Displaying post 1 to 50 of 76
So the electrician said nothing was wrong. But something WAS wrong, only it fixed itself by the time he got there. Help me diagnose this maddening problem our tenant had.
posted to Ask Metafilter by dhartung
at 7:30 AM on September 21, 2007
(17 comments)
Two apartments. Three kittens. And a whole lot of fleas. No, it's not an MTV pilot ...
posted to Ask Metafilter by dhartung
at 3:36 PM on September 11, 2007
(22 comments)
How can I get inside the drug trade? Er, through movies (or books)?
posted to Ask Metafilter by dhartung
at 7:23 AM on August 2, 2007
(43 comments)
SongFilter: Sad love song, big band era.
posted to Ask Metafilter by dhartung
at 10:22 AM on June 17, 2007
(4 comments)
Gossipfilter? Is this appropriate for Metafilter, or should insomnia_lj just have his hot-tub party rights revoked?
posted to MetaTalk by dhartung
at 5:38 PM on April 8, 2006
(86 comments)
Why would an iTunes-ordered TV show have choppy playback?
posted to Ask Metafilter by dhartung
at 8:38 PM on January 15, 2006
(6 comments)
On September 17, 2003 Spanish über-judge
Baltasar Garzón issued a
700-page indictment of the "Madrid cell" of al Qaeda for its support role in the 9/11 attacks. Is this document online anywhere? Has it ever been translated?
posted to Ask Metafilter by dhartung
at 12:47 AM on July 15, 2005
(3 comments)
LSD documentary records
were a forgotten side-track in the war on drugs, reaching a high point in 1966 with the release of
LSD, an
album featuring interviews with Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsburg, and Ken Kesey, and featuring a live recording (which may or may not have been real) of a kid going on his first bad trip. (Not to be confused with Leary's own record of the same title.) In 1966, with neither internet nor home video, the record album was one of the most sophisticated communications media available, and it was a big year for LSD hysteria, with a
LIFE cover story and a Sal Mineo-narrated LSD version of Reefer Madness called
Hallucination Generation. LSD-related
magazines and periodicals,
reviews of psychedelic music, and more from
lysergia.com.
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 1:10 AM on March 20, 2005
(21 comments)
Bug: old threads have the
poster username linking to the
thread with the same number as their usernumber.
Example (working).
Example (nonworking). Only in the post; the username links in comments are fine.
posted to MetaTalk by dhartung
at 12:07 AM on January 18, 2005
(2 comments)
XMB -> phpBB. A forum I'm on is trying to convert, but the available converter scripts aren't up to date. Anybody do this? Anybody know anyone who has?
posted to Ask Metafilter by dhartung
at 10:07 PM on January 3, 2005
(1 comment)
Blogspot harassment. Anyone have any experience? Google's support response was less than helpful. [mi]
posted to Ask Metafilter by dhartung
at 10:26 AM on December 17, 2004
(8 comments)
What's a good web filter for a non-profit school-age PC lab? [more inside]
posted to Ask Metafilter by dhartung
at 9:19 PM on February 21, 2004
(5 comments)
Northvegr: The Northern Way
is a site devoted to the
practice, promotion and development of the Northern spiritual faith, which we call Hindrvitni or the Northern Way, aka the Norse ancestral faith, though the authors are careful to distinguish this from
neopaganism, particularly
Odinism and Asatru. Once you're on board, be sure to
Buy Heathen!. [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 5:58 PM on June 10, 2003
(17 comments)
Dictators and their demises: a miscellany.
Saddam and the Destruction of Civil Society in Iraq is the timely find, and deals with the entire history of Iraq since the Ba'ath party takeover, including a detailed ideological history of the party and the increasingly totalitarian aspects of Saddam's rule in Iraq.
To ask whether democracy, even in a non-Western sense, has a chance in Iraq is to jump one step ahead of the game. The fundamental questions we need to answer first are: What was the nature of Iraqi civil society before the Ba`thist regime destroyed it? How did the Ba`th oliberate it? And can Iraqi civil society be rebuilt after Saddam has left the stage? [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 4:41 AM on April 9, 2003
(19 comments)
Prepare for the worst
... says Mayor Mike, as NYC faces down a crippling transit strike.
