MetaFilter

For a nation so deeply militaristic, you do not seem to treat your veterans very well. The suicide rate among old veterans is truly appalling, too.

I agree. All those "Support Our Troops" bumper stickers are actually code for "Do Not Question The War(s)" rather than actually supporting troops, veterans, and their families.
posted to MetaFilter by Foosnark at 8:02 AM on February 11, 2013

Not so sure you don't still have a big cloud footprint.

The best way I know to not have a big cloud footprint is either to just not use the services, or to be your own cloud.

This is quite difficult, but if you want your data always available, and you don't want it in the hands of third parties, then hosting it yourself is pretty much the only option. Most ISPs will give you static addresses with a business-class connection,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 3:38 AM on February 11, 2013

The 100-mile constitution-free zone extending from the border has been argued in the Supreme Court - and the constitution was upheld.

So while the DHS, border patrol et al might like to claim the right to warrant and probable cause free searches near the borders, that doesn't mean they're actually legal. Crossing the border itself, or its equivalent i.e. at an international airport air border, is a different matter of course, and they need neither warrant or cause to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ArkhanJG at 3:16 AM on February 11, 2013

When will people start talking regime change?

Do you mean talking "conquest by a foreign power, revolution, coup d'état or reconstruction following the failure of a state"? Guns and bunkers? All the wrong sort dream of that option.

The biggest problem, as Brian Eno pointed out recently, is that the best people don't go in for politics. "We expect other people to do it for us, and grumble when they get it wrong.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by pracowity at 12:26 AM on February 11, 2013

I would like to diplomatically point out that although the others who have replied above are using the correct words (POA, POD, estate, probate, etc.) I believe you would be well served to contact a lawyer about a question like this. IANAL, nor a relative or friend of one, I'm just saying it might be wise.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by forthright at 8:13 PM on February 10, 2013

Personally I think Dorner's lost it but the things he reveals in his suicide note about police corruption/brutality are important.

I'm aware he's allegedly killed two cops at a stoplight and a young couple in Irvine. But so far there's NO evidence linking the murders to anyone. Nobody's talking about whether he's been charged for these murders and what (if any) evidence there is to link ANYBODY to them.

Meanwhile the LAPD have done, as part of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fantodstic at 2:39 AM on February 10, 2013

The bad guys will ALWAYS have guns.

...

Are you asserting the gun is somehow good or bad? or maybe their aren't bad guys and good guys?

It honestly surprises me that a notion like "the good guys vs the bad guys" is able to make its way into a discussion like this about gun control. Mefi in particular is rife, absolutely RIFE with stories about what life is like in someone else's shoes. It's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DLWM at 7:54 PM on February 7, 2013

The geography of U.S. gun violence
posted to MetaFilter by michswiss at 7:29 PM on February 7, 2013

ennui.bz: "Fear of living in NYC with a lot of brown people who don't know their place is why he bought that gun."

"In the short time I’d lived there, a female friend of mine had been raped in the lobby of her apartment building"

"a half-dozen other friends and acquaintances had been mugged or assaulted"

"one of my Pratt professors was beaten so badly that he needed... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by boo_radley at 7:10 PM on February 7, 2013

HEY Y'ALL

Sorry for shouting. Andre Dubus' "Giving Up The Gun" is a much better essay on this subject, written by a man who knew his guns far more intimately than this guy, who prefers to posture.

Dubus was an ex-Marine, owned fir most of his life, pulled his weapon more than once to defend himself and others, and, I believe, had a sister who shot her rapist. The essay can be found pay walled at The New Yorker or in his book... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Diablevert at 6:50 PM on February 7, 2013

I think it's complicated, and I certainly think that not everyone should carry a gun for self-defense. Some people aren't trained, or don't have the right character or the right psychology, and so forth.

What amazes me is the condescending self-righteousness and dogmatism of some--let me emphasize the some--anti-gun folks. (Some people on the other side of the discussion amaze me for different reasons.)

