i've always found it interesting that the typical naming convention for domains has the effect of "normalizing" anything located in the US, and largely using regional designations for everything else... ie: cnn.com vs skysports.co.uk, harvard.edu vs oxford.ac.uk, etc...
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 3:01 AM on June 27, 2008

vysnc, it has always been an anachronism, one which has nothing to do with the relative strength of the US economy vs china, but one which has everything to do with a national self-image as the 'shining city on the hill' which is completely out of place with the idea behind a global network with no central node.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 5:01 AM on June 27, 2008

ok, spectacular fail on the posting attempt, but if you watch cunninglinguist's link, then yeah, that is definitely a new weirdness threshold for shaving ads.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 10:45 AM on June 11, 2008

If a transcript of this comes out, I'll read it, because it sounds interesting. But an hour long video? Bah.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 3:07 AM on May 1, 2008

Also, the most depressing thing linked to there is the WSJ graphic showing that for 90% of American families, their real income has dropped during this decade.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 3:11 AM on May 1, 2008

America, your long national nightmare is over.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 10:10 AM on April 1, 2008

one of the group's writers is a mefi member and a friend of mine... i won't out him without permission of course, but perhaps he'll drop in.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 1:32 PM on January 20, 2008

my friend does not wish to be outed, but asked me to convey this msg:

"I just wanted to say that the Panda PSA was something we did with
This Hour Has 22 Minutes and was mostly written by them. In other
words: It doesn't represent us, we're keeping it up for their sake.
But whoever linked to us, thanks! And....ahem....you know.....feel
free to buy a t-shirt if the mood should strike you....."
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 4:54 AM on January 21, 2008

Brilliant (again). Glad to see the repost.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 9:56 AM on November 26, 2007

Excellent stuff, thanks!
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 5:24 AM on November 25, 2007

didn't Radiohead's label contract expire with Hail to the Thief? do we have any indication how the next release will be done? If they do incorporate a digital release, I hope they stick to their guns and don't sell individual tracks on itunes or something similar -- the whole album or nothing.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 5:32 AM on September 28, 2007

CanLII provides access to Canadian federal and provincial statutes and caselaw.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 8:06 AM on August 30, 2007

My friends take all kinds of pictures that would fit right in at the site, but they are being ironic; you wouldn't be able to tell a difference.

If a douchebag is being ironic, is he less of a douche? Or just an irondouche? (Not to be confused with stainlesssteeldouche).
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 12:45 PM on August 23, 2007

the sheer self-belief (or is it self-righteousnesss) of many bloggers in the importance of their mission continues to crack me up.

they're the same people who think that the CNN/Youtube debates will "revolutionize" politics because people can ask pre-taped questions and upload them, instead of reading their pre-written questions in person.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 11:28 AM on August 21, 2007

It's really incredible to see how little some things have changed, and how much others have. I'd love to similar projects in other cities in the world as a comparator.

Thanks for this; fascinating.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 8:42 AM on August 17, 2007

Anyone who uses wikipedia for anything serious needs their head examined. It's great little tool for anything non-contentious (and I use it regularly for all kinds of weird things), but it will never replace proper research and properly written articles/books. Which isn't to say those things don't have their own biases (of course they do), but at least they are not hidden in the same manner. People on MeiFi cite to wikipedia all the time as though it was the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 7:59 AM on August 14, 2007

Most new cars, regardless of brand, are relatively well built -- your odds of getting a lemon perhaps vary by a few % points. #1 in that ranking is not going to make me buy a Buick. I think when it comes down to it, people are looking for a car that (yes) is dependable, and yes it is a good economic value, but also has a certain aesthetic value to it. It seems to me that urban dwellers with cash to burn have concluded that the North American manufacturers just don't really "get"... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 12:57 PM on August 9, 2007

Also, checking out the CNN link you provided about Buick, the "most dependable" chart actually shows that of the 19 categories of cars listed, 14 were topped by imports. Long ways to go for Detroit, methinks.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 1:05 PM on August 9, 2007

skorgu brings up a great point -- Ford is dying in the American market precisely because (ok, its not the only reason, but stick with me here.. )they don' t have a decent compact car.. and yet, the euro-spec focus is a great little thing that sells well across a variety of markets and demographics and receives consistent plaudits from auto journalists.

what is the logic behind NOT selling it North America? It's almost like they want to go bankrupt. The Way Forward my ass.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 1:35 PM on August 9, 2007

How long until people realize that even "ironic" use of internet-speak (lulz, etc) is not funny and not clever?

Chlorus -- in Canada, the self-creation of child pornography for personal (ie, the minor's own) use is in fact legal, however transmission of that material would no longer be for personal use, and would therefore be a violation of the criminal code prohibitions against child porn. Not sure if this wrinkle is also true in other jurisdictions, but I doubt it.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 8:47 AM on August 6, 2007

in Canada, the self-creation of child pornography for personal (ie, the minor's own) use

So it's okay to get aroused by looking at yourself naked?

