MetaFilter

"Skittles and Watermelon"

I should have expected it sooner. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
posted to MetaFilter by mikelieman at 7:51 AM on July 12, 2013

"Crime detection," while a legitimate purpose, is not served by following random black people around.
posted to MetaFilter by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 6:03 AM on July 12, 2013

EVERY single time I demand someone give me a RATIONAL reason that Trayvon Martin would, unprovoked, assault George Zimmerman, all I get is the same bullshit hand-wavy non-committal frustrating bullshit answers I want to scream. Because all the arguments are predicated on this "Crazy "Black Kid" Attacked Me" stereotype that I wholeheartedly denounce.
posted to MetaFilter by mikelieman at 3:26 AM on July 12, 2013

I recently visited a friend. When he rolled out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen in the morning to make coffee, I could see he was carrying. Does that mean he intended to confront me at breakfast? No, it just means that for him (and many others) the firearm is put on with their clothes. It's just a normal fact of everyday life.

What if instead of seeing you at breakfast, he was a stranger who followed you in his car as you walked alone at night,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 11:40 PM on July 11, 2013

This idea that you need to disregard everything she says because she lied once about her age is completely absurd.

And if you discount the entirety of her testimony based on one lie, then you must also discard the entirety of Zimmerman's testimony based on -- let's go with the lie that he needed to find out what street he was on.

Not that there is NO TESTIMONY that Trayvon Martin assaulted Zimmerman in any way, what does that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mikelieman at 12:14 PM on July 11, 2013

That actually is not how legal causation works. Rather, it is the last proximate act. Right now, "initiating pursuit" was not the last proximate act before Zimmerman shot Martin. For example, intervening proximate acts were Martin coming back to confront Zimmerman and Martin breaking Zimmerman's nose.

Yes, yes, we get that you're a lawyer and that the whole idea of how black people are treated in this country must be meaningless to how this... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 10:51 AM on July 11, 2013

I think we don't know if Zimmerman was following "with the intent to confront" Martin. We do know that he was following him, which I think may have been justifiable for him given the information he had at the time. Confronting him, however, would not have been.

Zimmerman repeatedly referred to Martin as an "asshole" and "fucking punk" that he didn't want to get away from the scene of an imaginary crime, and had removed... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 7:45 AM on July 11, 2013

Corb, does this picture make me a criminal? It's a lot more intense than the Martin image, given that I'm actually out there shooting things. If you like, we can posit for the sake of argument that I'd test positive for THC.
posted to MetaFilter by jaduncan at 7:24 AM on July 11, 2013

corb: "So it is possible to argue one piece of the issue - what makes a criminal? Is it actual breaking of the law? Is it an arrest? Is it a conviction? What makes someone have a "clean adult criminal record"? How would we define "clean" in that case? How might others? We might in that discussion decide that Martin was a criminal by our definition, or Zimmerman, or both or neither. "

I could kind of sort of almost go along... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tonycpsu at 7:08 AM on July 11, 2013

I don't think that Zimmerman had an adult criminal history. He may have been a criminal - I'm not sure and don't have enough evidence. I do think that Martin was probably a criminal, judging from the evidence on display, particularly the medical report, on the pot alone.

This makes no sense. Zimmerman has two mugshots. Trayvon Martin has zero. To say that Zimmerman "may have been" a criminal, but that Trayvon "probably" is a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by eunoia at 6:09 AM on July 11, 2013

The whole thing about being a "criminal" is kind of goofy because this

But I do think that to say "He was not a criminal" when the definition of a criminal is "one who commits a crime under the existing legal code"

Is wrong. You would be extremely hard pressed to find a native speaker of American English who uses "criminal" to refer to any person who has ever committed at least one crime... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:57 AM on July 11, 2013

So you're saying... don't mess with Texas?
posted to MetaFilter by jason_steakums at 8:56 PM on July 8, 2013

who's jay-z?

Run The Jewels will end up being the best hip-hop album this year anyway.

yes, please.
posted to MetaFilter by mrgrimm at 10:12 AM on July 9, 2013

In Britain, the Wu Tang Clan is known as "the Worshipful Company of Wu Tang and Scriveners", and their activities are regulated by the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 6:07 AM on July 9, 2013

In Britain, "The Clash" is known as "Her Majesty's Clash," because they hold a Royal Warrant to provide fresh and frozen punk to Buckingham Palace.
posted to MetaFilter by the quidnunc kid at 6:10 AM on July 9, 2013

this thread got mad stoopid
posted to MetaFilter by Teakettle at 9:56 PM on July 8, 2013

corb: "But I do think that to say "He was not a criminal" when the definition of a criminal is "one who commits a crime under the existing legal code" is a faulty switching of the English language into a language we would like to see, but which does not currently exist. "

Well then you should have a conversation with this lady about how she's engaging in faulty switching of the English language into a language she would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tonycpsu at 1:51 PM on July 10, 2013

I'm a criminal. I've never been convicted or even arrested, but I break laws every day; am I criminal even if I've never been convicted? In case I ever go on trial for something, I guess this can be evidence of my criminality.

