I loved the Singing Ringing Tree. Along with The Flashing Blade and the later Silas (run Godik) - both enthralling and hilarious. Thank you Europe telly.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 12:44 PM on March 13, 2008

Whenever J. Oliver is on the Daily Show, he sounds like an American doing a weird attempt at an English accent, even though he's English.

I feel that too. And not just with him. Weird.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 6:19 AM on November 27, 2007

Multiply by the number of people in line...

But it doesn't work like that. Everyone is taking off the shoes simultaneously, unpacking their laptop at once and then repacking etc.

The bottleneck in my experience -- and god knows I do too much traveling -- is always the X-ray machine itself. There's a line of people stood in their socks with 2 or 2 grey trays in front of them queuing up to feed the machine.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 12:54 PM on November 20, 2007

Bizarrely... I drove past that yesterday. Didn't look that secure and I didn't see any guards on the entrance.

N'th: They did dismantle/destory their weapons. And it was indeed the apartheid goverment who did so before they gave up power. One could cynically point out that it wasn't, therefore, an entirely selfless act.

South Africa has been into some awful shit — and probably still is. Let's not forget their anthrax program.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 9:05 PM on November 11, 2007

Fingers crossed that they don't nawse it up. Some of the US's most popular comedies (e.g. Sanford and Son, Archie Bunker) were remakes of UK sitcoms... although obviously years ago -- so it's not always bad. (I bet it's awful though...)
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 1:46 PM on October 31, 2007

No The Smiths SBS?

I have it anyway... but still.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 12:53 PM on September 27, 2007

I couldn't find it Nails. It's one of my faves too...

I torrented this a while back. I *think* I still have it so if you want... email in profile. Hell - I remember when I had this on betamax.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 4:02 PM on September 27, 2007

Ku Klux Klan - l
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 6:05 PM on September 1, 2007

Wow. And I thought hanging shipwrecked monkeys was the dumbest.
It's true. There's a "photograph" and everyfink.

Previously.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 10:57 PM on August 28, 2007

FPP? Anyway, FWIW:

For an additional $20 a month, on top of the data plan, you get full international data roaming i.e. no further charge whether using email, web access on your BB (browsing, google maps etc). and using your BB as a tethered modem.

This, quite frankly, kicks ass. A hotel I regularly stay at in London charges $30 (GBP15) a day for internet access so it's well worth it.

Also note that T-Mobile lets you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 12:52 PM on August 2, 2007

Just while we're on the subject of thermodynamics' laws... I found it interesting to learn in university of the zeroth (0th) law of thermodynamics. (They realised they needed it after they had already invented the first three and didn't like to shuffle 'em all up one.)

Well I found it interesting.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 6:12 PM on July 5, 2007

Maybe it would've been wonderful for the US to have had socialized healthcare since the 1970s, but then maybe things like MRI would never have been invented.

Maybe. But maybe the Briton (i.e. it's not exclusively an American invention), one of two men awarded the Nobel prize for its invention, would have persevered on his own.... in spite of the UK's socialized healthcare.

Innovation isn't exclusively driven by the private... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 6:10 PM on July 3, 2007

I thought Iain M Banks' The Algebraist contained some of the best use of contemporary sci-fi ideas and thinking: space elevators, no faster than light travel (w/o a portal)... and... um other things I don't remember. But then I think Mr Banks is a genius.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 1:33 PM on May 8, 2007

The drink I miss most from the UK - and even then I don't recall seeing it down south, perhaps it's more of a Lancashire thing - is Dandelion and Burdock. None of that nonsense that actually contains real dandelion or burdock of course.

As a mixer, with cheap vodka say, it's unsurpassed. But I never saw a pub that stocked it. Not that I ever asked. Pubs are for ale.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 1:43 PM on February 7, 2007

Note that bugbear's original link to the requisite DLL was incorrect. It should have been MSVCR70.DLL rather than MSVCP70.DLL.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 7:42 PM on May 1, 2006

Your D&D roots are showing

Darn it! Another check failed. ;-)
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 6:13 AM on May 2, 2006

I got the original link from Broadcast Engineering but subsequently discovered it had earlier been reported by Huffington. Still worthy of a FPP methinks/methought.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 5:13 PM on April 12, 2006

freebird:
It just made me chortle that the PR company's disception was met with more deception and thus earning them negative press -- good to see them getting a taste of, ahem, their own medicine.

