I have an instant proposal for improving more energy efficient transit, that goes for any city with a public bus system. For any major road with a bus route, where there's more than 1 lane in a direction, make the rightmost lane for busses, taxis, and bicycles only. And right-turning cars too, at intersections.

One of the major issues with bike travel is how dangerous it feels. With multiple lanes of traffic travelling at 45 mph, that's already a lot for drivers to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 2:27 AM on July 20, 2008

In this tournament Italy won less than half their games, with 2 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss, so I wouldn't give them a free pass against Russia - a team whose only losses came against Spain. I for one am happy that dull, defensive football didn't do well this eurocup. You play for a draw, and you take your chances. If you do it a lot, eventually your fortune will run out.

Between Holland, Spain, and Turkey, this was a tournament for attacking football. The Germans... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 4:46 PM on June 29, 2008

Also, Paper Putin, previously
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 5:59 AM on May 18, 2008

Wow, strangely enough, the Paper Putin post has been deleted from englishrussia.com Conspiracy?! No wonder I couldn't find it with Google. Might be tough to find another copy unless you speak Russian. I can testify that "russian doll" (due to matrioskiy) is futile, as well as "Putin paper folds" (putin closes moscow newspaper).
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 6:03 AM on May 18, 2008

Part of this frustration is how insistent we are as a culture that gender is only binary. It might be mostly binary, but it's not even close to entirely binary. It has been more than a few decades since the Kinsey reports, and more modern research indicates that gender is much more fluid than we're collectively comfortable acknowledging.

Even if our culture could comfortably acknowledge that gender is more fluid, like we are beginning to do for sexual... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 3:01 AM on May 18, 2008

The internet is full of people who are not qualified to answer your question, but are happy to help anyway. Sometimes they don't even know that they are not qualified. When these are the people doing peer review of security software, then that is the root cause. Not the patch itself.

How ... ?

Well it's kind of like people were spoofing the openssl developers. The openssl team published their contact information as a public mailing list,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 12:44 AM on May 17, 2008

As I bike to work I pass these Nein posters with the populist slogans, and I don't know, I find the populist slogans a little distasteful and naive, and I don't like what they are appealing to. "I fly from Berlin, but never from Templehof", for instance, says to me that the reason to close something down something is that you're not the one using it.

Closing down a functional airport is obviously going to have an effect. The flights into Templehof are going... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 4:41 AM on April 26, 2008

I think this anti-vaccination meme has to be in some way related to the post hoc, ergo prompter hoc fallacy, and people outthinking themselves.

"I got vaccinated for smallpox, and I did not get smallpox, therefore the vaccine stopped me from getting smallpox."

Is this a true statement? It's a logical fallacy, but one should not overlook the small fact that the statement might coincidentally be true. An false proof... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 12:33 AM on March 8, 2008

Yeah, I think it's about time that Obama is exposed as the fraud that he is.

(OK, I don't have much to back that up, but this thread can sure use some balance.)


That's a new one! Metafilter: Fair and Balanced. I'll even footnote that so that my opinion is valid; it's the slogan of Fox News.

Because if there's one thing that political discourse is missing these days, it's giving a equal voice, a balanced... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 11:50 PM on February 18, 2008

Now this is a post I wouldn't have expected to see! Well done, parki. What I like most is how the first band listed isn't PFM or Banco or other (more) well known bands, but Locanda Della Fate.

The truth is that I don't listen to prog that much anymore, and my cd book of albums sits, sadly, in storage now. Maybe every few months I would flip through it, if I was in the right mood.

I find that there usually aren't too many prog albums that I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 12:45 AM on January 27, 2008

Cortex, I don't know of any book about chess griefing, but the outlandish story of the '78 match between Kortchnoi and Karpov is one of the strangest dramas. And in the last couple years, the chess community has dealt with handshake failures, barricaded bathrooms, and, the latest this month, accusations of a young woman receiving computer help through her lip balm.

However none of this compares to the 70s. Korchnoi - Karpov featured

The... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 4:09 AM on January 23, 2008

Can anyone tell which bridge is the bottom one in the header for the article: this one?

It's not one of the suspension bridges, but I can't tell at all which one it could be, or even if it's listed.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 10:57 AM on January 20, 2008

Suppose you gave someone you knew was an alcoholic his first drink of the night, but while he's sober. Then he ends up getting drunk, has an accident, and ends up in a coma.

Tell me that that you have liability, and I'll accept that. If not though, then it's only the fact that meth is illegal that causes liability in this case.

It's a shitty thing to do of course, but drug dealers often are shitty people and are definitely not your friend.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 12:41 AM on January 15, 2008

Expect more ever so slightly coded racism and anti-Muslim hysteria to follow.

So what, let them be hysterical.

When people have this sense that the democrats are weak, they aren't commenting on the dems pacifism, or liberalism. They don't want the dems to talk tough. They want democrats to stand up for what they believe in, even if it means the opposition will call them stupid names.

