Is this technically called "tromp l'oeil" when it's on people's faces/bodies? I have always enjoyed- and considered the best example of this that I've seen- the 12 calendar months painted by Timna Woollard in the 1990 movie "Where the Heart Is" (not remotely to be confused with the Natalie Portman/Ashley Judd 2000 film of the same name).
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 5:48 PM on July 5, 2008

Well original poster, YOU'VE read them all, so please give us the synopsis so we know what the hell this is, and what the big payoff is- a horror story? What's the gimmick, a "soylent green" type jobbie job?

See, if I spend 20 minutes reading these various links, that's 20 minutes I'm not devoting to curing cancer, or perfecting desktop bubble fusion. kthxbye.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:19 PM on July 5, 2008

Oh, it turns out if you just jump to the last entry, you can find a link to the "other side" view, which is written in human. That link is actually really, really good and makes the weird entries have a context that makes real sense. If the OP had given some indication of that being at the end, with it linked, this would have been a better post I think. Otherwise it seems like a pointless lolcat-inspired timecube rambling.

The following is a first-half... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:50 PM on July 5, 2008

Iosephus: There seems to be a final link to a Tom Clancy clone's "other side's story". I'm arsed if I'm gonna read it in detail, though, but a quick scan gives enough clues about what the heck was all that about (and ruins the surprise if you actually liked the previous "instructions"). I hate hate hate Tom Clancy.It's a shame you didn't read it in more detail, because outside of the use of military jargon, it's decidedly un-Clancy like. If anything it's a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 5:13 PM on July 5, 2008

This may be the smartest man on the planet.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:46 PM on June 29, 2008

My former manager and I talked about making a parody of these videos, called "WhereTheHellIsGreg", which would simply be him doing a ka-razy dance while in his car commuting to work... then in his office... then at a Starbucks... then in a meeting room... then commuting home... repeating that over, and over, for 3 minutes.

I love these videos, but yeah, jealous as hell. Plus, now I get to feel completely disconnected and isolated from the entire... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 12:32 PM on June 27, 2008

That pretty much sums up why Microsoft makes crap software; they just don't care about quality, and dumb people run that company. Sloppy, dumb coders do things like "Then it'll reboot" without thinking "Hey, I'm not changing kernel information, why should it reboot?" just because it's a quick and easy way to do things. Learning to right tight, elegant code, that is basically self-contained and installs/uninstalls without a lot of cruft and crumbs, when Microsoft's own... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 7:58 PM on June 26, 2008

OmieWise: Although the soccer one is also quite good, even accounting for editing, he's a good shot.Both the soccer ones- put it where you want it, and foot 2008- are incredible just in terms of some of the shots he makes. The ricochet shots are amazing- bouncing off the doors into the vans, off his head, off the base of the fountain, nothing but splash, the end of Foot 2008 where he "idly" kicks it across the street, bouncing it back to the wall and the ground and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 9:16 PM on June 24, 2008

fripping (1 hour ago) Show Hide
this was sort of funny but what i really want to say is

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
metafilterrrrrrrrr

Oh hey- I do believe that's the comment singularity, right there.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 1:12 AM on June 21, 2008

Some (mostly power) pitchers get almost all their velocity from their legs/lower body.rokusan: Not true. Yes, the lower body generates some power, but certainly not "almost all."

If that was true, how fast would a flatfooted fastball be? 10mph?Actually, it IS true- you ever try throwing a ball without moving your legs- and therefore your hips? The power and velocity comes from that long stride, snapping the hips, and letting the upper body... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 2:32 PM on June 20, 2008

Eideteker: You forgot Nolan(d).

