These are cute although guts are more my style. I've been wanting a plushie heart for ages.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 7:03 PM on June 30, 2008

I firmly believe (as a actual vagina-carrying woman) that the majority of women who don't have a cultural or religious reason not to screw on their period would have little or no problem with it had they not absorbed a lifetime of messages that periods are gross and shameful and unattractive to boys and to be hidden and denied at all cost. This opinion is born out of 33 years of vagina-owning and friendships with women.

Whereas I don't agree. I think... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 11:16 PM on June 8, 2008

Man, am seriously hanging out for chocolate now.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 5:08 PM on April 28, 2008

I like how both Australia and New Zealand have that day off at the same time. Makes me feel closer to my Aussie buddies (which is a big part of what we're celebrating). And I know this seems kind of obvious, since we're supposed to be commemorating the same thing so it should be on the same day, but even the Queen's Birthday is celebrated on different days in each country despite that our Queen is the same person as theirs.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 11:33 PM on April 24, 2008

melissa may : the huge ginger tom cat that lived at my boyfriend's university hostel had a leg amputated to the shoulder during the time we were there. He already only had one eye (was called Nelson). He continued to live an active happy life and his co-ordination or activity levels were never compromised, even with the double whammy of lost body parts. The only change was when he played up the one leg thing, limping around the cottages and looking sad, about the time of night that the residents... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 10:43 PM on March 19, 2008

How many times do I have to re-enter the stupid security code to get through to the bit where it accepts my email address and sends me the link to the free download? I'm up to eight so far and getting frustrated, and I can't even read this next one. The rest of the site was running pretty fast too.

I don't normally do torrents but would really like to listen to a few tracks before I decide to buy so will probably have to give in and reinstall uTorrent. Bah.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 12:13 AM on March 3, 2008

OK so torrent was the way to go. Installing the software and downloading the file took about 15 minutes total. And several of those were working out how to find the files after they downloaded.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 12:25 AM on March 3, 2008

Hypoxia is being used in cancer treatments in other ways too. Large portions of solid tumours are hypoxic due to the chaotic nature of their blood supply. Unfortunately the hypoxic parts are very resistant to both chemotherapy and radiotherapy and are linked with a more malignant phenotype (e.g. more aggressive and more likely to spread). This is linked at least in part to similar biochemical pathways described here. You only need to leave a very small amount of the tumour behind for it to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 2:43 PM on January 20, 2008

Well I liked it. So did my non-internet-obsessed boyfriend though (and I'm drunk), for whatever that's worth.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 11:44 PM on January 17, 2008

OK those collegehumour ones? They were really really good. (still drunk)
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 11:58 PM on January 17, 2008

Marxchivist, apparently they both refused to say for years, but Sir Edmund did finally admit to being the first long after Norgay himself died.

Yup. Also Tensing's autobiography admits Edmund was first (the first time either came out with it), while also making the point that it was a joint decision to not tell because it was truly a joint effort. It's an interesting book actually, I definitely recommend it.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 4:04 PM on January 12, 2008

I'm guessing these guys don't have an ant problem at their house.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 2:23 PM on January 10, 2008

Even way back in 2001, I didn't know anyone that was still recording anything with VHS.

I taped something onto VHS yesterday. It's still standard here, and was definitely the only thing around back in 2001. A quick google shows France uses VHS as well. What else did you expect them to be using?
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 10:25 PM on January 9, 2008

The pet one was written as a series of steps, like you do this then this then this. But the last step is to adopt a new pet. Are they saying that this is an essential part of being a good pet owner? Most of them are good points and things we should be thinking about, but the way it's framed really put me off. Particularly as I've known some wishy-washy types who take articles like this to heart and actually follow along the steps and do what they're told.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 4:24 PM on January 4, 2008

The cows we eat sure don't live dandy lives.

The cows I eat live out in a paddock with space to roam around and lots of nice grass and clover to eat. And there are rules specifically about not torturing them which are closely monitored and enforced. How is this comparable to putting a fish in a space which is way too small for it than adding a stressful noise source right next door?
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 1:44 PM on December 18, 2007

This website's a joke right?
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 3:11 PM on October 17, 2007

The Royal Society's podcast about this (linked from that blog somewhere and downloadable from here) was awesome. I've been enjoying their podcasts in general actually.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 4:53 PM on October 16, 2007

I'm a classic ENTP, switching to ENTJ when I'm in a bad mood. Just be glad I don't have access to biotoxins in my lab.

