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Why Is Everything So Ugly?

I just sort of figured it's because cookie cutters are easy, and beauty costs time and money. Now that nearly every part of every system (because they're all interlocking) is locked into worship of ROI, there is no room for time or money unless it's in direct service of ROI. We get functional (if we're lucky) and easily reproduced because that's what the investing class will (grudgingly) allow.

I… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 4:32 PM on December 9, 2022

So what's the purpose of rubbing your good fortune in the face of the strangers of the world?

I always just sort of assumed the garden lady approached Twitter like some people use Facebook or Instagram. We all approach things in different ways (look to the old "I use favorites for bookmarks" vs "favorites are signs the universe likes me" division* here), and yeah, she was just saying "Shit this is awesome, and I wanted to… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:11 PM on December 7, 2022

By posting here we're flaunting that we have time to read the Internet and that we have access to tech.

Or, and hear me out, we might be posting here as a way of avoiding the immense amount of work we have to do, and tabs might just have been the most destructive thing ever invented. And that we have access to tech.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:21 PM on December 7, 2022

Frog I'm so sick of this state though

“But Toad,” said Frog, “all the other states suck, too. What are you going to do, move to Alabama?!”

I know that’s pretty late, but you can’t encounter an autocorrect that amazing and just leave it there, can you?
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 10:02 PM on December 6, 2022

When I was back in the States for the month of September, I knew I was back at the first flattened raccoon (along 294, about five minutes after leaving O’Hare), and lord, the number of dead animals I saw that month was easily more than I’ve seen along the roads in Japan in the last ten years.

Raccoons, obviously, but all sorts of squished animals, up to and including the first deer roadkill I’d ever seen, which is surprising, having grown up in Michigan. It’s not that… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 1:50 PM on December 6, 2022

I've thought a lot about this, and also about the life I live. Living across the world from where I was born, doing what I do, with the relative lack of skills I possess is something that was nearly unthinkable for my parents' generation, and likely unimaginable for their parents, outside of joining the military, or a life in diplomatic service. I'm just a guy, living in a foreign country, going to work, and I can't really see this being as possible, as utterly normal and… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:44 PM on December 2, 2022

And comedian Scott Seiss, the angry Ikea employee guy! At least for a little bit, it looks.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 6:12 PM on November 30, 2022

Still doing endorsements, even!

He is very much still a spokes model for Dior in Japan, where he excels in their brand of celebrity being paid millions to mumble something that a marketing exec thought was deep. He's also in a film about industrial waste poisoning the town of Minimata, which, damn, I do a section about the incident in my class, and had thought about using the film until I saw he was in it.

Fun fact, presented… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 6:06 PM on November 30, 2022

There's something wonderful about the top toy (by whatever method this is) in Canada being American Girl Dolls. Somewhere, a flannel wearing Canuck wearing a Roots toque emblazoned with the red maple leaf is seething.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 3:32 PM on November 30, 2022

this essay smacks of libertarian railing against things

It really does, in that the author is complaining about something that gives society a general framework that allows us to interact, build upon, and create community. Like any kind of consensus based organization, it requires compromise and participation, which seem to be things the author doesn't feel they should have to do.

There's something about libertarians that… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 7:30 PM on November 27, 2022

Col. Wilma Deering is looking sternly at you

"Bidi bidi bidi, I'm feeling all kinds of feelings I don't know how to process at my age, Buck."
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 6:32 PM on November 27, 2022

That would not be my first choice.

Surely, Root Beer Nehi would be #1. Back in the 80's there was a gas station on the way to Flint that had a Nehi vending machine, selling Nehi in five flavors. Glass bottles, with the bottle cap opener on the machine. Every time we went to visit my mom's family, we'd stop there, and I'd get Nehi. The first time, I got grape, because we were always watching re-runs of MASH, and Radar's Grape Nehi obsession was the… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 4:12 PM on November 27, 2022

Because I’m crap at science, is there any way that this will allow people allergic to current flu vaccines (uh, hi) to get vaccinated? I work with junior high kids, and every year is a crap shoot as to whether I’ll get sick or not. If this represents a possible way around flu shot allergies, I’d be thrilled.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 2:17 AM on November 27, 2022

