MetaFilter

I thought maybe the djinn took care of the demon pig? Maybe the djinn has some ability or even obligation to protect Ben.

In terms of Leslie, I think Leland is playing her to get Kristen involved. Either the conversation with the nurse was staged or he figured out how to use it to manipulate her when he realized she might have heard them. I mean all of that persuasion just to turn Kristen into baby food? That seems like a waste. But using using Leslie to get Kristen to... [more]
posted to FanFare by miss-lapin at 5:39 PM on June 8, 2024

Omigod omigod! Omigod. Someone finally used the Sharksfromfrance tag! BINGO!!
posted to FanFare by Naberius at 5:49 AM on June 8, 2024

I mean if having your egg stolen by your mom's bf/boss to father the antichrist isn't a valid excuse to enjoy some canned margaritas, I really don't know what is.
posted to FanFare by miss-lapin at 5:34 PM on June 7, 2024

More online comments on this:

Josh Marshall reprints a reader pointing out the difference between buying a paper to keep it open and boost your ego (Citizen Kane style, though he mentions non-fictional examples) and buying a paper to prove that you are a genius billionaire and will figure out the business model for journalism in the 21st century. Bezos is now in the "bored billionaire" phase where no one thinks he knows the business model and he has no more... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mark k at 7:26 PM on June 6, 2024

Dan Froomkin at Press Watch says its an opportunity to really fix some problems, with no sign the new leadership will actually do that and plenty of reason to worry they'll make it worse.

I've subscribed to the Post since 2016, and have been watching this trying to figure out if/when to bail and explain why. I was thinking about cancelling since the AI comment and it's gotten progressively less appealing. (FWIW I'm not even that negative on AI by MeFi standards.)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mark k at 11:09 PM on June 5, 2024

"it was the bottom of the ninth and everyone was loaded."

Beautiful
posted to MetaFilter by gingerbeer at 8:35 PM on June 5, 2024

An acquaintance of mine, a longtime Cleveland sports and culture writer, just did an oral history of this clearly well-thought-out event.
posted to MetaFilter by martin q blank at 1:08 PM on June 5, 2024

I try to imagine Steven's writing copy for advertising within the firm and trying to edit "The Buck has your back"
posted to MetaFilter by clavdivs at 12:35 PM on June 4, 2024

Robinson Jeffers comes close.
posted to MetaFilter by clavdivs at 9:40 AM on June 5, 2024

Interrogative mood, I get that you believe nothing here is worth discussing. But maybe you could listen.

I don’t personally think there’s anything nefarious going on. I think there are structural issues with our staff that are often on display, not least of which is the transition in governance the site is going through, but also a lot of history, and a lack of tools, both technological and strategic support and clarity and training. When I was on the transition team,... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by warriorqueen at 6:55 AM on June 5, 2024

yeah and there’s that bit in the appendices about how samwise’s grandson ended up ruling the shire for thousands of years after merging his body with the scales of smaug and thereby becoming a nigh-immortal half-wyrm tyrant
posted to MetaFilter by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 1:54 PM on June 2, 2024

I do wonder why Leaf is mentioned much more often as the driving force for Middle Earths economy... after-all, how will the Guild Navigators fold-space ("He who controls the Leaf, controls Middle Earth")?
posted to MetaFilter by phigmov at 1:41 PM on June 2, 2024

The climax of The Hobbit is about the Arkenstone driving Thorin mad with greed, yes. But here’s the thing–the plot of The Silmarillion is all about Fëanor and his sons being driven mad by the Silmarils. Lord of the Rings is all about the One Ring driving everyone insane. Literally everything Tolkien ever wrote was about magic jewelry driving otherwise-good people into insanity. Jewelry: Not Even Once.

I like the cut of this writer’s jib.
posted to MetaFilter by GenjiandProust at 12:56 PM on June 2, 2024

Having plowed through all the episodes pretty quickly, I now feel kind of like all of season 1 was mostly long-form exposition to set the stage for season 2. OK, so there are aliens observing us, and two of them have gone native. One was already evil and is getting tips on being more evil from the worst of humanity. One was already good and feels a need to save humanity from the evil one to compensate for his guilt at not saving his sister.

They could have squeezed that... [more]
posted to FanFare by adamrice at 8:32 AM on May 31, 2024

Speaking of Ursula LeGuin, I learned a day or two ago that she was the one responsible for popularising Schrödinger's cat. How cool is that?
posted to MetaFilter by rory at 2:52 AM on May 29, 2024

There were some cool parts but the story of this movie wasn't much of an origin story for the character we met in Fury Road.

