Bottled water is delicious water in convenient, portable form. I don't want to always want to carry water around with me, so sometimes I buy it in a bottle.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 8:37 PM on July 4, 2008

Not to split hairs, but the QE2 is substantially smaller than it's sister ship, the Queen Mary 2, and is also smaller than her other sister ship, the Queen Victoria. I've seen them all in very close detail (they park behind my house).

Those ships are actually ocean liners, and not cruise ships. Also, your house is in an awesome location, I envy you.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 12:06 AM on June 25, 2008

Did you back button problem-having folks try hitting it a few times? When I pushed mine, at first it just scrolled through the results, but then once it presumably got to the end of that, it went back to the previous page. This was in FF3.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 12:40 PM on June 19, 2008

At my school, most of the lecture halls still have chalkboards in them. The largest ones where a lot of my classes are, unfortunately, have the boards that go up and down. Chalkboards tend to be more readable from far away, because of the contrast you can get between the writing and the board. It's also nice, because you never have to worry about chalk going bad and making your lectures impossible to follow.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 8:43 AM on June 12, 2008

I don't know how a computer could compensate for a pilot pulling the stick early, other than a tiny metallic hand slapping his wrist and straightening out again. If it was a computer-controlled takeoff, then that's something else.

Based on the crash report (linked from the wired link, and in this thread, I think), it was the computer that caused the plane to pitch up so high. The sensor reported an incorrect pressure, which means an incorrect velocity,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 1:22 PM on June 6, 2008

Soviet tanks by the end of the war were not only more numerous but of equal or better quality to the Germans. True the Germans had a few really special tanks but they never played a big role as there were so few of them. The Germans started the war with the best technology, but then the Russians geared up new factories and leap frogged, the Germans never kept up with the numbers.

This happened for two reasons, IIRC. For one thing, Hitler was suspicious... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 1:25 PM on June 6, 2008

I'd watch out for this guys. After I used it, my login name disappeared from my Widows BC login screen. Fortunately, some other user had theirs setup without a password, so I was still able to use my computer. All my documents were gone though, and Powerpont 2008 was really slow to open some presentations I found. Once they opened though, the content was all weird, as if it was written by people who didn't really know English very well.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 2:59 AM on May 29, 2008

By analogy, it bans single-shot bolt action rifles but leaves machine guns legal.

A better analogy would be that it bans rifles, while leaving anti-tank missiles legal. The difference, as I believe spiderwire was pointing out, is that while certainly both anti-tank missiles and rifles can kill people, rifles are specifically designed to kill people, while anti-tank missiles are designed to destroy tanks. You're describing anti-vehicle land mines as... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 2:43 AM on May 29, 2008

Remember all those commercials recently tell us to steal Life Lock's CEO Todd Davis' Identity?

No.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 1:39 PM on May 28, 2008

I thought the Tina Fey\Amy Poehler weekend updates were really funny.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 8:58 PM on May 26, 2008

Also note that barcode on the right side about halfway down the page. The number on the bottom counts as the bars change. Awesome.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 1:56 AM on May 24, 2008

It should be noted that the cockfighting link also contains a different kind of cock than the one referenced in the post.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 2:25 PM on May 23, 2008

Confirmation bias, anyone?

No kidding. The best coders of which I've ever had the privilege of working were self-taught. Guys like Dave "Zoid" Kirsch. He could code at 70wpm. My best typing speed is only about 55 wpm.

Confirmation bias, anyone?

I agree with those who say college is what you make of it. I know plenty of people who are clearly in college for the degree, rather than to learn.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 8:07 PM on May 21, 2008

Well I kind of liked this.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 11:24 PM on May 19, 2008

Flagged as horrific and disturbing.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 2:00 PM on May 9, 2008

Those school lunches are actually not as bad as I remember mine being in elementary school. The veggies are a little bit sad-looking, but they at least look edible. I don't even remember anything approaching that kind of quality being placed on my tray.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 5:14 PM on May 5, 2008

I gave this a chance, but it was really as boring and mundane as everyone said it is. The contrast between the pretty colors and horrible text starts to grate on me after a while.

*posts "I hate twistori to twitter".*
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 11:05 AM on May 5, 2008

the game did not get released as a some kind of direct response to increased criticism; "in spite of" you probably mean, as opposed to "in light of".