For starters, cars carrying fewer than four people could not enter or leave Manhattan over any bridge or through any tunnel on weekdays, 24 hours a day. Commuters wishing to get into the city by car would need to pick up strangers -- and the city will facilitate this with staging areas. Unflappable New Yorkers are at least a little flapped. But the practice of strangers hitching rides with lone drivers isn't new to NoVa: There, they are called
slugs and body snatchers. [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 10:44 PM on December 10, 2002
(32 comments)
Mob kills men after traffic accident
. This story is a little disturbing; it's been on CNN etc., but here in Chicago it's the hourly top story. A van driven by two middle-aged men moving furniture jumped a curb and pinned three girls against a step. In retaliation, a crowd of a dozen or more yanked the men from their van and beat them with fists and even bricks. Both died. The police have fanned out looking for witnesses and evidence, with a few arrests, but no charges as of yet. [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 1:21 PM on August 1, 2002
(75 comments)
Chicago Rat Patrol.
No, not
this kind of rat patrol; for this crew,
rat spotting is just a sideline. What these guys skulk in alleys for, though, is
discarded bike parts to kludge, especially in strange and
unexpected proportions. Most of them work. As a result of their experiments, they're attuned to the
kitbashed contraptions used by (mostly) economically marginal folk. Additionally, or superfluously, they're sort of
anarchist anti-corporate critical-mass types. Updated until almost a year ago.
Note: Geocities site. Tread lightly. And stay away from the "Rodeo" link, where there's a quicktime video, until tomorrow.
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 2:08 AM on July 26, 2002
(4 comments)
Scrutiny on the Bounty.
After investigating a single rape charge, a British prosecutor assigned to Pitcairn Island, the refuge of the
Bounty mutineers, began interviewing young girls. Now
20 Pitcairn men may be charged; the island's entire population is just 44. (Most Pitcairners were removed to
Norfolk Island, near Australia, in the 19th century; despite the precarious existence, some descendants returned to Pitcairn and have insisted on remaining.) The primary defense is that the island was following Polynesian customs with an age of consent as young as 12; but many Pitcairners are indistinguishable from European expats, and many spend much of their lives in New Zealand or Australia for school or work. Until recently the island's
inhabitants {official site} mainly worried about
underpopulation and
economic isolation despite touting a communal, agrarian lifestyle.
"It's like a small English town," said a teacher who spent two years there. "But you can't get away."
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 4:15 PM on July 17, 2002
(4 comments)
Six WTC site plans released
by LMDC public-private partnership. Each idea revolves around a different conception of the memorial and is named for that, while showing variation in the structures that will be built around it. There are 3D renderings from above and from the south of the Battery, and skylines as seen from Jersey City, to show how the concept will fit into the existing neighborhood. None as imposing as the Twin Towers, but several include at least one distinctive structure that will rise above the nearest buildings, so Manhattan pedestrians can navigate again. All may be discussed Saturday in a public meeting at Javits Center, expected to attract 5000. I suspect that figure will be low.
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 10:11 AM on July 16, 2002
(57 comments)
Fighting to Live as the Towers Died
: the NYT continues its fine reporting, reconstructing the final moments of temporary survivors on the upper floors, through over 150 e-mail and telephone contacts used to reach friends and relatives (as well as videotapes and recordings of 911 calls and emergency radio bands). Since I briefly worked in the trade center, I have often wondered what this experience must have been like.
You may want to take a moment to prepare, and expect to need breaks.
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 9:06 AM on May 26, 2002
(48 comments)
For the search page, how about at least one more option:
in the past 3 months. Maybe it's just me, but I seem to always be using it to find threads that are approximately six weeks old. A minor coding change, a major performance change.
posted to MetaTalk by dhartung
at 10:28 PM on May 8, 2002
(3 comments)
Venezuela's Chavez deposed
with the military claiming control for now. The end of a sometimes cringe-inducingly entertaining era. What next? Civilian constitutional rule restored by lunchtime, or not? Will the strike end, allowing oil exports to resume?
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 10:51 PM on April 11, 2002
(11 comments)
Yuri's Night
is more than 100 parties on the same night around the world, on every continent including Antarctica, April 12, 2002. What's to celebrate? The 41st anniversary of the
suborbital flight of Yuri Gagarin, and the 21st anniversary of the
first space shuttle flight, a fitting tribute to two great space milestones. Is there a party in your city? Set one up! I only read about last year's (initiated for the 40th/20th), but I'm going to try to go this year. There are, of course, even moe 40th anniversaries of significant space events to come. [tip o' the hat to
Rand Simberg, who has even more provocative stuff in his FoxNews.com column -- like relocating Israel to the Moon. And he's serious.]
