Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 1179
MeFi post:
Be careful what you wish for... you just might get it.
Congrats, digaman! I wish you all the best! I'm getting married next month, and these issues (not divorce, but marriage equality) have been weighing on me.
I kinda think the State should have no business in what is essentially a spiritual event. What exactly is the State's business in marriage other than to create a tax incentive for baby making?
Well, just from a kind of vulgar Marxist point of view, marriage is a property... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 7:22 AM on July 26, 2008
MeFi post:
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Ugh. With the exception of the Delaney line, none of these are first lines to write home about. They're just workmanlike action-adventure sentences that get the plot moving.
Consider some REALLY GOOD first lines:
"The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended."
"Midway in our life's journey, I went astray from the straight road and woke to find... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:32 AM on July 25, 2008
"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, 'as pretty as an airport'."
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:34 AM on July 25, 2008
"Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans."
Ah, hell: check out the comments sections these two Crooked Timber posts for a good review of firsts: lines & paragraphs.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:39 AM on July 25, 2008
MeFi post:
Bite me, Larry Summers.
compared to girls, boys are quasi-literate brutes intellectually incapable of grasping the most basic precepts of effective communication.
Well, we can certainly associate that finding with socialization, viz. the celebration of extreme physical brutality among young boys. Forget trucks: boys get guns and bats and are expected to use them to defend themselves or else labeled unmasculine. Girls are allowed to talk things out,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 5:24 AM on July 25, 2008
[expletive deleted]: No worries. I guess I heard echoes of Christina Hoff Sommer's "War against Boys" in your comment. I'm certainly pleased that the achievement gap has closed for girls, but all this talk of unnurtured natural differences gets under my skin, as if there wasn't a complex interplay of social factors required to turn any mass of genetic material into a living, breathing, mathematical-competent human being.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 6:15 AM on July 25, 2008
MeFi post:
Carlos Is an Asian at Heart
plexi, a non-asian, claims that asians are genetically superior in intelligence.
snofoam, an asian, claims that race doesn't play a significant role in achievement.
If plexi is to be consistent with his premise, he should agree with snofoam, who is, according to plexi, smarter than him.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 6:51 AM on July 24, 2008
MeFi post:
Boing Boing Finds 21st Century Trotsky?
This magnificent thread will occupy pride of place in a many a curator's collection, when all is said and done.
Every thread-shit will be ensconced in the halls of Serious Art and History. Future dissertations will be written on the proper re-emvowellment of particularly telling comments. Celebrities will name their children after our usernames. Schools will debate the proper framing of the great Violet Blue debate of 2008. Economists will ask what role this thread... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:08 AM on July 16, 2008
Woah: that restraining order on Burch is weird. She has no idea what he looks like, but a law enforcement officers found that there was evidence of stalking and a credible threat of violence?
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 1:35 PM on July 22, 2008
MeFi post:
Caricatures from the late 19th Century and early 20th
I don't have the time to comb through this right now, but it looks quite promising. I hope other commenters will pull and share the famous and interesting personages as they come across them!
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 6:22 AM on July 21, 2008
They're caricatures. They're supposed to blow elements of your appearance and personality out of proportion. They're seeking the iconic under the mundane face you see in the mirror every day, and that's why it works so well for great personages: celebrity in that era was tied less closely to appearance, and more closely to class and achievement. So ordinary-looking people had to be made to seem extraordinary, which is what these caricatures do.
In contrast, the New... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 7:20 AM on July 21, 2008
Did you look at the Wilde and Disraeli caricatures? Pure racist stereotype.
I'm not convinced. These people were popular and well-liked... if anything, the use of familiar visual motifs served to create a narrative background in which their fame and achievement could raise the estimation of the groups to which they belonged. Archetypes always create a tension between the idiosyncratic and the common idiom, and it's not clear to me that the particular... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 7:52 AM on July 21, 2008
The equation of African-Americans and Irish is unlikely to have had much currency in Britain.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 5:35 PM on July 21, 2008
Although there were clearly associations between the Irish and blacks, Britain had nothing like the American experience after slavery. That's why, today, the British are significantly more racist against Middle Easterners and Asians than blacks. Beddoe emphasized the relationship between jaw and forehead, not the size of lips.
It's anachronistic to assume your own prejudices operate the same way that people in another time and place would have done. Mary Beth Oliver at... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:16 PM on July 21, 2008
MeFi post:
Should This Feat With No Feet Be Defeated?
I had a post on Pistorius a while back, so I'm already on record as a partisan. I think this guy is way more interesting than the Olympics itself, and if they want to exclude him that's their loss. When a rule-making body hides behind the defense: 'but the rules say...' they've lost my respect. You MAKE the rules, and all they do is hide your narrow prejudice. The principles of amateur athleticim clearly place triumphs over adversity above bureaucratic sticklerism.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 10:01 AM on July 17, 2008
Simply put, he's using far less energy to achieve the same outcomes as his peers.
