MetaFilter

Is this something I'd need liver spots to understand?
posted to MetaFilter by Citizen Premier at 9:18 AM on September 18, 2007

This is excellent. Can't wait!

Another company selling out to corporate interests.

Yeah, right, dude! It was keeping their archives behind a pay wall that made me know they were still righteous! Now that they're going to let me read their entire archives, I realize their true evil!!!!

Christ, lefties bore me sometimes.
posted to MetaFilter by languagehat at 5:22 PM on September 17, 2007

> These people pride themselves on their clever dick understanding of the intricacies of markets but
> they still don't know who is sitting with the shit sub-prime debt

Warren Buffet, with all his experience reading company balance sheets and digging the truth out of financial reports (and with his Mr.-Investor-of-the-last-100-years record of success doing this) said several years ago that in many cases he was no longer able to figure out how much true... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jfuller at 3:05 PM on September 17, 2007

I have a couple of mates that work in the City, one at a major, the other at a boutique investment house, and both said that many senior analysts were shitting their pants about the volatility of the markets and looked as if they hadn't slept all weekend.

These people pride themselves on their clever dick understanding of the intricacies of markets but they still don't know who is sitting with the shit sub-prime debt and they know that the liquidity... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ClanvidHorse at 2:11 PM on September 17, 2007

I wouldn't be quite so sure of the quality of the NR loan book. They have a very low default rate which is a definite plus, but on the other hand they've been a prime mover in the UK's shift to mortgage types which would I believe would be regarded as sub-prime in the US: high loan-to-income ratios, high loan to value ratios (their 'Together' mortage consisting of a 95% mortagage plus a 30% personal loan was very popular), stated income loans etc etc.

Northern Rock was... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by pharm at 1:09 PM on September 17, 2007

I thought 1997 was the new 1996.
posted to MetaFilter by rocket88 at 1:28 PM on September 17, 2007

I don't like the @ notation either.

--Todd Lokken

On Sunday September 16 WCityMike Wrote:
>Quoting September 16, 2007 12:17 PM   Subscribe
>I'm wondering if (a) we
>might be able to get a baked-in quoting ability, or (b) someone could
>help me figure out why Plutor's quote script isn't working for me.
>
>I'm on a Mac and am using Firefox with Greasemonkey,... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by nowonmai at 1:23 PM on September 16, 2007

+========================================================================+
¦ On Sunday, September 16, 2007 at 11:54 AM PST smackfu wrote: ¦ ¦
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ ¦
¦ ¦
¦ The people who are quoting just using italics and no username in this ¦
¦ thread seems to be understood just fine.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Rhomboid at 1:08 PM on September 16, 2007

I knew it.

My condolences to his family and friends, it's always a tragedy to lose a loved one.

To his fans (and his disgruntled fans): you had to know this was going to happen. If I did you should have too.

To those who haven't read The Wheel of Time books:
1) Read the 1st three or four books of the series
2) Make up an ending that satisfied you
3) Sleep peacefully
posted to MetaFilter by djeo at 7:20 PM on September 16, 2007

FUCK. I knew this would happen.

. For him and is family but .......................................................... for everyone who stuck with him through 5 GOD AWFUL books hoping that someday he would recapture the magic of the first 3 or even the mediocrity of the next 4.

George RR Martin, here's to your health buddy!
posted to MetaFilter by T.D. Strange at 6:57 PM on September 16, 2007

It is rather a signal event.

You could argue that his genes are the very first in the billions of years and trillions upon trillions of genomes history of life on this planet to have contrived to find a way of reproducing themselves entirely, in numbers and with almost perfect fidelity, into the indefinite future-- and they have done so into a previously almost unexploited habitat.

Other individual organisms were ahead of him of course, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jamjam at 1:40 PM on September 16, 2007

Such smacks of vigilante justice.

I think the only way your prostitution scenario would work is if there was some huge amount of money to be made in the curtailment of prostitution. You would need money to set up the office, hidden cameras, survelliance teams, hire the "massuses" and so on. You probably wouldn't be able to do it unless you we're independently wealthy or someone was paying a huge bounty on every "John" caught in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Avenger at 2:13 PM on September 16, 2007

Very annoying.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhomboid at 3:10 PM on September 14, 2007

The painful part about the blink tag is when you print the page. You have to time it just right so that it prints when the text is on rather than off. I have to print it several times sometimes before I get a good one.
posted to MetaTalk by George_Spiggott at 10:11 PM on September 13, 2007

Oh, man. If the dog could vote, I'm sure he'd be all for the greasy spot option.

