MetaFilter

Tape dispussy.
posted to MetaFilter by grobstein at 7:55 PM on January 8, 2023

>That's twisting his logic a bit. His point is that those few authors with long-lasting works don't deserve to have their copyright expire after 42 years and then have their books be republished by "pirates ... and they get the profit that properly should have gone to wife and children."

Either way, this a complete joke notion that doesn't play out in history at all. Companies usually end up owning any popular or notable IP, do not fairly compensate those... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by GoblinHoney at 1:50 PM on January 1, 2023

I don't think anybody's arguing a no-copyright stance, and for sure Twain would be on the same side as contemporary maximalists like Disney.

The thing is, before the Act of 1891 introduced international enforcement reciprocity, US copyright law didn't cover foreign authors either, just like the other countries that were "victimizing" Mr. Twain! Furthermore, to the degree that he ever blamed copyright for his financial woes, certainly it was to cover for his... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rhizome at 12:39 PM on January 1, 2023

a young guy I know was running a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop last summer. Delicious coffee. He had a sign in the window. EVERYONE SERVED EXCEPT FASCISTS AND CRYPTO BROS (something like that)

When I quizzed him about it, he said, "well, fascists are no-brainers obviously. But what's a crypto bro really? It's some guy who figures there's a way to game the system and get filthy rich without really doing anything of value to anyone anywhere. Nothing. Just be... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by philip-random at 1:45 PM on December 23, 2022

Please don't do this

Why not? or was Trump's speeches just chit chat with friends in the locker room?


Don't do what? I mean, we need to start organizing. it's not unreasonable to talk this way.

For one, I'm a PoC, and don't like the "our friends" language when we are right here. Two, I'd rather not be smuggled out of the country. Three, quit ginning up fear. Especially if you are white.
posted to MetaFilter by zutalors! at 9:05 PM on November 8, 2016

Also, as for his family? He did his best to keep gay and lesbian couples from being with each other on their deathbeds. So no, I don't care about his family.
posted to MetaFilter by spitbull at 2:29 PM on February 13, 2016

I like to think in terms of car payments assuming that you don't have a loan on this vehicle. $2800 is a bit more than a year of payments @ $200/month. How does that compare to payments on new (to you) vehicle on which you would have a loan?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by SemiSalt at 7:34 AM on February 5, 2016

If the choice is not overwhelmingly dictated by other factors, I try to choose the option that uses more human/renewable resources (usually, fixing a thing) than non-renewable/environmentally damaging resources (usually, getting a new thing that costs a lot of fossil fuels/water/etc. to produce).

So, of course you have to do what's right for you, but maybe take this kind of thing into account if you can.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by amtho at 7:41 AM on February 5, 2016

10 PRINT "THE SIMPSONS"

In high school, back in 19XX, I signed up for a computer class. We had some IBM time share terminals connected via phone line to the State Board of Education mainframe (rumor was, some really smart kids had figured out how to hack into unauthorized parts of this computer and changed their grades, etc etc) and a brand-new little row of Apple ][ computers in the back.

So after the first class, I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by flug at 7:20 PM on February 2, 2015

Malarkey is an entirely respectable Irish surname, they were a Donegal branch of the O'Connell clan, and their name means "He who just fucking lies and lies and lies and lies."
posted to MetaFilter by maxsparber at 9:41 AM on January 21, 2015

"People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough."

Yeah I mean, why compete with the classics?
posted to MetaFilter by overeducated_alligator at 9:36 AM on January 21, 2015

I don't get the criticism of all of AC/DC's albums sounding the same.

Nobody opens their favorite beer hoping for something different, right?
posted to MetaFilter by Renoroc at 3:16 AM on December 12, 2014

This just seems like the perfect situation for an underwater drone.
posted to MetaFilter by happyroach at 8:47 PM on December 7, 2014

He's not poor because he was a journalist. He's poor because he mismanaged all the money he earned, inherited and invested, as he says himself in the article.

He's also poor because he had a major heart attack and because his medical costs have risen enormously while his pension is fixed. He oddly downplays that in the article (to the point of saying directly "Unlike many who are born, live, and die in poverty, I got where I am today... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Dip Flash at 4:43 AM on November 16, 2014

Having kids is expensive in monetary terms, but it's also expensive in terms of time and stress. Being a working parent, and especially if your partner is also a full-time working-out-of-the-house parent, means you have very little time to get kid and household things done yourself, unless you want to pay for them (and that of course adds up). This is pretty stressful.

