MetaFilter

American culture is based on people who see themselves as Rocky but act like Rambo. It seems unlikely that this is going to change anytime soon for 2 reasons.

1. The incredible capacity for self deception that humans possess. Almost no-one who is "successful" in a field, no matter how illegitimate that success gets there by thinking of themselves as bad or evil or doing things that are wrong. If pushed, they will admit they were not perfect, that they cut... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 3:46 AM on March 8, 2015

I'm not a big fan of those Comedy Central roasts, but Norm MacDonald at Bob Saget's roast was just perfect.
posted to MetaFilter by xqwzts at 1:43 PM on March 6, 2015

In the late 70s, I went to my school district's annual track and field meet as a spectator. In one race, one competitor lapped the competition. I remembered his name: Kiefer Sutherland.

True story. Fucker was fast.
posted to MetaFilter by You Should See the Other Guy at 2:07 PM on March 5, 2015

You mod 16 years and whatya get?

Lots of praise and heaps of respect.
posted to MetaTalk by The Whelk at 1:27 PM on March 4, 2015

I am not a physicist, but while I'm sure this is a nice paper, the press release is silly:
- It's not a photograph, it's a chart of stuff;
- It's not "of" light, it's of the interaction of electrons with surface plasmon polaritons, which are quasi-particles that act like quantum-mechanical particles but aren't actually. They're just convenient ways of describing the behavior of light interacting with oscillating electrons in a conductor. As far as I can make out... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by goingonit at 2:33 PM on March 2, 2015

It hasn't always been called the KVLY tower -- the callsign was originally KTHI because the tower was so "high". They even had a mascot -- Katy High*, a 6-foot-1-inch beauty queen from Wisconsin.

* self-link
posted to MetaFilter by AzraelBrown at 1:06 PM on March 2, 2015

Everyone should have a song that haunts them and the opportunity to hear it again.
posted to MetaFilter by One Hand Slowclapping at 2:32 PM on March 1, 2015

Obama on Nimoy and Spock (whom he was often compared to):

Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. Leonard was a lifelong lover of the arts and humanities, a supporter of the sciences, generous with his talent and his time. And of course, Leonard was Spock. Cool, logical, big-eared and level-headed, the center of Star Trek’s optimistic, inclusive vision of humanity’s future.

I loved Spock.

In 2007, I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 1:35 PM on February 27, 2015

This.
posted to MetaFilter by ricochet biscuit at 11:31 AM on February 27, 2015

You Are Not Alone
posted to MetaFilter by brundlefly at 10:42 AM on February 27, 2015

I like to imagine him beaming up into the Heavens, transforming from black and blue into white and gold.
posted to MetaFilter by Kabanos at 10:15 AM on February 27, 2015

We know that he is wearing white and gold, instead of blue and black now.

RIP

.
posted to MetaFilter by shortyJBot at 10:14 AM on February 27, 2015

.

pure energy
posted to MetaFilter by murphy slaw at 10:10 AM on February 27, 2015

I believe this calls for colorful metaphors.

.
posted to MetaFilter by dislegomena at 9:46 AM on February 27, 2015

"We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead... Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human."

I grieve with thee, universe.

Live long and prosper. Peace and long life to you all.
posted to MetaFilter by inturnaround at 9:29 AM on February 27, 2015

Why do Republicans hate we, the people?

Because they love Benjamins, the money.
posted to MetaFilter by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:47 PM on February 27, 2015

“After everything I just want to go for the maximum of justice. I don’t want money, I just want my contract.”

Yeah uh huh, sure.

I dunno, if I had an insurance company in my thrall, and was able to extract unlimited wealth from a bunch of bloodless old white guys and their ever-dwindling pool of shareholders, simply because they made a spectacularly bad mistake twenty years previously while trying to woo my insanely wealthy... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mayor West at 10:21 AM on February 27, 2015

how have we gotten this far into the thread without anyone quoting the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition?

Several do or I suspect do apply:

1
Once you have their money, you never give it back.

Don't settle when you have them by the balls.

3
Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 9:06 AM on February 27, 2015

The huge ship thing is way more interesting than you think.

There is, in fact, a well known problem (among mariners) with amateur boaters running smack into huge ships at sea. This is cause caused by a strange confluence of four perceptual phenomena which work together to lure amateur sailors into danger.

