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This is pretty worthless, everybody knows the polling companies manipulate their results.
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 2:20 PM on April 2, 2013

Oh, and we have a batshitinsane tag for a reason.

Done
posted to MetaFilter by Stewriffic at 2:16 PM on April 2, 2013

29% of voters believe aliens exist

Lot of ambiguity with that one... there's a big difference between thinking there's probably life somewhere else in the universe and thinking that the greys are mutilating cattle and handing out rectal probings.
posted to MetaFilter by COBRA! at 2:11 PM on April 2, 2013

Were I Tennessee, I'd fill in that lake.

I seem to recall that lake was created by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which means that the State of Tennessee is unlikely to have any authority over it.

Of course, if Georgia were to succeed, they would find that they also did not have control of that water source, it being created and controlled by the TVA. Oops.

To me, this should end simply. Nobody took... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by eriko at 1:25 PM on April 2, 2013

Vinge's guns had some additional smarts in the actual bullets; the gun knew about when to throw the lead downrange, but then the bullets steered themselves after firing, resulting in near-perfect accuracy.

That was wild science fiction, twenty years ago. In 2013, it's halfway there, and the other half seems merely difficult.

Auburn University has been doing this very thing for a while already. I saw it in a documentary... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by RolandOfEld at 12:39 PM on April 2, 2013

It would be interesting if, when the gun "heard" someone say "Linux" around it, the voice of Richard Stallman would emerge: "I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by adipocere at 11:38 AM on April 2, 2013

THIS SIGIL WAS DELETED
posted to MetaFilter by PlusDistance at 4:50 AM on April 2, 2013

I am getting quite tired of Moffatt's belief that every female Who character has to be first and foremost a riddle to be solved, rather than an actual person.

I have a horrible suspicion that's how Moffatt actually feels about women in general.
posted to MetaFilter by webmutant at 12:08 PM on April 1, 2013

Contemporary American TV audiences in particular would find the Who that British fans and older fans are pining for tedious and too subtle. Me, I get where the criticism comes from, but I really don't care, because I'm just grateful as long as Who's still around in whatever form, because then it always has the possibility of getting better again. There were long stretches in the early years of the series that I hated as a kid, but to me, even those weak episodes were better than no Who at all.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by saulgoodman at 7:34 AM on April 1, 2013

Here's another point that bothers me about how the show is being run right now...When we first see the Doctor, he's living in seclusion as a 13th century monk. Now, who wouldn't want to see at least a few episodes of what it would be like to be a timelord living among 13th century monks? What does a timelord do in such self-imposed seclusion? That sort of juxtaposition could make for some brilliant writing, and it would give us a more fleshed-out view of the Doctor, sans all the constant running... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Thorzdad at 4:30 AM on April 1, 2013

Wait, did we just see a derail about Ta-Nehisi Coates being a bad father?

This does not feel to me like a refutation of his suggestion that people raise the stakes like crazy around this stuff...
posted to MetaFilter by running order squabble fest at 5:50 AM on March 6, 2013

And he can kick your cockatiel's ass.

oh yea? well my cockatiel's gonna... gonna... peek at you endearingly and make little cheeping sounds. so there.
posted to MetaFilter by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:33 PM on April 1, 2013

Yes, it sucked. But no, it didn't suck drastically more than any other games of the same period.

Oh... oh hell no. ET and the original Pac-Man game were totally completely suck, even compared to other games.

I mean, there are the great games -- Chopper Command, River Raid, Indiana Jones, Pitfall and Pitfall 2, Robot Tank, maybe Megamania, the stuff for the Supercharger if you count that as still being a 2600. And there were... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:51 PM on March 31, 2013

As someone who has had the opportinuty to spend quite a bit of time around non-hostile corvids, let me reiterate my point that they are better referred to as "hoppy-squawkies", though, In this instance, "hoppy-shakies" would be an acceptable substitute.
posted to MetaFilter by quin at 8:36 PM on March 31, 2013

I'm so glad someone else mentioned the Manic Pixie Dream Girl thing. I'm going to paraphrase a comment I made elsewhere:

Steven Moffat's stomping my face into a curb while yelling "YOU WILL FIND THIS CHARACTER INTERESTING! AND QUIRKY! AND BRILLIANT! AND YOU! WILL! LOVE! HER!". The only difference is that this time the curb is labeled "Oswin" instead of "River Song".
posted to MetaFilter by Mr. Bad Example at 1:18 PM on March 31, 2013

Note for all its vintage look that was a modern Triumph Scrambler; I don't think the TARDIS likes oil puddles. Also it means he didn't have to bodge on it for two or three hours to get it running, which would really have messed up the plot.
posted to MetaFilter by George_Spiggott at 11:49 AM on March 31, 2013

Oh, and computers DO NOT work like that, Moffat.

