Republican McCain picks woman as running mate
Keep it classy CNN.

Really though, what? Did they say "Obama picks man as running mate?" Obama picks caucasian as running mate?" Of course not, they would have just used Biden's name. Argh. This shit makes me mad. I guess they're just being honest though, I mean the reason she was chosen is that she's a woman.
posted to MetaFilter by arcticwoman at 11:34 AM on August 29, 2008

What if she gets pregnant with #6 while in office?

Bink raises a crucial issue.

WHO WOULD PRESIDE OVER PROCEDURAL MATTERS IN THE SENATE DURING HER BRIEF MATERNITY LEAVE????
(Assuming that the President pro tempore was also pregnant at the time.)
(And also all the junior senators who usually fill in for the President pro tempore to help them learn parliamentary... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by designbot at 1:13 PM on August 29, 2008

This choice in VPs is but an extention of America's fascination with feel-good movies where the hero goes up against great odds and overcomes The Establishment in a folksy way.--Rocky, Dave, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington--and our inability to distinguish the difference between fact and fiction--the Bush Administration.

Picture what a hit movie a certain segment of our population is envisioning:

Angelina Jolie plays the title... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by leftcoastbob at 8:18 AM on September 1, 2008

There are designated areas where to protest and where to set up your cameras and do your journalistic duties.

Yes, and the First Amendment designates the USA as such an area.
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 7:19 PM on September 1, 2008

In 2004, I was well aware that Bush would win, and the only reason I got any comfort out of that fact was that I thought it would fracture the party. To a large extent, I think it has. What I want now is the party that hates government so much yet wants to control it so badly finally be shown explicitly for what they are....a bunch of rich fatcats who want to be in power to make themselves and all their buddies richer.
posted to MetaFilter by nevercalm at 6:22 AM on September 1, 2008

¯\(0_o)/¯
posted to MetaFilter by turgid dahlia at 5:19 PM on August 24, 2008

Alex: Jim you have the board.
Jim: Thanks Alex, I'll take "Ancient Mayan Ruins" for $600.
Alex: Deep in the heart of the Yucatan lies these caves, rumored to be the portal to Xibalba, the Mayan underworld.
Jim: What are "Creepy-ass Mayan Caves we probably shouldn't fuck with?"
Alex: That is correct, you still have the board.
posted to MetaFilter by JimmyJames at 9:40 PM on August 23, 2008

Put a picture on a wall and we'll spend centuries debating its meaning and nuances. Stick a picture in a book and we'll dismiss whether there are any deeper meanings to that image.

Have a book with only text and we'll debate its meanings endlessly. Add a few pictures, and people shut down.

Graphic novels can be as deep and interesting as any piece of art or novel. They just happen to more more surreal and dream-like. The fact that in 2008 we... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Alexandra Kitty at 10:21 AM on August 23, 2008

redsparkler is right about the proper speed for reading comics. You see, comics, when done right, combine text and pictures in a way that conveys information differently from text or pictures alone. Some people don't get this. When comics creators don't understand the principle, you get panels in which the villain is shown demolishing a wall with a single punch, along with a caption that reads "WITH INHUMAN STRENGTH, DR. FURIOUS DESTROYS THE BRICK WALL!": Redundancy. The images and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Faint of Butt at 10:39 AM on August 23, 2008

As a Beloit College Graduate I can say that one of the most embarrassing parts of being a Beloit College Graduate is the Beloit Mindset List. I know Tom McBride reasonably well (never drank with him though) and while he is an entertaining professor and while the MinsetList was an innovative thought experiment the first time it was produced it has become a truly foolish tradition. Kind of like all of the Freddie Kruger and Jason horror flicks, too damn many of them. It might have been slightly... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sam.Burdick at 2:00 PM on August 19, 2008

All this talk of their failing business model reminded me of something. It's not that the model is failing so much as a lack of vision to develop a new model.

Sears was started in the 1890's as a mail order business to compete against local general stores (think of all those westerns with "General Store" on one of the buildings - they were Sears competition). The guys Sears worked on railroads, and he saw all the middlemen tacking on markup as products moved... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 9:07 AM on June 26, 2007

What disgusting behavior by a bunch of pathetic unsocialized losers. Reading that livejournal account by "theferret", I want to pull paragraphs out and write a clinical intake of his sexual dysfunction. But that would take forever.

