MetaFilter

As far as anyone knows for sure, "consciousness" is "exhibited" only by a very specific configuration of matter.
posted to MetaFilter by Jode at 7:44 AM on June 12, 2014

I'm not really even sure where to begin with this, but we might get some more mileage out of discussing the arxiv posting, which is not obviously as insane as the medium link. (Actually, I'm not sure that's really true. It just has a lot more math.) Even within disciplines that focus on aspects the mind/brain, the general feeling is that researchers who say they are working on consciousness are trying to sell you something, or actually working on something else but have chosen to use... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by advil at 7:49 AM on June 12, 2014

This is wonderfully daft
posted to MetaFilter by fallingbadgers at 7:31 AM on June 12, 2014

As a knitter, spinner and cat owner, I suggest the following:

1. Consider blending the cat fur with other fiber (alpaca, corriedale) to make it easier to spin. If it were me, I would buy a fleece and deliver the fleece and the fur to a processor like Zeilinger's and have them blend it for you and return the fiber prepped and ready to spin.

2. It took me spinning a pound of fiber to get good, consistent yarn worth knitting with. That took over a... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by deliriouscool at 5:40 PM on April 28, 2013 marked best answer

I'm a spinner and have done this with Chinook fur. Essentially, you treat it pretty much like camel down- here's a little primer. You just need to gently rinse, wash, dry and then you're ready to hand card. Leave all the fur in nice little log shapes, stack them nicely in a box.

Do you spin already? Spinning with a drop spindle is probably not going to get you the results you desire. It's much, much easier to get consistency on a wheel. If you're not already a spinner,... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by PorcineWithMe at 5:02 PM on April 28, 2013 marked best answer

Talk about the ultimate admission of total failure as a parent.
Seriously? I am embarrassed that I know this much about Amy Winehouse, but by all accounts, she was a normal, if slightly rebellious, teenager, and until fairly recently, she was of a healthy size and didn't appear in the gossip columns for smoking crack, etc. Whatever she has going on now is likely a manifestation of some kind of mental illness which has nothing to do with the way she was raised. I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cilantro at 3:04 AM on June 23, 2008

I thought about a rehab reference for the title, but then I said no, no, no.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 1:56 AM on June 23, 2008

In my opinion, if a story is genuinely interesting the location doesn't really matter.
posted to MetaTalk by kate blank at 5:36 AM on June 19, 2008

A makes it easier to see what's in the list.
posted to MetaTalk by qwip at 5:25 PM on June 17, 2008

Cumo should have stayed away from alt.judges.ninthcircuit.alexkozinski.
posted to MetaFilter by The Bellman at 7:45 PM on June 12, 2008

Jesus Christ, nicwolff. Back the fuck off.

Look: men can get AIDS from straight sex — it's just that it's comparatively rare. The odds of a guy getting infected through vaginal sex are, last I checked, down around one-tenth the odds of a guy getting infected through receptive anal sex.

This means that in an entirely-straight population, AIDS will spread much more slowly than in a population of men having anal sex with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nebulawindphone at 12:35 PM on June 12, 2008

"In the first official admission that the universal prevention strategy promoted by the major Aids organisations may have been misdirected..."

Or, you know, maybe it worked.
posted to MetaFilter by Plutor at 8:49 AM on June 12, 2008

Fuck this whole parenting thing appears way more goddamn complex than my previous reading of metafilter had indicated.
posted to MetaTalk by iamabot at 3:19 PM on June 10, 2008

Only two people in this situation have the right to say "Oops, didn't mean to do that," and they weren't the two with the video camera.
posted to MetaFilter by infinitewindow at 11:16 AM on June 12, 2008

Third prize : Strott recalled thinking, "No, I'm emotionally damaged." Oh sheesh.

Oh sheesh what? Strott was replying to someone who mentioned how "cool" it must be to be "famous" now that half of her fellow students had seen the tape of her having sex. I imagine she was a bit emotionally damaged at the time.
posted to MetaFilter by lysistrata at 10:53 AM on June 12, 2008

I was picked up by a spaceship at the last possible moment. Very improbable.
posted to MetaFilter by Henry C. Mabuse at 3:56 AM on June 12, 2008

Don't care if the blood of cats were cure-all for every disease known to man. Hate then suckers with burning passion of a 1000 suns. Smelly creature that don't deserve to live.

tiptoes away from possible displaced anger
posted to MetaFilter by longsleeves at 9:02 PM on June 11, 2008

WE. EVOLVED. TO. EAT. MEAT.

