MetaFilter posts tagged with metafilter-post

What does your father do?

absalom — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:13:09 -0800

Join the Iraqi Police. I believe these were made by MediaReach.

Feudal Crime Lords of Japan

absalom — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:45:08 -0800

Among industrialized nations, Japan has a pretty low rate of violent crime, a relatively high number of police, and a virtually non-existent acquittal rate. Yet, somehow the Yakuza persists.

"Eat these [bleeping] ribs . . . then tell me about [bleeping] Texas!"

absalom — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:15:05 -0800

Bobby Egan: Restaurateur and Amateur Diplomat. Imagine what diplomatic coups real BBQ ribs might pull off.

Tell me about the dinosaurs, George.

absalom — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:32:56 -0800

Some say volcanoes killed them. Some people say an impact. Some say both. Coulda been bugs, actually. Lots of theories, some better than others. Not like it's that uncommon in the grand scheme of things.

Football's Ironman. (Sorry, Cal.)

absalom — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:50:49 -0800

Through alcohol and vicodin addicition, trauma, grief, and loss, Brett Favre has thrown the ball for the largest muncipally-owned professional sports team in the United States. After reinventing himself several times over, and leading his team to an improbable string of wins and accomplishments a year after almost retiring, he is Sport's Illustrated's sportsman of the year.

Please practice safe beastiality.

absalom — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:19:29 -0800

Is there anything Japanese sailors won't have sex with? [via]

"Really? Worst film you ever saw. Well, my next one will be better."

absalom — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:56:57 -0800

Last summer, Uwe Boll took on four of his many critics. The "Teutonic Terror" (an amateur boxer who spent months in training for the event) so throughly savaged his opponents that three of them became gushing fans. Sure, he exploits an enormous German tax loophole to make dreadful films, but maybe he's just an industry-savvy Ed Wood. His most recent bit of empassioned lunacy suggests so. Hell, he has one more doctorate in literature than I do, and even the Wired guys though one part of Postal was funny.

True art takes note not merely of form but also of what lies behind.

absalom — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:06:00 -0800

MS Paint isn't just for the LOLZ .

Education Prepares for Life, Training Prepares for Employment

absalom — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:53:14 -0800

In 1996, Al Pope from the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturers announced "Our goal is to change the way schooling is done." And, with the School-to-Work program, corporate and educational interests became further intwined, a trend that now reaches every level and comes in many guises. The ever-present crisis of American education continues, but few ask: does it have to be this way, and just who benefits? [mostly via]

This will wendel.

absalom — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:58:09 -0800

From the makers of Exit Mundi: The Other Bible. Fun articles on biblical science and scholarship.

I don't want to make this about me, but. . .

absalom — Mon, 07 May 2007 19:34:57 -0800

Goodbye everyone, Since there has been discussion regarding whether or not my posts to this community are relevant, I have decided to no longer post here. I've enjoyed my time here...meeting a lot of you, but I simply find this community's rules too restrictive, and since I write what I feel, without regard to content (Is it sexist? Is it parental? Is it political? Is it, God forbid, all three??), this community will only end up stifling my originality, and I have no intentions of letting myself be censored in this way. i hope you fall off your soap box someday and bust your ass. i'm out of here. i am not sad about it either.

A reason to call in sick tomorrow.

absalom — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 14:37:52 -0800

Last night there was a pretty cool coronal ejection that ought to be arriving shortly. When it does, expect Auroral activity as far south as Tennessee. (Or Northern Italy. Or New Zealand.) [Via MonkeyFilter]

"I think that’s enough to get us kicked out of the EU."

absalom — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:30:38 -0800

The internet nerdocracy has inadvertently spawned a DDoS attack against a Hungarian government website set up to name a new bridge. Why? Because Stephen Colbert asked "the heroes" to march, and they obeyed. (We've heard from this guy before.) Next on their sights: The Saginaw Spirit team mascot. [more inside]

Light Pen Animation

absalom — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 20:14:51 -0800

If you have a lot of time on your hands and a deep love for animation and LEDs, you might put together something like this. [via]

So, who's got wood for my sheep?

absalom — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 09:05:04 -0800

Posit: Settlers of Catan is the greatest board game of all time. (Read the rules and see for yourself, just don't go too crazy with changing them.) Why not spend Saturday playing online? There are several java versions available for those leery of installing things.