Did you read the post, like, at all? It says there is a new version coming out due to criticism. It then goes on to link to videos done by Conan O'Brian that supposedly show this new version. These are things you would know, if you had read the post.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 1:57 PM on May 3, 2008

I heard an interesting segment on science friday (NPR) that was a response to Bush's plan to stop the growth of US CO2 output by 2025. The guest made the point that the U.S. must do much much better (more like 2015, I believe she said, with continued reduction beyond that point), because we not only need to reduce our own emissions, but we need to offset the growth of emissions from developing countries as well.

In 2002, Bush actually promised that our growth would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 9:09 PM on April 19, 2008

That's Big Shipyard for you though, too cheap to use torpedo-proof rivets.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 10:42 PM on April 14, 2008

This should be the patent he has on this

his youtube

I don't really know what to make of this, but it seems like all the stuff he's pulling from the web would be subject to copyright, and I wonder how he gets around this.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 6:46 PM on April 14, 2008

To me this is different than athletes using steroids in that

Cure for leukemia > New record time in the 100 meter dash. I really don't care about what the motivation was.

Ends justify the means. And so it goes.

Really though? Wouldn't the means be the way in which the cure is found? Whether the scientist is motivated by pure altruism, fame, or buckets of money, the result is still that the disease is cured.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 11:29 PM on April 10, 2008

Wow, I watched that and it reached an epic amount of lame. They pranked a prank show in a way that looked totally believable, resulting in absolutely 0 effect. How retarded.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 11:15 PM on April 10, 2008

CitizenD: i think it's a really cool idea, but i wonder why the photos are only of caucasians and asians?

I saw a few hispanic-looking and black folk on the first 4 pages or so.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 12:30 AM on April 7, 2008

Who exactly would find emulating New York City unappealing?

People who want things like back yards, and 3-car garages, and who don't find high-density apartment living appealing.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 3:39 PM on April 6, 2008

I think it's important for pilots to be able to, you know, see the ground. And the only way for that to work is if light from the ground can reach their eyes.

Well, if you look at a jetliner cockpit, the windows are actually high enough that the pilots viewing angle is pretty close to 180 (that is, horizontal to the plane). I actually don't think that being able to see the ground is that important for most of the flight. I guess during landing it'd cause some problems,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 10:15 PM on March 30, 2008

I'm almost sure that on Friday, I heard a bit of an interview with Sydney Schanberg on NPR wherein he described his separation from and eventual reunion with Dith Pran. He also talked more about Dith Pran's life since coming to the US and a bit about what were to be his final days. For the life of me, I can't find it on NPR or PRI's websites though.

.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 5:49 PM on March 30, 2008

Mandarin? Is it possible for him that way?

Can you get it for me tonight because it is not possible for me to get it that way?

It is possible but I do not like it and I do not want it that way today.

I think at this point, it is more than fair to demand an explanation.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 7:07 PM on March 20, 2008

Well, that's neat, but it doesn't seem to support drevelling tikes to a counterbulm. And it obviously doesn't take into account the effect of subgrettal wear: always, I mean ALWAYS suttle the bottom of your gret with a malgon or a small petter before you attempt such a thing, or at least bi-monthly when in storage. Of course, if you don't have a decent gret you may be tempted to just wing it and use a flatdolm, but that's just asking for rampant ancerity. All in all, nice tool - but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 5:57 PM on March 16, 2008

I'm not really into basketball anymore, but this was an interesting post about one if its players, thanks.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 7:18 PM on March 14, 2008

[pun about hats]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 8:18 PM on March 6, 2008

Really cool article, thanks for the link!
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 6:08 PM on March 6, 2008

Am I just retarded, or was the wording of this FPP really obtuse?

Friends of the Earth charges Eco-Crime.

Who or what is Eco-Crime and with what is it being charged? Maybe a link to Friends of the Earth for a little background\context.

