Wait, Jesse Jackson said he wanted to cut off Obama's nuts? On Fox News? What?

Single greatest media moment this year. I almost registered a domain name.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:49 AM on July 24, 2008

Infamous for its gravity-and-friction-defying looping waterslide and beer gardens

Any place that has beer gardens for kids is A-OK in my books.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:24 PM on July 22, 2008

Somehow, it turns coffee, which has as many different flavours going on as wine does, into a utilitarian sort of fuel.

Everything is fuel.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:25 PM on July 22, 2008

their scientific name means "misshapen giant penis."

I'm going to translate Henry Miller's dollar-a-page porn 'novel' Opus Pistorum into LOLCATese and call it Titan Arum.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:16 PM on July 17, 2008

I did not follow the link. Hovering over it with my mouse and seeing http://www.cakefarts.com in my status bar did, however, make me smile quietly to myself and bring to mind in a welter of pleasantly nostalgic feelings the many amusing fart jokes I have enjoyed in decades past, and so: it is good.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:12 PM on July 17, 2008

Hmmph. Same thing as the lower-tech (suck air through a nicotine-soaked sponge in a capsule, basically) Nicorette inhaler smoking cessation thingy that I used to help quit back in 2000. They were more expensive than cigarettes, but not much.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:07 PM on July 17, 2008

I like the idea of these things: people get to satisfy their nicotine addiction AND their oral fixation, they do so without inflicting carcinogens on anybody in the same room and without emitting a nauseating odor (well--at least that nauseating odor). Of course it would be better for you to give up nicotine altogether, but then, that's none of my business.

That was the big thing for me with the inhalers way back when, especially when out drinking.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:09 PM on July 17, 2008

Now this, I like.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:28 AM on July 17, 2008

taz is, was, and will forever be the reigning queen of the tileable textures.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:37 PM on July 17, 2008

Ernie Kovacs was my uncle's name, but this Ernie Kovacs was not my uncle. Too bad, that.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:50 PM on July 15, 2008

Beware that it is a ONE HOUR trial version

Oh shit, really? If I'd realized that I wouldn't have linked it. Sorry!
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:12 PM on July 12, 2008

To make up for the 1-hour crippleware, here's something similarly neato: ParticleMan, the first of the freely-downloadable Spore prototype thingies they're releasing.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:29 AM on July 14, 2008

I fully support any media output that assumes people are smart, rather that what we've become used to. I support things that challenge us by dragging the dirt and stupidity out into the light, where the sun can disinfect it and we can laugh at it all.

The kind of overweening sensitivity and tremulous caution that anyone be offended about anything ever that has been a defining characteristic of what passes for the left (or at least the Democratic end... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:07 PM on July 13, 2008

Thanks for this. I actually just started rereading The Diamond Age a few days ago, so it's timely as all hell.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:40 PM on July 13, 2008

People who look for heroes to save them get bent across the barrel and fucked, inevitably, every time.

Obama is a politician, and a good one. Politics at the level we're talking is a dirty, dirty business of dealmaking and compromise of principles. That is never going to change.

Barack Obama could eat babies on stage and he'd still be the best goddamn hope you silly bastards have, and by extension, the best hope for the rest of us as well. Stop... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:23 PM on July 9, 2008

Stavros, I'm choosing to read your eloquent rant without that entirely overused cliché.

Well, gracias amigo, but I am aware that it's a cliché. Thing about clichés, though, is that sometimes they're also true.

I believe what I said: this is a very dangerous time we live in, and in nature and extent if the problems the world faces, I reckon it's a point of no return. Provided, of course, that point isn't already in the rear-view mirror.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:17 PM on July 9, 2008

Oh jesus, was this idiot banned and now he's back, or what? Like political threads aren't fractious enough, we need a dedicated troll to stir things up and make sure nothing but argument happens?
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:30 AM on July 10, 2008

Wow, thanks for the linkage, gen. I sure as heck didn't think I'd end up on the blue!

As I get older, like most folks, I begin to feel more nostalgic about the places where I grew up. It tears me up that the place I spend most of my time growing up is dying, but I do think that long term, it may be for the best.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:05 PM on July 9, 2008

I have two things to say about that bit I excerpted: 1) stavros is a hell of a writer, and 2) I'll bet he chose "40 below zero" with malice aforethought, so that in case anyone was incautious enough to say "Fahrenheit or Celsius?" he could snap "At forty below, it's the same, doofus!"

