MetaFilter posts by aaron.
Displaying 51 through 100. Subscribe: http://www.metafilter.com/user/975/postsrss 
posted on Mar-15-01 at 12:03 AM
I want to bring up a concept for debate here that's been gnawing at me for a while, one that most people probably haven't ever thought much about (though I'd be delighted to discover I am wrong about that). It's taken me a few paragraphs to explain, so I don't think I should just publish the whole thing to the front page. Thus, I ask if you all wouldn't mind please jumping inside this thread for a second and checking it out. If you really hate it, you can back out and move on to something else.
The question I wish to ask, boiled down to one sentence, is this: Should we, as members of a caring, progressive society, have an obligation to be an inclusive society? To see to it that all people are made to feel to be a part of things? A detailed explanation of what I'm getting at is inside. (Yes, yes, I know I've said that I hate the word "progressive" used in any political/sociological sense, but in this case it seems the most appropriate term.)
posted on Mar-13-01 at 3:30 AM
Howard Kurtz gives Henry "Amazon at 400" Blodget the drubbing he ought to have received 18 months ago. And as Kurtz explains, Blodget did receive it, in the legacy media (I think it's called the legacy media because they're what will be left standing when the few remaining dotcom content sites finally die). But no, the dead-tree writers were all wrong. They just didn't get it. Except they weren't. And they did. Those that sneered are now largely (and deservedly) gone. And all us print and TV people are left to ask: Why did any of you ever buy into this BS in the first place? We tried to warn you!
posted on Mar-12-01 at 1:30 AM
Foot-and-mouth disease marches forward in Europe. In order to try to slow down the spread of the virus, UK authorities are urging cancellations of any events that bring people and/or animals together. Which means no horse racing. Which means the Brits are going insane because they have nothing to bet on. (Unlike the US, they don't consider gambling to be an evil on the level of homicide.) What to do? Rodents to the rescue! BlueSQ.com is offering live webcasts of hamster races to satiate your betting jones. Look at 'em go! In other hamster news, some dork blew £3000 on a 6-foot-tall fiberglass hamster left over from the carnage of the Millennium Dome.
posted on Mar-8-01 at 11:55 PM
St. Louis Sees Specter of Vote Fraud. Chicago hands over the title of Most Vote-Rigged City in America. Remember the Election Day lawsuit that Democrats filed in St. Louis to illegally extend voting hours (which was successful for 45 minutes)? Turns out the chief plaintiff was dead. And that's only one anecdote from this story. Will meaningful election reform ever be allowed in this country, when it would mean closing all the loopholes that are routinely used to rig the results? (NYTimes link, registration required)
posted on Mar-4-01 at 12:29 AM
The House has passed the bankruptcy reform bill that Clinton vetoed at the end of the last session. I'm mildly optimistic that it won't pass the Senate, given that the Democratic vote in the House was split. But should we be worried at all? At first glance, it doesn't seem like a bad idea. But so many consumer groups are against it, and it seems to benefit credit card companies while hurting individuals, so I'm inclined to think we should leave things as-is. Especially since personal bankruptcies are down and credit card issuers' profits are up. Anyone know more about this?
posted on Mar-1-01 at 10:07 PM
Schadenfreude update: eToys has officially announced it will file Chapter 7 and liquidate in 5-10 days. And, as expected, Disney started Round 2 of layoffs from its cash-hemmoraghing operation, this time gutting ABCNEWS.com and ABC.com. Predictions as to who's next?
posted on Feb-26-01 at 2:31 PM
The obvious next step has been taken: An Oregon state senator introduces a bill that will expand the definition of hate crimes to include ecoterrorism and illegal actions motivated by anticapitalism. Block a street, go to jail?
posted on Feb-13-01 at 10:40 AM
"It's like The Day of the Jackal as conceived by Ned Flanders, and produced by the film and video department of a rural Bible college. Hoo boy, is this thing ever an embarrassment." National Review deliciously - and viciously - skewers the movie version of Left Behind, the Christian fundamentalist Rapture novel.
posted on Feb-6-01 at 10:55 PM
One of the best movie news and gossip web sites, Roughcut.com, has just closed, a victim of the AOL Time Warner layoffs. Luckily, the single best thing about Roughcut, David Poland's daily column "The Hot Button," will live on via Poland's personal site.
