Favorites from tehloki

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MeFi post: We thought we could control it. And this is beyond our power to control.
It's still bizarre to me that we refer to it as "screen" time. It's like worrying about paper time. Yes, there's lots of dreck out there -- far more than Sturgeon's percentage -- but there's also lots of good stuff, and the idea that even the most loving, intelligent episode of Sesame Street or Magic School Bus or whatever should be discussed in the same breath as Snood, a FPS, or Youtube videos of kinder eggs seems like a bizarrely physical account of art. Yeah, they're all on... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by chortly at 1:42 PM on October 29, 2018
MeFi post: "Game on, Tiny"
Was talking at a community college thing about how students could get involved in activist efforts; why they asked me, I don't know, but I guess I have some stories. Then we were asking what the students cared about and two were like mass incarceration and the organizer and I were like yeah yeah good what else and the same two were like health care! And we're like good good access and affordability and--

actually the students were convinced that the government knew how... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by angrycat at 11:05 AM on October 22, 2018
Ask MeFi post: Ancient Iodine
Good god. I was bored on a Sunday evening and this Ask sent me down a deep, deep rabbit hole of glass bottle markings.

This listing on Etsy seems to be the same brand but 0.5 ounce, whereas yours is the 1 ounce bottle. There's a comment on this thread that suggests that iodine bottles in Canada were manufactured by either Dominion Glass or Consumers Glass, but this document and this other website do not have any information on the markings shown on the bottom of the... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Everydayville at 12:21 AM on November 13, 2017 marked best answer
Ask MeFi post: Swordfighting Cats Comic
et voilà
posted to Ask MetaFilter by deadbilly at 1:56 AM on March 24, 2017 marked best answer
MeFi post: From the guns of babes
Um, no I seriously doubt Jamie Gilt will face any charges. She's from Palatka, a small and very very poor town southwest of Jacksonville. (Not throwing any shade, I have family that lives there and I've lived there myself-but didn't stay long,) I don't know her personally but I know people that do and they all believe she has no fault in the "accident". Also, according to police reports her son wasn't in his car seat, but was standing in the back seat of her truck. She is a huge... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hollygoheavy at 9:26 AM on March 13, 2016
MeFi post: Had Bernie been Bernadette
Really nothing bums me out more than the sheer number of people, left and right, who basically feel like they have carte blanche to be relentlessly, gleefully dismissive of Clinton and treat her like a walking punch line because she's so terrible that she deserves it.

I'm more bummed out by the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis from the war she voted for, personally.
posted to MetaFilter by Drinky Die at 7:45 PM on March 12, 2016
This primary keeps making me deeply uncomfortable.
I'm stuck voting between:
- the guy I see as the underdog because his platform is so far from the bullshit we're usually given
or
- the woman I see as the underdog because of a 24-year campaign of sexism and bullshit aimed squarely at her (and oh look it's still going)

No matter what, I'm going to reward someone's bad behavior -- and yes, I think BOTH of these candidates... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by scaryblackdeath at 7:24 PM on March 12, 2016
My wife and I have talked about this exact difficulty, that it does ultimately come down to the old white man offering the far more appealing policies, and the deep frustration that Hillary's platform seems, on many levels, to be built on a campaign consisting, essentially, of "it's finally my turn to be president."
posted to MetaFilter by DoctorFedora at 7:10 PM on March 12, 2016
MeFi post: "When You're Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression"
I'm a woman who plays in a co-ed soccer league. I can't even tell you how many times I've been on defense and a man on offense with the ball will literally run straight into me at top speed while I'm going in for a tackle. Which typically ends with me getting knocked down and the man will saying something like "oh sorry I guess you didn't have time to get out of the way". Wtf!!! I am defending you! I am in your way on purpose! You are supposed to attempt to go around/get away from me!... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by emd3737 at 3:31 AM on March 14, 2016
After a week of colliding with just about everyone, I gave up. Turns out I do have to be the one to veer left. 100% of the time when it comes to groups of men, weirdly. Almost always when it's a single guy under the age of about 50. But men older than that, walking alone, will sometimes dodge me. The older they are, the more likely.

My partner has made it a project to make men dodge out of her way. She had experimented with different postures, stances,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by PercussivePaul at 3:01 AM on March 14, 2016
In my first university teaching job, the set texts for our first-year undergraduate literature course were split 50/50 between male and female authors. We kept to this every year, even when we swapped the actual authors about. And every year, in the student feedback, someone - usually multiple someones - would complain that we were teaching more female authors than male. Every year.
posted to MetaFilter by Catseye at 1:54 AM on March 14, 2016
And there's passive-aggressively running into someone in the middle of a busy night at a restaurant, and then feigning indifference about your intent, to prove a point you were too timid to make at literally any other time.

You've illustrated the author's point beautifully. This other guy walks right toward him, showing not the slightest sign of common courtesy to avoid a collision, and because the author refuses to jump out of his way, you fault... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by straight at 9:11 PM on March 13, 2016
Wow! That's some epic missing the point there.

The comments. It's...."the comments". What Trump is a walking embodiment of.