Does everybody know the old joke about the kettle? A man is charged by one of his neighbors with having given him back a borrowed kettle in a damaged condition. The defendant asserted, first, that he had given it back undamaged; secondly, that the kettle had a hole in it when he borrowed it; and thirdly, that he had never borrowed the kettle from his neighbor at all.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 2:41 PM on July 17, 2008
so less more flexible runners are at a disadvantage
FTFM
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 2:43 PM on July 17, 2008
Better training, more money, and better genetics are considered "fair" advantages because -- and solely because -- they are allowed within the rules, and the rules apply to everyone the same.
I'm well aware of the distinction you're making, and I addressed it in my first comment. You can't hide behind the rules when you make the rules.
if you do not allow people with perfectly good legs to also strap on... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 6:41 AM on July 18, 2008
Everyone suits up, speedo will sell you one today. The same avenue is not available for athletes running against new and improved Cheetahs.
As someone said above, if they were all racing barefoot these objections would make more sense. Pistorius can't benefit from enhanced shoe technology, so why should his competitors get those benefits? Oh, wait... because they're normal, right?
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:38 AM on July 18, 2008
Thanks Mitheral: that was a sweet and thoughtful post, and I especially appreciated the Carlin. After such a wonderful effort at understanding, I hesitate to rejoinder with a correction, but I'm going to do so. You write that some people root for Pistorius because they associate his cause with accommodating the disabled. For my part, the objection is based in the sense that his regulatory exclusion would be based on an accommodation for the 'abled,' who suddenly find themselves inferior to a man... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 1:44 PM on July 18, 2008
it appears the point is now moot, but one thing that distinguishes swimming from running is footwear. If one swimmer has footwear, they all should. Similarly, if most runners have shoes, Pistorius should be allowed to use a prosthesis.
The comparison to wheelchair marathons is disingenuous: a regular athlete can always sit down and push a wheelchair.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 2:16 PM on July 18, 2008
Do people with the 'fat-switching' gene compete in the same sport as people without it?
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 3:38 PM on July 18, 2008
kyrademon: I'm going to take your points in order, since you were so kind to list them that way.
the idea that Cheetah Legs == Good Running Shoes is nonsense. They're not even remotely equivalent.
Equivalent is a funny word to use here, and I think it expresses the problem. The two things are different, that's clear. They're not the same thing. The question is if there's a difference that makes a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:11 PM on July 18, 2008
I never said that. You are greatly misinterpreting what I wrote if you think I did.
I went back and looked. This is what you said: "...better genetics are considered "fair" advantages because -- and solely because -- they are allowed within the rules, and the rules apply to everyone the same."
So you're right, you never said I what I attributed to you, you actually just retreated to a argument from 'the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 9:35 PM on July 18, 2008
kyrademon, you wrote above that:
Plenty of bad rules have been protested, and sometimes changed or eliminated for this reason, sure. There are, however, good reasons for a rule to exist in this case, outside of the mere existence of a rule.
I agreed with the sentiment that rules are always rules for good or bad reasons, and that we ought to have rules we can defend for good reasons. However, in your most recent response, you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 6:06 AM on July 19, 2008
I see you still have absolutely no reply to why Pistorius shouldn't be allowed prosthetic flippers if he takes up swimming.
I gave you a reply. You just weren't willing to accept it. The reason is simply that swimming does not involve foot gear, while running does.
Now be quiet while grownups talk, ok?
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 7:48 AM on July 19, 2008
If Pistorius took up swimming, he would have to have his prosthetic legs take some form, right? [...] Are you saying that no amputee should ever be allowed to swim using prosthetics?
What part of 'swimming does not involve foot gear' did you not understand? As things stand, it's a pretty open and shut case: a prosthesis is corrective foot gear. Such foot gear is allowed to runners but not to swimmers. If ordinary swimmers got foot gear, I would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 10:44 AM on July 19, 2008
An interesting response would be to tell me just what would, in your view, be acceptable legs for Pistorius to use if he took up highjumping.
You're so very demanding! Try to understand that I find it difficult to figure out just one sport, yet you drag me from athletic event to athletic event, asking, "But what about this one?" "But what about this one?" I just can't keep up! Now you'd have us jettison both running AND swimming,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 12:55 PM on July 19, 2008
Oh the young! It's fine when an old man has a bad memory, but for a young one to be so forgetful...
Here's what I wrote, above:
the Cheetahs are not 'mechanical.' They are not simple machines, they are neither levers, nor nor pulleys, nor wedges, nor wheel & axle, nor inclined planes, nor screws. They are not mechanized or motorized, either: Pistorius supplies all the power used during his run. So they are by no available definition... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 1:10 PM on July 19, 2008
Oh, silly me, so forgetful. Here you went to all the trouble of searching wikipedia for a definition of the high jump, and I didn't respond with a thoughtful and reflective comment on it.
