2067 MetaFilter comments by Witty (displaying 601 through 650)

My Ribbon is Bigger Than Yours. The magnetic ribbon backlash begins. (See also: AntiMagnet.)
comment posted at 2:19 PM on Dec-28-04

Losing the War, an insightful memoir by writer and journalist Lee Sandlin. Note: It's not about Iraq. Or is it? "A year later, in the second winter of the invasion, as the army inched forward on a final, desperate push into Stalingrad, a daring joke began making the rounds in Germany, a mock dispatch from Stalingrad HQ: 'Today our troops captured a two-room apartment with kitchen, toilet, and bathroom. They have succeeded in retaining two-thirds of it despite fierce counterattacks by the enemy.' Few of the tellers realized just how accurate this description was. John Keegan, in his book The Second World War, quotes a German officer's description of the fighting in the city: 'We have fought for fifteen days for a single house with mortars, grenades, machine-guns and bayonets. Already by the third day fifty-four German corpses are strewn in the cellars, on the landings, and the staircases. The front is a corridor between burnt-out rooms; it is the thin ceiling between two floors.' This was where Hitler's vision of the world finally foundered. After striding like a colossus over a continent, the German army was in the end unable to force its way up a flight of stairs."
comment posted at 2:24 PM on Dec-28-04

Hurl snowballs at windows in Glasgow Turn your speakers up for genuine ethnic responses
comment posted at 4:26 PM on Dec-27-04

It's Kwanzaa! Today begins the seven day celebration of the principles which make the African People and their descendants, and ultimately Humanity, great. While I don't celebrate, I will take the opportunity to learn more about the holiday and to hold the Seven Principles in mind.

Now it's back to watching my new In Living Color and Chappelle's Show DVDs.
comment posted at 9:24 PM on Dec-26-04

The tocsin tolls. In an early Christmas present to the American right, Bush declares his intention to re-nominate to the Federal bench 20 judges blocked during his first term. He's going nuclear folks.
comment posted at 9:41 PM on Dec-23-04
comment posted at 9:46 PM on Dec-23-04

"Welcome to Black Man With a Gun dot com. If you smiled at the name of the site or jumped from fear of it you are not alone. This site is about responsible firearm ownership. I use the taboo subject of race to show how people have been conditioned to fear the words "GUN" and "BLACK MAN" when used in the same sentence."
comment posted at 6:49 PM on Dec-22-04

Moebius, I Love You. Even if you will only let me get 384 points playing your game.
comment posted at 5:06 PM on Dec-22-04
comment posted at 6:43 PM on Dec-22-04

Girl Kicked Out Of Prom For Wearing Confederate Flag Sues A girl who says it was always her dream to wear a confederate-themed dress to her prom arrived in a self-designed gown which incorporated the Confederate battle flag into its design. The school promptly removed her, and she is suing. The fate of her suit is somewhat uncertain. Lower federal courts have applied the Tinker test, which says that a school may restrict student expression when that expression may be disruptive. To win her suit, the girl will need to show that wearing a Confederate flag to your high school prom is not a disruptive act.
comment posted at 9:40 PM on Dec-21-04

With organ donation lists far outstripping availible donars, is it fair that people who don't donate get equal footing when waiting for an organ? LifeSharers pledge to donate organs preferentially to other registered organ donors upon death, essentially forming a private organ donation network. Excess organs are donated to the public.
comment posted at 11:54 PM on Dec-20-04
comment posted at 7:45 PM on Dec-21-04

The perfect Christmas gift for the geek in your life. Or maybe you need something for your new niece or nephew? Then again, this site may have all the stuff on your gift shopping list.
comment posted at 2:39 AM on Dec-12-04

Was it really the broken homes, family dysfunction, checked-out parents, and (especially) absent fathers, which caused in contemporary adolescent heavy metal and hip-hop/rap music the popular themes of misogyny, violence, suicide, sexual exploitation, and child abuse ?
comment posted at 5:50 PM on Dec-11-04