You know, all of these people are very nice people. They are the kind of people who feel lonely and alienated because they're 'weird' and they end up forming clubs where everyone is nice and accepting to each other and all... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 8:11 AM on April 23, 2008

How, exactly, do we all know this? (NB: honest question)
posted by MarshallPoe at 11:54 AM on August 8

Because at this stage in history, all conflicts are over scarce resources. The ascendance of China and India more than doubles the number of people competing for the resources that 15 years ago were consumed primarily by North Americans, Europeans, and the Japanese.

Oil and energy are not the only resources.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 9:39 AM on August 8, 2008

Is this something you'd need a childhood to know about?

*Sobs softly in the corner*
posted to MetaFilter by Alvy Ampersand at 1:39 PM on July 13, 2008

I was in High School when the zero-tolerance policies started popping up across the nation, as a misguided response to the tragedy at Columbine High. I also had a few run-ins with overzealous application of the policy, despite never having done anything remotely worthy of such treatment.

All of my problems were because of one other child, who I did not get along with and was a known trouble-maker in the school. Every time he "snitched" on me for something I had... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mystyk at 7:23 AM on July 13, 2008

mystyk: The whole zero-tolerance thing caught me in the chest, as well, but I wasn't invited to come back. I was always demanding special treatment and having authority issues at school, what with going blind from pigmentary glaucoma, getting a teacher disciplined for sexually assaulting a student, campaigning against academic carte blanche for athletes, this sort of thing. Trouble. Young people aren't supposed to think or feel shame.

Hoo boy, they had a celebration... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by electronslave at 7:53 AM on July 13, 2008

I've always hated the Book of Job because I thought the lesson was ruined by letting Job get all his stuff back.

Then I read Jack Miles' interpretation of it in "God: A Biography" in which he demonstrates that the Bible's precedent for clever wordplay means that the ending cannot be taken at the face value it currently is.

For example, the RSV has Job recanting by saying:

"I know that thou canst do all... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hermitosis at 6:05 AM on November 4, 2006

If the O2 stores and staff are like ATT stores and staff in the US, they won't know what they're getting until the actual boxes arrive. Even the store managers. The folks at corporate are more wired in on what the details are and they don't tell the customer facing staff until the last possible minute. If they could somehow keep the store and phone personnel from knowing the the iphone actually existed, they wouldn't tell them until launch day.

I think the consensus is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by birdherder at 10:05 AM on July 4, 2008

They're just asking because they know that Obama intends to use the bop gun to paint the white house black.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 3:27 PM on June 17, 2008

So that's what a proper velocipede looks like. I'd always wondered.
posted to MetaFilter by quin at 9:55 AM on June 16, 2008

Are we all so prudish that a trained (semi)-professional glancing at our genitalia gets us all atwitter?

I don't think it's a question of prudishness. It's a question of the erosion of privacy. And furthermore are we all so terrified and cowed by terrorists that we're willing to let airport screeners examine our junk?
posted to MetaFilter by delmoi at 2:16 PM on June 13, 2008

I don't get why these hugely profitable money-making groups known as pro sports teams need taxpayer support.

The Seattle Mariners tax-payer-paid-for baseball palace now supports the worst team in baseball, and the owners simply don't care. I guarantee when their sweetheart lease is up for renewal there, the team will be crying how they just can't make any money without renovations at taxpayer expense and will threaten to move the team to Osaka or Nairobi.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by maxwelton at 10:12 PM on June 12, 2008

Actually, since we're talking about animatronic robots on stage here, I might as well share my idea for the best possible modern use of this technology. I envision a franchise of Mystery Science Theaters in which an animatronic Mike/Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow riff movies "live". The robots would sit right up by the theater screen (in silhouette/Shadowrama so we wouldn't have to deal with the uncanny valley issues) and move according to the programmed routine. The best part, of course,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Servo5678 at 9:15 AM on June 8, 2008

3,000,000,000,000 dollars. That's a lot of zeros.

