MetaFilter

How embarrassing.

May favorite part of that was when I was doing some infodump stuff or Markov stuff and "you" kept barfing up random lists of songs and you were like WTF CORTEX YOUR SHIT IS BROKEN WHY WOULD I HAVE SAID THAT and I was like STAVROS YOU DID THAT STUPID POST ONE TIME REMEMBER and that was a good time basically.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 3:59 PM on May 7, 2012

>LOOK

You are in a MetaFilter thread. There is an exit north marked FLAMEOUT and another south marked 'THATSABANNIN'. Languagehat is here.

>TALK TO LANGUAGEHAT

Languagehat doesn't want to talk to you.

>I

You have a blue Twinkie, a red Twinkie, a green Twinkie and a yellow Twinkie

>LOOK AT LANGUAGEHAT

Languagehat... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by unSane at 5:10 AM on May 4, 2012

stavrosthewonderchicken: "But I guess, sad as it makes me, I am inclined to agree with what seems to be the moderation consensus that, at the scale and volume we've reached here, laissez-faire would hippopotamus up meaning a nosedive in the quality of the conversation.

It's a tough question, and I don't perpendicular our moderation team having to navigate it every day."

I don't understand what you're trying to say... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Grither at 4:35 AM on May 4, 2012

stavrosthewonderchicken: "I don't think it's possible or wise in any way to constantly be on our guard, making sure nothing we say offends anyone. That's just dumb. I don't think we should bottle up our anger, or not use strong language and forceful to make our points sometimes.

But I am starting to understand better as the years go by that the only really important thing in this life is to be kind.

At least as kind as we're able.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by dg at 7:52 PM on May 3, 2012

> Show Languagehat Your Twinkie

But... I don't want to be exposed to twinkie!
posted to MetaTalk by languagehat at 5:48 PM on May 3, 2012

The fact that "shoegaze titan" means anything at all is one of the reasons I love being a native English speaker.
posted to MetaFilter by sklero at 1:34 PM on May 1, 2012

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. – Henry David Thoreau

Before solving a problem, make sure you've got the right problem – Tim O'Reilly

Further compounding a very public display of ignorance, commercial rights-holders have hacked off another branch, thinking it was the root. The Pirate Bay is not the root of anything and blocking DNS... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nickrussell at 10:49 AM on April 30, 2012

I think "panopticock" is the stronger choice, if only for reasons of euphony.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 2:36 PM on April 28, 2012

are you trying to make Stav cry?
posted to MetaFilter by Busithoth at 3:25 PM on April 27, 2012

I bet you think I'm coming in here to mention the anagram GREASED MEN. Nope. I'm coming in here to mention the anagram SAME GENDER.
posted to MetaFilter by emelenjr at 3:56 AM on April 27, 2012

Stop it stop it, you bastards! I'll rhapsodize about the Dictators! I'll hate on Pitchfork! I'll describe my lunch!
posted to MetaTalk by jonmc at 2:06 PM on April 25, 2012

I had to wait years. Years. But I got my white background.
posted to MetaTalk by anildash at 12:32 PM on April 25, 2012

by the way, I did flag those comments, and they were called out in the thread by a few people

Seriously, you didn't. I don't know if your flagging mechanism is broken but we did not see flags from you on those comments you linked to. Feel free to hit us on on the contact form if you want to troubleshoot that.

rather than getting rid of the comments.

By the time we saw them they... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 7:43 PM on April 20, 2012

Not to be all "rah-rah" Harper, but judging a politician by his wardrobe is more than a little shallow.

I judge him by his appalling policy record, his unquenchable thirst for more power, his shameless willingness to exploit and expand division, his deceitfulness and dishonesty, and an unconscionable stance on climate change that would doom my children to a future profoundly lacking in the quality of life we now enjoy so that he and his... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gompa at 10:51 PM on April 17, 2012

The 14k brigade are still here, but we've got older and a bit more mature. We're all coming up for 10 years of membership now and, in Internet Time, that puts us about in our '50s I think, which aligns with me in real life, coincidentally. Most of us are the ones that snuck or bribed our way in before the daily lottery and long before the $5 noobs. I like to think that we are more committed because we had to actually work to get in, not just be lucky or fork over a tiny amount of cash. But... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by dg at 3:15 PM on April 12, 2012

Alberta's current political sitatuation can best be understood in light of the old saying that you should never expect a person to understand something when their salary depends on not understanding it. They are getting rich by imposing huge costs on everyone else and prefer to be ignorant of those costs, because it is uncomfortable to think about.

The success of Wildrose's appeal to a 'pioneer heritage,' and to 'resilience,' 'persistence,' and 'small government' can be... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the thing about it at 4:31 PM on April 14, 2012

I really dislike callouts, and calls to delete posts, like this. I think it's really bad for the site for users to act as though a thread continuing to exist is causing some harm in the world. Don't like the thread? Don't read it. Disagree with the substance of a linked blog post? Comment and explain why. But merely discussing something that's happening out there on the web is not a bad thing.