First perceptual phenomenon: lack of navigational context. When you're on the water, it's often hard to tell exactly what direction your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Dreadnought at 7:40 AM on February 27, 2015

Getting a gig from the quality of your comments sounds to me more or less like having Hagrid show up at your door at age 11 and tell you you're going to Wizard school and you have a lot of gold.

Which may be as much about the quality of my comments as anything else, I suppose.
posted to MetaFilter by weston at 3:58 PM on February 27, 2015

This seems to be part of a weird octopi trading system or octopus to octopus challenge. You see, there's at least one other video of a land-walking octopus who leaves a crab behind. The people thought it was a gift for them, but why would that octopus have a gift for people?
posted to MetaFilter by filthy light thief at 2:45 PM on February 23, 2015

I don't remember why specifically, but the name "Breitbart" sends off the alarm bells in my head to not trust anything their media or they say.

Maybe it's because they're a bunch of small-minded, destructive, mean-spirited people who have no real agenda other than to lie and foment hatred of anyone too smart to adopt their scared little worldview.
posted to MetaFilter by holborne at 4:36 PM on February 23, 2015

I've never understood this desire to automate homes. Light switches and thermostats are amazingly simple to operate. There is no way to improve them that will make them simpler.
posted to MetaFilter by bhnyc at 8:50 AM on February 23, 2015

In the end, science is another institution, and there's no good reason to trust our institutions.

No. This is incorrect. It's the same false equivalency folks use when comparing science to religion. "You believe in science, and I believe in God. They're just different beliefs!"

NO.

Science is not an institution or a belief, it's a method. It is a very successful... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by leotrotsky at 7:41 AM on February 23, 2015

EVERY libertarian experiment is doomed to end as a fiefdom run by pirate kings. It's what we call "meritocracy".
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop at 7:20 PM on February 22, 2015

If the USA had a typeface it would be Comic Sans Bold.
posted to MetaFilter by cccorlew at 9:23 AM on February 21, 2015

If you wait through it, when they interview John Voight, you can see a teenaged Angelina Jolie looking a little bit peeved to be there.
posted to MetaFilter by xingcat at 9:35 AM on February 21, 2015

Seeing people get the Monty Hall problem wrong makes me want to bash my head into a wall just as a spectator.

Aw, man. As someone who couldn't wrap my head around the Monty Hall problem for like the first 20 years of my life, that seems pretty over the top. I hope you're not a stats & prob teacher.

The reasoning that finally made me understand is similar to Holy Zarquon's, above - let's say you picked the car first... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Joey Buttafoucault at 6:44 PM on February 20, 2015

Solution: incorporate. Once the bot's randomly tweeting for a corporation, there are no problems because corporate citizens can do and say anything.
posted to MetaFilter by XMLicious at 2:10 PM on February 20, 2015

Round Object Veering Everywhere Randomly?
posted to MetaFilter by quinndexter at 8:49 AM on February 18, 2015

That trailer did nothing for me either, but after the Simpsons intro I'll watch anything he makes.

ALL ANIMALS CAN SCREAM
posted to MetaFilter by mmoncur at 4:06 PM on February 17, 2015

Damn. I know it's tempting to knee-jerk on this subject, but that piece was really great and insightful. I urge everyone to read and absorb it.

It’s a different context, but the same lesson my dad taught me years ago–as a minority, you have to accept that you can only get ahead by working incredibly hard at technical, objective achievements that can be scored on quantitative metrics. Getting by on “intangibles,” on “being yourself,” on being vulnerable and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by naju at 7:01 PM on February 17, 2015

MetaFilter: Putting so much effort into not caring.
posted to MetaFilter by tonycpsu at 6:22 AM on February 17, 2015

“Explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process.” -E.B. White
posted to MetaFilter by locidot at 5:00 PM on February 15, 2015

The British and American leaders at the time certainly believed that Dresden was a substantial target worth hitting in force as part of their renewed efforts to push Germany to the brink – it was, after all, a key transportation centre, the apex of three major rail lines which served 28 army trains a day in February 1945, as well as a hub for the manufacture of radar equipment, gun sights, bomb fuses and other components.

If I had lived in England... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mayor Curley at 7:45 PM on February 14, 2015

Maybe you should check it agian now that you've given the bad guys a chance to sniff your login credentials.

Oh, someone guessed your maximum-of-eight-characters password? Hey, no biggie, we'll just use 2 factor authentication to verify your identity over the unauthenticated, plain text SMS system.

