MetaFilter

Hey guys! Thanks for spreading the word about our HeroRATs. I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

@gingerest - In answer to your question about TB. I'm not sure exactly what info you need but here are some headline stats for you...

• One APOPO Herorat/TB Detection rat evaluates more samples in ten minutes than a lab technician can in one day
• WHO recommends that a TB technician may not examine more than 20 TB smears in one... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by APOPO_HeroRATs at 8:07 AM on January 22, 2015

Now if only the person running 8chan would do the same.
posted to MetaFilter by oceanjesse at 2:23 PM on January 21, 2015

Bad Company
Feel Like Makin' Love
No Smoke Without A Fire
Good Lovin' Gone Bad

(It would cost me $25/month for a static IP proxy to access a free API... so I think this will remain a low traffic, small batch artisinal web toy.)
posted to MetaFilter by jjwiseman at 11:10 AM on January 20, 2015

It was extremely shitty to learn how I was expected to do these things when I was so young, and dolls like these didn't help me learn how to "engage" with anything, they just taught me that I needed to be sexy all the time when I was still prepubescent.

QFT. I wasn't specifically familiar with Bratz dolls until I was an adult, but heavily made-up dolls, and the societal expectation that I simply had to want to own and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by divined by radio at 8:46 AM on January 20, 2015

This would have been a perfect promo video for SSX.
posted to MetaFilter by andreaazure at 9:45 AM on January 19, 2015

I can do a hundred-mile bike ride, but pull-ups, not so much. So... I guess I'm not fit. Oh well.
posted to MetaFilter by GuyZero at 1:32 PM on January 16, 2015

Doxxing has always been on our radar, but we haven't quite found the perfect story yet. There was the Zoe Quinn August Never Ends blog post, which was something we've talked about.

I'm not particularly frightened of going after darker stuff. It's usually just a heavier lift when it comes to reporting, and we're a lean operation. I asked Yik Yak for an interview a number of times, but they never responded. This was the closest I got to them, but they didn't reply.... [more]
posted to FanFare by Alex Goldman at 1:16 PM on January 15, 2015

I don't want to discourage people who are in the process of learning empathy, or understanding sexism, or seeing the racism in their own lives and communities, or any number of other things.

But I also don't want to silence people who're talking about their own feelings and experiences of being marginalized or disrespected.

It's a difficult situation.
posted to MetaTalk by Narrative Priorities at 12:34 PM on January 15, 2015

Yad Vashem has a guide for educators (pdf) that includes a "Working Definition of Anti-Semitism."

Section starting with "Examples of the ways..." is relevant to this discussion.

"In order to give practical guidance in identifying anti-Semitic incidents to those who are confronted with expressions or acts of anti-Semitism, the ODIHR and the European Fundamental Rights Agency, together with Jewish non-governmental... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by zarq at 3:40 PM on January 14, 2015

Oh and is there a "Best Title Award" yet?
posted to MetaFilter by infini at 9:47 AM on January 14, 2015

I finally finished. I had 7 minutes left on it when I picked up my preschoolers. I ought, hey, 7 minutes, how much swearing can there be? The answer: holy fuck.

It IS possible to get a healthy meal at McDonald's. Order one of the chicken salads (not the one with bacon you fool). Order grilled chicken instead of crispy chicken. Specify when ordering that you do not want GLAZE ON THE CHICKEN. THERE IS A BUTTON FOR THIS.

This prevents your... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by bq at 9:01 PM on January 13, 2015

Flags are God, and if enough people flag something then it becomes valid.

We demand they listen to what users want, and when they do, we accuse them of caving in to groupthink.
posted to MetaTalk by rtha at 1:09 PM on January 13, 2015

This reminds me of a page I bookmarked long ago, which may be of interest here: Map Symbols & Patterns for National Park Service Maps. Available in PDF, Illustrator, TrueType, and ArcGIS. And best of all 'NPS symbols are free and in the public domain.'
posted to MetaFilter by fings at 6:47 PM on January 12, 2015

Well dragging a man down the hallway by his necktie might also qualify him for the psycho category. Also, taking a dump with the door open during a conversation as a way to intimidate your enemy, bristling at the most mundane interactions that require living by someone else's rules (the post office package pickup, the hotel check-in runaround about pets, etc.), prompting someone to urinate in a gas tank...

We noticed something this time around: someone has a real thing... [more]
posted to FanFare by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 10:50 PM on January 4, 2015

The funeral went well. At the end, I called an audible at the graveside service. Instead of saying my usual dismissal, I paused.

"A cemetery is a solemn, sacred place. It's a place of quiet and reflection. A cemetery is the place you go when you want to feel close to those you've lost. So...as the saying goes...(pause)...Y'all come back now, you hear?!"

The family laughed out loud and her son thanked me for making her service so... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ColdChef at 11:45 AM on January 5, 2015

Miss Douglas was a friend. She grew up a few miles from where I did. When my parents got engaged, she attended their engagement party as the guest of a friend. After her run in Hollywood, she moved back here and stayed out of the limelight, doing speaking engagements and travelling with a gospel choir. Often, I’d see her at a funeral—I buried both of her parents and many of her cousins—and she always had a kind word for me and never forgot who I was or who my parents were. I never saw her that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ColdChef at 7:08 AM on January 5, 2015

Hoooo, boy, a chance to trot out my thorough Turing knowledge! I'm a huge Bletchley nerd, and I don't get a chance to wave that around much, so this is gonna be fun!

