I felt both simultaneously sympathetic for the author and at the same time repelled by his own blind spot. Sympathetic because in 1983 when I graduate from high school I was an equally slack and dismissive student at a small community college in Alabama and I was wasting the time of the teachers there, and they were good teachers. (I later ended up back at that college a few years later and did appreciate the good ones and worked very hard.) On the other hand, I am repelled by his repeated... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 7:00 AM on May 22, 2007

Those professors are not paid to be nice to you or to respect you or to earn your respect.

I'm not asking them to be nice to me. I'm asking them to be decent human beings and good teachers.

I am asking them to respect the positions they hold as much as anyone else.

But automatic respect of a title? Or a position someone holds? Why should I? I work in a university and I see how many of these... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 4:46 PM on May 22, 2007

You don't pay your professor. The university does. You presumably pay for an education, you little snot.

:) Yey! Name calling.

"note: Help maintain a healthy, respectful discussion by focusing comments on the issues, topics, and facts at hand—not at other members of the site."

At least that's what my preview box has below it.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 5:58 PM on May 22, 2007

Damn, John Kenneth Fisher beat me to the obvious answer. :) Which makes me happy I'm not the only nerd that was thinking about posting that.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 3:12 PM on May 22, 2007

Actually, I think those photos are from the 2006 maker faire, if the dates are to be trusted.

Perhaps you were looking for these?
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 3:07 PM on May 22, 2007

What gave it away for me that he was a republican? The story was an fpp at metafilter.

*ahem* There are some conservatives here. Should any Democrats be jailed for such behaviors, well, you know, they should feel free to post about it.

But yes, the first thing I did when I hit the link was command-f and then typed "Repub.." and it came right up, and I thought "Of course he was republican." It makes me sad... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 7:59 PM on May 19, 2007

Although I'm not a fan of the RAMBO movies, I might see this just to see what Stallone is doing with himself. I saw Rocky Balboa at BNAT8, and it was surprisingly decent, so if it's taken him this long to take good projects, even if they are sequels to bad projects, I'll support the guy.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 6:00 PM on May 19, 2007

Great stuff. Utterly convinces me yet again that I myself am not the adventure seeking manual laborer type. I think that was underscored in great emphasis when I got to the "I dropped a bucket of engine degreaser into my open eyeballs." GAH!
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 8:32 AM on May 19, 2007

Don't know if rats are beneficial in any way

Well, for one thing, they are particularly beneficial in all sorts of science. Yeah, not particular rats, but rats in general are used extensively in all sorts of research.

flapjax, in this case they are keeping out a non-native species, not driving out a native one.
Yet when we talk about feral cats being a threat to native species in the US everyone... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 7:23 PM on May 18, 2007

:) I can't let this thread pass without pointing to this fact gathered from Wikipedia's entry on the fancy rat:

"Of interesting note, on the Isle of Man the word rat was once part of a set of sea-taboos, and is commonly replaced with "longtail" by the superstitious."
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 7:31 PM on May 18, 2007

It's still operator error.

Well, yes, in that it's operator ignorance. Any of us that spend our days fixing other people computer mistakes know pretty well that most people have very little clue about how their computers work. Computers being a broad term to me "the applications people rely on to do their work". I can see this type of error probably happening in law offices and health care institutions all the time. I mean, good god, some... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 1:00 PM on May 18, 2007

I'm with Atom Eyes:

J: Do you believe in God?
A: Of course I believe in God.
J: Why do you believe in God?
A: The Bible tells us to believe in God.
J: That’s circular reasoning.
A: I’m glad we have that all cleared up.


Ghost in the machine. In this case, Falwell's ghost.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 12:49 PM on May 18, 2007

Your prom as far as the impact your high school activities have on the rest of your life is second only to your grade in Phys Ed.

Yeek! That's a scary thought, and I'm glad it's a sweeping generalization not a fact. My prom? I went with a girl, whose face I remember whose name I do not.

Congrats to Vera! WOO!


I feel that my race is incorrect. I know that I am a black man deep... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 5:45 PM on May 16, 2007

I'm a great believer in punctuation and/or the enter key.