I haven't seen Nemesis in its entirety in at least twenty-five years. I was in high school when it came out, and yeah, I loved it, even while recognizing it was kind of garbage-adjacent. Looking at the cast, it's kind of surprising to see how many are pretty solid to mid-tier stars now. I never really understood while Olivier Grunner didn't end up being a bigger star.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 2:58 AM on November 19, 2022

I wish I could offer more than my sadness of hearing about his death. He'll always be the voice of Batman in my head, and it was such a perfect voice. Thanks, mephron, for sharing that comic, which I hadn't seen.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:21 PM on November 11, 2022

I’m happy that the first I heard of any of this was through reading Defector’s post on the train this morning. I mean, I’d like to think that a lifetime of growing up so skeptical of anything that you could offer me literal bars of gold for free and I’d probably turn you down would have inured me to this kind of thing, but, also, shit, the idea of actually having enough money to, say, pay bills and not worry about next month? That’s incredibly attractive.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:00 AM on November 10, 2022

I’ve been waiting for this to drop since they started talking about it last week. I’m not a baseball fan, but I’ve loved what they’ve done. I’m excited to see what they do with a sport I actually like.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 2:52 AM on November 10, 2022

Wait, has no one mentioned Dr Jack? Or his colleague, Dr. Jim (not as skillful, not as smooth, but will do in a pinch).

While I admit to loving Dr. Pepper (and it makes a fantastic bbq sauce to boot), Jack and Coke has nothing on Dr. Jack.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 12:20 AM on November 9, 2022

Nthing the idea of visiting supermarkets as a part of visiting new countries. It can tell you so much about the things a culture values, and give you a solid idea of what their cuisine is based on. Sure, the States has all those jars and varieties of peanut butter, while Japan has half an aisle of miso (they might look similar, they are not).

One of the things I've gotten used to, and come to appreciate is how, in the countries I've lived in, seasonality is not a sign… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 3:15 PM on November 7, 2022

I've mentioned this here before, but one of my favorite things about living in Japan is just how much ska is used as background or interstitial music in variety shows. Do you have a short little video that will play as Japanese celebrities react to it? Have some ska! Need some faint background music playing as the show comes back from commercial, while the hosts are doing that friendly little chatting thing? Sounds like a time for ska!

The best part of this little best… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 2:54 PM on November 7, 2022

Utter misreading filter:

I could have sworn that said "I Knew You Were Nurgle" but that would be a totally different song.

Papa Nurgle loves us.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 7:52 PM on November 6, 2022

I’m not sure if this belongs here or in MeTa, but if part of the goal for this is to raise the profile of the site by sharing the post and the list that goes with it, could we move the post date up a bit? Posting it the night before, well, for the US, that’s thanksgiving night, and I’m not sure how many people are online, or at least the kind of aimless surfing that brings you across a random site with a gift guide (seeing as that’s a massively crowded topic around that date).… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 12:49 PM on November 6, 2022

I feel complete. Thanks, Jess.
posted by cortex

Of course, cortex feeling complete doesn't feel complete without missing fractal cubes...
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:20 PM on October 30, 2022

60% of Americans can be wrong

Crunchy gives needed texture to break up the liquid goo that is peanut butter.

For years, I used to introduce process/instruction writing to my students in Japan by repurposing a communication lesson taught at a summer camp one year: the instructor stands before the group, says, "watch what I do. Take notes. Be reading to explain all the steps back at the end." Then, they make a peanut… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 7:41 PM on October 29, 2022

Also, since I'm not seeing it anywhere else: the standard egg roll from US Chinese food? Peanut butter. I've tried to recreate them, since you just can't find them anywhere else. I'd heard that they had peanut butter, but I figured that had to be a myth. We tried several different filling mixtures, but the only one that tasted anywhere close was one that had a healthy dollop of peanut butter in it.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 7:44 PM on October 29, 2022

TedW, wow. I hadn’t, and man, if they’d done it like that at my summer camp, I doubt I’d be looking back on it as a cherished childhood memory of learning how important precision can be. The counselors made sure to keep it lighthearted, and none of us ever got so frustrated that we almost broke down (like the guy’s son). I didn’t really want to finish watching that after the kid was face down on the counter in frustration next to smug dad.

