MetaFilter

"Siri, place an order for one of those new Amazon Kindle tablets."

"I don't understand what you mean, sir."

"Siri, I can't remember the name of it. It's a Kindle tablet that runs Android. Just order one."

"Do you mean an iPad, sir?"
posted to MetaFilter by perhapses at 1:39 PM on October 4, 2011

In other words, something HAS to be fishy.

Oh, that's just Jim.
posted to MetaFilter by maqsarian at 10:45 PM on October 2, 2011

The Amy and Rory Timeline, as I can best make sense of it this season (OBVIOUSLY THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS):

December 25, 2010 (for all intents and purposes): Amy and Rory are honeymooning, and rejoin the Doctor, and conceive a child on the TARDIS.

Mid-April, 2011: Amy and Rory have been separated from The Doctor for some time, without any way of contacting him or assurance that they will ever rejoin him, and without explanation for their being... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Navelgazer at 10:09 PM on October 2, 2011

haha! so many football questions.. to me, THAT is gay.
posted to MetaFilter by ReeMonster at 2:58 PM on September 26, 2011

My Congo African Grey picks up stuff REALLY fast. Sometimes he'll piece together stuff that's hilarious.

Yesterday I was sitting next to him reading, and he was preening quietly so I told him he was being really good -- giving them attention when they're not screaming gives them the option of not screaming when they want attention, so I try to do this a lot.

His response? He said in a friendly tone, "You're a really good Nattie. Haha.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Nattie at 12:43 PM on September 15, 2011

/makes note in diary: '28 August 2011 - jaded hipsters jaded about Doctor Who'.

Seriously, what do you want? The old stories? 'Oh my, something terrible made of paper mache is on this tiny ship made from cardboard and might hurt this handful of unimportant people! What's at stake? Bugger all! What will happen? You only have to wait six long episodes to find out!'
posted to MetaFilter by obiwanwasabi at 1:54 AM on August 28, 2011

A whole lot of axe grinding and damning with faint praise for very little in the way of a point.
posted to MetaFilter by T.D. Strange at 8:43 AM on September 15, 2011

So Netscape said to a guy named Brendan, who worked at Netscape, "Please make us a programming language. Also, you have to call it Javascript.

The "look like Java" mandate came early, but the name was "Mocha" from May 1995 until around September, IIRC, where it became "LiveScript" (to match Netscape's "LiveWire" server authoring CMS PHP-like offering with browser-based HTML editor). Only in early December did "Bill Joy,... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by BrendanEich at 1:32 PM on September 10, 2011 marked best answer

OMG you guys what if the diamond planet is the pulsar's wedding ring and its totally like gaymarried to another pulsar
posted to MetaFilter by robocop is bleeding at 9:51 AM on September 13, 2011

I have kids (really good ones, healthy, intellilgent, compassionate, polite) and I don't resent them, but if I came back again, I'd want to do it without kids next time. They can be incredibly rewarding, and just as incredibly frustrating & worrying, and sometimes I feel really inadequate as a parent. Lastly, a lot of my dreams and hopes were justifiably pushed aside in order to meet my kids' needs. I agree with Stacey, having children works out best if you really, really want to... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by b33j at 9:16 PM on March 11, 2008

> But you're right that people too often invoke "cultural expectations" as an excuse for all their behavior, as if you have no choice but to do what you're "expected" to do.

To joel and others who find his "tone" so terrible:

I've been a pretty anti-establishment guy my entire life - but this particular social pressure to be exactly ONE WAY when you have a kid and have the script for new dads... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by victors at 7:19 PM on September 25, 2010

How to stop a baby from crying.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by essexjan at 7:32 AM on September 6, 2011

Sleep is fascinating and even after decades of experimental research we only have a fragmented understanding of it.

