Thanks. And I was just about to post yesterday about Byrne and Eno's forthcoming album, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 8:59 AM on August 8, 2008

These guys need some marketing help.

Well, but they wouldn't be interested: PETA are extremist ideologues, not marketers or politicians, or even activists in the sense that members of the average social welfare not-for-profit group is.

I have a lot of sympathy for animal rights issues and advocating vegetarianism, and I don't think much of PETA or know many people who do. They do a lot of harm to the reasonable efforts others... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 8:19 AM on August 7, 2008

The man doing the "whispering" -- translating interpretation, suggesting English words -- for His Holiness is the brilliant Thupten Jinpa, who is a geshe (equivalent of a PhD) and a fine lecturer and scholar in his own right. You can see a picture of him and hear him speak briefly on the NPR web site (third one down).

Important dharma teachings by Tibetan masters are almost always given in Tibetan and translated, because of the importance and karmic... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:01 AM on July 17, 2008

orrnyereg: I think the absence of Dr Who costumes is due more to the political agenda of the artist than any lack of British sci-fi fans dressing up as such. It's clear he was deliberately seeking out only fans of U.S.-produced shows.

File this project under axe-grinding and an artist straining a little too hard to make a "statement" -- though some of the pictures are lovely nonetheless.

I wonder what the artist's reaction to many... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:52 AM on July 14, 2008

mike3k - that was my 6th grade teacher's frequent joke when no one in the class knew the answer to a question -- "I guess the sign out front is right!"

(This was the mid-70s. No doubt he'd get fired for saying it today.)
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 12:46 PM on July 9, 2008

.

For many of us whose formative sf-reading years were the 1970s, Disch (along with Delany, Zelazny, Ellison, LeGuin and Russ) was one of the absolute must-reads. His more recent critical opinions sometimes rubbed me the wrong way, but his books Camp Concentration, On Wings of Song, and 334 remain vivid in my mind thirty years later.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:02 AM on July 7, 2008

What happened to Tibet in recent the last fifty years is just the tip of the iceberg.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 8:49 AM on June 12, 2008

Where are the awesome Streetview images??
posted by dgaicun at 8:06 AM on May 28 [1 favorite +] [!]

Heh. To quote poet John Berryman, "Life, friends, is boring." I mean, do you think the world is a huge reality tv show or something?
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:04 AM on May 28, 2008

The title of that first linked article is "Your Privacy Is An Illusion..."

Just last week at a staff meeting an eager and trendy young Gen Yer in our department was scandalized by the idea anyone might be googling job applicants and co-workers and having opinions about them based on what came up, invoking some idealized notion of privacy that we older and more cynical folks suggested was only available by not putting crazy shit about yourself... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 10:28 AM on May 15, 2008

Peter: for what it's worth my (1996 DX US model) Civic's fuel gauge level is very sensitive to the angle of the car -- if I am going downhill, for example, the gauge reads a bit more full (as much as an eighth of a tank more full depending on steepness) than if I am going uphill, and a prolonged left turn will make the fuel level look slightly higher than a prolonged right turn. I understand this is because the sensor (like the fuel lines) is at the right front corner of the tank.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 5:54 AM on May 8, 2008

Anyone who's geeky for this sort of thing probably knows it already, but in case not, if you get off on this sort of thing then you should definitely take the tour of the Boeing plant in Everett, WA (less than an hour drive north of Seattle) as part of your next Seattle-area vacation. It's even more impressive to see those giant aircraft pieces being moved around from (relatively) close up.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 9:53 AM on May 1, 2008

The father is obviously an insane sadistic sociopath and there is no excuse for his crimes against his family: no one reading this WallowingInAwfulNewsFilter.FPP would disagree. But the thing I never understand in threads like this are the folks who fall all over themselves eagerly volunteering to commit brutal tortures upon the perpetrator -- as if becoming an insane sociopathic sadist themselves would improve the situation.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 9:29 AM on April 28, 2008

Yep, I remember playing Superman on the Atari 2600. For all of 30 seconds before giving up on it.

Well, all I can say is you wouldn't be making a big deal out of how much the Superman game sucks if you had ever tried to play the "ET: The Extraterrestrial" game.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 8:27 AM on April 22, 2008

110 books make a perfect library? They don't like to read *much*, do they? And, yeah, putting social satires like Frankenstein, Brave New World, and 1984 in the "Sci-Fi" section is a not-so-subtle insult to the genre. (I mean, a British publication with no Iain M. Banks, JG Ballard or Brian Aldiss nods? Weird.)
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 8:42 AM on April 8, 2008

Nitpick, but there's a nuanced difference: "I would never kill 'em if I didn't have grandchildren and dogs." (For those who are having trouble with audio, the poet is talking about rattlesnakes.)