posted on Jan-30-01 at 12:48 AM
I'm surprised that none of us thought to post this: January 28 was the 15th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. For most of us Generation Xers, that day was the ultimate "where were you?" event, a moment as defining to our generation as the JFK assassination was to Boomers. Or at least that's what the media wants us to believe. In any case, it affected most people very strongly, and threw a hell of a monkey wrench into the US space program that we're arguably still recovering from. Worse, the shuttle's almost guaranteed to blow up again at some point, due to design problems and the inherent risks of space flight. So where were you on that day? How did it affect you? Do you think the nation was permanently affected?
posted on Jan-30-01 at 12:33 AM
Like the rest of Europe, Germany is going through a histrionic BSE scare. So Germans switched to sausage and pork. And then they were told pork contains anabolic steroids. So they switched to venison. And then they were told it might have BSE too. So the Germans, who hate veggies, are starting to "starve." And raid zoos for meat. Hey, where'd all this paté come from?
posted on Jan-27-01 at 11:01 PM
So, who are you going to vote for? Yes, it's that time again, as the 2004 presidential campaign gets underway! The Des Moines Register asked registered Iowa Democrats to declare their favorites. Who are you supporting?
posted on Jan-26-01 at 12:49 PM
Hey Teen Activists! Want to protest the evil capitalist confab at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but you just don't have the time? Well, now you can! Thanks to revolutionary (no pun intended) Swiss technology, hellomrpresident.com will allow you to send messages that will then be projected via laser onto the side of a mountain overlooking Davos! Starts today at 1700, though it doesn't say whether that's UTC or local time. Five hours a day for five days. Let us know what you get projected! (They have a webcam up, so you may be able to grab a jpeg of your thought.)
posted on Jan-24-01 at 11:18 PM
You thought it was just "shenanigans," but it turns out to have been a lot more. Outgoing Clinton-Gore Administration staffers committed many acts of vandalism on their way out the door, including mass destruction of internal wiring, destroyed office equipment, intentionally-reprogrammed phone systems and trash strewn everywhere. It was so bad in the Vice-President's offices that Tipper Gore had to personally call Lynne Cheney to apologize.
posted on Jan-24-01 at 9:36 PM
She's an expert on marriages. How do we know this? Because she's written a book about it. And what is her advice for a successful, happy marriage? The woman should be acquiescent to the man. I open the floor for comments...
posted on Jan-17-01 at 11:40 PM
This time it's for real: A Stage Three Power Emergency has been declared in California this evening.
Rolling blackouts are expected, especially in Northern California. If MeFi goes down tonight, this is why. Nothing like government intervention disguised as "deregulation" to muck up the works.
posted on Jan-11-01 at 1:56 PM
Ebola is for wimps! Some Australian scientists were trying to come up with a mouse contraceptive vaccine, for use in pest control. And they succeeded. Unfortunately, the virus they created works by killing mice before they can breed, and killing them very very well. Oh, and it's extremely vaccine-resistant: 100% death without vaccine, 50% with. And any kid with a Li'l Johnny Gene Engineering Kit could conceivably make a human version. Anyone got some smallpox virus laying around?
posted on Jan-10-01 at 3:44 PM
The latest iteration of the Great Chad Count of 2001 has been announced. Some news organizations finally announce specifics about their planned gang-recount. They'll pay a nonprofit firm to "inventory" the votes, but each news organization will decide separately what the results mean. And one paper is holding an entirely separate count of its own. Inside.com summarizes: "When the laborious process is completed in 8 to 10 weeks, look for an orgy of tea-leaf discernment as any news organization willing to share in the costs will be free to spin and analyze the results in any way they please."
posted on Jan-9-01 at 10:28 PM
Nat Hentoff on the Supreme Court and Bush v Gore: "Far from stealing the election for Bush, the majority of the Supreme Court shamed the politicians of both parties who, for so long, have failed to secure everyone's meaningful right to vote."
posted on Jan-9-01 at 5:03 PM
New administration, same old Zoe Baird problem. Labor Secretary-Designate Linda Chavez housed an illegal Guatamalan immigrant and gave her spending money in the early 1990s. Will it nuke Chavez's confirmation? Or will Senate Democrats not touch it out of fear of appearing anti-Hispanic?