Anyway, I don't think management and customers thought he was a jerk, since customers reported he got hit (pushed), and management said "If you want him gone, he's fired".

Anyway, another way to put this is, if the playing field has been tilted in your favor... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cashman at 7:41 PM on March 13, 2016
Based on my experience with "management and customers", the bigger jerk most often got the better stations/promotions/elected offices.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop at 7:31 PM on March 13, 2016
do as you're told:*
Sometimes people use "respect" to mean "treating someone like a person" and sometimes they use "respect" to mean "treating someone like an authority"

and sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say "if you won't respect me I won't respect you" and they mean "if you won't treat me like an authority I won't treat you like a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 7:20 PM on March 13, 2016
MeFi post: From the guns of babes
My First Rifle... pink for a girl, obviously
posted to MetaFilter by fearfulsymmetry at 6:55 AM on March 13, 2016
MeFi post: we exist and then we don't, that's just how we do
p.s. time is fourfold, with four simultaneous days each earth rotation, as I'm sure everyone who is not educated stupid can see.
posted to MetaFilter by You Can't Tip a Buick at 10:54 PM on December 22, 2015
Really now, death is overrated. Dying is where it's at. I'm dying right now. Look at me. Do you see me? I am dying. It's not hard, this dying. You should try it, too. Don't be afraid. Get yourself out there. Take a step. Good. You see. Dying is easy. It can even be fun if you know how to do it correctly. Most people don't. We who take dying seriously know what we are talking about. Don't be afraid. Just die. Go on now.
posted to MetaFilter by perhapses at 9:43 PM on December 22, 2015
As a thing that doesn't exist in a universe that likewise doesn't exist, it only seems right of me to have conceptually impossible and directly self-contradictory metaphysics. So I guess what I'm trying to say is ontological nihilism or GTFO.
posted to MetaFilter by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:18 PM on December 22, 2015
MeFi post: New Zealand is not a small country but a large village...
As a native of Michigan's Keweenaw peninsula -- frequently left off maps of the US that I assume are all sourced from the same bad SVG file that some intern found -- I applaud this. Good to know someone else will be safe when the aliens come and destroy everything on the map.
posted to MetaFilter by aaronetc at 9:31 PM on December 22, 2015
I think it's hilarious that so many of them manage to put Tasmania in but leave off NZ. Even really abstract ones. And of course, there's the one that thinks Tasmania IS New Zealand.
posted to MetaFilter by Athanassiel at 9:24 PM on December 22, 2015
Ask MeFi post: Pink Art Lady
Amanda Lepore?
posted to Ask MetaFilter by vacapinta at 7:36 AM on December 21, 2015 marked best answer
MeFi post: We Asked Astrobiologists About Jose Canseco's Plan to Terraform Mars
Such as...? What's the worst that could happen? Mars ends up transformed into a cold, arid, radioactive wasteland devoid of any signs of life?

It doesn't work and we waste untold trillions on fucking up something fascinating, complex, new and untouched because we can't get a hardon for just sorting out our actual problems.


Or, a spaceship full of nuclear material explodes on launch while in the upper atmosphere, spreading... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mitrovarr at 5:59 PM on December 11, 2015
"Every several seconds," Musk continued “send large fusion bombs over the poles." Those bombs would "blink out, like a small sun" and then you could send up more to keep going with the process, Musk added.

Fucking ridiculous. Why not build two giant circular magnets, about 2,000km in diameter, and drop them onto the poles? Boom, instant magnetic field. Then you can send another craft to release a satellite fitted with a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 5:37 PM on December 11, 2015
Mars Needs Bombs.
posted to MetaFilter by Alvy Ampersand at 5:25 PM on December 11, 2015
Gotta nuke somethin'
posted to MetaFilter by a lungful of dragon at 5:14 PM on December 11, 2015
Such as...? What's the worst that could happen?

This exact phrase was also uttered by the first Australian rabbit owner.
posted to MetaFilter by GuyZero at 5:05 PM on December 11, 2015
The fact that Mars is not massive enough to hold the lighter atmosphere elements that we need, and has no magnetic field (because no tectonics, because no heavy iron core) to protect from cosmic rays and other space radiation, are pretty serious roadblocks. Serious enough that anyone claiming they can terraform Mars has to be nuts, or deluded.
posted to MetaFilter by Sintram at 5:03 PM on December 11, 2015
And the winner for "Most 2015 Headline Ever" is...
posted to MetaFilter by TheWhiteSkull at 4:53 PM on December 11, 2015
Biggest problem: will definitely wake the ancient martians, and boy will they be pissed.
posted to MetaFilter by sammyo at 4:52 PM on December 11, 2015
MeFi post: I love you, see you tomorrow
I assume none of these are real.
posted to MetaFilter by roomthreeseventeen at 2:14 PM on December 6, 2015
Someone should compile a list of "final comments before a MeFi flameout".
posted to MetaFilter by HuronBob at 1:56 PM on December 6, 2015
An odd mix of touching last words from dead relatives and asshole exes.
posted to MetaFilter by kmz at 1:55 PM on December 6, 2015
MeFi post: To go where a variety of people have gone before
I'm not hoping for something as good as TOS or Next Gen. I'll settle for DS9 levels of quality

