MetaFilter

The first time I spoke in a year is when I found out I was colorblind and couldn't fulfill my dream of being a jet pilot.

Wait? Was that me? I have an unrelated condition where I cannot distinguish my experiences from those of characters in films.
posted to MetaFilter by Astro Zombie at 7:16 AM on September 28, 2009

Oh, please, may I be the first to say...

Ramify?
posted to MetaFilter by SLC Mom at 2:51 PM on September 23, 2009

Little-known historical fact: Kanye West interrupted Samuel Taylor Coleridge in mid-composition of Kubla Khan to say that Beyonce had the best video of all time.
posted to MetaFilter by taz at 3:15 AM on September 15, 2009

You are wrong. It's not your fault, almost everyone is taught a load of bullshit in school (or by their parents) under the guise of "good English," and hardly anyone takes a linguistics class, which is the only place they'd learn about how language actually works. To take one of your examples, you can't compare "Me and her went shopping" with "*Me went shopping" (the asterisk means the sentence is ungrammatical in the true sense, i.e., something that no native... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by languagehat at 9:44 AM on September 14, 2009 marked best answer

I'm writing a script about a brilliant director (played by Russell Crowe) who is slighty acerbic and hasn't found a good way of dealing with fans and hangers-on. He has a good heart, and some might say that's why he can't just smile and accept things or tell them that all scripts have to go through his agent or he faces some sort of legal ramifications. At a party there's a pushy, socially inept nephew (Michael Cera, in interviews he'll say he took this role to avoid being pigeonholed as a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by geoff. at 8:27 AM on September 11, 2009

"My first job, I was in house at a fur company with this old pro copywriter, Greek, named Teddy. And Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is ‘new’. Creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of calamine lotion.

"But he also talked about a deeper bond with the product, ‘nostalgia’. It’s delicate, but potent. Sweetheart. Teddy told me that in Greek nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Your Disapproving Father at 4:39 PM on August 25, 2009

Even if it were real, I wouldn't have to buy one, because I have an enormous penis.
posted to MetaFilter by BitterOldPunk at 8:08 PM on August 22, 2009

For fuck's sake I wake up in the morning to read a nice thread about Alan Turing, and all I get is a bunch of people arguing about Richard Dawkins. Go away.

To make it up, here's a photo of a happy nude Alan Turing. Or at least, it claimed to be on the CS professor's Turing tribute website I copied it from over 10 years ago. I've got no record of where I got it now, sadly.
posted to MetaFilter by Nelson at 9:25 AM on August 20, 2009

pompomtom: Actually, the "fag hag" is not a television trope. It's a part of life for gay men which was poorly translated to television, and was then diluted not only by the shit television show which caused it to become more popular, but also by the sudden "trendiness" of gays in our greater culture.

Honestly, the best female friends I've had as a gay man were NOT "fag hags", but rather were females with whom I had something in common and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 9:32 PM on August 18, 2009

For whatever reasons of his own, my father acquired a slow loris as our family pet. Morris the loris. The first thing I noticed about those videos is that he is sitting on a surface. They hate that, they want to be in trees and freak out if they find themselves on a flat plane resembling the ground, and will move pretty damn quick to climb something, anything.

They are resolutely nocturnal, which was a plus for a high school kid trying to convince girls to come over to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by StickyCarpet at 9:59 AM on August 17, 2009

Grundy County, TN was home for decades to a notorious ring of car thieves, fences, and chop shops. If you follow many of the dirt roads to their terminus at the edge of the Cumberland plateau you often find the dumping ground for cars that for whatever reason couldn't be cut up or sold. They were simply rolled to the edge of the mountain and pushed off. As this went on for decades the ensuing piles are spectacular to pick through. Down at the bottom you can find the rusting hulks of old 30's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Pollomacho at 12:35 PM on August 17, 2009

A post about the fonts used.
posted to MetaFilter by kenko at 2:16 PM on August 15, 2009

Klessin,
It was with some trepidation that I posted the above comment because I am sure some people will think I am either endorsing racism or dismissing the feelings of the victims of it. I understand that a person who is subjected demeaning behavior or speech would not want to continually explain why they found it objectionable. That does not mean that they are privy to the thoughts or motivations of the other party. They can be mistaken in their interpretation of that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tashtego at 12:00 PM on August 14, 2009

I suppose this shows my possibly unfair bias, but I lost all sympathy for her right there.