THOSE ARE EEEEEEEEVIL TECHNOLOGIES!

An artist with a negative take on technology? And in the 20th Century no less. Do I even need to drag out the film at 11, sky blue, grass green references here?

The only group of artist with any remotely positive view on technology were science fiction related, and even they would often drag out the ol'... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 7:10 AM on May 16, 2007

I guess I've always viewed Prometheus and Frankenstein stories as slightly different. Prometheus never struck me as a story about man's technological hubris. The "Man struck down by his own creation. HE SHOULD HAVE NEVER PLAYED GOD." Prometheus is just a little step above humanity, feeling sympathy for the humans, but not actually being on of them. The stories are just... different to me.

Frankenstein never drags gods or immortals into the story directly,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 10:00 AM on May 16, 2007

What ever happened to being an adult?

What brundelfly said: "He was in the Bush Administration. What do you expect?"

I can't think of a single person in the administration that doesn't act like a childish, boorish, spoiled brat.

That alone is an excellent criteria for determining our next president as far as I'm concerned.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 9:21 AM on May 15, 2007

:) Your post made me smile. I was 4 when Woodstock happened, so it's not like I remember it. But oh my do I remember the reverberations of it throughout the rest of my childhood.

Yep, Sha-Na-Na.

I hate self-indulgently cute posts, but I love what you've done here. Good stuff. It was pulled off about as well as one might pull it off. I agree. Good stuff.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 7:17 AM on May 15, 2007

Just because you're fighting for freedom doesn't imply that you'll be getting any of that freedom.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 12:22 PM on May 14, 2007

rice in Bud is not a modern cost cutting development but is an essential ingredient in brewing an American pilsner.

Ah, yes, the essential ingredient that gives me one of the worst hangovers I have ever had. Indeed, all of the beers he list with rice in them make me feel like I've been hit by a truck the next day. It's one of the principle reasons I don't drink any Budweiser. Budweiser is actually not a bad pilsner, especially given the size of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 9:26 AM on May 13, 2007

Actually, Americans who like light beer drink it because it's "Diet Beer."

I am sure that is the case for some folks. Nevertheless, I have heard from many, many people that I consider to be more 'drunken frat boy' style drinkers (comparied to people who enjoy beer varieties) that they specifically don't like microbrews (and when they say this, they means they don't like non-lager beer usually, even though, yes, plenty of microbreweries... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 12:01 PM on May 13, 2007

It's hard to say. You can't for Corman, of course, but there were others, like Bert I. Gordon too. Gordon may be the one they did the most of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_I._Gordon.

And god... Coleman Francis. *shudder*

I think for sheer weirdness, though, K. Gordon Murray may take the cake.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 2:14 PM on May 12, 2007

I managed theaters for Carmike Cinemas from I'd say... 84 to 88, and we went through a kiddie matinee period in the summers. They were less ambitious that the K. Gordon Murray affairs, I admit, as we played second runs of terrible movies usually done to capitalize on 80s TV fare like Care Bears and the like. Still, wow, people showed up. And we made it cheap for them and donated the admission cost to the Will Rogers Foundation. We made money from the food sales anyway, not the admissions,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 2:59 PM on May 12, 2007

This is the tip of the iceberg, you should see the Mexican children movies that were too weird for Murray.

Oh my! Now I am interested.

I probably should have dropped this link in as well. That's a fascinating look at Murray's foray into the weird area of children's movies, including information on how shrewd of a businessman he was in how he rolled these shows out. "Childhood Productions" was apparently a booming... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 5:45 PM on May 12, 2007

How can this NOT be a double? :) (It has been mentioned in Ask Metafilter.

But I am damn happy to see it getting more popular. It is amazingly excellent. I have listened to each one about three times so far.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 8:47 PM on May 11, 2007

Not to nitpick too much, but if they only cover up through Alexius Comnenus, they're missing a big chuck of Byzantine History. A depressing chunk for fans of the empire to be sure, but still an important one.

They've stated that it is a work in progress. They come slowly, but they are worth it.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 10:18 PM on May 11, 2007

You know who else has a MeFi account?