The question--or a big... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Fists O'Fury at 5:36 PM on February 7, 2013

Interesting read. The fact that he was untrained and carried a gun unlawfully should taint his opinion however.
I have legally carried a handgun for over ten years. I am trained. To go through the CCL in Texas is a hard thing to do. The hoops and hurdles are a bitch.

For someone willing to do it however...

The bad guys will ALWAYS have guns. I carry because I want the odds to better my favor. That said....I take the responsiblity... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by shockingbluamp at 4:34 PM on February 7, 2013

My department head told us all to work from home tomorrow, but experts are predicting I will play videogames and drink whisky all day.
posted to MetaFilter by Admiral Haddock at 12:07 PM on February 7, 2013

On non-preview, I realize that may have sounded like I was going to masturbate to these pictures of people masturbating. That is not what I meant to say.
posted to MetaFilter by MCMikeNamara at 11:37 AM on February 7, 2013

Look, just get an estate attorney. You need one. Creditors of an estate can go after any and all available estate assets. I don't believe that New York is a recourse state, but there's nothing to prevent the banks from refusing to foreclose and suing the estate for the balance of the mortgage. The fact that they've got a security interest in the house does not mean they are forced to treat that interest as satisfaction of the debt.

So yeah. Hire that attorney. It'll cost... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by valkyryn at 10:58 AM on February 3, 2013

I'm in a hidden economy of temp workers who are required to have college degrees. Workers like me used to be full time, valued employees. Now we work under conditions that some of us describe as a sweatshop, or more colorfully, The Gulag.

I skimmed the article and it looks like somebody is trying to do a hatchet job on higher ed. It devalues intangibles, and makes sweeping generalizations. I have a BFA in Painting and Photography, and I worked professionally in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by charlie don't surf at 9:37 PM on February 2, 2013

The asshole pastor isn't sorry she did this, she is sorry she got caught and embarrassed. That's not being sorry.

Bell didn't just fail to leave a tip, she crossed out and declined to leave the mandatory tip based on having a party of 20.
posted to MetaFilter by Justinian at 12:14 PM on January 31, 2013

“My heart is really broken,” said the 37-year-old Bell. “I’ve brought embarrassment to my church and ministry.” Says the person who demanded the waitress she undertipped be fired.
posted to MetaFilter by troika at 11:56 AM on January 31, 2013

Some time on Wednesday, Chelsea says the customer who had left the receipt contacted her Applebee’s location, demanding that everyone be fired, from the servers involved to the managers

Ahh, christian charity.
posted to MetaFilter by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 11:57 AM on January 31, 2013

Never, ever, ever buy a mkIV VW. They are rolling money pits. Fun to drive, but they make the strongest of men weep like babies.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Thorzdad at 5:58 AM on January 31, 2013

This is how a friend sale should go down. I should know, I just did one. I told my friend, here is my dinged up 2002 Dodge Stratus, it has less than 75,000 miles on it, it has plenty of wear and tear, I'll show you all the problems, engine is great, transmission likes to poop out, replacement parts are cheap as shit, buy it from me for $1,000 no questions asked. Done. They walk away happy, I walk away with some change in my pocket.

Now let me make a couple of angry... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by phaedon at 12:57 AM on January 31, 2013

We had a 2002 Passat -- this car eats money. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The fact that your friend's mechanic has "allowed" this amount of work to "build up" on this car isn't ridiculous at all -- it's entirely par for the course for an early 2000's VW. Expect to shell out substantial amounts of money every single year to keep the car living until one day you finally realize, "Why am I putting myself through this?" and unload the car faster than a box of monsters.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by incessant at 1:15 AM on January 31, 2013

As I drive, I remain alert to my own possible mistakes (especially at night), and to what incautious other drivers might do.