The Constitution protects everyone, white supremacists or not.

It's very very frequent to see civil rights abuses of people that are pretty scummy. That's because it's always convenient to deprive people of rights when they have opinions you don't like, or behave in ways of which you don't approve.

But the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 4:51 PM on August 12, 2009

Horseapples.

Look, I'm a regular guy. I have no problem trying to overthink most if not all everyday situations. But if these weinerdog poet wannabe New Englanders seriously think that sidebar is an accurate description of internet trollery or, much less, any kind of deterrent to the santantic 12 year olds that make up most of their souless readership from posting their anti-american pukespray then you better have another thing coming.

Everyone... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Potomac Avenue at 1:05 PM on August 11, 2009

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it."

.
posted to MetaFilter by The Card Cheat at 2:44 PM on August 6, 2009

Gene Rayburn is either a genius or drunk.

Both.

Indeed. Rayburn lived on the East Coast and would fly out to Hollywood every week to tape a week's worth of Match Game episodes in one day. The tapings were catered with plenty of alcoholic beverages provided in between.

For those of you who remember watching the game every afternoon after school, this explains why the show seemed to get crazier as the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Spatch at 6:50 AM on August 5, 2009

The classic SNL sketch - Alec Baldwin as CNR on Inside the Actors Studio
posted to MetaFilter by concrete at 8:30 PM on August 4, 2009

1. Right, because the design seemed more complex (the zig-zaggedy "neck" piece seemed to serve some intricate purpose).

2. Right, because the horn-shaped antennae at the top were longer, giving the impression that the right-side fribble was "flaunting the goods".

3. Left, because the conic protrusion was angled upward, giving the impression of interest, stimulation, arousal, etc.

4. Top, because the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jeremy b at 8:41 PM on August 4, 2009

There are some in the Midwest where you get a KFC in there too, which is the legendary and rarely seen KenTacoHut.
posted to MetaFilter by jeffamaphone at 9:24 AM on August 4, 2009

Wait. Biggles is a real thing?
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 3:59 PM on August 2, 2009

My problem with time travel movies is that either they are inconsistent or the motivations of the characters make no sense. Movies in which the characters change the past (Back to the Future, Terminator 3) make no sense. That's not time travel; that's dimension-hopping But in movies with nice consistent space-time structures, the characters never understand how time travel would work. Why do the Terminators go back in time to try to prevent John Conner from existing? He's there in the future!... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by painquale at 7:28 PM on July 30, 2009

I had the same idea as you about roleplaying for a while. And then I finally tried it and it was nothing like what I was imagining — real and honest and sexy and fun and not at all fakey.

It turns out I'd gotten all my ideas about roleplaying from adult novelty stores. You know, those joints that sell Sexy Nurse and Sexy Pirate and Sexy Stewardess costumes along with penis-shaped macaroni, blow-up dolls, whoopie... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by nebulawindphone at 7:07 AM on July 9, 2009

Sometimes the entire UK libel controversy gets distorted.

I haven't got the time to get into details of who was right or wrong, but off the Guardian story: " ... for a defendant to win a libel case is an exceptionally rare thing."

Why might this be a rare thing?

Well, the UK isn't the US where someone can publish a libelous story on Friday afternoon, and be in court Monday AM (or at least... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Mutant at 12:21 AM on July 24, 2009

We've just started using MediHoney dressings on our floor for pressure wounds. I haven't any direct experience with them, but our wound care nurses are very impressed.

Medical leeches, though, are much cooler and less creepy than you might think. And in their own discomfiting way, sort of noble.

A couple of years ago, I took care of a teenager with an avulsed right ear after an auto accident. Post-op therapy included the application of leeches.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by arachnid at 10:42 AM on July 22, 2009

This is actually a slippery question, and more complicated than you might think if you went in blind. The real June Carter was born into a well-off Virginia family and so would have a pretty mild Southern (US) natural accent. She would not have the Gone With The Wind extreme edition, but it would be in that family.