Sleep has internal structure made up of two primary components: deep sleep, in which bodily processes like breathing and heartbeat slow down and the brain mainly produces slow-wave rhythms; and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is when most dreaming occurs. There are many competing explanations for what different components of sleep are supposed to... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Nomyte at 10:44 PM on September 5, 2011

You owe me an apology, Matt.

Mark, here's your history here. You find outrageous news stories from dubious sources and drop them here with flame-bait style headlines and setups. You did this about President Bush so much you got banned. In the past we've had problems of you using "summary quotes" from stories where something inflammatory wasn't actually stated by anyone in the article but paraphrased by you.

In this... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 8:22 PM on September 1, 2011

Except in pubs, people seem to form queues spontaneously at shops, cash machines (ATMs) or anywhere else they have to wait.

There's generally a queue in the pub as well, its just an invisible one in everyone's head.

Queuing is definitely part of the national psyche here. People moan about kids not being brought up badly and not queuing properly but that's just kids being kids and it's always happened.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by garius at 5:39 AM on October 22, 2008

Lucas wanted to do this in the film since he first made Return of the Jedi, but the technology for Vader to say "Noooooo" just didn't exist until now.
posted to MetaFilter by gerryblog at 4:11 PM on August 31, 2011

Geez. That's ridiculous. Why let the audience imply Vader's inner turmoil through his silence when you can club them over the head with it? Why have some small drop of drama, when you can have schmaltz?
posted to MetaFilter by Thorzdad at 3:43 PM on August 31, 2011

I've just figured that this is what happens to all couples eventually.

Nope. It's not.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ook at 1:32 PM on August 27, 2011

So the tone of the thread has moved far away from what I wrote, but since I wrote it:

The gender-specific (and IMHO problematic) framing of the MeTa aside, I have to say that I agree with salvia that "bitch is a word that can be used in very sexist ways, but to me, I'm realizing, it isn't inherently and always sexist." I agree that "bitch" isn't always sexist. But to me, in the AskMe, it's being associated with a very specific sexist interpretation of... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by verbyournouns at 11:02 PM on August 28, 2011

The lesson I'm getting from this call-out is:

Men calling women bitches = bad.
Women calling women bitches = doublebad.
Anyone calling men assholes and jerks = acceptable.
Anyone calling women assholes and jerks = possibly also acceptable.

Assholes good. Bitches bad. Got it.
posted to MetaTalk by katillathehun at 9:22 PM on August 28, 2011

Here's Jobs in June, before the Cupertino City Council. He appears to be challenged in terms of vitality. The one thing that does stand out is his impatience (suppressed, but barely so) with some of the clueless queries put to him by the City Council members.
posted to MetaFilter by Vibrissae at 4:13 PM on August 24, 2011

According to meteorologist Tom Skilling, it was actually much the same, at least back in dinosaur times.

Dinosaurs lived from 245 million to 65 million years ago, and the same kinds of cumulus clouds that you observe in our present-day summer sky assuredly populated the dinosaurs’ sky as well. The laws of atmospheric physics are immutable. Even assuming the gaseous composition of the Earth's atmosphere was somewhat different during the age of the dinosaurs, the nature of... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jessamyn at 7:36 PM on August 22, 2011

I've seen fire and I've seen wang.
posted to MetaTalk by bardic at 6:27 PM on August 22, 2011

I am guessing she could be compared to a professional ice skater but again, there is a market for professional ice skaters.

Nothing personal here, but the fact that there is no market for some sort of super-awesome skill someone has sort of makes it even more amazing not less, in my personal opinion. I mean, I get that this just pushed your buttons in a number of ways, but reducing everything to whether you can exchange cash for it turns a world of... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 11:26 AM on August 21, 2011

Metafilter: coming in your eye since 2031.