I've been reading Harrison on and off my whole adult life and I realize this is the first time I have heard his speaking voice. So thanks for that. For another datapoint, no trouble playing it, and I do all sorts of other audio work and listening on this pc too.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 12:26 PM on March 28, 2008

Agreed. I think musicians like James Taylor, the way that musicians tend towards liking music of any style if it's well-written, well-played and/or looks like a good time was being had.

What's curious to me is how little those criteria seem to matter to so many music fans.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 8:40 AM on March 20, 2008

Boycott the opening ceremonies? How about boycotting the whole Olympics? Then you might get their attention. Maybe. But, noooooo...too much money tied up. Wouldn't want the wheels of international commerce to be impeded by a handful of Tibetans wearing tablecloths, would we?

Vic - the rationale I have seen for this is that boycotting the entire Olympics ruins the lives of the athletes who have trained long and hard for this major event in their lives,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 11:26 AM on March 19, 2008

Also, for the people wondering about the Dalai Lama's comments about resigning, it's worth noting that he has, over the years of exile, already shifted most of the authority for running the "government in exile" in Dharamsala, India, away from himself and into lay hands.

He has also made statements in the last year suggesting (since as an enlightened being he presumably has the power to do this) he may reincarnate outside Tibet or as a woman -- both of which... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 11:40 AM on March 19, 2008

Those interested in 20th c. British poetry and who don't require traditional meter or rhyme might also try out Basil Bunting, Tom Raworth, Geraldine Monk, Maggie O'Sullivan, Bob Cobbing, Bill Griffiths, Edwin Morgan, Denise Riley, Ken Edwards, Eavan Boland, Barry MacSweeney, Jon Silkin, and Douglas Oliver (among many others). (It's sad but I guess inevitable how many poets who envigorated poetry in the 50-70s have passed away in the last decade or so.)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 9:34 AM on March 19, 2008

David Mamet full of himself? Well, New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff told a great story (on NPR's Fresh Air, I think) a few years ago about Mamet: shortly after becoming cartoon editor, Mankoff got a smarmy letter from Mamet congratulating him on his new position, concluding "I've taken the liberty of including a few of my cartoons for you to publish in The New Yorker..." Mankoff said the cartoons were horrible, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:29 AM on March 12, 2008

A tough guy, sure. But Southwest would still make him buy a second seat.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:58 AM on February 14, 2008

"Very heavy," deadpans father McCain, 71, when asked what he thinks of the blog.
He's trying to relate to the youth-- kids today call things "heavy" when they like them. He just wants them to know he's "hep".

"She ain't heavy... she's my blogette..." (I guess I am betraying my age to reference The Hollies.)
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:54 AM on February 14, 2008

Has Exxon Mobil has started negotiations to buy NASA yet? Sounds like a great way for them to use their record profits.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:17 AM on February 14, 2008

It's also worth at least glancing at the "kristinhersh-rw" section, where a couple dozen people have uploaded remixes of the Hersh cuts. So there's some 2-way action going on here, at least (I haven't listened to the remixes yet so I can't vouch for them).

But I for one will give KH money for her music through this service, as I have through various record labels for the last 20 years, sure. (And as I have tried to do with Todd Rundgren via patronet.)
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:49 AM on January 5, 2008

Hogshead: Buddha, bizarrely, was kind of down on game-playing.

I'm not sure it's so bizarre. The foundation of Buddhism is the presumption that the basic nature of existence is suffering and attachment to behavior that leads to more suffering. Even if you can favorably compare some qualities of gamer "flow" with meditative states of concentration, from the perspective of a serious Buddhist you're applying that valuable concentration to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:45 AM on December 20, 2007

Seems like it's always necessary to remind people, when Time makes their pronouncement each year, that the Person is chosen for their overall impact on world events -- and not for "goodness" or "benefit" to humanity. Hitler was chosen in 1938, Stalin twice in the decade following that, and Ayatollah Khomeni in 1979. We're not talking Nobel Peace Prize here. You can browse the full list on Wikipedia.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:00 AM on December 19, 2007

Sigh. That guy ain't no "t'ai-chi master." This is a t'ai-chi master.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 1:09 PM on December 17, 2007

I see the BBC (in the first link) even ran this story without mentioning the TV program in question is on the freaking Sci-Fi channel.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 1:09 PM on December 3, 2007

But will corporations play Scrabble with me?
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 8:52 AM on November 20, 2007

Wow. I just watched someone in (near-)real time in Winnpeg add the phrase "over ;arge penis's" to a heading in an article about "Sweatshop controversy".

LOLWIKIZ
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:47 AM on October 30, 2007

He wouldn't be the first president to have claimed to have seen one.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 1:17 PM on October 23, 2007

This was also on AskMe this very morning.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 12:35 PM on October 23, 2007

chunking express: I think dr_negative's point was the irony that these "state of the web" (their term) designers would include their supposedly cool and important survey results in a static, long download time, proprietary-format document rather than a nice db-driven interactive design. Which document has choked on me both times I have tried to open it, incidentally.