Young motorcyclists that end up being old motorcyclists learn that early on.
posted to MetaFilter by Greg_Ace at 6:38 PM on January 29, 2013

The title should have been "Suprise suprise, suprise!"
posted to MetaFilter by atomicmedia at 1:16 AM on January 30, 2013

I'm not arguing for the right to be able to bludgeon someone to death with my phone.

If you did it in the heat of passion, you might get less jail time than if you had unlocked your phone.
posted to MetaFilter by RobotVoodooPower at 8:20 AM on January 28, 2013

Compare Intel's $700k to the LDS church's tens of millions in donations, and I doubt the BSA is really all that motivated to change, are they?

If money is your motivation to do the right thing, you are not doing the right thing.
posted to MetaFilter by shakespeherian at 10:03 AM on January 27, 2013

Not everyone eats burnt cheese but those who are fond do.
posted to MetaFilter by islander at 12:14 AM on January 24, 2013

Frontline has its own particular schtick, what with the evil synth pads and all, but I was left wondering why the piece didn't go as far as to actually draw a conclusion of some kind.

There are all these interesting pieces of a puzzle -- the DOJ repeatedly whining in Elmer Fudd-like tones that prosecution of these crimes beyond a reasonable doubt is weally hard, and also losing sleep worrying about the effects their prosecution would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by swift at 6:33 AM on January 23, 2013

Via Rolling Stone in relation to Occupy Wall Street...

Nobody hates them for being successful. And not that this needs repeating, but nobody even minds that they are rich.

What makes people furious is that they have stopped being citizens.

Most of us 99-percenters couldn't even let our dogs leave a dump on the sidewalk without feeling ashamed before our neighbors. It's called having a conscience: even though... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fairmettle at 5:55 AM on January 23, 2013

IAAL, IANYL, TINLA. Please allow me to shed some light on the "lawyer" chorus.

The biggest problem I see is that you say "loan". What are you going to do when boyfriend says "gift"? Neither of your questions on this issue mention any loan agreement, so I assume that there is none. The only loan agreement that exist here are your agreements with the credit card companies, upon which you are the sole obligor.

I am sure... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Tanizaki at 8:26 AM on January 18, 2013 marked best answer

I looked it up and then realized that of course I’d already ripped them to itunes when I bought them. And surely everyone else who wanted to did. And it’s not really that hard. It’s probably much faster for me to rip the CD than to find it in my Amazon account. So I gotta wonder what exactly the point is.

Amazon is taking care of Amazon, not me.
posted to MetaFilter by bongo_x at 9:34 AM on January 10, 2013

Ahh, and here we go: Here's an example of what it looks like in the Product Details when an album has Record Company Required Metadata.

The relevant line: "Record Company Required Metadata: Music file metadata contains unique purchase identifier. Learn more."
posted to MetaFilter by limeonaire at 9:05 AM on January 10, 2013

Some of the best often die by their own hand, just to get away--and those left behind wonder why anyone would ever want to get away from them. -- Bukowski
posted to MetaFilter by dobbs at 6:20 PM on January 5, 2013

I stood on a bridge once. It was nighttime and no one would have seen me if anyone was around. I didn't jump because I knew no one would feed my dog and then he'd die and that wasn't fair. Yup, that's how the suicidal brain can work.

In the article the writer mentions that the victim recently bought some bike parts. I've literally stood on a platform carrying several hundred dollars worth of purchases and considered jumping and then imagined people then thinking,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dobbs at 6:17 PM on January 5, 2013

Oh, stay tuned.

All I'm sayin'
posted to MetaFilter by Smedleyman at 6:12 PM on December 19, 2012

'This is beyond unfortunate. This is a betrayal of trust. This is someone who had apparently had access to highly classified material...'
-- General David Petraeus on Bradley Manning and Wikileaks
posted to MetaFilter by grounded at 5:34 PM on December 19, 2012

Or perhaps the GOP and Dems are both funded by the same military industrial complex?
posted to MetaFilter by ZenMasterThis at 5:24 PM on December 19, 2012

That is definetaly not the case where I live Autumn so be aware YMMV. If he can prove it's stolen to the police here it won't matter how much investment you have in the object; the cops will seize it and, eventually, give it back to him. And they won't reimburse you anything; not even a storage fee. Though if it was something like a car and your investment was tires and wheels they would let you keep the wheels and tires.