I mean, honestly, this isn't a newspaper headline, feel free to throw in an article or a preposition. And why the hell are you capitalizing Eco-Crime? It's not a proper... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 5:47 PM on March 6, 2008

Upon reading the rest of the article, I'm not done, goddammit. Friends of the Earth in fact did NOT, as far as I can tell "charge Eco-Crime". I suppose you didn't mean that literally, but in fact, FoE made a far more interesting (and far less hysterical) statement. A representative of FoE, Richard Dyer, made the following statement:
Flying virtually empty planes is an obscene waste of fuel. Through no fault of their own, each passenger's carbon footprint for this flight is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 5:56 PM on March 6, 2008

Ah, lovely reductionist nutritionism. Food + sufficient exercise = no net change. Food is so simple when you can boil its effect down to a simple balance of carbs, protein, and fat. If only that simple model of how food works made any sense whatsoever.

Please elaborate on this. Are you saying that energy in = energy stored+energy out doesn't make any sense whatsoever?
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 12:05 PM on March 5, 2008

The moral of the story is that exercise really doesn't burn much in the way of calories.

This is true, but it shouldn't be shocking. Exercise is for health moreso than weight loss. The calories burned exercising a moderate amount (30 minutes to an hour per day, maybe) probably don't amount to a huge amount of calories. If a person on a 2200 calorie diet walks for 30 minutes, they might burn 150 calories. Clearly, their calorie consumption as a result... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 3:18 PM on March 5, 2008

I'm not very impressed by most of these stories.

Neither am I really. There's thousands of articles out there on how to negotiate.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 9:07 PM on February 27, 2008

I love the Beeb's science coverage.

Really? Or are you being sarcastic? I hope it's the latter. I hate how sloppy and simplified their coverage is. I know there's a lot of bad science journalism, but theirs is some of the worst. For example:

The as-yet-unnamed material - a form of artificial rubber - is made from vegetable oil and a component of urine.

Really? That's it? Care to tell... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 8:42 PM on February 20, 2008

Apparently writing the word "science" in allcaps creates epic lullz. Observe: SCIENCE.

See how hard you're laughing?
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 3:55 PM on February 24, 2008

This was so much cooler than it sounded.

Stupid '80s, I suck at your video games
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 4:44 PM on February 23, 2008

Really these aren't all that bad. It's actually pretty hard to come up with things to research (at least for me), and I always had trouble coming up with science fair ideas. I don't really like the "Haha, look at how stupid and unoriginal little kids are" aspect of this but I guess if I wanted to be charitable, I could view it instead as "Kids science the darnedest things".

I had a lot of really lame science fair ideas that were put together at the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 8:26 PM on February 20, 2008

I have to say that many of his problems are because he's saying things into the microphone that he doesn't want typed. What does he expect to happen? Also, he keeps saying thinks like "equals" instead of "equals sign".
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 12:13 AM on February 17, 2008

Oooh wow, this is really cool.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 7:24 PM on February 14, 2008

SCDB: HCM, you have heard of the Laws of Thermodynamics, have you not?

I would like to point that since the second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy generated by a process must be greater than or equal to 0. This means that technically speaking, a perpetual motion machine (one which generates no heat, and does no work) violates neither the first, nor second laws.

Doubt is one of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 11:05 AM on February 10, 2008

Uh, we've veered away from conservation of mass-energy into second law of thermodynamics here. The second law is kind of interesting in science in that it's actually not based on observation.

I disagree here. The second law itself is based on the observation that things tend to move in certain directions, and that certain processes are never observed. This is my classical understanding of the second law, anyway. I don't have the background in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 11:30 AM on February 10, 2008

Wikipedia on wire recordings
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 7:57 PM on February 8, 2008

Huh, I had never really thought about the story behind the place. It's, of course, sad for those that loved her that she died, but I find their burgers mediocre at best. You can get them with an egg on them, but that only sometimes makes up for it.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 7:25 PM on February 5, 2008

WRITING THINGS IN ALL CAPS. SPLIT OVER MULTIPLE
LINES. MAKES THEM HARDER
TO READ, NOT MORE ARTISTIC. OR IS
IT JUST ME?
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 9:22 AM on January 30, 2008

I lost my wallet on a train from Würzburg (I think anyway... one of those cities you always go through) to Munich 4 years ago. I never saw it again.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 9:44 PM on January 28, 2008

These are really cool. They're just aching to have posters made out of them.
posted to MetaFilter by !Jim at 11:12 PM on January 26, 2008