MetaFilter

Regardless of your own personal issues, you shouldn't be with someone who makes you cry.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by easy, lucky, free at 11:39 PM on April 22, 2014

We don’t try to modify their behavior, we try to shepherd their hearts.

By beating them as the first and only method of correction. "Shepherding their hearts" is a shibboleth for a particular form of violent, fear-based child rearing espoused by some christians. Cool videos though, for sure.
posted to MetaFilter by Sternmeyer at 7:50 PM on April 22, 2014

The song works on the contrast between three different levels of privilege.

No, the lyrics do (maybe). This thread stopped being about music way up the page, and as a really knowledgeable musician, I think the lyrics are the least interesting part of the track.

I already vented about this upthread, but seriously, arguing about the how effective a social signifier "Cadillac" is, comparing list... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by LooseFilter at 10:58 AM on April 22, 2014

a box and a stick and a string and a bear

and we don't caaaaaare
posted to MetaFilter by EmGeeJay at 9:30 PM on April 20, 2014

This demonstration was invented by my friend Harold Daw in 1979. He described it in two papers in the American Journal of Physics in August 1987 and in October 1988. The first paper has construction details; the second describes the normal mode patterns. There are 3 of these tables in our physics demo room, a square one, a circular one, and a triangular one.

Harold also invented the air table, a physics demo that eventually morphed into the air hockey table. He loved... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Killick at 1:08 PM on April 18, 2014

Here's an exercise. Plot the number of times two or more people seek common understanding using one of these two lines:

It's like that episode of Seinfeld where....
It's like that episode of 30 Rock where....

Results should indicate why Seinfeld has been so much more profitable. Note: For the purposes of this test "30 Rock" can be replaced with almost any television show not titled "Seinfeld".
posted to MetaFilter by TimTypeZed at 5:48 AM on April 16, 2014

Those standards were created in American universities, by American thinkers, to address American problems.

I don't think this is accurate at all. A lot of today's mainstream thinking about cultural appropriation has its roots in postcolonialism, and many of the most influential postcolonialist theorists (e.g., Spivak, Said) were neither Americans themselves nor setting out to address American problems in their work.
posted to MetaFilter by en forme de poire at 1:45 PM on April 14, 2014

Essentialism as far as the eye can see. "The Japanese are so good/bad/racist/honorable/dsjiufhljhadlkf at..."

Ugh.
posted to MetaFilter by Joseph Gurl at 2:10 AM on April 14, 2014

Her exact words: "I think the day you meet the guy of your dreams, your negative feelings would melt away."

Holy shit get a new doctor.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by griphus at 12:18 PM on April 11, 2014

The novel of The Princess Bride is framed as the abridged 'good parts' version of a fictional longer Princess Bride novel.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by ActionPopulated at 3:45 PM on April 11, 2014

This is sometimes called The Invisible Library. There have been tons of efforts to document the Invisible Library, not to mention articles about those attempts. Here's one attempt.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by muddgirl at 4:11 PM on April 11, 2014 marked best answer

The science of consciousness is moving toward panpsychism, and thus validating the fundamental assertion of all spirituality ie, everything thinks. This is the second great confirmation by science of spirituality. The first was the confirmation of the ultimate immateriality of matter. Philosophy and mysticism have always held that we experience reality in thought as matter, that matter is a relative perception and not itself the essence of reality.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sebastienbailard at 9:11 PM on April 10, 2014

Where do you go to learn about theoretical physics, other than a university?

Lawrence Krauss is a well-respected physicist who has written several layperson-friendly books on physics, including some of the more theoretical concepts. Although I haven't read it myself, Hiding in the Mirror looks like one that would be right up your husband's alley.


He would like to discuss his ideas with people working in... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by soundguy99 at 12:51 PM on April 9, 2014

I would just watch them all from the beginning (Iron Man 1). Some people might say Iron Man 2 is bad, but I would counter it's just not great, and it does introduce the Black Widow character (featured in The Avengers and Captain America 2).

here is the Marvel Cinematic Universe (in order):

Iron Man
The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Thor
Captain America
Avengers
Iron Man... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by joelhunt at 11:44 AM on April 9, 2014

I found it interesting how many of the posters in that thread have completely lost track of what "easy to understand and explain" means.

Well, the question didn't ask for easy explanations, just that they exist. You have to be careful of the distinction when talking to mathematicians.

I actually think the Seifert surface one is something you could almost explain to elementary/middle school kids. There is already a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by eruonna at 4:19 PM on April 7, 2014

Our guy who runs the team that designs stuff like this has the motto, "If it doesn't work on mobile, it doesn't work." Thus: the super-responsiveness of this.