I'll just show myself out then, shall I.
posted to MetaTalk by elizardbits at 7:31 PM on August 19, 2011

Sorry I don't have time to dive into this discussion; I knew this one would lead to a lot of arguments :)

But to clear up a point or two, zompist is right—there are some subtle problems here, and I was looking at the math pretty carefully (at least, carefully for a webcomic). Information theory is one of my favorite areas, and I spent a while recently working on practical password cracking, which is what I based a lot of this on. I tried to pack in as much context as I... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by xkcd at 9:17 AM on August 10, 2011 marked best answer

Shouldn't we strive for some sort of decorum?

Speaking only for myself, i think the decorum we strive for is the sort where people are generally decent to each other and have good conversations about ideas and whatnot. I know we're not always doing this, but that's the decorum that i strive for. I notice in places that have more bright line rules that govern language, they're not actually conerned with decorum, just the line after which the FCC will... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 7:00 PM on August 17, 2011

I looked just very briefly at their site and immediately started noticing stuff like

"...they choose us, hand's down."
"...She faced three obsticles."
"Each Day You Delay In Securing Your New Job Cost's You Money"

And lots of just plain awkward; "He authored the best-selling career book titled, Ready Aim Hired, now in its third printing." "There are many reasons why people are... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by kmennie at 9:35 PM on August 17, 2011

Here's a look at browser/os percentages for all visits and members only. Every time I look at these I'm shocked by the iPhone and Android numbers.
posted to MetaTalk by pb at 8:48 AM on August 3, 2011

If she doesn't make a meta complaining about an unfair deletion she's missing a golden opportunity.
posted to MetaTalk by Poet_Lariat at 2:41 AM on August 1, 2011

For many decades the goal of the Republican Party has been to reverse the New Deal and Great Society programs: to end or greatly diminish Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs; also to end many other functions of the US Federal government such as environmental regulator, oversight and funding of education, etc.

The Republicans have never been able to accomplish through the legislative process because these programs are too popular. Instead, they... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by alms at 7:27 PM on July 24, 2011

I'm not playing Scrabble with you guys anymore.
posted to MetaFilter by griphus at 2:36 PM on July 26, 2011

BEES!!!
posted to MetaTalk by eddydamascene at 10:59 PM on July 25, 2011

Basically, it is like putting a quarter into one of those machines that dispenses clear plastic bubbles with things like temporary tattoos or little tiny toys inside, except that some of the bubbles contain bees.

Some machines have more bees than others, and how violently you crank the handle after you put your quarter in will affect how roused the bees are. But you can never be sure that there aren't any bees, nor can you turn the handle gently... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 9:05 PM on July 25, 2011

I would not swim against the current of your question if you had said you were sure you wanted to keep it. But you seem so ambivalent and conflicted (contrast "the one thing that was easy was the decision to stay with her" with "when it came down to it we decided that we're keeping the kid"). Reproduction isn't something you want to do conflictedly.

And it's understandable that you're hesitant here -- the timing sounds bad. If you're right that... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by foursentences at 10:09 AM on July 14, 2011

[This is a response from an anonymous answerer.]

I was once the woman in your equation. No, I wasn't a prostitute. But I was the best friend of a man in this late 20s who had never dated, kissed, or had sex with a woman. He talked often about paying for sex, and I didn't think that was a good idea. So after years of hearing him despair that he'd die a virgin, I decided to help him out. I hoped that if I could give him this one small piece of what he considered a normal... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by cortex at 9:03 AM on May 10, 2010

She is a bad, bad person, OP. You don't seem to have ever grasped that though it is manifestly obvious in the story you related. Maybe if you could come to see that you'd realize have nothing to be jealous of. You lost nothing worth having. The new guy is to be pitied, not envied.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Paquda at 7:41 PM on July 18, 2011

As cathartic as it'd be to send names you don't like back, the poor kid isn't at fault, so it doesn't seem fair to punish her for the sins of her father. If I were in your shoes, I'd send nice names in a not-chatty email back, and hoping that the new baby sister doesn't one day find herself in the same situation.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by smirkette at 5:22 PM on July 7, 2011

What's that, you say? You want to make it free for me to get a sock puppet account? I totally approve of this plan!
posted to MetaTalk by Phredward at 8:53 AM on July 13, 2011

I wasn't aware that Metafilter was suffering from a lack of members.
posted to MetaTalk by mattbucher at 8:51 AM on July 13, 2011

I was planning to have fish and chips next Monday. What will contain them?
posted to MetaFilter by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 9:43 AM on July 7, 2011

So after everyone had been drinking, dude raped her?

