MetaFilter posts by rory

DO - YOU - SPEAK - ENG-LISH...

rory — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 10:19:09 -0800

It's our language, not yours. So, you were born in an English-speaking country founded by the English, speak English, have a degree in English, write and publish in English, have lived in England for years, and would like to become an English citizen? Sorry, you failed our English test to determine whether you have workable English, so you can't be English.

I may be some time

rory — Tue, 17 Aug 2004 06:53:00 -0800

"The story of Scott's last expedition to the south pole will, I feel sure, be already known to many of you ... it is one which for courage, endeavour, endurance and unselfishness even in the face of death, will, I feel, never be surpassed.... I feel you will understand the difficulties met with when I tell you that the negatives from which these slides were made and the slides themselves were developed and washed with the aid of melted ice."

Do doo be-do-do

rory — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 04:38:57 -0800

The Office as training video? "The staff had just returned from lunch and all the managers were in a training room, sitting in a semi-circle and looking really pleased with themselves. Then one of them blurted out 'Mahna Mahna' at us without warning. We just stared blankly back at them."

Doctor Bono's Call to Arms

rory — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 03:54:16 -0800

Bono's commencement address to U.Penn. "The world is more malleable than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape.... That's what this degree of yours is, a blunt instrument. So go forth and build something with it." [via Ed]

Eric Idle's Greedy Bastard Tour

rory — Fri, 05 Dec 2003 06:53:17 -0800

Around the States in Eighty Days. Monty Python's Eric Idle is three quarters of the way through a North American tour and keeping an extensive online diary as he goes. "I would never be sitting at home writing my memoirs like this. There's just something about the time available and the different places we visit that invites introspection."

Go Fly a Kite!

rory — Wed, 26 Nov 2003 05:31:56 -0800

Looking for a new use for that webcam? Go fly a kite! Kite Aerial Photography has caught the imagination of photographers and hobbyists around the world, and some of the results are spectacular.

Badgers badgers badgers badgers

rory — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 15:32:51 -0800

Badgers badgers badgers badgers FLASH MOVIE FLAAASH MOOOVIE.

The world's luckiest man?

rory — Thu, 19 Jun 2003 07:00:12 -0800

Is he the world's unluckiest man or the luckiest? Either way, Croatia's Frane Selak, who had already gained attention for escaping death seven times, has just hit the jackpot with his first lottery ticket in forty years. How can we normal mortals compete?

Life's a Game

rory — Wed, 26 Mar 2003 03:22:47 -0800

If life's a game, how do you win? We've been mapping our paths through life for centuries, but it took an American Civil War-era publisher to turn it into a boardgame (after Lincoln's new beard killed demand for his line of clean-shaven presidential portraits). In the age of the PC we can find the answer to life in games, live parallel lives in games, simulate the evolution of life in games, and search for everlasting life in games - but can they beat the dusty old box and dice? And what life lessons are all these games teaching us?

British Pathé online archive launched

rory — Tue, 19 Nov 2002 04:45:43 -0800

Here is the News. The old news, that is: the entire 3500 hour British Pathé Film Archive covering news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970, with low-res clips available for free, was launched today.