Don't forget the similarities in the DNA. The phrase "we've looked so hard for a link and haven't found one, really." simply isn't true.
Creationists love to move the evidentiary bar, and especially love to demand evidence that either a: doesn't exist yet, and use that fact to deny conclusions supported by a wealth of evidence they *haven't* asked for, or b: demand evidence that actually does exist (like transition fossils, showing a species in an intermediate phase, like... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by asavage at 9:29 PM on September 28, 2008

I ain't never known of a lad of such spunk
As the alligator fighter, young Devin Funck
Who battled a beast way down in Slidell
And Devin lost his arm, but Devin lived to tell
That in the water of Crystal Lake, lurking below
Was a half ton monster by the name of Big Joe.
He was a 12-foot lizard from his teeth to his tail
And he was spoken of in whispers down in Slidell.
But Devin had no fear and Devin... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 4:22 PM on August 23, 2008

(...and what I also should have said...)

The fact that the cochlea works the way it does has all kinds of interesting consequences for sound engineers. What that means is that our ears are real-time spectrum analyzers. The way we differentiate between the sound of a clarinet and the sound of a trumpet is by decomposing the sound into sine waves and analyzing the pattern of overtones. Even if they're playing the same note, they don't sound the same because their Fourier... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Class Goat at 8:05 PM on June 28, 2008

I guess Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus! LOL!

The problem is that the women quoted in the article, who are quite obviously insufferable hens, confuse men's conversation filters with being boring. But these women would never want to have the conversation that would ensue if men simply said what was on their minds. For example:

F: My God, you're so boring!

M: What?

F: Boring! You... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 8:21 AM on June 19, 2008

This Is Just To Say

I have taken
the Jews
Communists
and trade unionists
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.

And Niemöller
you are
next
posted to MetaFilter by sixswitch at 9:18 PM on June 12, 2008

Moffat created and wrote the UK Coupling, one of the best sitcoms ever aired. That's probably enough to get this non-fan to start watching the show after god knows how many decades.
posted to MetaFilter by Epenthesis at 10:19 PM on May 20, 2008

The reason for this, in my experience, is that principals have a great deal to do with who teaches science, directors of instruction and/or district superintendents have a great deal to do with who gets to be principal, and school boards have a great deal to do with who gets to be superintendent. Every once in a while you get a fundamentalist school board, which appoints a fundamentalist superintendent, who appoints a group of fundamentalist principals, who appoint a group of fundamentalist... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:59 PM on May 19, 2008

Nothing says "you're doing it wrong" like when the Pope has a more reasonable and enlightened policy on science than your local secular public school.
posted to MetaFilter by Kadin2048 at 11:46 PM on May 19, 2008

If it's really as bad as you say, this can't feel good for you. Right? So I'm with 26.2. Don't try to help him. Don't even try to figure him out. (This is something deep-seated, so it doesn't matter what the actual diagnosis is.) You've told him once what you see going on. If you need to tell him one more time to make sure he heard you, do that. But make it an ultimatum: "this inconsistency is really hard on me. I feel hurt when you act scornful and I feel constantly on-edge from not... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by salvia at 2:50 PM on March 23, 2008

A spiritually empty society inevitably overestimates the benefit of raw immediate pleasure.
posted by koeselitz at 1:39 PM on October 30

I'm sorry koeselitz, but I'm not high enough right now to understand what you just said.
posted to MetaFilter by Avenger at 2:03 PM on October 30, 2007

Look, Anal Sex Month is whatever month you think your girlfriend will believe is Anal Sex Month.
posted to Ask Metafilter by klangklangston at 5:12 PM on August 5, 2007

I'm not particularly proud to admit that I've seen each episode of The Brady Bunch enough times that I can ID it before the "Directed By" pops up on the screen. I'd be interested to find out more about which episode folks think they heard "Stinky McStinkface" on, because it does not ring any sort of bell with me at all. And "Stinkface" is NOT a word the Brady kids would typically use, even to describe mean ol' Buddy Hinton. The worst epithet I can recall is Greg... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Oriole Adams at 10:17 AM on August 30, 2007

Back in 1995 or so, I stumbled onto a girl blowing a horse, and the horse came in the girls mouth, and it was like an explosion, blowing into her mouth and out and all over the place. The girl fell backwards, nude, and she threw up the horse's white mess everywhere.