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 6:08 PM on April 4, 2002
(9 comments)
Orthodoxy again rears its ugly head. Trolling is alleged
three times in a
row because the poster's views diverged from the Metafilter norm (and the poster was alleged to be
gasp repeatedly expressing similar views), with the worst
yet to come; another poster is called
blatantly biased and therefore "loses any credibility", and told "not to expect to be taken seriously" even though he has himself explained that bias and has been thoughtful and on point to discussion. Another was
recently called out for not leavening his posts with, well, other posts expressing a different viewpoint. Is this really contributory to open discussion and debate? Is it really now to be
verboten to express a point of view, especially in an FPP? Can someone join a discussion even though they have pre-existing views, whether they be based on bias or principle? Or are some on Metafilter simply annoyed by points of view they don't like?
posted to MetaTalk by dhartung
at 8:39 AM on March 29, 2002
(108 comments)
Genocide Alert for Zimbabwe
issued by Genocide Watch, a group founded by a former State Department official on Cambodia and Rwanda issues, Gregory Stanton, who in 1996 devised the
Eight Stages of Genocide:
Classification, Symbolization, Dehumanization, Organization, Polarization, Preparation, Extermination, and
Denial. GW contends that Zimbabwe has reached Stage 6, Preparation. With the
arrest of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges, Robert Mugabe is proving himself impervious to
international pressure. Is Zimbabwe really on the brink? If so, what can, or should, we do? Our record
isn't good, but we didn't have Stanton's scale then, either.
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 5:56 AM on March 21, 2002
(16 comments)
Send Them Packing!
That's right -- the uninformed opinions of well-known Hollywood actors have grated on you for years. They seem to love Cuba more than America. Well, with the click of a mouse, you can buy them a ticket! [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 1:51 AM on March 20, 2002
(46 comments)
The Essential Hinduvta Orgchart
by Suman Palit in his weblog
the Kolkata Libertarian. I'm not from Calcutta, and I'm not Libertarian, but I found the information design in this chart of the relationships between the Hindu nationalist party BJP and various other Hindu institutions fascinating. Note that not only each organization block, but most of the relationship lines, have individual links. What specialized knowledge do you have? What tools would help you share it with the world?
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 11:28 PM on March 17, 2002
(4 comments)
What We're Fighting For
: a group of 60 diverse academics lay out the basic principles shared by Americans and the West in the war against terrorism:
We affirm five fundamental truths that pertain to all people without distinction:
1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
2. The basic subject of society is the human person, and the legitimate role of government is to protect and help to foster the conditions for human flourishing.
3. Human beings naturally desire to seek the truth about life's purpose and ultimate ends.
4. Freedom of conscience and religious freedom are inviolable rights of the human person.
5. Killing in the name of God is contrary to faith in God and is the greatest betrayal of the universality of religious faith.
We fight to defend ourselves and to defend these universal principles.
[More inside.]
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 1:02 PM on March 8, 2002
(29 comments)
Oil pipeline? What oil pipeline?
It appears we have been snookered. We fought this war for Unocal, and now they don't want the place! (Or perhaps the motivations for current events are more complex than convenient slogans -- or less complex than elaborate conspiracy theories.)
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 8:53 AM on January 15, 2002
(28 comments)
American Depop?
From America to Europe to Russia, birthrates are declining -- and eventually, so will population. What are the implications? Guess who has some answers.
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 9:52 PM on January 10, 2002
(28 comments)
New bug: metatalk comment previews don't work in Mozilla. I hit the preview button, and I get the "Comment Preview:" text, nothing, then links to the home pages. The page source says "error resolving parameter". (The previews work fine @ metafilter, and for metatalk *posting* like I'm doing now; and they all work OK in IE.)
posted to MetaTalk by dhartung
at 2:42 PM on November 3, 2001
Aiiee! Make it stop! Yet another
e-mail spam harvester posted for "discussion". These are generally tiresome and dangerously close to content-free sites that some schlub whipped up between smoke breaks -- the web equivalent of trolls. They're built with a content management system that automatically begs people to send it to friends, thereby collecting the e-mail addresses. And they don't belong on Metafilter. Or has Metafilter changed that much?
posted to MetaTalk by dhartung
at 6:39 PM on October 7, 2001
(10 comments)
The Clash of Civilizations?
An extraordinarily prescient and compelling 1993 essay, with some chilling predictions that in the last two weeks begin to seem dead on target. [more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 5:08 PM on September 24, 2001
(28 comments)
Signal-to-noise ratio declines. Especially in the
Falwell and
dead-or-alive threads, but elsewhere too.
posted to MetaTalk by dhartung
at 10:34 AM on September 19, 2001
(15 comments)
"Islam is Peace" Says President
- the text of his remarks at the Islamic Center of Washington today. Frankly, speaking as a critic of the man, he rose to the occasion.
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung
at 5:14 PM on September 17, 2001
(33 comments)