But June Carter the performer almost always put on an affected country-bumpkin accent to better "sell" herself... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by rokusan at 4:03 PM on July 24, 2009 marked best answer

I'm a lot younger than a lot of people in this thread, apparently, since I actually went to high school with a bunch of these people. At first I was just dismissive of them, because the music, really, is pretty terrible. Then I was more tolerant, because they actually are pretty nice, in a lap-dog kind of way. Then I was just sad.

This was a good sized high school, so there were a huge number of different social groups. There were some social groups mostly based... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by paisley henosis at 2:14 PM on July 24, 2009

Back in college, I had a Palestinian booty call. We'd met at a party and only really hung out for a couple weeks before we decided to hang out as "friends." We went out to dinner, and somehow the topic of conversation turned to religion, and immediately she flew off on this tirade about how the Jews were responsible for 9/11. I asked her what evidence she had, and she pointed to a New Jersey poet laureate who had championed the claim. She then went on to explain how the Jews are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Christ, what an asshole at 12:13 AM on July 24, 2009

Holy Shit! What a breakthrough! The cognito-neuro-evobiolutionary explanation for why we enjoy eating at last!

Actually, this is a really really cool result. Dopamine is classically thought to represent either incentive-salience (weird science-y way of saying motivation) or a learning signal used to adjust to your environment. Refraining for the moment from discussing how these two things are essentially the same thing in most... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by scrutiny at 3:20 PM on July 23, 2009

Before we get someone in here who says that this is violating the free exercise rights of pharmacists, allow me to interject...

I work in healthcare. I belong to the Church of You Don't Deserve This. I take care of alot of patients who, IMO, don't deserve the medical care that I dispense. I know this is going to make me sound like a total and complete ass, but let me elaborate.

I take care of patients with kidney disease. Some patients got... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Avenger at 10:09 PM on July 10, 2009

Jesus Christ is it 1996 again?


Anything is possible. Anything at all.
posted to MetaFilter by The Whelk at 7:18 AM on July 3, 2009

Part of me wants to psychoanalyze the Big Dogs phenomenon. What is it saying when you see humor and cultural understanding of I JUST FARTED DEAL WITH IT.

Is it mere anti-intellectualism?

Or is it indicative of one that is aspirational and desires acceptance ("I don't wish to fart. Actually, I wish I were better than I am."), mixed with a recognition of one's own social faux pas ("But I do fart from time to time.") and a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Cool Papa Bell at 1:09 PM on June 30, 2009

Why is it so important that the Child-Santa sit on hay?
posted to MetaFilter by Dr. Zira at 12:22 PM on June 28, 2009

And somebody buy that bass player some frets.

A non-musician friend who was hanging out at a rehearsal a few years ago asked me in all honesty whet the difference was between my two basses.

Before I could answer, the drummer very drily replied "This one shows him where to put his fingers, and that one, he plays out of tune."
posted to MetaFilter by Devils Rancher at 11:12 AM on June 26, 2009

Ha ha, the Wes Anderson parody was pitch perfect, Futura and all.
posted to MetaFilter by Juliet Banana at 12:44 PM on June 24, 2009

I'll try to be as brief as possible, but I had an ALMOST-perfect car buying experience recently. I'll post what I did, and then throw in blurbs where I felt I could have improved. It's long, but I needed to type this up for a friend who's about to buy a car anyway. Take it all with a grain of salt.

