MetaFilter

Also, if there is a musical genre called HTML, you could probably get a compilation of some bands that play it.
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 7:01 AM on December 23, 2010

In a better world, a film about this girl would be opening this week, instead of "Little Fockers."
posted to MetaFilter by davebush at 9:26 PM on December 21, 2010

And they could speed up their journeys to work by not insisting on holding every elevator for everyone who wants to catch it as though it was one of the last helicopters leaving the roof of the Saigon embassy in 1975.

I literally cannot imagine not doing this. It seems inconceivably rude not to. Do people in other countries not hold the doors? Seriously?
posted to MetaFilter by Navelgazer at 2:10 PM on December 20, 2010

Probably they should establish some sort of committee, and a fresh government department, to get to the bottom of this!
posted to MetaFilter by turgid dahlia at 7:29 AM on July 19, 2010

I'm pretty sure Faze is just saying that some people consider it deviant behavior.
posted to MetaFilter by orme at 4:41 AM on December 20, 2010

I'm really mystified that we seem to have had so few serious attempts.

I'm not, because the threat is bullshit. Terrorism is an infinitesimal blip in the lives of Americans. The government pimps terrorism because Communism is gone. It needs a new other. Any halfway competent terrorist group could cripple the US economy in an afternoon: send suicide bombers into the security lines at airports. Because this hasn't happened,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ryoshu at 8:29 AM on December 19, 2010

This OMG FAILURE GUNS KNIVES SLIPPING THROUGH is actually part of the plan. Did you know that? True story. Because all these weapons are slipping through the already absurd levels of security theatre, clearly we need more security theatre! Who the fuck is going to argue against even more redongulous intrusive and bullshit inspections infections and rejections at the airport and other transportation centres because oh my god guns knives and look at that guy's tiny... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by seanmpuckett at 6:52 AM on December 19, 2010

Yeah, and is Obama doing anything to stop it?

This is a virtually unstoppable machine now. The President of the United States of America is simply not powerful enough to stand up to the beast.
posted to MetaFilter by flapjax at midnite at 5:37 AM on December 19, 2010

Hyperbole like that doesn't make a compelling argument.....

Which is why those who defend pornoscanning and shampoo-confiscating as the only line of defense between us and the slavering Muslim hordes who hate our freedom, never use hyperbole to make their case.
posted to MetaFilter by Horace Rumpole at 5:36 AM on December 19, 2010

Separately, if you can "forget" you have a loaded gun, maybe you shouldn't have a gun.
posted to MetaFilter by Shebear at 4:58 AM on December 19, 2010

Proving once again that Bruce Schneier was and is right: "Counterterrorism in the airport is a show designed to make people feel better," he said. "Only two things have made flying safer: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers."
posted to MetaFilter by Zonker at 3:52 AM on December 19, 2010

A former co-worker/acquaintance posted this as his status earlier today:F*!K I just realized that after my bag went through extra screening my $500 ultimate ears headphones are no longer in it. That makes the 5th time I've been robbed by these great people protecting us from terrorism! Oh and they totally missed the knife in my bag while busily robbing me.So yeah... if that's true, and with the FPP links, then basically the TSA is little more than a socialist job-works program... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hincandenza at 3:33 AM on December 19, 2010

Ugh, the faces she pulls...
posted to MetaFilter by Dragonness at 10:07 PM on December 18, 2010

The rules of attraction are clear.

If a woman fancies a man, his attempts at getting her interest will be flattering.
If a woman detests a man, his attempts at getting her attention will be harassment.

Similarly…

If a man fancies a woman, it doesn't matter what she says. It doesn't matter what she thinks. And it sure as shit doesn't matter what she's wearing.

Conversely, if a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Civil_Disobedient at 9:49 AM on December 17, 2010

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
posted to MetaFilter by punkfloyd at 10:48 AM on December 13, 2010

Can I just say I hate posts like this? If what you're posting is so fascinating and great, it won't suffer from giving it a little context up front. Most people (in the US, at least) are sitting in their desks at work at this time on a Monday, and that limits the amount of entirely mysterious linkage I want to click on.
posted to MetaFilter by newdaddy at 10:44 AM on December 13, 2010

jcworth: "Alright, the die is cast. Its everyone for himself since there seems no sure way to tell if anything is helpful to anyone. I am going to give in to the dark side. On the other hand... those mosquito nets.. how are they bad again"

Trite. Strawman. Wrong. You tell if interventions are helpful by doing quantatative research on them. We learned that mosquito nets were good by doing research on them, and then we learned that selling the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by The White Hat at 6:16 PM on December 12, 2010

Cool Papa Bell, I know what you are saying but I think you could have chosen better examples than Thailand or Mexico, both of which have strong non-tourism sectors.
I've lived all over the world. One of the stupidest things I've seen are the Habitat for Humanity volunteers in Guatemala. They pay a couple thousand dollars to come down and build houses for a week or two for poor Guatemalans. It's a great idea - let's help these poor people have a decent place to live! But the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by conifer at 5:44 PM on December 12, 2010

I think that the unfortunate situation they're identifying is that there's been little acknowledgement and documenting of the suffering and damage caused by American air raids in WWII.