(And yeah, I noticed the abundance of introverts here, particularly the NTJ types. You introverts confuse me, I never know how to react properly.)
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 12:26 AM on October 1, 2007

I was thinking this morning that this article would make a great metafilter post. Good to see I'm not the only one thinking this (even if I am too slow).

The article was sent around to a big email list I belong to at work as it raises a lot of points relevant in my field of study (nutrigenomics). Basically we're trying to deal with a lot of the problems in traditional epidemiology studies by investigating underlying variation between individuals and populations that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 1:24 AM on September 20, 2007

One of the giraffes at our local zoo just had a baby. Baby giraffes are awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 2:57 PM on July 30, 2007

Man, I'd forgotten how much I love this movie. I forsee a visit to Videon this weekend to hire a copy.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 10:12 PM on July 26, 2007

I have a 'public' bookshelf in my room with a subset of my books, only the nice ones with geek cred make it in there. In my head the resulting poem kind of falls into couplets

Status Anxiety (a poem)

JRR Tolkein
Working the Wheel

Sweets
Java Man

Mutants
The Ancestors Tale

Girlfriend in a Coma
Reed Field Guide to New Zealand Birds
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 9:16 PM on July 24, 2007

That was a gripping read.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 6:06 PM on July 15, 2007

What is a 24-hour dairy?

Dairy = small corner shop thingy.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 4:35 PM on July 14, 2007

And then it would be me and a giant penguin. Hanging out.

Kinda like this. (that's my boyfriend. on the left, not the penguin.)
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 7:10 PM on June 30, 2007

If I really like you, I'll drive.

Doesn't work so well for those of us who live on an island.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 6:54 PM on June 30, 2007

I have an issue with the bit where the jury isn't even allowed to know that some words have been banned. When they hear something like 'I woke up and he was having sex with me' it's really not going to sound that bad, and they won't even realise that the witness is being forced to describe it like that rather than use the more descriptive (and more accurate terms) that they would expect from someone who has been sexually assaulted. Might as well have a mugging victim testify 'he ran up to me and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 12:26 AM on June 25, 2007

I'm getting a kitten in a couple of weeks. I like the idea of naming him after a king or count or emperor, since cats consider themselves royalty anyway. So this has totally saved me from namemycatfilter over on ask.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 6:52 PM on June 23, 2007

(I was joking about the namemycatfilter question, I like ask much to much to throw that crap at it. Not joking about using this resource to think up ideas.)
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 7:51 PM on June 23, 2007

Some of the jobs on the first two lists were actually, genuinely awful (and I've done a couple of them), but this list isn't even in the ball park. I assume they've run out of bad jobs, or are just listing things they think sound cool or can be illustrated amusingly. Pop Sci Worst Science Jobs List has officially jumped the shark.

(as an aside, faecal collection is much more pleasant than rumen collection with the bonus that the smell washes off rather than... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 9:24 PM on June 20, 2007

Forgive my ignorance, but is there a dividing line?

They are actually made of different types of rock, and the formation processes are different. Continents are made of bits of continental rock (which is much thicker and, um, some other stuff, basaltsomething?) whereas islands are built from seabed generally by volcanic or other seismic activity. For example, New Zealand is technically an island built around a small core of continental rock that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 11:26 PM on June 11, 2007

I really should start looking things up. So many of my recent comments/answers have been this kind of vague half-remembered stuff and I can probably do better. But I was too busy thinking about lake islands I have known and generally enjoying the post.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 12:12 AM on June 12, 2007

Oh maaaaan, put a cute cat next to it and everything becomes awesome! Who knew?

This is from my twitter feed and sums up my whole life.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 1:39 AM on June 1, 2007

I guessed my flag straight away which is making me feel rather smug. Sure, it was a total fluke and the only one I tried, but still. Might as well feel accomplished where ever I can.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 3:39 PM on May 28, 2007

Kiwiburgers aren't terrible. They aren't great, still being McDs after all, but really aren't terrible. It has your general burger tomato sauce I think, it's been years since I ate any McDonalds food let alone that type of burger.

We make basically the same thing at home (sometimes with a slice of pineapple) and that's what I'll be having for dinner in a couple of hours. My version is really really really good.

Beetroot is crimson red, btw, and yummy.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 10:12 PM on May 20, 2007

Australia, you gave us Vegemite, but with this idea I think you may have just redeemed yourself!

Do Australians do this too? I thought it was a kiwi thing (as in, New Zealand). I didn't see any beetroot containing burgers listed under Australia on the linked site and we don't use it as some kind of Australian addition to our menu (unlike vegemite which is pure Aussie).

