total elevation gain will be over 100,000 feet [in 10 days]

That is not a test of endurance, it is unsound.

I assume that this is the total cumulative vertical distance, if it was the net between lowest and highest point then they'd be up to four times higher than Everest.
(I'm assuming that the unsound is a reference to altitude sickness)
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 3:00 AM on June 24, 2008

this discussion amazes me.... I have no idea how to respond to someone that doesn't see a problem with the fact that we are losing life forms on this planet......

and I have no idea how to respond to someone who seems to be totally incapable of articulating his position.

"Losing life forms from this planet"? Well, species go extinct all the time. It's actually a worthwhile question - why is an extinction like this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 11:23 PM on June 7, 2008

However, the wailing and gnashing of teeth over this particular extinction seems pointless to me. I don't get the idea that humans have some kind of moral duty to play steward to nature. We're part of nature and that inevitably means that other species will be affected by our actions. If it's a tragedy when a species becomes extinct then this is a tragedy that's been played out millions of times before. How exactly does it become more of a tragedy just because humans are involved?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 11:31 PM on June 7, 2008

Well, I can understand the BBC's problem with geography. After all, they are in London, or as I like to call it, "Wales."

I like to call it "California"

(Seriously, wtf? There are seventeen Londons on an undoubtedly non-exhaustive list I got from wikipedia - two in Alabama alone.)
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 12:38 PM on March 18, 2008

Being is a nomad isn't all bad.

Of course not, and Southern California sure is the place to do it, climate wise (this is why Vancouver has such a high number of homeless people, only Canadian city of that size where the winters are survivable sans-shelter). The problem is that it cuts you off from normal society. Can you imagine trying to keep enough clothes for a normal life (especially the kind of clothing required for a decent job) clean, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 12:45 PM on March 18, 2008

I think China's rising GDP should be a worry for the regime, rather than a cause for celebration - once people start getting middle class, they get a lot harder to push around.

This is nonsense and reveals a thorough misunderstanding of the Chinese 'regime' and the relationship between it and the middle class.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 8:55 AM on February 27, 2008

At last, to all people who see a peaceful endgame in China as becomes free....How exactly does that happen? When in history does someone who have power and wealth stop and state you know, here you go unwashed masses, it's yours!?

As malocchio states, scarier is a complacent and happier middle class that's simply excited they can go to nice malls and buy a car so if democracy comes, it comes, if not, oh well......Most informal polling shows that such is the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 1:22 PM on February 27, 2008

I know through Guy Fawkes at least, the British people celebrate the popular uprising against SOMETHING.

Actually they celebrate the failure of his plot. (and historically it was an outlet for anti-catholicism - alongside the burning of Guy Fawkes in effigy, they used to burn effigies of the pope)
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 8:05 PM on February 27, 2008

Assholes abound. Here's the problem with this logic. The Kosovo Albanians who wanted an independent country are far and away the dominant ethnic group in Kosovo. So their wanting to kick the serbs out amounts to "you stay in your country, I'll stay in mine".

Sure, but as nasreddin says, the predominance of ethnic Albanians there is relatively recent. Kosovo contains some of the Serbian Orthodox Church's most holy sites. It isn't just an... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 2:03 PM on February 21, 2008

At some point, Europe is going to have to accept that for any given country, the people living in the country whose ethnicity includes the country's name don't have any greater right to live there than anyone else who is there legally. I suppose we have to learn this lesson to.

At some point, Americans are going to have to accept that wishing won't make it so.

The institutions, constitutional arrangements and culture of many... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 2:21 PM on February 21, 2008

Talez: indeed and it's fair enough that Kosova has its independence now, but Serbian nationalists may have a different idea of what 'recent' means.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 3:09 PM on February 21, 2008

Spaniards consider themselves white and European, and would be deeply insulted if you suggested they were Latin American of any kind.

Was it Dubya that claimed Nelson Mandela as his favourite 'African American'?
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 2:55 PM on February 21, 2008

Heiniken? F--K that sh1t!! PABST BLUE RIBBON!!

The analogous Dutch beer is Hollandia.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 6:52 AM on February 9, 2008

lifting up a running loop of the cable for inspection or repair. (I have no idea if this is something that would be done with a modern cable, though.)

No, that's not possible. There's not enough slack to lift the cable to the surface.

Internet here in Dubai is working but much slower than usual.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 12:37 AM on February 6, 2008

While you're at it, refuse to call anything but Gin and Dry Vermouth a "Martini".

Damn right.

I read an old interview with Ian Fleming and the reason that James Bond drinks his Martinis shaken and with vodka, not gin is to show what an unconventional loose cannon sort of chap he is. The martini is now so comprehensively associated with JB that no-one gets it anymore.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 10:29 AM on February 1, 2008

Catholicism (like many religions) is a top down organization. All "discussion" flows in one direction: Downward from the Pope.

That has certainly not been true for the whole history of the church. In the middle ages and well into the 19th century at least there was a widely held school of thought that said that the power of the church was distributed amongst the body of the priesthood. Many of the objections to papal infallibility in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 12:50 PM on January 31, 2008

isn't the cost of the land rather than the cost of the actual house the main problem? How much do blocks of vacant land sell for on the outskirts of London?

Yes, it's the land. In particular, land that has planning permission for residential construction.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:24 AM on January 30, 2008

Well... theoretcially, if there was a global war against the USSR. In smaller conflicts, such as Seuz, not so much. Lack of US intervention there ensured a disaster for us and pretty much put a stake in the heart of any idea that there might be a return to empire... which really in the long term has turned out to be a pretty good thing.