That was like a moment in time for me, distilled, when I discovered the internet is a new place. Like a field of wildflowers hidden on the other side of a beautiful hill. Or herpes a week after a sorority... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by four panels at 2:11 PM on August 16, 2007

A small glimmer of good luck from one of the news channels, the school bus crashed on the south side of the bridge literally 1 block from the local Red Cross office. Even more fortunate than that, several Red Cross employees were crossing the bridge near the bus, saw it crash, and got all the children out. Even better, that Red Cross office just happened to be full of nurses in a class or something.

They just interviewed a guy who was on the bridge and helped rescue... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by TungstenChef at 9:47 PM on August 1, 2007

Active jamming is against the law.

Passive jamming is perfectly legal, but the problem is that it has to be built into the theater during original construction. It's really tough to add it later. What you have to do is to make the theater into a Faraday cage.

theatres can quite legally block reception passively with special paint, or wall fittings, etc.

You're not going to do it with paint or wall... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:00 AM on July 20, 2007

The system worked terrifically patched through the video goggles - I was able to write code and test models while walking around, and the ability to superimpose satellite and archival imagery was great fun. I saw my running processes as milling crowds of pedestrians and monsters, and my admin tasks became a series of hidden levels and boss fights.

I didn't take the goggles off for two weeks, so I was wearing them when the Event occurred, and finally removed them to find... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by freebird at 8:39 AM on July 13, 2007

even a high fives can get out of control!!!

You joke, but it's true. It's a slippery slope from the innocuous fun of "Up High" to the hurt feelings, shame, and inevitable ostracization of those deemed "Too Slow".

*Runs under the bleachers, cries*
posted to MetaFilter by Alvy Ampersand at 1:17 PM on June 24, 2007

prohibit everything, and hire people with enough common sense to only enforce it when needed.

Rumsfeld's constitutional wet dream.
posted to MetaFilter by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:34 PM on June 24, 2007

So you technically prohibit everything, and hire people with enough common sense to only enforce it when needed.

The entire point of a policy is to remove the need to judge cases individually. If you have a policy, but people are free to ignore it as they see fit, you do not have a useful policy.
posted to MetaFilter by me & my monkey at 2:25 PM on June 24, 2007

Ok how about

"DO NOT WA-ha-ha-haa, ha-ha-hah, ha-ha-ha-hu-ha-haaNT"
posted to MetaFilter by Uther Bentrazor at 3:03 PM on June 9, 2007

Jefferson Ice (Home City Ice) sells 10 lb minimum for $1 / pound. Location on the North Side. Open 8-4 weekdays, slightly less on Saturdays

Hi honey. Next time you can just call me at work and I'll find it for you :)
posted to Ask Metafilter by true at 2:29 PM on June 4, 2007 marked best answer

Between Spore, Diablo III, and now this...I am SO totally going to be a bad parent and husband.
posted to MetaFilter by Kickstart70 at 1:19 PM on May 19, 2007

Y'know, speaking as one of those semi-mythical, highly endangered SF writers, I'd like to point out that most of the cliches blahblahblah is wagging the censorious finger at are, in fact, epiphenomena of media SF, specifically film and TV, which only remotely approximate the written form. (Indeed, I could write a big essay about how TV SF is much closer to extruded fantasy literary product than it is to real SF, because the format itself -- the hour-long weekly episode -- is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cstross at 12:46 PM on May 8, 2007

You guys are holding up non-abridged reading as some sort of magical potion that ensures that the reader collapses in writhing ecstacy of revelation that an abridged version doesn't proffer (specifically the part about pseudo-intellectualism.) Think about how wantonly juvenile that attitude is. There are all sorts of levels to a text and all sorts of ways for readers to respond to it. You could continue reading a single text all your life and come up with a bazillion different issues it raises.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Firas at 10:47 PM on May 7, 2007

My family goes off into the woods for vacations often. One thing I do miss? The internet has done wonders for settling long standing family disputes.