I can't even take that seriously. Nolan Ryan was an impressive and long-lived pitcher, but as a high-ERA barely above .500 career pitcher, he's simply nowhere near the class of Maddux, Clemens, and Randy Johnson. Nowhere near.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:09 PM on June 20, 2008

Why should Clemens be "shamed" as a steroid "cheater"? His use at best was likely later in his career, and its impact is questionable overall; he was already a HoF player- like Bonds- and numerous other players were named in the Mitchell report, many of whom were shitty players even with the alleged "steroid" use. Clemens is by all accounts a very dumb guy, kind of hyper, but also probably the best pitcher of his generation, and possibly any generation.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 5:37 PM on June 20, 2008

robocop is bleeding: My version of the movie would take place on a cruise ship in the open ocean. Green algae produces most of our oxygen anyways, so if Mama Nature wanted to introduce a person-killing poison, that'd be as good a place as any to start. ... [excellence ensues]OMG! The big twist of this thread is... robocop is bleeding is a far, far, FAR better writer than M. Night Shamalamadingdong!!!!... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 11:47 AM on June 18, 2008

They're offering the creature creator on the premise that Spore will be a complete game with an apparent end goal, but also have an online single-multi-player element: when you become a spacefaring race, or apparently even before then, you will interact with the creatures or even planets created by other players. These objects have a small description language such that they can be seamlessly uploaded and shared online.

So apparently, in advance of the full game release,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 11:10 AM on June 17, 2008

So can someone post a login for those of us who don't feel like creating an account?
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:29 PM on June 16, 2008

You people are crazy. No, Michael Reagan shouldn't be legally allowed to say that- meaning, he should be investigated seriously for death threats. He's not speaking in the abstract here, he's talking about a specific individual and the method of their death.

Do you not get the non-equivalency here? Michael Reagan isn't a participant in your boardgame; he's not playing by the same rules. He's not saying "Mark Dice should be investigated for treason", he's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 12:11 PM on June 14, 2008

So... I guess I'm a minority of one, but I found that strangely beautiful. The cinematography was great, the robot well designed, and the music made it all cohesive. I would have found that scene to be a memorable one in a well-made movie adaption of a Philip K. Dick novel. There was something amazing about the placid shape of her face, her form, and the watery dew on both of them. Sexual/sensual, ethereal. Sorry, I really, really liked that piece. If it were a college student's project,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:45 PM on June 11, 2008

The first and last one were friggin' genius, DU. Burmabot and 8 bits, indeed!
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 5:07 PM on June 11, 2008

Phillip Toledano’s new book Phone Sex (July 2008, Twin Palms)

A book about phone sex operators published by "Twin Palms"? I'm surprised it wasn't put out by "Eponysterical Publishing Co.".
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:56 PM on June 11, 2008

There's some truth to what DU says; it's fascinating to me when clicking down one of the columns like income, age, or education, to watch the way the whole distribution shifts one way or another.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 8:54 AM on June 8, 2008

Durn Bronzefist: Intelligence quotient. One hundred times mental age over chronological age. Of course it's dynamic.Isn't IQ, though, actually a z-score reflecting rarity and not the older mental/physical age division (which is why the not terrifically smart Marilyn vos Savant gets to boast having an IQ of 24, simply because she was at 10 "as smart as an average 24-year-old"- hardly much of an accomplishment when you consider the average... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 9:53 AM on June 7, 2008

Okay, the fact that the first 60 seconds are just static is probably a poor choice- I almost gave up. Glad I didn't, because it got really good. I didn't know the original, which I've now gone and listened to on Youtube, and while you can't really replace the more ethereal synth/vocals that Radiohead is known for, in a way I might almost prefer this version.

What was the hard drive array- how were those being used as speakers, exactly?
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 8:15 AM on June 6, 2008

Hey, isn't that the dance school where Dominic and Neil trained before appearing on "So You Think You Can Dance" season 3?

Sorry, I just didn't think it was amazing. At least in that first video, it was the same move over and over and over. "Trick" dancing just doesn't *move* me. Hell, where was the rebellious dancer who tried the same trick counter-clockwise?!?!
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 8:45 AM on June 4, 2008

What I find odd is that the article says neurologists have for decades believed the memory is "like a filing cabinet", yet everything I've ever heard about the brain- the very concept of vast networks of interconnected synapses- suggests the brain remembers and thinks more like one of those disks working their way down a Plinko board on "The Price Is Right". I.e., that you show a picture of a bike while trying to think of the word "biopsy", and the set of neurons... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 7:16 AM on June 4, 2008

can the song be called,
"rivers is actually steve zahn"?