Carl Weathers?
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 12:40 PM on May 11, 2007

See, I'd like to see Lee Majors come onboard to MeFi and defend himself (or maybe confirm himself?) against trumped up allegations of drunken urinating on strangers.

I'm still wondering if there's a bionic man noise when that happens.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 12:50 PM on May 11, 2007

C'mon Sybil! Get a mefi account and tell us exactly why "bruce" rhymes with "douche"! Plus, did BRUCE do a trailer for "Werewolf Women Of The SS"? I THINK NOT!

I gotta fess up... I'm totally going to go see Live Free Or Die Hard. I am also a bit puzzled by its PG-13ness, but I do like me some Bruce Willis blowin' shit up.

(I'd already watched that whole thread unfold on AICN and was kind of surprised that someone... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 1:14 PM on May 11, 2007

That's always creeped me out a bit, I must admit. I mean, there's "being on good terms", and there's "going on vacation with your ex and her new boy toy".

Hey now, don't rile the polyamorous cat-name requesters.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 2:59 PM on May 11, 2007

What? No crying eagle?
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 6:39 AM on May 10, 2007

It's Sid & Marty Krofft week! Woo hoo! Everybody siiiiiiinnnnggggg!

I was just thinking "SOMEONE couldn't leave the S&M Krofft thread alone with googling." ;)
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 11:21 PM on May 8, 2007

I would wonder when we will be getting a new Banana Splits show, but frankly, the 60s design ethos of making a wacky drug culture into innocent cartoon shows would almost certainly be turned into the putrid 00s design of primary colors generic clean, straight curves Xtremism.

OTOH, the new Pufnstuf doesn't look like any great departure from the other current design school of cheap Hanna-Barbera knock offs.

I'll be pleased when something... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 3:48 PM on May 7, 2007

First off, most of the colors are secondary or tertiary, more like a palette Shag would use. Also, the quirky lines remind me more of Jim Flora than of this.

Well, I wasn't saying the HR Pufnstuf looked like Loonatics, mind you. I was saying that there's a danger of revisionist shows ending up like Loonatics. HR Pufnstuff 2.0 is definitely more of Foster's Home and even Angry Beavers (all descendants basically of the 60s Yogi Bear style, itself a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 6:00 PM on May 7, 2007

I can never hear H.R. Pufnstuf and Sid and Marty Croft without thinking of this. which I was oh so very close of getting to. I never go to see it. I was a few months too late. I was able to crawl up the world's tallest escalator quite a bit sometimes in 76/77 (I don't remember) and see everything completely covered up in tarps and covers. One of the strangest experiences of my life.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 6:08 PM on May 7, 2007

Did you get to look around at least?

The way the Omni was laid out was that big skating rink in the center and then open all the way up with the building having several open balconies facing out into the main atrium where the skating rink was located.

The (at the time) world's longest escalator was how you got up to the place, and so it was turned off. Funny thing about escalators how they can still be functional when they're... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 11:56 AM on May 8, 2007

Well, this map confirms a lot of my memories. Weird.

So, if you look at that, you can see the escalator, the pinball ride, and I am guessing that I was seeing whatever was on the third tier there, not the carousel on the top (because I distinctly remember not trekking all the way up the escalator).

Note that the map was found at this page. That guy went and he has scanned all of the memorabilia that he brought back. Very cool. And a little... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 2:14 PM on May 8, 2007

According to this article, The World of Sid and Marty Krofft opened May 24, 1976, and closed five months later. That puts me there only a few months after it closed, which is why everything was still there (I was there in January of 1977).

That article is about six years old and there was talk in it of the Kroffts themselves being involved in a revamp of Electra Woman and Dyna Girl for the WB. :) I don't recall that ever happening (there was a pilot, but the show never... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 2:41 PM on May 8, 2007

I do lurv me some Ubuntu. Not 100% there for each and every little tidbit, but honestly, what is?

Been using it at home on a couple of old machines for about a year now.

Don't miss Kubuntu if you want the KDE interface instead. The regular Ubuntu install uses Gnome.