But you're quite right of course. All this message manipulation sticks in my craw too.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 5:21 PM on April 12, 2006

The worst thing about it all was the identifying of the PR firm's "reporters" as the network's

Indeed. Disappointingly I haven't noticed any stations airing the same story and claiming the same reporter -- that would be wonderful. A ballsy news station could always take the opportunity to dis' its competitors by running this story....
If you want to do something about it just fill out the form to send your complaint to the FCC.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 5:33 PM on April 12, 2006

I think it was last week that The Colbert Report, the bastion of truthiness, highlighted the disparity of BSE testing in its The Word segment. In a nutshell the USA tests 0.1% while the EU stands at 100%, or at least that's how I interpreted the following:
All animals above 30 months that are slaughtered for human consumption are tested for the presence of a misshaped prion protein called PrPres, which is regarded as a marker for the presence of BSE.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 6:49 AM on March 27, 2006

jfuller: My stats were for cattle testing, not human blood testing. (To be accurate, humans don't contract BSE, they contract CJD so it was implicit... but the FPP was about humans so it was maybe unclear - apologies.)
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 7:04 AM on March 27, 2006

bird flu isn't just a sick pun?
Bravo!
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 10:02 AM on March 27, 2006

Seriously man... and since its original MeFi posting it's been all over mainstream media.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 9:59 AM on March 27, 2006

Still, love him or hate him (hahaha), Bush may have been right on the WMDs at least according to George Sada during his interview on The Daily Show last week. And he should know - does he have an axe to grind?
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 7:25 AM on March 27, 2006

If I ever get pregnant by rape I think I'll keep it too. I shall inform my wife.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 12:14 PM on March 23, 2006

Great... the only thing exciting, other than gay rodeo of course, to happen in DFW in ages... and I'm outta town.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 10:49 AM on March 17, 2006

That's the flag of the United Kingdom, not England, which has the George cross.

Indeed. And to add to that it should correctly be called the Union Flag rather than (increasingly used) Union Jack. The wikipedia discussion of this makes no sense to me. And further, a little research reveals that I (and broadsheets and the BBC) might well be talking out of our collective arses. So, English... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 3:23 PM on March 15, 2006

Anthony Hopkins
Is of course Welsh. But tradition holds if we love 'em they're British and, if we don't, they Scottish / Welsh / Northern Irish.

Do/did people really iron newspapers?
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 6:34 AM on March 16, 2006

I still think you're better off using cat bombs.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 7:20 PM on March 15, 2006

Guard yourself against the lurking nightmare of the cat bomb. . .

Cats are hopefully a bit like canaries. Thank goodness for chronic night time flatulance. I never thought I'd hear myself say that. Or write. Whatever.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 8:10 PM on March 15, 2006

Please counter his disinformation with some elightening data of your own

As a Prius owner (and BMW):

- We average between 45 and 50 mpg - never made it above 50 but I've come very close.
- We fill up every week and a half or so with about $20 and it goes for nearly 400 miles (or more).

My view: It kicks ass. Even my wife (22 mile each way commute) prefers it to the BMW and she drives it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 11:12 AM on March 15, 2006

I was thinking the same... which leads to the question what leads to posts being deleted?
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 8:24 AM on March 15, 2006

Kingfisher? Gotta be the first song in the clip...
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 3:00 PM on March 14, 2006

Oh. And I had to look it up but "5.15" by The Who (on Big Ben's clock face). And it seems Bowie has a song called "5.15 The Angels Have Gone" and Knopfler has a "5.15am". So there you go.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 3:07 PM on March 14, 2006

BBC covered this too. My first thoughts were to dismiss it but I guess this really could take bullying to whole new depths. Whereas previously kids might have only been bullied at school -- recovering from it at home. If they're getting nailed at home too... it's 24/7. That's gotta be hard.

Then again... can't you just choose a decent password so your account isn't cracked and ban users you don't like from connecting? Or is it a chat room thing? Darn technology.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 8:53 AM on March 14, 2006

Can someone smarter than me tell me why Switzerland ended up with .ch?

Now that's just lazy... I have to say I never questioned it. I just remember it's always been that way on car stickers in Europe and on skiers' vest numbers (or do they have SCH?) and thought maybe it was something to do with Schweiz.

