MetaFilter posts tagged with oops

Doctor Who?

zarq — Sun, 12 May 2013 19:35:26 -0800

BBC America has shipped the ‘Doctor Who’ Season 7B Blu-Ray/DVD set early to those who pre-ordered it. Only one problem: it includes the season finale, which airs next week. The BBC confirms on Facebook (where people are having fun in the comments,) and Steven Moffat has promised that if fans keep spoilers off the net, they'll release a special video featuring the 10th and 11th Doctors after the finale airs. More from Bleeding Cool. This article contains minor spoilers, and links to larger ones. Meanwhile, the BBC has released a prequel video to next week's finale: She Said, He Said.

Tempest in an imaginary Chamberpot

apricot — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 08:50:32 -0800

The Hairpin publishes a (satirical) article entitled Chamberpots: A Resurgence? about a pair of Park Slope hipsters and their embrace of chamber pots and cheap rent. The article is picked up by Curbed, MSN Money, and the Daily Mail, all of whom miss the satire, and a Slate blogger uses the article to comment on the lack of affordable housing in Brooklyn.

The correct quote is “Hell is other people,” not “Hell is other people at breakfast.”

Chrysostom — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:42:05 -0800

The best (and worst) media errors and corrections of 2012.

Something went boom in the night. (SLYT)

TomMelee — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:08:20 -0800

Mythbusters misfire maligns members of Dublin, CA. MSNBC, CNET. Did Grant let NASA do his maths?

Scoops, Swoops, and Perry's "Oops."

Rhaomi — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:54:11 -0800

Texas Governor and GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry is booked on all the major morning shows tomorrow, and with good reason. After two months of gaffes, impolitic stands, and bizarre speeches that quickly waned his once-strong odds of winning the Republican nomination, Perry went into Wednesday's CNBC debate sorely needing a win... only to deliver a tortuous, cringingly forgetful attempt [video] to recall just which three cabinet departments he'd vowed to abolish, a stunning failure political scientist Larry Sabato deemed "the most devastating moment of any modern primary debate" in his memory. While Perry's slow-motion flameout has boosted the fortunes of dark horse candidate Herman Cain, the unlikely challenger is facing troubles of his own in a volley of sexual harassment claims -- an oddly ineffective scandal Cain is doing his best to (somewhat dubiously) disavow. If Cain collapses, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich may reap the benefits, but his moribund campaign has issues of its own. Pawlenty, Bachmann, Perry, Christie, Cain, Gingrich... the base is loathe to rally round him, but after so many failed, flawed, or forfeited challenges, can anyone topple Mitt Romney?

Flight to Dallas? $400. Hotel Room? $179 a night. No seat for you at the Super Bowl, even with a ticket? Pricel... 3 times face value of ticket

booksherpa — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:11:07 -0800

Apparently the NFL was looking for a record crowd at Cowboys Stadium, and tried to add temporary seating. 2 hours before kickoff, workers were still installing that seating. That status later changed to 400 fans being denied entry and instead being offered 3 times the face value of their tickets. Fans are not happy, and the screw-up is news, both locally, and in Pittsburgh and Green Bay.

"There was no face, merely a gaunt human skull staring out from beneath the towel." Happy Holidays!

ocherdraco — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:57:40 -0800

It's holiday time! Perhaps you'd like to add some DIY decoration to your gifts. Let's make some "Literary Leaf Gift Tags." Which book should you make them from? Oh, any old book will do—say, this one looks splendid. Et voila! Gift tags that are perfect for the literate aesthete, complete with mentions of "gaunt human skulls" and "slave labor camps." And why not use the same paper to create name labels for your packages? I'm sure Mom & Jim, Nathan, Kennedy, and Carrie will love it!

Pull the brake! Pull the brake Emily!

Hoenikker — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:38:51 -0800

oops, by Chris Beckman, is a fascinating video collage of people dropping their cameras. It won the experimental category of the 2010 Vimeo Awards (previously).

I'm afraid I can't do that.

furiousxgeorge — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 10:40:48 -0800

The ISS Progress 38 cargo carrier was launched to bring supplies to the International Space Station. The unmanned Russian vessel has experienced problems attempting to dock with the station and has now disappeared from view, spinning uncontrollably.

