MetaFilter

New doc. Not overreacting.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by tilde at 10:26 AM on May 24, 2013

I hope the title is Skeets Shoots and Leaves
posted to MetaFilter by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 12:21 PM on May 18, 2013

I am a mathematician, and I've never heard this story. But I do want to say that basically all wacky stories about famous people's math Ph.D. defenses are apocryphal.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by escabeche at 8:45 PM on May 16, 2013

Maybe White Men Can't Jump?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mhum at 8:42 PM on May 15, 2013

First, have you considered bringing this question up at an Al-Anon meeting?

Second, I would make this the occasion during which you tell them that you will have campus police escort them off the premises if they arrive drunk or even slightly buzzed, and that if they don't want that to happen, they need to be 100% sober. Explain that you love them, but your graduation is more important than their need to drink (yes, it really is), and if they can't handle that, they don't... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by These Birds of a Feather at 8:56 PM on May 15, 2013

Why is your alcoholic parent attending your graduation? I don't expect you to answer publicly, but please think it over. Mine isn't.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by teremala at 8:54 PM on May 15, 2013

It may be too late but I would not even tell them when the graduation and reception take place.

If they've already been informed, I would ask them not to come drunk. "Please do not come drunk to my graduation. If that's not possible, stay home." Repeat as necessary. Don't discuss the topic or explain or get into a argument about it. Just repeat, "please do not come drunk to my graduation, stay at home if you can't do that." No matter how defensive or... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by shoesietart at 9:13 PM on May 15, 2013

No there isn't. I am sorry. I have been there.

I answered a very similar question about someone who was hoping to manage alcoholic family members at a wedding. I'll summarize here.

- you can not manage the unmanageable, even though I know deep down you feel that you can
- the stress you are feeling is more like misplaced stress at keeping your stupid alcoholic parents' secret for them, and things will be easier if you... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jessamyn at 8:57 PM on May 15, 2013

The article Moon Landing Faked!!!—Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories on scientificamerican.com makes a number of points, but the part that best helped me understand my run-ins with cranks was

Since a number of studies have shown that belief in conspiracy theories is associated with feelings of powerlessness, uncertainty and a general lack of agency and control, a likely purpose of this bias is to help people “make sense of the world” by providing simple... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by kmennie at 7:07 PM on May 15, 2013

Lethal Weapon.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by shallowcenter at 6:34 PM on May 15, 2013

If you want to find some common ground on this, you need to start by taking seriously how much of an impact it's going to have on her goals.

This is irrelevant and a distraction.

What we have hear is a critical basis of your decision to marry has changed. The issue to be brought to her attention is how her unilateral decision to delay is affecting your premise of marriage with her. This will help her in... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Kruger5 at 4:24 PM on May 5, 2013

I think people are being unnecessarily harsh and judgmental on this person. Any assumption that he's not going to take on a big part of the responsibility or he doesn't understand the toll preganancy will have on his wife is completely unfounded and off-topic. There is surely more to the story than he wrote.

The crux of the issue is that you married your wife on the under the assumption you two will be trying for a baby in a year. Now she's either changed her mind, or is... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ribboncake at 5:56 PM on May 5, 2013

She's a neurotic mess who likes to work her issues out on strangers. She thinks she's being hilarious in the Woody Allen movie in her head. In real life, she's a damn jerk. Don't think about this twice.

Dating is like parachuting into an egg factory as a way to make omelettes. You have to break all the eggs, one by one, and it takes forever, and you start to question if you even care about eggs or want to have sex with them, and then eventually you find an egg that's... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by RJ Reynolds at 12:19 PM on September 25, 2012

I made a point of saying she's already pigeon-holed me, formed by some preconcieved notion

This is where you lost. She likely wanted to see if you would submit or if you would put her in her place. You submitted. The problem is that she does not respect a man who would submit.

You mentioned that she was very sarcastic. I frankly would not have even gone as far as the date if I knew of her sarcasm from the phone or other... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Tanizaki at 12:44 PM on September 25, 2012

Okay. I'm gonna get crucified for this but...