It means that a teenage couple in Canada can no longer be charged for filming themselves having sex, which under strict readings of the previous law (and by the sounds of it, the current laws in the US) would have been possible. See R. v. Sharpe.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 9:12 AM on August 6, 2007

Left: Young Iraqi suicide bomber.
Right Young US drone with M249 machine guns.

Does "drone" refer to a robot or to a US soldier?

Also, I am thoroughly impressed that the Chief Army Scientist is named Killion. You couldn't make this shit up. Oh, wait...
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 7:21 AM on August 4, 2007

Imagine for a moment having a strong belief that something is morally wrong. Now imagine that you live in a society where that thing is universal and even celebrated. Imagine that you know that Soylent Green is people- would you stay quiet? Of course not.

This is exactly the same logic violent anti-abortion nuts use. And I imagine the overlap between them and vegans is rather small, funnily enough.

That said, I couldn't care... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 10:52 AM on August 2, 2007

Yes, there is likely to be economic and business harmonization, just as in other areas of the world.

There is zero chance of political harmonization (despite the scaremongering by populists on both the left and the right) since a) there would be nothing to be gained by folks on either side of the border, and b) plenty to be lost. It would be a political non-starter all around.

On the Canadian side, Canadians know that in any merger they would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 9:24 AM on July 23, 2007

You have to count on the fact that if al Qaeda's not going to do it, it's going to be orchestrated. ... The Republicans are praying for another 9/11."

Just because some guy on a website says that doesn't make it so, any more than the people that though 9/11 itself was orchestrated by the US govt.

From what I can tell, America has had plenty of shitty presidents before, and the system survived. There's no need to go into... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 12:17 PM on July 20, 2007

This reminds me of the new Battlestar Galatica and the storyline about Admiral Cain. Hopefully it won't come to that.

It's political insight like this that is of greater concern to the future health of the American republic.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 12:41 PM on July 20, 2007

I would also add that any assertion of executive privilege by Bush (which is what this article is about, people, and nothing more) can be challenged in the courts. Different kinds of privilege are asserted on a daily basis across democracies to stop people from testifying -- spousal, solicitor-client, and yes, executive. The assertion of a privilege does not alone mean the sky is falling.

Indeed, Clinton asserted executive privilege during the Lewinsky debacle, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 1:29 PM on July 20, 2007

Really, I'm curious: when, EXACTLY, do we start to get excited? I've been told for 6 years now to "settle down," and yet, I've been right every time, and it keeps getting worse.

So please do inform me when it's OK to finally get excited.

Teeca, I absolutely agree with this -- I am hopeful that you and your fellow citzens have been excited/outraged for a good while now. What I was trying to get at though was that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 3:48 PM on July 20, 2007

of course unilever/dove is just trying to sell more soap, but if it has some knock-on beneficial impact (ie, that not every 'beautiful' woman on tv is under 25), then I reckon its ok..

its a bit like "corporate social responsibility"... yeah, shell is trying to promote itself as a "green" oil company as a means of changing its brand image.. but, if it does have some beneficial impact on the world (and i'm not saying it does, i don't know enough to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 8:27 AM on July 19, 2007

davy, i don't think you understand what viral marketing is.

not every ad that gets talked about is "viral" by design.

this was a traditional ad by dove in so many ways -- it had a clear target market, a clear message, a well-known product, and a 30sec spot made for traditional network tv designed to tie those 3 things together.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 9:06 AM on July 19, 2007

dejah, it's been running for months and months in Canada without creating (near as I can tell) a single word of controversy.

also, what Mister_A said is bang on.. there is a big difference between viral ads and traditional ads that hope to get a bit of "word of mouth" going... a viral ad is a cute girl drinking in a bar asking you to buy her a particular brand of rum-cocktail, and later you discover that the rum maker in question is paying a slew of cute young... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 9:39 AM on July 19, 2007

yeah, transformers had a few pretty egregious racial stereotypes... from jazz, the jive-talking robot to the crazy black car salesman with the loud and out of control mother/grandmother to the to the loud and crazy black computer hacker with the loud and out of control mother/grandmother.. it was fairly absurd. michael bay's movies are known for this stereotyping bull shit. i'm surprised he doesn't get called on it more often.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 11:22 AM on July 9, 2007

Hey phaedon -- do you remember the discussion we had in the thread about racial bias amongst NBA refs?

It's pretty funny because this sounds like a repeat performance... there it was a report that you hadn't read but you were sure it couldn't really reveal racism. Here, it's about a movie that you haven't seen, but also, you are sure it couldn't contain any racism.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 11:52 AM on July 9, 2007

I guess your point is only white people are watching Transformers.

What? My point was that Bay is a hack who frequently resorts to tired racial cliches and stereotypes (and not just in Transformers). The movie was awful for more than that reason though -- as others have noted, shitty dialogue, non-sensical transitions between day and night, masturbatory shots of military hardware, tonnes of product placement, the dizzying camera cuts.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 1:15 PM on July 9, 2007

Despite the prominence of computers in the plot and in the creation of the movie, whoever wrote it has absolutely no idea how anything about computers work.

