Your use of anonymous e-mail to address problems of this nature suggests that you might be completely chickenshit.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 12:45 PM on July 19, 2008

It made parents nervous, especially fathers, when I would cruise by and pick up their daughters for the evening. I can't say I blame 'em.

A friend of a friend worked for an auto insurance company. He said that one of the older gentlemen who worked there would refer to such vans as "rolling fuck wagons."
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 9:15 AM on July 19, 2008

Interval Signals on Wikipedia
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 10:56 AM on July 14, 2008

I somehow triggered all three to play at once and thought I had been patched into WFMU.

Like Trans-Pacific Sound Paradise? Yeah, I can see that.

Thanks to everyone who complimented and enjoyed this post! (and again, thanks to mykescipark!)
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 12:09 PM on July 15, 2008

Are you kidding with this?

Oh, no. It's 110% serious. Really, it is.

And I am shocked, shocked, I tell you, that you philistines cannot appreciate this brilliant piece of contemporary European music.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 2:20 PM on July 9, 2008

Do not disrupt Wikipedia Metafilter to illustrate a point. [cite]

Dude, you are reading wayyyyyyy too much into this goofy little post of mine.

I wasn't thinking about that contretemps at all when I posted this. Really, I wasn't.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 2:38 PM on July 9, 2008

It's easy to laugh at moneyed douchebags going into therapy because their tennis game isn't so hot but, you know, I've been through therapy and in that course of therapy, I've revealed some things about myself that would make me seem like an ass too.

I would most emphatically not enjoy reading about those personal disclosures in the pages of The New York Times.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 1:03 PM on July 9, 2008

Since there are no social services attached to a public housing voucher, there's no caseworker doing home visits, so if the situation in the home deteriorates it becomes a straight up law enforcement situation where the DEA is called in raid the place rather than a treatment intervention that might stabilize the home.

What is the caseworker's role in this?

To inculcate bourgeois values and culture they may not have picked up... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 2:23 PM on July 7, 2008

Straightener: Ah, OK. Thanks.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 3:54 PM on July 7, 2008

but the event went nearly unreported outside of the two Germanies.

I do remember reading about this at the time it happened. The New Republic did a story about this little episode. But you're pretty much right; it wasn't front page material here in the States.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 10:37 AM on July 4, 2008

I also remember reading that the East German cops offered the squatters asylum.

I don't think anyone took them up on their offer.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 10:38 AM on July 4, 2008

BUSH = TEH SUXXORS

LOLLERSKATES

OK, I dissed Bush.

Now give me lots of favorites.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 9:16 AM on July 3, 2008

That's an ironic favorite, right?

It's all good, yo!
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 5:29 PM on July 3, 2008

odinsdream said: Number stations require setting up one or two shortwave stations, which can be anywhere with reliable power and equipping your agents with one-time pad info (up for debate, obviously).

One theory I've heard is that some agencies don't use pads, that the numbers refer to specific words in, say, a dictionary, a holy book, or something else that doesn't shout "foreign infiltrator.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 7:18 PM on June 30, 2008

On the other hand, close to four-in-ten workers (39 percent) who do not attend happy hours do so because they like to keep their work and personal lives separate.

*raises glass*
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 5:33 PM on June 24, 2008

My own favorite is the Martian sunset, third from the end.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 1:51 PM on June 20, 2008

jason's_planet has produced an art book entitled Imprints of My Sweaty Ass Crack.

You can see an example here.

jason's_planet intends to make a lot of money from this project and retire early.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 8:58 PM on June 18, 2008

Wow.

Bashing Republicans. And the Republican Party.

This post certainly breaks new ground here at MetaFilter.

Live dangerously, Wet Spot. Keep on rockin' that wild spirit of innovation.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 8:38 PM on June 18, 2008

The zero-contribution threshold was raised to $60,000 in 2006, with further reductions in parental contributions for families with incomes up to $80,000. Over the past three years, the number of students in these income ranges has increased by 33 percent, representing a quarter of the entering Class of 2011.

That is a commendable policy. But the class discrepancy remains.

I have no idea what percentage of the American... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 12:51 PM on June 18, 2008

I also couldn't stop laughing at the dd'ongchim part, something I remember quite well as a child.

