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Most of the gifs in the gif thread did not make me laugh. Way too much FAIL. One comment, "so cruel yet so hilarious" seemed to sum up everything. (But the one near the end with the bodybuilder actually gave me a long-lasting smile. Still, until it looped, I was cringing waiting for the 'falls down' moment that never came.)
Gifs like this do make me laugh.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And yet, I know if I had submitted any of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop at 7:44 PM on June 23, 2015

For instance, there's a pretty obvious lift (even TV Tropes noticed so it's legit) from Orff's Carmina Burana into Horner's "Charging Fort Wagner"...

Not to trample on the man's grave, and I really do appreciate his works (and classical music has a long tradition of appropriation), but for a stunning example of borrowing in Horner's work, compare this portion of the choral theme from Glory here with this theme from Prokofiev's score for Ivan the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by a lungful of dragon at 8:21 AM on June 23, 2015

Battle in the Mutara Nebula still gives me goosebumps.

.
posted to MetaFilter by whuppy at 4:28 AM on June 23, 2015

Someone speculated what Richard Feynman would do with this puzzle, to chuckle-worthy effect.
posted to MetaFilter by Maecenas at 7:07 PM on June 22, 2015

I loved this song and I liked the article a lot.

(And despite my earlier comment, I will continue to like having every detail of 1993 documented in oral history until the one day I open a publication to find "What a Shit Time: The Highs and Mostly Lows of MCMikeNamara's Senior Year of High School" at which point I will be horribly embarrassed and the barrel will have completely scraped.)
posted to MetaFilter by MCMikeNamara at 2:09 PM on June 22, 2015

The lazy explanation of "mental illness" is a way of saying, "This action was not the logical consequence of a coherent (if evil) ideology. No ideology here, nosirreeeee..."

The ideology-that-must-not-be-named is white supremacy. White supremacy (and its handmaidens, misogyny and homophobia) runs so deep in this country that it is not even recognized as an ideology. It is an ideology that is internally consistent, and led to its own implied... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by overeducated_alligator at 7:12 AM on June 18, 2015

Reading Baldwin today:

"Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity."

And also this:

"I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea at 5:31 AM on June 18, 2015

I don't think it's fair to characterize Alvarado's citing of what they're seeing from the numbers as "we don't need the poor fans."

Any time you find the words "those people" at the tip of your tongue, you should probably think really hard about what you're saying and how you're saying it.
posted to MetaFilter by rocketman at 9:46 AM on June 18, 2015

Dr. Horrible looks over at his henchman... "You hear that? Endless free energy, from humidity. He who controls the damp, controls the universe! Your hour is now, Moist!"
posted to MetaFilter by Slap*Happy at 8:29 PM on June 18, 2015

"Peart is also an amateur auto racer, and something of an off-ramp connoisseur." I guess he would be, avoiding all those yellow air-cars. I also hear he's also fond of one lane bridges.
posted to MetaFilter by Rob Rockets at 8:13 AM on June 17, 2015

They choose cheaper, shelf-stable foods when more expensive, perishable ones are also in the grocery store.

Beep beep boop boop! I am a fully rational consumer who talks in a robot voice! I subscribe to leading medical journals and understand the basic chemistry of non-conjugated alkenes! I value shelf stability over coronary health! I am making an informed choice and have not had to spend valuable time seeking out pertinent information withheld by... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by compartment at 1:37 PM on June 16, 2015

"There's a link to a (pdf) transcript on the blog entry for each episode."

Thank you (and them) for that. It's such a relief to be able to just read the words at my pace and be done with the whole thing in five minutes instead of spending 25 minutes listening to people talk their way through it all.
posted to MetaFilter by komara at 3:00 PM on June 15, 2015

Old'n'Busted: There's a link to a (pdf) transcript on the blog entry for each episode. Here's the one for Video Store.
posted to MetaFilter by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:51 PM on June 15, 2015

My favorite is definitely the Koreans' observation that the Americans never carry an umbrella when it's raining and they always carry their (presumably water) bottles with them.

I never would have thought to note that and it is completely true.
posted to MetaFilter by maryr at 12:26 PM on June 14, 2015

Oh, and if you really want to confuse instead of amuse, do what I've done too many times... START by saying NOT "But seriously folks," or "All kidding aside," but rather "All seriousness aside..."
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop at 9:32 PM on June 12, 2015

I've tried to manage my communication via this quote from Kahlil Gibran*: "Half of what I say is meaningless but I say it so that the other half may reach you. "

Still, Poe's Law is good, as are Betteridge's Law, Murphy's Law and all of Clarke's Laws, but my favorite is still Cole's Law. Seriously.