Total Protection ... from a usable computer

mrgrimm — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:26:15 -0800

McAfee's latest DAT update quarantined the svchost.exe file on millions (or maybe 800,000) of corporate Windows XP systems, rendering them inoperable (sort of).

Oh where, oh where has my nuclear weapons data gone? Oh where, oh where can it be?

the littlest brussels sprout — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:58:59 -0800

Ever wanted a visual tally of the computers, personal data, and other property lost by or stolen from the US federal government? Presenting the Government Lost & Found Map, via OhMyGov!.

AVATAR we have a problem

philip-random — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:53:28 -0800

Meanwhile in Hollywoodland, the trailer for James Cameron's much anticipated AVATAR debuted online yesterday and ... ooops! The 7 Eeriest Parallels Between Avatar and Delgo. 10 movies AVATAR unfortunately resembles ... James Cameron’s Avatar is supposed to be like nothing we’ve ever seen before. So why does it look so familiar? One of the most disappointing things about the film’s promotion so far is how derivative the film looks in the trailer that debuted online today. And much of what we’re reminded of wasn’t even that great to begin with. Previously on MeFi.

Joint oil ventures with attitiude

codswallop — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:26:46 -0800

Russia's Gazprom and Nigeria's oil company NNPC are forming a joint venture. Hmmmm...what do you call such a thing? GazGeria? Nah, Nigeria should come first. How 'bout NIGAZ? Perhaps unsurprisingly, some people have a problem with this.

How do you say "wipe out" in French?

schyler523 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:59:04 -0800

90 minutes of rally car crashes. That is all. [via]

"Can you really knock off someone's socks?"

zarq — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:01:58 -0800

KaBOOM! This past Friday, the MythBusters exploded 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate (25% of the same material used in the Oklahoma City bombing,) at a rock quarry in Yolo County, CA for an upcoming episode. But the explosion was apparently a wee bit bigger than they expected. It shattered windows in nearby Esparto and was large enough to be picked up as a "small event" ground tremor by National Geographical Survey sensors. Which myth were they busting, you ask? They wanted to answer the question: Can you really knock off someone's socks? :)

If Anything Can Go Wrong, It Will

netbros — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 07:29:12 -0800

Whenever a system becomes completely defined, some damn fool discovers something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition. There's a Murphy's Law for most fields of endeavor. Love - All the good ones are taken. Computers - Any given program, when running, is obsolete. Business - It doesn't matter what you do, it only matters what you say you've done and what you say you're going to do. Teaching - Disaster will occur when visitors are in the room. War - Friendly fire ... isn't. Cops - Tear gas works on cops too, and regardless of wind direction, will always blow back in your face. Photography - You are not Ansel Adams. etc., etc., etc.

El Compa Vs The Cisco Kid

Artw — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:47:51 -0800

Would you like some Narco ballards with your network software?

Nexis Nexus

unSane — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:06:23 -0800

[first name of a candidate] and pre/2 [last name of a candidate] w/7 bush or gore or republican! or democrat! or charg! or accus! or criticiz! or blam! or defend! or iran contra or clinton or spotted owl or florida recount or sex! or controvers! or racis! or fraud! or investigat! or bankrupt! or layoff! or downsiz! or PNTR or NAFTA or outsourc! or indict! or enron or kerry or iraq or wmd! or arrest! or intox! or fired or sex! or racis! or intox! or slur! or arrest! or fired or controvers! or abortion! or gay! or homosexual! or gun! or firearm!

You look familiar.

granted — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:20:27 -0800

Two Spanish women meet in their late twenties and realize that they're identical twins. The hospital had accidentally swapped one with another random newborn, and each family had unknowingly taken home the wrong baby. Now all three women - the two actual twins, and the one fake twin - are suing the hospital, who seriously did not have their act together. But there are all sorts of ways this could happen. For example...