I laughed my head off at the typing really fast duels. But I've given up bitching about this stuff: computers are not privileged, television gets everything wrong. Cars do not work that way. Telephones do not work that way. Medicine most especially does not work that way. With one or two very recent exceptions, the police do not work that way (and there's less excuse for this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by George_Spiggott at 11:17 AM on March 31, 2013

For me, the new episode wasn't terrible, it just wasn't very interesting.

Oh, and computers DO NOT work like that, Moffat.
posted to MetaFilter by Kitteh at 10:17 AM on March 31, 2013

FWIW, I did an interview with a friend of mine who does home-brew Atari games, and he actually talks a bit about the techincal limitations. I thoguht that as pretty cool -- there's a lot of neat things that go into doing a game in such a small space - if you're curious, the interview is here.
posted to MetaFilter by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 3:46 PM on March 31, 2013

What does 'forking a repo' mean, anyway?

From the BÖC classic. Don't Fork the Repo.
posted to MetaFilter by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:27 PM on March 20, 2013

Living with a crow would be less like living with a pet bird and much more like living with a roommate that eats bugs.
posted to MetaFilter by Mizu at 2:59 PM on March 31, 2013

ugh corvids are so freaking cool. Once I had a crow follow me and play with me (repeatedly taking a piece of mulch from my hand with its beak and then flying ahead to meet me) over the course of a few miles' walk. It was some straight up St. Francis shit that I wouldn't have believed if it hadn't happened to me.
posted to MetaFilter by threeants at 2:35 PM on March 31, 2013

My God, it's full of Tsars
posted to MetaFilter by fullerine at 9:44 PM on March 30, 2013

Hmm, given that it's a huge crow and there's a seat in the bath, it could be a Japanese crow. They're smart. When pest control people starting destroying their big showy nests, Japanese crows started building big decoy nests to keep the pest control people occupied, and smaller nests elsewhere.

Maybe things have escalated since.
posted to MetaFilter by BinaryApe at 2:19 PM on March 31, 2013

You're all assuming that's a pet crow and not just a crow that's got its own house.
posted to MetaFilter by BinaryApe at 2:13 PM on March 31, 2013

Womens’ supposed greater sex drive was an argument for their inferiority, but once the assumption became reversed, no one argued that mens’ lustfulness was a sign of a fundamental irrationality that should preclude them from business and politics. Rather than a handicap, a large sexual appetite was positive once it came to be seen as a characteristic of men. Women, being passionless, supposedly lacked the drive and ambition to succeed.

Funny how that works.
posted to MetaFilter by GenjiandProust at 11:08 AM on March 31, 2013

NYU was most definitely not completely powered up. I can only attest to this after I received a $600 reimbursement check from them after my daughter spent a week in a hotel, because NYU's housing alternative was to offer 12-to-a-room accommodations in one of the few dorms that had power.

Hey, they didn't even contest it.
posted to MetaFilter by kinetic at 8:47 AM on March 31, 2013

Or as Jon Stewart called darkened downtown NYC; "Little North Korea".
posted to MetaFilter by R. Mutt at 4:43 PM on March 30, 2013

Actually now that you bring it up a substantial portion of Oppenheimer's biography focused on his skill at making varieties of vindaloo during his camping trips around New Mexico. Which led to the eventual selection of Los Alamos as the secret nuclear laboratory site.

Not joking.
posted to MetaFilter by hobo gitano de queretaro at 11:17 AM on March 31, 2013

The world cannot be disenchanted. Even advocacy for disenchantment becomes, inexorably, comically, an enchantment of its own, with prophets, with heresies and with its own pious mythography.

Where do I even start? Who advocates disenchantment? Nobody. What's the difference between "enchanted" and "passing oppressive laws against anyone who doesn't believe The One True Interpretation Of Some Very Old Fantasy Writing"? Everything.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 8:58 AM on March 31, 2013

If you're asking juries to apply the "smell test" why even bother having due process?
posted to MetaFilter by spaltavian at 9:13 AM on March 31, 2013

I'm not sure our justice system is any more terrifying than living in a city where all my public movements are monitored by the government without a warrant.

The US already has this, you just might not know about it yet.
posted to MetaFilter by LionIndex at 8:03 AM on March 31, 2013

Next up, arresting and prosecuting people who install secret compartments in people's homes, right?
posted to MetaFilter by rmd1023 at 7:48 AM on March 31, 2013

If he'd just laundered a billion dollars of cartel money like HSBC he could have gotten away with a fine, I guess hid real crime is being poor.
posted to MetaFilter by onya at 6:46 AM on March 31, 2013

And what has the effect been on drug use? Literally nothing, despite dumping 1.5 trillion dollars on the problem since 1970.