Also: Kainaz, who took those photos, is a superhero-level bad-ass lady. I love this project so, so much.
posted to MetaFilter by Linda_Holmes at 5:07 AM on April 4, 2014

This is actually not what cron is for - cron is for repeating events. To schedule a one-time event, just type

at 2 PM tues

or whenever, then hit return and type

mv index2.html index.html

and return and Ctrl-D. Type man at for more information on the "at" command.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by nicwolff at 10:37 PM on April 3, 2014

an "I'm not here to make friends" dramatic reality show format

Which, I'm waiting for some trickster demon to start up a reality show called Friendmakers as a way of collapsing the whole genre in on itself once and for all.
posted to MetaFilter by cortex at 5:41 PM on April 1, 2014

I love me some Chipotle, but my SO and I have noticed every time we've gone in the past year or so, the workers have been more... distracted? Or maybe they're just not paying attention? But lately the typical order seems to go something like:

"What can I get you?"
"Veggie tacos for here, please"
"Sorry, did you say that was for here or to go?"
"For here."
"And that was a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by lordaych at 9:56 PM on March 31, 2014

RD is right wing, sure. But, I mean, is this such a surprise?

Yes, I was actually slightly surprised to learn that Reader's Digest will now only publish condensed books that are acceptable to the Communist Party of China.
posted to MetaFilter by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:55 AM on March 31, 2014

I love Threes, and I was all ready to jump to the dev's defense. But you know what, I think the story played out exactly as it should have really:
The original Devs invented a really fun game mostly from scratch (borrowing of course from a host of game conventions that someone else invented once, and are now just part of the lexicon)
The original Devs made a decent amount of money? off that invention (where did you read that Blazecock Pileon?),... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Popular Ethics at 7:31 PM on March 28, 2014

Thank god there is a minor Intolerable issue with the $2 version so people can feel justified playing the free clones instead.
posted to MetaFilter by kiltedtaco at 5:35 PM on March 28, 2014

Like... books?

No, not like printed books. There's obviously a higher entry barrier to drawing a comic, getting it published in print and getting it distributed to everyone in the world. If they weren't web comics, you'd maybe find them at a zine fair.

Speaking of print, some of my favourite illustrations of The Táin are Louis le Brocquy's lithograph illustrations for Thomas Kinsella's version. Thanks to THE... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by zamboni at 1:04 PM on March 16, 2014

I can’t be a technical cofounder without knowing the ins and outs of securing distributed systems, knowing the comparative advantages of Docker-separated processes vs. conventionally hosted processes, etc.

This is totally false, even if you limit yourself to the y-combinator world. You know less than you think you do even about what you don't know. The secret to a good life that you are missing is humility.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by kelseyq at 11:38 AM on March 16, 2014

Nthing SPACETEAM. Possibly the best game ever. We love that game so much around these parts we basically ported it to hardware.
posted to MetaFilter by phooky at 9:29 PM on March 14, 2014

All I can say is I feel pretty vindicated with regard to my first comment in this thread about the GPS squawker.

Ugh, no. I've been letting this go for now, but since you keep bringing it up, there's a bunch of reasons why this sounds so great now but doesn't actually have any serious relevance. The biggest issue is that you're comparing an idealized perfect "GPS pinging" device to what has been a complete mess of misinformation and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kiltedtaco at 5:47 AM on March 14, 2014

The hilarity here is that if you just go to an ethnic grocery you can buy fruits and veggies at a fraction of these prices. Limes at 15¢ each, etc.
posted to MetaFilter by sonic meat machine at 2:17 PM on March 13, 2014

There's no reason to assume that an Iranian travelling on a stolen passport has plans to commit any sort of crime

I disagree; there's plenty of reason to assume an Iranian travelling on a stolen passport has plans to commit a number of crimes. It's just that destroying an airplane isn't one of them. But stuff like visa fraud is a slam dunk.
posted to MetaFilter by Justinian at 3:21 AM on March 13, 2014

Anyone else thinks Snowden should have gone through the proper channels at this point?

Snowden: I raised NSA concerns internally over 10 times before going rogue
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 6:29 PM on March 7, 2014

Golden Eternity: “Satoshi Nakamoto's p2pfoundation account just came alive for the first time in 4 years to say, “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.””

