MetaFilter posts by aaron.
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posted on Apr-24-02 at 2:19 PM
In case you still thought there was still anything even slightly rational, even-handed and non-ideological about the Nobel Peace Prize: Members of the NPP committee that gave Shimon Peres the Prize in 1994 are now attacking him for not singlehandedly putting a stop to Israeli reoccupation of Palestinian territory, even though here's only a member of the cabinet, not the leader of the country. (Alternatively, they say, he should have quit.) Which would be okay, since what's going on now isn't very peaceful ... except that they've said not a peep about about the actions of one of the other two men that shared the prize that year, one Yassir Arafat. (The third, Yitzhak Rabin, apparently gets off the hook since he's already dead.)
posted on Apr-5-02 at 2:52 PM
College Girls: Unpaid Whores. So you think you're a great troller. You think you know how to spin your words with absolute precision to force your opponents into a saliva-spewing frenzied rage. Well, guess what? You're a nobody, an amateur. It's time for you to bow down before the One True Master: Cornell University doctoral candidate Joseph J. Sabia. I defy a single MeFite, of any ideology or political persuasion, to not find at least one statement in this article that doesn't completely infuriate them.
posted on Mar-19-02 at 4:04 PM
ActiveBuddy has added five new AIM bots, of various levels of usefulness. ELLEgirlBuddy for teen girl stuff; TattleTeller for Oscar®-related news and gossip; AgentReuters for news and stock quotes; NoBoundariesTV as a tie-in to the useless WB "reality" show that seems to focus around Ford trucks; and My eBay Buddy for, well, make a guess. Fair warning: They're all beta.
posted on Mar-16-02 at 8:23 PM
Another decade, another network jump for Letterman? Dave is very seriously considering an offer from ABC for its 11:35 slot, for reasons not unlike the ones he gave for jumping to CBS from NBC in the first place: little network support. More distressingly, the article strongly implies that Nightline is doomed in its present form regardless of whether Dave decides to join ABC or stay at CBS.
posted on Feb-28-02 at 7:55 PM
"...The Copyright Office followed almost to the letter the RIAA's wish list." The final nail may be about to be driven into the coffin of online music streaming in the US, as the Copyright Office issued its notice of proposed rulemaking on the issue. The proposed rules are extremely favorable to the RIAA, to the point where many streamers are saying they'll simply have to shut down. Even worse, any ruling will be retroactive to 1998, and streamers will have to pay the announced rate on everything they've streamed since that year.
posted on Feb-20-02 at 4:11 PM
So it's finally come down to this. E-content, 2002 style. Could there be any more conclusive proof that the dotcom era is over?
posted on Feb-7-02 at 9:16 PM
When Chyrons go very, very, very, very, very, very, very bad. (Or, How To Lose Your Job In Just One Second) Niger Innis is the spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, one of those scary conservative African-American groups. He's also a regular MSNBC pundit. Well, he was on there the other day talking about Enron, and whoever was in charge of plugging the names into the rundown that hour was a little sloppy with his or her typing and ... well, just click on the link.
posted on Feb-6-02 at 9:05 PM
Someone (in this case, Steven Zeitchik of the [What's Left of] Online Journalism Review) finally has the guts to say it: The post-911 Onion isn't funny. It's preachy, obvious, desperate to give off the impression that it's still ironic without actually being so ... but not funny. Unfortunately, it doesn't delve into the intriguing psychological question of why so many were so eager to laud its return when it's never really returned at all, but hey, it's not the Online Psychology Review, now is it?
posted on Oct-22-01 at 10:46 AM
The "Florida Recount Abandoned" story is a hoax. (Scroll down to the bottom three grafs.) See also Kausfiles 10/15 for corroboration.
posted on Oct-18-01 at 12:59 PM
"Whatever else is going on, the liberal-left alliance has taken as big a hit as the conservative-fundamentalist alliance after the blame-America remarks of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson ... It may be [...] that the far left's bluff has been finally called ... For the first time in a very long while, many liberals are reassessing--quietly for the most part--their alliance with the anti-American, anticapitalist forces they have long appeased, ignored or supported." Andrew Sullivan in Thursday's Opinion Journal. Strong piece, but is he correct? I've seen a few people reassessing here and there, but not a lot, at least not yet.