I'm not sure it's the kind of definition we need, unfortunately. For us to know what the high jump competition is, we'd have to be able to say more about it than just what it involves, that there are bars and jumping. We should be able to say what it is to jump, I think. For us to make... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 1:16 PM on July 19, 2008
I could easily come up with a reasonable definition of running that did not include what Pistorius does. [...] I could also easily come up with a reasonable definition of running that does include what Pistorius does. The reason I did not is because I consider the question irrelevant.
So, both of you acknowledge that you don't even know WHAT RUNNING IS, but you're absolutely convinced that Pistorius isn't doing it? Moreover, you've decided that your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 2:09 PM on July 20, 2008
MeFi post:
Can iDrag be far behind?
The Crown 7 seems ideal for smoking cessation, as they sell four different levels of nicotine: High, Medium, Low, and Zero.
I want the pipe, but it doesn't come in any good flavors.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 5:23 AM on July 18, 2008
Are the cartridges standardized? It's looking like there are a lot of manufacturers.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 9:04 AM on July 18, 2008
MeFi post:
Flesh and Blood
This was a fascinating article, nasreddin. Thanks. It does an especially good job of showing us how reprehensible the protagonists are while still allowing us to root for them (at least for them to avoid the death penalty.)
This kind of denial of jurisdiction has another precedent besides white supremacy: war criminals and deposed dictators use it all the time, as has the Bush administration with regard to Guantanamo Bay. I find it amusing that issues of jurisdiction... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 5:58 AM on July 16, 2008
Crack Cocaine Sentencing Policy:
Although the two types of cocaine cause similar physical reactions, the sentences that users and sellers of the drugs face are vastly different. For powder cocaine, a conviction of possession with intent to distribute carries a five year sentence for quantities of 500 grams or more. But for crack, a conviction of possession with intent to distribute carries a five year sentence for only 5 grams. This is a 100:1 quantity ratio.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:28 AM on July 16, 2008
Although much of this will change due to Kimbrough v. US.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:30 AM on July 16, 2008
while crack cocaine tends(ed) to be consumed mostly by poor ghetto kids
Although this is a popular misconception, it is not in fact the case the majority of crack users are black (which is what I assume you mean by 'poor ghetto kids.' They're not urban, either.) A majority of crack convictions are black and urban, however. The sentencing guidelines only play a part of the role in the discriminatory results.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:58 AM on July 16, 2008
The fact that crack was largely used by poor urban blacks is unfortunately not a fact, only a justification for the fact that the majority of convictions are poor urban blacks.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 9:00 AM on July 16, 2008
more than 500K hits for "shadow government"
Probably because there actually -is- a shadow government.
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 9:05 AM on July 16, 2008
MeFi post:
Happy Birthday Metafilter!
Happy Birthday to you!
You live in a zoo!
You look like a monkey!
And smell like one too!
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 6:00 AM on July 14, 2008
The guy wanted $1300 for it though. A domain with a dash in it, for over a grand!
It's probably got a pretty gnarly pagerank, since we keep linking to it....
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 8:25 AM on July 14, 2008
MeFi post:
Good dance moves for two right feet
Sorry AP, I thought you were actually asking a question, not looking for an argument.
I was, and am, asking a question. When the answers all involve comparisons to Hitler's Germany, I find that pointing out the loose thinking involved in such analogies is helpful in eliciting real answers. Moreover, I'm not interested in debating the FISA court itself; if you feel that wiretapping for intelligence (not criminal prosecution) purposes is intrinsically... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 5:28 AM on July 10, 2008
The wiretapping started before 9/11.
Cite please?
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 9:13 AM on July 10, 2008
The Spying Started Before September 11 -- That's The Whole Point
Thanks homunculus. That goes a ways towards the serious criticism one would hope for.
I'm a little embarrassed by this "Saudis did 9/11? Doh!" moment, but this little tidbit could be a little better publicized. It ought to be front-and-center on all discussions of the bill and immunity and everything else related to it. I even knew that Qwest had... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 10:22 AM on July 10, 2008
While no one died, I would call eavesdropping on the american public a human rights violation as well.
Uh... okay. I'd call hangnails human rights violations. Also, people who block the doors to the metro.
Or, we could save that term for things that are really, really bad, like state-sanctioned torture and murder.
Now, you may be saying that the President and his people could have told the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 10:07 AM on July 11, 2008
Privacy is listed in Article 12 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
So is paid vacation:
Article 24. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Saying it, or even declaring it, doesn't make it so. In any case, article 12 deals with 'arbitrary interference,' which is to say harassment.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 11:31 AM on July 13, 2008
MeFi post:
If I ran the zoo, I would not be able to link to it here.
If I ran American Higher Education, there'd be fewer administrators, no universities with more than 10,000 students, and no organized athletics.
If I ran American Higher Education, no course could count towards a degree unless taught by a Ph.D.
If I ran American Higher Education, fraternities and sororities would play no role in student life.
If I ran American Higher Education, there would be Pell Grants for prisoners and incarcerated students would get... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea
at 2:57 PM on July 10, 2008