And, on the off chance that wasn't dr_n's point, then I'd like it to be mine.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 12:58 PM on October 18, 2007

SCDB: They've given up on trying to communicate anything profound, or to communicate effectively, and just try to get a rise out of people. Hence baloney like "Piss Christ".

Except -- don't you think Andres Serrano communicated his message *very* effectively and profoundly (that is, clearly and deeply) with "Piss Christ"? It's just that a lot of people, who got his message loud and clear, didn't like what he was saying very much.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:13 AM on October 15, 2007

"Baby pictures want to be free!"
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:23 AM on October 9, 2007

Holy cow -- at the very least, they need a new logo. And I thought Wikipedia's jigsaw globe o' letters was annoying.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:45 AM on September 28, 2007

cjorgensen: by no means defending her pathetic/needy/exploitative lying, for which she clearly needs some serious headshrinking, but the article in the first link clearly states she has not applied for any survivor's compensation money: "According to the Times, Head never attempted to receive financial remuneration for her "survivor" status." And if telling lies about one's past for sympathy were grounds for doing time... well, prisons everywhere would significantly more... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:10 AM on September 28, 2007

Really? Because I'm pretty sure I see sandals. Oh wait. (Reuters) I guess they photoshopped them in, then.

CitrusFreak: In the photo album I was looking at, it seemed like many of the monks took their sandals off (maybe holding them under their robes?) when it began to rain heavily.

Om mane padme hum.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:01 AM on September 25, 2007

But is this really any weirder than electron probability density clouds (that is, electrons don't orbit the nucleus like planets around the sun but instead have a probability of being somewhere in a certain sometimes strangely-shaped zone somewhere near the nucleus)? Graphic, also newer graphic top right in the wikipedia article. When you get down to that subatomic scale, the whole notion of what we would recognize as "things" having specific "locations" gets problematic.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 5:43 AM on September 21, 2007

It's not like $50k is going to get them very far, particularly if their priorities include buying a car with some of the money. (Pretending, sigh, that they're not con artists for a disingenuous moment, of course.)
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 9:04 AM on June 28, 2007

Late to this thread, I know, but it's worth noting that Dana Gioia is an aesthetically reactionary formalist writer who has made a second career (his first was as an executive at General Foods) publicly dithering (most famously in his book Can Poetry Matter?) about the relevance of his academic poet peers and being dismissive toward poets working in more innovative styles. So the speech is pretty much his standard schtick (no big surprise, since his standard schtick has... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 1:00 PM on June 26, 2007

Grangousier: It sounds like a car name. The Ford Cilantro, with heated rear windscreen and sun-roof.

... but which every third or fourth person who rides with you thinks has a strange musty upholstery smell!
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:40 AM on June 26, 2007

I don't know about teh hip-hop, but the most amazing theremin playing I have ever seen was by Pamela Kurstin with Bela Fleck's band a few years ago.

Many with interest in the theremin probably already know about this, but in case not, there's this interesting documentary, with comments by Robert Moog, Brian Wilson, and Todd Rundgren amidst the biographical material on Theremin.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:11 AM on June 22, 2007

My favorite part of the Matalin tear-jerker is the "little kids are the best judge of character and my kids just love their 'Mr Scooter'" tack. Yikes.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 12:42 PM on June 5, 2007

I have a feeling this is the same Jason Nelson I published in Aught way back in 1998. Hm!
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 1:37 PM on May 2, 2007

.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:34 AM on April 27, 2007

Boing Boing reports that this lj has entries about the accused shooter, including a photo of him in her flickr stream. The two entries about him are in Indonesian, however. I tried running them through an online translator but I don't know if I got more than the gist of them. I have to say I am troubled what the press might do if there does turn out to be an Islamist streak in Cho's online interests (which I don't think anyone can say with confidence yet).... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 2:27 PM on April 17, 2007

Well, Eraserhead early in my adult life and forever after damaged my interest in purchasing / eating cornish game hens.

And, now that I think about it, for having children too. Hm.
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 9:55 AM on March 30, 2007

Sigh. Anyone who's done any reading at all about the Inca empire (i.e., not the creators of the endless poorly-informed "cosmic mystery" web sites) will know they did all sorts of incredibly labor-intensive projects, very often involving stone carving or excavation, dependant on the toil of armies of peasants for the glorification of hereditary absolute rulers. (I mean, it's not like this is not a common scenario repeated around the world throughout human history.)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 7:23 AM on March 22, 2007

So, apparently you need a spirograph to solve the E8 problem?
posted to MetaFilter by aught at 6:43 AM on March 20, 2007