MetaFilter

"We don't always get the kind of work we want, but we always have a choice of whether to do it with good grace or not." - Sir Christopher Lee

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posted to MetaFilter by zarq at 5:27 AM on June 11, 2015

Why doesn't ‘Americans for Prosperity’ just rename themselves ‘Fuck the Poor’?

I thinks it's telling that their organization isn't called "Prosperity for Americans."
posted to MetaFilter by drezdn at 6:29 AM on June 6, 2015

Somewhere out there is a copy of Catullus with names written at the tops of the pages that could help me answer this question.

Instead I had to guess. It didn't believe me.

Also, check your books before donating them....
posted to MetaFilter by susiswimmer at 11:41 PM on May 28, 2015

You could try a series of complex breathing patterns based on your footsteps, which is what I do.

I use them mainly as 'gears' to regulate how much effort I'm putting into the run:

4 steps to breathe in / 4 steps to breathe out (warmup, longer runs)
4 out, 3 in
3 out, 3 in (cruising)
3 out, 3 in, 2 out, 3 in
3 out, 2 in
3 out, 2 in, 2 out, 2 in
2 out, 2 in (strong, probably... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by fonetik at 2:40 AM on May 21, 2015 marked best answer

I totally used to be like this in my early 20s. What helped me the most? My own money. Seriously. My own money, job (and not just a job but the ability to get a job all by myself IE job-hunting skills) and my own apartment and car. These things allowed me to finally feel safe.

There were times in life when I really had to pull myself through by the skin of my teeth only relying on myself. I think it made me much stronger and now I can look back on those times with pride... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by quincunx at 3:40 PM on May 20, 2015 marked best answer

Jesus also had two dads.
posted to MetaFilter by robocop is bleeding at 7:12 AM on May 21, 2015

I have no strong feelings either way about TED, but I love that pull-quote:

Critiquing them, even as I have done, will do what criticism has done for television: creating an added enjoyment as you go on consuming the crap you despise. I know what I am watching is disgraceful, but aren’t I great at seeing why it’s disgraceful?

This puts into words something I've been trying to put into action for a while. I feel so much better when I spend my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mbrubeck at 9:11 PM on May 19, 2015

Wait why do we hate TED? It is just because it's been popular for a long time?

It has an unfortunate tendency to serve as the unofficial Ministry of Propaganda for a technocratic, neoliberal, market-based, explicitly anti-state, anti-political, only-superficially-populist worldview and the gazillionaires who profit from it.
posted to MetaFilter by The Master and Margarita Mix at 7:29 PM on May 19, 2015

Yeah, the other thing is that if you actually want to prepare for actual disasters, your local Red Cross has classes for that!

This stuff is just Mad Max cosplay.
posted to MetaFilter by Eyebrows McGee at 2:48 PM on May 15, 2015

If we just wait for Sulla's supporters to die off, we'll have a real republic again. It's gonna be great
posted to MetaFilter by Rustic Etruscan at 7:55 AM on May 18, 2015

We're trying to rehabilitate people...right?

Send them in as harmless, bumbling pot growers who wouldn't hurt a fly but who got caught growing a crop of soothing marijuana. Let them out year later as repeatedly raped and beaten battle-hardened PTSD motherfuckers who will cause trouble for themselves and others from then on.

And because you chose dehabilitation instead of rehabilitation, you and your family get to live in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by pracowity at 12:41 PM on May 14, 2015

I ask Campbell if he fears the kind of lawlessness seen in post-Katrina New Orleans or the riots in Ferguson, Missouri. “I don’t think that’s too far-fetched that something like that could happen in Chicago,” he says. “And if that happens and I’m holed up in my house and somebody tries to break in, I want to be able to protect myself. You can call 911, but what if they can’t get there in time?”

"'Basically what I'm afraid of is black people,'... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Horace Rumpole at 6:32 AM on May 15, 2015

Even Cowgirls Get the Beans
posted to MetaFilter by The corpse in the library at 11:16 AM on May 13, 2015

I don't own any books anymore because I don't want to have sex with John Waters.
posted to MetaFilter by srboisvert at 9:34 AM on May 13, 2015

I was promised a classless utopia with no hunger or war, plus skintight uniforms.
posted to MetaFilter by No-sword at 9:03 PM on May 11, 2015

By the way, the reason "motherfucker" is so fun to say as a derogatory expression is that it accents a labor-velar trajectory (recursively encoded in "fuck," the ur-type of this phonosemic exception to arbitrary signification), as per Roger Wescott's underground classic 1971 paper on "Labio-velarity and derogation in English," which I've mentioned in more detail on MeFi before.