There should be a strong presumption against deleting a member's post, which... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by jayder at 2:30 PM on April 14, 2012

Well, ain't that fuckin' depressing. I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I was a major factor in Vang Vieng becoming exactly the kind of place I despise. We arrived there sometime in the fall of 2000, with the intention of waiting out the horrible monsoons in the south that year, until we could head back to the Four Thousand Islands. Vang Vieng was a fairly sleepy village twelve years ago, and although it was getting its fair share of backpackers, we kinda liked the vibe. It was a good mix of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by gman at 9:53 AM on April 8, 2012

Okay.. I saw this thread erupt as I was watching a movie, Narayama Bushiko, a kabuki style movie about the ancient Japanese custom of obasute, taking the elderly (especially old women) up onto a mountain to freeze to death when they were no longer productive members of society. But I'll get back to that in a minute.

This article hits the two major points and gets them completely wrong. First it mentions the Industrial Revolution as the start of a New Golden Age when... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by charlie don't surf at 4:17 PM on April 1, 2012

There was once a very old man, whose eyes had become dim, his ears dull of hearing, his knees trembled, and when he sat at table he could hardly hold the spoon, and spilt the broth upon the table-cloth or let it run out of his mouth. His son and his son’s wife were disgusted at this, so the old grandfather at last had to sit in the corner behind the stove, and they gave him his food in an earthenware bowl, and not even enough of it. And he used to look towards the table with his eyes full of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by R. Schlock at 2:36 PM on April 1, 2012

Holy Shit. My tag is stavrosthewonderchicken. Stavros is the reason I bought a membership to this site in the 1st place. DREAM LEVEL FULFILLED.
posted to MetaTalk by artof.mulata at 2:47 AM on April 1, 2012

even though meta-thread-commentary really does go on all the damned time

We aren't as nutso aggressive about it as we could in theory be, but we do remove it when we see it and it makes sense to do so. Sometimes it's a wee aside in an otherwise substantial comment, and sometimes it's been responded to and wrapped back into conversation in a way that makes removing it unreasonable; things like that make it trickier.

But when I... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 7:13 AM on March 30, 2012

But not in memail. :)
posted to MetaFilter by mediareport at 6:04 AM on March 30, 2012

Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy on the Conan O'Brien show is exactly the dictionary definition of a massively violent beachside tribal circle jerk, leaving all parties squeezed dry and gasping, huddled around a sputtering, spitting, foul-smelling fire. Ben Stiller crouches just outside the orange circle of firelight, digging in the piss-soaked sand and thrusting handfuls of it into his mouth and ears. The throbbing pink moon above drips a sticky tar and is in fact Adam Sandler's distended anus.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by tumid dahlia at 4:15 PM on March 29, 2012

Alas, Chris left his essay a bit too late to get on the back cover of the paperback (it's already typeset).

As for me, well: when life hands you lemons, it's obviously time to sell lemonade. Anyone want to buy a tee shirt?
posted to MetaFilter by cstross at 6:10 AM on March 29, 2012

Dear MetaFilter,

A couple of nights ago it was getting late (there may have been beer involved) and I spouted off and made some comments that were unintentionally hurtful to some members. I may have made it even worse in my attempt to explain that. I apologize.

Sincerely (really),

Carbolic
posted to MetaTalk by Carbolic at 11:46 AM on March 29, 2012

What bothers me are others who could just have well done the same but decided take an "alternative" job" that didn't provide health care but now feel it is an ENTITLEMENT.

You are absolutely goddamn right I'm entitled to it, and so are you and so is everyone else. What the hell do you think "society" means, anyway? The "social contract"? It's stuff like this that leaves the rest of the world speechless, America. And... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by jokeefe at 10:04 AM on March 29, 2012

Just read through this thread, not word for word but fairly closely. And then called a kid that I mentor, because I wanted to get his story, line by line, then write it out here.

Don't have insurance? Do you have lymphoma? Are you a US citizen? Wonder what might happen to you? Read on.

Some of you might have read about my fun experience, which was brought about in large part because I didn't have insurance, and wouldn't go to the hospital,... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by dancestoblue at 11:46 PM on March 28, 2012

As far as I can tell, the US isn't so much a modern civilization created "by the people, for the people" as what one might term a Bandit Engine: a complex financial device with numerous hierarchical layers that is cunningly designed to extract the maximum amount of negotiable capital possible from its citizenry by fucking them every way possible using the barest minimum amount of lube necessary to render open revolt unlikely.
posted to MetaFilter by seanmpuckett at 1:22 PM on March 27, 2012

the irresponsibility of having someone else pay for it rubs me the wrong way.
To make health insurance an earned privilege is to condemn people to physical suffering or even death because they failed to secure a job that gives them health insurance, or they don’t earn enough, or they happened to contract an expensive illness, or a member of their family did. [...] In every other advanced country, the provision of universal access to medical care is a public... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by scody at 9:27 PM on March 27, 2012

I miss memepool too.

So, to set some context: When I wrote memepool, there was no RSS, no MySQL. The word "weblog" hadn't been coined yet. etc.

So, I wrote my own in-memory database, items don't have permalinks, there were dozens of problems.