Anyway, it turns out it's all down to Latin -- and this also explains why it says Helvetica on Swiss stamps. Something I'd... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 7:53 AM on March 14, 2006

Correction: it's SUI on athletes' vests.

Ahhh... the quote "...you see, but you do not observe" really applies to me.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 7:58 AM on March 14, 2006

TBS:
Reiterating the spirit of previous comments, please note that The Telegraph endorsed Bush in 2004. It is fair to consider their approach as objective with regard to American politics, a la The Economist (pro Bush in 2000 and pro Kerry in 2004).

You're clearly not a Brit -- the very idea that the Torygraph could be considered anything other than right of centre is quite hilarious. But, to be fair, they will "tell it like it is" -- like most UK... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 7:45 AM on March 13, 2006

Soliders have been used as police since the revolutionary war. ... It’s a question of training.

Indeed. This has been one of the chief differences between the British and American troops' methods since the invasion.

The British began training troops in Arabic before the war began. Their army's policing methods are well honed after years of policing civilians in Northern Ireland.

"There is a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 4:57 PM on March 13, 2006

Side 2 of Abbey Road

Now that's showing your age. I've only got it on vinyl too - I'll be damned if I'm gonna shell out the full whack for a CD or download when I've already paid The Beatles and George Martin their due on the original purchase. They really should allow you "upgrade" or something...
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 12:09 PM on February 22, 2006

those are Chris Whitten's mad skillz

That's the original Abbey Road recording. Ringo is credited.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 12:36 PM on February 22, 2006

mds35:
Thanks for the welcome. You may well be correct that the accusation is lacking a little substance... but it galls me to the teeth that Sony, having been caught time and time again bribing radio stations, set their sights on blogs.
While Amazon are doing their best to tackle the astroturfing explosion, Sony openly recruit free(!) staff to perpetuate it. For a while there I naively thought blogs were putting consumer power back in the hands of the people...... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 8:25 AM on February 15, 2006

Um, if they pay them, it's not really for free.

Yeah -- if they paid them. From position description:

This is a non-paying internship and interns must be able to receive college credit for their internship.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 8:33 AM on February 15, 2006

drill_here_fore_seismics:
Darn it. I messed up my hyperlinks (I previewed about 10 times too). Should have read:
"hot on the tails of launching their gay record label, to better plunder the pink pound"
That conceded, the interesting content (IMHO) was there. The advertisement by Epic Records for interns to "to promote artists on social networking sites".... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 8:46 AM on February 15, 2006

DHFS: Comments appreciated - can't believe I gnarled up my first post... Re. the advert being fine though: I read it and nearly choked, apoplectic rage bursting from my delicate wee ears. And I'm not normally easily riled. Thanks for the graffiti (which barely irks me at all) and other links.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 9:25 AM on February 15, 2006

Thanks jessamyn.
dirtynumbangelboy - "applied"... bravo.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 9:59 AM on February 15, 2006

having interns hype bands on message boards.... pretty common and happens at all the major labels

No doubt. But while shilling in this context is probably not illegal it's morally offensive (to me at least) and certainly not less so because everyone else is doing it. All the major labels used to bribe radio stations too -- a practice that is now outlawed. I would hope the abuse of blogs and message boards will eventually go the same way too.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 11:24 AM on February 15, 2006

You'd be horrified by the variety of things that one can do for college credit
I'm sure you're right, I'm a-learning. I hope none of them require lip balm (Ref: insomnia_lj).
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 11:54 AM on February 15, 2006

jahmoon:
I'm terrrrrible at keeping track of my cash is in my wallet. With 24 years in UK, 12 in Italy (both Lire and Euros) and 1 in the US I've had my fair share of time to get accustomed to all 4 currences (plus time in the Netherlands and France to boot). I think you get to grips with coloured and sized bills in two weeks: yellow big ones are X, small blues ones are Y -- easy. But I can see how you wouldn't appreciate the problem until you've tried something better (it took my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 9:00 PM on February 10, 2006

Glad to see him pointing j'accuse'ing fingers but it's gonna be tough for anyone to believe his complaints that the DHS didn't heed his warnings when there's been evidence for months that he was busy ignoring warnings from his own staff.
posted to MetaFilter by NailsTheCat at 4:39 PM on February 10, 2006