MetaFilter

Yeah, RARBG is a victim of Russian/Ukraine conflict. The pirate community considers The Pirate Bay to be low quality and high risk at this point. It is not recommended as a public tracker anymore.

Piracy today, at least outside of niche and special interest, is usually done on demand via Stremio, Kodi, or similar. These applications then get hooked into torrents or debird to search and stream content on demand. Pirates usually prefer debird services to torrents now.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by forbiddencabinet at 10:41 PM on April 3, 2024 marked best answer

Dammit. He was a literary influence on my work: also, a nice guy in person.

(Per David Brin he'd been ill for some years with Parkinson's Disease, and took a turn for the worse last November. If you're waiting for one last novel, I think it unlikely: chronic illness makes it really hard to focus on writing fiction.)
posted to MetaFilter by cstross at 6:23 AM on March 21, 2024

This question annoys me because it is framed as you asking us to wake up. the rest of us who have been marginalized have been living this for decades. I would be more concerned about your ability to survive a fascist government and whether you could tell the difference if you would be a comrade who would narc me out or not. I would recommend you learn how to understand your privileges and take the time to learn from marginalized groups who have been working on this for decades and learning to... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by yueliang at 9:26 AM on December 4, 2023

Oh man. Everyone talking shit about waffle house or they think this is fake or their place doesn't... Ya. It does. They do. You're all wrong.

I love the waffle house and admire their efficiency. They absolutely use this system in everyone of the dozens if not hundreds I've eaten in.
posted to MetaFilter by chasles at 9:28 AM on November 11, 2023

You know this is an insane system because literally no other restaurant on earth does anything like it.

I spent 15 years in restaurant kitchens, working in everything from college town pizza joints to very high end fine dining.

Every restaurant has some kind of weird system like this. Every single one of them. It's just that Waffle House had the good sense to codify it so that it was the same across the franchise.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ralan at 7:45 AM on November 11, 2023

it's a whole hell of a lot to learn for a job that probably pays minimum wage

You can spot the people in this thread who've never worked retail or food service.

Y'all, there is no such thing as unskilled labour. There is only undervalued and underappreciated labour. These jobs are hard and they take real skill to learn and do well.
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 4:43 AM on November 11, 2023

Good piece, resonates like hell. My own trip through the heart of all this has been so central to my life that even a year and a half after stepping away from direct responsibility for it I'm still often pretty overwhelmed by feelings when I get this close to the subject for more than a passing moment. The value this place has had to me, the presence it has had in my life, as my daily thing, and the sense of reevaluating over time what my needs from and expectations for it are over time has... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 9:04 AM on October 22, 2023

Religious Jew here, and also a theater nerd. I have to echo likedoomsday and fingersandtoes that a tallit is a religious object and not the same as a yarmulke. That doesn’t mean you can never use it, or never use it for comedy, but you’re right to be choosy. And since you’re not talking about using an actual tallit, only referencing the idea of one, even that isn’t really as much of an issue. Under a lot of circumstances my answer would probably be that the first suggestion, the bottle dance,... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Mchelly at 1:17 PM on October 9, 2023 marked best answer

Speaking as someone who once had quite a large Twitter platform, please leave X as soon as possible unless you are an Elon Musk fan, a crypto influencer, or a right-wing windbag. The platform is no longer designed for a mass userbase, its sole purpose at this point is to reassure Musk that he has all the right opinions and has his finger on the pulse of the global intellectual elite. It is now useless for making any kind of political impact because it has been redesigned specifically to... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by derrinyet at 5:50 PM on September 28, 2023

"One would think that it best serves the needs of the organization to remain as non-partisan as possible."

The problem with being strategically non-partisan is that we have a lopsided idea of what is and isn't partisan.

Being aggressively capitalist is not seen as "partisan." Being straight isn't seen as partisan. The fact that we see being Marxist as partisan but not the other means that we have a fundamental imbalance.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jzb at 9:29 AM on September 18, 2023

UMich poached our excellent University Librarian a year or so ago.

Not gonna lie, I have been thinking "shouldn't have left us, Lisa."
posted to MetaFilter by humbug at 9:30 AM on August 29, 2023

All right. This is going to be long and I'll try to summarize it all at the end. Basically, I'm gonna give you the best advice for Vegas you will hear, ever, because if you follow my advice, you will:
- Always leave Vegas a winner
- Make many people happy
- Come into possession a gift that's worth giving
- Possibly score the biggest jackpot of your life.