They are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 1:45 PM on January 6, 2008

Thanks empath, I'll look at that.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 1:59 PM on January 6, 2008

I cannot be the only one who is having a visceral dystopian reaction. Thank God Vonnegut isn't around to laugh at this. I can't believe that the article talks about "prevention" in such a way, that it seems downright eager to bring up the questions as to who we could give this vaccine.

Let me allude to Meatbomb above and note, that no matter whether or not you approve of recreational drug use, there is one thing in a modern society you should not approve of:... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 11:28 AM on January 5, 2008

I didn't know there was an election until MetaFilter saved me. Thanks MeFi!
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 11:09 AM on January 5, 2008

Status Quo - Pictures of Matchstick Men
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 6:08 AM on November 12, 2007

Deutsche Bahn has the Call A Bike program in Germany
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 4:55 AM on October 9, 2007

I think, in case anyone missed it, that it is necessary to mention the best mashup I've seen on this topic, a mashup of "Downfall" .
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 4:40 PM on October 6, 2007

I can't even say that I feel offended by this idea of making hooking up a 'conquest' of women. I feel like the allure of these techniques is that they're somehow secret or forbidden, or that women would reject them if they knew the truth, that is, that they were 'being played'. Yet, there are obviously a lot of women out there who want to meet men and treating them like marks from the start seems counter productive. It's more silly than offensive.

I have this mental... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 4:03 AM on September 16, 2007

"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread." -- Anatole France
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 10:08 AM on July 16, 2007

I got all worked up, after the pilot's about a producer who bemoans the industry, lacking either the courage or the connections to run a particular sketch.

And then the writer who either quit or was forced out -- I don't even remember -- over a similar issue, about a hilarious sketch that's just too offensive and will bother the advertisers.

And this builds up for weeks about how this show -- Studio 60 -- is going to be different, and edgy, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 10:58 AM on June 28, 2007

I want to say this without sounding whiny or smug, but I can't manage to do it so I'm just going to say it, and please don't think I mean to criticize this particular site.

I found it very helpful to separate tactical motif from idea. That is, the motif is the geometric feature that you want to use, and the idea is how you use the potential of your pieces to enable it to work. A pin or a fork is a motif, whereas a deflection or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 5:23 AM on June 20, 2007

stinkycheese: Are there any chess clubs or groups associated with your daughter's school? It might be good to get her playing with kids her own age, so she can both win and lose. Often there's a lot of support in the chess community for getting kids playing and learning.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 7:03 AM on June 20, 2007

Great story, yeti.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 7:01 PM on June 20, 2007

Stinkycheese (And anyone else interested): Susan Polgar has developed and is making available a curriculum for teaching kids chess. It's free. You can request a copy here.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 7:57 PM on June 21, 2007

It's not a handgun, it's a rifle, and apparently his home is located at his place of employment -- an apartment complex. So they fired him not so much because he "brought a gun to work" as the fact that he has a hunting rifle at all.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 11:24 AM on June 21, 2007

One of the things that Representative Democracy has done really well in this case is separate those people who are passively in favor of a ban from those who are actively against it. These are the constitutional protections that are supposed to prevent a tyranny of the majority.

It is not enough to get 51% of the people to agree with you. You need to get 51% of the people to agree with you, and then get that to affect their vote for their representative.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 5:38 AM on June 15, 2007

What's the music in the link of the guy flying 3 at once? I can't put my finger on it and now it's stuck in my head.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 8:24 PM on June 2, 2007

Those wacky dieters! lol! They think their salads are so healthy but look at all the calories.

If they were really smart, like the consumerist peoples who wrote the article, they'd know that the surest way to lose weight is to simply reduce the size of your meals to absurdly small amounts. It's like an anorexia diet!

Did you know that a 460g salad has more calories than a 160g fast food burger plus 300g of toothpaste? Why eat that rabbit food?
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 12:27 PM on June 1, 2007

But Casey will not sell the domain name for a lot of money because Casey is Casey. If there's an opportunity to actually do something fiscally intelligent, he will fail to get it done for lame reasons.

The world's most hated blogger? More like the world's most aggravating blogger.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 8:17 AM on June 1, 2007

Is it not interesting that, in response to those who would bring up the issue of blowback, certain people will claim that the terrorists "hate our freedom" and that is why they attack us. They hate us, and they would not be appeased if we just left the region. They would continue to wage war with us anyway.

Some of these same people then say that anti-war speech is encouraging the terrorists and "emboldening the enemy". That's funny, I thought that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 9:35 AM on May 28, 2007

This entire thread has got a bad case of the Mondays.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 7:31 AM on May 24, 2007

Huzzah.

I see this as a continuation of real-world backlash against the kind of garbage that Kathy Sierra went through a month ago.