"Douchebag" works similarly, albeit not with an initial bilabial.
posted to MetaTalk by spitbull at 9:33 AM on April 16, 2015

Refuse to convict on non-violent drug crimes
Tell everyone to do the same.
Make it known its time to stop this failed experiment.
posted to MetaFilter by bottlebrushtree at 10:26 PM on May 5, 2015

...and then he read of the rest of the "article."

Please disregard my previous comment. This is essentially just a Facebook post, not an actual article. I should have saved my Dignified Disapprobation™ for something with a bit more substance.
posted to MetaFilter by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 6:25 AM on May 2, 2015

As an old-time (largely retired) pothead, I don't understand all these new-fangled methods of getting high.

It's weed. You smoke it. Vaporizer? Sure. Brownies? Fine as an occasional novelty. Anything beyond that is just overcomplicating things.

I would hate to see all the progress we've made toward legalization undermined by the folks who want to turn cannabis into crank.
posted to MetaFilter by escape from the potato planet at 7:36 AM on May 2, 2015

SPrintF: I have no way of knowing Sanders's mind. Is he sincere? Um, no. No sane person thinks he's really running for president. Does he have a book deal in the works, or is he an honest kook like Paul Rand? Don't know, don't care.

Then you really don't know Bernie Sanders at all. But if you think a book deal is the measure of insincerity, then fine: Hillary has a book deal, Sanders does not.*

* unless you count the publication of Sanders' epic... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Davenhill at 2:15 AM on April 29, 2015

HELLOOOOO OVERTON WINDOW!
posted to MetaFilter by rmd1023 at 7:23 PM on April 28, 2015

Getting tired of the word 'satire' being dragged out to defend every racist/sexist/etc joke which has rightly offended people. The definition of satire is not "half-arsed attempt at humour".

It seems very Dunning-Kruger: people who don't know what satire is and assume no-one else does either, so it's safe to use it as an excuse when no-one laughs at their jokes.
posted to MetaFilter by harriet vane at 1:46 AM on April 24, 2015

they also would be renting a portion of their room to yet another tenant. They were literally renting out a corner.

If only they had websites back then!
posted to MetaFilter by entropicamericana at 9:34 AM on April 23, 2015

So maybe instead of looking for an "oppositional politics", the right thing to look for is a set of constructive policies to mobilize around?

ok. let's reinstate glass-steagull and tax capital gains at the exact same rate as wages. that should flush em out.

Institute a financial transactions tax. Eliminate the carried interest exception. Increase, not eliminate, the estate tax. Lift the earnings cap on Social... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by T.D. Strange at 4:54 PM on April 22, 2015

the right thing to look for is a set of constructive policies to mobilize around?
ok. let's reinstate glass-steagull and tax capital gains at the exact same rate as wages. that should flush em out.
posted to MetaFilter by j_curiouser at 4:39 PM on April 22, 2015

Taler provides anonymous payments without tax evasion, Chocolate Pickle. And payers can prove they paid if necessary.

Taler provides anonymity through RSA blind signing, assuming you use Tor. A blockchain based currency like BitCoin, et al. can only provide pseudonymous payments, even if you use Tor. As DPR, etc. recently learned.

RSA blind signing requires a centralized mint, but avoids wasting resources on proof-of-work "mining"... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jeffburdges at 7:25 PM on April 20, 2015

I'll have you know that Punjabi is the future language of the future of business.
posted to MetaFilter by robocop is bleeding at 5:14 AM on April 17, 2015

Funny how no one ever talks about engineering people for happiness or altruism.
posted to MetaFilter by Wemmick at 3:47 PM on March 18, 2013

"Fuck that, we’re done. It’s not us, it’s you."

tableflip.club reminds me of Chris Rock's Vulture interview last year, where he said: "Here’s the thing. When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy...To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before."

By the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DGStieber at 10:26 AM on April 14, 2015

     You are standing in an open field west of a white house.
     There is a mountain lion here.
     You are holding: A camera. A bean bag. A ball. A stick.

>PUT CAMERA ON STICK

     The camera is now balanced precariously.