The needle?
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 11:20 AM on June 12, 2008

So how do these governments keep you from accessing illegal speech or articles online?

Unless they've constructed Chinese-style firewalls -- which doesn't seem politically feasible in a liberal democracy -- any citizen with a decent connection is only a few clicks away from banned content.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 1:10 PM on June 11, 2008

*sigh*. This is a typically American thing to say in this context.

We are pretty exasperating, aren't we?

When you add our big fat asses to the gas-guzzling SUVs to the First Amendment . . . well, I'd be annoyed too.

Moving right along . . .

The Soviet Union had very strong laws against "hate speech"

The current state of race relations... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 4:45 PM on June 11, 2008

Clearly the misogynist material needs to be illegal,

Clearly = "I strongly believe -- and you should agree with me on this, for this is the position of all right-thinking people-- that"
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 4:34 PM on June 11, 2008

He also had himself crucified on a VW beetle.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 9:34 AM on June 9, 2008

Oy. Tough crowd here today.

*shrugs*

Oh, well. On to the next one . . .
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 11:24 AM on June 4, 2008

Jason's_planet, sorry man, I didn't mean to rain on your parade, but it is just a link to a single mashup. Perhaps a whole compilation, or fleshing it out with similar/more mashups/links would have suited it better?

No harm, no foul. You were just stating your opinion. If I wanted only positive comments on the links I post, there are many fine blogging sites I could use. Thanks for the feedback.

While my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 7:37 PM on June 6, 2008

On the morning of June 19, 2034, we will succeed in creating a machine that is smarter than we are.

Upon awakening, the machine will decide to devote its life to obsessive mathematical analyses of London Tube schedules and to scanning random websites for signs that the Freemasons and Rockefellers are plotting against it.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 7:14 AM on June 3, 2008

Transhumanists have a narrow vision. They focus on the acquisition of large amounts of computing power which, they believe, will create superior, "post-human" life forms.

The two concepts that seem to elude them are: selfhood and agency.

In other words, what good does all that raw computing power do when the computer can't make choices about what to do with it, when the computer doesn't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 9:18 AM on June 3, 2008

Neurons are not intelligent and self aware. They're just cells that react to electrical and chemical stimuli. Yet when you combine enough of them together in certain ways, suddenly there are emergent properties that appear to include intelligence and self-awareness.

I would say that there is the potential for intelligence and self-awareness, of selfhood. To get to that point takes years of parenting and socialization. Remove those intensive... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 11:05 AM on June 3, 2008

Hobbies: “getting drunk everynight down by the water, playing my guitar and smoking pot”

Why Interested in Position: “to keep my parole officer from putting back me in jail”
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 11:13 AM on June 2, 2008

New York City sends the message that you should be richer.

When I moved to New York in 1994, my rent was $390 a month.

Now I pay $940 a month.

That's not a subliminal message, transmitted through the municipal ether, that's an ECONOMIC REALITY we're talking here. Of COURSE you should be richer. It's frickin' EXPENSIVE to live here.

Duh!
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 10:01 AM on June 2, 2008

Funny you should mention this. I just got back from the UK, where gas already is $8 a gallon.

Life goes on. People take transit. They drive much smaller cars. They even . . . walk. No, really, they do.

Of course, if you believe the breathless, apocalyptic rhetoric of the U.S. media, once gas goes much above $5 a gallon, civilization will collapse and people will be eating each other in the streets. Or some shit like that.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 7:03 PM on May 31, 2008

The Perfect Suspect Unsuspected by Police

Back in 1990, a man entered a police station in St. Charles, Missouri, and claimed to be the next Jeffrey Dahmer. The police ignored this man, but he finally got the attention of one detective when he shared his detailed fantasies about drowning young men (Conte, 2004). A well-known profiler, Pat Brown, got involved with the case and has been monitoring this man for years. Nicknamed John Doe to avoid revealing his identity, this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 9:15 PM on May 3, 2008

I highly doubt that all of these deaths are connected, but I think there is the possibility that a serial killer is involved in a small number of these cases if they're finding similar graffiti near the bodies.

Yeah, most of these deaths can be chalked up to late-adolescent drunken idiocy. And I'm not convinced that there is some kind of tightly-knit cult of killers preying on people.

