Huh. In your long post, and your links, I am not seeing examples of people being misandrist. What is misandrist about suggesting that someone is manipulative for not saying I love you? What is misandrist for suggesting that a guy in a not-terribly-serious-relationship get dumped because he won't stop talking about how much he doesn't like dogs?

You end with made-up examples like If a man asked "My wife wants me serve her food at Christmas and I feel... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by rtha at 6:36 AM on August 6, 2008

Oh gaaaaawwwd. I'm the MeChazen who posted about my Lavalife (AND Plenty of Fish) encounter with this... this... person. In my many varied experiences with online dating, this really was one for the books. His weirdly entrepreneurial, astoundingly egotistical, and misogynist approach to dating left me petrified. I'd mostly managed to block it from my memory, until I saw this thread.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan at 8:32 AM on June 27, 2008

Yelling "viral!" seems to be the new knee-jerk to anything that defies comprehension, which is pretty stupid considering how avant-garde most postmodern artforms are.

Because we're sick and tired of everything cool, interesting or just plain bizarre turning out to be an ad.

"It was crazy! I was walking home and saw a giraffe in the middle of the street smoking a joint while blind hobos danced the jitterbug... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Gary at 10:53 AM on June 27, 2008

As far as I can tell, this is how most of them work:

One individual scammer pretends to be part of a large, successful, non-scam "Cash Gifting Network". They vaguely describe great their system is, and encourage victims to send them money as a gift to join. They make sure to explain that there is no direct payoff to the gift, but that by joining the network the victim will be able to make tons of money.

Once a victim sends them a gift,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by burnmp3s at 10:08 AM on April 28, 2008

When I used to feel overwhelmed at my old job, I use to amuse myself by walking over to the fax machine, which always had TONER LOW SLEEP on the screen. I'd think, right on, faxie. That's how I feel. The patron who is receiving this letter might feel something similar.
posted to MetaFilter by ORthey at 5:15 PM on July 30, 2008

No it's not a "smackdown," or "dealing with idiots," or a response to "intolerant dumbasses." This is how you respond to people who disagree with you. Like kind of the opposite of how we do it around here. Like Pater Alethias, I fail to see what's so surprising about a reasonable, calm, intelligent reply to what sounded like a reasonable, calm, intelligent request.

Let's get that man a Metafilter membership and see if he... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Avenger50 at 7:42 PM on July 30, 2008

Excel will do the scraping for you. Go to:

Data->Import External Data->New Web Query

you'll get a wee browserette to go to ebay and set up your search, then grab the little tab at the top left of the results page to grab all the details. Excel will ask where you want the results placed on the local workbook.

Looks like you'll need to go to advanced search on ebay and change your results-display options to get the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by pompomtom at 5:21 PM on July 23, 2008

If you need something to do, I can find something for you to do.
posted to MetaTalk by Mayor Curley at 7:08 AM on July 24, 2008

Please don't flame me as this is a post about electric bicycles, but I absolutely LOVE riding to work and back on my Segway. 3.8 miles either way.

I heart almost any form of alternative transport for short urban commuting.
posted to MetaFilter by lonemantis at 1:28 PM on July 19, 2008

Vincent: You know what they call Spam in Quebec?
Jules: They don't call it Spam?
Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the fuck spam is.
Jules: Then what do they call it?
Vincent: They call it Scrapple.
posted to MetaTalk by boo_radley at 9:46 PM on July 16, 2008

Hey! I guess I don't need to worry about the self-link rule for this one. My opponent's name is actually Arlen Siegfreid, not Lance Kinzer. Mr. Siegfreid won by 11 percent last cycle against a wonderful woman whom I've met in my door to door campaigning. She's been very helpful.

I don't think anyone of either party affiliation would challenge that Mr. Siegfreid also has a usability-challenged website.

About the Immigration issue - I really... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stevis at 5:06 PM on July 16, 2008

So how does a person get to be super morbidly obese? Well, you can start with a little kid of about 6 years old who seems to be a little too pudgy, and take her to a nutritionist, where she’ll see little plastic models of food that tell her what serving sizes look like, and give her stickers when she sits quietly with an empty plate while the rest of the family enjoys dessert. Of course, that’ll just teach her to climb on top of the counter to reach the leftover cake on top of the fridge, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ferociouskitty at 4:49 PM on July 14, 2008

For what it's worth, that's my blog. I wrote that. And it's pretty much a tempest in a coffee cup -- infuriating at the time, but not such a big deal the next day. I milked it for a quick, disposable blog post and got over it a few hours before MeFi (and now BoingBoing) picked it up.