posted on Jan-7-01 at 4:17 PM
When a group of astronomers bought a bunch of land in Transylvania County, N.C., to use the abandoned satellite dishes, they got a bonus: Thirty-five years' worth of leftover techno-wonders from the National Security Agency. Check out what they found, and largely can't identify.
posted on Jan-6-01 at 10:44 PM
George W. Bush is elected President of the United States. Affirmed by no less than Al Gore himself. The electoral votes have been tallied and certified. It. Is. Over.
posted on Jan-6-01 at 1:50 PM
Let's give a big "Yahoo!" for censorship! Yahoo caves in and bans all "hate materials" from being sold through its auction service anywhere, not just in France. What is "hate material," of course, will be defined by Yahoo itself, in ways they haven't yet bothered to deliniate. (I'm going to go out on a limb and venture that "No Fat Chicks" bumper stickers will still be allowed, along with anything else that denigrates groups that don't have politically-effective special interest groups behind them.) In addition, they'll now charge for listings. Are these smart ideas for a site whose auctions have a pretty anemic response rate in the first place?
posted on Jan-2-01 at 10:13 PM
CueCats Held Hostage! A motley mix of left-wingers and computer geeks plans to march on the offices of the Dallas Morning News this weekend, armed with pet carriers filled with CueCats, in order to protest what they see as pro-GOP slants in the paper's reporting. If the paper doesn't agree to their demands for more left-favorable reporting, the CueCats will be executed! Why CueCats? Because the company that owns the News has been plugging CueCats like crazy. (second item on the page)
posted on Dec-14-00 at 3:20 PM
Supreme Court II: Election Boogaloo. Programs, getcher programs here! Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can get your grubby hands on the Bush and Gore briefs right now. Fascinating reading. PDF files, of course.
posted on Dec-10-00 at 9:26 PM
POST FINAL PROJECTIONS HERE, PLEASE. That's final projections only, not still-changing exit poll results, which can go in the thread below. (And no, that's not a link two sentences back.) VNS and the Bush and Gore campaigns have a projection in the presidential race, which is hidden inside to protect the weak. Also, a projection in the New York Senate race.
posted on Nov-7-00 at 3:37 PM
Bill Clinton sentenced to 20 years in prison! By a district court in ... um ... Belgrade. Along with Madeleine Albright, Tony Blair, and a whole bunch of other leaders. For war crimes. Warrants have been issued for their arrest. ::snicker:: Good thing that International Tribunal never got set up, eh?
posted on Sep-21-00 at 9:38 PM
Equatorial Guinea has a new swimming star: 22-year-old Eric Moussambani. He won his heat in the 100m freestyle, despite never having learned how to swim at all until January, and having never even raced more than 50m before this race. His winning time: 1:52.72. Since that's about a minute more than it takes most Olympians, it should be noted here that his two competitors had been disqualified for false states, so he had the pool to himself. You really need to see the video of him "swimming" to believe it. But it's obvious that Sydney now has its own Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards!
posted on Sep-19-00 at 10:48 PM
UK Big Brother ends, and people actually care. (Hint to US producers: An ex-nun who converted to hedonistic lesbianism beats a guy with one leg and a roofer whose idea of individuality is dying his hair.) The thing I'm most interested in, though: Is it true that the UK's National Health Service refuses to do heart and lung transplants on the, um, genetically inferior?
posted on Sep-17-00 at 11:00 AM
The lead that Al Gore once enjoyed in most presidential polls in wake of the Democratic convention has all but disappeared, according to the latest Voter.com Battleground 2000 poll released Thursday. The survey reports that the vice president’s numbers are slipping and George W. Bush is back on top for the first time in weeks.
posted on Sep-14-00 at 7:31 AM
The Washington Post speculates on the future of Canada. More directly, they question whether it has a future. Is Canada doomed to eventually join the United States?
posted on Sep-12-00 at 11:51 AM
All across Europe - in Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands - the people are rising up! Protesting! Blockading! Saying that the people united will never be defeated! Democracy is thriving! Why is this not being celebrated at Indymedia? Could it be because the people are rising up against left-wing policies?
posted on Sep-11-00 at 5:41 PM
"I've been a broadcast journalist for a quarter of a century and I've never seen a slower period ... There is really no comparison in our lifetime." Are we facing The End of News? Will we ever again live in interesting times? (Yes, I know it's a Salon link. But I've been thinking about this for a while.)