posted on Oct-3-01 at 10:11 PM
"I have no hesitation in describing this mentality, carefully and without heat, as soft on crime and soft on fascism. No political coalition is possible with such people and, I’m thankful to say, no political coalition with them is now necessary. It no longer matters what they think." Christopher Hitchens says that intellectuals of the left who seek to understand the new enemy are no friends of peace, democracy or human life. Two different versions of the same article here and here. Along the same lines, a piece from The Economist arguing that "Whatever its mistakes, the idea that America brought the onslaught upon itself is absurd."
posted on Oct-2-01 at 1:52 AM
A few WTC things to start the day: 1) If you have a desire to move "off the grid" or just simply disappear, has the City of New York got a new program for you! Now you can get yourself declared dead with nothing more than a copy of Acrobat Reader and an ability to lie through your teeth. 2) The arguments over what to replace the WTC with are starting to gather steam. 3) That last piece standing of the WTC has been removed for probable use in a memorial. God please save us from another huge OKC-style Memorial From Hell.
posted on Sep-26-01 at 12:48 AM
Okay, you are now officially allowed to be scared. Larry Ellison is not only calling for a national ID card, he wants it to be Oracle-based.
posted on Sep-22-01 at 10:25 PM
We may end up not needing to attack Afghanistan at all. The Taliban seem to be doing a marvelous job of destroying themselves just worrying about what we might do.
posted on Sep-20-01 at 10:56 PM
War on Civil Liberties Watch: Usable encryption is in deep doo-doo. A new poll finds 72% of Americans now supporting a ban on unbreakable encryption. (Apparantly breakable, and thus useless, encryption is just fine.) Besides the obvious fact that this stuff is already out there and cannot be taken back, particularly from non-US citizens who don't give a damn about our laws (such as, say, the exact people we're trying to defeat), is there any hope that the courts will find any such new laws unconstitutional?
posted on Sep-18-01 at 4:46 PM
It's not just Islamic fundamentalist terrorists that are scared. Sinn Fein publishes an attack on US antiterrorism policy. Perhaps they fear they might be up against the wall eventually themselves, especially since they have steadfastly refused to even pretend to start decommissioning as per the peace agreement?
posted on Sep-16-01 at 11:52 PM
Bioterror? Nukes? Don't bet on it. Buried in this Washington Post article about the possibility of further terrorist attacks is a piece of information that I had been thinking was probably true myself: The fact that they went to all this trouble to hijack planes and use them as giant bombs is "enormously illustrative" that they probably do not have anything worse to use on us, like biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
posted on Sep-16-01 at 10:19 PM
The Case for Rage and Retribution. An essay by Lance Morrow from the special all-attack issue of TIME. "What’s needed is a unified, unifying, Pearl Harbor sort of purple American fury — a ruthless indignation that doesn’t leak away in a week or two."
posted on Sep-16-01 at 12:29 AM
Has Rep. Barbara Lee just destroyed her political career? Lee (D-CA-9) was the only person in Congress to vote against House Joint Resolution 64/Senate Joint Resolution 23, the bill that authorizes use of military force. Her reason: She believes military action "will not prevent further acts of terrorism." On Dec. 8, 1941, Rep. Jeannette Rankin (R-MT) was the only member of Congress to vote against the declaration of war on Japan, and voter outrage ended her career. Interestingly, Rankin - the first woman ever elected to Congress - had ruined her political career once before, after voting against the declaration of war on Germany in 1917! So ... Whither Barbara Lee?