Lack of US intervention? Eisenhower threatened to freeze all French, British and Israeli assets in the US.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:16 AM on January 28, 2008

They can ask their pals in Dubai what the best way to exploit migrant labour is...

The Saudis were exploiting migrant labour when Dubai was still a little pearl fishing and gold smuggling town.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 8:08 AM on January 22, 2008

This is just another type of thermal depolymerisation, which is a well known technology.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 3:57 AM on January 11, 2008

The simple fact that Fleming and Rowling have together managed to keep the world's literacy level [...][up] more than qualifies them for placement on this list.

That rather depends on what definition of 'Great' one uses, doesn't it? For some ranking methods this list would have (for instance) Rowling at a much higher place, and for some she wouldn't appear at all.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 9:34 AM on January 7, 2008

Also, 'Literary London' has always preferred Pullman over Rowling for some reason.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 9:41 AM on January 7, 2008

...if Europe's and Africa's grids are connected like that.

They're not. There have been proposals to lay a massive HVDC cable under the Straight of Gibraltar.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 8:12 AM on December 13, 2007

In other news, "ambulance drivers" are actually called EMTs or paramedics and they get a little miffed when people refer to them as "ambulance drivers" "ambulance men" or any variation thereof.

From the article
...was transporting a patient from Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in Ashland, on the West Virginia line, to a Huntington, W.Va., nursing home.

This guy... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 11:11 AM on December 12, 2007

if my name was garlicboy they would deride me for being smelly. its xbox live.

Inappropriate, uncouth language over Xbox Live? Next you'll tell me is that Apple made a cell phone.

Just because it's routine doesn't mean it's ok.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 10:02 AM on November 27, 2007

From Machiaveli to Dale Carnegie and on and on ... but I just go back to what we all (I hope) heard in kindergarten, "if you want a friend, be a friend." It's pretty simple, actually.


That's exactly what Dale Carnegie said.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 12:26 PM on November 15, 2007

To be fair though, if you look at English train fares on a £/hour basis it ends up looking very cheap indeed.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 3:27 AM on November 2, 2007

If they were considering switching to Al Jazeera, then surely this has nothing to do with ideology.

Why a finite number of news services? FOX, CNN, BBC, Al Jezeera, put them all on.
Cost.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 3:24 AM on November 2, 2007

I went to high school in Dubai and I remember this happening to a guy at my school. It's certainly known in the expat community here that things like this happen.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 9:39 AM on November 1, 2007

What DOES one do in Dubai besides consume things?

Make money mostly. I'm only here in the winters for the sailing.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 1:00 AM on November 2, 2007

This solution fails to take into account the unacceptable, devastating losses that the oil companies would suffer if peace somehow broke out in the middle east.

Explain.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 2:22 AM on October 16, 2007

Leona Helmsley was working class, was she not?
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:20 AM on September 1, 2007

From one of your links comes this:

Mr Bush is expected to propose that borrowers in difficulty should be allowed to refinance their debt at cheaper rates. This would be good news for American homeowners, but mixed for markets. US Treasuries fell today in anticipation of Mr Bush's plans.

How exactly is that protecting the rich? It sounds exactly like it's "to 'save' working class people that got in over their heads."
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:25 AM on September 1, 2007

This is the shallowest piece of fluff that I read today
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 10:42 AM on August 29, 2007

double
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 1:27 PM on July 24, 2007

Some people have read the article.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:20 AM on July 20, 2007

amberglow, yes, he lives in Islington; though he obviously also has a house in his constituency.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:39 PM on July 16, 2007

Many Dutch people, including me, have last names of the form 'van den XXXXX', these are listed alphabetically by the XXXXX part.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 3:53 AM on June 22, 2007

Or someone trying to change the odds given on various scenarios by online betting sites.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:26 PM on June 21, 2007

I have a suspicion that this is less about the drug war and more about making sure that people aren't able to make anything themselves.

CONSUME. DO NOT MAKE.

Did you not read this before posting it, or are you just stupid?
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:13 PM on June 17, 2007

Do your employees get health benefits?

Firas, why would someone ask this of McDonalds UK?
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 11:05 AM on June 15, 2007

hese days, nobody seems to really live in that fear of impending nuclear attack or winter any more, even though the threat is probably greater, what with ex-Soviet nukes disappearing like polar icecaps...

Sure, but one or two nukes going off wouldn't be as horrifying, the real horror of films like Threads is that there is nowhere to go. Even if you survived, there is no-one coming to get you out of your shelter and to safety.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 8:42 AM on June 15, 2007

TheWhiteSkull, that is awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 12:48 PM on June 13, 2007

"You know, I'm a laissez faire kinda guy..." The girl immediately behind him lets out a loud "Eeewwwwwwww!"

Maybe she just objected to neoliberalism?
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 12:33 PM on June 13, 2007

What time of year is the earth closest to the sun?

January, actually. So for the northern hemisphere ZachsMind is right, winter.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 5:53 AM on June 11, 2007

What does the '.' mean?
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 8:42 PM on June 2, 2007

Good god, I've never wanted to be a trader, but from the one or two books I've read about it (fascinating subject), the one bit of advice that always comes up first is some version of "don't double down."

The consequences of the sunk costs fallacy.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 5:49 PM on June 1, 2007

No pirate thread is complete without it.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 11:11 PM on May 30, 2007

brundlefly, all the accused were in their final year at the time.
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:29 PM on May 28, 2007

"Jesus, you're worse than eliza"
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 1:12 AM on May 21, 2007