MetaFilter

instagram delivered some british comedian into my feed. he asked the crowd, "Do you all think we overreacted to COVID-19?" and the crowd roared its agreement.

"Yeah, a lot of the survivors think so," he said .
posted to MetaFilter by entropone at 3:35 PM on April 12, 2023

Johnny Cash famously did live concerts in prison.

At a prison might be more accurate, Cash wasn't imprisoned at the time.
posted to MetaFilter by Mitheral at 1:25 PM on April 12, 2023

"Ice Festival"

Yce Festival
posted to MetaFilter by Servo5678 at 10:47 AM on April 12, 2023

You intrigued me with that observation , ricochet biscuit, so I did some googling...turns out to be another Bill Paxton, who works as a film librarian at Universal.

Sometimes having the answer is less satisfying than just the question.
posted to FanFare by nubs at 8:50 PM on April 2, 2023

Meanwhile, by blocking their ability to strike, Biden has imposed a contract on rail workers they previously rejected.

The major underlying issue remains precision scheduled railroading (PSR), the business model adopted in recent years by Class I rail carriers like Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern and CSX. Designed to maximize shareholder profits by cutting costs to the bone, PSR has been blamed for a dramatic reduction in the freight rail workforce,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by AlSweigart at 7:14 AM on April 11, 2023

(Like, honestly, if they don't have the context clue skills and the word roots to work around these things by the time they're taking a proctored exam... they deserve their fate, IMO.)
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 2:27 PM on April 10, 2023

My partner and I are in our late 50s and we remember growing up with him and MAD in our teens a lifetime ago ... and he was then older than we are now. Hell of a career, hell of a life.
posted to MetaFilter by seanmpuckett at 5:25 PM on April 10, 2023

"I invigilate" makes an excellent personal motto, t-shirt, or dare I suggest, tattoo.
posted to MetaFilter by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:56 AM on April 10, 2023

humbug: That said, I don't put much trust in that Buenos Aires Times story. "Hi, we're here" is not a terribly strong probate case in the absence of a will, I'm thinking

Argentina’s legal system is based on Civil Law, not Common Law, so wills aren’t strictly necessary, and can’t override the rights of rightful familial heirs. This includes nephews and nieces, if no closer relative remains. Even if there was a will, they would have rights... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Kattullus at 12:40 PM on April 10, 2023

Luckily, a young author in Estonia has independently written a body of work that is entirely identical with Borges' writings, with the one caveat that many of the words, while textually indistinguishable, carry different meanings.
posted to MetaFilter by phooky at 9:34 AM on April 10, 2023

For some reason, one of my most vivid Eurythmics memories is well after their heyday--listening to their greatest hits album while playing Escape Velocity Override in early graduate school. "Love is a Stranger" is top-five pop-song-metaphors-for-love of all time.
posted to MetaFilter by praemunire at 10:10 AM on April 10, 2023

I think Ebert was dismayed at his newspaper’s style guide’s requirement to add (most recent film) in parentheses to the name of and film actor. The trigger may have furnished the trope name: Laurence Olivier (The Betsy).

Good thing it's now Laurence Olivier (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). Though I guess IMDB has categorized that performance as "Archival Footage" so maybe it doesn't count.
posted to MetaFilter by RonButNotStupid at 6:23 AM on April 7, 2023

Bob Dylan: Dead or Alive?

What's the Difference?

Bob Dylan: Zombie Vincent Price?

What's the Difference?

...and so on

I mean....this whole thread is full of happiness that people we admire/adore/love to watch or listen to are still alive and you have to come in and shit on Bob Dylan?

That wasn't really necessary.
posted to MetaFilter by lyssabee at 6:42 PM on April 6, 2023

Half an hour ago I was driving and reflexively stomped on the brake just as someone ran a red light and alllllmost crushed my daughter's side of the car.

I AM JUST A LITTLE WIDE AWAKE NOW, AND LETTING MY COFFEE GET COLD SINCE I DO NOT THINK I WILL NEED IT TODAY.
posted to MetaFilter by wenestvedt at 7:46 AM on April 10, 2023

[repeating a post I wrote on Reddit]

In the droid bar on Plazir-15, they passed by a droid in the background I think I recognized. Here are three screenshots showing the droid in question. In particular, the third image gives a clear shot of the shape of the droid's head—notice the round protrusion on its left side—and the distinctive pattern on its chest.

That looks like a BLX labor droid, and in particular, it looks a lot like this illustration... [more]
posted to FanFare by The Tensor at 10:29 AM on April 8, 2023

Jonathan Turley falsely accused? I know this is bad, but on the subject of bad things happening to Jonathan Turley I struggle to rustle up even a single shred of a single fuck.

This is why general principles are important. Imagine someone you do give a fuck about, perhaps yourself, being falsely accused by a GPT. Consider that the accusations are random.