The IPCC predicted that sea ice would be around until 2100. Now apparently it'll be gone in three years. Isn't that, like, a massive miscalculation? Wouldn't that prediction be considered pretty abysmal? What was the error margin on that?

Is there any explanation for the change that has caused this? Has CO2 emissions in the last five years worsened SO MUCH that it could fuck up a 100 year estimate in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sixohsix at 10:11 AM on September 18, 2012

Recovering Catholic here, and very agnostic. In the pugilistic early days of my non-belief, I'd really be tormented by this conundrum which I'd have solved by not working for a nominally religious institution in the first place. But these days, and given employment in a religious institution, I'd just ask him how he prefers to be called and leave it at that. And call him that out of politeness or respect for his achievements, regardless of whether you agree with him on matters of theology and... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Hylas at 5:14 PM on November 15, 2011

Read it twice.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by theodolite at 5:43 AM on November 16, 2011

Are we courting disaster?

The disaster part has already happened. You just haven't been informed yet.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by mhoye at 6:41 AM on October 6, 2011

There is no such thing as "the one," if by "the one" you mean "the only person I could ever love and be happy with long-term." However, if by "the one," you simply mean "a person, likely one among many, whom I could love and be happy with long-term," then yes, it is possible to meet and get into a relationship with such a person even if you've never been in love with anyone else before.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by decathecting at 6:38 AM on October 6, 2011

it'd be worth thinking about what exactly you want to protect your data from.

* accidental disclosure by an authorised insider
* malicious disclosure by an authorised insider
* access by an unauthorised insider (someone with legitimate access to your systems, but not the data in question)
* routine/non-malicious access by a system admin (someone working at your email provider)
* malicious access by a system... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by russm at 11:30 PM on December 28, 2010 marked best answer

You should pardon me for saying so, but if you don't already know the answer, then how can you be in that business?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Chocolate Pickle at 7:34 PM on December 28, 2010

The classiest goodbye I ever heard of was a friend of my dad's, who spent the last twenty years of his working life in a small office in a city building, doing a job he didn't much like but which paid well enough and which let him spend his weekends doing what he really loved, which was butterfly-watching in the countryside. Man loves his butterflies. But he didn't quit; he stayed there for year, after year, after year, watching the clock tick down towards retirement.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Catseye at 3:10 PM on August 11, 2010

Hey, if 90 percent of humanity just strove for competence, we'd be living in an earthly paradise.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 9:10 AM on November 18, 2010

Ooooo Metafilter reeks tonight. You know, because these two people are personally responsible for the state of the Congo today and the crimes of the past. Sometimes Mefites, you just kind of piss me off.

It's a cool story. There are definitely some translation issues here too - the connotations of the word "corruption" in French, Dutch or Flemish may not have the same connotations in English. I think it's an unusual application for "people who... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Xoebe at 8:30 PM on November 15, 2010

Silver, schmilver. If you want to bring down major financial institutions, frozen concentrated orange juice futures are the commodity of choice.
posted to MetaFilter by delfin at 8:22 AM on November 16, 2010

If you read the site, you'll see that many of these images are actually taken from comments made on previous images. It's not a straw man argument if it's an argument somebody has actually made.

I don't know about this.

Wikipedia seems like a fair go-to on this:

The straw man fallacy occurs in the following pattern[s] of argument:


Presenting a misrepresentation of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by silentpundit at 1:22 AM on November 16, 2010

Lots of the backlash, like so much anti-progress these days, is the stupid being manipulated by the cynical. Here in Massachusetts, the opposition to our Cape Wind project looks like this:

Proposed wind warm off the coast will be visible to incredibly wealthy landowners in the most exclusive parts of the Cape and Islands.
A few wealthy people form 501 groups with public interest sounding names (e.g. "The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound") to make... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mayor Curley at 2:23 AM on November 15, 2010

Bush isn't Hitler, in other words.

1 bush = 1.67 centihitlers
posted to MetaFilter by EarBucket at 9:49 AM on November 12, 2010

What does it mean to call someone a war criminal?