Chicago - Then and Now. Chicagoan Luke Seemann takes Charles Cushman's early Chicago photos and attempts to recreate them from the same perspective with sometimes startling results.
comment posted at 5:59 PM on Dec-11-04

In 1992 Chika Honda was a 36-year-old Japanese woman who accepted an offer from a regular customer, Mistuo at the pub she worked nights in, to join him and his brothers on a holiday to Australia - her first ever overseas trip. During a stopover in Kuala Lumpur their suitcases were stolen. Charlie, a business associate of Mistuo, offered to sort everything out and returned the next morning with their belongings in a new set of suitcases, claiming their luggage had been slashed with a knife. When the group arrived in Melbourne, customs found 13kg of heroin in the lining of their suitcases. Chika and the others were arrested, investigated, charged and later tried and sentenced.

Chika was eventually released and deported in 2002 after having served 10 years in Victorian prisons. She still maintains her innocence. Several documentaries about this case, known in Japan as the Melbourne Incident have been aired in Japan but very little coverage has been given in Australia. In one of the documentaries, Charlie completely exonerates Chika (PDF : See page 5). In 2002, her Japanese lawyers filed a submission to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva to clear her name. Two years later and nothing has yet been achieved. The Australian government still admits no miscarriage of justice.

But she'll be right mate, we Aussies know what we're doing.
comment posted at 5:18 AM on Dec-11-04

Photos of an aftermath in progress (graphic). How a search for weapons of mass destruction has lead the U.S. so far. An informed citizen has an amazing right to see what is going on.
comment posted at 4:18 AM on Dec-10-04

my new get rich quick scheme - apparently this is legit. i think i'm off to make 300 batches of french toast and look over them with an eye for the miraculous.
comment posted at 5:10 PM on Nov-16-04

Dollar's Decline Is Reverberating All this talk about blue state, red state. How's the state of the one thing we all think about equally in common coming along? Isn't it time for a serious, non-partisan, "morally" neutral dialogue on the state of the US economy?
comment posted at 11:32 PM on Nov-15-04

2004 Ohio vote count integrity
Bay Village: 9948
Fairview Park: 9948
North Olmstead: 9948
Rocky River: 9948
Westlake: 9948
comment posted at 11:34 PM on Nov-9-04

Cruel and Unusual - The End Of The Eighth Amendment
It might seem at first that the rules for the treatment of Iraqi prisoners were founded on standards of political legitimacy suited to war or emergencies; based on what Carl Schmitt called the urgency of the ''exception,'' they were meant to remain secret as necessary ''war measures'' and to be exempt from traditional legal ideals and the courts associated with them. But the ominous discretionary powers used to justify this conduct are entirely familiar to those who follow the everyday treatment of prisoners in the United States—not only their treatment by prison guards but their treatment by the courts in sentencing, corrections, and prisoners' rights. The torture memoranda, as unprecedented as they appear in presenting ''legal doctrines . . . that could render specific conduct, otherwise criminal, not unlawful,'' refer to U.S. prison cases in the last 30 years that have turned on the legal meaning of the Eighth Amendment’s language prohibiting ''cruel and unusual punishment.'' What is the history of this phrase? How has it been interpreted? And how has its content been so eviscerated?
comment posted at 11:42 PM on Nov-8-04

U.S. out of San Francisco! - That's right, America, we here in San Francisco are officially sick of your shit, and we're not going to take it anymore.
comment posted at 1:35 AM on Nov-4-04

It's unOFFICIAL! yet again!
Bush wins re-election! And Nader nowhere to shoulder blame.
The consequences.
The deciding demographic? The Evangelical vote. (Interestingly, look how the vote went for Carter, born-again Southern Baptist, in the '76 election.)
So who's to blame? Personally, I point the finger at the PR. Because everyone should damn-well accept the fact that it's not about the issues.
Let the recount and litigation begin!
comment posted at 6:53 AM on Nov-3-04


Paralysed man sends e-mail by thought
A pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far.
comment posted at 5:47 PM on Oct-14-04