Too Many Chiefs Piss In The Broth.

absalom — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:27:19 -0800

When it comes to collaborative art projects, the internet is kind of a mixed bag. Now with TheBroth, that bag gets a whole lot mixier.

I think I know enough of hate | To know that for destruction ice | Is also great | And would suffice.

absalom — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 16:41:50 -0800

Frozen water is one amazing mineral. (Yes, that's right, mineral!) With a little effort, you can make fire with it. With a little more effort, you can make camera lenses with it. [via Memepool]

Why am I so angry about this?

absalom — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 17:42:49 -0800

Munch's "The Scream" destroyed. (?) According to the paper Dagbladet, it has been. "The Madonna" as well.

Guess the Google!

absalom — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 17:05:11 -0800

I searched and searched, but couldn't find a single post about the Guess the Google game. Even his Montage-a-Google project can't be found.

Cage Match: Gravity Leakage vs. Dark Matter

absalom — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 17:10:49 -0800

In 1962, Thomas Kuhn published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It questioned not only the "progressive" model of scientific history, but also bled over into other disciplines and brought into question human perception of just about everything else. (coining the questionable phrase "paradigm shift" in the process.)

One of the most interesting shifts came in the battle about the (not totally forgotten) aether. A modern day equivalent might be "dark matter," an undetected form of matter that explains some of the quirky behavior of gravity. Or, it could all be gravity leakage.
Let the battle begin! (The winner might just set the course of astrophysics for the next generation, or even lead to the holy grail.)
(see also here.)

Ed Emberly's Big Blue Metafilter Thread

absalom — Sat, 29 Jan 2005 12:50:18 -0800

Of the few memories I still have of childhood, Ed Emberley is tops among them. Though I am to this day a miserable artist, his drawing books were staples of my young life. And I always thought he was my little secret. [via BoingBoing]

Who can invent for us a cartography of autonomy, who can draw a map that includes our desires? - Hakim Bey

absalom — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 17:51:57 -0800

Cartography is a skill pretty much taken for granted now, but it wasn't always so. Accurate maps were once prized state secrets, laborious efforts that cost a fortune and took years (or even decades) to complete.

How things have changed. (Yours now, $110) It took almost 500 years to map North America, but it's only taken one tenth of that to map just everything else. In the last 50 years, we've been able to create acurate atlases of two planets and one moon (with a second in the works). Actually, we've done a lot more than that. We're actually running out of things to map.

Maybe Not.

Gone, but not forgotten!

absalom — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 16:42:20 -0800

In 1995, Microprose released Master of Magic, a game best described as Magic: the Gathering meets Civilization. Despite a daunting list of bugs, the game developed a strong following. It's one of the top 150 games of all time (nevermind the date!), and easily one of the best turn based strategy games ever. Lots of people would love to see this franchise revived, and the good people at Stardock [makers of Galactic Civilizations] are trying to do just that. Godspeed!

Those Who Fail To Learn History. . . something or the other.

absalom — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 09:28:16 -0800

The Rapanui (of Easter Island), the Mayans, and the Norse colonists of Greenland all share one similarity: each culture was brought down by preventable, human-cause environmental catastrophe. Sure, Michael Crichton says it's all bunk, but Jared Diamond (the author of the infinitely discussable, Pulitzer prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel) recently came out with a new book that suggests that maybe we ought to be worried after all. Hear him discuss it on NPR's morning edition.

There can be no escape. . .

absalom — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 17:10:10 -0800

NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory recently detected [reg required] the largest explosion ever detected in the universe: an eruption releasing the energy of hundreds of millions of gamma ray bursts. Just to put it in perspective, a single GRB releases enough radiation to wipe out just about everything human beings would require for survival in a 1000 light year radius. (The Milky Way spans ~100,000 light years, while the United Federation of Planets spans about 8,000). Arthur C. Clarke has gone so far as suggesting that GRBs might be one of the reasons for Extra-Terrestrial silence: Gamma Ray Bursts are so large and inescapable, a single one would wipe out even an enormous galactic empire. Makes killer asteroids seem downright quaint.