MetaFilter

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

The fish (or lizard, or crocodile) suspended from the ceiling was a standard feature of the Renaissance wunderkammer or cabinet of curiosities. The best known example is the Museum Wormianum, where you'll find various exotic fish (as well as what appears to be a polar bear).

There's an interesting article by Peter Mason, 'A dragon tree in the Garden of Eden', published in the Journal of the History of Collections last year (abstract... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by verstegan at 1:36 PM on March 19, 2007

Jobs and minions may have succeeded in precipitating the Rapture: a craven image, running on "spirits in the air," evokes frenzied and idolatrous passions. Clearly only those who have the faith and goodness to withstand the shiny, evil allure of this forbidden fruit will be saved.

Witnesseth: Jobs + ATT + iPhone are an anagram of phoniest jabot.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rob511 at 1:20 AM on June 30, 2007

No, a littoral Viking.
posted to MetaTalk by languagehat at 8:57 AM on June 26, 2007

I answered something about the scale of (generic search engines) here. That thread has some very interesting information in general, as well.

The short answer to give you an idea: Google is estimated to have hundreds of thousands of machines, in dozens of datacenters (all the major search engine players typically do).

The number of clusters is large- several clusters in each datacenter I'd presume, each cluster representing... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by hincandenza at 4:52 PM on June 20, 2007 marked best answer

Don't do things that make you feel bad.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Brandon Blatcher at 3:35 PM on June 19, 2007

Here they are. Awesome; I never knew the word 'otoliths'.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Miko at 8:38 PM on June 12, 2007

"The Experience"? It is a newspaper not a ride at Six Flags. Let's see, I usually browse through the Business Sunday, Week in Review and read the Style section. I also make sure to read the wedding announcements so I can find out just how bad I am doing economically, socially and in the dating department.

The news section is okay, but is rather irrelevant if you have an Internet connection. The only reason I, and my friends, read the New York Times is for the... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by geoff. at 7:36 PM on June 12, 2007

I think it might be a good idea to take whats written here a grain of salt.

I don't know, is salt good for us or bad for us this week?
posted to MetaFilter by scottreynen at 8:25 PM on June 10, 2007

You know, it's quite a strange thing. The single most common adjective applied to Mister Rogers in this and other thread is the word 'creepy'?

I think I know why he strikes people as creepy. It's because his isn't at all 'cool'. There is no cynicism, no irony, no condescension in him at all. He is not simply unhip, he is ahip. And this is what people calling him creepy are picking up on.

We are conditioned to traffic in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 2:00 PM on June 1, 2007

I'll offer you advice I wouldn't be able to take myself (but then, you've already shown yourself to be a better person than I am): give up trying to raise her, and let her find her own level, but do not abandon her. The long result of your friendship, love, and example may be far better than you can allow your self to hope for right now.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jamjam at 4:15 PM on June 10, 2007 marked best answer

OPRAH

Thank you for coming, Sir. Let me ask you, have you been born blind? If not, how did you lose your eyesight? Was it painful?

HOMER

Here no wind beats
roughly, and neither rain nor snow can fall; but
it abides in everlasting sunshine and --

OPRAH

There is a lot of violence in your books. Do you find this troubling, the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by matteo at 7:47 PM on June 7, 2007

Her cloying, feigned sincerity, and her constant, ham-handed promotion of valuing false, voyeuristic sentimentality over genuine emotion has been one the most corrosive influences on our culture in the past 20 years.

And yet, much as I dislike her, she's a fucking Jedi Knight compared to AM talk radio. You want corrosion, go look there.
posted to MetaFilter by trondant at 9:02 AM on June 7, 2007

This surprises me. The pile of tires in my front yard is growing all kinds of flora. I routinely discover any number of nesting rodents, snakes, flies, and fetid pools of rich animal urine within whenever I check. It's baffling that they would be such wonderful terrestrial fomites but not do the same in the sea.
posted to MetaFilter by docpops at 10:11 AM on February 19, 2007

Etilico means ethanol, incidentally, it is not methanol if the label is accurate, methanol anyway is not distilled from cane (and what have you been drinking, damn dirty ape? Ethenaol? Methenanol? "Meth?").

