In effect, wealthy hetero westerners got a lot of money spent on them they didn't need, that could have been spent on other groups at much greater risk that needed it more.

But isn't that true for just about... well... EVERYTHING?
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 9:23 AM on June 12, 2008

Doesn't the weakening dollar have something to do with the rise in oil prices? After all, were the price of oil calculated in Euros, the rise is certainly still bad, but not as bad. This time last year, oil was at 75$ (or 56 Euros, at the exchange rate of .75), and today it's at $131 (or 84 Euros, at todays exchange rate of .64). Dollar-wise, that's a 74% increase. Euro-wise? A squidge over 50%. I don't think it'll be long before Euros become the currency oil is traded in, at which point... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 3:59 PM on June 10, 2008

Gosh, Freshwater -- you've got some balls to wish Gedde so much ill. He's pretty aware of himself and the place the role sits in the culture, and states in the story that he was naive about the role when he did it. Hindsight and all that, huh? Placing all the blame on him and wishing that he never worked again seems extreme. Hoping he burns in hell seems inane. He's an actor. 99% of the blame for a role like that should be pointed at John Hughes, and the rest split equally among the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 11:52 PM on March 24, 2008

Wait -- an article suggests that we analyze carefully the ideas behind an environmentally conscious movement and evaluate how best to consume and save the earth at the same time and clearly it's a piece of corporate propoganda we shouldn't believe? If the locavore movement were restricted to buying locally-made goods at farms that don't use tractors or oil-based fertilizers, then yeah, no argument. But otherwise? It's worth taking a closer look at the assumptions we make about what really... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 4:27 PM on March 23, 2008

Sports Illustrated and Chris Ballard weren't very complimentary of the venture, or him.
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 12:38 PM on March 21, 2008

Interesting comment from Chris Matthews on the night of the Texas/Ohio primaries -- when he was asked if this means Hillary was gaining momentum again, he pointed out that the demographics of 'Obama voters' and 'Hillary voters' have stayed relatively the same since the start of the primaries. Hillary has 'won' the states she had the demographic advantage in, and Obama did the same. The distribution of states' primaries has no relationship to their demographics, so when Hillary wins Texas and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 11:47 AM on March 17, 2008

Scariest part of this article in the New Yorker a couple weeks back was when they talk about how the locavore movement might not be so carbon-positive as we think.

The environmental burden imposed by importing apples from New Zealand to Northern Europe or New York can be lower than if the apples were raised fifty miles away. “In New Zealand, they have more sunshine than in the U.K., which helps productivity,” Williams explained. That means the yield of New... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 1:09 AM on March 17, 2008

One of the things I find interesting about Lost is how the characters really *don't* grow. By which I mean, in most fiction, you get character + conflict = growth. All of the losties fall back into the same behaviors, make the same mistakes, and so forth.

See, um, that's called writing for television. TV writing is all about incremental character growth, on a very small scale -- because once the character is done developing, then their story is over,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 10:13 PM on March 14, 2008

For those too lazy to click the damned link, it goes as as follows.

Nice job -- if they're too lazy to click on the link, then surely they aren't too lazy to read all four million words of that post. Well done!
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 10:16 PM on March 14, 2008

'Site changes' refer to the site of the cannula, which delivers insulin from the insulin pump to the diabetic. Every three days, you have to refill the pump and change the site, which involves putting in a new reservoir of insulin into the pump and injecting the new cannula into your skin. It has to be in a different place than where it was last to decrease the chance of infection and allow your skin to heal. Most diabetics (like my wife, for instance) have two or three sites they rotate... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 2:28 PM on March 6, 2008

Nelson Muntz and the rest of America points and says HA HA!
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 11:32 AM on March 6, 2008

I can't stand the attitude that funny women are rare and unusual. People taking notice of funny women is rare and unusual, and funny women getting plaudits and recognition is rare and unusual. There's something about that blog post from Eliza's friend that's rather disappointing, though -- if you're a comic and you get upset by the internet dumbasses saying you have bad acne and an ugly face and they're going to rape you, then you clearly haven't been listening closely to anything said in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 9:32 AM on March 5, 2008

It's good to see that the woe-is-me attitude presented in her friend's blog post and from the IM conversations printed therein isn't the attitude she expresses on her own website -- and thank you for your condescending and uncontextualized response, pinkmolly. Welcome to MeFi.
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 6:33 PM on March 5, 2008

After I watched the video of her picking out a suicide dress, there's no doubt she lives in Los Angeles. The first store she goes into is a store on Hillhurst, in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles, at the corner of Kingswell and Hillhurst. It's in my neighborhood. The name of it escapes me, but it's right next to world's worst restaurant Home. I think the third dressing room, the one with the orange curtain, is Atmosphere, on Vermont. I feel as though someone is holding the camera at... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 11:30 PM on February 10, 2008

Brian, it's a place called "American Vintage," says my wife. I'd doubt they'd recall the woman wiht the video camera -- it looks like she was using a digital camera's video capture option, and it seems she only was filming, from the hip, as she was walking into the store. Upon reading the rest of her blog and the comments here, she clearly goes to the Starbucks at the corner of Vermont and Prospect, and she lives within walking distance of me. How remarkably odd. I'm not entirely... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 11:50 PM on February 10, 2008

Why would you bother trying to get stuff onto a plane when anyone can walk into Heathrow with a trolley full of bags and blow up the entire departure lounge. I suppose it is a challenge.

Actually, asok, its difficulty is part of the point -- as if to say no matter what security measures you employ, and I'd posit that air travel has had the most beefing up since 9/11 of all public spaces, they can still strike and kill there. "Your modern... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 3:33 AM on August 10, 2006

So, wait, because retail workers deserve time off with their families on a weekend, and because the job is really hard, that means that the government should legislate a day where stores shouldn't be open? Is this really a question of workers' rights? And if retail workers' rights are the issue, then aren't there a whole passle of things to change before worrying about legislating a day off?

I'm no libertarian, but who's to tell me that I can't keep my business open?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 3:50 PM on June 24, 2006

Trailers are made by trailer companies, who just do that and nothing more. They're mostly geniuses, able to make even the worst of the worst look somewhat palatable. And since they're frequently working with the rough cut of the movie months before it's locked, they often end up using scenes that wind up on the cutting room floor. That's why you see stuff in the trailer that isn't in the final movie. As for using editing to take things out of context and completely change the story around...... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 11:52 AM on May 22, 2006

one thing is for sure, that lying fucker doesn't know a thing about proper capitalization.

And apparently neither do you.

(Can't...resist...snark! Must...try...)
posted to MetaFilter by incessant at 10:41 PM on January 11, 2006