I want to make sure I understand what that means. Does that translate to, "Bitcoin Dude's p2pfoundation account just came alive for the first time in 4 years to say, 'I am not Magazine Dude.'"?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ob1quixote at 12:48 AM on March 7, 2014

Valleywag: "The Winklevii Are Going to Space"

There was a time when news that Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss just bought spaceship tickets using Bitcoin would have been completely surprising. That time is long, long gone.

posted to MetaFilter by grouse at 6:32 AM on March 6, 2014

Here's the perspective from 100% of the people I knew that didn't have insurance:

Before October 2013: It's fucking impossible to get health insurance
October/November 2013: It's really fucking hard to get insurance, but at least I know I'll have it
2014: I now have fucking health insurance

Then again, they don't believe Obama is literally Hitler, so maybe that's clouding their perspective.
posted to MetaFilter by zombieflanders at 5:44 PM on March 4, 2014

Anonymous's daughter has gotten more grief than Anonymous bargained for arising out of this incident. What benefit would arise from a fishing expedition to find more potential wrongdoing?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by grouse at 12:14 PM on March 4, 2014

>>Do you remember what those sites were like when they first launched?
>Yes, I remember they didn't make promises they couldn't keep. They started small, and did what they did well, and expanded from there.

Okay, this statement has just been bugging me and the fact that people seem to be taking it at face value is just making it worse. Let's put it to bed, shall we?


Three days after launch,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 11:55 PM on March 3, 2014

Now I want to know how a brochure site starts with a $120M price tag

You ask for $200M and let them talk you down.
posted to MetaFilter by srboisvert at 5:37 PM on March 3, 2014

Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" was written the style of Elvis Presley as a tribute to The King.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by drlith at 4:43 PM on March 3, 2014

It may help to know that these are classically known as memento mori.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by zamboni at 10:41 AM on March 3, 2014 marked best answer

I actually kind of wonder if Putin doesn't want Crimea and the eastern parts to stay in Ukraine so that they can continue to influence elections. Yanukovych was elected 49-45, after all. If Putin peels off his strongholds, he controls the territory, but makes it much more likely that the rest of the country will go straight to the EU.
posted to MetaFilter by echo target at 3:25 PM on March 3, 2014

If anything, posting YT videos on MeFi is good because you can comment on/favourite the MeFi post/comment without having to log into YT.

More importantly, people should stop with the stupid redundant "SLYT" labels. They are meaningless, to newbies who don't know the initialism, and even to people who do - I mean what does the S stand for again?
posted to MetaTalk by EndsOfInvention at 3:07 AM on March 3, 2014

Do you guys have enough money to send him to something different? I remember feeling like all my options sucked when I was 20 and that my narrow little world of school and work felt pretty meaningless. And I felt really unloved and worthless. 30 days in something different, like an outdoor survival course or volunteer work helping kids or animal rescue might broaden his view of what his options are and give him some self esteem. I took an environmental studies class taught by an environmental... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by gt2 at 7:09 AM on March 1, 2014

How, exactly, does the market grow bigger? There's a finite number of coins that can be mined.

The ones which exist simply become more valuable as demand for them rises. The zeros on the Coke machine run to the right; you grandpa will talk of spending a whole bit-nickle for a soda while your kids plunk in a bit-nano or something. 0.0000000005 instead of 0.05.

That's the theory, anyway. There's huge problems with it, but... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Diablevert at 9:59 PM on February 25, 2014

emjaybee: Well, we had a few for a while until y2karl outed them. dhoyt, jenleigh, hall of robots, and highsignal.
posted to MetaFilter by Freen at 7:50 AM on February 25, 2014

The thing about the Bitcoin universe is that it IS a shared reality to some extent. If only more people would buy in, it could be everyone's reality!

The one thing which convinces me Bitcoins have value is that people keep trying to steal them.
posted to MetaFilter by sebastienbailard at 6:12 PM on February 25, 2014

How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations
posted to MetaFilter by homunculus at 11:09 PM on February 24, 2014

I imagine at some point some devil's advocate will show up, and this will end up an argument about the causes of the Civil War. Which isn't terrible; it needs to be said, and if this is the only way, that's okay. But what would be more interesting is if we could note the recent scholarship which has demonstrated fairly conclusively (to my mind) that the abolitionist movement was rooted largely in popular sentiment against encroachment on Native lands. Most of those who became prominent... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by koeselitz at 7:45 PM on February 22, 2014

Maybe "Tom Sawyer" by Rush. Song has a lot of swagger and is Rush is pretty grandiose and Neil Peart is a hero drummer.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Mothlight at 5:42 AM on February 22, 2014

I think the concern with evacuating Seoul is that you'd have to convince everyone to do it, and if they did do it, NK might take it as a prelude to an attack, and then start shelling anyway.
posted to MetaFilter by Elementary Penguin at 2:40 AM on February 18, 2014

" he's hooked up with everyone but me"

Maybe you were smarter than the rest of them?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by HuronBob at 7:42 PM on February 17, 2014

Are Cryptocurrency Exchange Rates Indeterminate?
posted to MetaFilter by the man of twists and turns at 10:54 AM on February 12, 2014