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His facial expressions remind me of Hector Salamanca.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 2:18 PM on December 9, 2014

I've been following this guy since he appeared on 60 Minutes some time ago. His story is absolutely mind-blowing to me. I can't wrap my head around how this is actually happening in 2014, in real-life. Unreal.

You took the words right out of my mouth. People today look back on the Holocaust and wonder why people back then just stood by and let it happen, but we're doing the same thing today. Shin's and Harden's book shows how much alike North Korea… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:36 PM on December 1, 2014

Oh hell yes.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:27 PM on November 14, 2014

[i]No-one with easy access to roast puffin and whale on a stick should ever be that irate.
posted by sobarel at 7:04 AM on November 3[/i]

ROAST PUFFIN? God, man, that's like eating a UNICORN! You just don't do it.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 5:43 PM on November 3, 2014

After he eats the gopher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ErgdUhZteqw#t=43
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:48 PM on September 9, 2014

I didn't want to use The Daily Caller link in the OP, but couldn't find it on any other news site. I guess I should have used the EFF's own page on the topic.

Thanks for your perspective on this, cribcage.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:02 PM on August 9, 2014

My safe best is to always dress as if I might equally go to an academic talk or have to break into a cemetary. Action Librarian.

Please give examples of what clothing like this looks like. Pictures, if possible.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 5:12 PM on August 4, 2014

Oh, of course. Thanks, elizardbits.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 5:17 PM on August 4, 2014

I'll bet dollars to donuts that if you live in a developed country with clean tap water the public health authority has been pleading with you for decades to eat less crap, eat more fruits and vegetables, and get more exercise.
posted by Talez at 4:13 PM on August 4

Mmmm... Donuts.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 5:21 PM on August 4, 2014

Holy cow, the Earth has almost a quarter of the total solid (well, liquid-covered solid) surface area of the whole solar system!
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 2:11 AM on July 3, 2014

This is great. Thanks, hippybear.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:56 PM on July 2, 2014

Marienbad: As you requested, here is Hitler dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1do0JI-JG4M&bpctr=1404362667
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:17 PM on July 2, 2014

Thanks, aryma and MissySedai, for sharing your experiences.

My two cents: I think it's natural and OK to mock Hitler and other "real-life monsters," although it's important to remember that while you can joke about them, what they did (or are doing) is no joke.

Even while Hitler was still alive, the English were singing "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball."
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:31 PM on July 2, 2014

The Onion? Fuck yeah!
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 7:27 PM on June 22, 2014

Holy shit, this is both an amazing achievement (if it comes to fruition) and an amazing encroachment on the basic notion of privacy. Nosy authorities would no longer need a tracking device or access to your phone's GPS data to track everybody's car's movements.

If the ability to use Google Maps in almost-real-time becomes real, would it be better or worse if it were available to everybody as ordinary Google Maps is today?

I'm… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:45 PM on June 12, 2014

Also, I've long thought Electric Eye was the better spy satellite song.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt

I somehow hadn't heard that Judas Priest song yet. Rockin'!
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:22 PM on June 12, 2014

I wish I could dance like that.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:19 PM on June 9, 2014

So hey, how do you load your dishwasher properly? Anyone?
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:42 AM on June 3, 2014

It would seem that they've declared everyone who's attended public school in the USA a terrorist. I guess it's good that they don't have an extrordinary rendition program, or drones.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 10:24 AM on April 2

"Saudi Arabia, refused armed unmanned aerial vehicles by Washington, reportedly has turned to South Africa's state-owned Denel Dynamics defense company to help Riyadh develop its own armed UAV program."
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:29 AM on April 2, 2014

You say it's very contagious and very infectious. As a layman, I don't understand the distinction between the two terms.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 8:06 PM on April 1, 2014

Thanks, ghostdancebeat and gingerest.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:09 PM on April 1, 2014

Hot damn, Blasdelb has a Wordpress blog. Bookmarked!

update more plzthx
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 6:43 AM on March 27, 2014

The ocean is so damn gross.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:08 AM on March 27, 2014

Mesmerizing and beautiful, too, but also... icky.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:10 AM on March 27, 2014

The video is about two minutes long, but your view of the finished product lasts about two or three seconds. Bad editing.

But a great job with the makeup.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:47 AM on March 26, 2014

The lights were simply ON 25/7/365.

Dubai has 25-hour days?
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:20 AM on March 12, 2014

I think it was already known, it just hadn't been on the Blue before and many people hadn't yet heard of it.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:31 AM on February 13, 2014

Aw, shoot. I shouldn't have just searched for "language game" and assumed that was enough checking.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 8:47 AM on February 13, 2014

On preview: Empress C. it's Hannibal Lecter.

I was really disappointed it wasn't H. L. Mencken, as univac suggested.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 8:41 PM on February 9, 2014

The Guardian link about philosophy workshops for elementary school kids is great.

Studying philosophy cultivates doubt without helplessness, and confidence without hubris. I’ve watched kids evolve to be more rational, sceptical and open-minded, and I’ve seen them interact in more fair-minded and collaborative ways. As one 10-year-old said, “I’ve started to actually solve arguments and problems with philosophy. And it works better than violence or anything else.… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:40 AM on November 21, 2013

Damn, fight or flight, you beat me to it. Clicking a link to the Daily Mail is a little dirty-feeling.