Which bits of you evolved to eat meat? That long digestive system optimised for plants? The silly little teeth? The heart that can't cope with fat-heavy diets?

We evolved eating mostly plants and insects, some incidental dirt, with a bit of ritual hunting and cannibalism for special occasions. Then relatively recently we started eating lots of meat. Don't confuse what we do and what our body... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BinaryApe at 4:17 PM on June 10, 2008

What kind of vegan doesn't eat mushrooms?
posted to MetaFilter by dilettante at 3:47 PM on June 10, 2008

VeganMalnourished Girl, 12, 'has spine of 80-year-old.'
posted to MetaFilter by BrotherCaine at 1:36 PM on June 10, 2008

tl;dr
posted to MetaFilter by LordSludge at 9:42 AM on June 10, 2008

Impeachment is for "high crimes and misdemeanors," usually interpreted to mean violating the constitution. Clicking around a little tells me Kuchinich's case is about Bush "launching the Iraq war."

Uh, not to be all factual or anything but Kucinich's case is about Bush knowingly lying to congress in order to get them to support a war that they wouldn't support otherwise.
posted to MetaFilter by tkolar at 10:14 PM on June 9, 2008

I'm in a quandary ... now that the issue is laid out on the table, if the Dems in the rarefied strata DON'T support it, then I will have no reason to support THEM or their candidates.

Can't advertise yourself at the as the bulwark against rabid conservative corruption if you're not ever going to do anything about their excesses.
posted to MetaFilter by RavinDave at 8:35 PM on June 9, 2008

Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America writes "Introducing articles of impeachment that have no chance of passing is an inherently unserious gesture."

Socrates agreeing to drink hemlock rather than admit he was wrong was n inherently unserious gesture.

Elazar ben Ya'ir and his fellow Jews killing themselves rather than submit to Roman rule was an inherently unserious gesture.

Saint Peter,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by orthogonality at 8:23 PM on June 9, 2008

If anyone cares for a flamewar, USENET is thataway.

Our own Miko has a nice (if these days pretty neglected) blog of things-found-in-books, called Enclosures.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 9:04 AM on June 9, 2008

If the purpose of a bookmark is to prevent book destruction via dogeared pages or bent-back spines (the only two methods I ever employ), it seems like bacon is a little counterproductive.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 8:31 AM on June 9, 2008

Yeah, it kinda sucks, but species do go extinct. Things die. It seems to be part of the natural order.

good grief, the amount of unsubstantiated opinion & misinformed conjecture on this thread is stunning (again, not to spotlight BrandonB, he's just an example).

but really, this isn't just a philosophy debate - there is actual science to be taken into account. it doesn't look like many folks checked out the couple of links... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jammy at 5:34 AM on June 9, 2008

why shouldn't the dominant species on the planet be rightfully allowed to have massive environmental effects?

Yeah!

I yelled at the Lorax, “Now listen here, Dad!
All you do is yap-yap and say, ‘Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!’
Well, I have my rights, sir, and I’m telling you
I intend to go on doing just what i do!
And, for your information, you Lorax, I’m figgering
on... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by flabdablet at 9:59 PM on June 8, 2008

If you'd be willing to continue this conversation, I'd like to ask: why shouldn't the dominant species on the planet be rightfully allowed to have massive environmental effects?

Um, because it's not necessarily good for us, either? We're not some special snowflake species that gets to do whatever it wants but be the only one to avoid the negative consequences of those actions. We've had a massive environmental effect on the Mississippi River and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rtha at 3:47 PM on June 8, 2008

Interesting article!

Perhaps it is laws like the Endangered Species Act, which take for granted that we know what species are.