I can totally admit that I behaved like an utter dick in the situation and made a bigger deal out of it than I should have on my blog. But is this really bigger than all that? I don't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chinese_fashion at 12:07 PM on July 14, 2008

So, yeah. I'm Dan Kaminsky. It's a little weird and cool to see myself on the blue :)

The issue is pretty bad. The vendors know how bad it is, which is how we got everyone to issue patches simultaneously. Tom Ptacek knows how bad it is, which is why he posted his public about-face. (I do not fault him his skepticism in the slightest, however. Extraordinary claims, no available evidence.) But, no, nobody has publicly figured out what I'm up to.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by effugas at 8:58 AM on July 10, 2008

Tom and Ray are absolutely great guys ... I'll agree with god-like. I've been very lucky to have had a couple of brushes with them. Well, lucky with one, and not with the other.

It started with a very unlucky incident where I, um, obliterated my wife's car by forgetting to put the parking brake on and forgetteing to put it into gear. It rolled out of our garage, down the driveway ... well ... my wife told it to Tom and Ray on CarTalk better than... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by scblackman at 6:15 PM on July 8, 2008

Here's a true story about how awesome Pixar is.

As some of you know, when the trailer first came out, my girlfriend, Courtney, burst into tears at the trailer. She was emabrrassed but somewhat amused by this, as so she made a video of herself watching the trailer on her computer, knowing she would start crying every time that little robot said his own name.

After a few months, she started to get trickles of emails from people at Pixar who said... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:18 PM on July 1, 2008

Regardless of the merits of dnab's or termite's assertions (having not read the viacom/youtube thread, I have no opinion), it's really really unbecoming and ugly to see TPS, Styxno, and others cheering for a fight/melt-down/whatever it is they're cheering.

This is supposed to be a community, and you don't cheer on fights within a community. You don't treat unpleasantness, unpleasantness that hurts people, as entertainment. This is not Survivor or American Idol; this is... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by orthogonality at 9:54 PM on July 4, 2008

I loved the original and I love this one.

I swear, it makes me wish even more fervently that the world's people could embrace the simple joy of this video and the implicit message of togetherness and elation at the wonderfulness of the world, rather than so often focusing on reasons for strife. It's such a simple goal and so worthy to live up to, yet we only see it bloom in such strange places as a wonderful treasure of a video like this.

(I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by darkstar at 2:11 PM on June 27, 2008

She's 24 and she's had FAME!!! land on her like a ten-ton weight. Acting up and going a bit crazy is part of the package.

I've had a very small dose of fame, and it reached me around the time I turned 40. I can usually go out in public without being recognized and accosted by total strangers (although it happens, from time to time). I'm probably two or three orders of magnitude more obscure than Amy Winehouse, and I've had an extra two decades on her... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cstross at 4:47 AM on June 23, 2008

You know, I've always wondered why individual rights-holders aren't incensed by the idiotic strongarming that Disney, the RIAA, et al. have made their bread and butter in the last couple of decades. When the most commonly sung song in the history of the world is protected from being used freely in movies where its absence is culturally notable, something is very wrong, and the response to it is obvious: we get a handful of Doctorows, and an entire generation of Americans with zero respect for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mayor West at 5:47 AM on June 20, 2008

I read all the postings by the car owner/message board poster.

It seems that the parking enforcement company violated the contract with the home owner association in booting the car instead of warning the car owner. It's clear in the contract that booting may only occur in certain conditions, and that those conditions did not exist at the time the car was booting.

Many of you think the guy that didn't bow down to the 'authority' of the parking... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Argyle at 9:44 PM on June 18, 2008

Google has licensed ALL of DigitalGlobe’s Hi-Resolution imagery exclusively for online/web use.
Nobody else can use those high quality images on the web.
posted to MetaFilter by m94402 at 2:31 PM on May 14, 2008

20,000 Ask Metafilter posts using the 150 most common tags [quick-n-dirty self link, 2.5MB]
posted to MetaTalk by fantabulous timewaster at 12:20 AM on June 18, 2008

I'm not even supposed to be here today!
posted to MetaFilter by vacapinta at 7:17 AM on June 13, 2008

Your shitty chatfilter question was chatfilter. When you reap the whirlwind, it's understood that you don't take the whirlwind personally.

