MetaFilter

"In select stores, based on historical sales performance."

Target Stores in Five States Receive Bomb Threats After Removing Some Pride Month Items.

Not normally a tactic I would approve of, but I'm hard pressed to think of a better one.

I really feel for the Target employees caught in the middle though.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 3:56 PM on May 13, 2024

Uhhh, Newsmax?

Doh. It's something I remembered happening so I just grabbed the first article that popped up.

Here's some local news covering it.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 4:26 PM on May 13, 2024

"Well, you seem like a person, but you're just a voice in a computer"

Oh good, fewer jobs for humans, more jobs for corporate-sponsored chatbots. I note there's no commentary on the implications for misinformation and the spreading of hate material.

Yes! Scribes are being put out of business! Any person will be able to publish whatever they want! Stop Gutenberg's madness before civilization ends!


Sorry, wrong moral panic.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 12:54 PM on May 13, 2024

Citing Gutenberg as purely benign form of technological change is also a bit questionable. Did printing advance science? Sure. Did it make modernity possible? Yeah, probably. Did it also spread misinformation, fuel pamphlets wars, and play a contributing role in the violence which tore Europe apart over the next couple centuries? Yes to this too.

Yes, that was the point of referencing Gutenberg.

It would be possible to go on… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 2:21 PM on May 13, 2024

Battle Beyond the Movies

.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 5:39 AM on May 12, 2024

“I don’t know if I would say I’m an artist,” he said in an interview with the Guardian’s Xan Brooks in 2011. “I would say that I’m a craftsman. I attempt to ply my trade in the best possible way. If occasionally something transcends the craft, then that’s wonderful. It doesn’t happen very often.”

posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 9:23 AM on May 12, 2024

I have to admit I do feel sorry for the bulk of his directors, who remain anonymous while people just remember the name of the producer. Still, they got real world experience out of it.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 5:59 AM on May 13, 2024

We’re the men, and here’s the map.

Well, that was a very disappointing video on country code TLDs. They just shrug away digital colonialism and proclaim that the explosion of top level domains by rent-seeking registrars is because domain names are defunct and should be hidden from the user.

They’re quite correct. The days of typing a URL in are largely past us, and encoding the name of your site in a DNS address is more of a gimmick than anything else. For example, I have no idea… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 8:50 PM on May 10, 2024

Y There are a number of layers needed to connect your local computer to the many servers involved in a contemporary web interaction. One of which is securing the link to a server certified to represent the service at the domain, and another involves connecting you to the load balancers and eventual servers that respond to your address

Both of which are completely automated actions that the average user does not know or care about.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 9:58 AM on May 11, 2024

They said the quiet part out loud

The ad in reverse is lovely

It really is, and it gets at what they’re saying in a much less destruction-fetish way.

The way it is set up in the original is that all of these objects are slowly and grotesquely destroyed before being put into the iPad. So the iPad contains a mangled trumpet, a shattered piano, etc.

I have to admit that watching these objects that I have great nostalgia for being mangled… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 10:52 AM on May 9, 2024

>>That is almost certainly 100% CGI. Nothing was actually crushed.

>Yeah, that's kind of not the point?

It mean, it kind of is?

No. There is not a massive blowback because a single television or trumpet or piano was mangled. Real or imagined, no one had any attachment to that particular television or that particular instrument. People are upset because of what they represent.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 11:01 AM on May 9, 2024

I would bet a lot of money that this ad was designed to provoke outrage.

That would be incredibly out of character with Apple’s advertising for the last 40 years.

In fact, I think that may be part of the energy here. Apple has put out consistently gentle and/or uplifting ads over the years, and this is a disappointing misstep for them.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 1:27 PM on May 9, 2024

Judging people for not engaging with an advertisement on a deep level?

I’m mostly judging people who find it important to take time out of their day to show disrespect to people who are considering the deeper meaning of things.

If you don’t care about something that’s fine. But why people think it’s important to cast aspersions on people who do care I have no idea.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 1:31 PM on May 9, 2024

I’m not sure anyone has posted this yet, but the same ad from 2008.

Now I really am disappointed in Apple.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 1:36 PM on May 9, 2024

Apple has apologized.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 1:38 PM on May 9, 2024

I would think that almost everyone on earth that needs an iPad has one.

A few years back I talked to a group at Facebook that was dedicated to expanding cell phone coverage in Africa because they were running out of potential customers. Apple could use its enormous cash reserves to uplift economies to the point where people could afford iPads.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 7:36 AM on May 10, 2024

it's got resentfulness against the "elitism" of those smug morons who use Apple products, lording it over the rest of it;

It’s not all that weird, particularly here. Buying into the Apple ecosystem requires a lot of money, and vitriol for people who have money is a core part of the Metafilter experience.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 9:42 AM on May 11, 2024

The Last Thing My Mother Wanted

Prediction: This will be commonplace within 10 years.

