Surely carbon trading schemes are really just a complex smokescreen

Agreed. It always looked like a big "shell game" to me, but I get the idea most people buy into it.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 6:28 AM on June 7, 2008

A recent, short article critical of carbon trading, from Wired. via via
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 11:04 AM on June 13, 2008

The BBC has posted the second part of the series here (mp3).
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 5:57 AM on June 16, 2008

George Will doesn't believe in global warming, so I guess we can all relax now and forget about it.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 10:40 AM on June 13, 2008

They missed the best one of all: Ripley vs Alien (youtube, about 3 minutes in).
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 5:50 AM on June 7, 2008

In the print magazine, there was a nice before and after nude study. Quite a difference. Maybe too racy for the New Yorker web site(?)
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 4:55 PM on May 8, 2008

This week in New Scientist magazine (and online):
Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 3:52 PM on April 20, 2008

While the Kurt Cobain/John Lennon comparison may have at least a little substance (though not much), the Courtney Love/Yoko Ono comparison has none at all.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 9:04 AM on December 15, 2007

Disturbing? Try:
Dancer in the Dark
Saving Private Ryan
Freak shows don't compare to these.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 4:48 PM on November 7, 2007

Oh, I didn't know Blackwing 602s were valuable! I got a couple of them, with a drawing clipboard, for a quarter at a yard sale this summer. I'll have to see what they're going for on EBay these days.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 6:28 AM on October 24, 2007

Count me as ambivalent on White Chalk. I can't fault her for ambition, and it has some spectacular tracks (particularly the title track.) It's also by far her most difficult album she's put out. Moreso than even Dance Hall at Louse Point.


I thought 'Dance Hall At Louse Point' was a great album and it fit in well with her other stuff of the time, even if it seemed a bit more raw. On the other hand, I haven't liked any new material she's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 5:48 PM on October 7, 2007

Edge" never seemed to be something she was aiming at with those albums

That could well be. I've got all those later CDs on my shelf but every time I get one out, nothing on it does anything for me, so it goes back on the shelf for another year or so. Maybe if I tried harder I'd find out what they're aiming at. Maybe. I'll take "Man Size" or "Yuri G" or "Is That All There Is" over the later stuff anytime.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 5:18 AM on October 8, 2007

OK, I'm listening to "Stories From The City...", and 3 songs in, it just sounds like she wanted to move to the middle of the road, more toward pop. It's more slickly produced, more melodic, but the all the drive and rawness has been sapped out of it. It just loses what made her unique, without bringing anything new that a hundred other singers haven't done. Sorry for all the posts, but this has bothered me for a long time.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 6:06 AM on October 8, 2007

Oddly enough, a photographer's online gallery that doesn't break your brain to navigate does, in fact, exist.

But this isn't one of them.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 3:44 PM on October 7, 2007

I find that pretty interesting and wonder if there's a way to replicate the kind of comfort and structure without all the wacky beliefs I don't buy.

sure: golden rule and buy local. no hokey beliefs necessary. or try peace is every step.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 6:14 PM on September 29, 2007

I just watched the National Press Club interview with Ahmadinejad. Gor fuck's sake, couldn't they have picked a moderator/interviewer that would have put hard questions to him and made him answer them? Ahmadinejad make a monkey out of that pussy.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 10:15 AM on September 24, 2007

Gor = For
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 10:17 AM on September 24, 2007

Is this something I would have to be a software engineer to be interested in?

Probably, or at least a mathematician of some sort.

10 years ago I had to implement jpeg decoding on a low powered device, and I was using the jpeg group's decoding library and it was slow as crap. So some manager type comes by and tells me I should be able to optimize it. Fuck. This was about a day before a major demo and there was no way I was... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 7:20 AM on September 12, 2007

Here is another video which seems to be a more complete version of Destino. Apparently recorded in a theater.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 3:17 PM on September 8, 2007

quick google search yields this
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 4:37 PM on September 2, 2007

Welcome to 1907: what's so bad?