Oh wait, no, dude grabbed and fondled her in the elevator?

Oh wait no, dude called her a cunt and demanded she "show us your tits!" in the elevator?

Oh wait no, after everyone had been drinking, dude offered up a polite, respectful, but somewhat clumsy pickup-line? Oh horrors!

Fact is, had she fancied this guy (had he been (like the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by orthogonality at 10:30 AM on July 4, 2011

I had the complete opposite experience of rolypolyman, we never heard a single discouragin' word about child rearing, and were reassured daily that it was easy, nothing to it, kids practically raise themselves.

This is a lie. To wit:

1. The lack of sleep thing, especially the first 3 months, cannot be overstated. Prepare yourself and your wife for it.

2. Your sex life will be decimated the first year, probably two. Not... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Ynoxas at 9:46 PM on June 27, 2006

Man, they didn't even quote the best part of Ebert's Pearl Harbor review, the very first sentence:"Pearl Harbor" is a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle.

But he gives character actors big paychecks, and lets them be as weird as they want to be in his films, which was also true of, and one of the pleasures of, Kubrick.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kmz at 12:14 PM on June 27, 2011

Me...well, I love this guy.

The world's rife with desaturated, lifeless, dutiful dads who say "I love you" all the time as they work their way through the chore of being a parent with the same enthusiasm of someone working on a quarterly report. I used to sort of envy those dads, the patient Hugh Beaumonts in the neighborhood who just sort of did dad stuff without the extremes, but times change.

My dad was horrifying.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sonascope at 6:59 AM on June 4, 2011

Here it is, in a nutshell, why some MetaFilter atheists are extraordinarily obnoxious, and are defined by ignorance and contempt, instead of reason, which is an embarrassment to atheism, which is supposed to offer reason as an alternative to unreason:

This bunko artist is held up as being the definition of religion, rather than the fellow from a few days ago, whose Christian faith caused him to join the freedom riders and very nearly get beaten to death fighting for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 10:19 PM on May 21, 2011

Here's a screencap: http://i.imgur.com/N4oL6.jpg
posted to MetaTalk by spacelux at 5:47 PM on May 21, 2011

I was underwhelmed by the finale also.
But I have to say, we're re-watching the whole thing again and it's really quite enjoyable. We're halfway through season 3 which I remember just DRAGGED when it was on TV. It's better when you can kind of plow through it, although the epidsode we watched last night was Nikki and Paulo, which is pretty unredeemable no matter how you slice it.
In re-watching, there are a lot of moments where you go, "Oh ya..." Little things... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chococat at 10:01 AM on February 5, 2011

I hope that my husband feels the same as most of you. He came up to me in high anxiety worrying about how he can't be social after the baby. He worries that he wont' be able to hang with people and golf. I see it as he went from super social to moderately because it's called life--people now are married, having kids, priorities. It seems like he can't accept that.

Everyone is telling him disaster stories like "oh you will NEVER be out of the house again because it's... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by dasheekeejones at 7:15 AM on August 5, 2008

I am your husband. (PROBABLY not literally.)

I don't know if this applies to your situation as well, but when my wife and I first started dating, and perhaps for six months following that, she was of the "no kids" mindset, like me. (That was when we were 24; we're 26 now.) But something switched; she says it was ending up with someone who she would like to share genetic material with in children, not to mention parenting duties.

Now,... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by supercres at 1:51 PM on May 8, 2011