*DS9 fans give stern look*
posted to MetaFilter by kmz at 8:49 AM on November 2, 2015
Please don't be a gritty reboot...
Please don't be a gritty reboot...
posted to MetaFilter by Atom Eyes at 8:38 AM on November 2, 2015
Me right now.
posted to MetaFilter by Fizz at 8:35 AM on November 2, 2015
BREAKING: CBS Finally Crafts Press Release About CBS All Access That People Actually Read
posted to MetaFilter by robocop is bleeding at 8:35 AM on November 2, 2015
MeFi post: First, Let's Get Rid Of All The Bosses
You know, I tend to believe that the sandal-wearing corporate Hsiehs of the world are motivated by a more-or-less sincere desire to create a better workplace, and a better role in the world for their company.

The problem is, their bold new corporate society is inevitably designed as the ideal workplace for people like them. And the people who find themselves in a position to impose something like Holacracy are not the average... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by escape from the potato planet at 5:51 AM on October 20, 2015
Also man the fucking beach. May as well be the cornfield.

It's real good you did that, Tony, real good!
posted to MetaFilter by griphus at 5:31 AM on October 20, 2015
"Dishonest', though, is the key. When people propose this kind of system, they don't actually want worker management. They want the pluses of worker management - greater buy-in, legitimizing greater intrusiveness in workers' lives and the ability to tell themselves a story about how 'democratic' they are - without the inconvenient possibility that the workers will do something truly in their own interest. That's why the twee quirkiness - the twee... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Frowner at 5:29 AM on October 20, 2015
Zapponians, as the employees call one another, like to talk about “work-life integration” rather than work-life balance.

Nightmare fuel.
posted to MetaFilter by tocts at 4:58 AM on October 20, 2015
Rosemary was the first beachgoer to keep a journal, which is now a requirement of the Why Space. At a recent all-hands meeting, Williams asked Rosemary to read her journal in front of the entire company, to show people how hurt she'd been when her new Zappos friends had ostracized her after she was beached. After reading the journal, Rosemary was offered a new role right there onstage.
...
Everyone was so inspired by Rosemary's example, by the way she had “slain
... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ocular shenanigans at 5:15 AM on October 20, 2015
MeFi post: Living in the database, database
the cost of JOINs*, which are bulky and expensive

This is just... not true. It depends on the scale of the joins, the structure of the data, indices, etc., and how the query optimizer can handle it. And you will be doing joins. If you relocate those to your code, you're just throwing away decades of effective research into how best to do those joins.

disks are crazy cheap. That means you... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fatbird at 11:51 AM on October 14, 2015
If your dataset fits in RAM you don't need a DB.

In the modern world of “OK, so we have a 10Tb working set, so lets shard that across 10 1Tb machines” I don’t think this is really true any more. You still need a DB, even if your data fits in memory, for many reasons including but not limited to: the DB provides a query interface to your 10Tb dataset, the DB lets you migrate to a new schema without losing several years of your life to stress, the DB... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by pharm at 8:23 AM on October 14, 2015
The following things, I think, are true:

- SQL is very good, if not great. MySQL also.
- You should almost never be writing SQL unless you're writing libraries. Use libraries.
- Sanitize your inputs, fool.
- If your SQL queries are not very fast you are almost certainly doing something important wrong.
- Programmers are not DBAs, who are in turn not sysadmins. There are subtle and pernicious problems in each of those... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 8:01 AM on October 14, 2015
See also: “Cache is the New RAM” which contains the choice phrase
“To paraphrase Paul Graham’s unbearably smug comment about Lisp: once you add group by, filter, & join, you can no longer claim to have invented a new query language, only a new dialect of SQL. With worse syntax and no optimizer.”


In other words: Those who do not use SQL are doomed to re-invent it...poorly.
posted to MetaFilter by pharm at 7:42 AM on October 14, 2015
select * from craps where given > 0;

(0 row(s) affected)

posted to MetaFilter by graymouser at 7:40 AM on October 14, 2015
For learning SQL try GalaxQL.

It's a fun little interactive tutorial, and it's about stars and galaxies instead of products and sales lines or whatever most tutorials are about.
I used it and I am now a professional SQL doing person.
posted to MetaFilter by Just this guy, y'know at 7:18 AM on October 14, 2015
There is no single solution that works the best. SQL and relational databases are fantastic for large datasets which require multiple views and lots of calculation. Hibernate is great for CRUD stuff, terrible for reporting. Stored procedures are really efficient and fantastic for complicated data crunching but require the requisite staff to create and maintain the code and, in larger orgs, administrative barriers between the DBA and app dev teams can make maintaining and changing a codebase... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by grumpybear69 at 7:06 AM on October 14, 2015
( ^ Now that I've recovered from hysteria )
I've seen it asked whether a database supports more than 65535 columns. I can't even imagine...
posted to MetaFilter by I-Write-Essays at 7:08 PM on October 14, 2015
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