3 trillion equals 10 fully funded years of welfare/unemployment, and then some. Not that I'm arguing that welfare or unemployment need to be less or more, but that's the kind of money we're talking about, 300 billion a year for 10 years.

We spend maybe a few billion a year on alternative energy research. What is that, in terms of 3 trillion? About a thousand years of alternative energy research at... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 1:37 PM on May 10, 2008

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sicem07 at 3:31 PM on May 10, 2008

I was hooked after listening to the Superpowers episode.
posted to Ask Metafilter by JDHarper at 1:56 PM on May 4, 2008

visa sponsorship?
posted to Ask Metafilter by tachikaze at 2:59 PM on May 2, 2008

I blame knee-jerk attempts to find single causes for things, based on prejudices and confirmation bias.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 11:50 AM on April 10, 2008

Whenever 2001: A Space Odyssey comes up I always point people to this excellent Flash animation, 2001: A Space Odyssey Explained. Well worth 10 mins of your time.
posted to MetaFilter by oh pollo! at 8:34 AM on April 3, 2008

"Juno," "A Beautiful Mind," and all of paul haggis' Oscar-bait will be utterly forgotten in 20 years. But people will still be watching "The breakfast club" in 100 years, maybe 1000.

You can fake it to win awards, but you can't fake soul, or whatever you want to call it.

John Hughes' films always feature something or other that bothers me in some way. Donger is only one of the elements in Sixteen... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by RayOrama at 10:48 PM on March 24, 2008

Welcome to my childhood. He'll survive.

Hell, I survived. I came out the other side unable to hear news stories about the strong abusing the weak without frothing at the mouth, and unable to trust anyone that even vaguely looks like an authority figure, but shit, who cares about emotional problems? He should just man up and turn into an emotional invalid, that'll show 'em.
posted to MetaFilter by Pope Guilty at 2:30 AM on March 24, 2008

Victims of bullying? On MetaFilter?


In school I was bullied on a scale that possibly rivals Billy's - though, we didn't have Facebook or MySpace back then. But we also didn't have any sort of anti-bullying laws back then, either, and the thought of criminal charges being filed wasn't ever really considered - though in retrospect I probably should have filed criminal charges, and often.

It was so bad for a while that if the teacher... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 2:46 AM on March 24, 2008

And that no society that has embraced gay culture has survived.

This is an interesting comment, but not just for the lack of historical perspective.

I find the underlying subtext of this argument to be surreal: that American civilization, barring Muslim or homosexual takeover, will last forever. Can any civilization truly "survive" (until when?)? Is that even possible? Could we imagine a future, millions of years... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Avenger at 12:24 AM on March 13, 2008

It's really disturbing that someone in a position of political responsibility and visibility feels empowered to display this kind of hatred so openly. Where she comes form, what her religious beliefs are, have little to do with it - this sort of virulent homophobia is well represented everywhere. The fact that it influences and shapes public policy is a shame and a disgrace. It's couched in terms of "faith" and "morality," but those are a feeble cover for something that is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by louche mustachio at 4:39 AM on March 13, 2008

I really wish Maria Bamford got more press. (And it's hard to even find decent quality/a variety of youtube videos of her.)

I am glad, though, to see Amy Sedaris on there.
posted to MetaFilter by six-or-six-thirty at 4:16 AM on March 7, 2008

This s a good place to post the greatest musical segment that ever happened on Sesame Street.
posted to MetaFilter by Mikey-San at 10:40 PM on February 27, 2008

Alis from Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System. A real ground-breaking RPG that set the tone for many RPGs since (not to mention Phantasy Star 2, 3, 4, Universe, etc.)

She's female, not a sex object, and a surprising lead character for the time. Samus is a great example, but it's kind of sad that they hide the fact that she's female until the end.
posted to Ask Metafilter by mamessner at 2:18 PM on February 23, 2008

Carmen Santiago?
posted to Ask Metafilter by mattoxic at 2:38 PM on February 23, 2008

Thanks for this post. IT allowed me to discover an entirely new dimension of loathing.