I think the Time link is where these photographs originally got put online, so that's the one that ought to be an FPP.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 5:34 AM on October 12, 2013

That is an AWESOME sport.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 8:29 AM on October 5, 2013

About space masturbation: In this episode of Star Talk, Mary Roach says that over drinks she asked a cosmonaut about sex in space and he said something like: "People often ask me how do you make sex in space. I tell them, 'you make it by hand!'"

http://www.startalkradio.net/show/packing-for-mars-part-2/
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 8:36 AM on September 30, 2013

Hell yes. Thanks to freelanceastro and to TheWhelk for an excellent visualization and an introduction to an excellent musical artist, respectively.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:23 PM on September 27, 2013

Well, poop is and always has been considered waste. Have signs with pictures of poop on them and people will get the idea. Include the phrase "hazardous waste" in several prominent languages.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:03 PM on September 21, 2013

Fine post. Thanks, Brandon Blatcher.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 8:15 AM on September 19, 2013

This chart necessarily simplifies things a lot, but I think it would have been improved by at least a nod to the fact that most of these things are not as sharply delineated as the rectangles make it seem. Like how long anatomically modern humans have been around.

Also, I doubt that speech developed as recently as the chart indicates. Human language has its roots in animal communication, so we were probably speaking earlier than 50,000 years ago. Like so many other… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 10:23 PM on September 14, 2013

I'm curious about what the starting point for our journey in this video is. I don't think we're starting from the Milky Way. Anybody have any insight on that?

There's a very similar, but I think better, video here released by Japanese researchers earlier this month.

Wikipedia also has a great article on the observable universe, with this awesome visualization (and the huge version).

I still don't understand why some… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:02 AM on August 27, 2013

Well, the trajectory leads from our galaxy to the galaxy seen at the end-point of the video.

But the description seems to indicate that from the very beginning of the video we start out a long way away from our own galaxy along that line:

most galaxies visible in the above video are seen when the universe was only a fraction of its current age, were still forming, and have unusual shapes when compared to modern galaxies. No mature looking spiral… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:56 AM on August 27, 2013

NASA has been struggling lately to find a mission that unites us the way the Apollo program did. Will we send somebody to the Moon? Or Mars? (But the best projection for a Mars mission is the 2030s...)

I think instead our mission should be building something like what we see in this Bonus section. It could be at a LaGrange point, or simply orbiting the Earth. But whatever it is, we have to figure out how to build a space habitat. Microgravity is harmful, and so is… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:47 AM on August 27, 2013

restless_nomad, I liked Travels too. But I can't get over that he went to (somewhere in Southeast Asia... Burma?) and when a friend of his went to go have sex with child prostitutes and invited Crichton along, Crichton didn't do anything. That is weird and wrong and made me lose a lot of respect for him.

You might also like his other non-fiction work, Five Patients.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 1:39 AM on August 27, 2013

That was fun.

yoHighness, I know the web site you're talking about, but I can't remember the name of it.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:17 AM on August 25, 2013

Just watched this the other day: Henry wouldn't move... so they decided to bury him alive. yt
posted by littlesq at 11:35 PM on August 24 [5 favorites +] [!]

Oh man.

I am so never ever letting any kid ever watch this show.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 7:25 AM on August 25, 2013

Yeah, I wish they hadn't used a vaccination campaign that way.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 8:52 AM on August 24, 2013

Copronymous, what other languages do you know of with better ways of describing the sense of taste? Or other senses?

That's interesting.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 12:58 AM on August 20, 2013

ciderwoman: Here's the example that springs to mind. "I have less water" VS "I have fewer water." And "I have fewer dollars" VS "I have less dollars". It seems like "less" works well to replace "fewer", but not the other way around.

MrGrimm: ThatFuzzyBastard had a good example. If everyone understood the actual definition of "literally", the meaning of the question "Do you believe all the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:26 AM on August 16, 2013

The more numerous contranyms become, the fewer clarity there is.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:27 AM on August 16, 2013

It's not that English has suddenly started to break down into an incomprehensible stew. Instead, there's (relatively suddenly) large numbers of literate people who understand the accepted rules of the language, and that has been having an effect on the "mutation rate" of the English language.

I'm no expert, but I think that the rate of change of English has slowed over the centuries. We can understand English documents written 300 years ago pretty well today,… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 9:54 AM on August 16, 2013

I should have said I was just saying those things to explore the idea. I think you're right, it doesn't change the meaning. Just the effect.
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 11:02 AM on August 16, 2013

The courts have already accepted the contract as valid in a previous decision, so all this speculation about why it might be invalid or fraudulent seems a liitle obtuse.
posted by saulgoodman

eponysterical!*

jpe and xmlicious: Googling "subject to change without notice" turns up a bunch of contracts that are subject to change without notice. (you have to add "-herring" because apparently there's… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Sleeper at 8:20 AM on August 10, 2013