Up at our cabin suddenly my brother feels emboldened to make outlandish claims. Some of that is the altitude and the tequila. Some of that is in the genes.

It used to be at Christmas at my parents, before they had an Internet connection, we would fight and fight and fight. And I would stew waiting... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tkchrist at 12:53 PM on April 30, 2007

Tkchrist - but can't the internet also be used to support all those claims?

True. The kooks have caught up with us. However my family, if they are anything, they are scientific in their outrageous beliefs and can be assuaged with some logic and a torrent of cites.

I have to share one more thing. And this is love letter from my mother to YOU dear Metafilter.

Last Christmas we had the immediate... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tkchrist at 3:13 PM on April 30, 2007

For the folks like Grod and languagehat who like being able to do real research, you can always become members of the New York Public Library. This costs $100/year for non-residents.

You'll get access to these Databases.

The first link also suggests getting a San Francisco Public Library card for access to JSTOR Journals (for California residents).... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sebastienbailard at 6:13 PM on April 30, 2007

Mullacc is right. You partly revealed the answer in your question ("littler guys almost always send them off the backboard") - when the distinction between banking it in and laying it in was really taught, it was much harder to be blocked if you were banking it in.

Watch an old-school layup line - all the players should bring the ball up from their body with their hand on the side of the ball. Then they turn their hand behind the ball on... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Slothrop at 2:26 AM on May 1, 2007 marked best answer

If you have any Chipotles near you, you can get a burrito with just rice and any one side for $1.16. If you got four of these I'm pretty confident you'll be stuffed. Then you can ask for a water cup for free. This is coming from a poor high schooler, so I've learned how to get lots of food cheaply.
posted to Ask Metafilter by catdog at 11:07 AM on April 19, 2007

"Buffet" does NOT describe all-you-can-eat restaurants. They are orthogonal concepts.

A buffet is where all the food is out and available. Like a salad bar, but with all the foods. And, like a salad bar, the number of times you can hit it may or may not be limited by the terms of the restaurant. Pizza Hut only lets you hit the salad bar once. I remember going to many buffet style restaurants where you could only go through a single time.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by DU at 6:53 AM on April 6, 2007

Kathleen and I dropped miracle fruit on a cool October evening, just as the Roxbury Russets were starting to ripen. Two berries each, a standard dose. She handed me five Hot Tamales and one of the small, greenish apples as a chaser. I can't be sure, but I seem to recall asking if this was really a good idea. The sour becomes sweet. So what does the sweet become? She nodded her head. Yes. But there was doubt. There had to have been.

Undaunted, I crammed the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cog_nate at 8:54 PM on February 7, 2007

Get a subscription to The New Yorker, Harpers, The Atlantic Monthly, Scientific American, The Economist, Skeptic Magazine, and The New York Review of Books. Read them all. Read well-written and thoughtful novels from all over the world to put yourself in the mindset and lives of people unlike yourself. Read well-written and thoughtful nonfiction to familiarize... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by matildaben at 11:20 AM on March 23, 2007

Corporate rock -- I guess so. I tend not to use such taxonomies. They're using Buzzcocks songs in AARP ads these days, so what's the point?

Boston had something I won't be able to describe well, and that's easy to lose in the awesome glare of Tom Sholz's production and the beauty of Brad Delp's voice. Unlike a lot of their arena rock brothers, there was always a quality of gentleness and humility in their songs. They wanted to be better men. They were always sweetly... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by melissa may at 4:03 AM on March 10, 2007

Go easy on the ointment and dressing. I like Silvadine cream - applied *very lightly*. If you glom it on in a thick layer that dries out into a dessicated, foreign-body crust, it will worsen the scarring. It should be the thinnest possible layer that still covers the whole burned area.