Thanks, LH. You are kind. And you're right about the 40 below part. Also, like the Bearman said (he comes from my hometown and we've known... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:10 PM on July 9, 2008

I pretty much agree, fff, as I tried to make clear in my post. I've nothing against the forestry industry per se, but I do have a problem with the lack of stewardship of the resources, and as was mentioned upthread, the monoculture reforestation practices that have helped things reach these dire straits.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:18 PM on July 9, 2008

If there is a beef to be made about clear-cutting, it's that it's allowed to take place on unstable slopes and too close to streams

Yeah, that's one thing my mom mentioned last time I spoke to her -- some of the lakes in the area around Fort Saint James are 6 feet or more higher than they have been in years past this season, and apparently the reason is to a large extent traceable to clearcuts in watersheds meaning that runoff isn't captured, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:51 PM on July 9, 2008

Can I create an avatar of Fonzie on a motorbike and set it to perpetually jump a shark tank in Lively, then go do something marginally less worthless with my time? Because that's the only think I can think of doing with this crapdablet.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:58 PM on July 8, 2008

From the plausible to the fantastic

I haven't read Oryx and Crake yet, but Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale was horrifyingly plausible back when it was written, and is no less so today.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:56 AM on July 8, 2008

I haven't followed any of the links, but I wish shows called 'Thinking and Drinking' would interview me. I'm all about the thinking and the drinking.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:58 PM on July 6, 2008

Personally I think one of the great tragedies of society these days is the unimportance we place on sex and sexuality.

Interesting. I think one of the great tragedies of modern society is the degree to which we are bombarded with sex and sexuality, told how important it is, and somehow convinced, like the addict to whom the substance presents itself as the solution to the problems it causes, that it should play an increasingly central role in our... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:45 PM on July 3, 2008

@stavros : sex is not pornography. we're bombarded with pornography, not sex.

We're dunned to fucking senselessness by both, and by more besides. Please not to be putting words into my mouth. I meant what I said, and you'll have to trust me when I say that I'm not dumb enough to make category mistakes like that.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:45 AM on July 4, 2008

Population Density Germany: 232 people per km^2
Population Density United States: 31 people per km^2

Area, Germany: 357,022 km^2
Area, United States: 9,629,091 km^2

OK, let's try that with a different country.

Population Density Australia: 2.6 people per km^2
Area, Australia: 7,682,300 km^2

Current gas prices: around $A1.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:46 PM on June 29, 2008

Which is dishonest, since Australia is almost entirely uninhabited.

There's nothing dishonest about it. Justinian's entire point was about population density and areas. If it's dishonest to quote the numbers about Australia, it's no less so to do it with America and Germany, Justinian's examples.

My point was less about how much crude calculations like those can tell us as it was about trying to make a point through oversimplification.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:03 PM on June 29, 2008

Use your shoes.

Someday they're going to redesign cities around those things!

I hope.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:54 PM on July 2, 2008

I can't believe how crappy it looks now, and how much I still want to play it!

Get jdoom or one of the other sourceports with highres textures and sprites, and it's still pretty awesome today, with a totally retro feel but nice lighting and old school but updated graphics.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:32 AM on July 2, 2008

and has included most of the masters in his podcast.

Hey, neat! And speaking of super chickens, my 21st birthday party was broadcast live on CITR back in 19mumphtyhumph. It seems strange that it's still there. Probably way less drinking after hours now, though.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:57 PM on July 1, 2008

And yet, on every board and blog I've ever been too, there are always a few people who absolutely cannot stomach any criticism of their favorite organization and come out with pitchforks and blazing torches. It's like unthinking patriotism writ small.

And there are always more than a few that delight in the excitement and safety of joining the mob and piling on when others seem to be doing it. It's the worst of human nature and the worst of the web,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:51 PM on June 30, 2008

Also, there's the small matter of people I know and like being (in my opinion) unfairly shat upon by some of the foamier members of Metafilter. It does make me testy.

Same thing has happened to me, jscalzi, most recently during the Givewell Shitstorm. Poo was being flung by the more excitable and easily-influenced me-too brigade at some people I considered friends, and when I defended them, the ire faucet was turned on me too. I also have a tendency... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:13 PM on June 30, 2008

This is a directory of wonderful things. If we no longer think something is wonderful, we have every right to remove it from your directory.