1. Turing commits three hanging-worthy acts of treason over the course of the film. In real life, none of that would have happened. In fact, it's worth mentioning that the opening job interview was entirely invented, as were Turing's motives for working at Bletchley - Turing had an offer... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Itaxpica at 4:25 PM on January 4, 2015

I am one of those nerds who loves the Haunted Mansion. Oh man, every time I go to Disneyland, always wanting to buy Haunted Mansion-themed stuff (and have you seen some of the stuff for their 50th anniversary? Oh my God, my hands, they are claws of grabbing again), listening to ride-throughs...

It's just the attention to detail, the Victorian special effects that still work so well, everything from the wallpaper to the spiderweb to the cross-stitch. It's the fact that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Katemonkey at 1:29 PM on January 3, 2015

Or..... forever! (creepy laugh)
posted to MetaFilter by escabeche at 11:52 AM on January 3, 2015

We went to Disney World when I was a kid, and my dad, who is kind of claustrophobic, freaked out when the doors slammed shut behind us in the Haunted Mansion. He got out of the car and started pounding on the wall where the entrance door had been and yelling, "Let me out, let me out!" Everybody not in our family assumed he was part of the ride. He was still pounding and yelling when everybody else started in on the ride proper, but eventually somebody from... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by escabeche at 11:09 AM on January 3, 2015

> So.. If I'm going to be a racist piece of shit, do it directly, blatantly, and without consideration for why racism is bad. Got it.

This is a shitty way to engage in the conversation, if that's what you were trying to do. Please reconsider your rhetorical approach.
posted to MetaFilter by languagehat at 7:15 AM on January 3, 2015

Gene Simmons is Donald Trump in dragon boots. I LOLed loud enough for my neighbours to hear.
posted to FanFare by srboisvert at 3:03 PM on January 2, 2015

(Barchan's gender is listed as "Beyonce," so you might need to edit the blurb about her fitbit comment.)

I thought the preferred pronoun in that case was “bae.”
posted to MetaTalk by mbrubeck at 4:19 PM on January 1, 2015

It's easier to dismiss me as an unreasonable crank than it is to seriously examine and discuss moderation policies, sure

Bullshit. You present the position of an unreasonable crank, is the issue. We seriously examine and discuss moderation policies here constantly; what we don't do is come to the specific conclusions you want us to, for which you are endlessly regurgitating grumpy snipes at us.

So, fine,... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 12:54 PM on December 30, 2014

"Sooooooo.... what about the brother-in-law in the Witness Protection Program? Red herring?"

The brother-in-law (of Stephen Root's character) was in the Witness Protection Program. Malvo had been impersonating a dentist for ... what'd he say, six months? just to get close to Root and therefore to try to learn the location of this brother-in-law, who had a $100,000 bounty on his head.

Malvo was literally less than a... [more]
posted to FanFare by komara at 5:06 PM on June 11, 2014

Hawaii can be very expensive when you take into account:

- Roundtrip airfare
- Hotel / condo PLUS accommodations tax (13.416%, but 13.96% on Oahu) PLUS any parking or resort or cleaning fees (ouch).
- Rental car (including all of the taxes and fees) and gas (also much more expensive on the islands than the Mainland)
- Any entertainment & activities (luaus, snorkeling trips, whale watches in the winter, helicopter tours, surfing... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by kathryn at 3:05 PM on July 23, 2014 marked best answer

Neckbeards are not women, black people, or homosexual people. I think it is very important in these discussions not to confuse the two. Entitled white men with beards are not a despised minority with an entire system built around repressing them.

Neckbeardism may not be very nice, but it is not racism, sexism, or homophobia.
posted to MetaTalk by maxsparber at 1:06 PM on December 23, 2014

Exploring how the current technology and distribution (and content) don't work for a lot of people

"Podcasts suck! They're all bad!" doesn't even reach the starting level of "don't work" though. If what you want in a podcast app is for there to be no podcasts in them, I think the creators and app developers are going to have some difficulty with that as a feature. (Though the first iteration of the Apple Podcast app tried pretty hard.)
posted to MetaFilter by Lyn Never at 12:36 PM on December 22, 2014

PS: Thanks so much for sharing and discussing here. If you ever have a question about the show feel free to ask here - you might have to lmk on twitter or something that you've asked but I will certainly answer.
posted to FanFare by YoungAmerican at 7:39 PM on December 21, 2014

I wish subscribing was easier, and that seems like a solvable problem without changing very much. I wish people could make short clips, and cutting up mp3s in a player on a desktop browser seems pretty easy to do, but no one has done it yet. I also wish people could talk about podcasts with other listeners

The interesting thing about each of these observations is that they all seem to stem from the fact that Podcasting never got shoved into the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by schmod at 11:05 AM on December 22, 2014

maybe I would only be satisfied by a central podcast youtube- or blip-like storage house that would completely ruin everything podcasting stands for, but surely there's a middle ground

That's basically what Matt's talking about in the sense of aftermarket apps and centralized search. It wouldn't ruin "everything podcasting stands for" and it would change nothing about how people make and distribute their podcasts, but would make them... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Lyn Never at 10:08 AM on December 22, 2014

Also the refusal to edit themselves; there are a bunch of neatly-disciplined gems out there, but way too many amateur podcasts are just people shooting the shit improvisationally for a huge block of time without any interest in cutting out chaff.