For us, all the instructions… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 3:00 PM on October 30, 2022

It's entirely possible that something that's true for one of you in one place is different for the other person in the other place. Some places have thriving music scenes, and others don't. Absent a thriving music scene, you're not likely to get lots of people stopping in town to play shows to empty pubs because they without the crowds and support, they can't make money.

How you see it is literally down to where you live, or who you follow. I don't live in the states,… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 8:49 PM on October 25, 2022

The thing about Namor, at least the standard path that Marvel movies have been following, is that if he’s going to stay an actual bad guy, they’re going to kill him (which has been the standard from Obadiah Stane all the way to Killmonger, Thanos, and beyond). The list of bad guys that are still alive in-universe is vanishingly small (Kingpin and?). Bad guys that don’t die turn into good guys (Loki, Abomination, Nebula, etc.), which is almost certainly where Namor is going to end up.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 6:37 PM on October 25, 2022

Man, it’d be nice if a studio came along, focused their attention on something notable and great, and thought something other than “I bet we can make a good shooter out of that!” I’d be stunned if someone, somewhere, after a microdosed trip through the Art Institute of Chicago hadn’t tried to pitch a first person impressionist shooter, complete with separate waterlilly and haystack levels.

Seriously, though, a Giger based survival horror game? A… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 4:48 AM on October 24, 2022

I Wish We Didn’t Know About The Heaviest Bony Fish Ever Found (slDefector)
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 2:49 PM on October 23, 2022

"is there any social cohesion left to address this?"

This is probably the largest overarching source of my barely tenable anxiety. There’s the regular, every day stuff, like how long can I conceivably push my body before it just says, no, no more of this, and I find myself unable to do even the things I can still do now, which is itself much less than even a year or two ago (medical anxiety), or which asshole not wearing a mask is going to… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 2:47 PM on October 23, 2022

Congregation of Moses in Kalamazoo had about 400 members in Kalamazoo, a city of roughly 90,000 people. I can assure you, growing up Jewish there meant a lot of questions that were meant as polite conversation, but were all basically “what do Jews do for (insert holiday here)?” Some of my favorites were variations on “wait, if Jews don’t eat ham, what do they eat for Christmas dinner?”

As exhausting as those conversations could be, they were greatly preferred to outright… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 10:12 PM on October 21, 2022

Having just finished the whole thing… it’s a lot to take in, but none of it unfamiliar. I’ve never been hunting (in Michigan), and never been to a casino, but I can understand the need to flee the scene (to the basement, or the screened in porch, or where ever for the sweet relief 1) of alcohol and 2) from family seen only this one time a year, for reasons. I know that’s not exactly unique to Michigan, but it’s also fully and totally a part of the state, as is so much else… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 10:48 PM on October 21, 2022

For those of you thinking, How much driving can there be?...

The only part of Michigan I know even half as well as the town I spent 17 years growing up is is I-94, which I could drive (like so many drivers seem to) with my eyes closed from Detroit to Chicago

(and yes, I-94 remains a part of Michigan until it reaches Chicago because even I-94 is self aware enough to be mortified at the idea of even partly being from Indiana)
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:03 AM on October 23, 2022

I can’t be the only who sees Josh Duhamel as a discount store version of Timothy Olyphant, can I? Just imagine what this film could have been, is all I’m saying.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:25 PM on October 6, 2022

One of them is handsome, subtly hilarious, magnetic, capable of elevating dreck to watchable, good to great, and great to sublime. , and would be worth watching even if only while he was picking spinach from his perfect teeth. The other is Duhamel.

Though you could be forgiven for thinking Olyphant’s characters first names are all Marshall.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:51 PM on October 6, 2022

Josh Duhamel was delightful in Santa Clarita Diet!

I’d honestly thought Timothy Olyphant was in that.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:52 PM on October 6, 2022

I'd always read that Ali suffered pretty bad leg injuries due to the "fight" with Inoki.

Still, I'll miss him showing up to Gakitsuka every New Year's and absolutely smacking the shit out of some of the comedians.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 6:34 PM on October 1, 2022

Funny; I hear it in Hans Gruber's voice.

/removing silencer from pistol

"I am going to tell two interesting anecdotes, there will not be a third."

(Karl and Theo each pull out a $20 bill)
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 10:40 PM on September 26, 2022

6 is camp. Everyone is over-acting, but that's because they all Understand the Assignment - it's what they (and the audience) are here for.