The way to ask your question in a less PLEASE DELETE THIS IMMEDIATELY UPON VIEWING fashion:
What were the causes, proximate and underlying, leading up to the current economic crisis and polticial crisis in the United States. Specifically, is there one or more event in the late 90's or early 2000's that you can point to... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Pastabagel at 12:58 PM on June 10, 2008

This looks like opposition work to me, meant to discredit Obama supporters. Or what elwoodwiles said. If so, nice work. Either way, it brings a much needed dose of sober-eyed maturity and historical gravity to the process.

There is a level on which the real amount (i.e. no one's really according him messiah status) of adoration and veneration of Barack Obama is disheartening.

I keep hearing that, but I personally haven't seen... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by saulgoodman at 10:41 AM on June 9, 2008

Also, it's strange because I've always known DaShiv as being the photography guy. Like, you should kiss your own ass if he's taken a picture of you because he'll make you look like a god damn super model. And then I start reading these comments and it's just like god damn man, when do you stop being awesome?
posted to MetaTalk by puke & cry at 3:44 PM on June 7, 2008

I've typed about it around here before, but I spent some time in Zimbabwe earlier this year.

Imagine not needing to deal with the headache of shopping. You go to your local grocery store, but there's literally nothing on the shelves to buy. Not even bread. They're not sure when any will get there.

Imagine not needing to bitch about the rising price of gasoline because, well, the gas station hasn't had any in months. You have to buy it, if you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allkindsoftime at 11:11 AM on June 6, 2008

dude, that's the palm of your hand.
posted to Ask Metafilter by sergeant sandwich at 10:24 PM on June 6, 2008 marked best answer

I paid $5 to answer a question. That's weird.
posted to Ask Metafilter by csd at 7:15 PM on June 3, 2008

When I was a kid in elementary school (Florida, as it happens), there was a boy in our class by the name of Puck. His last name was about as bad.

You can imagine how that turned out for him.

He was treated as a goofy slob by everybody, including myself, something I regret now but hardly thought about then.

One day during lunch some routine teasing somehow morphed into a schoolwide taunt. The school janitor (!) rallied the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Rhaomi at 10:37 PM on May 31, 2008

there's some point in gamer culture where gay and fag became the go-to insults between gamers online, and I cannot for the life of me pinpoint where that is. Obviously, it has to have occurred after the invention of online gaming. did people playing MUDs and MOOs speak to each other like that? I'm not sure. I remember being infantile and griefing in roleplaying aol chat rooms, but never homophobic. I feel confident that it didn't start with friends playing 1v1 doom games with each other... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by shmegegge at 1:19 PM on May 29, 2008

test comment.
posted to Projects by pb at 2:09 PM on May 26, 2008

Yeah, you know, we just got ours last night, and the first thing my kids did was bust it out and set up WiiFit profiles for themselves. I had to moderate the whole thing, because to an almost 9-year-old and a 5.5-year old, it seemed pretty harsh. My daughter was informed that she was normal, but it asked her to set a weight-loss goal, which became a "teachable moment" about what healthy feels like and the importance of eating and getting stronger, etc. etc. But the verdict on my son... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mothershock at 6:57 AM on May 22, 2008

LGFs' fear is real and legitimate.

You have to take into account the level of sheltering these people require from LGF and other websites like Free Republic. These sites work in part because they allow a level of anonymity for their members but there is more to it than that...

Structurally these sites are designed (like almost all blogs and message boards) to expire topics and discussion threads. Oh, these threads are still there in most cases,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by wfrgms at 8:26 AM on May 18, 2008

Okay - currently uploading, the sound of the waves. About an hour's worth.
posted to MetaTalk by Pronoiac at 12:13 AM on May 15, 2008

"What do you do?"
"Well, I work at night and I make a lot of money . . . "

Always gets me a good laugh, that description. If I don't want to offend, the response is more like:
"I'm an equine stylist."

Which usually results in a blank stare, meaning I have to elaborate with:
"I braid horses' manes and tails at hunter-jumper shows on the A circuit.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by po at 3:06 AM on April 29, 2008

Outrage fatigue is an interesting and depressing process to watch. Sarcasm and irony replace sincerity, people who should be working towards the same goals turn on each other over tone and word choice. I feel it too. Fuck, I've felt it since I was twelve years old.