OK, if she's peeing while you're away, that sounds like she's very dependent on you and is angry/scared/punishing you for abandoning her. (On edit: If she likes the dogs, my suggestion that maybe you get another cat to keep her company is probably a bad idea. She'll probably go all good cop/bad cop on it as she does with the dogs.) You could try keeping her -- and a dog or two, so she... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by maudlin at 6:37 PM on September 14, 2007

Lesson: If you start driving your car and notice that you are too drunk to drive - keep driving until you are home because if you are caught sleeping it off on the side of the road you are going to get arrested for DUI.

Yeah, that ought to save some lives...
posted to MetaFilter by any major dude at 1:45 PM on September 14, 2007

This is pretty standard. How are we to know the guy in the car had not been driving earlier?

Since when is "how do we know he didn't commit a crime?" sufficient to convict someone of a crime?
posted to MetaFilter by callmejay at 12:49 PM on September 14, 2007

We're a society that is outright obsessed with punishment.
posted to MetaFilter by Pope Guilty at 12:39 PM on September 14, 2007

There has been a tremendous lack of restraint on this issue on many fronts.

The "problem" here is the following passage in the Archeological Survey of India's affidavit to the Supreme Court:
... contents of the Valmiki Ramayana, the Ramcharitamanas by Tulsidas and other mythological texts, which admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature... cannot be said to be historical record to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the cydonian at 9:11 AM on September 14, 2007

"Pselliarmus!"
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rob511 at 4:05 PM on September 11, 2007

Why not have them pose in the secret underwear instead?
posted to MetaFilter by jonmc at 6:58 PM on September 13, 2007

"God is dead."
- Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is dead."
- God

"Nietzsche is God."
- The Dead
posted to MetaFilter by Godbert at 2:48 PM on September 13, 2007

vorfeed, the tryouts for the libertarian soliloquy contest are down the hall past the women's bathroom in room 504; there's a little stand-up sign with white letters pointing the way. Watch out for the puddle, the janitor said he'd clean it up
later. This is the chess club.

I'm not a libertarian. One would think the fact that I put societies on an equal level with individuals in my post would have tipped you off. Since it didn't, for your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by vorfeed at 2:44 PM on September 13, 2007

I'm just disappointed I can't pay in livestock.
posted to MetaFilter by Pollomacho at 10:22 AM on September 13, 2007

Needs more sea monkeys.
posted to MetaFilter by StickyCarpet at 3:39 PM on September 12, 2007

“Darwinism and Cartesian dualism are rather at odds on the relationship between human and non-human animals.”

Yes. Which makes it so weird that we find it in people who are otherwise not dualists. My theory is that human exceptionalism (and superiority) is so deeply enmeshed in western culture via Judeo-Christian doctrine (that is not replicated anywhere else, mostly, except in the remaining monotheistic, patriarchal faith) that it's taken as a given... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ethereal Bligh at 3:57 PM on September 10, 2007

Irene Pepperberg had this story that she would tell sometimes, about when she was at the MIT media lab. The powers that be had come around to see what she and Alex had been working on, which was phonetic pronunciation of appropriate sounds when shown a refrigerator-magnet letter (so, if shown an S, Alex was supposed to say 'ssss', and an N, 'nuh').
Alex was expected to do somewhat more than usual, while the bigwigs were there, and he wasn't given treats as reward, so as not to slow... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zusty at 9:00 AM on September 10, 2007

I sleep fine.

He goes to bed on the pile of cash he has, not the pile of bodies we wish he had.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 12:17 PM on September 10, 2007

j-urb writes "NFL players throughout countless hours of training and preparation are indoctrinated into a certain mindset that causes the player to concede his own physical and psychological well being for the sake of entertainment."

... and a dump truck filled with cash.
posted to MetaFilter by krinklyfig at 4:52 PM on September 9, 2007

You know what I am struck by, at this late and horrible stage of the game?

I am struck by wisdom. Not the very, extremely, expected foolishness that led the US and others into this war. I am struck by the wisdom of those at the start of this who adamantly and vociferously stated that this was the wrong thing to do at the wrong time, with the wrong people and the wrong level of planning. At the time, and this is so easily forgotten, those people were castigated for being... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Kickstart70 at 7:02 PM on September 7, 2007

I mean, extreme hot or extreme cold - either way it's going to suck.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

- Robert Frost, 1920
posted to MetaFilter by nasreddin at 3:02 PM on September 7, 2007

Anyone who has a joint they would like...

That sentence did not end like I thought it would.
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 9:24 AM on September 7, 2007

You obviously have no idea what you're talking about -- because there's little that's more hideous than abandoning the weak and the vulnerable to predators, to my mind. And I'm guessing if it was your mother or somebody that you loved in that situation, you'd be singing a very different tune -- but hey, principles have always been more important than people, haven't they

Pretty strident, don't you think? Man, you must be just ecstatic that the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by splice at 12:32 PM on September 6, 2007

Are the British completely fucking insane? Did someone read 1984 and go, "Wow, that's the kind of society *I'd* like to live in." What happened?
posted to MetaFilter by signalnine at 9:13 AM on September 6, 2007

Black cab drivers (as opposed to their unlicensed minicab counterparts) must pass a gruelling test of local geography known as The Knowledge.