"Evidence of criminality" being a thing that Zimmerman lacked knowledge of when he confronted Martin that night.
posted to MetaFilter by rtha at 1:54 PM on July 10, 2013

Look, I don't think anyone deserves to be labeled as a criminal, and in fact, no, I don't believe possession of unregistered firearms or smoking pot are moral failings. But I do think that to say "He was not a criminal" when the definition of a criminal is "one who commits a crime under the existing legal code" is a faulty switching of the English language into a language we would like to see, but which does not currently exist.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 1:50 PM on July 10, 2013

Oh, and folks, take a minute to step back and admire the sheer beauty of an ostensible civil libertarian citing the alleged violation of laws pertaining to use of marijuana and possession of an unregistered firearm as indicative of someone who deserves to be labeled as a criminal.
posted to MetaFilter by tonycpsu at 12:48 PM on July 10, 2013

Is It Time to Give Up on CNN?

What, is it last June already?
posted to MetaFilter by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:09 PM on July 10, 2013

Zimmerman is alleged to have engaged in serial sexual assault, assaulting a police officer, domestic violence, and assaulting a female patron at a bar. That's a lot more criminal than possibly owning a gun that was never apparently used for anything and smoking a mostly harmless drug, but we are asked to believe George is a fine upstanding citizen. We don't work with past allegations though because the two people involved could not have judged each other based on that past.
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 11:40 AM on July 10, 2013

No one asked him to continuously accuse young black men of crimes, or make a drug use determination on a dark rainy night from a distance within a closed space, or to replace the police in his own mind despite them admonishing him for it repeatedly. Unless Zimmerman was a witness to those aspects of Martin's life and had hold of Martin's personal data before initiating pursuit and contact with him and the police, any accusations of Zimmerman being treated unfairly are bullshit, and it's clear... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 11:38 AM on July 10, 2013

To talk about the broader issues without acknowledging those points is to be unfair to Zimmerman.

No one who is posting in this thread has any duty or responsibility to be "fair" to anyone involved in this case. We're not on the jury (I hope!) and we're not the judge. And since the jury is sequestered, I'm not sure how talking about the broader social issues wrapped up in this case/incident have any effect on Zimmerman's ability to receive a fair trial.
posted to MetaFilter by eunoia at 11:37 AM on July 10, 2013

It is striking to me how the defense is presenting this grown ass man with a year of martial arts training, some training for a potential law enforcement career, and experience as a bouncer as totally soft and useless in a fight but we are just kind of supposed to assume it goes without saying that the black teenager is a ground n' pound MMA fighting master who is ready and willing to beat someone to death practically in his back yard between buying candy and watching a basketball game because... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 10:57 AM on July 10, 2013

It's so fucked up that the "Giant Negro Attacks!" angle is still a viable line of defense in America.

These days they're just called thugs. It's more PC or something, because it can also apply to mob guys, union folk, and apparently, if you ask George Zimmerman, Mexicans. Also, gang-bangers.

It doesn't matter what the defense, or anyone, tries to give as a justification- Zimmerman's defense was intentionally trying... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by eunoia at 10:57 AM on July 10, 2013

His state of mind? Maybe his state of mind when he sent the texts, not when he was encountering Zimmerman. We have the testimony of someone who was actually on the phone with him at the time to speak to that better than months old texts. We can't verify anything about his fitness from them either. TalkLeft is presenting everything from the defense perspective, they aren't a good source for unbiased analysis.
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 10:38 AM on July 10, 2013

I wrote earlier in this thread that if Rachel Jeantel looked like Taylor Swift, she would have had a very different experience on the stand. It's becoming increasingly clear that if Trayvon Martin looked like Taylor Swift, this whole thing would be playing out a lot differently.

We -- here on MeFi and the folks in the courtroom -- wouldn't be doing this "angels dancing on the head of a pin" discussion about who was really following and profiling whom and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lord_wolf at 9:29 AM on July 10, 2013

Yes, the state of mind that most black people are in because every area of their lives is under attack every day. Combined with the BS about Martin being the real profiler, this is just the defense veering straight into blatant racism.
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 8:30 AM on July 10, 2013

Especially if you build it out of 5 smaller robots.
posted to MetaFilter by radwolf76 at 12:45 PM on July 10, 2013

if you're going to build a giant robot to fight monsters - why not just make the robot 20 times bigger then the monsters?

Presumably creating robots that are just barely big enough to have a chance against the monsters was already far past the cutting edge of human technical and engineering ability. Building the robots they did was a man-on-the-moon or Manhattan Project level triumph. Setting a goal to create a robot 20 times bigger would have been... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by straight at 12:01 PM on July 10, 2013

The Zimmerman Trial, Day Ten: Stand Whose Ground?

While speculation about the trial has centered on whether or not Zimmerman will take the stand, Trayvon Martin, in a real sense, already has. In a creeping set of rulings, Judge Debra Nelson decided to allow discussion of the traces of marijuana that were found in Martin’s system during his autopsy. The contours of the defense, like a great deal of the discussion of this case, are shot through with an antiquated brand of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 2:13 PM on July 9, 2013

> "How is internal consistency different from good storytelling?"