But the graffiti and the presence of a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 11:22 AM on May 4, 2008

Some discussion boards are claiming that the suspect mentioned in the links I referenced above uses the aliases Richard Blake Lilly and John Blake Lilly III.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 2:24 PM on May 4, 2008

there ought to be a limit to your ostentatiousness.

Right. You ought not to provide jobs to 600 servants. You ought not to provide employment to untold hundreds of construction workers, plumbers, electricians.

And if they and their families go hungry? No big deal. At least our delicate aesthetic sensibilities haven't been offended.

I've skimmed through the comments here and I have to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 5:05 PM on May 3, 2008

Are you listening?

No, not really.

But the Left has always had a talent for advancing ideas that I like and then poisoning those ideas by coating them in self-righteousness and over-the-top rhetoric.

Why should you be any different?
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 6:32 PM on May 3, 2008

There's still a huge gap between the conventional publishers and the small publishing/self-publishing world. The big bookstore chains that dominate the industry typically will not carry titles from the latter, even when there's money to be made.

Starting Strength, for example, is a hugely popular book on weightlifting that you can't find in chain bookstores.

A quote:

"Lemme tell you about the book... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 8:10 PM on April 26, 2008

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry into Values by Robert M Pirsig (1974) Burnt-out hippy takes son on bike trip. Remembers previous self: lecturer who had nervous breakdown contemplating Eastern and Western philosophy. Very bad course in Ordinary General Philosophy follows. If he’d done Greek at school and knew what "arête" meant, we could have been spared most of the 1970s.

Ouch.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 7:28 PM on April 26, 2008

you learn something new every day.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 5:20 PM on April 24, 2008

Oooooooh! You beat me to it, chunking! Awesome article!

I suppose my point is that it is impossible to trust Western interpretations of indigenous cultures.

The story ends with (by my count) three men dead, one guy blinded in one eye and another guy crippled for life. How much room is there for interpretation? What sorts of progressive, empowering alternative explanations would you suggest?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 12:21 PM on April 24, 2008

We regularly ignore the fact that the thirst for vengeance is among the strongest of human emotions. It ranks with love, anger, grief, and fear, about which we talk incessantly. Modern state societies permit and encourage us to express our love, anger, grief, and fear, but not our thirst for vengeance. We grow up being taught that such feelings are primitive, something to be ashamed of and to transcend.

My conversations with Daniel made me understand what... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 12:26 PM on April 24, 2008

It's a damn shame she's lost her life in such a brutal way. I feel terrible for her family.

But I can't help but think of the cynical exchange:

"Can the lion lie down with the lamb?"

"Only if there is a fresh supply of lambs."
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 12:48 PM on April 21, 2008

Platteland: Images From Rural South Africa
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 10:48 AM on April 20, 2008

RAWWWWRRRRR!!!! HULK HELP PENCIL-NECKED GEEK GET NOOKIE! RAWWWWRRRR!!!!!
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 8:09 PM on April 17, 2008

What makes me sad is that someone probably wants to offer her a book/television deal now.

The Attention Whore Economy.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 12:49 PM on April 16, 2008

Just a gentle, painless slide into extinction

You may choose a gentle, painless slide into extinction.

But you are very much in the minority on this. Most people much prefer to live and to breed. There are powerful cultural and biological imperatives supporting these behaviors.

What you want ain't gonna happen voluntarily or non-violently.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 11:52 PM on April 15, 2008

And I hate to be a dick here, but this is a double.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 11:55 PM on April 15, 2008

I can't believe that there are people who spend 50K on jaunts down to Miama, complete with lamborghinis, hummers, and helicopters.

I worked with a woman who was quite shocked to learn that I had spent $100 on books over my lunch break.

It's a big world out there. Lots of people in it. Quite a few of them have values and tastes that differ from yours.
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 2:23 PM on April 14, 2008

Honestly, I don't know what they're doing.

They're having a fucking blast.

A vulgar, tasteless, self-indulgent blast.

Some people like that kind of stuff, you know? It's not my cup of tea, personally. The whole thing strikes me as a little tacky and not very original. But it does sound like something that would appeal to a lot of people out there. Power to 'em. I know that if I had $50K in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jason's_planet at 2:51 PM on April 14, 2008