Is it possible that, here on MeFi, we can keep this focused on the event in question and avoid generalizing to every police officer in every department?

Yes, let's pretend this is an "isolated incident." Because most cops would never do something like this.

Right.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 4:35 AM on August 8, 2008

Synaesthesia is like ADHD or hypoglycemia. It may exist as a genuine neurobiological condition, or it may not. But one thing for sure is that many, many more people claim to have some form of it on the basis of evidence that proves nothing, usually self-reported, than could possibly be true.

But then Oliver Sacks would not sell books of people were not so gullible on this stuff.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 5:23 AM on August 6, 2008

*Everyone* forms specific and often recurrent mental associations in response to particular stimuli. That's not what "synaesthesia" means in neurological terms. By the time a "sound" or a "smell" is consciously processed, it's an electrical signal, not the original stimulus. It enters a field of similar electrical signals that are co-processed in the same areas of the brain.

As it's being described by many here -- and in general -- we're... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 7:03 AM on August 6, 2008

Good. Now those rich assholes can enjoy their own version of DHS incompetence and arrogance.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 5:24 AM on August 6, 2008

Absent the specific sexual fetish element and its emphasis on humiliation, the thing which is shocking many in this thread is not that different from the "normal" situation for millions of kids in America, de facto. Think about it.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 8:48 PM on August 4, 2008

thanks for this!
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 8:18 PM on August 2, 2008

Jail for the caseworkers and supervisors and the executives of the private care service. And for the mother.

That's how you address this: real jail time for the lot of them. Like several years.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 5:01 PM on August 2, 2008

Are you really asking "Which sex toy would Jesus use?"

Really?
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 4:38 PM on August 1, 2008

Actually, some of the poorest people I know lavish more attention on their kids, and live more kid-centered lives, than my upper middle class professional racked-by-guilt friends with kids.

Every generation bitches like this when they reach a certain age. But as I see it, we live in more of a senarchy than a kindergarchy.

One thing for sure -- all these people in their 70s and 80s would not have lived this long a couple of generations back.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 4:34 PM on July 31, 2008

They can have it. Personally, I was done with it when I finished my undergraduate degree in music.

How many times can you listen to the same symphony and still find it profound?
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 2:43 PM on July 22, 2008

I ain't gonna argue the point. I am a musician, with a degree in music and years and years of experience playing classical music as well as many other things.

For me, the problem is with all the mystifying talk about classical music being any more "profound" (or "better") than any other kind of music. Any other kind of music.

Of course, we've had this debate in other threads. And some of you music zealots will call me... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 7:29 PM on July 24, 2008

A few years of reggaeton is comparable, maybe, to a few years of Musique Concrete or the Florentine madrigal, not the entire history of western classical music.

Now if you want to compare centuries of European classical music to centuries of African percussion grooves, of which reggaeton is but one tiny offshoot, you have me interested. Otherwise, you're comparing apples and mustard seeds.

You may be "pretty sure" of anything you like,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 2:13 PM on July 26, 2008

hydro -- having just returned from the arctic myself, I can tell you it's crawling with scientists from many countries, and I am sure that's true in Greenland and Canada (at least) this summer. Not sure why people aren't blogging from other places, but it might have to do with the availability of satellite internet uplinks at base stations.

The sense of urgency is intense. There is no question whatsoever that climate change has arrived in a big way up there.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 3:18 AM on July 17, 2008

No worries, I didn't think you were being harsh, just looking for explanations.

It's already way "too late" in a lot of ways, I think. But that's another conversastion.

Here's two interesting stories, for people with arctic interests:

The Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission has signed a deal with BP to limit use of explosives in the Beuafort and Chukchi seas during the Bowhead migration.
... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 2:31 PM on July 17, 2008

christopherious, that's *Antarctica!* Arctic folks have a real attitude about the Antarctica crowd. At least our world is *inhabited.*

And the condoms are for the penguins.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 10:50 AM on July 18, 2008

I'm sorry for his family. And it looked like he struggled pretty hard to fight the cancer over the last few years.

But he was a slick, professional liar and a chief enabler of an evil administration, who held odious political views of his own, unless he was a total cynic and just pretending to believe some of the things he said as a "commentator" on Fox News in his last years. That doesn't mean I'm glad he's dead or that I ever wished anything bad upon him.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 9:49 AM on July 12, 2008

I ate nutchuk (seal) fat and intestines for dinner tonight.

Don't give me this bacon bravado.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 2:10 AM on July 10, 2008

Fuck yeah. Happy birthday America. Rot in hell Jesse.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 2:25 PM on July 4, 2008

Lame assed post about a lame assed hoax.

Get the hook.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 12:33 AM on June 27, 2008

As a way lapsed Jewish atheist, I never cease to be embarrassed by this kind of nonsense.

As an American, I really want to know when and how Israel became the 51st state.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 3:54 PM on June 26, 2008

Heck, I've been eating fermented whale blubber and blood every night for the last week.

Bring it on.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 11:38 PM on June 25, 2008

Ugh.

True story: I was interviewing the daughter of a famous Appalachian musician a few years ago. Her first words to me were: "You aren't one of them Seegers, are you? I'll talk to you as long as you aren't one of them Seegers."

