2067 MetaFilter comments by Witty (displaying 201 through 250)

H1t3r pwnd UK, USA! A gunnery has been discovered, buried beneath a metre of iron-rich Normandy soil. It was likely part of a ruse on the part of the Axis forces: a fake gunnery was also built, less conspicuously, and it took the abuse. It was forgotten -- or the memory at least buried by the locals and those who fought there -- until recently. Now it appears to explain some puzzles about Bloody Omaha [pic].
comment posted at 5:41 AM on Feb-7-06


Suck it, Moller Sky Car! After 25 years of promising to bring me my flying car at a reasonable price, I'm stuck with a fricking scale model???? Enough. I'm taking my fantasy sky car anticipatory business across town to the good folks at Urban Aeronautics!
comment posted at 9:44 AM on Feb-2-06

“Just like, really, with the Voting Rights Act, Republicans have some fundamental philosophical difficulties with the whole notion of Equal Protection.” Ben Ginsberg, who was Chief Counsel for both Bush campaigns, dropped this gem in a speech at Duke Law School. The quote was made in the context of a discussion of Bush v. Gore and the Florida recount. (link is video, quote comes around 38:30).
comment posted at 2:56 PM on Feb-1-06
comment posted at 3:11 PM on Feb-1-06

Unclaimed Baggage Center is where lost luggage goes to die...and then live again. This huge warehouse buys the stuff we leave behind by the truckload, unpacks it, and then sells it to the public in an ongoing junk sale. Items range from the mundane to the merely puzzling to the somewhat disturbing (this was found ON AN AIRPLANE, for Chrissakes.) The online store cannot compare to shopping there in person. And yes, it is located in THAT Scottsboro.
comment posted at 6:48 AM on Jan-31-06

So, you're gonna talk about energy? Wonder if the President will mention the record profits his buddies in big oil have been earning. Exxon Mobil who made a record $25.3bn (€19.4bn) profit in 2004, earned a company record $9.9bn (€8.2bn) in the fourth quarter of 2005. In the same quarter, Condoleeza Rice's former employer Chevron, who once named an oil tanker for their former vice president, earned a record $4.14bn (€4.43bn). The third-largest US oil company, ConocoPhillips, has reported a fourth quarter profit of $3.68bn (€3.05bn), a 50% leap from the same time a year ago.The industry claims that oil companies earn 7.3 cents on a gallon, but "Exxon's profit for the year... a staggering $36.13 billion is bigger than the economies of 125 of the 184 countries ranked by the World Bank. Profit rose 42 percent from 2004."

You gonna talk about that, George?
comment posted at 11:02 AM on Jan-30-06
comment posted at 11:11 AM on Jan-30-06
comment posted at 11:36 AM on Jan-30-06


University of Pittsburgh scientists say they've genetically engineered an avian flu vaccine that has proven 100 percent effective in mice and chickens. Let's hope this is for real and we can go back to worrying about global warming and the American police-state.
comment posted at 7:36 AM on Jan-27-06


Indianapolis is getting a Whole Foods Market. Great, right? Whole Foods Market is a recognized leader in the ecologically friendly organic foods business and includes in its "Core Values" Wise Environmental Practices & Community Citizenship. The location where this new market will be built will require the leveling of 17 acres of wooded land adjacent to a 50 year old residential neighborhood of 350 homes. This wooded area is one of the last homes for wild animals in the area. Oh yeah, nobody that lives in the area wants it built either. So much for core values.
comment posted at 9:24 AM on Jan-24-06
comment posted at 9:33 AM on Jan-24-06

Bush has put the production of coal above the safety of coal miners. As is sadly demonstrated in the two recent mining disasters. They even went so far as to remove Clinton era safety regulations and then had the audacity to claim that resource production and "other priorities" took precedence. These budget cuts come at a time when coal prices have gone up 30% and led to huge profits for the coal industry. Sound like any other resource industry you know. /*hint OIL! hint*/ Once again the government has favored the big corporation over the little guy to disastrous results. Is the death of miners and the death of soldiers worth our reliance on fossil fuels?
comment posted at 8:34 AM on Jan-24-06
comment posted at 8:49 AM on Jan-24-06

iTunes Signature Maker! It analyzes your itunes music collection and creates a short audio signature to represent who you are and what you listen to. Here is mine.
comment posted at 4:34 AM on Jan-24-06

Bush is cutting the reconstruction funds for Iraq. After wasting 20 billion in reconstruction money with little to show for it Bush is going to "cut and run." The worst part is that Bush now wants the coalition of the willing suckers to pick up the bill. Even though Bush promised to make the infrastructure the "best in the region" and has said in recent speeches that "On the economic side, we will continue reconstruction efforts and help Iraq's new government implement difficult reforms that are necessary to build a modern economy and a better life." So we went to war on false intelligence, and now that we have bombed the country into the ground, we are not even going to try and rebuild it? Guess the national debt is just getting a bit too large for Bush and Co to handle. Or maybe, just maybe, we never cared that much, and it was all lies.
comment posted at 8:28 AM on Jan-20-06
comment posted at 11:17 AM on Jan-20-06

