MetaFilter

I was just writing a comment on that prior thread when it was deleted, which I will paraphrase here:

I am so, so relieved that I'm not alone anymore. I was already on the "all cryptocurrencies need to die in a fire" train years ago, and I was conscious of what a wingnut that made me look like. I am very much pleased to see that other people are starting to come around to that point of view.

This is not a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by notoriety public at 11:13 AM on January 12, 2022

Same tape I've had for years.
posted to MetaFilter by ricochet biscuit at 12:22 PM on January 12, 2022

I mean, the fact that this question was even ASKED has me incensed.

And it's not even because of Covid or cancer or vaccination status or anything. It's because of simple fair play. Meaning: the cancer patient got there first and was actively on the equipment, as far as I'm concerned, this means they had dibs.
posted to MetaFilter by EmpressCallipygos at 3:42 AM on January 13, 2022

And I mean exactly why, as it's literally just the same securities scams people ran in the 20s but blockchain.

Or the "wildcat banks" of the mid-19th Century US free banking era, and the tremendous instability of the banknotes of even the legitimate ones.
posted to MetaFilter by snuffleupagus at 2:33 PM on January 12, 2022

"Yeah, I'm still waiting for a solid answer to this most basic of questions. I did do a bit of work on a Blockchain project a few years ago. I was just the words guy, tasked to put together some pitches for investors. As far as I could tell (after a few days reading and whatnot), it just seemed to be an exercise in artificially created scarcity ... ... for reasons."
posted by philip-random at 11:39 AM on January 12

This is exactly what I tell all... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by symbioid at 12:47 PM on January 12, 2022

All the language: liberating, revolutionizing, freeing. I have not done any research, but I can't help but wonder how all the circles intersect re: a type of toxic masculinity and susceptibility to these kinds of ideas.

Here is an AskMe that might ring true for you, Twitter thread explaining the links between 'hard money' and racism. Nut:

Bitcoin is designed to be “sound money.” It can’t be controlled by government.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by migurski at 11:43 AM on January 12, 2022

"disrupt" is just "break the law before the law can even be passed."

Or, as sceptical cryptocurrency journalist David Gerard called it, “regulatory escape velocity”.
posted to MetaFilter by acb at 10:51 AM on January 12, 2022

Alex Stamos: "The best long play is probably crypto forensics companies and Moscow Maserati dealerships."
posted to MetaFilter by JoeZydeco at 9:41 AM on January 12, 2022

We have watched our local high school students organize around multiple issues since Covid started -- masks, distance learning, hate speech in schools, BLM protests -- and it is a little bit terrifying to watch how smart, nimble, and effective they are. They organize so fast on social media and get deep in the weeds on school board policies.

A local Trumpy jerk was organizing a run for school board specifically demanding we... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Eyebrows McGee at 2:33 AM on January 13, 2022

Metafilter: now with more lentils than beans.
posted to MetaTalk by parmanparman at 4:29 PM on January 4, 2022

I don't know what made me think of it, but I figured I'd share my cat story.

A couple years ago, we had our bathroom renovated. This involved (among other tasks) tearing a giant-ass hole in the floor where the toilet was, redoing some of the plumbing, patching the hole, installing the new toilet, and laying tile over the whole thing. The excavation happened in the space of a day, and by 5:00 the floor had been replaced around the new toilet.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mayor West at 7:07 AM on January 11, 2022

Or, “I can explain to you but I can’t understand it for you.”
posted to MetaFilter by sjswitzer at 2:09 PM on January 10, 2022

When I've dealt with this, I like to ask: "Do you really not comprehend, or do you just disagree?" (Somehow, using "comprehend" shifts the tone back to the other person's information-processing ability.)

If they still claim ignorance and I'm in a mood, I've also been known to reply that "Just because you can't follow what I'm saying, doesn't mean it's not valid."
posted to MetaFilter by yellowcandy at 1:54 PM on January 10, 2022

I thought this was very relevant:

Pape drew an analogy to Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, at the dawn of the Troubles. “In 1968, 13 percent of Catholics in Northern Ireland said that the use of force for Irish nationalism was justified,” he said. “The Provisional IRA was created shortly thereafter with only a few hundred members.” Decades of bloody violence followed. And 13 percent support was more than enough, in those early years, to sustain it.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by atrazine at 10:21 AM on January 6, 2022

"Young people are resilient" I'm sure the two years of f&&ked up schooling and lack of socialization will be fine, right?

"Children are resilient" is a pet peeve phrase of mine. I think adults use it to feel better about being shitty to kids. If children were all that resilient, most therapists would be out of a job.
posted to MetaFilter by FencingGal at 8:26 AM on January 6, 2022

It's never been easier to organize and carry out a general strike.
posted to MetaFilter by seanmpuckett at 7:24 AM on January 6, 2022

A meteor is going to hit Earth one day, should I just hit myself on the head with a rock and get it over with?
posted to MetaFilter by fairmettle at 12:48 AM on January 6, 2022

Interesting post thanks gwint, a good roundup of the state of much work.