If you really want to squeeze even more out of an old machine, try Edubuntu. Same gnome interface but bundled with a lot of little educational apps for a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 11:31 AM on May 8, 2007

Very cool. From the commercials you'd never be able to tell the difference between early 60s life in the US and early 60s life in the GDR. LOVED that huge hourglass shaped thing in the one video. I was greatly reminded of The Prisoner by that and a lot of the rest of the surrounding colors and design.

The Trabant's design wasn't stolen from another car was it? ;)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 8:39 AM on May 6, 2007

Frankly, if the mind of God is so convoluted that this has to fit somewhere in his big scheme, then you damn well should feel very, very hopeless for the universe, because its creator is one ripe bastard.

If you realize that humans are animals and belief and actions like these resulting from belief are just left over remnants of our lizard brains, then there's at least a little hope that we can get beyond these kinds of unfathomably brutal nightmares. It may take a long,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 8:57 AM on May 5, 2007

1) Where did the author of the story get his economics PhD?
2) How many years was he enrolled in the economics graduate program at Harvard?

This is a meaningless argument from institutional authority. He is asserting that credibility in his field only comes from approved institutions of learning. He is also assuming that we as readers agree with that premise. He moves forward with a nice ad hominem attack by calling his opponent a liar.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 11:01 AM on May 3, 2007

I'm certainly not defending Scheiber, since he also seems to suffer from the same type of warped thought process about what constitutes credibility, and attempts to leverage that to back himself up. These kind of academic pissing matches are just so... well, they're academic pissing matches. Why can't we just see picture of whose penis is larger and get it over with?

Indeed, Scheiber is even deeper in the "we are academics! we are important!" camp than Levitt... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 11:37 AM on May 3, 2007

My.yahoo.com has been pissing me off as of late. So I'll give iGoogle a try...

Indeed, I was pretty happy to find Personalized Google, a.k.a. iGoogle. I used My Yahoo, oh, you know, ten years ago, when it was new and interesting, and not yet entirely being whored out to anyone and everyone that Yahoo! could sleep with. The SCB/AT&T deal that permanently mangled My Yahoo! for me was pretty much the beginning of my end with using Yahoo services.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 11:53 AM on May 1, 2007

And I can remember how many people used to (and still) say "oh, I use Google because the Yahoo interface is so cluttered", but don't use the uncluttered Yahoo interface at search.yahoo.com -- and now those same people will say "oh, look at Google's great new portal page hoohah" having ignored the similar setup at my.yahoo.com for years. I'm sure MSN et al have the same kind of deal going.

Hm, that's assuming people, i.e. not people... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 7:18 AM on May 2, 2007

One of the instructors said that after the video was made, a lot of Apple folks freaked out about the human agent; they considered it taboo to order around a human, and wanted the agent changed to a talking dog.

*ahem* They did that. It was called Cyberdog and it was actually pretty damn cool. I kind of miss it. I should pull out one of the machines that run Classic and fire it up. :) Ohhhh... and maybe see if Project X (a.k.a. HotSauce) will still... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 4:29 PM on April 28, 2007

Wow, kids that are afraid of a eternal punishment and short-term physical punishment are more well behaved? Imagine that. Nothing like being raised to live in fear. Fear is a very nice agent for controlling people's behavior. Hell, our current president runs his entire presidency with it. You know what else is fun? Twisting it all up and calling fear "hope". I love that. "But there is hope! Hope that you won't burn in hell! Hope that we will have a world without... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 2:04 PM on April 27, 2007

I can't meet you MsMolly, but thanks for you post about the festival. I WANT to meet up, mind you, since I have a bit of a love for crazy movie festivals. ;)

I hope you have a grand time. If you get to shake Ebert's hand, send him love from San Francisco film buffs.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 9:06 PM on April 25, 2007

dude... tkchrist... that... is great. I am in near tears from laughing and appreciating that. I wish I would have had tkd teachers like that (I'd probably still be in there).
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 9:37 PM on April 26, 2007

I saw that running suit and my first thought was...

STUNTROCK!
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 10:40 AM on April 26, 2007

Please, do be careful how you celebrate Freedom day. We don't want another war with the Decapodians.
posted to MetaFilter by smallerdemon at 10:38 AM on April 26, 2007