Which really destroys this as entertainment for anyone who does know about computers - the suspension of reality is just too much. And it makes people like me sad, because I know that this movie may have entertained people for a few hours, but now they are stupider.

I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 2:14 PM on July 9, 2007

Since the bar exam is a test of "what the law is", not "what should the law be", this is clearly going nowhere.

Also, I'd like to know what other questions he got wrong that led to his failing score, given that you don't require a 100% score to pass the exam (yet another reason this won't go anywhere).
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 1:34 PM on July 3, 2007

If a kid needs a computer to be creative, to literally create things like stories, images, music, programs or pie charts then that kid should have a computer, for the same reason every kid should have pencils and crayons and paper to write and draw on.

If the kid needs a computer because he wants to connect to the web and browse around, listen to music, or watch videos, then that kid does not need a computer, because he's using the computer like a TV, and kids... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 12:26 PM on June 25, 2007

ingore the double negative about daily newspapers.. sorry.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 12:27 PM on June 25, 2007

>>I'm sorry, what academic journal did this appear in? Oh, I see.

It's being published by Cambridge University Press. Thanks for asking.

Yeah, but despite its name Cambridge University Press is simply a commercial publisher, not an "approver of content" -- this paper has not appeared in any peer-reviewed journal, and it shows.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 7:04 AM on June 22, 2007

Of course, what George is forgetting is that what patents do is provide some level of assurance to entrepreneurs that they will have a reasonable timeframe in which to develop and market their new ideas without another more established and wealthy company walking along and just copying them wholesale before the new folks even get out of the gate. It doesn't mean without patents, *no-one* will invent anything... it's merely an encouragement to the process. Most countries have bankruptcy laws... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 6:24 PM on June 22, 2007

This is a news story from a 5 weeks ago. How is it "best of the web"?
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 1:38 PM on June 19, 2007

I watch CNN when I want to get news. I look at sexy girls when I want to look at sexy girls. If you need to watch CNN for your daily fix of sexual content then you are clearly not as experienced with the internet as I have been led to believe.

If you watch CNN for your daily news, then you are clearly not as experienced with "the most trusted name in news" as I have been led to believe.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 7:08 AM on June 15, 2007

I see long lines of (white) people with carts full of prepackaged foods

Nothing like a little race-baiting to work up an appetite for some organic food, eh rtha?
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 12:18 PM on June 5, 2007

Blue Peter... I loved my badge.

I also remember watching an brilliant claymation programme called "Morph" that came on before it.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 12:46 PM on May 31, 2007

oaf writes "In a double-blind test, even you probably can't tell the difference on all but the very best audio hardware. If you doubt it, you're probably the kind of person who buys $50 audio patch cables—the kind that keep the thetans from getting into your precious audio equipment."

I am no high-end audiophile... I use a pair of mid-range sony SL-71s (less than $50 i think) with my ipod, and have a mid-range denon bookshelf system at home.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 1:28 PM on May 30, 2007

Makes sense... if you were in charge of the national defence of a nation and you determined that the most powerful state on earth was pouring funds into a system that could render your weapons (which you use to deter aggression against you) useless, wouldn't you respond by trying to find a way around that?

Seriously, so long as the US devotes half its GDP into the military, and then throws that military might around the world in defence of its interests and at the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 11:05 AM on May 29, 2007

gurple, i think you are confused as to the meaning of intangible.

on (a very long, damn phone calls!) preview, the world famous beat me to it.
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 1:11 PM on May 25, 2007

Has everyone forgotten what a SHITTY campaign Gore ran in 2000??? It's all very well and good to have great bold ideas out in books when you aren't actually going to have to implement them -- where were his bold calls to action 7 years ago? Oh, that's right, just like EVERY OTHER politician, he traded in his supposedly core principles for some muddled bullshit he thought would attract votes in the centre.

Gore had his chance, and blew it. Time for fresh blood.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 11:19 AM on May 18, 2007

Bornjewish, while I sympathize with and fully share your "post-religious" outlook (as felix described it), I tend to think that the destruction of the Temple Mount wouldn't really solve anything, because while you can destroy physical objects you can't destroy the memories of them or the ideas they create.

People have fought just as vociferously over patches of land where things used to stand as they have over the actual things themselves.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 11:14 AM on May 17, 2007

Good point about the war-based videogames -- pretty much any combat flight simulator will feature "heroic" USAF bombings of miscellanous countries.

I remember reading a critique of TV news that stated the rough principle of outrage a death would cause, something along the lines of 1 dead American = 5 dead Britons = 50 dead Spaniards = 1000 dead Serbians = 10k dead Iraqis = 100k dead Indonesians = 1m dead Rwandans.

I know MetaFilter is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by modernnomad at 12:36 PM on May 16, 2007