Not really true. Here's how it works under the ESA, in my non-lawyer understanding. It comes down to the definition of a Distinct Population Segment. And this is one of the things that gets lawsuits flying back and forth. There are two tests: discretence, and significance to its taxon. Take the orcas... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by salvia at 6:23 PM on June 8, 2008

Oh hi I was away for a few days. What's this thread about then?
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 1:10 PM on June 8, 2008

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by WalterMitty at 7:18 PM on June 7, 2008

AP article here with more details.
As for the question of how this could happen--it's often worth it to glance at the post title. Or the tags.
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 6:09 PM on June 7, 2008

For why should he be permitted permiscuity[sic] when those heterosexuals who people the earth must be married to enjoy sexual intercourse?

Personally I'm glad we all found a different solution to this particular part of the dilemma.
posted to MetaFilter by tkolar at 12:59 PM on June 7, 2008

Almost all of the planes can be rolled out of the hanger and flown ..

After the Messerschmitt 163B Komet took off, the wheels fell to the ground and the plane had to be landed on a 2x6 skid plate on the bottom of the plane.

I assume the Messerschmitt 163B Komet is the exception when it comes to rolling out of the hanger and flying.

Anyway, it's nice to see someone with enough money able to do this, the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by stbalbach at 5:38 PM on June 6, 2008

I still think it is language that creates the world.
posted to MetaFilter by acrobat at 2:40 AM on June 5, 2008

In all fairness, if your boss is the kind of person who thinks that a cervix is disgusting they probably don't know what one looks like.

I can't believe that there are people do think that metafilter in general is safe for work. Obviously there are different standards at play.
posted to MetaFilter by a robot made out of meat at 11:57 AM on June 4, 2008

Pollomacho, please don't engage in idle speculumation.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 5:39 AM on June 3, 2008

If you know of a site that details pluses and minuses of organic food in a non-biased way, that would be more useful to those reading this information.
posted to MetaFilter by netbros at 8:53 PM on June 2, 2008

No I don't know how you keep this from happening again but from your description you're not having problems with Vista. You're having problems with your disk drive. Backup, backup, backup and then have the problem with your hard drive diagnosed and fixed.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rdr at 7:14 PM on June 2, 2008

owhydididoit - i know I keep mentioning it every time Lovecraft comes up, but you might want to check out Delta Green, it's MiGotastic.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 9:39 AM on June 2, 2008

No. It's Surreal Thursday.
posted to MetaTalk by The Great Big Mulp at 9:29 AM on June 2, 2008

This site looks like an html rip of Dagonbytes...

...which also has Dracula, E. A. Poe etc.

My favorites are The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Music of Erich Zann.
posted to MetaFilter by Spacelegoman at 7:38 AM on June 2, 2008

DERSINS WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY IN META? WOULD YOU LIKE SOME DELICIOUS BROWNIES?
posted to MetaTalk by Tehanu at 8:13 AM on June 2, 2008

They all taste like monitor to me. And now I need to clean the screen.
posted to MetaTalk by Tehanu at 6:59 AM on June 2, 2008

One of my older projects, Voices in the Dark, has me and my wife doing audio recordings of a few of Lovecraft's stories. Also, try the Poe! I'll be here all week.
posted to MetaFilter by seanmpuckett at 8:12 AM on June 2, 2008

As an out homosexual who believes that the discussions of sexual orientation are absurdly reductive, I have no problem whatsoever in the search for the genetic underpinnings of sexuality. The more knowledge the better, and genetics is such a young field, most of what is to be discovered there is still unknown. May the research continue.
posted to MetaFilter by digaman at 1:29 PM on June 1, 2008

but you would agree that humans have two biological sexes (some fairly rare medical conditions aside)

Actually, 1 in 2000 infants are born with genitals that are, to some degree, intersexed. It's possibly even more common than that. Many of these "deformities" are "corrected" immediately after birth, so the child's personality or sexual identity is not determined. Usually, a child never discovers that they received any such... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by [NOT HERMITOSIS-IST] at 1:38 PM on June 1, 2008

They obviously don't know about Elevensees.

Worst (best) burger I've had is a 1 pound cheesburger on a sub roll served, for a while, at a local Greek joint.
posted to MetaFilter by cowbellemoo at 2:31 PM on June 1, 2008

Hey, everybody! The sun is shining outside!

Well, it is in my happy corner of the universe.
posted to MetaTalk by lysdexic at 1:25 PM on May 29, 2008