MetaFilter

I didn't listen to your YouTube video, but the lyrics you posted are similar to "Who's Foolin' Who" by One Way, from 1982.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by alex1965 at 4:38 AM on June 9, 2022

I think teachers who die defending their students need to be given -- if their loved ones want it -- the same kinds of funerals police officers and other first responders who die in the line of duty receive. Bagpipes playing Amazing Grace, attendance by mayors and governors and state legislators and members of Congress.

Speaking as a brand new teacher, I say to hell with that.

If I die in a school shooting (let’s be honest... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Big Al 8000 at 6:45 PM on May 28, 2022

Good lord we're three days after a mass shooting at a elementary school and this show starts with a bunch of elementary school kids being shot at and cowering in fear? Obviously this was filmed long before the latest American child massacre but they could have at least put in a warning. Also it really makes you question why this kind of entertainment is considered appropriate. The entire scene is gratuitous. I guess it's there to establish the Sith are evil? Because we don't have 45 years of... [more]
posted to FanFare by Nelson at 10:20 PM on May 27, 2022

@Paul Slade: It may not as clear as that though. Different category than mass shootings, but Chicago's high gun crime rate is generally conceded to be connected to lax gun laws across the border in Indiana.

Still, I'd like to see the numbers too.
posted to MetaFilter by DirtyOldTown at 7:25 AM on May 25, 2022

The United States has institutionalized the mass shooting in a way that Durkheim would immediately recognize. As I discovered to my shock when my own children started school in North Carolina some years ago, preparation for a shooting is a part of our children’s lives as soon as they enter kindergarten. The ritual of a Killing Day is known to all adults. It is taught to children first in outline only, and then gradually in more detail as they get older. The lockdown drill is its Mass. The... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by the duck by the oboe at 2:51 AM on May 25, 2022

Let's not pretend that this is anything but a grim roulette where you just hope that there are enough school districts in the nation for your own school to not make the next headline. You put your children in school and you assume a risk.

It comes to me that for a significant number of Republicans, this is a feature rather than a bug, because destroying public education is also one of their main goals. The more of a nightmare it becomes to send your kids off to school... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by peakes at 9:02 PM on May 24, 2022

Short & amusing doc on Space Mutiny's tumultuous production
posted to FanFare by CheesesOfBrazil at 7:34 AM on May 6, 2022

It's such a classic Grover story, he is the best muppet for expressing all the feelings but especially the scared feelings.

This is blatant Telly erasure.
posted to MetaFilter by emmling at 7:27 PM on May 4, 2022

CARNAC THE MAGNIFICENT:" I must have absolute silence..."
(holds envelope against his turban)

Answer: "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea"
(rips end of envelope, blows into it, removes card)

Question: "Where will Tesla stock be once Elon Musk takes possession of Twitter?"

CARNAC: "May a camel with a weak kidney condition find your hope chest."
posted to MetaFilter by valkane at 3:59 PM on April 26, 2022

The bosses just aren't getting their strokes, or whatever it is they need to feel they bossed. Lower paid employees answer the question, "Was it as good for you as it is for me?" with, "Here is that report. Let me know if you need modifications."
posted to MetaFilter by Oyéah at 8:08 PM on April 4, 2022

I’d be interested in hearing interviews from the white children.

I'm not. Why hear them say more of the same damn stuff other white people have been saying overandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandover?
posted to MetaFilter by EmpressCallipygos at 10:20 PM on March 27, 2022

This is the thing that gets me. A couple of generations back, these groups wouldn't have had "passing privilege" yet. Their grandparents and great-grandparents would have known what it was like to feel unwelcome, and yet they failed to teach any empathy to their descendants.

It's not that they failed to teach empathy - it's that the price of their "whiteness" was to become its enforcers.
posted to MetaFilter by NoxAeternum at 1:21 PM on March 27, 2022

Doubling down on culture war is literally their only play to drive their voters to the polls. It will get increasingly frenetic as their voter base dwindles.

I really wish folks would disavow themselves of the idea that the republican base will, eventually, simply evaporate. Those were pretty young members of the republican base who stormed the Capitol. Walk into any suburban evangelical church on a Sunday, and you’ll see hundreds of young faces and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Thorzdad at 10:37 AM on March 26, 2022

I went to read the article but got distracted and ended up buying a spy kit in a box the shape of a book, two novelty pencils, and a bouncy ball. The magnifying glass on the spy kit has already broken.
posted to MetaFilter by sol at 6:34 AM on March 16, 2022

I haven't clicked the article yet--always a great commenting strategy--but I just want to say that sometime in the 2018-19 pre-corona times I went into my kids' elementary school Scholastic book fair and was pretty disappointed by the low literary quality of the books and the high quotient of marketing tie-ins, crass pink and cammo gender dimorphism, and in general how much less appealing the books were than what the school library had on its shelves or what we get from the local public library.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sy at 6:11 AM on March 16, 2022

]I don't think it's news to anyone here that the reason get rich quick grifts work is because so many people believe both a) wealth is earned by being clever/hard-working/deserving and b) that they are very, very special indeed. They weaponize ill-placed faith in capitalism.