I still wouldn't drink it. I still think Cat Pie Hurts is on to something: when the Mexican bottle tells you "do not drink," do not drink. It's not like enough cheap booze to knock you on your ass is hard to come by.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by nanojath at 9:59 PM on June 2, 2007

Pepsi..Brown? ;)
posted to Ask MetaFilter by wierdo at 6:26 PM on June 1, 2007

    **** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2 ****

 64K RAM SYSTEM  38911 BASIC BYTES FREE

READY.
BAN QUONSAR Y/N? █

posted to MetaTalk by Rhomboid at 8:44 PM on May 31, 2007

what would happen to the value of my stocks in Company X, as a private shareholder?

Almost always, you will receive more (either in cash, or in the market value of shares) than you had before the announcement.

Would they be exchanged for Company Y stocks?

"Consideration" paid to the target's shareholders, as it's known in the business, is almost always cash or shares of... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Kwantsar at 10:12 PM on May 29, 2007

I think it's awesome you knew to say vulva

I have a big diction.
posted to MetaFilter by GuyZero at 11:36 AM on May 25, 2007

Wait, what? I've been in many a swimming pool and I take a bath daily instead of a shower. I have a vagina. Water doesn't get in there unless I, uh, put it in there. And once I put something there, it doesn't float freely on up to my cervix, continuing onward til my future children could be born spitting it out.

The vagina's quite muscular (RRR!), and in the event something enters the lower part of it, I have to think muscles and secretions will normally prevent further... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by houseofdanie at 2:34 PM on May 24, 2007

I'm not really sure this is something that can be broken down for the general public! But I'll do my best (and humbly ask for corrections from the MeFi bar.)

To begin, one main rule of the game for plaintiffs in civil law cases is to see how quickly you can force your opponent to rack up litigation costs, incentivizing him to settle with you sooner rather than later. A defendant, on the other hand, wants to get a case dismissed as soon as possible so as to avoid paying... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by footnote at 4:20 PM on May 21, 2007

Oh, and, as to the question: no, the bear would consistently kill the fucking shit out of you. Wait, if you critically wound the bear while it's killing the fucking shit out of you, so it dies afterwards, do you "win"? In that case, go for it.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by nicwolff at 4:02 PM on May 5, 2004

Here in California there has been a big PSA campaign to encourage women to leave their babies at hospitals -- No Shame, No Blame, No Names (pdf). Some people thought that if women who could not care for their babies and needed secrecy could leave their babies at hospitals without being arrested, they might be less likely to leave them in dumpsters. So far, that seems to be the case.

Here, we have shame and blame -- all they need is to find the mother and print her name... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Methylviolet at 6:26 AM on May 18, 2007

Malor, we'll work post titles into the output so that comment history looks more like this:MeFi post "The Who reunites"
blah blah blah
posted at 4:56PM

Yeah, I agree, and another thing
posted at 5:53PM

Ask MeFi post "what's up with my foot?"

Go to a doctor
posted at 2:13PM

MetaTalk post "new UI for... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 7:38 AM on May 17, 2007

No, that doesn't work, actually you have to cast it into the fires of Mount Doom where it was forged.
posted to MetaFilter by grobstein at 8:22 PM on May 15, 2007

Dream Theater is art in the same sense that the paintings of topless barbarian women in a D&D manual are art.

Their next album is to be the story of a clan of otakukin fighting a war of expression with the corrupt adepts of the Berklee hand percussion society. Can the human reincarnation of Akira ever hope to best Jocko Nimblyfingers in a 12/7ths Afropop rendition of the Genesis classic 'Land of Confusion?' Can he invoke the eternal spirit of Fripp in time to save... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by bunnytricks at 3:16 AM on May 13, 2007

I don't see the point in declaring that a musician has "nothing to say musically" - it's incredibly arrogant. Yngwie himself says shit like that, and it makes me wish a candiru fish would jam itself in his dick.

I enjoy Dream Theater and a few other "prog" bands. I'm definitely not a rabid fan - though some of my friends are. Fanboys of anything are pretty terrifying.

I grew up listening to the soundtracks of Konami's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jake at 2:54 AM on May 13, 2007

I'd eat em, I get my eggs from my own henhouse and sometimes they will sit on the counter for three or four days before I even bother to wash the chicken shit off and cook them. Chickens do not have any of this fancy vagina over here and anus over there crap, its all cloaca baby, one multi-purpose hole and if you city kids think they wipe after pooping you are wrong. You boiled them and the water they were in and if that kills you then you you gotta play in the dirt and build up your immune... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Iron Rat at 10:42 PM on May 12, 2007

This is a great approach! Can you move ALL the relationship questions to that thread?
posted to MetaTalk by Kirth Gerson at 1:18 PM on May 11, 2007

With apologies to xkcd.