At this point, the accusations are implausible. I assume improved LLMs... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Nancy Lebovitz at 2:24 PM on April 8, 2023

The fun thing about chatgpt is it literally never says it can't answer something. I went to Wikipedia's list of unsolved problems in math and physics and asked ChatGPT about a few of them. It gave me a positive and allegedly definitive solution for almost all of them. It's not even smart enough to use the knowledge in its model to infer that the right answer should be "this is an unsolved problem in mathematics". Instead it just happily offers an invalid proof (because it can neither... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dis_integration at 12:09 PM on April 8, 2023

...but on the subject of bad things happening to Jonathan Turley I struggle to rustle up even a single shred of a single fuck.

If he's as bad as you say there should be no need to use a word kaleidoscope to make up false things about him.
posted to MetaFilter by thatwhichfalls at 11:10 AM on April 8, 2023

“ Jonathan Turley falsely accused? I know this is bad, but on the subject of bad things happening to Jonathan Turley I struggle to rustle up even a single shred of a single fuck.”

Idk who is Jonathan turley but this response is exactly what’s required to slide this kind of function past everyone’s radar until it’s too late for everyone.
posted to MetaFilter by toodleydoodley at 10:50 AM on April 8, 2023

The thing about these things is that theyre being marketed and widely perceived as “ask a question and it tells you the right answer” but what it’s actually doing is “ask a question and it shows you what a plausible answer would look like”
posted to MetaFilter by theodolite at 10:04 AM on April 8, 2023

I’m concerned about the policy around not linking to transphobic publications. Because truly that’s like … every major news organization I can think of. Who is deciding what’s over the line? I absolutely agree with not linking transphobic authors, because I think that’s somewhat easier to judge. Although I have a similar concern - plenty of authors have past transphobic content who have learned and updated their views and are now good or at least tolerable allies. I can think of several... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Bottlecap at 11:47 AM on April 2, 2023

It amazes me that a group of people could make a movie about being afraid of a hole, being attracted to a hole, feeling excited and curious about going into a hole, feeling concerned that, while on the one hand it might not be such a good idea to go into the hole, on the other hand maybe all the best things in life will become possible only after you have gone into the hole, and so on. It’s

This is the basic plot of every romance movie.
posted to MetaFilter by Reyturner at 4:17 PM on April 7, 2023

The temp dropped noticeably

I want to emphasize this for people who've never been in a solar eclipse -- if you are taking kids, have their coats at hand. It will be as cold as night-time. You think Well, it can't possibly get that cold that quickly, and you are wrong.
posted to MetaFilter by Etrigan at 7:18 AM on April 7, 2023

Bad part: I know what weather is like in upstate NY in April.

As a resident of metro Buffalo, smack in the middle of the totality zone, I'm very much looking forward to watching the bright spot in the overcast get dark for a couple of minutes.
posted to MetaFilter by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:22 AM on April 7, 2023

Looks like it doesn't quite make it over Toronto but we could make a day trip to Fort Erie and be right under the path of it. Just have to hope it isn't cloudy!
posted to MetaFilter by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:33 AM on April 7, 2023

Sandy Toksvig apparently did this as a teenager, adopted a fictitious Britishy accent that she got from a film, to fit in at boarding school.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by LobsterMitten at 8:34 AM on April 7, 2023

"Ancient and weak", "Roaming from planet to planet, species to species", "There's a darkness on this ship"... maybe behind the RED door in JACk's head is an old TOS villain.
posted to FanFare by hanov3r at 9:47 AM on April 6, 2023

while searching Detroit (surprising) this little qoate was at the bottom:
"The twin gods of Smooth Traffic and Ample Parking—have turned our downtowns into places that are easy to get to but not worth arriving at.”

-Jeff Speck
posted to MetaFilter by clavdivs at 3:17 PM on April 6, 2023

Toronto's not going to be on there, obviously, but while there's what I would (as a car owner) consider no shortage of parking in the city it's not as bad as it used to be (1979 pic of the CN Tower and surrounding area, which was a wholllle lotta parking lots).
posted to MetaFilter by The Card Cheat at 3:11 PM on April 6, 2023

Tom Lehrer, as far as I can tell, still lives and will turn 95 this week!
posted to MetaFilter by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:10 AM on April 6, 2023

The company has apologized and said the ad was posted by a new hire at the company.

Unless accompanied by a "we're horrified and vehemently deny that our business would support such a policy" that seems more like "we're sorry our new HR person didn't read the part that said these were supposed to be secret hiring criteria and people got upset" than a genuine apology.
posted to MetaFilter by Nerd of the North at 1:20 PM on April 5, 2023

In junior high I had to turn in a typed paper; I dug up the ancient, barely functioning fully manual typewriter in my family's storage unit, and did my best. It probably wasn't half bad for a very first attempt at manual typewriting, actually. However, the teacher failed me and mocked me, because I was supposed to have typed it on a computer. Well, I said, we don't have a computer. Well, she said, your mother should have taken you to the library to type it. Well, I said, my mother couldn't do... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:40 AM on April 5, 2023

Did you see the part about the edible Robber?
posted to MetaFilter by now i'm piste at 1:14 PM on April 4, 2023

I got $10 that says Trump has already taken (and had heavily photoshopped) a mug shot, and they'll release it at the same time as the official one, and claim that the official one is the one that got photoshopped to make him look bad.
posted to MetaFilter by Etrigan at 8:57 AM on April 3, 2023

Someone somewhere said "we need to stop saying "this is the first president to be indicted" and start saying "this is the president's first indictment"".