In my limited experience with this in my family, it's not that people believe they are special.

Most of the people in my family who have fallen for... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by warriorqueen at 7:16 AM on March 14, 2022

Ooooh. 5 minutes and not deleted yet! Send up the spamalot signal!
posted to MetaFilter by mygothlaundry at 10:15 PM on March 11, 2022

Lol
posted to MetaFilter by latkes at 10:19 PM on March 11, 2022

Just a guy who is passionate about tool cabinets
posted to MetaFilter by latkes at 10:21 PM on March 11, 2022

I vote we leave this up
posted to MetaFilter by latkes at 10:21 PM on March 11, 2022

Ive got this monospace font for MeFi and I knew this struck as a bit too much of an ad...
posted to MetaFilter by JoeXIII007 at 10:22 PM on March 11, 2022

I've wanted to outfit the garage with lista stuff since forever. But you can fuck off, spammer
posted to MetaFilter by Dr. Twist at 10:23 PM on March 11, 2022

On the subject of furniture, I just scored a 36x36 piece of 1/2" steel plate for $60 on craigslist! I'm going to turn it into a welding table.
posted to MetaFilter by ryanrs at 10:24 PM on March 11, 2022

I was waiting for the twist …

But these cabinets are haunted/made of alien space dust/NFTs!
posted to MetaFilter by alicat at 10:25 PM on March 11, 2022

the steel plate I bought: https://i.imgur.com/jAgvRCc.jpg

185 lbs of steel
posted to MetaFilter by ryanrs at 10:26 PM on March 11, 2022

We've got one rule on this website buddy, and that's No Tool Cabinets.
posted to MetaFilter by latkes at 10:27 PM on March 11, 2022

Wait, people only just started to feel massive existential dread clinging over everything they do like a barbed wire shadow during the pandemic? It's not their default state, barely tempered by fleeting moments of happiness? It's not what they have known their entire conscious life? HUH
posted to MetaFilter by Jacen at 7:42 PM on March 7, 2022

I've lost track of how many years I have been burnt out. But I can't leave (trust me, NOBODY WANTS ME) and if I am not employed, I probably die because I have no prospects. I can't stop putting up with it all. That's not an option. Even if I went on a vacation, I still feel the same when I'm back.

It sucked to go back to work today after 3 days of doing what I like and immediately going back into "I'm so angry, I'm so upset, I hate myself" mode within a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jenfullmoon at 10:35 AM on March 7, 2022

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s path from comic to symbol of courage: an excellent piece putting those funny clips of Zelensky that have been surfacing on Twitter into context.

It helped me clarify why the Jezebel piece saying "enough with the Zelensky thirst" felt slightly off to me. People finding a new "crush" in Zelensky aren't trivialising the invasion: we can admire him and be concerned for Ukrainians simultaneously. It's possible to laugh at old clips... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rory at 1:43 AM on March 2, 2022

The Azov Battalion is a unit of Ukraine's National Guard.

Read the Wikipedia article that memebake posted.

It's entirely reasonable to raise an eyebrow at that.

And Putin's invasion of Ukraine is still appalling and brutal, and his justification of "de-Nazification" is an obvious fig leaf.

Both things can be true simultaneously.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by escape from the potato planet at 6:45 AM on February 28, 2022

If there is anyone on the fence about doing what they can to help Ukrainians in Ukraine and refugees who are fleeing at the moment:

Please do. Every little thing helps. My parents, my siblings and I fled a satellite state of the Soviet Union decades ago and I will never forget the help that we received along the way across two countries. There were bad parts: the piss and shit filled bed I was given on arrival to a refugee camp in the west was horrific, and I remember my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by UN at 6:41 AM on February 28, 2022

"Has women's figure skating turned into a child abuse factory?"

*turned into* ?
posted to MetaFilter by GallonOfAlan at 12:03 AM on February 19, 2022

Trucker fiat currency wallets have metal chains, trucker bitcoin wallets have block chains.
posted to MetaFilter by dr_dank at 2:21 PM on February 16, 2022

justice for our green porky bois

I was expecting a scene where they were in side-by-side hospital beds with casts on every appendage and neck braces.
posted to FanFare by snofoam at 4:40 PM on February 9, 2022

I guess I should have paid more attention to whatever the spice is. Apparently the bad guys want to "run" it through Tatooine and the good guys understand that that is a very bad thing to do.
posted to FanFare by paper chromatographologist at 5:43 PM on February 2, 2022

~I just don't see how going all in on US-style populist fascism is a winning strategy.
~Well, it will keep us USians from heading north when things go even farther south down here.