DANGEROUS GROUND

My dad is a pretty smart fellow. One thing that he recently told me has stuck with me during my car buying experience.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by cebailey at 9:34 PM on April 25, 2006 marked best answer

So if they are poorer I guess they'll have to downgrade to a bike with more features.
posted to MetaFilter by DU at 10:29 AM on June 8, 2009

Just think, it was the 80s for ten years.
posted to MetaFilter by vibrotronica at 9:21 AM on May 31, 2009

We have to stop this! It could lead to dancing!
posted to MetaFilter by DreamerFi at 3:14 AM on May 29, 2009

I remember going to high school and somehow, I don't remember all these crazy sex parties we keep hearing about.
It's probably a result of them blowing my mind.
posted to MetaFilter by dunkadunc at 2:56 AM on May 29, 2009

I didn't have many friends in high school, but I did have one that lived for the mid-level strategy & tactics war games (the kind that take 25-50 hours of gameplay). He would buy them all the time and organize sessions almost every weekend. He was also a near-megalomaniac control freak who didn't want to spend time with us as much as he wanted to win his new game at all costs. Literally, the most competitive (and smart) people I have ever met. He would commit the entire rulebook to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mrmojoflying at 1:17 PM on May 11, 2009

WS didn't say it

Yeah, I remember Mel Gibson accurately, and he didn't say that. That Polonius guy did.
posted to MetaFilter by naoko at 3:06 PM on April 11, 2009

I was at a party once where some mischievous asshole, probably unhappy with being appointed a designated driver and unloved by his mother, waited until the level of drunkenness reached it's crescendo to launch a devilish ploy. This mischievous asshole harvested a few habaneros from a potted pepper plant growing on the back patio then cut open the fruits to rub random objects in the household with the habanero's inner membrane. He wiped the the handles of the refrigerator, the rims of drinking... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peeedro at 8:58 PM on April 10, 2009

haha, that funny man is convinced the british are sophisticated.
I wonder if he's ever actually been to central london.

no, seriously: he says some abhorrent things but the charlie brooker segment on reality tv editing keeps popping into my head.
posted to MetaFilter by krautland at 11:43 AM on February 21, 2009

Hahahaha. If you ask MY mom, she'll give you excellent advice, but when you follow it, she'll say she wouldn't have done it like that, and when you say, "But... that's what you TOLD me to do!" she'll say, "You have a very convenient memory," which will piss you off because she ALWAYS does that, and you tell her that, but then she'll break down and say she's a terrible mother but she's tried her best, and she'll say you're ungrateful, and then you hang up on her, and she tells... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by katillathehun at 3:30 PM on February 20, 2009

My fellow Mefites,

I post here today humbled by the task before the mods, grateful for the trust we have bestowed them, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our profile pages. I thank mathowie and pb for their service to our community, as well as the generosity and cooperation they have shown throughout this downtime.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our community is at war, against a far-reaching network of SQL injection... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:48 AM on January 26, 2009

I was told by one of her older relatives that a teenager I know had sent 3,000 text messages one recent month.

And I was told by one of his friends or "buddies" as they call them now that a teenaged boy I know had had sex with eleven thousand three hundred and seventy-four women in the last month. Enquiring after the welfare of the ladies involved, I was told that I did not know them, and that they lived in Canada. Wherever the domiciles of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:21 PM on January 25, 2009

I think a fun thing would be if there was this tin man. And he bought a playstion 3 and plugged it and went online and played home obsessively. Night and day, trying everything that home had to offer. People would know that home wasn't fun. Why would he play it till his joints got all squeaky? It doesn't make any sense. Someone would ask the tin man why he played home and the tin man would say "Because I've heard Home is where the heart is." They would reply "Oh tin man, poor... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by I Foody at 9:02 PM on December 14, 2008

Yes, because if there's one thing the world needs, it's more self diagnosed ass-burgers cases. Because, you know, there's not already enough of them. Every asshole with poor social skills and a collection of anime DVDs is an "Asperger's sufferer" already, despite having never seen a psychologist or doing anything other than reading the Wikipedia page for Asperger's Syndrome. I'm going to start my own pharmaceutical empire by marketing some fake placebo as an Asperger's treatment. Just... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by DecemberBoy at 7:09 PM on November 5, 2008

Except in pubs, people seem to form queues spontaneously at shops, cash machines (ATMs) or anywhere else they have to wait.

There's generally a queue in the pub as well, its just an invisible one in everyone's head.

Queuing is definitely part of the national psyche here. People moan about kids not being brought up badly and not queuing properly but that's just kids being kids and it's always happened.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by garius at 5:39 AM on October 22, 2008