Internal consistency is generally part of good storytelling. I don't think anyone is arguing with that. What we're actually arguing with is this statement:

> "You're just saying people are different and have different levels of acceptability."

That's not really what was being said. The same person might accept giant robots in... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kyrademon at 11:56 AM on July 9, 2013

No, Rocket Surgeon, he's saying that internal consistency is a pretty universal benchmark for willing suspension of disbelief.
posted to MetaFilter by kyrademon at 11:48 AM on July 9, 2013

Benicio del Toro != Michael Bay

Benicio del Toro also != Guillermo del Toro.
posted to MetaFilter by dubold at 11:21 AM on July 9, 2013

What makes Pacific Rim different from other recent films involving hyperkinetic fights between giant things, that makes people excited about it while at the same time being "meh" about Transformers?

1) World-building. Del Toro takes his giant-robots-fighting-giant-monsters world seriously and there's ten thousand little details that sell the world, instead of the generic "they're hidden except everyone knows except... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tomorrowful at 11:04 AM on July 9, 2013

The Twitchfilm review is amazing, really.

I found it depressing. He says "free reign" instead of "free rein", so I googled it and found it's one of those "so many people get it wrong that it's scarcely considered incorrect anymore" things. So you can see why we need giant monsters to come and destroy this world.
posted to MetaFilter by George_Spiggott at 10:31 AM on July 9, 2013

Most importantly than Kojima, Kanye West "says easily one of my favourite movies of all time" so be prepared for him to rush the stage during the Oscars to point this out to the embarrassment of everyone.
posted to MetaFilter by longbaugh at 2:24 AM on July 9, 2013

Pedants' corner, and not really related to Bitcoin, but while "beating dead horses and moving goalposts" is not in itself mixed metaphor, it is possibly a mingling of metaphors in a fashion identifiably catachretic, as we normally assume that the goalposts being moved are those of a game of football, or soccer outside the US, and therefore the beating of a horse on the pitch would be an unusual circumstance.

However, on reflection there... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by running order squabble fest at 1:07 AM on July 9, 2013

I am calling him a wuss because that is what I believe he is, he quacks like a wuss to me. If the term offends anyone, I am sorry. I am using my words here as best I can to express my opinion about one person. I think he is the worst kind of wuss, a wuss who plays at bullying. He once had a shovefest with a cop, for crying out loud, where are your boundaries? His personality is what put him in Trayvon Martin's path on that terrible night and his choices that leave an innocent soul dead and him... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by maggieb at 2:23 PM on July 8, 2013

Kind of balanced out by Zimmerman saying the voice doesn't sound like him.
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 11:39 AM on July 8, 2013

Climate change is a Chicagoan plot!
posted to MetaFilter by Ice Cream Socialist at 7:13 PM on July 8, 2013

While this thing seems ridiculous, blaming the person who reported it without any understanding of why they did so seems unfair.

Seriously? I guess if it was this woman's first day on the internet I'll cut her some slack. Make sure no one tells her about fark or reddit or 4chan or her phone will wear out calling the cops.

What if I don't really care what her motives were? Her intent doesn't much matter to me, even if she... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cjorgensen at 4:55 PM on July 8, 2013

Now there's nothing we can do to protect you. Run. RUN!!!

If it makes this thread any less bleak and shitty, I just pictured you as some crazy mishmash of Stallone/Schwarzenegger pushing me into a jungle entreating me to beat feet like my life depended on it. Pretty awesome actually.
posted to MetaFilter by RolandOfEld at 4:55 PM on July 8, 2013

Unless it was the Coneheads Movie. Somebody should have been arrested for that.
posted to MetaFilter by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:06 PM on July 8, 2013

huh, I guess those dozens of school shootings didn't happen after all

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure there haven't been dozens of school shootings, but if I am wrong I would like to see your numbers, unless you are counting dozens shot during the handful of school shootings. It's also a moot point, since even if there was a school shooting every day it shouldn't preclude people from commenting about such shootings or even joking about them.
posted to MetaFilter by cjorgensen at 3:55 PM on July 8, 2013

No, reporting that comment was the right thing to do. It's the responsibility of the police and possibly a judge to determine if the threat is genuine or not.

This is bullshit as well. This is why we're in this situation. Everyone looked at this and no one wanted to take responsibility to ask, "Why are you wasting my time with this fucking bullshit?" Instead, this person reported it, the cops "did their jobs,"... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cjorgensen at 3:27 PM on July 8, 2013

The prosecutor in Mr. Carter's case, Comal County District Attorney Jennifer Tharp, declined to comment.

She probably didn't want her words to be taken out of context and misconstrued to paint her in the worst possible light.
posted to MetaFilter by Atom Eyes at 2:38 PM on July 8, 2013

or maybe I just missed how hilarious they were

He's not in jail for having bad taste in jokes.
posted to MetaFilter by jason_steakums at 2:16 PM on July 8, 2013

Today's Penny Arcade comic and newspost are all about this.
posted to MetaFilter by dobi at 2:13 PM on July 8, 2013