From the first video's comment section. Heh. Who says that Youtube comments are never any good?
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 1:13 AM on June 1, 2008

I cried a little, which was... unexpected. Because politically/intellectually, I agree with lupus_yonderboy. Every Bush voter- every "W '04" bumper sticker owner- should rot in the same prison; Bush is a sociopath for whom no amount of physical torture could ever amend for what he's done. That said, even if he were a staunch Kerry voter, no one held a gun to Ricky's head, and the risk of death is the price of enlisting.

But he is still human, and I cried.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 1:33 AM on May 25, 2008

Pecinpah: non-sequitor

Burhanistan: That guy really rocks out the drum simulator.

That's because he's Keith Moonie! :)
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 7:45 PM on May 22, 2008

"After being in the business for such a long time, I've done everything but rodeo and porno."

I don't know about the rodeo, but the porno ain't gonna happen. There isn't anyone who would fuck Bea Arthur's dick, even with Andy Dick's pussy...

Apologies to Jeffrey Ross Metafilter...
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:34 PM on May 13, 2008

Yeah, what -harlequin- said; how is un-DRMing the music via backup and re-rip not a violation of DMCA laws, and Microsoft's suggestion to do this itself not a DMCA violation? Someone should sue them, just to make them go through the hassle of defending that (as for the act of turning off the license servers, I'm sure the EULA always had buried in it the "Microsoft is not liable if we decide to stop supporting this music).

I also don't see how... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 8:49 PM on May 7, 2008

This is amazing- there is a whole community of people who make custom, Rubiks-on-steroids type puzzles, and apparently this particular icosahedron model is something of a titanic achievement.

Here's the thread on twistypuzzles.com where the creator announces it (apparently many people have sketched and discussed such a thing, but he's the first to actually make it work, and quite beautifully too). Two things stood out to me:
1) First,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:21 PM on May 5, 2008

Apparently I'm an idiot savant- either growing up with an out of tune piano or some kind of ear canal anomaly, on the hard level I'm consistently one half tone high- when it's C#, I hit D, when it's A I hit Bb, etc.

That would explain why my singing voice is so awful.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 7:55 PM on May 1, 2008

Er, invert that; I meant that I'm one half-tone low, when it's A I hit G#. Although now that I know that's the case, I'm breezing through this.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 8:01 PM on May 1, 2008

Hey look, it's GranPrompa!

Obligatory HCwDB reference...
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 12:45 PM on April 29, 2008

1) I do not live in New York- I live in Seattle- so what exactly was I supposed to do about this? Even if I feel an injustice has occurred, what was the point of putting this on the blue, just so I can get ineffectually outraged?

2) The only tragedy here is if the officers in question have no undue consequences to their actions- if the Thin Blue Line/union/mayoral apathy prevents any actual consequences. Those posting the videos, by the fact that almost every case... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 2:47 AM on April 29, 2008

That's... nuts. I know it's quasi-fiction, but after seeing "Open Water" a few years ago, I can't imagine getting in the water with any potentially lethal sharks, much less tiger sharks. One can respect and admire their beauty, power, and evolutionary perfection without wanting to get near them. I respect the power of the atom, but I don't hang around nuclear test sites... And as noted on the previous post, it seems risky to bring tourists to dive with sharks around chum- not just... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 2:36 AM on April 29, 2008

But to be fair, unlike most other types of employment I do think that a team has every reason to know the real age of a player before signing a contract. Surely, whatever else you might feel about poor, misbegotten Miguel Tejada (whom I remember best for his surly temper and hyperbolic stupidity in unneeded profanity laced ranting about Derek Lowe's alleged "obscene gesture" when his team was being blown out by the Red Sox in the playoffs a few years ago- in other words,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 3:22 AM on April 18, 2008

This is also a useful read; notice in particular the graphs, and how players tend to improve until about 25, then their skills in hits-per-plate-appearance as an example stat begins to decline steadily. Of course, not every player is that way, but in general one will expect a slow but steady decline of 5-10% a year, which equates to 2-3 points in batting average. In evaluating Tejada as a young player, him being 17 versus 19 is HUGE in terms of truly evaluating his future potential. Not that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 3:31 AM on April 18, 2008

"My four-year-old could have done that."