Once again, the Baby Boomers are plowing their way through and breaking the way open for the rest of us.

It was terrible to read about this woman’s life (the daughter’s) and it sounds like the mother didn’t have such a good time either. Oddly, having had a better relationship with my parents I now find myself unworried about the fact that they both have done what they… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 1:13 PM on May 9, 2024

I think there are a lot of valid point made here, but one thing I come back to is the idea that this is what a person wants. I wonder if perhaps this is strictly true in enough cases to make a choice to honor that valid.

On the other hand, how long are you willing to second guess someone before you let them die in peace?

And even if they do choose to die and they may have changed their mind later, what makes you believe that… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 2:04 PM on May 9, 2024

I can remember thinking "You were willing to leave us"

Yeah, both of my parents have (separately) told me directly that they've done everything that they want to do and they're ready to move along whenever. It was a horrible sort of coming of age (at 54) to realize that my parents had done everything they felt important with *me*.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 2:21 PM on May 9, 2024

but we are hardwired to survive

Actually we’re hardwired to die. Happens to everyone.

And before that we are hardwired to assist in passing along the family genes, whether directly or as part of a support system. And quite a few people have sacrificed their own lives to do that over the years.

So no, we are not hardwired to survive.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 5:35 PM on May 9, 2024

No, I think a pointed and public refusal to extend sympathy to someone who's clearly had a very bad lifelong experience through no fault of her own and has just lost a parent because some members of that person's family are or were wealthy constitutes a form of cruelty.

I didn't read the original comment as a refusal but rather as a statement that they couldn't connect at a human level with something that was happening to someone in a difference… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 8:00 PM on May 9, 2024

“sadness” does not describe the experiences of the people i know who have had loved ones die by suicide

This bears repeating.

Taking death out of the picture — If you just stopped communicating with everyone you knew one day there would be a lot of hurt feelings. If you stated very clearly that there was no chance of you ever reconnecting with them, it would be a lot worse. People would feel like you were rejecting them… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 8:37 PM on May 9, 2024

“People who lose their parents can feel orphaned. People whose parents commit suicide can feel disowned.”

I interpret this as a suggestion that anyone likely to choose to end their life should refrain from having children

Nah, just that as this gets more common we should prepare for potential consequences. It would be a lot healthier if adult children become aware that their parent’s obligation to them has ended. We could even have a coming of age party when people turn 50.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 8:51 AM on May 10, 2024

Normally, I would suggest raising everyone else’s standard of living, but obviously that’s not going to work in this case. In fact, we need to place limits on society’s prosperity as a whole so that no one can afford to put their children in unhealthy situations.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 4:02 PM on May 10, 2024

Send not to know for whom the bell tolls (but in this case.......)

In the fantasy world in which Harris could be swapped out for a different VP... who would you rather see in that role?

Taylor Swift.

Duh.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 7:08 PM on May 5, 2024

There are only 9 that don't, although others have varying restrictions on which write ins will be counted.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 7:20 PM on May 5, 2024

The media definitely seems to forget she exists. The first female Vice President and its like she's a ghost.

She's been boring, which isn't a bad strategy for a V.P. Being a boring Vice President was part of Biden's path to the oval office.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 5:45 AM on May 6, 2024

i would be stoked to have a black woman president in my lifetime

She's half Indian, one quarter Irish, and one quarter African. I know she embraces being known as "black" in the United States, but I'm really looking forward to the U.S getting past the one-drop rule.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 5:52 AM on May 6, 2024

supposed tempting GOP vice-presidential pick Kristi Noem

I don’t think she was ever all that interesting to begin with. Her appeal is to rural voters, a demographic that Trump already owns. Raising the suburban numbers or even trying to find urban voters for Trump seems like a much higher priority for them.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 7:05 AM on May 6, 2024

Although arguably no worse than the lawyer path.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 9:36 AM on May 6, 2024

Biden's post-nomination incapacity

The average person of Biden’s age will die at 89. Don’t hold your breath.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 1:15 PM on May 6, 2024

Trump’s trial date in classified documents case indefinitely infinitely postponed

I'm a dreamer so I'm hoping they take this to the appellate court and get Cannon tossed completely from the case. The trial date still probably wouldn't land before the election, but at least we'd be done with a blight on the legal system.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 2:30 PM on May 9, 2024

Retraction Isn’t Enough

The mass hordes of humanity will only remain misinformed until the next (perhaps equally poor) paper comes out. Spending time making sure that they get this retraction has a certain purity to it, but I don’t think it’s necessary.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 7:14 AM on May 9, 2024

North Yorkshire Council to phase out apostrophe use on street signs

Sanity prevails at last. Not that it wouldn’t be preferable to keep the apostrophes, but after 60 years of this crap it’s time to recognize reality.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 6:25 AM on May 8, 2024

Nice of North Yorkshire to advertise that their DB admins and IT staff are dangerously incompetent.