FWIW, we have the deli choices stuff here too although I've never tried it.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 12:22 AM on May 21, 2007

Man, fifteen to twenty minutes of sun exposure in the summertime here would make me toast. Burn time is generally ten minutes, and is not exaggerated. Still, I'm not in the US but instead the melanoma capital of the world.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 7:48 PM on May 17, 2007

Yeah, I was surprised these articles (caveat: I only read some some far) didn't mention that as they usually do. I guess this is cos they were aimed at the US. But even early morning sun burns in NZ in the summer, there is no safe exposure limit for us palefaces.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 12:47 AM on May 18, 2007

One of the articles I read (but, of course, couldn't find again) noted that skin cancer is the most easily treatable of cancers and avoiding the sun to avoid it is counterproductive if it means the incidence of these other, harder-to-treat cancers goes up.

My recent post grad lecturers, world renowned experts in melanoma treatment, would be very surprised to hear that. Cos, yeah, bullshit. Or at the least a gross over simplification (as per usual... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 1:00 AM on May 19, 2007

Ooo, my balding boyfriend had a scalp wound recently. Am gonna check.

(not that it will work, the wound needs to be wide enough for the hair follicles stranded in the middle become activated, which his wasn't. still, means I get to poke him in the head and tease him some more about being bald)
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 7:59 PM on May 17, 2007

it really fails for highly complex papers.

I entered some paragraphs from a pdf pulled from my 'PhD work' folder (so a peer reviewed journal article about Crohn's disease), and yeah, it sucked. Long complex sentences are impossible to keep track of when broken up like this and the disjointedness made me lose all flow or coherence. Science writing is hardly good literature and we break all kinds of rules of 'good' writing. But it has it's own rhythm... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 8:53 PM on May 14, 2007

Oooo pretty!
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 5:44 PM on May 12, 2007

How the fuck do you milk a cat?

Restrict kitten access to allow milk to build up. Inject oxytocin to stimulate milk ejection. Then manually massage the area around teat and collect milk into an appropriate container. The same way you milk a mouse really.

(yes, I have a friend who occasionally collects milk from mice as part of his job)

Here's a relevant... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 8:19 PM on March 2, 2007

I should mention I've never milked anything smaller than a cow. And I have a hilarious picture in my head of a little rotary milking shed with the mice lining up to take a turn.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 8:22 PM on March 2, 2007

I love the Burgess Shale. Seeing some of the fossils was one of the highlights to my trip to Toronto last year. I didn't know the museum had them and was mighty pleased to stumble upon them. Fan girls sqeeing doesn't work so well in the museum so I had to muffle it, but that was still my first reaction.

So yeah, great post.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 2:58 PM on February 26, 2007

I'm sure Islam had a lot to do with it.

Whereas I don't think Islam had anything to do with it, not at heart. The vast majority of Muslims love their families and want what's best for them, just as the vast majority of immigrant families dealing with cross cultural issues don't feel the need to kill their children as a way of dealing.

Sadly, violence like this while by no means common does happen. For example, in NZ last... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 3:30 PM on February 21, 2007

So, anyone have any statistics? If we can show that honour killings are distributed evenly among religions (scaled by population, etc) then I guess it doesn't have greater meaning. If a larger percentage of honour killings are committed by people who identify themselves as Muslims, then yeah -- it has greater meaning.

I have no statistics, but the 'honor killing' part seems spurious to me. The examples I gave above were not honour killings and they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 11:24 PM on February 21, 2007

Muslims will have more of that type of murder, the terms of reference would skew the results. It most definitely does happen in non-Muslim cultures and to non-religious families (although I don't know to what extent), it's just that the details or excuses are different.

Man, too much editing, meaning gone.

I meant that Muslims will have more 'honour killings' than many other religions because of the cultural and religious... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 11:37 PM on February 21, 2007

the throat-slitting gesture caused a lot of controversy in New Zealand when it was adopted.

Yeah, and wasn't there some lame response about how they're not slitting their throat but doing something else symbolic? It was so obviously a cop out excuse (i.e. a lie) that I can't even remember what they were supposed to be doing instead. Everyone here certainly assumed it's a throat slitting gesture.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 11:31 PM on February 19, 2007

Sadly he died of liver disease when we was eleven.

Arg, HE was elven. I was twenty nine.
posted to MetaFilter by shelleycat at 9:26 PM on February 10, 2007