You've gotta kind of wonder what it takes to penetrate the wooly complacence of so many people in these hammered-by-horror days. One thing is sure, though: hysterics aren't going to do it. Just the opposite,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:27 PM on May 8, 2008

Oh. My. God. The amount of uninformed, alarmist crap in the FPP article is astounding. Let me give one small example. I spent four years as an economist at the BLS, in the office responsible for researching methodologies for calculating the CPI. I worked on the article's principle target: hedonic adjustments to the CPI. The CPI uses code I wrote to make hedonic adjustments. So I feel somewhat qualified in saying that the article is just plain wrong in its criticism of hedonic adjustments -... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dilettanti at 9:45 PM on May 5, 2008

California.Governors.Office.v1.0-grAyDAViS.NUKE:recall.election.schwarzenegger.time
posted to MetaFilter by Inspector.Gadget at 2:12 PM on May 6, 2008

In thinking about my life as a university teaching assistant in Texas, I find that the only place I need to self-edit about being gay / having a boyfriend is in the classroom. My advisor/boss and the vast majority of my co-workers didn't bat an eye when I began mentioning that my boyfriend and I went camping over the weekend (for example), and I feel comfortable enough to confront any co-workers who think they can give me shit about it.

But I do hide this when... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Peter Petridish at 12:42 PM on May 6, 2008

These are some things I ate a lot of when I was in college and poorer and worse at cooking. I also did not like vegetables very much, which was tricky. There are many excellent suggestions above involving real cooking (and, you know, vegetables), and you should definitely investigate them, but these foods will not require much of anything beyond knowledge of how to heat things in a pot.

For your rice and beans fix: Zatarains' red beans and rice and black beans and rice... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by fidelity at 8:40 AM on January 24, 2008

Here in Portland, Maine there are plenty of people still using derailleurs, but very few people wear helmets. The only consistently helmeted group are the road bikers/spandex pod people; when a man wearing skintight pants is behaving more sensibly than you perhaps it's time for some self-reflection.

I think some people like fixed-gear bikes for the simplicity, some for the fashion, some for the hard-core athletic element. I think they're pretty cool as well but come on,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by selfnoise at 9:20 PM on April 26, 2008

I teach at NYLS. So my perspective is a bit biased. But its also for the same reason a bit informed.

If you are looking to get a job at a generic large law firm at a high salary, your life will be easier if you go to a higher-ranked school. The major firms have informal cutoffs for GPA at different schools; those cutoffs are higher for students at NYLS than they are for students at Fordham. A lot of this is based on long-running stereotypes, rather than the actual... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by grimmelm at 6:13 AM on April 23, 2008

First off, I have to go 20+ years back in the wayback machine to bring myself back to that time. Second off, You're probably about as dead normal as they come.

In 1984, I was a "fresh-out", as they call it. Meaning "fresh out of college", just a tiny insignificant part of a huge aerospace firm. After a year or two I could just look at someone (another guy, anyhow) and know that he'd been there about a year. It was obvious by his waistline, seems... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Rafaelloello at 7:19 AM on April 20, 2008

IANA Blind Person.

But I did a sort of research project at one point where I tried to "go blind" for a week. I had a friend who was blind who actually suggested it when I was asking about what it was like.

He supplied me with a cane, and I MacGyvered up a pair of sunglasses with foam pads glued to the inside of the lenses that rested comfortably on my closed eyelids. At night, I'd switch from the glasses to one of those sleeping eye... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by allkindsoftime at 11:15 AM on April 16, 2008 marked best answer

My daughter, nine, sleeps in; I like to get up and be in front of the computer working by four or five a.m. Last weekend when I was putting her to bed she looked at me and said "Dad, I want to get up really early tomorrow morning like you and we can go for a walk—I've never seen what it was like outside that early." Then she told me she knew that when the morning came she would be asleep and I would decide not to disturb her, so she made me promise to wake her up no matter what.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Turtles all the way down at 11:12 AM on April 9, 2008

Sometimes kids won't believe the truth anyway. True story. I'm in a taxi with my niece, who is five, and my sister (her mother).

Niece: Were there dinosaurs when you were little?
Me: No the dinosaurs were all gone a long time before that.
N: Before Grandma was little even?
M: Yes, even before Grandma was little.

[Pause as five year-old tries to imagine such a time]

N: What happened to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Bellman at 12:35 PM on April 9, 2008

Also, for a little more fun....camera blocking that morning.
posted to MetaFilter by nevercalm at 6:42 PM on April 4, 2008

Like most MeTa threads, Burhanistan. The nerd quotient of this place gets to me sometimes. We're a Christopher Guest mockumentary waiting to be filmed.
posted to MetaTalk by orange swan at 8:05 AM on April 8, 2008