MetaFilter

Wow, this thread has been super helpful and educational and really changed how I look at these issues! The comments were definitely not indistinguishable from every other thread on any vaguely related topic in the past year! Thanks, everyone!
posted to MetaFilter by Not A Thing at 8:34 AM on March 3, 2024

Biden could stop all aid to Israel right now

Yes. Yes, he could. He should give that a try.

And lose the fucking election. Like it or not, and I don't, the US and Israel have been staunch allies for 76 years now, Israeli interests have embedded themselves everywhere in the US government, especially the Democratic Party, and to extricate ourselves from that is going to be a long, slow and careful process, which Biden has... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by outgrown_hobnail at 6:13 AM on March 3, 2024

I'll interject a little bit of political trivia: the last time a political party did not support an incumbent President of their own party was with Franklin Pierce in 1856. The acrimony and rancor of the 1856 Democratic Convention (which chose Buchanan over Pierce_ set up the circumstances of the 1860 election (where the Democrats split into two campaigns, Stephen Douglas and John Breckenridge).
The civil war ensued.

So from a historical point of view, Ezra... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by LeRoienJaune at 11:00 PM on March 2, 2024

Gretchen Whitaker.

Really undermines the "then who" argument when you get her name wrong (it's "Whitmer.")
posted to MetaFilter by stevis23 at 9:07 PM on March 2, 2024

Klein says “no” on Harris and follows up with a rhetorical shrug regarding why she polls poorly. Lucky for the party all he runs is his mouth.
posted to MetaFilter by Selena777 at 7:59 PM on March 2, 2024

So the plan is for Biden to win all the primaries, then just quit for no reason, and we'll have a big knife fight at the convention?

That's a stupid fucking plan!
posted to MetaFilter by ryanrs at 7:46 PM on March 2, 2024

Rebuttal from Josh Marshall.
posted to MetaFilter by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:14 PM on March 2, 2024

Nate Hagens interviewed Daniel Schmachtenberger several times.

I do think our value system promoting the measurable, extractable, and exchangeable worsens the problem dramatically, but the maximum power principle applies regardless, or similar game theoretic rules. At the same time, natural ecosystems wind up remarkably circular, so hope exists, but maybe not the way humans wish to build societies.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jeffburdges at 12:32 PM on March 2, 2024

I guess Boeing is making moves to buy back their previously spun-off main body assembly company to put it under their direct control. I wonder if they were ordered to do this by the FAA.

a clever plan, but for it to succeed the Guild must not find out.
posted to MetaFilter by Dr. Twist at 4:31 PM on March 1, 2024

No! He's a very naughty boy!
posted to MetaFilter by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:30 PM on March 1, 2024

So I've managed teams in both white collar and non-white collar environments.

I'll share what I wish I had known, with one sort of caveat about asking here on AskMe: People here always lean towards "the best managers stay out of my way" -and for some teams that's awesomely true, especially teams of self-directed learners and professionals, which describes a lot of the people who answer questions here. But it doesn't go for all staff.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by warriorqueen at 6:55 AM on February 29, 2024

Schedule a 1:1 with each member of your team every week. Do not ever skip this, do not show up late to this, even if you feel like you have nothing to discuss. That weekly baseline check-in is hugely important to creating an environment where you and your team are comfortable talking to each other.

When things are slow, you get to know a little about each other personally. When things are busy, you're better primed to see if they're struggling and discuss ways to... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by phunniemee at 5:12 AM on February 29, 2024

I am hesitant to even say this, so please don't get mad at me, but have you independently contacted your grandfather through a phone number you know to be his? This sounds similar to the beginning of a scam (scammer calls pretending to be a family member in an urgent situation that requires money be sent--this one is a little different as it doesn't sound like he asked for money immediately, but it's still not a 0% chance).

Otherwise, yes, a power of attorney to talk to... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by tubedogg at 2:30 AM on February 28, 2024

If it isn't signaling, it really is better described as a tragic mental health issue. Presumably, people who do this want to convey something.

I'm too old to be pretending I'm brand-new and thus don't know that "signaling" doesn't have specific, critical and dismissive, connotations, so please don't ask me to.
posted to MetaFilter by praemunire at 11:10 AM on February 27, 2024

sort of the ultimate kind of group signaling

If I never see this kind of thought-terminating cliche language again, it'll be too soon.

We are human beings. We seek to convey our opinions, beliefs, and values to other people. Most things we do involve at least some element of group signalling--even some things we do entirely in private. To use this kind of language in a vaguely disdainful way, especially in connection with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by praemunire at 10:40 AM on February 27, 2024

Self-immolation is undoubtedly, at least for a Westerner, an act of despair. But despair can have many causes. We always say that despair is mental illness, but it's possible to be full of despair because the world is wrong, because of real horrors and terrible acts. I am filled with despair by the ongoing genocide, it definitely weighs on me, everyday. If I read about it, it weighs on my mind. If I decide to not stay up to date because it's too horrible and there's nothing I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 9:34 AM on February 27, 2024

My grandmother lived near an American air force base in Germany and when we went to visit the fighter planes would scream overhead a few times a day. As family lore goes, my brother would run screaming and sobbing into the house every time it happened until one time he didn't. Everyone thought "oh good he has gotten used to it” except what actually happened is he was playing Cowboys and Indians with the neighbor children and they had tied him to a tree in the shared garden. So he was still... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jacquilynne at 1:49 PM on February 26, 2024

Systematic reviews are tough, and I'd be cautious to say there's a clear casual link. Selection bias is a thing.