This feels like a really tricky subject to handle because focussing on the suffering of the Japanese, especially in the context of Japan's post-war history, is likely to cause a few knees to jerk. There was massive death and destruction rained on civilians that seems, not just... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fatbird at 10:47 PM on December 12, 2010

stupid short nosed dogs.... sheesh

/signed the husky
posted to MetaFilter by HuronBob at 10:48 AM on December 10, 2010

Jesus, what did that guy eat?
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 11:32 AM on December 10, 2010

And dog people are always telling me how smart dogs are. At least a cat would have been able to get itself out - in the unlikely event it had been dumb enough to fall in in the first place.
posted to MetaFilter by Decani at 10:53 AM on December 10, 2010

Faze: There's also "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" by Bachman Turner Overdive. The stuttering in the song song has an interesting backstory.
posted to MetaFilter by rocket88 at 8:29 AM on December 10, 2010

Nobody thought it could be done, but they did it - they constructed a movie out of pure Oscar bait.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 5:52 AM on December 10, 2010

NOTE TO MY IOWA TERRORIST BRETHERN: PLEASE AVOID WAL-MART. AMMUNITION CAN ALSO BE PURCHASED AT "LARRY'S GUNS N' STUFF" ON ROUTE 380. ALONG WITH NINE MILLION OTHER LOCATIONS.
posted to MetaFilter by Cool Papa Bell at 4:53 PM on December 7, 2010

Interesting parallels to Neal Cassady. Both born during the depression, petty criminal, car thief, doper, drinker, womanizer. They probably even crossed paths. But vastly different ends.
posted to MetaFilter by fixedgear at 11:29 AM on December 6, 2010

The weird thing is that calling out deception in advertising actually makes it more effective. In a lot of cases, like with luxury brands, advertising only works because consumers think the ads are deceptive! The implicit message is "Buy this car and everyone will think you're smooth and sophisticated just like this guy! They're so gullible and deceived by our advertising!" With a luxury brand, you're not buying the actual product so much as hiring the marketing... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by AlsoMike at 4:10 PM on December 5, 2010

This one looks like a woman passing as a man/boy.
posted to MetaFilter by yesster at 5:51 PM on December 5, 2010

Vegitarians fart too.

You meat eaters could never dream of the volume, force, and intensity of the gas we expel. It's just one of the many ways in which we are superior to you.

I myself am providing the methane to a small village in Northern Minnesota as we speak, singlehandedly saving their economy from ruin thanks to my taste for legumes.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 2:12 PM on December 4, 2010

After studying something like 170 villages all over China over a longitudinal period of 30+ years (supposedly the most comprehensive study of it's type ever done), the science is in: Animal protein bad, vegetable protein good. Cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, so much of what plagues modern society is tied back to what we eat. And mostly it's tied to how much animal protein we eat.

And even more startling, they can be reversed by going to a plant-based... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 11:55 AM on December 4, 2010

For the best new food pop electro, keep heading east -- Les Balkaneiras.
posted to MetaFilter by iamck at 12:11 AM on December 4, 2010

That's why they call it "work".
posted to MetaFilter by BitterOldPunk at 4:07 PM on December 3, 2010

Neat. Moving.

But where is this weird place with nobody but white people in it?
posted to MetaFilter by rahnefan at 11:52 AM on December 3, 2010

Wow! Something palatable served up at a food court!
posted to MetaFilter by giraffe at 11:43 AM on December 3, 2010

Hannukah is still a nothing holiday, as far as I can tell, for many Jews, once either (A) your kids have grown up, or (B) you are no longer a kid. It's been ginned up into a big deal pretty much solely so that Jewish children can get presents around the same time as everyone else and don't have to feel like crap. Well, that and perhaps the pervasive HOLIDAYNESS of the HOLIDAY SEASON which happens on the HOLIDAYS meant some holiday pretty much had to happen there, I guess.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kyrademon at 1:08 PM on December 2, 2010

Jews write Christmas songs instead of Hannukah songs because Christmas is awesome and Hannukah sucks. Why is there any discussion of this?