posted on Sep-11-00 at 2:59 PM
The pope must be getting old; when it comes to exorcisms, Satan is beating him these days.
posted on Sep-10-00 at 10:00 PM
You have the right to protest. You have to right to speak out in public against political candidates. Unless that political candidate is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Then the Secret Service bags you and throws you out the door.
posted on Sep-7-00 at 10:28 PM
Is it just me, or was that the worst MTV Video Music Awards ever? And Britney Spears did a lot to cement her reputation as a ... well, I won't say it since it isn't nice to use such words on the front page...
posted on Sep-7-00 at 9:48 PM
So I was paging through the special section of Indymedia devoted to the upcoming Melbourne protests, and came across a page about Melbourne University. Apparently their Student Union voted to skip the S11 protest because they thought too many flat-out anarchists and professional agitators were trying to take charge. So someone posts on Indymedia that this is a case where "democracy was ineffective." What? You lose the vote so there must be something wrong with voting?
posted on Sep-2-00 at 3:32 PM
It's Jerry Lewis's weekend; we just live in it. Nothing says holiday fun like a 21.5-hour parade of handicapped children!
posted on Sep-1-00 at 1:18 PM
And you thought you had a bad day.
posted on Aug-31-00 at 10:33 PM
The Leaning Tower of Pisa now has the mother of all competition.
posted on Aug-28-00 at 10:52 PM
You've got to hand it to the British. First they create the world's most dangerous joke, and now they've created the world's deadliest exam. When headlines go bad.
posted on Aug-28-00 at 3:05 PM
Another corporation shoving dioxin-contaminated food down the throats of unsuspecting consumers. In this case, more than 2200 times the amount allowed to be in a refinery's waste water. Obviously, Ben and Jerry's must be stopped.
posted on Aug-17-00 at 5:03 PM
D2KLA: The fun begins.
posted on Aug-14-00 at 8:53 PM
Enough of these pansy-assed candidates. Gore? Bush? Nader? Feh on them all, clueless newbies, no real experience. It's time for a candidate who's been there. A candidate who's a true stateman. A candidate who is tan, rested and ready! It's time for us to rise up and say Nixon 2000!
posted on Aug-14-00 at 8:44 PM
Attention trial lawyers! Miss out on your chance to get rich off a piece of Big Tobacco? All your buddies already sliced up the potential Firestone pie? Well, have we got a cutting-edge trend for you: Aim for Big Soda! Johns Hopkins claims soft drink companies use caffiene to addict consumers.
posted on Aug-14-00 at 4:34 PM
Three good pieces from the Sunday Times: New York as viewed through foreign tourist guidebooks (big surprise, the French books are the ones that spend the most time pointing out American inferiority). Jerry Nachman on journalists' overwhelmingly one-sided ideology and their rapidly-decreasing ability to hide it. And Michael Lewis on how TiVo and Replay are going to destroy television as we know it, eek! (And don't miss the videos showing how they blew up the TVs and Kellogg's boxes to get the photographs that accompany the article.)
I don't think the Nachman link will live beyond 11 pm Eastern on Sunday; I couldn't find a longer-lasting link to it. I guess opinion pieces aren't important to the Times.
posted on Aug-12-00 at 10:29 PM
Craig Kilborn calls for the assassination of George W. Bush on national television. "Just a little joke, of course. huh huh huh." Yeah, sure, maybe, though not at all funny, and also wildly illegal. CBS and Worldwide Pants have been forced to apologize, and the Secret Service has an active investigation. It should be noted, though, that this aired last Friday, and CBS and Worldwide Pants said and did nothing until this got talked about on a New York radio show yesterday. Why do I get the feeling that if, say, Regis got on his show and made the exact same "joke" about Al Gore, he'd be fired before 10:30 am and be blackballed for the rest of his life?
posted on Aug-9-00 at 9:24 PM
Al Gore has decided on Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) as his VP nominee, sez someone who ratted to the AP. I suppose there's a small chance they're just leaking this now to test public and media reaction before making a final fianl decision, but I doubt it.
posted on Aug-7-00 at 5:33 AM
Why is George W. Bush the best candidate? Because he can deliver speeches from three hours into the future! When the Associated Press Goes Bad.
posted on Aug-3-00 at 5:03 PM
« previous page | next page »