One could be adopted from Mexico by an American family, while the birth mother runs off with the other. (Adrianna Scott and Tamara Rabi)
One might be secretly stolen by the doctors who delivered her, their mother not even knowing she was pregnant with twins. (Andrea Freire and Marielisa Romo)
Their mom might get two boys back from foster care, and wrongly assume that both are her twins instead of just one. (George Cain and Brent Tremblay, the latter not to be confused with the hockey player who is apparently going to Heaven.)
Or they might be secretly separated by researchers studying identical twins raised apart. (Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein) (By the way, "Of the 13 children involved in the study, three sets of twins and one set of triplets have discovered one another. One or two sets of twins may still not know they have an identical twin.")

Others: Tom Patterson and Steve Tazumi Jim Lewis and Jim Springer, the "Jim Twins" Daphne Goodship and Barbara Herbert, the "Giggle Twins" Debbie Mehlman and Sharon Poset Roger Brooks and Tony Milasi Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers And: 1997 Psychology Today article The Minnesota Center for Twin & Family Research

And They Would've Gotten Away With It If Not For That Meddling German Kid

wendell — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:55:02 -0800

Enough bad news, enough gloom and doom. You remember that Asteroid 99942 Apophis that we were afraid might hit Earth in 2029? Ain't gonna happen. But it will get close enough for Earth's gravity to alter its orbit and there's a chance it could hit the next time around in 2036. But only a tiny chance: "less than 1 in 45,000 using standard dynamical models". according to NASA. Oh wait... NASA just got skooled by a 13-year-old German Astronomy Geek who says the chances are more like 1 in 450. Still a tiny chance, and the official numbers were only off by a factor of 100. Oh yeah, we're doomed.

DAMMIT!

jbickers — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:36:10 -0800

Think you've had clumsy moments? Ten bucks says you've never had one quite this bad.

The "Nuclear Nav"

gottabefunky — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:00:27 -0800

The "Nuclear Nav." On March 11, 1958, Captain Bruce Kulka was the navigator on an Air Force B-47 Stratojet carrying nuclear bombs to an airfield in North Africa. Somewhere over the southeastern US, the captain sent him to back the bomb bay to check on a cockpit warning light. As he climbed through the narrow space around the Mark 6 nuclear bomb, Kulka grabbed the emergency release pin by mistake. The 8,500-pound "pig" slowly tipped over and fell. Its weight pushed the bomb bay doors open and it dropped out of the plane. Fifteen thousand feet below waited Mars Bluff, SC -- still the only civilian community in the US ever to have a nuclear bomb dropped on it.

This Thread Has Been Pre-Godwin'd For Your Convenience.

brain_drain — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:24:51 -0800

An Unfortunate View From the Sky. The U.S. Navy has decided to spend as much as $600,000 for landscaping and architectural modifications to obscure the fact that one its building complexes looks like a swastika from the air.

Orphan Grain

Kirth Gerson — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 08:58:40 -0800

In January 2006, small amounts of genetically engineered rice turned up in a shipment that was tested ... by a French customer of Riceland Foods, a big rice mill based in Stuttgart, Ark. Testing revealed that the genetically modified rice contained a strain of Liberty Link that had not been approved for human consumption. What's more, trace amounts of the Liberty Link had mysteriously made their way into the commercial rice supply in all five of the Southern states where long-grain rice is grown. Aventis Crop Science had contracted with a handful of farmers to grow the rice, which was known as Liberty Link because its genes had been altered to resist a weed killer called Liberty, also made by Aventis. Then, the French pharmaceutical giant that owned Aventis Crop Science decided to sell the U.S. biotech unit and abandon the very emotional business of reengineering the foods we eat. "We didn't want to take any chances," says a former Aventis executive. "We burned and buried enough rice to feed 20 million people." Last November, the USDA retroactively approved the Liberty Link rice for human consumption.

"This sounds like the administration's version of the dog ate my homework"

sweet mister — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:14:14 -0800

"Like the famous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes ... This sounds like the Administration's version of 'the dog ate my homework" says Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, as the White House struggles to explain how dozens of staffers' emails sought by the Senate Judiciary Committee in the course of its investigation were 'accidentally' deleted. "You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vt. "Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."