Am I making myself clear? This here is GOLD. I'm giving you GOLD. I am... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by herrdoktor at 6:53 PM on January 25, 2011 marked best answer

Raw milk is never safe. Pasteurization saves lives. Since you probably won't heed my advice, at least don't feed anything you've made with raw milk to anyone else, especially a child, elderly person, or anyone who's immunocompromised.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by twelve cent archie at 12:11 PM on August 6, 2023

I listened to part of the You're Wrong About podcast, and was struck by the story of her first-ever US prime-time TV appearance, at the 1989 Grammy awards. This was the first year that the Grammys gave an award for rap, which had become so popular that they couldn't ignore it. But they gave out the award before the telecast; most of the nominees (including the eventual winners) boycotted the awards as a protest, although Kool Moe Dee showed up.

Sinéad showed up and did... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Superilla at 9:49 PM on July 26, 2023

What is masculinity or manliness is the wrong question. A better question would be why? As in "why do we even need an externally defined identity to tell us if we're masculine, and why should it even be a goal to begin with?"

It's worthwhile to ask "how can I be a good person" but we'd do well to stop trying to tell people "because your body has these parts, you should behave like... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jzb at 8:31 AM on July 10, 2023

The stairway to the Billy Goat is a good one - specifically, it's on the west side of Michigan Avenue, right in front of the Ulta.

Another fun spot is the stairway on the northeast corner of Randolph Street and Columbus Drive, outside the Blue Cross building - it goes down through not one but two lower levels of street, and the bottom one really feels like another world. I once made a wrong turn out of the Millennium Park metra station and ended up... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by theodolite at 9:09 AM on May 9, 2023 marked best answer

Great song, and very act-able and relatable. My two cents (musical theater producer who has also coached actors in exactly this kind of thing...) -- put the person you are singing to out over the audience's head somewhere... one specific point (like ... can you see an exit sign or something else in the space? Or just pick a spot.) So you are singing to an imaginary partner who is out in the audience's direction, but not *to* the audience, if that makes sense.

In my... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by profreader at 11:15 AM on April 18, 2023 marked best answer

Yes, what's everyone drinking?

Staring at a picture of a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle while drinking some Bulleit .
posted to MetaFilter by kirkaracha at 5:05 PM on March 30, 2023

I'd suggest people here revisit recent MeFi threads about libraries to remind themselves of the value of defending strong free speech norms.
posted to MetaFilter by kickingtheground at 2:27 PM on March 20, 2023

There is a technique called "textual inversion" in which an image generating model can be augmented to associate a specific abstract "token" with a particular visual concept. That is, you provide the textual inversion training system with a small number of example images, say five to ten, and after an hour or so of training you have a new "word" that you can use to ask the model to make more of what you showed it. This can be a concrete thing (like you show it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pyry at 4:23 PM on December 15, 2022

I met jessamyn at a meetup in 2008 the week I started working as a student assistant in a library and she gave me the "colleague" tag and it was the coolest. At that same event I met a bunch of peeps who are now my librarian colleagues, including my now-boss. I kind of owe my career to the people I met at that meetup! A decade later, while in library school, I wrote a paper that made lots of people Real Mad. Last month I gave a keynote at a library conference about how I don't want to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by avocet at 12:39 PM on November 20, 2022

There are lots of smart people on here with tons of fun knowledge. How about some fund-raising lectures or talks? Have someone do an hour zoom talk and ask attendees for a small donation when signing up for the talk ($2 per person? $5?) and hock the merch at it as well!

Speed talks may be less intimidating -- 5-10 minutes on a topic, then have folks vote on a favorite talk at the end!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by chiefthe at 3:46 PM on October 3, 2022

When our district was leaning toward making masking optional, I concluded my similar such letter with this:

While there is evidence that masks provide some protection to the wearer, research is definitive that masks prevent the transmission of COVID-19 from infected individuals. Optional masking as a protective measure for the wearer is insufficient. The CDC says that protective and preventive masking are complementary and that “individual benefit... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by kittydelsol at 5:53 PM on August 16, 2021

Professionally, I study higher education with a focus on its future development.

I appreciate the selection of articles in this post, as they mostly give a good sense of how people negatively viewed online education (or "remote instruction") during spring term 2020. I was especially happy to see the one that polled students and those which interviewed students.

I don't think it's a useful collection for looking ahead to this fall.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by doctornemo at 12:27 PM on June 16, 2020

There aren't any self driving cars now, and there won't be self driving cars in 2050 either.