A number of the works reviewed use experimental methods, where its very easy to estimate a causal effect. I guarantee you these five social scientists know what selection bias is.

The article doesn’t touch on this, but economic precarity can cause people to lean on other social networks, like... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by MisantropicPainforest at 9:01 AM on February 26, 2024

I hear similar things from my mother, who worked in the Ontario hospital system for 35 years. By the time she retired in 2005, hospital administrative departments had tripled in size, and surgical rooms were vacant for want of doctors and too much paperwork between actual treatments. From hospitals to universities to companies at almost every scale, every institution is overwhelmed with administrative bloat and a mass of interchangeable executive donkeys receiving bonuses and salary increases... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by spoobnooble 3D: the spoobening at 4:16 AM on February 24, 2024

It's funny to read the first comment on the oldest story in "Related Posts":

Wow, I have this odd romance for Google. They are to the Internet as Habitat For Humanity to communities.

posted to MetaFilter by clawsoon at 4:42 PM on February 23, 2024

The Mystery Spot!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by JimN2TAW at 10:59 AM on February 21, 2024

> Is this a thing you need to be a member to understand?

I am not a member, but I enjoyed his book Kissa By Kissa very much. What I found interesting was the transparency in his costs, process, etc. By sharing that he spends about $300 / mo on Campaign Monitor I figure he has about 20K to 25K subscribers. I think it's interesting to understand what kind of scale of audience is needed to support an independent artist and their family.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by device55 at 5:53 AM on February 21, 2024

Many Americans fret—rightfully—about the rising authoritarianism among MAGA Republicans, but they risk ignoring another ascendant force for illiberalism: the tantrum-prone and immensely powerful kings of tech

Around these parts, the view that both of those groups play for the same team has been uncontroversial for quite some while.
posted to MetaFilter by flabdablet at 12:57 AM on February 21, 2024

"The modern conservative is not even especially modern. He is engaged, on the contrary, in one of man’s oldest, best financed, most applauded, and, on the whole, least successful exercises in moral philosophy. That is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. It is an exercise which always involves a certain number of internal contradictions and even a few absurdities. The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character-building value of privation for the poor. The... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 11:22 AM on February 20, 2024

“I could murder everybody on this bus and nobody could stop me. It’s a superpower.”

"Peter flips out all the time! I heard there was this one time he was on a bus and somebody dropped a spoon and he murdered the whole bus. That's ultimate jiu-jitsu power!"
posted to MetaFilter by SPrintF at 10:45 AM on February 20, 2024

I expect we'll find out next that the person in the hat jumping on the cover of Operation Ivy's "Energy" is based on someone real, too.
posted to MetaFilter by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:13 AM on February 20, 2024

Got a long comment here, sorry about the wall of text...

From the article: Offices, at their best, promote collaboration and communication, as seen with the Allen Curve.

I hadn't heard of the Allen curve before, but the wikipedia summary is "a graphical representation that reveals the exponential drop in frequency of communication between engineers as the distance between them increases." It was identified in the late... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Riki tiki at 2:21 PM on February 19, 2024

Not sure what's supposed to be so mysterious about their motive here.
Katie Porter is a (literal) student of Elizabeth Warren. The distinctive thing about Warren Thought is its intense central focus on aggressive regulation of the finance sector - in a way which really isn't characteristic of most other democrats or even progressives.
posted to MetaFilter by kickingtheground at 5:01 PM on February 18, 2024

Drain your glass (of milk) if you just said "AAWON BUH!" out loud
posted to MetaFilter by hangashore at 10:36 AM on February 18, 2024

So glad that rent control is getting to the people who really need it: project managers at BlackRock.
posted to MetaFilter by entropone at 3:05 PM on February 17, 2024

... both? Kind of hard to believe that that kind of money would be lent out, to a well-known client that they already had history with, without a better understanding of what's really going on.

It can't be both, though. Either the banks asked him for a fairly detailed statement of his financial condition and he provided it, or they didn't.

I'm not trying to be snarky here, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by praemunire at 12:03 PM on February 17, 2024

So I can imagine that the decision by a lender to finance a Trump is based, to some extent, on different criteria, compared to how the average person gets a mortgage or a loan.

