I couldn't watch this the other day because of ISP throttling and I sidestepped the thread so it wouldn't piss me of,f but it's a real beaut to read and reminds me why I like this place. I can't believe how many people mention getting teary-eyed and that, too, makes me feel sooo much better; I thought I was having one of those occasional emotional derangement episodes that spring up without notice and wrench your whole being around.

Just saw this on Matt's site (in case... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 5:46 PM on July 3, 2008

If your opinion about a site/person changes, the prudent choice would be to simply not mention or link to them any more. From first-hand knowledge I know that being linked many times in the back catalogue at BB is worth, at best, a trickle of referrals*.

*Of course, having 'sex' mentioned in posts would up the trickle by an order of magnitude to, at best, a drip for VB, I imagine. Note to self: must mention... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 11:47 AM on July 1, 2008

Thanks so much for posting this.

See also:

Mahzor Worms
(from the Jewish National and University Library in Israel) -
"Festival prayerbook according to the Ashkenazi rite, for the use of hazanim (cantors) in the synagogue, containing mainly cycles of piyyutim (liturgical hymns). 2 vols. of different origin, written on parchment, in beautiful Ashkenazi calligraphy, with illumination and decoration in ink and color,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 2:38 AM on June 8, 2008

My 2c: The threads dealing with the democratic primary race have been the most depressing I've ever observed on mefi. I doubt even so many as 10 members in total in the last 6 months voiced any level of opposition or questioning or skepticism with regards Obama and every one of them has been vilified. And the amount of vitriol foisted on Clinton is just insane. I mean, it's not just mefi of course. I've been following events closely online but I gave up reading any comments anywhere a couple of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 11:11 PM on June 3, 2008

stav, I know there are people we just don't like. But for BO to get over the top, there are a lot of HRC supporters who need to come on board. Just simple pragmatism. If you support someone for 18months and the opposition supporters keep kicking your choice after the vote, are you going to be more or less inclined to join their team?

kattallus, yes.

lupus_yonderboy you have defined events on your own terms. That's fine but, for the sake of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 12:06 AM on June 4, 2008

Oh...five fresh fish: you're asking me whether or not I see things the way you see them. No, I do not see things the way you describe them. A lot of people see "contemptible behaviour" and I see politics. Very mild politics at that. HRC was behind. They have the same policies and voting records (approx.). Even BO said in early April that attacks politics is the name of the game when you are behind (or words to that effect - he wasn't saying he would do it, he wasn't condoning it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 12:21 AM on June 4, 2008

Clinton to End Bid and Endorse Obama
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 7:24 PM on June 4, 2008

What Hillary Won
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 7:41 AM on June 7, 2008

The real conundrum five fresh fish, is deciding whether you're more immature for stooping to call some a retard or for judging people by your own blinkered criteria.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 8:59 AM on June 7, 2008

fff, people vote for many reasons and they don't have to be the reasons you decide. Some people - amazingly enough - don't like or don't trust or are skeptical of the lack of experience of BO. You disagree (and so do I) with their thinking that JMc will be an acceptable alternative in light of HRC being out of the race, and particularly so when it's likely he'll be kept in line by a Democrat-filled congress. *shrug* You know all this.

Interestingly, the HRC home page has,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 9:40 AM on June 7, 2008

I find it hard to hold the self-centerdness against Emily in this particular context. The commissioned (?) article is, after all, meant to be about her worlds colliding while blogging. What I find difficult to accept, as mentioned above, is the bloody l e n g t h of the piece. Don't they have editors?? I skipped a third of it and still read too much. Beyond anything, it's mostly banal and boring, like toenail clippings and hoiking up tenacious phlegm.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 9:27 AM on May 22, 2008

That just about perfectly describes my attitude too. On any other day I might not have bothered posting this. I've been mildly amused and surprised at just how pervasive 'mapping' in its many guises has become over time on the internet. It's not just GPS technonerdom either. Everything seems to be mapped. It's like the visual savant half brother of statistical OCD.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 4:12 PM on May 20, 2008

Wonderful first post, thanks phunniemee. I should pass the link on to the local cake shop. Some delicious kids' birthday cake inspiration there.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 7:42 AM on May 19, 2008

"The strongest words, however, have come from Richard Grenier, film critic for Commentary'. Not satisfied with simply attacking the movie and the man, Grenier in a March article for the magazine went on to vilify all of India, all of Hinduism, and then to flail at a target closer to home, and close to the hearts of his fellow neoconservatives: American liberals. [...]

Grenier's review wasn't a critique so much as it was an epileptic seizure. The virulence of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 2:15 PM on May 9, 2008

Helen's blog: --But I do mind the religious nature of ANZAC Day--

I stopped reading there. Equating solemnity and the memory of real people who served on our behalf in real wars with the theatrical posturing in service of an imaginary sky being does not really gel with me. I have never perceived the day as religious in the slightest.

I used to go the march when I was a kid with my old man. It was great fun and very... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 7:53 AM on April 25, 2008

Great post as always thanks carter. Tangentially, I was just looking through the Victor Animatograph collection.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 4:24 PM on April 22, 2008

It's an oldie but a goodie. It was linked here before (at least).
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 10:36 PM on April 20, 2008

caveat empress I note that this is your first post.

When this is deleted it will be because of three things.

1. Publishing an email address and inciting a group response is just not a very reasonable way to go about things -- particularly on the front page.
2. The length of your post is about the same as the article: that ought to suggest that you have written way too many words.
3. Editorialising the way you have sets... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 5:02 AM on April 18, 2008

Thanks for posting this. Fascinatingly depressing bureaucratic ineptitude. There can be no areas of nuance in the path of a red pen.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 11:35 PM on April 16, 2008

As this is going to be deleted anyway...

