Of course, chiropractors manage to inflict a very dangerous (and occasionally fatal) arterial dissection on several people a year by manipulating the neck in a much more "gentle" way.

Looking at the geometry of these arteries, it's not hard to see how twisting the neck could pinch or even sever them - they pass through little "rings" on the vertebrae of the neck.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Crosius at 1:05 PM on September 24, 2008

Did anyone else immediately compose a Chuck Palahniuk book in their head about a couple who meets at the NYC asexuality support group? And it turns out that she's just there to meet guys and seduce them as part of a complex personal quest to prove there's no such thing as asexuality? And then she meets this one guy that she can't turn, no matter what? But then we find out that he's not only attending the asexuality support meetings, but also the sex addicts meetings, and he's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rusty at 9:48 AM on September 9, 2008

I relate so much to that Carlos kid. Like him, I was a gifted Latino kid. So gifted that, yes, people often asked me whether I was really Latino.

I am. My parents grew up in a village in Mexico and came to the United States as immigrants. I grew up in a 2-bedroom house that we shared with two other families.

Education meant nothing to my parents. I was sent to school because it was the law. By the time I was in 2nd grade, teachers were telling... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by vacapinta at 4:17 AM on July 24, 2008

The reason why fuel cells are interesting, the reason why current research is focusing on them, is that hydrogen is very explosive. While it stores a lot of energy per pound, though not as much as petrol, it is much more explosive. In order to have a normal car catch fire you have to set it in a Hollywood movie. In a nasty real-life accident, you have to be unlucky for the car catch fire. Petrol is just not that explosive. Hydrogen, on the other hand, explodes in a spectacular ball of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by randomstriker at 1:07 AM on June 15, 2007

I think it's be great if Stewart and Caterina started a GNE that in the end didn't turn out to be vaporware, because that 'alpha' was fun as hell.


They turned it on briefly a couple months ago and got everyone excited. That code and IP is, I am sure, owned by Yahoo since they presumably bought Ludicorp not Flickr. I'm not sure what the future is now but I hope Stew and Cat now realize they have the independence and resources to do what... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by vacapinta at 3:36 AM on June 19, 2008

I would arm myself with a stout stick, then venture into dungeons with low-level monsters (giant rats, kobolds) and kill enough of them to buy simple provisions while outfitting myself with better armor and weapons, continuing until I reach the upper bounds of level 12, kill the local dragon and live comfortably for the rest of my days.
posted to MetaFilter by klangklangston at 11:57 AM on June 11, 2008

I agree with damn dirty ape. Get a professional's opinion (i.e., the bank's). And then the police.

These two sound like poor life decisions from which no possible good could come to your Mom besides possibly a slight piece of mind and large amounts of possible harm could come to her.

I think it unlikely the bills are counterfeit, but what if it was even mostly legitimate but included a couple counterfeits from circulation? I... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by TheOnlyCoolTim at 4:32 PM on June 2, 2008 marked best answer

Sorry -- that this one link didn't work correctly. The option you want is "Retrieve Customer Number," on this page.
posted to Ask Metafilter by sportbucket at 3:31 PM on October 5, 2006

In the sub-basement of what was once an industrial park, the server continued asking questions to the void. The network was long-gone--the ethernet cables vaporized right where they emerged to the surface--but this didn't stop the server. It had a queue.

The third wave of bombings had collapsed the ceiling, destroying almost all the other racks in the room, but the server remained. It was closest to the large metal cage that held the enormous emergency power supply. It... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Ian A.T. at 5:20 AM on March 17, 2008

jepler: You've got the sentence structure slightly incorrect.

To rewrite your example- Dogs cats nip nip cats dogs nip.
posted to Ask Metafilter by zamboni at 7:41 PM on March 5, 2008

it depends on how big the drive is and on the drive's maximum sustained write speed. drive size multiplied by sustained write speed multiplied by 7 is your lower bound. be aware that (according to wikipedia, at least)
As of the June 2007 edition of the DSS C&SM, overwriting is no longer acceptable for sanitization of magnetic media; only degaussing or physical destruction is acceptable.
do you actually need to meet DoD 5220.22-M, or is this just a checkbox for a... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by russm at 9:22 PM on February 6, 2008

Airgorilla.com has been my best bet thus far, and some people have suggested Asian flight brokers, but the ones I've found advertising on Google don't look totally legit. Any ideas?
posted to Ask Metafilter by gramcracker at 11:46 AM on October 20, 2004

oh, and pay particular attention to this comment
posted to Ask Metafilter by revmitcz at 2:39 PM on August 10, 2007 marked best answer

Kosher Coca-Cola uses sugar.
Not entirely correct; all Coca Cola is kosher, even the stuff with HFCS, but only the "Kosher for Passover" Coke has sugar. Full story here.