If by “dangerously incompetent” you mean “comply with standards” then yes.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 6:32 AM on May 8, 2024

Am I missing something?

Indirectly, yes. In order to play nice with GeoPlace you have to follow a superseding set of GeoPlace DEC-Addresses rules.

In section 2.5.3 you'll find an extra rule for BS7666 addresses:

Abbreviations or punctuation must not be used in the Primary
Addressable Object or Secondary Addressable Object, for
example, “First Floor” rather than “1st Floor” and “Marks House”
rather than “Mark’s Hse”.

posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 7:09 AM on May 8, 2024

So I think it also doesn't apply here, since the apostrophes were part of the official address

It seems to me there is some ambiguity there as they specifically used “Marks House”
rather than “Mark’s Hse” as an example of something that needs to change.

At this point it would be useful to know what the official names of the streets actually are, as opposed to what people may have added locally to make signs grammatically correct.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 7:45 AM on May 8, 2024

The Council is just being full of shit here. Kyzer does the homework, brings the receipts.

Kyzer fails to address the superseding section I pointed to above. Perhaps Kyzer can finish the homework.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 7:48 AM on May 8, 2024

It seems like the GeoPlace document has the same exception as BS 7666 itself, which is that the designated or official name takes priority.

Agreed. But I feel like the GeoPlace document is much more clear calling it out.

The designated street name here is "St. Mary's Walk" and that's what they should've entered. The standard is merely saying not to change "Saint John Street" to "St. John… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 8:01 AM on May 8, 2024

It's saying that if the official name is "Marks House" then you shouldn't enter it as "Mark's Hse". But if the official name really is "Mark's Hse", then that's what it should be entered as.

Exactly. In saying that it's recognizing that the common name that is used for something may not be the official name.

There's no difference. BS 7666 defines "designated name" as… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 9:29 AM on May 8, 2024

Thank goodness sanity has prevailed. Now to get on to many of the other areas of human behavior and culture that have not been optimized for the convenience of technocrat overlords:

Are you sure that adding apostrophes into the English language wasn't the direct road to fascism? Or are you just used to them now so they don't terrify you?
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 9:49 AM on May 8, 2024

the official name was changed from "St. Mary's Walk" to "St Marys Walk"?

No, the official name has always been “St Marys Walk”. No change there. The change to the sign, while being done under a broader mandate from North Hampshire authority, is actually just changing it to match the actual official name.

There are streets officially named “St. Mary’s Walk” in England, but this was never one of them.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 11:08 AM on May 8, 2024

There are streets officially named “St. Mary’s Walk” in England, but this was never one of them.

Actually, I don’t have the data to say never but no time recently.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 11:19 AM on May 8, 2024

Can you share how you found that out?

Find My Street allows you to search the entire GeoPlace database for the listed street names.

There are other North Hampshire streets who’s official names do have apostrophes in them, so there hasn’t been any sort of mass change that I can see.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 11:55 AM on May 8, 2024

“Turn left at the corner of 954398973495875423 and 20075237489436509234089."

Every street in England does in fact have a long number assigned to it. We could start this today!
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 12:41 PM on May 8, 2024

>a broader mandate from North Hampshire authority
North Yorkshire.

I have been doing that continually all day.


Does it have historical data? I can only find the current street name.

For a historical checkpoint I used this collection of names.

However, now that I look at it again it appears my search was too detailed. As of October 2023 the name was "St Mary's Walk", just not "St. Mary's Walk". So that apostrophe was removed sometime since then.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 1:47 PM on May 8, 2024

They’re called USRNs and you can get them here.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 6:53 PM on May 8, 2024

Awesome! But I have just found that one of the long streets I mentioned in my previous comment does indeed have three separate USRNs, despite being very much one street.

Are the USRNs for different legs of the street? If that were the case, it could just be treated as three different streets.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 8:23 PM on May 8, 2024

It's based on where local authority boundaries are, seemingly.

That would make sense, as the source of the data is the local authorities and they’re all keeping track of the bits that they are responsible for.

I live in a city where it is unusual for any long straight piece of pavement to NOT change its street name multiple times, so at this point it wouldn’t bother me to change the street name at the local authority… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 6:26 AM on May 9, 2024