"While her six brothers and sisters messed around in the mire, she stayed on the edge shaking. It is thought she might have mysophobia - a fear of dirt." This little piggy is afraid of the mud. Cuteness ahoy.
posted to MetaFilter by yeti at 7:22 AM on June 11, 2008 (43 comments)

If you see an unattended bag in New York this holiday shopping season, you better just leave it alone. If you pick it up and don't immediately report it, it could net you a class E felony. The NYPD is planting the bags themselves and this isn't the first time. Operation Lucky Bag first started in 2006, but now they're intentionally loading the bags with credit cards to increase the crime (or non-crime) from a misdemeanor to a felony.
posted to MetaFilter by yeti at 7:39 AM on November 28, 2007 (111 comments)

The Manual (How To Have a Number One - The Easy Way). Both light-hearted and thorough, the Timelords, aka the KLF, wrote this tongue-in-cheek manual in 1988 following their own novelty pop No. 1 "Doctorin' the Tardis". "If you are already a musician stop playing your instrument. Even better, sell the junk. It will become clearer later on but just take our word for it for the time being." Oh and apparently have lots of tea on hand.
posted to MetaFilter by yeti at 2:19 PM on July 12, 2007 (35 comments)

The Nolli Plan. In 1748, Giambattista Nolli drew one of the most detailed and accurate maps ever created for the city of Rome. Improving on the Buffalini Plan of 1551 [interactive link to zoom], Nolli’s plan was drawn to an incredible precision, going as far as revealing public interior spaces in a stark figure-ground relationship. The Interactive Nolli Map allows you to overlap transparencies of the modern city to see how little has changed and how precise Nolli’s measurements were. Piranesi’s maps – however fanciful- were also inspired by Nolli’s achievements.
posted to MetaFilter by yeti at 4:57 PM on May 10, 2007 (8 comments)

"I may be an SOB, but I'm your SOB." Jim "the Hammer!" Shapiro, a personal injury lawyer, had some of the craziest commercials in Rochester NY, [despite living in Florida]. The best commercials are here [avi / youtube] and here [avi / youtube]. While he admitted he could not "rip out the hearts" or "hand you the severed heads" of those who hurt you, he promised to "hunt them down and settle the score." Shapiro & Shapiro were sued for malpractice in 2002 for $1.9 million, and their website has been "under construction" ever since. Web archive has a great glimpse from May 2000. You call. I hammer.
posted to MetaFilter by yeti at 5:33 AM on August 1, 2006 (33 comments)

"Trademarks are not verbs.
CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.” [via]

Adobe Adobe® has a strict policy on how they want your buddies to use their trademark, even as slang. Proprietary Eponyms are increasingly common, with “google, ('gü-g&l) tr. v.” entering the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. Is photoshop next?
posted to MetaFilter by yeti at 3:14 PM on July 7, 2006 (65 comments)