They even skip directly to her Fury Road storyline at the end, portraying her in a heroic(or at least non-offending) light throughout. In Fury Road she was doing a heel-face turn. She was on of Immortan Joe's top officers, it was unthinkable that she would betray him. Think about the Immortan and what she would've had to have done to attain that... [more]
posted to FanFare by yonega at 3:23 PM on May 25, 2024

After more thought, I'm in agreement with antinomia that the unnecessary cruelty in the Furiosa movie is the biggest failing. Fury Road was violent and brutal, but survival was the most important part of their actions. There is probably a sixty minute film that could be cut from the three hour runtime, excising most of the dialogue as well as re-editing scenes to not dwell for so long on the torture-porn framing.

In the article on... [more]
posted to FanFare by autopilot at 1:49 AM on May 23, 2024

King has always been a better short form writer than overlong novelist (particularly as he's gotten more senior and beyond an editors control)

And yes, it was always a thing amongst my friends to see who was or wasn't scared by his latest writings.
posted to MetaFilter by drewbage1847 at 8:38 PM on May 24, 2024

whir, porque no los dos? I use duckduckgo by default AND I have a userscript to add that udm=14 business at the end for when I want to do "!g" searches. Best of both worlds!
posted to MetaFilter by deadbilly at 6:30 PM on May 22, 2024

All these weird kludges to try and make Google suck less feel super absurd from the perspective of someone who switched to DuckDuckGo years ago. Whatever browser you're using, just go to its settings and find the 'search' pane; a "search engine" dropdown is the first thing in that section on Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, and DDG is one of the choices. You'll never worry about Google shitting up your searches in the name of making someone's yearly performance review look better again.
posted to MetaFilter by egypturnash at 5:49 PM on May 22, 2024

oh god I found it oh cringe
posted to MetaTalk by biogeo at 6:33 PM on May 20, 2024

Those sound very cool and I would also read a new story about them.
posted to MetaTalk by tofu_crouton at 5:46 PM on May 20, 2024

1. Year of release can be useful for TV shows - see Dark Matter (2015) vs (2024).

2. Putting the year after the title of the show / episode would match the front page.
posted to MetaTalk by Pronoiac at 2:14 PM on May 17, 2024

There are some really nice people in this thread that I like very much who are upset, so I am going to say what I say next carefully.

My understanding of how things work with our current staffing levels is that moderation is driven primarily by flags, but also by MeMails and the Contact Us form. On top of this, state of the site and likely-to-be-contentious MeTas are often read and monitored (though sometimes flags and messages drive moderation on those, too).... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by DirtyOldTown at 8:22 AM on May 17, 2024

I'm glad that MetaFilter's staff seem to have reasonable priorities regarding what is urgent versus what might be important but isn't urgent, and are no longer running themselves ragged treating everything as urgent when it isn't. It's a much more sustainable model. Sometimes having to wait a few days for a response on things that are low urgency, and maybe even sometimes follow up with a check-in or a reminder, isn't such a bad thing, and maybe even a sign that the folks keeping our site... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by biogeo at 12:11 PM on May 16, 2024

[This was originally requested during a transition period where we were figuring out the site's governance with the SC. I went ahead and asked frimble to proceed with the change and make a formal announcement once this is implemented. Thanks!]
posted to MetaTalk by loup at 8:08 AM on May 4, 2024

What I'm having trouble understanding is what other use-case there is.

Theoretically, in a gay space communism sort of way, I would love a searchable archive of everything I've ever looked at if only because the accelerating enshittication of search but also bit rot.

But of course enshittification will come to this and all it will be is a way of lojacking my activities.
posted to MetaFilter by Mitheral at 1:44 PM on May 20, 2024

Where do I turn this 'feature' off?
posted to MetaFilter by signal at 12:15 PM on May 20, 2024

What thread are you talking about? This is so opaque.

bowmaniac, I'll keep my thoughts about that thread in that thread as the conversation is still ongoing there
posted to MetaTalk by tiny frying pan at 12:35 PM on May 17, 2024

You can perhaps forgive people for wondering what it is you're doing and why you're spending your time within shifts that are already scheduled maintaining static copy rather than interacting with the community and replying to their feedback and questions.


I mean, I'm kind of at a loss for why you are acting like those are loup's only two job duties? Or why you think you have any idea how much time that particular item is taking up vs... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Gygesringtone at 10:57 AM on May 17, 2024

It seemed like the young nudy hook was just picked up off the floor, dusted off, and then taped to the back of the song?

I mean, it was good. They were both good. But they seemed like two songs. Is what I’m saying. Two songs stuck in my head now.
posted to MetaFilter by heyitsgogi at 3:33 PM on May 15, 2024

Me: "Huh, how close to Days of Future Past are we going - "
Forge: recreates the cover on his wall

I missed the 3000 BC note for Rogue and Nightcrawler at first, until I saw the 3960AD note for Scott and Jean.