Hollywood fights back: is this the year Hollywood finally nails its political colours to the mast, or are we seeing just the latest salvo in a battle for the political heart of the industry? [NYT registration required.] In the red corner, "uninformed, misleading, money-hungry, two-faced, elitists" making films about gays, feminists and commies. In the blue corner, "towering intellectuals, hard-core conservatives, supermen and superwomen, and just good common people" making films about god, democracy and family values. And if you wonder what difference it makes anyway, just ask eBay founder Jeff Skoll. He thinks films have the power to shape public opinion, and has launched a website to galvanise support for social change.
comment posted at 6:04 AM on Jan-20-06

It turns out I am not alone there is a growing legion of persons who really dont like the DoodleBops. If you have cable TV you might see them in the morning. So cheesy they make the Wiggles seem like Led Zepplin.
comment posted at 8:30 AM on Jan-12-06

Song Tapper lets you to use your space bar as an instrument. Tap in a song rhythm and Song Tapper will identify it for you with its internety black magic.
comment posted at 11:55 AM on Jan-11-06

Things Came Up To My Brain...Museum? A little Flash game, from the same Samorostian/Goldbergian mind that brought us Find The Treasure. Warning: There doesn't appear to be any way to toggle the sound off.
comment posted at 10:33 AM on Jan-9-06
comment posted at 10:34 AM on Jan-9-06

The War on Franklin (Orig. from the NYTimes). It's only fitting as we approach the tercentennial of the birth of the First American, Benjamin Franklin, that there is an ongoing debate as to whether we should "sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety" and if we deserve either. To be sure, Franklin is likely the seminal Colonial American, who's philosophy, inventions, self-determination, self-improvement, entrepeneurship, and witicisms underpin most elements of modern American society, politics, and culture, as well as having edited our founding document, the Declaration of Independence. But Franklin the man was also self-involved, a neglectful spouse and parent, and (likely) a serial philanderer, as well as having never held elected office. (History erases many of the sins of the Foundering Fathers). Surely increasing criticism of both the man and his relavency is soon to follow. Perhaps we can all strive to emulate Franklin's greatest skill - the art of compromise.
comment posted at 8:33 AM on Jan-5-06
comment posted at 10:10 AM on Jan-5-06

url(x) has already become quite popular in its short life as a tool for shortening those long URLs. The concept isn't anything you haven't seen before, but there are a few extra twists such as the ability to include the domain name of the destination site in the shortened URL. Cool!
comment posted at 8:10 AM on Jan-3-06

www.milliondollarhomepage.com puts kid through college... and then some. Add this to the "why didn't I think of that" list.
comment posted at 11:55 AM on Dec-29-05
comment posted at 11:59 AM on Dec-29-05
comment posted at 12:04 PM on Dec-29-05
comment posted at 12:05 PM on Dec-29-05

Of all the Christmas cards I received this year from political action committees, this one from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep & Bear arms best summed up the holiday spirit to me.
comment posted at 9:29 AM on Dec-29-05

"A Brief Survey of the Various Foreigners, Their Chief Characteristics, Customs, and Manners." Israelis, "They were personally responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire, the 1929 stock market crash, and the loss of World War II by a prominent European country." On Canada, "It is thought to resemble a sort of arctic Nebraska." It's okay because it's both unapologetic and National Lampoon circa Animal House. Harvard boys in the 60s were original ironic hipsters!
comment posted at 10:25 AM on Dec-28-05
comment posted at 10:42 AM on Dec-28-05
comment posted at 10:47 AM on Dec-28-05
comment posted at 10:52 AM on Dec-28-05
comment posted at 11:38 AM on Dec-28-05
comment posted at 11:58 AM on Dec-28-05

Art or commerce? Sony PSP ads make the news, and not in a good way. As seen in Wired, and the odd PSP Blog. Inspired by The Philadelphia Inquirer.
comment posted at 7:12 AM on Dec-28-05

85% of Americans are going to heaven.
comment posted at 8:35 AM on Dec-20-05
comment posted at 9:27 AM on Dec-20-05
comment posted at 9:33 AM on Dec-20-05
comment posted at 9:36 AM on Dec-20-05
comment posted at 9:45 AM on Dec-20-05
comment posted at 9:52 AM on Dec-20-05
comment posted at 9:58 AM on Dec-20-05
comment posted at 10:27 AM on Dec-20-05
comment posted at 11:28 AM on Dec-20-05
comment posted at 5:10 AM on Dec-21-05
comment posted at 7:59 AM on Dec-21-05

« previous page | next page »