Also, use a non-adherent dressing. Little cotton fibers from the gauze, again, are foreign bodies and will worsen the scarring.

I know I just said non-adherent,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by ikkyu2 at 1:08 PM on February 21, 2007

Because I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!
posted to Ask Metafilter by ikkyu2 at 6:26 AM on February 14, 2007

A well-loved system in elementary schools is this:
Talking = name on the board
Talking twice = check beside name on board, see Ms. Teacher before lunch for a talking-to
Two checks = call home at the end of the day and no recess at all

What you asked for:

Least Harsh =
go over and tap on kid's desk as a warning
call on child during bad behavior and correct behavior in front of... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by orangemiles at 1:14 PM on February 14, 2007 marked best answer

I can't play Amplitude or Frequency with my fiance because he wrote them. Talk about humiliating.

I loved each Ratchet & Clank game better than the last (and the first Jak & Daxter). Platformers aren't multiplayer but they're still fun to play cooperatively -- it's great to throw the controller at the other person when you get frustrated and the games are entertaining just to watch.

We also enjoyed Neverwinter Nights (one of the user... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by nev at 9:10 PM on August 9, 2005

Why do (bad) writers persist in using these plot devices?

Because they work. However, you're looking in the wrong place to find the cliches in The Incredibles- it's not a superhero movie; it's a masculinity reclamation movie that happens to have a superhero backdrop. And, it covers pretty much all the major cliche points of its actual genre:

* Mid-life man has fallen from his once great heights of glory.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by headspace at 6:47 AM on March 11, 2005

I think a "first kiss" counts only if it is truly romantic (as much as that can possibly be defined) or erotic (which is much easier to define), where the intent and will of mutual passion is obvious - and it is not simply a display of a more generalized affection, either pre-meditated or spontaneous.

Without that distinction I'd have to include the time when I was about 7 or 8 and this girl who had a crush on me ran up to me and pecked me on the cheek and ran... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 9:08 PM on January 20, 2007

Assuming there's a chance you want to be with gf long-term:

Go, stay at a hotel very nearby (assuming there's not a religious objection to unmarrieds staying together at a hotel), and then be the most gracious, charming, polite, thoughtful, delightful Christmas guests possible. Give it your all this time. Help her dad putting up lights, help her mom by opening jars, be helpful in making good dinner conversation so everyone feels included. Be generous with your time (ie... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by LobsterMitten at 9:05 PM on December 7, 2006

I suspect that her family dislikes you. They're "disappointed" that they won't get full 24-hour exposure to you to implement their goal, which is probably to break you two up. Better stay in the hotel, and my advice is just keep your mouth shut, no matter what outrageous things are said or done.
posted to Ask Metafilter by ikkyu2 at 9:21 PM on December 7, 2006

Why do all these Christian Evangelicals keep sucking my cock?
posted to MetaFilter by bardic at 4:22 PM on November 2, 2006

DoctorFedora, your Domino's used a conveyor? Weird; the one I worked at (and all the others I've seen) had a more traditional oven, and the pizza cooks shuffled those pizzas in and out manually.

I vaguely remember that they might have been as high as 800 degrees, but I could be wrong. Also, the doors on those ovens were open a lot so it was not likely to be 800 inside the oven.

This was back when they had the 30 minute guarantee -- not the 30... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by litlnemo at 12:49 PM on August 27, 2006

Here is some truth - you will never achieve any degree of freedom from these people as long as you are living under their roof. Here are the minimum prerequisites:

--Living in your own apartment
--With your own source of income
--Not close to your parents (minimum one hour drive)
--Not depending on their funding your university education

Your parents are doing an evil thing to you. It is, in a phrase, child... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jellicle at 6:48 AM on August 7, 2006