posted on Sep-14-01 at 11:02 PM
The Tragedy in Cartoons. One of the more interesting effects of a national tragedy is that it always somehow causes the nation's editorial cartoonists to suffer massive, collective brain damage. Across the country, they rush to their easels and whip up cheesy, embarrassing caricatures of Uncle Sam crying. Or the Founding Fathers crying. Or - in this case - a comparison to Pearl Harbor. Or - if your local cartoonist is feeling particularly creative - the always crowd-pleasing weeping Statue of Liberty. As Cagle notes, "Fully half the nation's cartoonists drew the same cartoon on the same day." Including Cagle himself. A tragedy in cartoons indeed. Some psychiatrist really ought to study this phenomenon.
posted on Sep-14-01 at 3:46 PM
The charges of "lewd conduct against a child under 14" against Paula Poundstone have been DROPPED. She pleaded no contest to a couple other charges related to the fact that she had been driving drunk with her kids in the car. I'm posting this because child molestation charges ruin careers and entire lives. Since we covered the initial charges here quite a bit, it's only fair to note her apparent innocence just as prominently, especially during a time like this when any non-attack news is being largely ignored. (Indeed, this story itself is nearly two days old.)
posted on Sep-13-01 at 11:11 PM
Poll results are starting to come in. Bush haters will not be pleased with the results. Neither will ultrapacifists.
posted on Sep-13-01 at 11:35 AM
US rallies the west for attack on Afghanistan, while NATO draws up plans for invasion. (And maybe, just maybe, Iraq! Note that tiny detail in the 4th graf.) Could we be going in? Is there really that much in Afghanistan to go into in the first place?
posted on Sep-12-01 at 11:33 PM
"Lawmakers [have been] told in classified briefings that additional attacks are 'possible if not probable' and they should not assume a false sense of security. This message has been conveyed with a very deliberate and serious level of magnitude." I've been worried about this from the beginning. Who knows if there aren't more terrorists cooling their heels in some airport somewhere because the FAA grounded all the planes so fast? Or that they don't have some evil plan to freak us all out first, get us worked up into a "yeah, we're gonna get 'em!" frenzy, and then do something else just as bad to make us feel helpless?
posted on Sep-12-01 at 5:03 PM
I welcome everyone to the 2nd annual MeFi "Worst. MTV. Video. Music. Awards. EVER." thread. And yes, Britney even further cemented her reputation as a....
posted on Sep-6-01 at 9:29 PM
West Wing Web War! Mickey Kaus shows you how to personally bother Aaron Sorkin and get him to reply to you. This particular pissing match is about writers' credits and compensation, but I'm posting it because it highlights one of the truly unique things about the net/web: It provides a way for celebrities to come out and interact with their fans (or foes) without giving up any of their privacy. Have you ever found yourself keyboard to keyboard with a Big Name? Or know where any of them hang out?
posted on Jul-3-01 at 9:36 PM
The ACLU has been taken over by psychopathic haters in Hawaii. The First Amendment Conference subcommittee of the state board had planned to invite Clarence Thomas to a public debate with ACLU national president Nadine Strossen, as part of a regular series of such debates that has included many big-name conservatives, including Antonin Scalia. But when certain members of the main state board found out, they flew into a rage and demanded the invitation be recinded. Just SOME of the reasons why these three ACLU board members members, all black, are refusing to allow Thomas to participate (note that these are all direct quotes, publicly stated by state ACLU board members): He is an an Anti-Christ. He is an Uncle Tom. He is an asshole. He is a Hitler. He is a Goebbels. And worst of all, he married a white girl. When the ACLU starts to violently attack freedom of speech and freedom of thought, where else can we turn?
posted on Jun-25-01 at 6:09 AM
SmarterChild, the ActiveBuddy bot that can give you the news, tell you how your stocks are doing, play games and tell you to stop using profane language all at the same time, is finally live on AOL's IM system. Add him/her/it to your buddy list and have fun! (Isn't it interesting how moving backwards to good old lightning-fast ASCII is suddenly being considered the wave of the future? Those of us who have been forced into trading PINE for Web-based email against our will have known better the whole time.)
posted on Jun-23-01 at 11:10 PM
Some guy named Lileks asks, Who cares that the European bureaucratic intellectuals are so intent on hating Bush? In a funny way. (Link will eventually move here, since that site's designers don't seem to know what they're doing.)