I think there will be a lot of self-driving cars by 2050, perhaps a majority of vehicles. Maybe nearly all vehicles. People who believe self-driving automobiles will never happen tend to set the bar for acceptance at near-perfection. Trolley problems abound in these discussions (nevermind the fact that its premises assume a vehicle would have to allow itself... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tclark at 2:57 PM on January 10, 2020

Hi, I am a set designer, and a professor of technical theatre!
I don't have special word for this situation. It seems like you're only talking about a traditional theatre set up, with a large seating area and then a stage with a proscenium arch, which may or may not have a curtain that opens or raises. If I were describing this to someone, I would say something like "We're not using the main rag* in this show."
If it was a different setup, like 3/4 or in the... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Adridne at 10:47 AM on February 1, 2019 marked best answer

Librarians are pitched to almost constantly. Nearly everything can be a "resource" for patrons. I don't say this not be discouraging but just so you know what you are working with here. I am a well-known librarian and I get an average of an email solicitation every day from someone who wants me to share their resource with my patrons, and I don't even work in a library! This would be higher if I worked in a library.

The absolute best way to let librarians know... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jessamyn at 7:24 AM on May 23, 2017 marked best answer

The Touch ID vault is the key to the iPhone's security. It's not just a button.

Most people don't really understand what goes into properly implementing cryptography.
posted to MetaFilter by LoveHam at 6:07 AM on February 6, 2016

Cool! I didn't know the new season of Black Mirror had even started filming yet.
posted to MetaFilter by Atom Eyes at 12:02 PM on September 30, 2015

There are a few things worth knowing here that would help me make this decision

1. Whether the people who own the content are likely to sue
2. How locked down the students' access to the content would be (i.e. is it inside of courseware, or would it be on the open web)
3. How likely your school would be to support the teacher if there were a problem.

Because yeah what people are saying is correct, all Fair Use is, to some,... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jessamyn at 8:37 PM on July 18, 2015

Folks, a bit of data for your stew.

First, some Info from Wiccapeedia about counties in KY

Despite ranking 37th in size by area, Kentucky has 120 counties. . . . Depending on definitions, either third or fourth among U.S. states [behind Texas (254), Georgia (159) and Virginia (95 counties plus 38 independent cities that deal directly with the state government]

The original motivation for having so many... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Herodios at 1:05 PM on February 26, 2015

Libraries aren't pandering to the masses becasue they're desperate to get folks in the door. Folks like libraries and use them, more than ever (per capita, since records have been kept). The debate over whether they should "give 'em what they want" has been going on since at least the late 19th century when it was called "the ficton problem" and some library directors bragged about how many novels they discarded in favor of more improving non-fiction. One annual report... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by bfister at 5:29 PM on February 26, 2015

Some people are chiming in with very little knowledge of Kentucky's demographics and politics. I grew up in the state and worked there at two different stages in my career. My second go-round was as a University professor in the county next to Elliott County. Elliott County is not only one of the poorest counties in Kentucky, it's one of the poorest in the country. If you recall the "Hardest Places to Live" segment that the New York Times ran awhile back, Elliott County ranked as one... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Slothrop at 5:24 AM on February 26, 2015

Metafilter's own.
posted to MetaFilter by unknowncommand at 6:57 PM on February 25, 2015

Addendum:

It appears super easy to get book covers in your system. E.g. for Maira Kalman's 'Various Illuminations' the image resides at https://secure.syndetics.com/index.aspx?type=xw12&client=508-946-8600&upc=&oclc=&isbn=9783791350356/LC.JPG

Just replace the isbn as needed, as before.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by waninggibbon at 4:43 PM on January 18, 2015 marked best answer

Better, in this instance, we think, to allow change through the customary political processes, in which the people, gay and straight alike, become the heroes of their own stories by meeting each other not as adversaries in a court system but as fellow citizens seeking to resolve a new social issue in a fair-minded way.

Yeah, we tried that. Ended up with state constitutional amendments decreeing that queers are second-class citizens. Ended up with DOMA.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:40 PM on November 6, 2014

I mean this with as much compassion as I can muster: your fiancé is not really out of the cult.

He is able to dissent from it at an intellectual level, but is not able to live as though he has the power to dissent openly. The cult still has, in his mind and perhaps in reality, a great deal of power over him to punish his dissent if he voices it. I guarantee you there are people inside of the cult about whom the exact same things could be said: living in intellectual... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by gauche at 9:17 AM on June 15, 2014

You're getting more radiation from radio stations, satellite signals, and the wires in your house – not to mention the sun, even when you're indoors – than you are from your cell phone or your electricity meter. None of it is harmful. (Well, some solar radiation is harmful, but that's not the kind we're talking about here.) The wavelengths that we're dealing with are down in the radio and microwave part of the spectrum, which is extremely low-energy and doesn't have any ability to damage your... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Scientist at 3:15 PM on February 6, 2014 marked best answer

corb: "When I had my baby (young, single, poor) La Leche League really helped me get started on nursing."