"I would not bring my two sons to the Capitol between now and the election," says Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), who is closing his DC office through election day because of a recent top-secret intelligence report.
comment posted at 8:54 PM on Oct-12-04

Speaking in TonguesCode --Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court and a President who signals his base in terms that fly over the heads of most of the country.
comment posted at 6:08 PM on Oct-11-04
comment posted at 6:30 PM on Oct-11-04

Topobo - Topobo is a 3D constructive assembly system embedded with kinetic memory, the ability to record and playback physical motion (movies). From Eyebeam.
comment posted at 5:59 AM on Oct-3-04

The Toronto Star asked its reader to pick the winner in Thursday's debate between George Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry.
comment posted at 8:55 AM on Oct-1-04
comment posted at 9:06 AM on Oct-1-04

Tragedy + time = comedy. "This incredible slide captures the heart of both young and old with its beautiful design and fast dual slide lanes."
comment posted at 7:13 AM on Oct-1-04

This is Pinky. He's a very loving cat. [Link to Coral cache, 1.9MB WMV file, playable in mplayer]
comment posted at 5:32 AM on Oct-1-04

Melting into the ocean. In the Alaskan Arctic, villages like Shishmaref have a front row view of global warming.
comment posted at 5:35 AM on Oct-1-04

Star Wars Chick. Not to be confused with the star wars kid. Besides, Star Wars Chick looks much better in her handmade Slave Leia Cosutme [ via memepool ]
comment posted at 5:40 AM on Sep-30-04

How to Get Ready for Bed. Mrs. Rollman's second grade class provides a series of how-to's.
comment posted at 2:00 AM on Sep-30-04


Mr. Bush and His 10 Ever-Changing Different Positions on Iraq: "A flip and a flop and now just a flop." Delightful Moore (to those who like what he does), and a few links to backup his reasoning for those who don't.
comment posted at 5:47 AM on Sep-28-04
comment posted at 6:38 AM on Sep-28-04

Was your voter registration form thick enough? Ohio's republican secretary of state has issued an order (three days before the registration deadline) to throw out all voter registration forms printed on paper less then 80lb. Coincidence that dem-leaning areas have seen a 250% rise in voter registration, with tens of thousands of new voters in a race expected to be closer then FL 2000?

Oh yeah, the state sent out 40lb forms to those requesting them. Cute, huh.
comment posted at 5:06 AM on Sep-28-04
comment posted at 5:44 AM on Sep-28-04
comment posted at 6:23 AM on Sep-28-04
comment posted at 1:29 AM on Sep-29-04
comment posted at 3:03 AM on Sep-29-04

If America were Iraq, what would it be like? Private armies totaling 275,000 men; platoons of Christian Soldiers Militia holed up in Arlington National Cemetery; the grounds of the White House constantly under mortar fire; the Secretary of State, President, and Attorney General all assassinated in the past year; and the Air Force routinely bombing Billings, Flint, Philadelphia, and parts of LA and DC to destroy "safe houses" of "criminal gangs."
comment posted at 6:04 AM on Sep-27-04
comment posted at 3:02 AM on Sep-28-04

America Bashing. By Thai cartoonist Stephane Peray.
comment posted at 3:24 AM on Sep-27-04
comment posted at 3:15 AM on Sep-28-04

Why the 9/11 Fund was a Mistake. The final numbers for the 9/11 fund are in. Controversy remains. As does litigation. The settlement was attacked as "corporate welfare." The price tag has grown. RAND wonders "What Have We Learned About Compensating Victims of Terrorism?"
comment posted at 2:57 AM on Sep-27-04

‘Staying the Course’ Isn’t an Option "If Bush is re-elected, there are only two possible outcomes in Iraq:

Four years from now, America will have 5,000 dead servicemen and women and an untold number of dead Iraqis at a cost of about $1 trillion, yet still be no closer to success than we are right now, or The U.S. will be gone, and we will witness the birth of a violent breeding ground for Shiite terrorists posing a far greater threat to Americans than a contained Saddam."
comment posted at 3:08 AM on Sep-27-04

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