     You are standing in an open field west... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Joe in Australia at 3:45 AM on April 14, 2015

Having not watched Oldboy, I didn't get the reference. Mainly at first I was thinking "Hey, you can see in the dark-cut the lights!" But overall that was a really intense scene.
posted to FanFare by happyroach at 10:32 AM on April 11, 2015

Really enjoying this show, but. Mr. Loeb: your heroes ought not to be jabbing helpless people with knives (or, really, anything of that nature). It was mistake on "Agents of SHIELD" and it's a mistake here, a particularly egregious one when the hero in question is Daredevil: beyond the moral skeeviness of the whole thing, it's flawed in a dramatic sense. The dude's only superpower is enhanced senses. By having him force the kid's location out of a prisoner, you... [more]
posted to FanFare by Ipsifendus at 8:39 AM on April 11, 2015

Jesus Christ- what isn't the matter with Kansas?
posted to MetaFilter by TheWhiteSkull at 2:07 PM on April 9, 2015

So, would it be horrible of me to start a White House petition to change the name of Kansas to Gilead?
posted to MetaFilter by NoxAeternum at 1:56 PM on April 9, 2015

It's ok, guys! There's plenty of fucked to go around. We don't have to hoard the fucked: there's enough for all of us.
posted to MetaFilter by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:44 AM on April 10, 2015

"this came to a head when she had a minor stroke in the fall and I had to visit and take care of things for her for the week she was in the hospital— this was horrible because it really hit me that I have have to take care of this lady as she ages"

Wrong. Nope. OP, you do not "HAVE TO" do anything for her. Nobody is "owed" the privilege of being cared for in their old age. I don't mean to sound harsh,... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by hush at 6:10 PM on April 5, 2015

jay smooth discusses walter scott, filming police, and the music service tidal

he continues to be amazing...
posted to MetaFilter by nadawi at 10:33 AM on April 8, 2015

From the ACLU:

Know Your Rights: Photographers

Unfortunately, there is a widespread, continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs from public places, and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply.

Your rights as a photographer:

-When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by triggerfinger at 6:58 PM on April 7, 2015

Intel has what they call a "tick tock" method of introducing microprocessors. First they create a brand new architecture, "tock" and then they improve it by shrinking it down, "tick." After they have proven yields on the smaller die sizes, they then use that size but adapt it to a fresh new architecture. "Tock" again, and so on. In this way they keep ratcheting up the improvements in organized fashion, and the competition can't keep up.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xigxag at 10:38 PM on March 31, 2015

Sheydem-tants: "Scary: Massachusetts has a feticide law."

Most states have some form of "feticide" law which is typically used to prosecute domestic violence perpetrators who beat their girlfriends/wives into losing the baby, or back-alley abortion providers who are not licensed by the state. Almost all of them -- including Indiana's -- exempt legal abortion providers from the statute. More progressive states often have more... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Eyebrows McGee at 7:40 PM on March 31, 2015

I heard something one time I thought was rather profound: the real purpose of elections is to convince the losers to accept their loss. Without that willingness to accept defeat, democracy is impossible.
posted to MetaFilter by Chocolate Pickle at 9:06 PM on March 31, 2015

Surely that punchline should be "keming", no?
posted to MetaFilter by scrowdid at 11:41 AM on March 27, 2015

If you're going to try to do comedy, you might as try to do it well.

You know what's the secret to great font comedy?







Kerning.
posted to MetaFilter by chavenet at 11:23 AM on March 27, 2015

To me this is a lazy take on a funny concept. It really doesn't capture Papyrus's awkward thinness in places, or Papyrus's weird midline. It is really just Comic Sans with a texture.
posted to MetaFilter by matcha action at 11:01 AM on March 27, 2015

Why should a T1 cost more than $50/month? It's only 2 pairs of wires instead of one.

It is insane how much we pay for what should be a free government funded infrastructure.
posted to MetaFilter by MikeWarot at 7:54 PM on March 25, 2015

And then the millenials will come along and artisinal embalming will be a thing. Because "authentic".

I'm Gen X. Just sew me up in a burlap sack, or whatever. It's all bullshit anyway.
posted to MetaFilter by thelonius at 6:02 AM on March 23, 2015

Incidentally, Oklahoma towns have been suffering from major demographic drain, as young professionals flee the Sooner State to work anywhere else. This should help, though.
posted to MetaFilter by Navelgazer at 4:56 PM on March 19, 2015

How shit happens.

In the Beginning was the plan.

And then came the assumptions.
And the assumptions were without form.
And the plan was completely without substance.

And the darkness was upon the face of the workers. And they spoke  
among themselves saying: "It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh."

And the workers went unto their supervisors, and sayeth: "It... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lalochezia at 6:04 PM on March 19, 2015

Reverse Alchemists: How Teenagers Turn The Golden Years Into Lead
posted to MetaFilter by fairmettle at 8:43 AM on March 20, 2015

Yeah, if we are going to be serious about our claimed commitment to be a refuge, we should open the borders wide to European Jews looking to avoid antisemites willing to fucking kill them

We should open the borders to everybody regardless of race, religion, or place of origin. Especially if they're looking to avoid people willing to fucking kill them.
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 12:17 PM on March 17, 2015