If American workplaces were more flexible and more realistic I bet you would see the fertility rate... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sutel at 12:16 PM on October 17, 2014

> photoslob, you'll hopefully be gratified to know that one of these douchebags pulled this on me awhile back in Lafayette, Colorado while I was out on a bike ride (and he also sped past, buzzed me, cut me off at a stop light and attempted to squeeze me into the ditch despite that I was in a 6' wide bike shoulder, which, being an old bike messenger who can guess what these nuts are about to do before they do it, I just gave him plenty of space and shook my head...)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lonefrontranger at 6:24 PM on July 6, 2014

> "... songwriting genius? I mean, really. Really? That...kind of creates a credibility problem for me vis a vis this writer."

Seven Grammy Awards, twelve Billboard Music Awards, eleven Country Music Association Awards and seven Academy of Country Music Awards. Honors from the Nashville Songwriters Association and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

From Rolling Stone: "... a songwriting savant with an intuitive gift for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kyrademon at 6:32 AM on July 6, 2014

So glad that I understand all these references now, which gives me a better appreciation of Lil Wayne. Maybe someone wrote it for him, but I think those references are killer.

Surely that tight knot of symbolism and consonance wasn't divined by a single mortal.
posted to MetaFilter by codswallop at 1:52 PM on December 31, 2013

> "So much of the post-Python work has been either totally, ridonkulously shit, or shamelessly cashing in on an increasingly weathered legacy (sometimes both!)"

Well, obviously.

I mean, except for Gilliam, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest film directors of the era.

And Cleese, who went on to win three BAFTA awards for Fawlty Towers, which topped the British Film Institute's list of the 100... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kyrademon at 3:38 AM on November 22, 2013

Also, here's how to send a refund. Do not send them a separate payment; that's how you lose money. The scam for refunds is for the buyer to request a separate refund payment. The buyer then finds a way for the original payment to fail (for instance, using a stolen credit card), and then they keep the separate payment.

You can't lose money by refunding a payment (of course, you also don't make money), regardless of if the money is in your account yet.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by saeculorum at 3:35 PM on November 24, 2013 marked best answer

Well, now this has happened. And it is spectacular.
posted to MetaFilter by TheWhiteSkull at 2:07 PM on November 21, 2013

I swear, I was typing Jinx and then I saw your jinx so that is some freaky jinx stuff.
posted to MetaFilter by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:38 PM on October 30, 2013

No, I owe YOU a coke!
posted to MetaFilter by Sara C. at 7:36 PM on October 30, 2013

I owe you a Coke.
posted to MetaFilter by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:35 PM on October 30, 2013

Jinx, Sara C. LOL.
posted to MetaFilter by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:32 PM on October 30, 2013

Jinx, Marie Mon Dieu!
posted to MetaFilter by Sara C. at 7:32 PM on October 30, 2013

aught: There is a connection between the first and being comfortable doing the second, you realize"

I believe that was the whole point of hippybear's post. It's a little unfair of you to take that opening sentence out of its context.
posted to MetaFilter by Lorc at 6:12 AM on October 30, 2013

Welcome to this week's drug hysteria. There's very little evidence that this is actually being used in the US. Krokodil is a product of the horrific drug prohibition in Russia, where codeine can be bought over the counter and heroin and methadone are much harder to find. Much of the damage you see in the photos is from necrotizing fasciitis and MRSA and other soft tissue infections -- the result of lack of access to sterile injection equipment more than the actual drug being used.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gingerbeer at 7:45 AM on October 16, 2013

You know which classes I took in college had the highest proportion of well-meaning but completely cotton-brained students?

My education classes.

True enough. These days it often takes well-meaning but cotton-brained to want to be a teacher. Then again, that might be why TFA is successful.

If many of the Teach for America teachers are doing as well as Education BA students, that's great.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by parliboy at 9:43 PM on October 9, 2013

I did one time ask a few friends if any of them wanted to come look at a house I was thinking of buying with me, because it was a little unusual and I couldn't quite make up my mind. EIGHT of them showed up. I apologized profusely to my Realtor, but she was like, "Oh, don't worry about it, this happens all the time! People love looking at houses!"

You just made me sad almost everyone I know rents. That DOES sound like fun!
posted to MetaFilter by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:36 AM on October 6, 2013

Reminds me of a Taiwanese woman I went to college with who would often observe how Detroiters are different from other Americans in X or Y way and after a particularly off-base one it dawned on me I was the only guy in her sample. That's how I learned Taiwanese women are fond of drawing large generalizations from a single instance.
posted to MetaFilter by BinGregory at 8:34 AM on October 6, 2013

I am the 100% opposite of birdherder. I rarely go to the movies, but when I do I buy the biggest bucket they have and eat it nonstop until it is gone.
posted to MetaFilter by Melismata at 7:23 AM on October 4, 2013

my local newspaper uses facebook comments so your real name and a photograph of your face are right there next to whatever you say

this hasn't deterred anyone from being virulently and violently racist, sexist and homophobic on the local newspaper's comment area

it has deterred me from commenting because i don't want the people making those comments being able to recognize me
posted to MetaFilter by titus n. owl at 1:40 PM on September 24, 2013

I tend to dislike this kind of list even though we see a lot of the same odd customer behavior in our used bookstore. Honestly, I really don't get the folks in the book business who dismiss popular genre fiction and the folks who love it. It's the business. Embrace that shit, dammit. Your customers will feel the love.