You could imagine it, or you could read the trial coverage, as it was obviously necessary to address how those loans were underwritten to show that Trump gave them false information to use in the underwriting. It is a little strange that you are starting with the opposite... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by praemunire at 10:35 AM on February 17, 2024

Let's say you're starting out with X dollars to invest (or whatever currency unit).
Supposing you invest it in a boring ETF that tracks the stock market. Then there will be some safe "withdrawal rate", a number of dollars that you can take each month as income with near-zero risk of running out of money too early (of course you need to define "too early" for yourself).

If you have enough capital for that safe withdrawal rate to meet your... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by quacks like a duck at 9:06 AM on February 17, 2024

If your cynical worldview is that the rules don't apply to billionaires, then you shouldn't be surprised the rules don't apply to billionaires.
posted to MetaFilter by betaray at 8:23 AM on February 17, 2024

Listen kids, the entire rest of the world would also like to not have to hear about your campus controversies, etc, etc.

This is pretty similar to how most of us feel about New York stories.
posted to MetaFilter by biffa at 3:42 PM on February 16, 2024

1adam12: Unfortunately, your college is one of the most corrupt and corrupting influences, not just on American politics, but on global politics and the body of academia writ large...

Oh god, please don't encourage them.

Horace Rumpole: I am far from an uncritical booster of my employer, but my experience of Harvard students has uniformly been that they are really smart

I've said... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by xthlc at 1:41 PM on February 16, 2024

Understand that I signed up fully aware that there were going to be issues. I am not that naïve regarding the Chinese political system, but I wanted the Hugos to happen, and not have them completely crash and burn.

It also turns out that state censorship relies on good people with good intentions who just want to do what they can to make sure everything goes off without a hitch despite the presence of state censorship.

I'm... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by RonButNotStupid at 11:01 AM on February 15, 2024

I avoid this whole problem by basically never answering the phone unless I know who it is, and even then I'm putting it at like 50% odds that I answer.
posted to MetaFilter by kbanas at 12:12 PM on February 15, 2024

Kids don’t need biological cousins. What they need is a stable community that includes other kids. Getting mighty tired of explicit or implicit pressure for other people (almost always women) to make more babies.
posted to MetaFilter by vim876 at 6:50 AM on February 15, 2024

Birth control, changing societal mores, climate change, the cost of living, looming fascism, rampant enshittification, AI/automation…as someone who probably wouldn’t have had kids even if times were better it kind of amazes me that anyone still wants to have them at all.
posted to MetaFilter by The Card Cheat at 4:59 AM on February 15, 2024

fantastic post title
posted to MetaFilter by deadbilly at 2:12 PM on February 14, 2024

gung-ho bicyclists going 789mph around blind corners ... the fucking e-bikers ... silently go close to the speed of sound ... dog people ignore the ... "dogs must be on leash" signs and don't clean up after their pets

__________________

|                 |

|   NO ASSHOLES   |

|   IN THE PARK   |

|_________________|

posted to MetaFilter by flabdablet at 9:35 PM on February 12, 2024

If a studio turns a film into a tax write-off, the film should immediately become public domain.

Agreed -- in effect, if by not releasing the film they write it off as a loss for tax benefit, the US Government has paid for the movie, and therefore the public should thenceforth own it entirely.
posted to MetaFilter by tclark at 8:56 AM on February 12, 2024

If a studio turns a film into a tax write-off, the film should immediately become public domain.
posted to MetaFilter by gwint at 8:45 AM on February 12, 2024

Is the ant steering the leaf?
posted to MetaFilter by Alvy Ampersand at 11:38 AM on February 12, 2024

A person pulls their van into the park to unload disabled child

Yes, this violates the rule.

You didn’t see shit.
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 9:57 AM on February 12, 2024

I note that to me, this seems like an inherently white problem

I know this is the standard MetaFilter answer for literally everything, but this thesis just doesn't hold up. It's just factually wrong.

If this thesis was correct, you should see less gerontocracy in non-white/non-Western/non-Anglo-Saxon societies but even within just the OP article this isn't the case. And any knowledge of societies around the world/throughout... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by star gentle uterus at 7:40 AM on February 10, 2024

Read Molly White's review when it came out, and was delighted by how brutally sharp and on-point it was. It left me reflecting on the fact that "reviews" of books by tech industry folks are often breezy summaries of the author's premise with a few nitpicks or rants and raves woven in. Molly's ability to critically engage with Dixon's arguments in the context of his business and behaviors definitely elevated it, and made me long for the days when "beat reporters" were more... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by verb at 12:30 PM on February 9, 2024

It's long past time for Biden to pack the court before it's too late.
posted to MetaFilter by OHenryPacey at 9:00 AM on February 8, 2024

I'm all for requiring a conviction before a penalty can be applied, but being ineligible to become the President is not a penalty. If it were, everyone under 35 could rightly complain of being penalized without being convicted of any crime. The 14th amendment itself supports this interpretation by explicitly referring to ineligibility as a "disability" rather than a penalty.
posted to MetaFilter by shponglespore at 8:21 AM on February 8, 2024