DAMMIT GREG I'M RIGHT HERE
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 8:26 AM on December 22, 2014

I really like antennaPod on Android. It's free, and open source.

Subscription sync

The subscription thing is a problem. In the distant past, the common solution was Google Reader. You subscribed to podcasts with reader on your desktop, and the mobile apps all integrated with that. Yet another thing Google kiling Reader fucked up. There's alternatives like gpodder, but I don't think anything has the mindshare Reader had on the sync front.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by pwnguin at 8:20 AM on December 22, 2014

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, which is essentially a geological/ecological history of the world.

Or, alternatively, also by Bill Bryson, One Summer: America, 1927 which has a lot on Babe Ruth.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by damayanti at 12:31 PM on December 19, 2014

I thought the gravedigger joke the dude at the end made was funny. Then the article/comments call it unfunny. Puns aren't unfunny! Puns are awesome!
posted to MetaFilter by unknownmosquito at 9:14 AM on December 19, 2014

Our Crim Law professor was a good one, and she handled rape law well. When we began the section on sex crimes, she said something like, "okay, so now we're going to discuss sex crimes. This is a sensitive topic, so I expect everyone to handle this in a mature fashion. We'll all power through it. As I'm sure you all know, sexual assault is unfortunately fairly common - something like 1 out of 4 women are survivors of some sort of attempted sexual assault. We have to cover this material in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sticherbeast at 4:29 AM on December 19, 2014

🚺.metafilter.com
posted to MetaTalk by oceanjesse at 6:26 PM on December 17, 2014

In fact, A now hates B and never wants to meet her. A is so hurt by my backing out of this trip (and all the cutting back in the friendship we've had to do) that she wants to end our friendship if the trip doesn't happen.

On the one hand, this is a painful thing that sometimes happens and that's too bad because people are hurting. On the other hand: don't negotiate with terrorists. A should be making the bulk of the "sacrifices" because... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jessamyn at 3:23 PM on December 16, 2014

I thought the plan called for zip lines until SuperTrain was ready? What gives, Seattle?
posted to MetaFilter by SafetyPirate at 4:18 PM on December 16, 2014

sigh
posted to MetaTalk by Treaty of Westphalia at 12:05 PM on December 13, 2014

Sump'n Clause was pretty great, too.
posted to FanFare by Gary at 2:44 PM on December 14, 2014

BuzzFeed's editorial stance of writing for the legal marijuana market is quite forward thinking.
posted to MetaFilter by Nelson at 9:00 AM on December 12, 2014

Touchdowns will be awarded a value between 3 and 1200 points.
posted to MetaFilter by malocchio at 7:45 AM on December 12, 2014

Spoilers as well..

What do people think about the end? It's quite ambiguous but I tend to think he died jumping out the window and his daughter's reaction was in his head, just like all the Birdman/action imagery and telekinesis. In his fantasy, he is flying, and she finally admires him.
Other possibilities...
• He died on stage and the hospital sequence is in his head or "heaven." I don't really buy this theory because I don't think... [more]
posted to FanFare by starman at 2:23 PM on November 16, 2014

What do people think about the end?

I have a theory that he didn't jump at all.
It starts with a resigned Birdman in the bathroom, who is no longer a powerful force since Riggan has proven himself on the stage and was successful.
I do think the end, with his daughter, was part of the psychosis, but she is metaphorically "Seeing him fly".
What came after that? Was it meteor and jellyfish?
Meteor... [more]
posted to FanFare by Theta States at 7:18 AM on December 2, 2014

The design of that webcam page is almost as old as the bulb.
posted to FanFare by moonmilk at 6:29 PM on December 11, 2014

Whoa, I hit the blue. It's like 2004!
posted to MetaFilter by waxpancake at 3:26 PM on December 9, 2014

Can a MetaTalk post win the Best Post Contest? Because this gets my vote.
posted to MetaTalk by Ufez Jones at 8:49 AM on December 9, 2014

Greg Nog, The Whelk, and mathowie walk into a talent agent's office.........
posted to MetaFilter by schmod at 1:19 PM on December 6, 2014

Hari Kondabolu was robbed in Comedy.

I would have dropped Sarah Silverman and Louis C.K. for Cameron Esposito and Hannibal Buress, but it's close among those four. It really should be Hari Kondabolu, with Patton turning in an awesome effort that just wasn't as transcendent as Hari's, and Weird Al getting a nomination just for turning in a perfectly acceptable Weird Al effort.
posted to MetaFilter by Etrigan at 1:58 PM on December 5, 2014