It means you violated the Geneva convention. A war of aggression under false pretenses is a violation of the convention. Saying Bush isn't a war criminal because he's not Pol Pot is equivalent to saying Baby Face Nelson wasn't a social criminal because he was no Charles Manson.

Bush isn't Hitler, in other words.

True. He was... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by clarknova at 8:43 AM on November 12, 2010

vidur: "Sydney Morning Herald has the best coverage of this story. Aaron Cook wrote:
The culprits are believed to be international groups known as ''trolls'' who brag about their work on YouTube. (screenshot)"

the Legendary On Line War Against Trolls (LOLWAT) is now... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by idiopath at 3:36 PM on November 11, 2010

Yep, you're Not Mom. But if you stick around, the baby'll grow to like you. And yes, it sucks for Mom, too, since she has to do *everything*.

We're on our fourth child and they all did it, but at different ages and for different lengths of time. The youngest, at age almost-three, just went from "No!" every time I turned toward her (before I even opened my mouth to speak) -- less than a week ago -- to suddenly this weekend singing out, "Good morning, Daddy!... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by wenestvedt at 11:10 AM on November 8, 2010

I'll bite. In Christianity, evil demons may be sent out of cursed people and into food. Evidently the wedding ceremony banished demons out of the relationship and into the cake. It's too bad that the husband had to eat one of the demons to learn that this had happened, but at least now you know the marriage is otherwise demon-free.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by foursentences at 12:58 PM on November 8, 2010

You're only allowed to be over the top in your arguments if you're trying to out-favourite the other good MeFites in your attempt to agree the strongest. Faze is great because he articulates unpopular views in a reasoned but forceful way, like he's from a parallel universe MetaFilter where the usual posters all share his views and he's just taking part in the discussion.
posted to MetaTalk by Space Coyote at 10:24 AM on November 6, 2010

This is the best thing Mick has done since "Some Girls".
posted to MetaFilter by inturnaround at 5:14 AM on November 5, 2010

Send child to religious school.
Support child's crossdressing whim.
Child has second thoughts, reassure him that all will be well.
trollface.jpg

Your religious peers are predictably judgmental.
Post surprised, angry rant on the Internets.
rofolcopter.gif
posted to MetaFilter by clarknova at 11:44 AM on November 4, 2010

Maybe it's just my experience growing up in a small town, but this is a bit worrisome. Knowing that you're standing up for what's right is small comfort when you're getting your face kicked in. The kid's fine for now, but what about junior high and highschool?

The problem with encouraging your child to stand up against social norms is that you're also encouraging your child to get harassed by his peers.
While it's important to be able to stand up for your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Stagger Lee at 11:33 AM on November 4, 2010

Then as we got closer to the actual day, he stared to hem and haw about it. After some discussion it comes out that he is afraid people will laugh at him. I pointed out that some people will because it is a cute and clever costume. He insists their laughter would be of the ‘making fun’ kind. I blow it off. Seriously, who would make fun of a child in costume?

I'm as happy as anyone else that Boo's mom is going to be so supportive of his lifestyle... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 11:31 AM on November 4, 2010

Easy peasy. Look for Octavia Butler. She plays with some of the traditional SF tropes, like aliens, but deals very frankly with difficult choices women must make in affecting the outcome of both themselves and greater humanity. Sherri S. Tepper is also great, but more spacey. Oh, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Really terrific, grounded realistic dystopian SF.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:45 AM on November 1, 2010

Here's a paper that we worked on that connects perception and psychology directly to computer security. I wouldn't say it is foundational work in the same sense as the other ideas you cite, but in talks I've given, it does appeal well to security folk because it shows how to apply psych ideas to their work.

S. Egelman, L. Cranor, and J. Hong. You've Been Warned: An Empirical Study of the Effectiveness of Web Browser Phishing Warnings. CHI 2008.
http://doi.acm.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jasonhong at 3:35 PM on October 28, 2010

Don't vote! Don't do it! And let me tell you why.

Voting is an agreement to be bound by the outcome of the election. You are agreeing to let a slimeball or an ineffective leftist or a fringe candidate lead the government to certain failure. And you're saying "okay by me!"

If you vote, you have given up your right to complain by agreeing to live with the consequences. That's what it is all about.