They're not big producers but Jones Soda just switched from using HFCS to sugar. and I can find Jarritos at most local grocery stores for about $.75 a bottle The flavors can be funky like most Mexican sodas but they're made with real sugar, except Goya uses HFCS.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Challahtronix at 6:57 AM on July 13, 2007

Goatdog: United Nuclear will sell you 8oz of USP caffeine for US$16. If you toss 150mg in each soda, that much caffeine will take care of about 1500 servings of soda.
posted to MetaFilter by c0nsumer at 7:45 AM on July 13, 2007

I am a lawyer and I am a board certified specialist in Social Security disability law. However, I am not your lawyer and you should take what I say as general advice only.

It does not sound as if your wife is working; rather she is receiving a subsidy in order to receive health insurance. The Social Security Administration has very specialized rules for looking at what lay people might assume to be work. Over the years, I've successfully represented several claimants... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by pasici at 4:47 AM on July 10, 2007

Two anecdotes:

I found myself in the Philippines at one point, and snoozed in a bay of Mindanao. The armed government guards formed a loose perimeter about the encampment, and it was thought that we'd be safe from the NPA for a while. Besides, we were there on a medical mission.

There was a small inlet with shallow tidal pools. The water was very warm, and I lay down. Fell asleep. Forgot about the tides. Next thing I know, I was upright and... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by herrdoktor at 11:18 PM on July 8, 2007

This should be broadcasted far and wide: if it is an exact replica of you at the moment you entered the transporter, it would even be able to recall entering the transporter, but you'd be dead.

You're making some assumptions about how such a thing would work. Lets say I could prove to you scientifically that your body was getting destroyed and re-created every moment anyways. And that all the transporter did was add "space" between one... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by vacapinta at 9:09 PM on June 24, 2007

You can use python to do this without running a script. Just type this at the command line:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

Voila, current directory served up over HTTP on localhost:8000.
posted to Ask Metafilter by aparrish at 5:16 AM on June 24, 2007

I wouldn't read too much into it beyond 'assholes being assholes'. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that they yelled the same thing at you. It might be that the "you dropped something" is the current trend for assholes in your area.

You might try wearing headphones while you walk so you can drown out any would-be assholes. Or you could carry a gun and take pot-shots at the next fucker that messes with you.
/disgruntled jogger
posted to Ask Metafilter by puke & cry at 12:00 AM on June 21, 2007

Every time there's a thread on nuclear weapons, you have people like flabdablet posting who don't know what they're talking about.

Here is a very important fact about energy efficiency, which the green movement likes to hold up as a panacea because it avoids making tough choices about production: increases in energy efficiency don't reduce energy consumption; they increase it.

Money that is saved through efficiencies is reinvested in new... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Dasein at 6:59 PM on June 6, 2007

Also interesting: Metal Pen (US$30):
"The solid metal 'nib' consists of a metal alloy, that leaves a mark on most types of paper. If you use the sort of paper typically used in printers and photocopiers, the pen leaves a mark that looks as if it was made by a pencil. However the line will not smudge, and cannot be rubbed out.

Since there is no ink, there is nothing to dry out, so the pen will work just as well in 25 years time as it does today. And of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by mbrubeck at 9:39 AM on May 18, 2007 marked best answer

Seth Klarman is my distant acquaintance, and I have read the book.

First, you should understand just how good he is at managing money. The Baupost Group isn't doing anything super-secret-- no heavy math or Stevie-Cohen-style information trading. Rather, Klarman and his staff (many of whom have left him over the years to run Billions) practice good old-fashioned value investing, heavy on the balance sheet, heavy on reproduction costs and assets-in-use. The book doesn't... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kwantsar at 8:57 PM on April 30, 2007

In the fall of 1979, I wound up spending 7 weeks in Moscow, working an international trade fair, for production machinery, organized in cooperation with the U.S. State Department. Basically, our Boston based company was "recruited" by our State Department to participate in this, because our equipment was clearly not capable of dual use, and being largely mechanical, contained no high technology control systems which would have been problematic under export licensing restrictions. The... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by paulsc at 6:03 AM on May 13, 2007

In Michael Palin's excellent doc Himalaya, he gets his astrology chart drawn up by some Buddhist monks. You can read about it here and here.