Woah, let’s not forget, 6 is fan-servicey camp. The Klingons laying claim to Shakespeare, Sulu captaining the (much more ooh than the Enterprise) Excelsior, all the way down the line, it had what fans craved, and awesomely so.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 1:37 PM on September 24, 2022

My sister was exactly this, not just in our three person single mother household, but across all three families of my father’s brothers. She was the oldest of our generation, and just automatically expected to care for us at any family gathering, at the expense of, well, anything in her own life.

This extended throughout her life, from our essentially estranged father calling on her whenever he needed help after hospitalization, to our mother moving in with my sister 18… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 9:26 AM on September 23, 2022

Of course, aramaic, the idea of a block of lucite to capture it in is fantastic, as we all know that the lucite would chip, crack, and warp over time. It could even be its own vignette, all the things the (temporary) owner of the box would do to try to keep it from being used, and how each one (vaguely like the cursed Monkey with Cymbals toy from the Stephen King story) would fail, and the box would come back, free of any locks or seals.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 11:51 AM on September 21, 2022

I miss Get Your War On. I think it’s indicative of something pretty awful about where things ended up that the unending performative nevar forget of all of it managed to outlast the biting sarcasm as a response to all the jingoistic flag waving panic.

As for Biden’s speech, god, I’m hopeful I can avoid it, but sure I’ll end up seeing it anyway, but “we do not scare easily”?! Motherfucker, we as a nation panicked. “We do not scare easily” is historical erasure, on par… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 6:39 AM on September 12, 2022

I’m going through some things, and the story gave me some wracking sobs at the frogs. The story is beautiful, but somehow I’d glossed over the part about using the AI, and damn if I don’t feel a little hoodwinked, like my feelings were bought cheaply.

I know I’m supposed to be open minded about all of this stuff, and I’m sure there’s some bright sunny world where it will contribute to a better place, and not be commercialized and used to put animators and artists out of… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 6:25 AM on September 11, 2022

Simmering octagon, that was in my mind as I wrote my post, and I can definitely how AI tools like these can certainly be used by people with disabilities in positive and important ways. And I also understand the idea that, as this artist said, that this wasn’t plug and play for them either, that using these AI requires it’s own skill set, and I can accept that as an accomplishment worth noting in itself.

That doesn’t change my feeling that the work people are putting in… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 1:58 PM on September 11, 2022

Honestly I'm getting the whiff of moral panic off this. Businesses weren't paying artists anyway; it seems far more likely that we as a society will become more sensitive to the specific quirks of AI art

What is “moral panic” even supposed to mean here? Concern for an entire group of people seeing their livelihood not only endangered, but also handwaved away as being not worth worrying about is a thing, even if you don’t personally want to… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 4:38 AM on September 12, 2022

I think, more than anything, the books have been buoyed by the concept of the Jackpot. He’s built a great and powerful concept/touchstone, and the books and their constant referencing, but never explaining just what it was that actually happened, that creates a hope to know more that keeps the reader motivated to real further.

The only thing that worries me is that the third book is supposed to be titled Jackpot, and I hope the big reveal isn’t disappointing. I hope he sticks the landing.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 5:36 PM on September 8, 2022

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”


To add onto the forty year old derail, but with a bit of local (dead television) color, I live in Chiba prefecture, and have lived in Chiba city for all but eight months of the twenty-two odd years I've lived in Japan.

I interviewed for a teaching position in Japan when I was finishing up a year of teaching in… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 10:32 AM on September 9, 2022

any portmanteau, I completely agree. Even down to the spray foam that was talked about in the book, I imagine that any tech that's significantly advanced from where we are now would be similar tech to what seems to be we are focusing on now: not ways to rebuild or improve what we have, but ways to patch it up and keep the main function of things working as long as possible. At this point, unless science fiction builds in to its premise a believable new dawn/enlightenment sort of moment, I'll… [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 1:44 PM on September 9, 2022

hearthpig, to me, if they could pull of what Looper did, that’s pretty much my image of the books. Set a couple decades from now, but mostly looking like what we’ve got. Adapters to keep things running for most people, barely working fancy stuff for the rich, with trickle down dollar store versions for the rest of us. It’s Gibson after all, unevenly distributed is the way of things.
posted to MetaFilter by Ghidorah at 8:19 AM on September 10, 2022