Well, the technology of 1907 was not up to supporting 6 billion people. You've already killed off 1 billion in your scenario, leaving 5. Lets say the technology of the 1907 world would support 3 billion (actual world population of the time seems to be 1.5 billion). The rest die of starvation. Will they do it peacefully? I rather doubt it.

And how many people in the western world are prepared... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 9:34 AM on August 30, 2007

1907 is pre-industrial? Are you smoking crack?

Well, sure, if we just transported back to nice peaceful old 1907, a lot of people would be fine. But since our current civilization and standards is not supportable by 1907 technology, and people mostly don't have the sort of skills needed for the 1907 world, things would not devolve in a nice peaceful way. Ever try to conduct business in the middle of a riot? It may not be exactly pre-industrial, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 1:47 PM on August 30, 2007

My real point is that if today's 6 billion people were forced back into a 1907 world, the ensuing chaos (starvation and war) would take us (the average person) farther backward than 1907, though of course, it would be quite unlike any actual period of history.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 1:55 PM on August 30, 2007

Oh, man, I'm gonna be loving this. It'd be like a card catalog of my life! Thanks.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 8:22 AM on August 27, 2007

I heard them talking about this on the Democracy Now radio show the other day. Here's a link.

I think Game Theory adequately explains why "limit your own consumption" ideals cannot rein this sort of thing in (any more than it works with illegal drugs), and why an insightful government (not that we have one) is required to regulate this sort of thing.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 6:19 AM on August 26, 2007

I'm the god of eating the same foods for months or years at a time. My life may be pretty fucked up in lots of ways, but at least there's no allergies.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 5:57 PM on August 21, 2007

delmoi: I'm pretty familiar with the right brain/left brain stuff and I'd never heard this. Is this the result of new research?

Here's an example:

Previous research suggests an association between frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetries and both positive and negative emotion reactivity. Specifically, right frontal EEG activation is associated with emotions of negative valence in both infants and adults,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 7:00 PM on August 17, 2007

Oh, this isn't so bad. A lot of the photos have a quiet quality that I like. The text is all interior-monologue-y which can be boring to read too much of, but goes with the photos. I think there's room for quiet and quirky little corners in "the best of the web".
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 7:04 AM on August 16, 2007

God, if I have to hear any more marketing-speak, I'm just gonna puke. It's a cute idea (cute like sugary breakfast cereal), but the marketers who put together that commercial really need to be rounded up and shot into the sun.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 4:13 PM on August 11, 2007

"And, to put it kindly, a bunch of dogmatists, largely intolerant of anyone holding contrary views."

What is this stuff about intolerance that's been commented on lately? Why are there never any linked examples? Most of the 'intolerance' amounts to 'LOL-Believers', which is not really much different from the believer's view of atheists. Where there might be 'intolerance' in some people's views might be over issues like abortion or teaching... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 10:25 AM on August 7, 2007

On the other hand, I don't think anyone has anything against a positive personal religion. I think the problems come about when believers attempt to impose their beliefs on society at large. Though people might be rightly aghast at things like stoning people over infidelity.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 10:43 AM on August 7, 2007

a Vogon limerick:

My turlingdromes all are a-foont
Oh, crinkly, drangle me hoopt'
Come groop, lurgid bee
Or I'll rend thee
With my blurglecruncheon see if i don't
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 3:54 AM on July 24, 2007

Ms DarkForesst writes:

Now that I'm getting so old
I'd rather be made out of gold
My soul wants to sing
But it's tied to this thing
That smells like it's starting to mold.

and

There’s a question I’d ask if I dared
But I think I’ll go back down the stairs
And go on and get old
And wear my pants rolled,
With a spreading bald spot in my hair.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 3:17 PM on July 24, 2007

kinda reminds me of Lauren Slater's take on self-esteem.
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 6:27 PM on June 19, 2007

Once rich people figure out how to profit off saving the earth, it will probably happen.

No. Rich people profit. Period. By any means available that they can get away with. The trash the earth/save the earth question is irrelevant to them. "Save the earth" is usually another marketing scam (even if it's not in this particular case).
posted to MetaFilter by DarkForest at 6:03 AM on June 3, 2007