"With a certain amount of apprehension I open my chart, which is headed with my Tibetan birthdate, the 1st day of the 3rd month of Water-Sheep year. With mixed feelings (mainly of relief) I read on. 'You were likely to be an elephant in your previous life, but you are going to be born as a daughter... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by roger ackroyd at 11:52 PM on April 25, 2007

Random stuff I know about our lemon tree:

- My grandmother bought it, grown, from a catalog, apparently they do not sell this variety any more. She bought it a couple (3-4?) years ago.
- We are in a zone 6b or 7a, and our lemon tree lives outside in its pot during the summer, and inside in its pot during the winter.
- It is quite small, around 4 feet tall, and about the same in width and breadth (basically spherical), and the branches are very... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by anaelith at 9:09 PM on May 9, 2007

The curse starts to end because Tohru loves Kyo. Kyo is the first one cured, Yuki is the last. I don't think anything is really explained.

(I didn't finish reading the manga. I just asked one of my students who Tohru ended up marrying.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by betweenthebars at 2:02 AM on May 9, 2007

I would say a possible reason men kill themselves more is that women talk out their problems and analyze their emotions far more.

No. We kill ourselves more to escape all the goddamn talking and get some peace and quiet.
posted to MetaFilter by Brandon Blatcher at 5:18 PM on April 22, 2007

You would, of course, have to be able to pray convincingly. It's not just a matter of bowing your head and looking solemn; you'll have to learn chunks of Arabic and some fairly complex patterns of movement.


Not necessarily. Many of the rubes that go on hajj, even from the Kingdom of Saud, don't know the basics of the prayer all that well. What would stop you, if anything, would be the consulate that you applied for a visa.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Burhanistan at 5:45 PM on April 5, 2007

I have this habit of saying "Don't die!". Take that as you will.

My whole family does this! Then it's awkward when I accidentally say it when I shouldn't.

I second "best wishes" and "all the best", but "don't get caught" is awesome too.
posted to Ask Metafilter by hypervenom at 7:25 PM on April 17, 2007

Or, ignore all of that and just tell me: what's the best bargain phone-plan combo that does a minimal amount of neat stuff?

SPRINT. SERO.

I signed up a little before Christmas when the plan was 'open' and got a treo 700wx for $300 with $150 rebate. By some act of god they sent me a $350 rebate. I have 500 minutes/month, free nights/weekends and unlimited 3G data for $30/month ($36 after taxes). The lack of text messaging... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by datacenter refugee at 5:11 PM on March 31, 2007 marked best answer

When I first moved to Chelsea as a 21-year-old from horizontal San Diego, I'd never even SEEN a fire escape, (except in the posters for "West Side Story" or "East Side, West Side").
The first night I moved into my apartment it was muggy and loud and everything I had dreamed of since I was 12 and and and my little iron platform was coated in decades of pigeon poo.
I LOVED it!
I was a real New Yorker!
i bought a couple of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Dizzy at 3:36 PM on March 20, 2007

I should stay out of those threads too. My mom cooks dinner then just leaves it out on the counter all night. Then by lunchtime the next day we might finish off what was left. Thats how it always was. It gets me a bit riled up that people are just throwing away food based on what I perceive as undue paranoia.

My mom has a really good sense of how long things really last because - get this - she grew up without a refrigerator! Most stuff can actually stay out for days.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by vacapinta at 1:14 AM on March 17, 2007

In fact there is even a word, mithridatism, which means the phenomenon of partial immunity to poison acquired by taking small doses. Mithridatism was named after Mithridates the Great, King of Pontus from 120 B.C. to 63 B.C. One of the legends of Mithridates VI was that he was worried that someone might try and poison someone of his stature so he created a universal antidote consisting of opium and honey.

The opium and honey would weaken the poison enough that he... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ND¢ at 8:26 PM on March 9, 2007 marked best answer

yhbc : Only slightly offtopic, have you ever tried to throw away an old garbage can? It's damn near impossible.

I have to toss old bins all the time, just put it out, upside down with a note tapped to it which reads "trash, please take". Works every time.
posted to MetaTalk by quin at 4:40 PM on March 8, 2007

This may be useful if the post office knows.
posted to Ask Metafilter by alexei at 12:51 AM on March 8, 2007 marked best answer

It is impossible to stop one's 'brain waves'. It is not even useful.

That is not entirely true; about 3-5 grams of sodium thiopental in an adult will cause EEG silence; this is useful when induceing a coma after a brain injury or in protecting the brain during deep hypothermic circulatory arrest for certain types of surgery. It doesn't sound like that is what is going on here, though.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by TedW at 4:29 AM on March 7, 2007

Ok. We are in agreement.