Or his first indication. You know....
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 7:55 PM on April 2, 2023

liquidwolf, Está bien que no te gusten las cosas, pero no seas un imbécil al respecto.
posted to MetaFilter by FritoKAL at 2:37 PM on April 3, 2023

Eh, the haters can suck it because all that matters to me is that Latino kids are going to see themselves repped on the big screen as a superhero. We have Miles Morales AND Jaime Reyes.
posted to MetaFilter by Kitteh at 1:41 PM on April 3, 2023

We can all see it, please stop.

We really cannot all see it.
posted to MetaFilter by one for the books at 1:25 PM on April 3, 2023

Peripheral to typewriters, when my mom would take me into her office where she worked as a secretary, she would set me to work cranking the Gestetner machine to make copies of whatever she'd banged out on the Selectric.

Making copies of something hasn't been as kinesthetically satisfying since.
posted to MetaFilter by mandolin conspiracy at 9:21 AM on April 3, 2023

ricochet biscuit that was a tense read, I'm happy for you all that it's turned out well in the end, yay indeed :)
posted to MetaFilter by sarble at 9:39 AM on April 3, 2023

This image of the crew is particularly striking.
posted to MetaFilter by Brandon Blatcher at 10:40 AM on April 3, 2023

I think kids today are pretty much required to turn in work "typed." In the 80s, with the exception of a major term paper, nobody ever required typed work. I could turn in my weekly 5-page papers in my horrible, barely legible cursive. I do wish I had taken a typing class back then though. I took my first programming class in 11th grade learning BASIC on a TRS-80, but nobody even suggested that keyboard skills were a prerequisite for the class. I still can't touch type.
posted to MetaFilter by COD at 6:10 AM on April 3, 2023

johnpowell: And lets just say there are a lot of wallets and purses that are left behind that get stripped of cash and tossed in the compactor before people even notice they are missing.

Wow, that's seriously dickish. Most of the rest seems totally fair, but at best it's annoying to replace all your ids and cards, and in some cases it can fuck up someone's life.
posted to MetaFilter by tavella at 9:31 AM on February 10, 2020

My first adult job was as a projectionist at the 8th street playhouse in NYC. In 1985//86. This is where the Rocky Horror Picture show fad began. And it's true: projectionists are all just a bit crazy. Spending that much time in a tiny room, doing the same thing over and over, watching the same movies repeatedly, was...altering.

I projected Brazil for 7 months and watched it at least once per day. Loved it every time. At least once per show for the entire run, some man... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by asavage at 10:14 PM on February 10, 2020

I haven’t been to Lovejoy’s (or indeed San Francisco) but I am reminded that a breakfast place I like in Montreal which has all its bathrooms — including the ones for disabled patrons — on the second floor, up a narrow wrought-iron staircase.

I have recently been in several quite nice restaurants that happened to have their bathrooms down steep stairs in the basement. Aside from being kind of creepy, there's such a long list of people who would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Dip Flash at 6:33 AM on April 2, 2023

There's also people whose mobility is limited by bathroom availability as in, "I may need the bathroom at any moment". Public parks can be good for that, but only if their bathrooms exist and aren't closed for the season or forever.
posted to MetaFilter by aniola at 9:07 AM on April 2, 2023

Coincidentally, the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust just recently had to deal with a similar problem on a much larger scale.
posted to MetaFilter by thomas j wise at 12:06 PM on April 2, 2023

Yes, this but for my teenager with an invisible disability. People assume she is lazy, till she passes out from pushing herself too hard.

And it gets harder because cities hate homeless people so much they get rid of anywhere someone could sit or rest. Good luck finding benches or chairs or even steps or ledges. And even if you buy something restaurants don't want you to sit too long either, especially if you're putting your head between your knees to breathe.
posted to MetaFilter by emjaybee at 2:20 PM on April 1, 2023

I had a disastrous, nearly tragic, winter solo (well almost - me and my dog) hike in the white mountains of NH 3-4 years ago. Crusty snow on top of deep powder on a poorly marked trail that followed a ravine, zigging and zagging across a river that was covered in snow and it was impossible to know when I was on dangerous snow above running water, or safe snow above ice. I was already hours behind my estimated out time, it was getting dark, and I had no cell service. I ended up falling through... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by youthenrage at 12:27 PM on March 31, 2023

Actually, it sounds like racism absolutely played a part in Perlmutter's decision-making, to the point that people left the company over it:

Why It Matters That Marvel Studios Just Escaped Its Eccentric Billionaire C.E.O.

According to The Financial Times, when Don Cheadle was hired at a much cheaper rate to replace Terrence Howard in the Iron Man franchise, Perlmutter allegedly told former chairman of Disney consumer products Andy Mooney that no... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 1:19 PM on March 30, 2023