That is so fucking racist.
posted to MetaFilter by papakwanz at 8:05 PM on September 5, 2007

"Mayo found that rather than deny a false claim, it is better to make a completely new assertion that makes no reference to the original myth."

Myths and mythology have an interesting effect on the human mind. Telling people they are wrong will rarely change someone's mind. My experience matches up with the research -- it seems that even referencing the the myth will reinforce it.

I was raised as a staunch... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Nerro at 8:59 AM on September 6, 2007

> including the iTouch

The iPod Touch. Sorry to be pedantic.

Look, I know I sound like the world's biggest jackass. That apology was sincere. But for my own sanity I have to call people out on this i-Whatever stuff. The thing is, I work for an Apple reseller and my coworkers and I are punished daily by this. Here, I will give you an example.

Customer: Hi. I need to buy some memory.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by churl at 11:03 PM on September 5, 2007

Remember, like, two months ago? When I shelled out $600-some-odd-dollars for an iPhone?

Yeah, who's the idiot now?

It's me.
posted to MetaFilter by kbanas at 9:59 PM on September 5, 2007

If you think this is bad, wait for the law of unintended consequences to rear its ugly head.

If this lawsuit proceeds, Verizon will be forced to define in precise terms what spying on a call is and what it isn't in order to minimize their damages. If His Emminence is correct that a 120M calls were "spied on", what is spying?

Regardless of your or their definition, if the fines are only levied on a subset of that 120M, that will mean... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 11:41 AM on September 4, 2007

No, such comments should not be deleted, unless they can be conclusively proven as trolling (a quick scan of a users posting history would be one way of indicating this).

I know that a lot of people who read Metafilter click on the comments before clicking on the actual link itself, and I am one of them. Like me, if I read a lot of comments in a thread that said the link was crap, it helps informs my choice of whether to still click on the link or not. I may still click... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Effigy2000 at 5:50 PM on September 1, 2007

Die in Vancouver and your sole does not go to heaven.

Mystery widens. Police, victims defeated.

Must stop typing.
posted to MetaFilter by hal9k at 4:13 AM on September 2, 2007

Hang on a second. I think I know what this is all about. They put a right foot in, they pulled a right foot out, they put a right foot in...

Did these feet seem... shaken in any way?
posted to MetaFilter by pracowity at 3:49 AM on September 2, 2007

My little animated friend died halfway through the questions.
posted to MetaFilter by hal9k at 12:58 PM on September 1, 2007

I am just looking for a used car...what is all this?

found in archives when typing in random user names
posted to MetaTalk by ALongDecember at 9:53 AM on September 1, 2007

I remember as a child not being able to firmly clench a fist for some time after waking up each morning, and wondering why.

Now I live in NYC, so I pretty much wake up with both fists clenched every day.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by hermitosis at 9:34 AM on August 31, 2007

Congrats on your short-sighted, causes-as-many-problems-as-it-addresses "fix" to the issue that is tangential to the problem. Perhaps Congress is the next step?

YES! FINALLY!

/me removes my Clothes and prepares for vigorous and repeated Bouts of Congress
posted to MetaTalk by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:30 AM on August 31, 2007

House Minority Leader Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City, said the ruling illustrates the need for a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

"I can't believe this is happening in Iowa," he said. "I guarantee you there will be a vote on this issue come January," when the Legislature convenes.

Recent history has clearly shown that anti-gay legislators are real cocksuckers.
posted to MetaFilter by effwerd at 5:05 AM on August 31, 2007

If I recall, we lost the img tag due to a potential security exploit that had not been done by anybody at this site. Some folks believe that was a convenient excuse by the site's management to save them the trouble of cleaning up after pissing elephants. But I choose to avoid that kind of cynicism myself.

Yes, exactly. I do believe that img was stripped because of the goofy "let's flood this post with images" thing more than the possible... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by taz at 3:54 AM on August 31, 2007

We can't limit tehloki's favorites! His random multiple-favoriting is the only thing standing between me and the depressive void of "no one listens to me" nothingness!
posted to MetaTalk by amyms at 1:16 AM on August 31, 2007

Here's another take on it...

The idea of the [poor] moray, getting raped by some fishermen then tossed back into the water. Well... you know those crazy stories people tell, of aliens coming down to some isolated field a couple of miles from the trailer park, doing some wacky "anal probe" experiment, and then letting them go?

You realize, right, that those now make a whole lot more sense? That the idea of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 1:08 AM on August 31, 2007