I swear, the financial services industry is completely staffed with mouth breathing booger eaters. Probably as... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by indubitable at 3:42 PM on February 14, 2015

One thing more lazy and tired than any SNL episode from the last 40 years is the same lazy, tired critique of SNL that you find in any discussion of the show.

"Over reliance on musical numbers these days" is the same as "In my day, Lego only made 2x4 bricks and we used our imagination" in that if one were to actually spend the time to collect data on the subject one would find that there may be spikes and valleys here and there but mostly it's never... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by bondcliff at 1:55 PM on February 13, 2015

“It wasn't that I wanted to be a writer; I just didn't want to be stupid.”
― David Carr, The Night of the Gun

/̵͇̿̿/'̿'̿ ̿

.
posted to MetaFilter by Fizz at 9:05 PM on February 12, 2015

At least the time-worn question is finally answered: did he have to, did he have to let it minger?


_{...I'll get me coat}
posted to MetaFilter by delfin at 11:56 AM on February 11, 2015

He was a really good substitute host, but I look forward to Craig Kilborn coming back from vacation.
posted to MetaFilter by dr_dank at 4:49 PM on February 10, 2015

Yep, straight down the line, there's not one character in the MCU that could be put in a room with Simmons playing JJJ and NOT produce pure essence of Marvel. Nick Fury? Steve Rogers? Natasha Romanov? Banner? Peggy Carter? Drax?

I may as well stop, because eventually I'll just list everybody.
posted to MetaFilter by Ipsifendus at 9:39 PM on February 9, 2015

This is great news, and I have some suggestions.

But really, how straight up baller would it be if they did the scene from Civil War where Spider-Man calls a press conference so he can reveal his true identity to the world for the pro-registration cause; He removes the mask, and HOLY SHIT it's Tobey Maguire as the 30something Peter Parker, meaning that the Raimi Spidey series never actually ended. It's still... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Strange Interlude at 9:18 PM on February 9, 2015

I wish they had brought back the boots he wore on the Moon though, that would have been awesome.

...He might have.

One of my favorite Armstrong stories is something one of my old bosses told about his family attending a party thrown by his in-laws; at the time, there was super-puffy snowboot popular with kids, which was nicknamed "the Moon Boot"; the boss's youngest daughter was three and had a new pair, and kept... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by EmpressCallipygos at 1:18 PM on February 8, 2015

The most annoying part, at least to me, is that there's alll this focus on one guy who egotistically exaggerted about being some kind of war hero. Not a good thing, of course, but it's basically just chest pounding. Meanwhile, there are entire "news" organizations whose entire reason for being is to shovel lies down the throats of its viewers, who happily swallow those lies whole and beg for more, and then go cast votes on that basis (vide the 2014 midterms). So... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by holborne at 8:17 AM on February 8, 2015

I'm also listening to Realistic Minimus 7s that I bought 30 years ago. Still great little speakers.
posted to MetaFilter by persona au gratin at 5:52 PM on February 4, 2015

One of the weird things about the shift from brick and mortar to online shopping is how our expectations of value and time have shifted.

Fifteen years ago, had you told a friend your stereo setup was on hold because you needed some connecting cables and you had to wait two days for them to ship, they'd have asked what the hell was wrong with you, when there is a Radio Shack right down the street.

Today, if you told a friend you were heading... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DirtyOldTown at 5:11 PM on February 4, 2015

Somehow, some way, this is Howie Long's fault.
posted to MetaFilter by Kafkaesque at 4:58 PM on February 4, 2015

At this point, I don't know if there's anything about my simple existence that doesn't destroy America.

Uncertainty is Ruining America
posted to MetaFilter by leotrotsky at 10:59 AM on February 4, 2015

I think the whole current state of the internet is ephemeral. My secret fear is that we spend so much time online that historical research of humanity at this point in time is going to come up too empty not too far down the road. It's all going to turn into oral tradition again, where people talk about what they remember the internet being like and the things that went on there. It sounds a little bit looney, but I'm genuinely concerned that not enough... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SpacemanStix at 3:49 PM on February 2, 2015

The medical community needs to take a harder stance, but they aren't helping themselves. Article over the weekend has an Arizona cardiologist saying "It's not my responsibility to inject my child with chemicals in order for [a child with leukemia] to be supposedly healthy. As far as I'm concerned, it's very likely that her leukemia is from vaccinations in the first place."

This isn't some Playboy model or washed-out comedian. It's a man with a medical degree... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MrGuilt at 8:21 AM on February 2, 2015