prices?

As I understand it: yes. also, billion dollar contracts to weapons manufacturers that happen to be run by friends of theirs. but as far as oil is concerned, I recall Fahrenheit 9/11 making a compelling case for the ties between the Bush Family and Saudi Arabian Oil Magnates.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 10:33 AM on August 1, 2008

Or, in other words, are you stoned?

you know, you people are all the same. all of a sudden it's not okay to post stoned! well, excuuuuuse me!
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 10:50 AM on August 1, 2008

honestly, what bothers me isn't that they're going to find something on my laptop. what bothers me is that they might take it from me for 6 months. unless they plan on deleting my diablo ii save files, i don't give a fuck what they do with my laptop, I just don't want it taken from me and not given back until sometime after I've left the airport. all this nonsense with USB booting, or encryption and all the rest of it, is just that: nonsense. The point is not that we should somehow try to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 9:41 AM on August 1, 2008

I see it's still virtually impossible to find the firefox extension on the new site, as well, if you're already a member and just need to reinstall it for some reason. Once again, I had to google "del.icio.us firefox extension" to find the page. awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 9:25 AM on August 1, 2008

For a second I thought Adbusters was shooting itself in the foot with this article, but then I remember that a hipster's favorite activity is criticizing hipsters as if he weren't one himself. Then I thought, "Well played, Adbusters. Well played."

I noticed, however, that they failed to mention how many of the hipsters they were criticizing were wearing Black Spot shoes.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 8:37 AM on August 1, 2008

man, I thought that article was going to be about how all marketing and retail and media in this country is aimed at 13 year old girls, and I was all ready to agree. TV folks realized that most people who have reached the advanced old age of 18 will already watch whatever the hell you tell them to on the tv, and that they have to start worrying about how they can afford drugs/alcohol/rent instead of buying crappy music and movies. But 13 year old girls are really picky, have their parents'... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:18 PM on July 31, 2008

I want to make a t shirt that says "I don't have kids, but I still think you're a bad parent."
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 8:31 AM on August 1, 2008

I'm really conflicted about this idea. I recall watching Robert Newman's A History of Oil, in which he says that he believes that the dissolution of all corporations is the Sine Qua Non of democracy, and since hearing it I've come to believe it. I tend to think that there absolutely needs to be legislative action taken to eliminate corporate influence in our government and on our streets. On the other hand, I don't believe in babysitting people this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 9:44 AM on July 31, 2008

Yes, residents there eat a lot of fast food -- because that's what's there. that's what you can get quickly for 5 dollars.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 9:46 AM on July 31, 2008

I think calling it predation is a little overwrought,

I'm inclined to disagree. I think predation is precisely what it is. When the neighborhood has virtually no banks, hundreds of check cashing places, an average income level below the poverty line but everyone has a credit card with a limit usually reserved for upper middle class breadwinners, that paints a pretty clear picture to my mind that there's been significant interest on the part of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 11:09 AM on July 31, 2008

look, I can understand why you feel that way, but I'm not making this stuff up. It may not be collusion on the part of banks and check cashing places, but there's a much larger complex of self-interest on the part of banks, commercial retail business, and the government to keep things this way. Banks don't make a lot of money off of poor people, because they make their money investing the money people deposit in them. An entire community of people who are constantly draining their accounts to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 11:56 AM on July 31, 2008

as you touched on earlier, the problem is that "CD" means different things to rich people and poor people.

this is certainly true. fwiw, I don't even know what a bank-type CD is, though I've heard of it. What I will say, though, is that I'd be very surprised if Bank of America, for instance, couldn't figure out a way to market themselves to the poor.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 12:06 PM on July 31, 2008

What I took issue with was the idea that banks somehow benefit from poor people being poor. Specifically, you said that there was "significant interest on the part of businesses to prevent poor people from saving their money and to make sure that they go substantially into debt." This is true for the small number of companies that make their money off of people going into debt. Check cashing places are one, H&R Block is another, and they both market heavily in low income... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 12:28 PM on July 31, 2008

I think you'd be surprised — what would Bank of America have to offer that a poor person would be interested in?

I have no idea. I feel like they'd figure it out, though.

But to your larger point: that they have no interest in doing so. I completely agree. I'd made that same point elsewhere in the thread, myself. I was just responding, as an aside, to the idea poor people wouldn't necessarily know what to do with a bank... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 1:21 PM on July 31, 2008

Bulgaroktonos,

The problem he's having is that the idea of inner city incomes being built on the drug trade is largely based on perception rather than data. Ideally, yes, we should all need background data to know any of these things. If you were to tell me that certain baltimore neighborhoods had most of their money tied up in drugs I'd believe it (to an extent) because David Simon did extensive reporting on that very fact for a while, but these are smaller . If you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:02 PM on July 31, 2008

That tells me that their community's economy must be built on drug trafficking, because there's obviously nothing else there.

well, to be clear, i'm just trying to support the point that inner city economies are not necessarily built entirely off of drugs. i don't think you're a racist, and I can't speak for whoever it was that said you were.

but the point that I take slight issue with is this idea that there's obviously... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 2:31 PM on July 31, 2008

I feel like I've seen so many of these, hell I've made so many of these. 80s tv parodies with jokes that are hysterical when you're drinking with your buddies and you come up with them, but fall flat when you finally do it. I imagine it was fun for them to make, though.
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 9:30 AM on July 31, 2008

if it's anything like borrowing dvds from the library, I wouldn't trust any of these pans to even function properly by the time you get to borrow them.

stupid library patron: oh, but you see, I just couldn't prevent my dog from biting clean through the pan! also my children pissed on it and I haven't cleaned it! then my dog pissed on it and my children bit through it! and then I just plain old scratched the hell out of it with my keys on purpose.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shmegegge at 3:21 PM on July 30, 2008