Now if that were really true, the wonderchicken'd be all over that site.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:41 PM on July 1, 2008

I don't know. I'm Canadian (well, expat Canuck), I'm enviro-mental, anti-corporatist, grew up in the not-actually all-that-pristine wilderness of Northern BC, all that shit, but I'm not sure how much of a problem I have with the idea of Canada being self-sufficient in fossil fuels while they are still the energy source that matters, or getting Dubairiffically rich through exports as the supplies get scarcer and dearer worldwide, at the cost of messing up some mostly-empty territory up in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:36 PM on June 26, 2008

Especially since Canadian oil companies will export the bulk of it.

Nah. Once America collapses into a savage patchwork of warring fiefdoms, madmax jonesing for oil and water, we'll just absorb the northern ones that seem useful into Greater Canada, and let Texas take the rest.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:47 PM on June 26, 2008

Too bad all the mouth breathers have long since left but it must be noted that markkraft kicked their collective asses. With, you know, actual facts.

Markkraft wins.

But ironically, for making such a crass comment, you lose.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:51 PM on June 30, 2008

You don't hang around MeFi much, do you?

No, five fresh fish, I don't. With only 6000-odd comments in nearly 8 years, particularly when compared to your 10,000+ in the last 7 or so, clearly I don't hang around MeFi much, relatively speaking.

But I'd venture, even with my obviously limited understanding of the folkways of the site and limited exposure to your writing, having only seen perhaps 8 or 9000 of your 10,000 comments,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:27 PM on June 30, 2008

I am a strange man, I will admit that freely.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:37 PM on June 30, 2008

Next up on Wide World of American Sports: Competitive Shitting. Tune in to the best in major league competition as these top athletes battle to be America's next top shitmonger! Thrills, spills, colorectal chills!
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:53 PM on June 29, 2008

All this OMG WE BETTER HURRY UP NOW THAT OUR ECONOMIC BALLS ARE IN A FOSSIL FUEL VICE stuff is great, don't get me wrong, but technologies like the ones we're seeing so much about lately should have been The Past, and by now we should be cruising around in our autopiloted flying cars, sucking down Mint Juleps cooled by refrigerators powered by the limitless free clean energy from fusion reactors, unconcerned about the liver damage because we've got stem-cell-seeded extra organs sitting in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:43 PM on June 26, 2008

I invented 'scatterblogging' a few years back -- deliberately starting a blog on one of the many free services out there, posting a single post, then forgetting it. I must have dozens of them out there, and no idea where they were or what Brainfarts For The Ages™ I felt compelled to share.

But I am sure they were all amazing.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:35 PM on June 26, 2008

Nice one, Archagon. If I get you as a target in Dominator, I totally won't pull the trigger.

No, wait, I will. But I'll hesitate ever so slightly.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:47 PM on June 24, 2008

*examines his elitism*

Wait, it shouldn't be that color, should it? And what's that lump on the side?
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:19 AM on June 23, 2008

He was so much more than the '7 words' skit, but I guess it's predictable that that's what he'd be remembered for. And it was an important part of the struggle for freedom of speech back in the day.

Still, he has been one of my favorite stand-up comics for a couple of decades, mostly because of his love for language, and his unrelenting anger at and lack of patience for the culture of stupidity and greed and 'continued pussification' of the country he loved, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:33 PM on June 22, 2008

Um ... Jade Dragon. Snope Phone's ringing.

Yeah, I was going to say that that didn't sound like Carlin at all, even back in his hippie-hair days. Sounds a little more like one of those things that would make him angry.

Of course, that was a pretty long list.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:17 AM on June 23, 2008

I don't know why people hate this movie so much.

Because they want to believe that they're still childlike, with an intact sense of wonder and an ability to suspend disbelief, the way they were all those years ago when they first felt like they wanted to be Indy, out there in the amazing wide world saving the day, but actually all the years that have passed have made them bitter and cynical and drear and dusty, and their default mode is the gnawing... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:25 AM on June 19, 2008

Scrotum? Damn near hung his work in a gallery'ed 'im!
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:42 AM on June 19, 2008

...and then killed 'im, so the posthumous price of his work would skyrocket.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:58 AM on June 19, 2008

I'm always surprised by how artful and poetic ghetto slang can be, compared to the stilted way many educated people talk.

Certainly true. This just isn't that, is what I'm saying.
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:55 AM on June 19, 2008