How that phony baloney half-assed musician who regularly disrespected the actual people whose music he used to enrich himself and build his career achieved the legendary status he still enjoys has always... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 10:58 PM on June 24, 2008

for vertigo:

Idiots who don't know the first thing about anthropology, let alone the concept of cultural relativism, once again finding reasons to be infuriated with anthropologists for defending the indefensible as if it were all just so fucking obvious.

As if Western culture did not have its barbarisms which no one decries . . beginning with raining terror bombings on civilians and calling it "legal war" in Iraq.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 5:51 PM on June 22, 2008

You don't know what "relativism" means when it is prefixed by the term "cultural," ewkpates; go read some books and get back to me about that.

And Snyder, the concept is hypocrisy. It's in the dictionary. Before you scream that 300 native people are doing something barbaric while trying to subsist in a harsh environment, clean your own western house, which is full of much greater and more brutal barbarisms than any ever dreamed up by tribal people.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 12:24 AM on June 24, 2008

Yeah, who the heck is "Jimmy" Rodgers?

At least you got the "g" in his last name right.

Pretty lame post if it's meant to introduce people to the father of country music. Have a look at Nolan Porterfield's comprehensive biography to get a sense of how much more there is to say.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 4:55 PM on June 22, 2008

Surprise, surprise.

I believe every word. Yuck.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 11:50 AM on June 19, 2008

I went to an ivy league school, and I can do plumbing, drive anything, and have working-class friends. You could choose to be like this idiot's caricature, or you could live a different life while getting an education. I went on to the PhD and teaching at another ivy. But I just spent a languid afternoon sitting around the table in a tractor repair shop in the Ozarks debating global climate change with two mechanics and a farmer over coffee and cigarettes.

Suit yourself
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 8:14 PM on June 18, 2008

There are photos down near the bottom of the forum link that are worth seeing

Great story!
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 8:03 PM on June 18, 2008

Harvey is a genius, and his "The Condition of Postmodernity* is among the most influential works of social theory on globalization of the last twenty years.

Thanks much for this link -- I have 26 hours of listening to do.
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 5:06 AM on June 17, 2008

Best mental institution song in country music: John Conlee, "I don't remember loving you."

thanks as always flapjax
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 5:55 AM on June 16, 2008

Another plug for the Plains Indian Ledger Art thread above, don't miss it
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 6:08 PM on June 13, 2008

Well, I hadn't seen it before

And I'm really grateful that you posted this Katullus, so I could

Beautiful stuff
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 6:05 PM on June 13, 2008

One of them is running for president, and he seems like a good dad too
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 5:47 PM on June 13, 2008

Holy crap

Any Hillary Clinton supporters still thinking of voting for McCain should be sobering up about now
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 6:55 PM on June 12, 2008

awwwwwwwww shit
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 3:45 AM on June 12, 2008

Oh, I was just working on a post on this

Here is some more swag:

Carl Zimmer blogs about Lenski's research for the Loom (Scienceblogs)

New York Times article from June '07 on Lenski's work

Intelligent Design advocate Michael Behe chokes out a critique

Article abstract in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (full text requires subscription)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 3:42 AM on June 12, 2008

An exciting day -- thanks for the FPP!
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 3:43 AM on June 12, 2008

And sorry to repeat a couple of the links
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 3:44 AM on June 12, 2008

AT&T hands over your life to the government without even being asked, let alone subpoenaed

Don't believe me? Ask the Electronic Frontier Foundation

This is one Apple product I will not buy until it is unlocked to work with other carriers, because I will not do business with AT&T

I strongly urge any of you who care about the abuse of state power by the Bush administration to join me in this, shiny iPhone or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 7:19 PM on June 9, 2008

Great photos, thanks for the post

On my way to the Arctic myself in 10 days, for a month, and can't wait; even as a half-assed photographer myself, that place just photographs itself sometimes
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 4:29 PM on June 8, 2008

You know who else was fostered by the cultural conditions in Austria?

Yeah, that's right

As Kinky Friedman said of Germans -- and in this respect, Austrians are just like Germans on steroids:

"They're my second favorite people in the world, right after everybody else!"
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 4:27 PM on June 8, 2008

OK, that's just weird

Reminds me of McCain's "2013" video failure
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 4:21 PM on June 8, 2008

I swear to god that there was once, in Las Vegas, a Vietnamese restaurant called "pho chien," and it was right next to a veterinarian's office

I passed it up, for obvious reasons, but it really was there in about 1995 or so
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 1:45 PM on June 6, 2008

There used to be a place in Lockhart Texas called "The Y'all Come Back Salon"
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 11:09 AM on June 8, 2008

Very cool
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 8:39 AM on June 8, 2008

Forget spelling; too bad there isn't a hip hop song to help with proper placement of the apostrophe!


Yo shizz
when you mean it is
you gotta drop that apostrophe
after the letter t

but yo man
if you mean to be possessive
just adding one anywhere
ain't that impressive
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 8:08 AM on June 8, 2008

Also, the word "featurette" needs to be banned before it hurts someone!
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 8:09 AM on June 8, 2008

As a linguist, KokuRyu, I could not agree more
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 8:37 AM on June 8, 2008

I read that too, and thought it had to be a suicide; no one would do that accidentally, not even a lunatic idiot!
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 8:36 AM on June 8, 2008

I like hypens, but I already -ate
posted to MetaFilter by fourcheesemac at 1:44 PM on June 6, 2008