posted on Jun-18-01 at 9:38 PM
"The members of U2 kindly request that all fans of the group be physically attractive. In order to have a Beautiful Day, we require Beautiful People. Thank you for your understanding." (BTW, it turns out the article is wrong. HBO had nothing to do with it; it was entirely U2's decision.)
posted on Jun-14-01 at 9:28 PM
Is this Andrew Sullivan's ass? This morning, Jim Romenesko made a questionable publishing decision. He ran a link to an article in last Friday's edition of the newspaper LGNY, in which Michelangelo Signorile makes a very serious allegation: That Andrew Sullivan has been advertising for "bareback" sex online (anal sex w/o condoms). Such actions on Sullivan's part would be seen by many as exceedingly hypocritical given his voluminous writings of a moral conservative bent and his "arrogance toward the ghettoized gay scene" (as Signorile puts it), if not downright dangerous given his HIV+ status.
If true, this brings up plenty of ideological and moral issues, which I'm sure will be discussed in this thread. But that's not why I'm bringing it up here. I'm posting because of the vaguely Kayceeish nature of the whole thing. If you look at Signorile's article, you'll see that all the evidence is circumstantial. Several people who Signorile really really trust say they answered the ads and Sullivan was the guy that showed up when they met. The photos in the ads look like what most people expect Sullivan's body to look like (minus his head, of course). Also, Sullivan hasn't responded to anyone's questions about this, and after all, if the accusations were false wouldn't Sullivan be loudly denying them (wink wink)?
Complicating the whole mess is Signorile's own journalistic history - he made his name during the late '80s-early '90s running gossipy columns outing famous people against their will - and that Romenesko decided to publicize this article in the first place, thus ensuring that every single person in the national media is fully aware of the allegations, true or not. Is this actual proof that Sullivan is guilty of barebacking, or is he being Borked (Kayceed?)? Should it have been publicized like this in the first place, since a mention in Romenesko is the best way to start up a classic pack journalism action short of running a front-page story in The New York Times? Will other media outlets jump on this now and sully Sullivan's reputation, whether the allegations are true or not?
posted on May-29-01 at 2:41 PM
I know what you've been thinking: "Yeah, Iron Chef is okay and all, but wouldn't it be a whole lot better with Captain Kirk presiding over it?" Fear no more, The mighty UPN is going to give you your wish.
posted on May-18-01 at 3:17 PM
Why Europe hates us, and why we don't need to care. Given the large amounts of US v Europe discussion here of late (see the death penalty and Eurovision threads as examples), I thought this opinion piece would be of interest.
posted on May-13-01 at 4:05 PM
The Eurovision Song Contest is tonight. Being an American, I don't understand it one bit, especially since the grand prize seems to be a one-way ticket to eternal obscurity. But someone must like it. "I want to shower you with sugar lumps/and ride you over fences..."
posted on May-12-01 at 10:32 AM
The Rumor is spreading. The Tallahassee Democrat gets up to 10 calls and emails a day asking why they haven't printed it. Vanity Fair is sort of writing about it in its July issue, they say. The Internet is all abuzz. But it seems that nobody can prove The Rumor, so instead they're simply going to keep talking about the fact the rumor exists until either someone comes forward with documentable proof, or until practically everyone knows about it anyway and thus the desired damage is done, regardless of whether The Rumor is true or not. It seems to have something to do with high-ranking Republican Florida state government officials and blowjobs, though. The same old "friend of a friend heard that Jeb and Katherine Harris are lovers" BS, or something newer? Doesn't the media have a responsibility to keep their trap shut until and unless they can come up with some real proof, rather than forcing it to come out by making the lack of provability into a so-called news story?
posted on May-11-01 at 6:31 AM
BBC to North America and Australia: Drop Dead. The BBC World Service is dumping all shortwave broadcasts to the US, Canada and Australia as of July. If you want to listen you'll have to get it off the net, or hope your local public radio station uses at least a few WS programs as cheap filler material. A couple hundred US stations do this, but did we mention they tend to do it at 3 in the morning? (Scroll down past the Angola stuff in the above link.)