Until Apocalypse wandered up, I was sort of expecting Onslaught to crop up as the big bad in the next season - vaguely, a combination of Xavier's and Magneto's worst impulses or something. (I skipped the comics the... [more]
posted to FanFare by Pronoiac at 1:53 PM on May 15, 2024

MY SPOUSE: Who's that?

ME: Silver Samurai.

MY SPOUSE: Who's that?

ME: Alpha Flight.

MY SPOUSE: Wait ... how did Rogue do that hand clap thing without any atmosphere?

ME: Oh, that's the Blue Area of the Moon. There's atmosphere there.

MY SPOUSE: I see. And how do you feel about knowing all this offhand?

ME (cheerfully): Deeply ashamed!

Anyway, pretty great season overall.
posted to FanFare by kyrademon at 1:09 PM on May 15, 2024

I have a feeling a lot of people dropped when the movie shifted from the realistic macro portrayal of a fascist US to the micro handling of a weak man being corrupted. But I totally get where they were going, the connection they were making.

The problem is: there really isn't a single horror beat in this movie that lands. Not one.
posted to FanFare by DirtyOldTown at 3:20 PM on May 13, 2024

All that and a dig at Lichtenstein. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
posted to MetaFilter by EvaDestruction at 2:38 PM on May 13, 2024

Black-clad Miller and Ruby using quantum-entangled manual typewriters to send a message to Earth Miller and Ruby was ripped right out of Fringe and just clarified that the show should have been weird from the start.

Introducing at this late date the plot of an alien expeditionary force on Earth throws a huge bucket of water on the missing Olivia storyline. Yes, a woman having been evilly trafficked by three evil men who are now all dead is awful,... [more]
posted to FanFare by ejs at 9:28 AM on May 11, 2024

Hey how cool! Got a Google alert for this conversation, found myself clicking around the site and went ...that's worth signing up for!

Welcome to the party, we're really glad to have you! I hope you enjoy your time. We have a Discord Server where people can interact with other viewers while making their way through the show, including episode-by-episode questions in a forum so you can participate as you make your way, or create your OWN thoughts for people to find on... [more]
posted to FanFare by neddonovan at 1:28 PM on April 25, 2024

Preserved by The Baffler, here is Albini's 1993 essay "The Problem With Music".
posted to MetaFilter by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:47 AM on May 8, 2024

.

I met Albini about 20 years ago, when I lived in Chicago as a journalism student working on a school assignment. Believe it our not I wasn't writing about music - I was writing about baseball.

I had decided to write about my neighborhood park on the north side of Chicago - Winnemac Park - kind of a slice of life/history/John McPhee-type attempt. Anyway, there's a baseball field there and I'd noticed that these men's league teams played there... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by cmaxmagee at 11:30 AM on May 8, 2024

The performance scenes were filmed at the Towne Crier in Beacon, N.Y., and the alley exteriors were down the street from there a bit.
posted to FanFare by gubo at 8:30 AM on January 29, 2023

What does that do to a child?

They fuck you up, your mum and dad
They may not mean to, but they do...
posted to MetaFilter by flabdablet at 10:05 PM on May 2, 2024

A more skeptical look at the Leininger case.
posted to MetaFilter by interogative mood at 8:13 PM on May 2, 2024

59 and I still get that rush of power when my raspberry pi makes a servo swivel. Exactly like when I was in my early teens.
posted to MetaFilter by whatevernot at 4:13 PM on May 3, 2024

And yet setjmp() and longjmp() remain.
posted to MetaFilter by Tell Me No Lies at 2:30 PM on May 3, 2024

GOTO considered harmful.
posted to MetaFilter by whatevernot at 2:20 PM on May 3, 2024

ChatGPT is just ELIZA with a web browser.
posted to MetaFilter by grubi at 12:15 PM on May 3, 2024

I cut my programming teeth on BASIC on a school Commodore PET in fifth grade.

It took me a while to understand, once I moved onto Pascal and other languages later in life, why I couldn't just sneak in a GOTO statement here and there.
posted to MetaFilter by delfin at 10:30 AM on May 3, 2024

posted by Hume

empyristerical!
posted to MetaFilter by chavenet at 4:18 PM on May 3, 2024

> including some that are combined with Taco Bell

i'm in the seafood joint. i'm in the taco bell.
posted to MetaFilter by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 4:46 PM on May 3, 2024

yes it is and it's binding both ways if you stop eating the shrimp you have breached the contract.
posted to MetaFilter by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 8:30 AM on May 3, 2024