Based on the priceless info in this thread, if I were to manage Al Gore for his '08 run, I would advise:

Gore no longer quote from faggy Greek play writes — yet he must still use enough multi-syllabic words to let us know he is not dumb. Also to complete the effect Gore must then change his name to just "Gor." It's more eXtreme. Gor is coming!

To restore his Rock-credentials... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tkchrist at 4:19 PM on November 30, 2006

I also like these questions.. thought up by kids.

*How do you put a giraffe into the refrigerator? Correct answer: Open the refrigerator door, put the giraffe in, and close the door. This question tests whether or not the candidate is doing simple things in a complicated way.

*How do you put an elephant in the refrigerator? Incorrect answer: Open the refrigerator door, put in the elephant, and close the door. Correct answer: Open the... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by complience at 1:21 PM on February 8, 2007

In deference to Jess, I won't write the Tom post.

For the people who are interested in knowing what the heck she and I are talking about:

In the late 90s, the Internet was -- well, we were all there. A luminous chandelier of possibility. It was not hyperbole to say that the universe was unfolding in front of our eyes. Home pages were being bought and sold for frankly unrealistic sums of money. And there, face pressed wistfully up against the... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by felix at 12:41 PM on February 6, 2007

Pick the biggest one. Knock him down and plant your foot in the center of his chest. Mightily yank both of his arms out of their sockets and free from his torso.
This gives you have several advantages: among them, you have two jointed clubs that are absolutely grisly and horrifying, and you have the terror factor clearly on your side. Any number 5-year-olds that see you rip the arms from a child and begin swinging them will immediately forget any day of training and immediately piss... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by squirrel at 8:36 AM on March 23, 2005

Target Center has been stripped of anything that could readily be improvised into a weapon

Nonsense. Children and the short make handy bludgeons if swung by the feet.

Or you could tie a couple of babies together with a t-shirt or two and use 'em as a bolo.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:57 AM on May 6, 2004

Please use underscores since dashes between words aren't readable.

Google does not understand underscores, but does understand dashes.
posted to MetaTalk by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:10 PM on February 1, 2007

Some funny stuff there, Imperfect.

In all seriousness, if you're a duffer, the following tips will improve your poker game dramatically:

0. Play tight. Tighter than that. Really tight. If you're seeing the flop 25% of the time in a nine player game, you're probably not tight enough.

1. Out of the blinds, play only the following hands: pocket pairs, hands where both cards are greater than 9, suited Ace combos and suited... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by solid-one-love at 11:26 AM on August 18, 2006

I was in Mexico for a week and change in August. I speak reasonably good Spanish, mind you.

I never ran into any trouble with the authorities whatsoever, despite (at the time) having a pretty greasy looking beard.

My recommendations:
1) Avoid the backroads as much as possible. Bite the bullet and take the toll roads. The toll roads generate so much money that authorities are seriously disinclined to meaninglessly pull people over.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by The Giant Squid at 7:01 AM on January 26, 2007 marked best answer

Do not bribe the policemen. Many of us Mexicans would like to live in a corruption free country, and the first step is not to offer bribes.

You respect the law at home, right? So just do the same when you visit Mexico and you will have no problems. If the police pulls you over, just ask for your ticket (you can't pay it right there. That's the same as paying a bribe).

If you are worried about your documents, just show them to the policeman... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by clearlydemon at 7:44 AM on January 26, 2007 marked best answer

In Heaven, by Stephen Crane

In heaven,
Some little blades of grass
Stood before God.
"What did you do?"
Then all save one of the little blades
Began eagerly to relate
The merits of their lives.
This one stayed a small way behind,
Ashamed.
Presently, God said,
"And what did you do?"

The little blade answered,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by soma lkzx at 2:26 PM on January 23, 2007 marked best answer

Dreamsign: How about some really bad physics pickup lines?
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 2:31 AM on January 14, 2007

I second the Kim book.

But to be honest, even though I haven't had the chance to play Go yet, this PDF from the American Go Association does explain the basics and does go a bit into strategy and some ancient proverbs to keep in mind while playing.

Thanks for reminding me too, I wanna get into Go myself but I've been putting it off.
posted to Ask Metafilter by champthom at 11:09 PM on January 15, 2007 marked best answer

This isn't exactly what you asked for, but Portland's Willamette Week had (has?) a Chance Meetings section. I read it religiously when I was single and once saw two ads that were clearly about each other. The editors had thoughtfully placed them next together.

Example:
"Me, cute blond girl in SciFi section at Powells on 1/13, wearing purple skirt. You, rugged with beard, wearing Carhartts."

"1/13, Powell's. You... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by peep at 1:31 PM on December 6, 2006