posted on May-8-01 at 1:42 PM
InfoBots are coming. I believe we've touched on this before, but now it seems to be moving from concept to reality: Instant Messenger "buddies" that are actually bots. You send them an IM with a question, such as "Hey pal, what's the weather in Thunder Bay, Ontario?" And it IMs you back with the answer, almost instantaneously. No waiting for messy web sites to load, no funky searches to run. ActiveBuddy has been the most, um, active in developing the technology, but they've been working on it forever without anything to show to the public. Now, it's out there, somewhere. CNET is reporting today that an ActiveBuddy beta bot has been live for a few months; you can play with it right now if you know its name. (And if you do know its name, a tip would be appreciated. I've been jonesing for this for a good while.) A more public version is supposed to be out in a few weeks. Here buddy buddy buddy...
posted on Apr-25-01 at 3:06 PM
A new bugaboo will have to be found: The Bush Administration has decided not to attempt to drill for oil in the ANWR.
posted on Apr-22-01 at 4:52 PM
The Fed surprises everyone with a 50-basis-point interest rate cut. (That's half a percent in lay terms.) The annoucement came out of nowhere, and the markets have gone nuts on the news: Dow up 4%, Nasdaq up 9%. But is this good news overall? I don't think it is; I think it means Alan Greenspan has data on the state of the economy that shows it's worse than everyone believes.
posted on Apr-18-01 at 9:37 AM
"Big government is good for you, and we'll spare no expense making sure you know it!" New figures show the largest advertiser in the UK is now the British government, with the government blowing about 2 1/2 times as much on ads per year as it did before before Labour's rise to power. This is far more than than any other country's government spends. Dissemination of truly important information, or taxpayer-funded plugs for Labour?
posted on Apr-17-01 at 10:47 PM
Execution for Dummies, special McVeigh edition. The Bureau of Prisons has thoughtfully printed up a 56-page how-to guide for those in charge of putting Tim McVeigh to death. Now you can follow along in the comfort of your own home!
posted on Apr-11-01 at 3:06 PM
He's baaaack. Business news bad boy Lou Dobbs returns home to CNN, and his estranged babies CNNfn and Moneyline. No word on whether he'll have to divest himself of his personal playtoy, Space.com. (My guess is he won't. CNN is desperate.) Can he restore Moneyline's past glory and steal back the ratings crown from Baldy and Bubbles?
posted on Apr-10-01 at 6:32 AM
"I love my stillborn daughter so much, I'm putting her picture on my site for all the world to see!" Am I wrong to be somewhat disturbed by this? She even had to have "the bruises" photoshopped out!
posted on Apr-5-01 at 11:06 AM
Now they're putting URLs on our license plates. This Internet thing has finally gone too far. (Though the thought of Dale Earnhardt license plates is itself disturbing.)
posted on Apr-3-01 at 11:46 AM
This is quite possibly the single best deal ever offered on the web. And remember, at this price, the shipping is free!
posted on Mar-31-01 at 11:54 PM
F u cn rd ths, u rnt vry kreatv. The Guardian launches what may be the world's first text messaging poetry competition. Can you stir another's soul in 160 characters or less? Top prize is £1000. You don't have to be a UK citizen to enter. Why not post your entries here before your send them out?
posted on Mar-29-01 at 10:36 PM
This is the Land of the Beaver? The Canadian government, determined to spare its citizens the horror of having to think for themselves, decides hard-core porn channels are no-nos for their satellite systems.
posted on Mar-29-01 at 10:11 PM
A giant loophole in McCain-Feingold will give oil companies a total exemption from all its propsed spending restrictions. This is levelling the playing field?
posted on Mar-27-01 at 1:51 PM
Disney's Michael Eisner on what to do about all those kids who use Napster: Arrest and prosecute the little SOBs. I know I'd sleep better at night knowing that those devious conspiratorial 11-year-olds were behind bars. [second item]
posted on Mar-16-01 at 1:16 AM