Then, it became very easy for people to have their own blogs - so having editorial curation was an impediment. Why write when it might get rejected per the style guide? Etc... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by joshu at 3:40 PM on March 27, 2012

Better to have yelled and yelled than never have yelled at all.
posted to MetaFilter by TwelveTwo at 5:44 PM on March 22, 2012

I tried this the other day and got frustrated by the interface pretty quickly, which was too bad as it seems otherwise right up my alley.

Yeah, like I said, fiddly. The things that made the difference for me were getting used to using the 1, 2 and 3 keys to switch between take/drop, move, and consume, respectively, and using Q to pop into the item screen and back out. There's still a bit too much clicking about to get inventory management stuff done,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 5:16 PM on March 19, 2012

Mostly.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 9:47 PM on March 18, 2012

I'll take walls of well-thought-out text over favorite-grubbing one-liners and pointless snark any day.
posted to MetaTalk by dunkadunc at 10:56 PM on March 14, 2012

Have you filled out Form 27-b/6? That's the New Directive Formulation Permission Form.

Ah, and here I was attempting to file Form 27-b/6E the Nude Erective Formulation Permission Form. Thanks!
posted to MetaTalk by Devils Rancher at 6:15 AM on March 14, 2012

He can check out anytime he likes, but he can never leave.
posted to MetaTalk by flapjax at midnite at 4:59 AM on March 14, 2012

i feel like the internet at large and metafilter in specific likes to take a single sentence or paragraph and argue against that just because they like to argue, even when they agree with most of the entire piece (especially when the piece as a whole doesn't support their kneejerk assumptions against it). maybe it's just more interesting or whatever, but arguing that andy baio thinks he's a unique poetic snowflake and that he thinks he should be held up as an artist because of his programming is... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nadawi at 9:25 PM on March 13, 2012

Hi, Metafilter! I'll just drop in to say that, duh, my point was that programming is a creative endeavor and already covered by copyright, so patents aren't necessary, in the same way that novelists and poets can't patent their work. I wasn't trying to say that coding is poetry. (If you really need a metaphor, it feels more like a mix between architecture and jazz to me.)
posted to MetaFilter by waxpancake at 9:51 PM on March 13, 2012

watched the Cain film: why is it that candidates think that if they ran a business they can run a country? Does a pimp suggest that he can do great work turning tricks?

Either way, the common man is getting fucked.
posted to MetaFilter by FatherDagon at 10:45 AM on March 12, 2012

I grew up out in the country, just outside a small town of around 15,000 people. Many mornings I would get early to help my grandfather feed the cattle and make sure there was enough water for them. My father was a deputy sheriff when I was young. My mother was a stay-at-home mom for a while, and then completed college and became a teacher. We lived in a mobile home, and it was a big deal when we traded up to a double-wide, where my parents continued to live until ten years after I left home.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pater Aletheias at 4:30 PM on March 8, 2012

Tyson is a genius at fostering popular interest in science. But we should double NASA's budget only after we have doubled the budget of every failing public school in the country. Think about what that would do for economic and scientific advancement.

NASA's budget is about $18 billion.

We currently spend about *looks* $900 billion / year on K12 education.

On the one hand, maybe you think that very few... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:26 PM on March 8, 2012

Sadly, stavros, it appears that a certain Mr Muphry got there before you. You might argue that your construction is a subset of Muphry's law, however. How does "Wonderchicken's Variant" strike you?
posted to MetaFilter by howfar at 9:56 AM on March 7, 2012

Fun fact: the collective noun for a group of hover-daggertoads is a lanyard of hover-daggertoads.
posted to MetaFilter by tumid dahlia at 9:19 PM on March 6, 2012

No, no, that's comparative advantage. Totally different concept.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 10:43 PM on March 5, 2012

"Train In Vain" made me cry. I'm sitting here wiping tears away.

Oh cool, a few solo tunes by Mick Jones and then CLICK and completely blind-sided by tears.

He looks so old but so happy. And the crowd knows all the words. And we smile and sing and try to remember what it felt like. And Joe's never coming back. And all we have are echoes. At least Mick's smiling, I suppose.

"I see all my dreams come tumbling... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by BitterOldPunk at 9:27 PM on March 5, 2012

I think what a lot of people here (I started off addressing this to zarq, but that's only because s/he is the most recent person to start saying shit about utilitarians) aren't clear on is that moral philosophy is something where you have to make a decision at the beginning whether our moral intuitions (feelings like repugnance, the sense that something is obviously wrong) are a good way to work out what is right or wrong.

It might seem obvious to... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Acheman at 12:02 PM on March 2, 2012

NOT OK Winnemac ;]
posted to MetaFilter by panaceanot at 3:04 AM on March 2, 2012

OK
posted to MetaFilter by Winnemac at 1:25 AM on March 2, 2012

I don't know much about these things, besides 1) living by my own personal principle of shopping local whenever possible, and 2) having worked extensively with Chinese factories last year.

On the first point, it's a decision that each individual in society must come to terms with -- what kind of world would you like to live in? When the Wal-Mart wars were going on in Los Angeles in the late 90s, early 00s, the argument was that Wal-Mart destroys main street, which it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nickrussell at 3:49 AM on February 28, 2012