Oh, yay. Potato pancakes and spinning a top for M&Ms. God, I can't believe it's only possible to do that once per year. What are we celebrating again? Oh yeah. Murderous religious zealots. At least it's a festival of lights! Nine of them, and they're pretty much birthday candles, and by day three it's a chore. No, nothing to envy... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 12:45 PM on December 2, 2010

My thought about the ubiquity of Christmas music in American culture is that it's a product of the Christmas-industrial complex that took some relatively modest rituals that were not at all ubiquitous across Christianity and proceeded the market the shit out of them.
posted to MetaFilter by KirkJobSluder at 12:02 PM on December 2, 2010

I'm still thinking about this. I'm fascinated by my own reaction to the Casablanca clip, in which Ilsa says so warmly and richly, "Play it, Sam." Sam is again playing something of a subordinate, enabling role, expressed through his musical talent, and to me his reaction outside of his piano playing is all but irrelevant. Watching it called up all my own zillion viewings of the film and the emotional objective correlatives of that scene. I know what the song means to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dhartung at 11:45 PM on November 30, 2010

WikiLeaks cable:

Date 2006-08-31 06:39:00

Source Embassy Moscow

Classification CONFIDENTIAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 MOSCOW 009533 [...]

1. (C) Weddings are elaborate in Dagestan [...]

posted to MetaFilter by pracowity at 7:17 AM on December 1, 2010

Let's see how quickly this lasts if a state decides to repeal the drug laws.
posted to MetaFilter by Maias at 2:14 PM on November 30, 2010

That's actually a really interesting idea. It's a check and balance on the Federal government as a whole. They can't PASS laws, but they can UNPASS them.

I'll have to think about it for a good long while, but it might be an excellent way to do an end-run around our very, very corrupt House and Senate when they're trying to do something unusually awful, like the bank bailouts.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 2:14 PM on November 30, 2010

"Looking at the extreme weather and natural events of 2010, there can be little doubt our natural world is changing..."

Isolated extreme events prove nothing about our world changing. Now if there is a trend where either the amplitude or frequency of these events is increasing or decreasing then statements can be made about world changing. But without the differential these are just isolated anecdotes.
posted to MetaFilter by Mitheral at 4:17 AM on November 30, 2010

She's just not that into you.
posted to MetaFilter by 2bucksplus at 5:28 PM on November 29, 2010

He's just holding still for that final Police Squad! credit scene.

.
posted to MetaFilter by benzenedream at 6:35 PM on November 28, 2010

A few years ago I visited a bonsai nursery and chatted with the owner, who told me that he had been a US soldier in Japan during WWII and had wanted to learn martial arts. His teachers taught him, but taught him other things that they felt were necessary for self-defense, which included patience and an appreciation for beauty. So they taught him bonsai. Now he is an old man and can't do martial arts, but he still does bonsai. It never hurts to learn the culture around a skill you pick up.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by acrasis at 12:51 PM on November 28, 2010

Middle way economics. I'd rather someone gave concrete proposals based on rational assessments of outcomes than simply coming up with a middle-point between two poles and calling that a solution.

The links under "urban," "homesteading," "agricultural," and "the rebirth of the guild as an idea" all do precisely that. Perhaps even more importantly, distributism is so tightly wound up with Catholicism - and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sticherbeast at 12:58 PM on November 28, 2010

Workers of the world unite....you have just lost your jobs...but Monday is cyber Monday so
let us do our bit for mother and country.

This anthem like all anthems meant to stir the people to fight and die for their country, to remember that now we live in an age when State and not God is uppermost, and that it is Us against Them. We are to lose our individual Self and merge with the All of our Nation. Take off your hat, then, salute, stand up, let a tear... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Postroad at 5:55 AM on November 28, 2010

That literally brought a tear to my eye. Thank you.

If I may be permitted a slightly off topic anecdote. My parents were communists and I was raised to be one too. But, capitalist lackey and running dog that I am, I changed my politics in my teens.

Still, I recall with great fondness my third birthday. I got a hammer and sickle decorated cake and the Paul Robeson version of the anthem was played several times. Best of all I got my own little... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ahab at 2:48 AM on November 28, 2010

This essay treats "corporations" as a monolithic evil entity.

A corporation is a legal fiction that allows many people to interact with the legal system as though they were one person. The resulting fake person has a lot of advantages over a real person, partly from a history of dubious rulings in favor of corporations, and partly because of the large group of people working together in the corporation's favor.

I don't like the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by LogicalDash at 5:24 AM on November 28, 2010

koeselitz -- Kant maybe put it a bit more succinctly: "Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made."

paisley henosis -- "We must jam as many wrenches into the corporate system as we can." Chris Hedges has a specific action-item for you right there! I have a wrench in the toolbox under my sink and I'm sure there's got to be some sort of corporate system in the neighborhood somewhere. So I've got my Sunday afternoon planned out.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chasing at 11:32 PM on November 27, 2010