MetaFilter posts tagged with trainwreck

The remote odds of becoming a professor in humanities...

dfm500 — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 11:06:46 -0800

Getting a literature Ph.D. will turn you into an emotional trainwreck, not a professor. "Who wouldn’t want a job where you only have to work five hours a week, you get summers off, your whole job is reading and talking about books, and you can never be fired? Such is the enviable life of the tenured college literature professor, and all you have to do to get it is earn a Ph.D. So perhaps you, literature lover, are considering pursuing this path. Well, what if I told you that by 'five hours' I mean '80 hours,' and by 'summers off' I mean 'two months of unpaid research sequestration and curriculum planning'..."

Don't Cross the Streamers

kirkaracha — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:19:28 -0800

Netflix's lost year: The inside story of the price-hike train wreck.

Leading up to the first anniversary of the Netflix meltdown, CNET interviewed former and current Netflix employees to find out how a series of missteps turned into a lost year, and whether it has rebounded from those self-inflicted wounds.

Dammit. Who typed a question mark on the Teleprompter?

schmod — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 05:50:01 -0800

Back in September, things weren't going very well at the KGTV newsroom. [SLYT]

Great Debate Disasters, Pt 45

CunningLinguist — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:52:55 -0800

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer blanks catastrophically in a TV debate. No matter how strongly you feel about her immigration bill, it's hard not to feel for her. After all, public speaking is America's greatest fear, so the trainwreck might conceivably even help her. But then, here's her equally terrible reaction to press questions afterwards about her false claims that immigrants behead people. Not a good day for the controversial Arizona gov, who has now sworn off debates. Here's Craig Ferguson's enhanced version. And a look back at some classic debate meltdowns and gaffes.

Microsoft Songsmith

mrzarquon — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:20:45 -0800

Microsoft has just announced Songsmith. What is it? I think it is some Karaoke / Garageband / Guitar-hero like thing.

All I do know is: The promotional ad video for it is a trainwreck.

Preserving the Heritage of Zonians

tellurian — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:02:31 -0800

Canal Zone Images is a collection of stories and images about the Panama Canal Zone. Did you know that the construction workers were paid in gold and silver ('spiggoty' dollars)? "Paper money was not used on the pay car at all. In the first place, there was always a danger of its blowing away, and in the second place paper money in the hands of negro workmen soon assumed a most unsanitary condition." A couple more: The story of Submarine 0-5 [4 times! What do you have to do to get gold?]. A train wreck at Miraflores (here is the other postcard [different site] that he mentions).

The Room: Best/Worst/Best Vanity Project Ever

boost ventilator — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 12:03:20 -0800

The Room: The Movie. Triple-threat (actor/writer/director) Tommy Wiseau made his cinematic debut in 2003 with the The Room (see trailer and various scenes), "a blend between a softcore porn flick and a Tennessee Williams stageplay." Wiseau ("who's not just one of the most unusual looking and sounding-with an unidentifiable Eastern European accent-leading men ever to grace the screen, but a narcissist nonpareil whose movie makes Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" seem the apotheosis of cinematic self-restraint...may be something of a first: A movie that prompts most of its viewers to ask for their money back-before even 30 minutes have passed." - Variety), allegedly raised $6 million outside Hollywood to cover production and marketing costs of the self-described "black comedy about love, passion, betrayal and lies" (see various rough dress rehersals). Audience members, including comedian David Cross, have been "marveling at the bizarre editing, bad bluescreen, uncomfortably explicit sex scenes and, of course, the enigma of Wiseau himself" as the film played monthly for years in Los Angeles. Available on DVD, diehard "roomies" swear by the theatrical experience, shout out their own commentary, hurl spoons at the screen and singalong to the soundtrack. Some call it "The Rocky Horror of the New Millenium" and stage "Room" parties. If you look at the marketing campaign or survived a screening you might see The Room as "a seminar on how NOT to make a movie." [Inspired by Boing Boing]

Runaway train, but this one came back

Godbert — Thu, 11 May 2006 16:58:25 -0800

When a runaway train crashed through the floor in Washington, DC's Union Station back in January 1953, the Pennsylvania Railroad immediately started to cover it up. But this coverup was in all the newspapers: the railroad just built a temporary floor over a locomotive and two railroad cars, because of all the traffic for Eisenhower's inauguration. A few weeks later, the locomotive was retrieved, repaired, and running again, like nothing had ever happened. Another page includes some pictures (scroll down).

thar she blows!

crunchland — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 16:43:17 -0800

Time-lapse videos of hurricanes from space from Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center's Camex-4 Hurricane study. [note: Quicktime]

Why men should not marry

SpaceCadet — Sat, 22 Nov 2003 12:25:46 -0800

Why men should not marry