That's a raging success compared to the War on Terra.
posted to MetaFilter by goethean at 6:31 AM on March 31, 2013

Wow, America. Your justice system is terrifying. Is it any wonder you have such a huge prison population?
posted to MetaFilter by Decani at 6:12 AM on March 31, 2013

Oh, OK, now I get it. If x kills more people than y, then we ignore y. check.

I don't think it's a matter of "ignoring it", rather, it's a matter of logical consistency and scaling the punishment to the crime.
posted to MetaFilter by hapax_legomenon at 5:53 AM on March 31, 2013

Oh, OK, now I get it. If x kills more people than y, then we ignore y. check.

You remember that you were the one who brought up how drugs killed 200,000 people a year after someone said that killers get less jail time than that. I think it's a fair question: do you believe that tobacco CEOs should do more or less jail time than Anaya or is there something special about his situation that demands such jail time?
posted to MetaFilter by Green With You at 5:50 AM on March 31, 2013

"Drug abuse kills about 200,000 people worldwide each year, according to a new United Nations (UN) report. "

Just wait till you hear about the deaths caused by the designer drug "nicotine".
posted to MetaFilter by ymgve at 5:27 AM on March 31, 2013

I agree that drug abuse represent and enormous social problem. All the DEA agents, DOJ prosicutors, and prison contractors who lobby for unjust bullying laws that prevent treatment need to do jail time so that we can address addiction successfully. Aa a bonus, we'd avoid rediculous senarios like locking up guys who make otherwise legal car custimizations.
posted to MetaFilter by jeffburdges at 5:24 AM on March 31, 2013

So the hidden compartment builder should do far more time than the people actually smuggling and selling drugs?
posted to MetaFilter by drezdn at 5:06 AM on March 31, 2013

^ Even if he did know what he was doing, did he deserve 24 years in prison, non-parole? There are killers who don't do that much time.
posted to MetaFilter by Broseph at 3:34 AM on March 31, 2013

then use them all in the correct order

...wearing a false moustache made from cat hair.
posted to MetaFilter by daniel_charms at 1:08 AM on March 31, 2013

As these traps grow more complex, it seems inevitable that they'll continue to evolve into real life point-and-click/escape the room adventures, until they eventually reach Gabriel Knight 3 level of insanity. E.g. to open the secret compartment, you'll have to combine the gear shifter knob, turning signal switch and cup holder into an improvised tool to open a secret compartment under the driver's seat where you'll find something that at first sight looks like a spare ignition key, except if you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by daniel_charms at 1:06 AM on March 31, 2013

Well, they don't ask you to snitch on good guys.

I think some cops would like us to think of that as a tautology. Anyhow...

1) Sit in driver's seat (pressure sensor)
2) Close all doors
3) Turn on rear defroster while simultaneously pushing two window switches
4) Swipe magnetic key card across an air conditioning vent.
5) Hydraulic cylinders open a secret... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:44 AM on March 31, 2013

It's OK to sell guns to criminals. It's OK to launder their money.

But trick out their Escalade?

That's a paddlin'.
posted to MetaFilter by BitterOldPunk at 12:05 AM on March 31, 2013

Few people enough have clued into this that there is still somehow fan freakout when a beloved character bites it.

People freak out because comics companies hold an unjustifiable monopoly on their characters. Long, long after the original creators have died pop culture icons like Batman are still under copyright, likely to remain so forever (unlike public domain hero Sherlock Holmes, who occasionally appears in DC Batman stories without permission... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:15 PM on March 30, 2013

One thing that Wild Cards got right and Marvel mostly hasn't is the fact that the huge majority of mutations are not benign. The whole mutant rights theme is kind of disconnected from reality because in the Marvel universe, mutations allow you to fly, initiate nuclear fusion by sneezing, and grow really good weed just by thinking about it or whatever. So it's kind of hard to connect that to substantive issues. Maybe if they showed that there are really awful mutations in the Marvel universe... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by George_Spiggott at 1:52 PM on March 30, 2013

So artist makes some money by an implied promise of artificial scarcity. Now he's found a way to actually sell more by clinging to the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of the deal. Well, smart guy, I guess, if not a paragon of ethics. But I can't imagine why anyone would ever trust him again. I'd assume another generation of prints may turn up at Walmart next month, if there's any money in it.
posted to MetaFilter by tyllwin at 12:57 PM on March 30, 2013

This is as close as any of us are going to get to fights between dinosaurs. After all, these guys are raptors.
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 5:26 AM on March 30, 2013