Just because it's "normal" online to have a forum where people can anonymously harass others, doesn't mean the rest of society stands for this. Think about what other groups are known for anonymity and harassment of minorities ...

There's a big difference between defending free... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 5:58 AM on May 9, 2007

Huzzah.

I see this as a continuation of real-world backlash against the kind of garbage that Kathy Sierra went through a month ago.

Just because it's "normal" online to have a forum where people can anonymously harass others, doesn't mean the rest of society stands for this. Think about what other groups are known for anonymity and harassment of minorities ...

There's a big difference between defending free... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 6:04 AM on May 9, 2007

23 people killed in retaliation for killing this girl for converting to Islam ...

And what if the boy converted to be with his love, what's the penalty for apostasy from Islam?

Oh, that's right, it's death. So it's killing those who have the same values as you do, but just believe different things. Great. It's not about values, it's not about being "more faithful" or any bullshit like that.

Killing those... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 9:12 AM on May 5, 2007

I want to thank metafilter for the deconstructionist lesson I've gotten today. What a brilliant derail, to analyze what a candidate did not say that he would not do. Refusing to name a specific plan for international diplomacy with a specific country nearly 2 years before he might take office, and specifically keeping his options open, can be quite menacing as I have learned.

With my new deconstructionist chops, I can now successfullly understand that:
MR.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 9:31 AM on May 2, 2007

It's a poor strategy because it cuts both ways with almost no effort, and it's a poor strategy because it's inane on it's face: why should we accept the insistence that a brain being "wired" a particular way trumps the body being "constructed" in a particular way?

Hi Omie,

We already do accept this for homosexuality. If a gay man says that his brain is just wired to find other men attractive, we don't say "But your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 10:48 AM on April 26, 2007

Omie, genitals are there, biologically, for reproductive function. The possibility of non-reproductive sex doesn't change that. And when we're talking about "natural", it's in the context of biological process, not possibility.

In any case, the focus on the body is orthogonal to the point. I am saying that I believe the identity is natually occurring. So the "it's natural" argument says that the people exist naturally, surgery or not. I see a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 11:42 AM on April 26, 2007

You're almost completely wrong in this paragraph, and the later sentence in which you compare GRS to fixing a hole in your heart is completely flabbergasting. Gender dysmorphia is accorded a special status because the conviction of being another gender is treated by helping the person become that gender, rather than attempting to ameliorate that conviction as a delusion.

What if it's really not a delusion?

What do you say to a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 5:51 AM on April 27, 2007

Omie, We obviously disagree but I really am not trying to convince you that treatment is necessary or appropriate. I do understand that you already believe that.

I think you misunderstand what transsexualism is, in a subtle way. We both agree that it's not a choice, that transgendered people need treatment, and that it would be wiser to try to help people cope with gender dysphoria as opposed to rushing into surgery and transition.

But I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 9:27 AM on April 27, 2007

and here's a depressing professional hockey play
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 6:29 PM on April 25, 2007

I see average life expectency as 47 for people *born* in 1900. In 1900, I cannot see how anyone could have predicted the life expectency of someone born that year.

What the 35 year old claim is, is that people who were 35 years old in 1900 would be considered reaching the end of their lives -- Much like someone who is 80 now would be considered near the end of the average lifespan today.

I looked for data for the life expectency of someone... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 9:03 AM on April 19, 2007

.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 5:05 AM on April 12, 2007

There's a very interesting comment in attached to the article:


"Phil Kessel Fan" is right: It's a bad statue. I actually live in Portland, Maine, and can tell you that regardless of what the local fishwrapper has reported, the issues raised by the public art committee were manifold and not ranked in importance: bad sculpture, statue placement, presence of logos, and diversity issues. This isn't public art, it's an advertisement masquerading as art.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 5:56 AM on April 11, 2007

The best parody, of course, is Cheat Commandos. Ironic dubbing doesn't cut it for me (though the surreal dubbing of fensler's GI Joe is pretty good).
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 4:36 PM on March 30, 2007

Who here likes duckies? I love duckies.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 6:09 PM on March 18, 2007

The current US policy is more like "don't ask, don't tell, but watch out for gay". How else can you describe it when a gay serviceman can attempt to be in the closet, and fail? If he's not telling and they are not asking, then they must be looking. (And once they see that Sgt Smithers flames, when then they're actually asking too, but that's another matter)

This brings up an interesting point if the draft is reinstated. I think there is a sizable... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 5:37 AM on January 4, 2007

odinsdream: I guess I accept the argument that Ashley's quality of life will be better if she remains small and doesn't go through puberty. Growth and puberty, for her, will adversely affect her life. Yet, she won't experience development as a person as a result of puberty, so I don't see her losing anything by halting it.

I think that if the decision was done with her best interests in mind, well it might be wrong but I don't think it can be disrespectful.
posted to MetaFilter by cotterpin at 7:47 PM on January 3, 2007