Also if you haven't already at some point in... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Mitheral at 4:05 PM on December 19, 2012

Kayden Kross shares a funny moment in a porn script

My god, it's full of apostrophes.
posted to MetaFilter by enn at 7:45 AM on December 19, 2012

This is really just a proof of concept, before anything was done anywhere near actual humans this would need to be redesigned from scratch using a more human appropriate promoter human telomerase and a viral strain with humans in the host range. As a proof of concept though it is pretty damn cool. The basic idea is to take an Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) and cripple it by ripping out a bunch of its essential genomic guts before replacing those guts with something we want cells to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Blasdelb at 5:00 AM on December 10, 2012

College is training for managerial work, and the economy doesn’t need that many managers,” said Michael Ellsberg... The future, he added, belongs to job creators, even if the only job they create is their own

This is why I'm in favor of single-payer heath care in the US. If you want to encourage innovation, entrepreneurial growth, and small business startups, make it possible for someone to start a business without worrying that they're risking their health coverage.
posted to MetaFilter by dubold at 9:46 AM on December 2, 2012

The hyphen is pendatic, but not incorrect. Douglas-firs are not actually firs (genus Abies), in spite of their original classification as such.
posted to MetaFilter by Earthtopus at 7:47 PM on December 1, 2012

It's amazing how harshly our culture damn boredom.

There's a distinction to be made between fasting and starving.
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 6:50 AM on November 30, 2012

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man in Wyoming and returning him safely to Earth.
posted to MetaFilter by dr_dank at 7:41 PM on November 27, 2012

Actually, shipping all the people who happen to have $500,000 just lying around to Mars isn't a bad idea.
posted to MetaFilter by twoleftfeet at 6:42 PM on November 27, 2012

Serious question: how would you price it? What method would you use to assign a monetary value to the middle class that would give you a confidence interval smaller than, say, 50% of the value itself?

That's one of the tricky questions. How much value should I assign to your education. Which in the end is an argument that it's better for you to make that judgment for yourself. A system that has been largely... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by 2N2222 at 8:55 AM on November 21, 2012

This seems exceedingly unfair

Maybe.

not to mention a likely violation of HIPAA and/or FMLA

Highly unlikely. US employers aren't technically required to offer vacation or sick leave, so there's an enormous amount of discretion as to individual policies for that. For example, I attended the funeral of my then-girlfriend's father a few years back, and the company made me use a vacation... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by valkyryn at 9:03 PM on November 19, 2012

Consider buying a mildly scratched up bike on craigslist, riding it for a while, then selling it on craigslist for almost as much as your bought it for. If you go this route, choose something popular, like an SV650 or F4i.

I need something with less power
Just so you know, 600cc 4-cylinder sportbikes are incredibly docile wrt to power until you hit something like 12,000 rpm. I'd be far more concerned about the sharp handling than engine... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ryanrs at 11:19 AM on November 16, 2012

I have RTFA. I'm still not clear on the issue.

We all have RTFA.

So please, give generously to the National RTFA Foundation, won't you?

With your help we will find a cure.
 
posted to MetaFilter by Herodios at 10:04 AM on November 15, 2012

Now, granted, I don't have much experience in the sending/receiving dick pics area, but it sounds to me that he may have unintentionally texted it to you. Not that he unintentionally texted it, period (as it was obviously deliberate), but that he meant to inappropriately dick pic someone else on his contacts list. I send texts to the wrong person ALL THE TIME. (None of them pics of my bits and pieces, mind you, but still.) But it just doesn't make sense to me that he'd text you for anything,... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by phunniemee at 6:39 AM on November 13, 2012