You see, if you aren't married, you aren't a man. If you aren't generating income every available second of the day, you are wasting your life. Never mind that half of marriages end in divorce, and that divorce laws overwhelmingly favor a massive asset and income transfer from ex-husband to ex-wife. Never mind that any career advancement a guy can hope for has to be front-loaded,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pastabagel at 5:25 PM on January 30, 2008

A couple of years later I moved and started working. I started noticing characters in movies who were in their 20's and played video games all the time. I noticed professional athletes talk about playing video games. At some point, I got a sense about how widespread it is. I still am not used to it. I still think the whole thing is amazing. The idea of adults playing video games with any sort of frequency or seriousness strikes me about the same as it would if adults started using... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mattholomew at 6:35 PM on January 30, 2008

Man. I'm still rooting for those poor Ice Planet guys to finish whatever the hell they were doing down there. Lost alot of good men on that goddamn planet...
posted to MetaFilter by cowbellemoo at 12:28 PM on January 28, 2008

My first car was an '89 Chevy Corsica that had never been a particularly great car, even when it was my parents'. By the time I was in college in '99, it was stalling out whenever it slowed down, leaking a variety of fluids, and speaking to me on behalf of Gozer. Naturally, I spontaneously decided to drive it to Santa Clara, CA from Hays, KS one day. And then back again. Without telling anyone.

My parents were displeased.

It... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by katillathehun at 7:15 PM on January 24, 2008

DJ Format - 3 Feet Deep.
posted to MetaFilter by churl at 9:54 PM on January 22, 2008

What got to me was the breathing clip. It might just be because I'm sitting here alone in the middle of the night listening to it, but that laboured, wheezy breathing with the weird electronic sounds behind it was creeping me right the fuck out. I couldn't listen to the whole thing, I was afraid it'd change to become even worse, or start talking to me or something.


Gee, I wonder why... could it be because you were LISTENING TO SOMEONE... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The Light Fantastic at 3:24 AM on January 19, 2008

For some people, the need to decide -- to choose and be done with wondering -- is paramount. But it's neurotic, and they shouldn't bother other people about it. It is illuminating that this sort of nervous nelly semi-quasi-condemnation always rears its head most clearly when the matter is of sexual orientation.

If a girl is into white guys AND black guys, do we bother her about it? Do we say, "What's the deal with you being attracted to two different shades of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by CheeseburgerBrown at 3:51 PM on January 17, 2008

My best example of the making a connection thing happened to me in Paris. As I wrote in my diary back in the day:

I’m sitting in the café at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. On the table before me are an espresso and pain du chocolate, and they are all I can smell. Around me people are talking in a din of different languages. A Japanese girl is seated on the table almost but not quite opposite to me. She has brought an espresso as well. We smile at each other, and we share... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by feelinglistless at 3:49 PM on January 7, 2008

I don't go out drinking regularly, and the tips that I leave are modest ($1 per drink, across the board), so it surprised me to find that bartenders comp me a drink (or two) on a large percentage of my nights out. On New Year's Eve, I finally asked a bartender why it was that she'd declined payment on a couple of my drinks. Turns out, it's because I said "please", "thank you" and "when you have a chance" when I ordered my first few rounds. Up until that point, I'd... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Parasite Unseen at 3:59 PM on January 7, 2008

I am an Eagle Scout. Most of my adult male friends are Eagle Scouts. Most of my adult female friends were in Explorer Scouts with me. I attended several national and world jamborees and worked with the Scouting program on a national and international level. My father was our Scoutmaster, but I also loved the program. Loved it. I saw the potential in Scouting to change the world for the better. But I don't see that any more.

The program I love is discriminatory and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ColdChef at 5:50 AM on December 20, 2007

hermitosis: When you put it that way, it sounds like you're sadder about a potential dearth of reading material than about the writers themselves.

Such a world goes down with him. When lose Pterry, we lose Rincewind, and we lose Weatherwax, and we lose Carrot, and we lose the Librarian. We lose Tiffany, and we lose Maurice, and we lose Nanny Ogg and Vetinari and Detritus and Death himself.

What he's written will always be there,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jilder at 7:25 AM on December 12, 2007

On the Speech Accent Archive website, each speech sample features someone reading this paragraph: "Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station."

Each sentence... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:29 AM on July 22, 2007 marked best answer