Slight derail here. Apologies.

That's great for you, but LLL isn't always a good option for new moms. Our preemies refused to latch on. The nurses in the hospital made her feel like an unfit mother for not breastfeeding. (Note, my wife wound up *pumping* so the kids were actually getting breastmilk, just not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 7:14 AM on July 30, 2013

Okay, first of all. Dear Metafilter, please keep this in mind:

a naked woman singing is not "softcore porn"

There's a whole lot of casual misogyny and body policing couched as artistic "criticism" going on in this thread and it's pretty fucking gross. I expected better of this community.

Second, I was at this gig. I went into it as a self-confessed Amanda Palmer cynic, soured by... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fight or flight at 3:08 AM on July 17, 2013

"Prince and the Revolution Purple Rain Live March 30, 1985 at Syracuse, New York. Performing The Best Guitar Solo Ever Played in Music History. Prince awesome intro start @ 3:25 and the Greatest Solo Ever start @ 10:14..." Purple Rain, all 17 delicious minutes
posted to MetaFilter by Mister Bijou at 7:59 AM on April 21, 2012

Scientist: Elgilito, I would love to know what that phrase is if it's not too much trouble for you to recall it.
Here it is:
2010 : Grassland Index and Ecocrop are FAO publications containing the phrase "Rhizomes are eaten by pigs" for the entry on Imperata cylindrica. The source is:
1989 : Skerman, Tropical grasses. Skerman's source is probably:
1971 :... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by elgilito at 1:12 PM on April 9, 2012

The issue: JLA #3 (1997).
The scene: Superman, Wonderwoman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter have all been captured by powerful white martians masquerading as new superheroes. The only one they haven't been able to catch is the Batman, who's somewhere in their citadel.

One of the Martians expresses dismay that he's loose, to which the leader says "Batman? Don't be ridiculous. What can a pathetic, fragile creature like Batman do... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by JonahBlack at 1:09 PM on March 3, 2012 marked best answer

Vistaprint and Uprinting are cheap, but they are NOT quality printers. The paper stock and printing are not great.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Bunglegirl at 9:12 PM on February 15, 2012

I would urge you to try to step back and really consider the possibility that in fact it is the "internet culture" you're defending which is the "poisonous" place. Trolling wink-wing racism is garbage that doesn't fly in the professional or public world. That's only remotely tolerable in adult life when it's shared with those who you know well to be like-minded and able to appreciate the fact that you're being ironic. Perhaps, it's worth appreciating the possibility that in a... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by drpynchon at 10:12 AM on January 1, 2012

At the tender age of seven, my parents -- one of whom was a minister in the United Church of Canada -- wanted to go see a decidedly grown-up movie (On Golden Pond, IIRC) so they dropped me off at another movie that I guess looked kiddie-friendly on the poster.

That movie was Time Bandits.

They dropped off a wide-eyed and enthusiastic Christian child.

They brought home a ticking countdown to committed atheism.
posted to MetaFilter by Shepherd at 6:13 AM on October 3, 2011

My theory on how Jobs made Apple great: he was the single customer for whom all Apple's products was designed. Design by committee committee doesn't make great products, and I think most of Apple's competitors were trapped in this checklist-driven method of design. I doubt Apple will have the discipline and the focus without him at the wheel, and the current batch might be the high water mark for the company. I hope I'm wrong.
posted to MetaFilter by mullingitover at 4:39 PM on August 24, 2011

Because it could get even more surreal with the right toys.
posted to MetaFilter by Kyol at 11:29 PM on July 26, 2011

Speaking as a librarian, I'm particularly concerned/interested in seeing how this situation is read outside of the librarian community. We're a chatty, cantankerous bunch, but there is definitely something of an echo chamber in our discussions. (We even have a hashtag - #echolib - which..we use to discuss our failure to break out of the echo chamber among ourselves. But I digress.)

I'm also interested in knowing how the authors feel about this. I doubt this decision went... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by theanalogdivide at 11:15 AM on February 26, 2011

no one writes a fucking song about it

Like A Bird On the Wire, Still Crazy After All These Years, Jeremy, Stuck In A Moment, Let Me In, Lithium, Vincent, The Noose, For My Brother, Sweet Pain, Come Undone, Desperado, I'm Still Here, Suffering, Mad World, Nothing To Lose, Hurt, One Last Breath, Objects In The Rear View Mirror

Here are nineteen male-gendered songs (either lyrically or intendedly, though sometimes not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by monster truck weekend at 2:22 AM on January 23, 2011