Interestingly, this is one art installation that will certainly defy anyone to critique its merit in THAT regard, eh?
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:42 PM on April 17, 2008

quanta and qualia: it's all about the benjamin's. why did google checkout consider it an "unacceptable product?"Um... probably because it's a laser printer copy, in the exact size and shape of a $100 bill, of a reasonable fascimile of the face of a $100 bill. For which they are then selling for $100.

I'm kind of surprised that only Google had a problem with this, and not say the Treasury department and the FBI... seeing as... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 2:47 PM on April 12, 2008

dyoneo: I don't read the 31:54 spent by the average Egyptian as testimony to Egypt's craftsmanlike deliberativeness: I read that as Egyptians (and Chinese, and Indians) doing as many of these as they can stomach to earn money in order to eat.I don't mean to be mean-spirited, because I get your point, but I think the particular people doing this turk must themselves be above average, income-wise, for their regions. They do, after all, own a computer (or have ready access to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 3:15 PM on April 12, 2008

See, I had a great idea for the restaurant of tomorrow. You have one big conveyor belt/ moving sidewalk. People get in line and are never seated- there are no tables, just this one moving sidewalk, looping through the main room. People just stand as they are whisked around, with hoses dangling from the ceiling dropping various food-flavored nutrient pellets down upon the customers. Simply turn your head up and catch what you can while you're moving through the restaurant, then pay at the end... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:36 PM on April 9, 2008

Hat Maui: claude is clearly agitating for the right to arm bears.

I find it terribly amusing that Hat Maui of all people made that particular joke.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 1:18 AM on April 6, 2008

dawson: Is that a roll of pennies in your pocket, or...

... are you seriously under-endowed, ha ha ha amirite?! Roll of pennies, I mean seriously! Look, I'm no size queen, but I'm not gonna bend over for less than a roll of quarters.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 1:17 PM on April 4, 2008

DecemberBoy: *chan users may be immature, but they're not sadisticBullshit, among other examples. The ED post has been edited to remove some of the details, but those non-sadistic chan fuckers went so far as to stalk this person in real life, attempt to get them evicted by phone-harassing their landlord, defaced their workplace home page with information about their personal life in an attempt to get them fired, and hoot and hollar about "It can be raep time pleaz?!... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 2:55 AM on March 30, 2008

As long as the dog is on a leash, you're A-OK.

Wolfdog: Presumably if you just keep him tied, that would suffice.

Eponys... ah, fuck it.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 12:33 PM on March 19, 2008

Teachers like this are worth their weight in gold. It's funny; if you said to a company, "I am a consultant who can spend a few months working with several dozen of your employees, and after this they will be self-motivated learners, considerably brighter, as well as a great deal more productive and innovative. What would you pay for this service?" The answer would be "assloads of cash", with a working budget something north of "$3,500".... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 11:19 AM on March 17, 2008

I can't quite articulate why, but there's something very funny/ironic/a propos about the fact that the inventor is speaking in German, but is dubbed over.

That said... wow, that's really cool. I'd always understood that pulling out individual notes from a recording is ferociously hard to do... but to do it well, and be able to manipulate them on top of that? Fuckin' A#, man. Fuckin' A#.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:32 PM on March 13, 2008

No, for two reasons b1tr0t:

One, it says in the FAQ that if it gets a multi-voice input, it can't distinguish the different notes to the different instruments; if your piano and guitar and voice are all hitting the E above middle C at the same time, this will see one note that is a wave of all three voices. It'll be like those cheap Casio keyboards that have the "Piano & Strings" button...

Two, mp3s are usually heavily compressed,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:50 PM on March 13, 2008

SPrintF: Could someone who's excited by this please explain why?Um, because if you're playing a great take, infused with all the right mojo, but mis-hit a note... you don't have to go back and re-record a significant section. You can fix that one note in place in the recording. Or you don't have the original players in the same place when you discover something to be fixed/changed.

Yes, ProTools et al are abused in modern music because they makes... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 5:46 PM on March 13, 2008

This is kind of odd, since I always figured George Lucas was to Star Wars merchandising what the Three Stooges were to movie scripts: they never saw an idea that was too dumb even for them.
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 2:52 PM on March 12, 2008