It’s a mistake to think of the far-right/fascist movements in the US and Canada as separate things. They are best thought of as two phalanxes of an organized continental invasion. The fascists don’t/won’t recognize borders.
posted to MetaFilter by Thorzdad at 1:58 PM on February 2, 2022

"I only discuss health matters with my doctor and immediate family, thanks. Now what can you tell me about the car "
posted to Ask MetaFilter by brookeb at 10:59 PM on January 17, 2022

perpetual promotion machine
posted to MetaFilter by glonous keming at 5:11 PM on January 18, 2022

Any time we make legitimate complaints about Democrats, half the thread is someone shitting it up like we all suddenly said "We will vote Republican!"

Hey, like I've probably said every time: We're allowed to level criticisms at these people, and when the treatment they give us amounts to abuse, even if it's not as terrible as the abuse the Republicans would give us we're still allowed to call it what it fucking is.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by deadaluspark at 9:40 AM on January 15, 2022

They don't care about education. They care about the workforce not having to stay home with children.

Once you realize that a lot of people regard K-12 teachers as a subcategory of "babysitter" (itself a subcategory of "servant") both their disdain for remote schooling and shocking rage at teachers' unions becomes more legible.
posted to MetaFilter by Pope Guilty at 5:11 PM on January 9, 2022

Maybe the technology isn't ready for prime time if it can unpredictably serve up such a dangerous result.

If software developers were held liable for
software outcomes in the same way civil or mechanical engineers are, machine learning as a field would barely exist.
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 6:10 PM on December 28, 2021

But there's a machine learning algorithm! And obviously, that means all of the engineers involved are powerless and blameless.

That’s what machine learning is for, isn’t it? Absolving developers and their companies of fault or blame?
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 6:04 PM on December 28, 2021

I've always had a sense that I cannot control my future so there's no real use planning - I just need to get my head down and survive day to day. I've always had terrible trouble doing anything to scaffold a future because I feel like it will be completely useless since I'll just be smashed by forces outside my control anyway. I know intellectually that this is the result of being bullied really aggressively for years with everyone in my life knowing about it and no one ever doing anything,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Frowner at 7:32 AM on December 5, 2021

'a sense of a foreshortened future’.

GenX checking in to say "Sure, whatever".
posted to MetaFilter by pompomtom at 6:52 AM on December 5, 2021

WRT fear of the draft: Simply coming of age after the draft formally ended was no guarantee of being free from that fear. Jimmy Carter reinstituted selective service registration, whether as part of his Tough On Commies thing or something else I don't know, and when Reagan was elected he did some ferocious saber-rattling; a lot of young men were convinced that he wanted to start or provoke a war in Central America during his administration.
posted to MetaFilter by Halloween Jack at 11:24 AM on November 28, 2021

What if no one really cared about yet another all-white macho medieval dress up movie? Doesn’t that mean that the world is actually a better place now?
posted to MetaFilter by snofoam at 5:41 AM on November 27, 2021

But a nearby table of women on a girls night out were not okay with it and chose to take it out on their server, also female and of colour. Well, after hearing this poor server just get the shittiest treatment from this table of women, she decided to say something to them.

That's the mistake. If you want to intervene for a server, just walk up silently, hand the server a small cash tip, and stand there silently. If the Chad/Karen continues, hand... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by ocschwar at 8:47 AM on November 8, 2021

What's wearing me down is the thousand micro aggressions of assholes actively engaged in automobile ass-holery. Apart from the general rise in risky, aggressive manoeuvring, I'm hearing shit cars with “performance” exhausts in my building's parking lot and high end sports vehicles racing on the parkway at 2am. Driving into rural areas of the province at night means passing tons of lifted pickups that have their high beams on at all times. It doesn’t feel rash, it feels tribal.
posted to MetaFilter by brachiopod at 3:30 AM on November 8, 2021

That's just crunch time, and part of it is hiring people for their "passion" and making them feel ownership over the final product and release. Then laying them off (not management of course) when it releases with too many problems caused by targeting an arbitrary ship date.
posted to MetaFilter by meowzilla at 11:29 AM on October 29, 2021

So...what was the point of this again?

Remember when Arthur Anderson boned the Enron situation so badly that they had to stop calling themselves Arthur Anderson and Accenture was born?

Yeah.
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 12:58 PM on October 28, 2021