*only 75% sure of attribution, based on my recent Googling... I originally heard it from a lesser-known media personality who was known for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop at 9:27 PM on June 12, 2015

Hey, guess what -- that school, South Central High, burned to the ground in 1910 [article starts on page 1, center of page], but was apparently rebuilt by the time this yearbook was published.

I just spent a few hours looking up some of these folks in old census records and stuff to see how they ended up (which is how I came across the article about the fire). The men are much easier to find, obviously, since their surnames don't change when they marry.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mudpuppie at 2:17 PM on June 13, 2015

Obligatory link to a raccoon stealing a doormat
posted to MetaFilter by Going To Maine at 8:05 PM on June 12, 2015

Wow. Seeing this makes me realize how stodgy and cautious the behavior of commercial planes typically is (not complaining! as a passenger, I approve!) and reminds me that these are, after all, flying machines capable of grace and audacity. It reminds me of this video of working draft horses playing in the snow--these heavy, dutiful, slow-trotting laborers suddenly released and reverting to the playful and agile animals that they are.
posted to MetaFilter by Kat Allison at 7:45 PM on June 12, 2015

I guess what I'm saying is that I really like this video. Thanks Metafilter
posted to MetaFilter by Quilford at 12:27 AM on June 12, 2015

I have always wanted to live in a city that has a tabloid with lurid headlines like that. There's something very, I dunno, weirdly cool about your city being chronicled by a seedy, tasteless, sensationalistic newspaper. It represents an interesting kind of reveling in misfortune and mayhem that says something about the nature of the city. These papers almost have a kind of blunt, crude writing and mocking tone that is throwback to early days of newspapering. These headlines seem to shout at... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jayder at 7:23 PM on June 9, 2015

Previously (in a comment): Every woman in every Disney/Pixar movie in the past decade has the exact same face
posted to MetaFilter by a car full of lions at 3:51 AM on June 9, 2015

Almost as good as this
posted to MetaFilter by Dr. Twist at 10:14 AM on June 8, 2015

So I think I've said elsewhere on MetaFilter, probably multiple times, that fictional pratfalls/real-life people falling down once I realize they aren't hurt is one of the easiest ways to make me laugh.

Outsourcing this to the robots TOTALLY WORKED.

I will obviously be first up against the wall after the robot revolution.
posted to MetaFilter by MCMikeNamara at 9:54 AM on June 8, 2015

The real news is that we've reached the end of the desktop computer.

They can announce Windows 10 as the "last version" because Microsoft - and most people - basically don't ever expect the desktop PC to ever again have any meaningful changes.

There will be no more new peripherals. They've all been invented.
There will be no new networking stacks.
The device driver model is finished.
64-bit address... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by GuyZero at 1:49 PM on June 5, 2015

A few favorite KiTH sketches:

Do Re Mi Song
Tappers
Daves I know
I Speak No English
Open Letter to the Guy Who Stole Bruce's Bike Tire and Open Letter to the People Who Watched the Guy Steal Bruce's Bike Tire
I work in a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zachlipton at 3:22 PM on June 5, 2015

Just a quick MeFi-related note, for those who are wondering: we've heard from several members about this, regarding our use of PayPal for MeFi donations, and we're working out a non-PayPal solution. Announcement to come in the next week or so.
posted to MetaFilter by LobsterMitten at 12:30 PM on June 4, 2015

My uncle was the first person I remember who had a CD player; I remember being totally entranced when I first held a CD up to the light and saw that cool rainbow effect play across it...an anecdote that now sounds like someone talking about seeing a magic lantern for the first time in the 17th century.

Anyway, when my family finally got a CD player a few years later I was basically the industry's dream consumer because I immediately replaced as many... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Card Cheat at 12:34 PM on May 28, 2015

Lest we forget, Lewis' catalog also includes "Walking on a Thin Line," which details the roiling inner-thoughts of a soldier in Vietnam, "Trouble in Paradise," which details the decline of a cocaine addict, and "Jacob's Ladder," in which the singer rejects Evangelical ideas of redemption in favor of trying to make each day a little better than the previous.

There are some tougher songs mixed in with the sort of music he's associated with,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by maxsparber at 10:23 AM on May 26, 2015

Prince showed them how to do it the year before

This sentence can be placed before a long list of musical innovations since around 1980 and still be true.
posted to MetaFilter by chavenet at 8:53 AM on May 26, 2015

Plus: "Stronger and harder than a bad girl's dream." COME ON.
posted to MetaFilter by dirtdirt at 7:26 AM on May 26, 2015

You cannot do this by hand; you cannot even do this with an Excel spreadsheet!