A leading reason for agricultural automation (at least here) is that many don't want to work in the country, average farmer age is steadily approaching sixty, real returns are low, risk is extreme, many farmers re millions in debt, and effectively trapped - the suicide rate is horrifying Increasingly farms are an owner/manager, and foreign staff - Covid has seriously disrupted this.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by unearthed at 5:44 PM on January 5, 2022

We did end up with robotic brick. It’s called brick panel, or metal panel, or unitized glazing, or EIFS - there is a virtually unlimited supply of unitized, panelized facade systems out there that are currently in their 3rd or 4th generation of development. The idea of mechanizing the work of a mason is ‘faster horse’ technology and I’m not surprised the construction industry didn’t really try to get there. When brick does get used it’s usually for the subtle imperfections, intricate detailing,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by q*ben at 3:20 PM on January 5, 2022

this leads to the appearance of a potentially racist and nationalist affective climate where the“enemy” is no longer felt to be the virus, but members of other nations as well as minorities.

I know you're trying to make the opposite point, infini, but yes, thank you for quoting this as your main thesis.

People of color must contend with this reality, you see. This is the fact of life we live under: in our country, the enemy... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MiraK at 10:03 AM on January 5, 2022

Is economic anxiety a derail to the OP that white middle class professionals were willing to storm the nation's Capitol to put a fraud in charge?

i.e. the anxiety is related to the lack of ontological certainty. citation in next comment
posted to MetaFilter by infini at 9:49 AM on January 5, 2022

So people want to essentially review each rich person personally to assess their tax rate? And this implies how they "made their money", not their current allocation for a wealth tax. No wonder raising taxes is unworkable.

Yeah, there's no way that the income from capital gains could possibly be taxed differently than income from other sources without an impossible tax reform. And the idea that every person would have a different tax bill,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Superilla at 8:21 AM on January 4, 2022

Clearly, we need a 50-year experiment of heavily taxing the rich, for comparison.

We tried that, after the second world war. All it produced was the wealthiest nation on earth, with an upwardly mobile middle class, a strong industrial base, and white picket fences in a nascent suburbia. Clearly what we needed was Ronald fucking Reagan to burn it all the ground so that 10 people could afford to build secret lairs inside volcanoes.
posted to MetaFilter by Mayor West at 5:35 AM on January 4, 2022

Christ, what a bunch of vapid assholes.

Rome is like a good TV series that got renewed a few too many times.

You make it through season one when they kick out the kings and become a republic and you're hooked.
By the Punic wars it has some critical buzz and you've got a clique of people at work that you can talk to about it.
Julius and Augustus arrive in the next two seasons, and the show is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by condour75 at 6:53 PM on December 15, 2016

My rudimentary understanding of viruses (from reading what's in the news) is that a virus doesn't want to kill its host, as it would then have nothing to live on, hence the mutation into allegedly less deadly variants. Reports suggest omicron is causing upper respiratory, rather than pulmonary, infections, but it's still too soon to consider it 'less serious' than other Covid variants. Maybe the next variant will be the one that will allow us to live with, rather than die from, the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by srboisvert at 2:52 AM on January 1, 2022

I don't know about the drugs. What were our defining drugs?)

Cigarettes. Underacheivement. Irony. And really a lot of sub-par, overpriced weed, iirc.
posted to MetaFilter by thivaia at 3:04 AM on January 3, 2022

New trend piece: Millennials are killing the concept of generations.
posted to MetaFilter by condour75 at 6:31 PM on January 2, 2022

Pinsker sees pundits and pitchmen pushing these terms and pitting the so-called generations against one another in order to captivate a target audience with age-related insecurities. It’s often clickbait.

Indeed. Strauss–Howe generational theory is more or less entirely scientifically ungrounded.
posted to MetaFilter by BungaDunga at 6:27 PM on January 2, 2022

SANDY BELLS

Dashing thru the sand
It’s one worm and a man.
Against the hordes of Sardaukar
This lonely man will stand!

We call him Muad’dib
When no one is around.
His very name will rend your soul,
It is a killing sound!

Oh, Shai-Hulud! Shai-Hulud!
Wierding all the way!
The Beast Rabban
You may stan,
But... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by JustSayNoDawg at 4:11 AM on December 25, 2021

Way to pull on my heartplug, y'all!
posted to MetaFilter by k3ninho at 12:52 AM on December 25, 2021

... this was not the jolly fat man I was expecting
posted to MetaFilter by phooky at 4:13 PM on December 24, 2021

One time my daughter couldn't think of Anya Taylor-Joy's name and said, "What if a mouse was blond" and I knew exactly who she was talking about.
posted to MetaFilter by Rock Steady at 9:19 AM on December 20, 2021

What the hell are people living in apartments supposed to do?

Die.

If you are in a communal living situation like an apartment without a second, third or fourth residence to escape to in a pandemic you are a poor and your death will not be noticed by those who matter.