I have too much spare time.
posted to MetaTalk by EndsOfInvention at 1:57 PM on May 2, 2007

"(And where do the mushrooms grow?)"

In the Port Of Bello, of course.
posted to MetaTalk by mr_crash_davis at 6:10 PM on May 2, 2007

Is there a site that actually explains this, or does one need to be crazy from the start to understand?
posted to MetaFilter by efalk at 8:18 PM on May 9, 2007

I think some people need to realize the difference between sterilization (i.e. "having one's tubes tied"), hysterectomy i.e. "womb removal" (leaving the ovaries, oophorectomy (taking out the ovaries but leaving the uterus) and spaying (where they hack all the female innards out). For the sake of clarity.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by davy at 7:46 PM on May 8, 2007

Oh, you twats.
posted to MetaFilter by Firas at 10:30 PM on May 7, 2007

This is wrong. And what's more, I think that

[redacted]

and so you see, having seen all these examples, why this is a terrible idea and should be discontinued.
posted to MetaFilter by exlotuseater at 9:31 PM on May 7, 2007

Just calculate the average of everyone's provided latitude and longitude.
posted to MetaTalk by mendel at 4:13 PM on May 7, 2007

where did you prep?
posted to MetaFilter by caddis at 1:05 AM on May 6, 2007

a doorman shoed away an inebriated-seeming pedestrian who was acting as if he was trying to look up the dresses of women sitting on Netti’s front benches.

I thought the place seemed a little familiar
posted to MetaFilter by BostonJake at 7:30 PM on May 5, 2007

Christ; who the fuck cares? And jbickers, how old are you anyway, that you think this is of some importance at all?
posted to MetaFilter by yhbc at 9:03 PM on May 5, 2007

Update: Xteraco is apparently launching a music career.

the internets make me a bad person
posted to MetaTalk by decathecting at 1:30 PM on May 4, 2007

My husband and I took on a bit less than that amount of debt about two years ago, our income is higher, and we have no kids. Our credit was good, we had no trouble getting the loan, and our mortgage company said they regularly sold mortgages to couples with even higher mortgage/income ratios.

However. Please listen to what the folks above are saying. For me (the one who really wanted the house), it is a crushing weight. It limits my career and lifestyle options.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by onlyconnect at 10:06 AM on May 4, 2007

You really shouldn't post the key on metafilter--matt might get in trouble.
posted to MetaFilter by 09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0 at 8:46 PM on May 1, 2007

Oriole Adams doesn't mention another evolutionary pressure which leads to complex songs: countermeasures.

The primary function of bird songs is establishment of territories. It makes the birds spread themselves out evenly during nesting so that they all have enough hunting territory to keep themselves, and their chicks, fed.

But different species sometimes compete for the same food, and since their songs are different they ignore one another in... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Steven C. Den Beste at 11:20 PM on May 1, 2007

I'm not sure if this is the type of info you're looking for:

(from http://www.mentalfloss.com/trivia/facts/2006/11/)


Why do some birds tweet, while others sing, some quack, and the ones outside your bedroom window caw loudly at 5 a.m.?

A bird’s “voice” comes from the syrinx, which is the avian version of the human voice box. The syrinx contains membranes that vibrate when air from the bird’s lungs are passed... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Oriole Adams at 9:40 PM on May 1, 2007

Cribcage then you might like AstroSquid, which I meant to link with the other iDevGames above.
posted to MetaFilter by churl at 1:34 PM on April 23, 2007

It's a fine question. Michigan has a pretty serious consumer protection law. The OP is trying to figure out if it applies to his siutation. If you don't like the OPs attitude, you are welcome not to answer his question and I feel that some of the replies are already borderline JudgeMe as it is.
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 6:07 AM on April 24, 2007

Clearly there's agreement here, except for mathowie but i guess whe shouldn't listen to someone who has already been banned from the site once.
posted to MetaTalk by Catfry at 11:18 AM on April 22, 2007

This is a great game. Of the dozens of iDevGame entries over the years, the ones I still love to play include Kiki the Nano-Bot (3d puzzle game), Raptor (vertically-scrolling shooter), MAFFia (cartoony blow-em-up), and Black Shades (unique first-person-shooter).
posted to MetaFilter by churl at 5:48 PM on April 22, 2007

Nice work RiB. I only hope you have a beard.
posted to MetaFilter by Mr Bismarck at 8:15 AM on April 20, 2007