I need to work this phrase into more party conversations.
posted to MetaFilter by GenjiandProust at 2:52 PM on May 23, 2015

How about: The increase in police procedural dramas and "true grit" methodology-based crime specials - Combined with the reduction of atmospheric lead - have produced a better breed of criminal: There's just as many murders and robberies going on, but the criminals are too smart to catch, or in some cases, even detect.
posted to MetaFilter by Orb2069 at 3:32 PM on May 9, 2015

Bowling for Soup wrote a song about this called 1985.
posted to MetaFilter by Nanukthedog at 3:48 PM on May 8, 2015

I'm a bit older than I think most here. I was already in college by the late '70s. I'll never forget the summer afternoon I came home to find my mom rocking out to Blondie's Parallel Lines while preparing dinner. When I picked my jaw up off the floor, she told me that she had heard 'Sunday Girl' on the car radio and immediately drove to the record store to buy the album. She remained a Blondie fan until the day she died a few years later.
posted to MetaFilter by trip and a half at 3:35 PM on May 8, 2015

Who by very slow decay
posted to MetaFilter by bukvich at 10:22 AM on May 7, 2015

One of my favorite scenes in any movie is in High Fidelity when Jack Black comes on stage with Barry Jive and The Uptown Five (formerly Sonic Death Monkey) and he opens his mouth and covers Marvin Gaye and everyone is like "holy shit, he can sing!" Pure joy.
posted to MetaFilter by windbox at 9:17 AM on May 5, 2015

When did Jack Black turn into Meatloaf?
posted to MetaFilter by bondcliff at 6:16 AM on May 5, 2015

"No acupuncturists are up front about the reality of what they do."

If there's one thing that will solve this issue once and for all, it's categorical blanket statements.
posted to MetaFilter by Behemoth at 7:34 AM on May 4, 2015

Unfortunately, I am now in a place of defending Pam Geller.

She is a racist scum, but two wrongs do not make a right. Especially when the first wrong is racist speech, and then the second wrong is attempted murder.

Most days, I would hammer this woman as a disgusting pig. Today, Muslim extremists played right into her hands - and today, I will stand up and defend her right to be a disgusting pig.
posted to MetaFilter by Flood at 8:30 AM on May 4, 2015

You know it’s tough to say I can’t be there because my—my son had a Cub Scout meeting.

No it isn't. You say "I have an obligation. Get Phil to cover this till I get back" and then leave. If they fire you, you will find another job, especially as a professional.

If everybody did this, then they can't fire you. Idiocy like this hurts those of us who are willing to set good boundaries and have some sense of what is actually... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 6:39 AM on May 4, 2015

As a former consultant, I can 100% back this up.

It became VERY obvious to me, very quickly, that lying about what I was doing was better than the truth when it came to family. At one point my wife had to have emergency surgery resulting in me missing a client visit a 5 hour flight away, the president of the company actually asked me if it would be OK to to use the excuse "too hung over from partying with clients" because it would be culturally more acceptable.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by French Fry at 6:46 AM on May 4, 2015

From the same site, the greatest mullets of all time.
posted to MetaFilter by tickingclock at 7:06 PM on May 2, 2015

FYI: (2^31)/24/60/60/100 = 248.55
posted to MetaFilter by GuyZero at 10:51 AM on May 1, 2015

...So what if they just wrote rules on how to solve rules?

...He could see the beauty of the rule behind the rules, not a model but a metamodel.They had to define the problem in such a way that it could be solved without solving the problem

...Then the answer came to them—the glimmer of an answer, an elegant subplan that was like another little piece of DNA: Find the solution, it said, and stop... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Iridic at 6:26 PM on April 30, 2015

"A schlemiel is somebody who often spills his soup; a schlimazel is the person the soup lands on."

Macy's Jerry Lundegaard is the perfect embodiment of both schlemiel and schlimazel, and that is what makes him one of the greatest losers in the history of cinema.
posted to MetaFilter by Atom Eyes at 9:08 AM on April 29, 2015

He does shovel well. Very well.
posted to MetaFilter by tocts at 5:26 AM on April 29, 2015

He has my vote.

And my axe!
posted to MetaFilter by charred husk at 8:04 PM on April 28, 2015

I always assumed Anil Dash was actually famous and that I just consumed the wrong media to know why. Like how you turn 30 and suddenly half the people on the cover of People are of totally mysterious origin.
posted to MetaFilter by Eyebrows McGee at 8:45 PM on April 25, 2015

I really enjoyed reading this, as someone who checks his Twitter analytics quite a bit more than I'd care to admit. Something that struck me as particularly interesting is that he posted the stats for his account, and he has 73 times more followers than I do, but only 5 times more retweets and favorites in the most recent month. This is not to suggest that I'm somehow "better" at Twitter, but that there's probably a pretty dramatic diminishing returns effect to more followers, and that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Horace Rumpole at 6:32 PM on April 25, 2015