In the 70s Muhammad Ali came out to Australia to be a presenter on our equivalent of the Emmys: the Logies. A much loved Aussie tv personality was acting as emcee and was engaging in banter with Ali when, as an aside to the audience, he goes: "I like the boy".

Ali shaped up like he was going to thump tv guy, who immediately asked aloud (to the audience really) what he had done wrong. We of course... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 5:21 AM on April 15, 2008

I've been following Room 26 since it started and they do post some great things. I do sometimes wish they would add a bit more background though.

Something along the same lines which hasn't being going too long but is excellent is the blog from the Grahic Arts Division at Princeton University. It's one of the best cultural blogs to emerge in ages for mine.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 9:24 PM on April 11, 2008

According to the most recent data available from the IRS, in 2005 taxpayers earning $10,000,000 or more paid on average 20.8% of their adjusted gross income in taxes.

On the $100M, the Clintons paid >$33M tax.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 10:36 PM on April 4, 2008

I've heard people call the Clinton campaign Rove-ian, but just like the Bush admin, they release bad news late on a Friday.

Huh? You think that started with the current admin? I call bs. I think that's a time honoured tradition in both business and politics.

Also, comparing Rove's tactics to the softball shenanigans of late suggests an attention lapse for the last 8 years.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 11:05 PM on April 4, 2008

Well said cortex.

I think the web being populated by middle/upper middle class white guys as the largest demographic skews in favour of Obama so the perception is that the anti-Clinton abuse is higher. Here's a recent article purporting to show that the effect has been to drive traffic away from pro-Obama sites while neutral or pro-HRC sites have had static numbers.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 6:22 AM on April 6, 2008

Oh by the way, that link was via Ben Smith.

And fourcheesemac, your rant was like an exclamation mark to cortex's comment. Repeat your last paragraph out loud while looking in a mirror.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 6:33 AM on April 6, 2008

You don't like me. This is established

Not true at all actually. I mean that in all seriousness.

civil and substantive is not exactly how I would characterise your four comments here. I just like to see discussion and I find this whole primary battle thoroughly fascinating. I'm not overly invested and am closer to a fence sitter than a supporter for either candidate. There is almost noone bothering to go... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 7:29 AM on April 6, 2008

Convince a superdelegate.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 7:03 PM on April 7, 2008

I just get to the word 'cell' and know that this MJ piece is a crock of slanted tabloidesque shite.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 9:42 PM on April 3, 2008

ornate insect, everything I've read puts cell into quote marks. The word is not mentioned at all in the wikipedia article (not exactly an authority of course). In the post-911 world it's a loaded word used in a pseudo-exposé article. Perhaps it wasn't calculated - although I'm sure they would have liked that the term was in there - but it would be in keeping with the insinuating tone of the piece.

In any event my sense of the article was that it's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 10:27 PM on April 3, 2008

Quote marks in the way I read them also could imply so-called or what you might call. It's getting a little bit pedantic though. If I'm wrong I'm wrong, so be it. My reading of 'cell' as upping the sensation angle was but a sideline note; the article remains pot-stirring speculation.
[I'm not saying that there isn't something here that might be worth investigating or the like but it would have been better if this post -... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 10:55 PM on April 3, 2008

"Invisible", like "cell," is their word, not mine, and it dates back decades, indeed -- at least to the mid 1940s. Don't believe me? Do some research before you sound off.

I made no reference at all to your book (other than to say that this post was, to my mind, premature, pre-publication). I was referring to the MJ article and in any event, I fairly conceded the point. Read what I wrote.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 12:46 AM on April 4, 2008

Excellent first post fogster!
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 10:52 PM on April 1, 2008

trendy "organic" foods require much more energy than regular crops

That's a fairly sweeping statement. The phrase "it depends" comes to mind. I think you will need to supplement any elaboration with some linked documentation too. I won't go so far as to say this idea seems ridiculous on the face of it, because I *try* to be open-minded, but bullshit has the same energy value no matter how it's spread.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 10:27 PM on March 29, 2008

Oh. I'm thinking maybe I misread you Cosmo7. I thought you meant the same crops with different (trendy -vs- regular farm production) regimens for raising them. But I suspect you meant the Bogswamp biovar II of the Andean flute chervil raised in climate controlled conditions versus backyard parsley or the somesuch. My apologies if so.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 10:47 PM on March 29, 2008

Great post. Thanks v. much tellurian.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 3:30 AM on March 28, 2008

Jeremiah Wright in another context.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 11:31 AM on March 26, 2008

This is at best very tangential but I know I'm going to forget it so:
"On Thursday, the magazine [Sports Illustrated] will introduce the Vault, a free site within SI.com that contains all the words Sports Illustrated has ever published and many of the images, along with video and other material, in a searchable database.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 10:54 PM on March 17, 2008

Let's leave this thread open and rename it the 'Obama Worship' thread so that the faithful have a continual safe haven in which to echo agreement as to the man's godlike oratory powers, unquestionable leadership potential and such other respectful platitudes that will, by simple virtue of their righteous energy, vanquish all opponents and see safe passage of their fearless leader to the white house in November. Amen.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 10:35 PM on March 14, 2008

Oh, sorry, wrong thread.
But it's more fun when you can slime more than one for the single admission price.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 4:47 AM on March 11, 2008

Ooh. Thanks for the W4RF link - [I'm not so keen on the pdfs] - that's a great resource.
posted to MetaFilter by peacay at 1:51 AM on March 11, 2008