Ask yourself this: Have you heard of the management of any apartment building with onsite staff getting fined for not enforcing... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by srboisvert at 10:23 AM on December 19, 2021

Personally, I think automakers plan to reduce carbon emissions by turning people off from car ownership is brilliant
posted to MetaFilter by DeepSeaHaggis at 1:02 PM on December 17, 2021

Capitalism sounds great on paper, but it just doesn't work in the real world.
posted to MetaFilter by AlSweigart at 12:02 PM on December 17, 2021

How about a subscription to quality public transportation, with the fees coming out of taxes?
posted to MetaFilter by Saxon Kane at 11:11 AM on December 17, 2021

"A 2011 thriller was supposed to cost $15. One merchant listed it at $987, with a 17th-century publication date."

Not a single mention of money laundering in that article or this thread, wild.
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 12:02 PM on December 3, 2021

I'm not comfortable with dismissing fears over climate change as some sort of apocalyptic nightmare. I live in texas, and over the last few years I've gone from viewing climate disaster as something that's going to screw over my young nieces and nephews or their kids to something that is actively threatening my life.

We've had flash floods and increased hurricanes, hours spent keeping up with rain levels at the reservoir hoping it doesn't burst and wondering which way... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jacen at 7:01 AM on December 3, 2021

About a month ago, I had a small fit of watching clean up videos on youtube to relax. After a few, I noticed some similarities. All white moms, similar decor (monochrome, farmhouse chic, live laugh love, etc), young children. Houses that weren't dirty in the sense of grimy or dusty, just cluttery, needing a tidy and a short vacuum.

Anyway, I was watching one video. The mom who was doing the clean up paused to nurse her kid on camera, and I just had the grossest little... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by snerson at 4:55 PM on November 30, 2021

Years ago someone's comment on metafilter taught me "Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said by me? Does this need to be said by me right now?"
posted to Ask MetaFilter by sy at 5:25 AM on November 27, 2021

The millennian do not ever want to be taught anything.

Do we not have a massive student loan crisis that's basically underpinning everything that's fucking this generation's ability to amass wealth? Fucking Schrodinger's millennial.
posted to MetaFilter by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:45 AM on November 27, 2021

Even in the days of paper records, people used “aliases”—you’d find a file folder for the Smith account, and it would contain a single piece of paper reading “See Jones account.” There was a huge amount of work in checking files in and out, archiving them, etc.

I think if you have no organizational system, anything is an improvement, and this has the virtue of being easy to understand and not intimidating in scope. The trick is in the follow-through.
posted to MetaFilter by adamrice at 6:18 PM on November 23, 2021

Try to do worse art. Look at your most recent piece and try to do one on the same theme that is not as good.

Get the cheapest possible materials you can and use those - kindergarten crayons, dollar store paint, your oldest brushes that are not quite wrecked but too stiff to be easy to use. The end result will, of course, be crude. Embrace crude.

Do gestures - those drawings where you look at the thing you are drawing but never look down at the... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Jane the Brown at 10:41 AM on November 22, 2021

a ban on cryptocurrency transactions might seem irrelevant, considering they account for just 1.1 percent of China's power consumption. However, as a Rystad Energy report from July this year details in absolute numbers, this 1.1 percent translates to 86 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electrical power, roughly the amount of energy countries like Finland or Chile consume in a year, or 84 of the world's lowest electricity consuming countries combined would need for a year,

The... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sing Or Swim at 7:54 PM on November 18, 2021

If your 4-year-old son fell out the window of your Manhattan skyscraper apartment, you might be a little bonkers, too.

Lots of us have lost people that we love way too early, and I don't see anyone else getting chits for encouraging others in behavior that will get them killed.
posted to MetaFilter by Halloween Jack at 1:46 PM on November 14, 2021

I was not aware it was not widely known that Eric Clapton has had consistently terrible politics for decades.
posted to MetaFilter by jscalzi at 11:51 AM on November 14, 2021

We are living in a goddamn science fiction novel.

Meanwhile, in the B plot, revolutionaries among the oppressed and defenseless, whose resources and futures are being sucked dry to make it possible, are....but that would be giving it away.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 5:23 AM on January 8, 2013

In particular, what's the populist language for police reform?

You could start with something like: we ask our police officers to do too much. There's no reason the people who execute warrants need to be the same people who issue traffic citations, who also respond to domestic disturbances and mental health crises. Let's get the folks in blue back to doing what they do best and let other professionals step in for other areas.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by echo target at 6:02 PM on November 9, 2021

Here's what I learned from the de-escalation class, if it helps:

1. Always be the calmest person in any encounter. Even if you're furious inside, keep it inside. Don't raise your voice. Don't grit your teeth. Don't be snide or snotty or rude. Don't judge people based on appearance or behaviour (or if you do, don't let it affect how you communicate).

2. Assume the other person is already having a shitty day. Maybe they haven't eaten. Or are under... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by seanmpuckett at 9:52 AM on November 8, 2021

We don't hate chickens. We breed, raise, and slaughter them by the billions every year. Sometimes they are kept in horrible conditions, sometimes only slightly horrible conditions. We hatch billions of chicks, keep the females, and toss the male chicks into grinders alive. We pump them full of antibiotics because we need to keep them alive in their crowded, filthy enclosures long enough for us to hang them on a conveyor line, slice open their necks, dump their (sometimes still living) bodies... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by AlSweigart at 7:46 PM on November 8, 2021