If you don't... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jph at 3:04 PM on October 25, 2010

I'm left with the same frustrating BASIC question(s) - starting with: when these guys say "particle" it seems like they are not talking about a tangible thing but rather a set of behaviors. Is that right? Is there an actual thing there? Or is it really just "we looked over there and then that happened"?

That's actually a very deep, and very good question. There's a point of view called Instrumentalism which says that the actual... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 4:58 AM on October 21, 2010

@victors Good question! In a way, yes, it is a set of behaviors discovered by observations. Based on those observations, patterns are discovered. Then the patterns are interpreted by creating models.

If you read about Rutherford you see that shooting "alpha particles" at a sheet of gold created patterns on a sheet of ZnS. Those patterns were the beginning of the model called 'atom'. Atoms were once so small no one... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Twang at 2:10 AM on October 21, 2010

katilla, my point is that she's not vapid- she's obviously reasonably bright and isn't really suffering from a youth coasting entirely on looks; this is not like the article Heidi Montag might write in 20 years, or Anna Nicole Smith were she alive and the money all gone like her looks.

She was then and still is incredibly lovely, and even her point here (and I loved this quote):Like everything else in life, there is always... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 1:22 PM on October 21, 2010

How to construct an Archimedes death ray, Obama style:

Get a wooden boat
Get soldiers in a parabola, centered at the boat, and give them polished bronze panels to reflect the sunlight (let's call them DEATH PANELS).

This works best if the boat is filled with old people.
posted to MetaFilter by qvantamon at 6:56 AM on October 19, 2010

I guess after reading that, I can see the semi-poetic angle. Understanding something on a scientific level removes a bit of the fun that you can have with your imagination. The stars are balls of incandescent gas. They are not angels looking down on me. It's the same way people will revere crappy movies -- they don't need to uplifted by a good film. They just want popcorn and car chases.

But it also shows the limit of their imaginations that they cannot hold the science... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Cool Papa Bell at 7:27 PM on October 8, 2010

""A giraffe is a fucking miracle. It has a dinosaur-like neck. It's yellow. Yeah, technically an elephant is not a miracle. Technically. They've been here for hundreds of years…"

"Thousands," murmurs Shaggy."

Just give me an intravenous drip of this stuff. I think I could actually live off of it.
posted to MetaFilter by dgaicun at 5:50 PM on October 8, 2010

Southerner here from the other side of the mountains in Asheville, NC.

It was different in Florida because Florida isn't the South. Florida is Cuba and Manhattan/Long Island, relocated. (We used to say "I'm going North, to Florida", jokingly.) Nothing down there but Latinos, yankees, serial killers and tourists. The age distribution being what it is in Florida, if anyone bothers you they'll be dead in two years, anyway.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by FauxScot at 1:39 PM on September 30, 2010

The essential issue is that western liberal democracies are ill equipped to handle unbridled corporatism - they have goals and motivations that are completely at odds with each other.

Many people conflate "corporatism" with "capitalism", most believing they are one and the same. They are not. It is possible to have a robust capitalism that answers to the social imperatives of democracy, however the corporate aspects of capitalism are entirely at odds... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Aetius Romulous at 4:30 AM on September 24, 2010

My big question is about work/life balance - "What can you tell me about the company's culture in regards to work/life balance?" Just say that. If they ask me more, I say, "Well, I find I'm most productive when I have clear breaks from my work, otherwise I'll always be working," and smile. That gets you out of it.

I realize that in asking it it is likely going to be a flag for slave drivers. That's fine, I don't want to work there if you're a slave... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by micawber at 11:41 AM on September 21, 2010 marked best answer

Mr.Thomas was the greatest middle school earth science teacher ever.
He opened the class by drawing a perfect circle on the chalkboard (an amazing feat in and of itself). He put a dot in the middle and labeled it, "Pleasant Hill, Ohio". He then declared that the Earth was a flat disk and that Pleasant Hill, Ohio was at its center.

We said he was stupid and wrong. He challenged us: "Prove it."
There were pictures from the moon.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by charred husk at 11:21 AM on September 17, 2010