Anyway, knock wood, the mom-and-pop store that gives me full-time employment and health insurance is still doing well (cf my comment in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mediareport at 3:04 PM on June 16, 2013

That's a Clinton level move.

I disagree. A bizarre long-term pattern of behaviour executed so naturally that it's invisible until someone calls your attention to it (after which you can't stop seeing it)? That's a Riker level move.
posted to MetaFilter by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:19 PM on June 14, 2013

That was beautiful. Oh, and there's this:



Paul: It's a reporting. It's a narrating that young dudes are carrying the news. I take it that way.

Dave: No, no, i see the young dudes as they carry the news.

Dave: In addition to that we're alerting dudes by hey, dudes.

Paul: That line does that.

Dave: They're being put on notice.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Lorin at 10:09 PM on June 14, 2013

Why do so many British publications refer to AIDS as Aids? I know they understand what acronyms are, so I find this really weird.

Some style guides specify that you capitalize only the first letter of an acronym if the acronym is pronounced as a word rather than as individual letters. So UN but Unesco.
posted to MetaFilter by hoyland at 8:24 AM on May 18, 2013

Yay!
posted to MetaTalk by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:24 AM on May 14, 2013

Talk about history- I found a MeTa thread on favorites from 2007 that only got 13 comments.
posted to MetaTalk by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:28 PM on May 13, 2013

I also recall people getting all worked up over one person having a lot of favorites (like I did back when favorites were new and davey_darling had just favorited everything I did, giving me thousands more than most people). Now everybody has thousands and nobody seems to care anymore.
posted to MetaTalk by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:21 PM on May 13, 2013

I seem to recall at the time hearing that it was some sort of server issue; the server couldn't handle one person giving out thousands of favorite at one time.
posted to MetaTalk by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:15 PM on May 13, 2013

It is really a shame that all of you (other than rmhsinc) were forced to watch this short video. I wasn't even aware that MetaFilter had an official "Watch something you just KNOW you're going to hate, and then give us your opinion" policy. I've been missing the boat on all those rap videos that I know I won't care for. Believe it or not, I just don't watch them, go do something else, and keep my hands off the keyboard.

And, good for you, Kenko, for winning... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by HuronBob at 8:54 AM on May 12, 2013

Did you just... argue all of Eyebrows' minor points while neglecting to address the major one?
posted to MetaTalk by gensubuser at 2:58 PM on April 26, 2013

Matthew Yglesias—a Norelco marketing experiment to see if a hand-drawn Sharpie beard on a peeled potato could sell men's earrings—...

I've never heard of Mr Destructo, but I love him already.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 9:54 AM on April 25, 2013

Sadly, two generations of extreme gullibility was my anti-drug. My mother heard about how drugs would make you jump off the roof, thinking you could fly, and I was pretty sure, since my mother was generally right on most matters, that this was true, so I stayed well clear of the stuff.

The result of this was two-fold. First, I ended up holding the highest available civilian security clearance in our family business because, as my father complained, "I can't believe... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sonascope at 3:43 AM on April 17, 2013

"Do you get paid in the summer?"
posted to MetaFilter by alphanerd at 10:17 AM on April 14, 2013

Phish - Gin and Juice
posted to MetaFilter by sporkwort at 4:33 PM on March 17, 2013

Hmmmmm...
posted to MetaFilter by zardoz at 3:53 PM on March 7, 2013

I feel like my comment about WolfDaddy should be loud, laced with profanity, doused in gin, and followed by a long drag on a cigarette. That's how he would have wanted it.

Everything I try to write comes across maudlin and mopey and I can confirm that WolfDaddy would absofuckingloutely not approve of that shit for one minute. I can sort of hear him now. Not surprising that he could be heard from beyond the veil: that man could make some serious noise! If he heard me... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by jph at 5:24 PM on February 19, 2013

It's not Jewel's first time doing something like this either. I'm thinking back to 2003 when she used her execrable single "Intuition," which had lyrics like "You got something that you wantin' me to sell/Sell your sin/Just cash in" to sell Schick Intuition razors.
posted to MetaFilter by libraritarian at 5:31 PM on February 18, 2013