MetaFilter

Is Metafilter a Boyzone? Was recommending MeFi to one of my girl-pals, and she came back to me with the following: "interesting...but it's a bit of a men's room, isn't it?" When pressed she cited postings like sex classes, gross-out cartoons, nerdish obsession, flimsy pretexts for nudity, and whiny self-pitying threads about failing manhood. Somewhat surprised, and in mild defense, I cited back postings on the horror of honour killings, drag queens talking about false breasts and male self-parody. Now she's actually v. pro-men, and no knee-jerk feminist, so she's got me wondering: Are we? And if so, does it matter?
comment posted at 6:21 AM on Feb-24-02

slurdb an interesting look into an often overlooked and ignored lexicon - even if it is an ugly one. jtx from hatesville is building a reference to the language of hate, but he needs your help.
comment posted at 5:38 AM on Feb-24-02

Washington States insatiable appetite for money has led to the highest state tax on cigarettes, $1.425 per pack; this is in addition to the federal tax of $.39 per pack and the State sales tax of 6.5%. At least 17 states are considering following suit. Proponets claim it's a win-win situation: tax revenue + 'helping' people quit. Is that believable? Do they want the money or do they want people to quit, or both? And is it fair for 25% of the population to be the sole source of needed revenue?
comment posted at 6:16 AM on Feb-24-02

The United States Olympic Committee invites you to help them decide the recipients of the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award. I don't think you have to be an american to participate. Nominations close tomorrow evening, as do the 2002 Winter Olympics themselves. The award is supposed to represent commitment, courage, perseverence and vision. The nominations may be more of a popularity contest, but the U.S. Olympic Committee itself makes the final determination. Previous recipients include Carl Lewis and Scott Hamilton.
comment posted at 7:17 AM on Feb-24-02

What's down, Doc?
Animation genius Chuck Jones has died of conjestive heart failure.
Has any other creative-type-person brought more joy and laughter to the last three-or-four generations?
At least his website had already started paying tribute to him while he could still see it (click on "Letters from the Heart", optional Flash).
comment posted at 6:56 AM on Feb-23-02

Petition to return the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles to Greece. Nice background on the marbles here. Cliffnotes version here.
comment posted at 6:03 AM on Feb-22-02

Teddy Bears to watch you While other countries are banning teddy bears from Children's hospital rooms, Japan is putting digital high tech teddy bears that will watch you and inform doctors when you need help.
comment posted at 7:35 AM on Feb-22-02

Is Yates kids' memorial website a bit odd to anyone else? Will Andrea visit them here?
comment posted at 7:49 AM on Feb-22-02

Tariq Ramadan: The Muslim Martin Luther? Tariq Ramadan is not a household name in the United States, but the Swiss professor could be one of the most important intellectuals in the world. Ramadan's thinking, his methods and his personal history are all connected to the same question: Islam's encounter with the modern world. Can the youngest of the world's three great monotheisms co-exist harmoniously with the Western world and its Enlightenment legacy? Or is it fated to be reactionary, closed off from the world, an excuse for terrorism and failure? (From alt.muslim, Salon Premium required to read full text)
comment posted at 5:21 AM on Feb-20-02

Multiethnic Barbie. (picture) ""It would be really boring if there were all white people," says the fourth-grader, who also likes her dolls to portray people she knows - from her half-Asian cousins to classmates of all races." Of course, nobody she knows probably has Barbie's proportions...
comment posted at 5:31 AM on Feb-20-02

Chomsky says arrest me too. A Turkish publisher accused of disseminating separatist propaganda was acquitted yesterday after one of his authors -the celebrated American linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky - appeared in an Istanbul court and asked to be tried alongside him.
comment posted at 5:47 AM on Feb-20-02

Boy quits school at 7, becomes MIT professor at 20. Is alternative education a good idea? This article seems much more positive than another recent boy-genius post. It appears that most reporters assume that child prodigies are antisocial and that their parents are over-ambitious (they use negatively-connotated synonyms of those terms).
comment posted at 5:47 AM on Feb-18-02

Book-A-Minute SF/F--- Their "minute" is so spot-on a review for those books I've read that I'm off to find some books I haven't, just on this site's odd say-so.
comment posted at 8:08 AM on Feb-17-02

The serious business of selling all-American fun "There could hardly be a better summation of the opportunity that American pop culture companies like Disney are enjoying overseas. With the end of the Cold War, the opening of China, and the worldwide triumph of American-style capitalism, the brand-name purveyors of American food, fashion, and entertainment have never had it so good."
comment posted at 3:00 PM on Feb-17-02

Though the president has claimed Ken Lay is merely an acquaintance that he hasn't seen in months, the smoking gun uncovered documents pointing out historically there has been a fairly regular correspondence and perhaps a close friendship between the two. They're all from 2000 and earlier, but will things like this dog the president or raise any suspicions?
comment posted at 7:05 AM on Feb-16-02

What fun it must be to be gay and in the military. Seems like the military can't make up its damn mind about whether or not gay people are ok to serve.
comment posted at 5:54 AM on Feb-16-02

Justice Served Canadian figureskating team gets their gold after all.
comment posted at 5:48 AM on Feb-16-02

There goes Colin Powell, pissing off the far right again. This time the Family Research Council and folks like Gary Bauer demand to know how dare he go on MTV and, in response to a teen's question about AIDS, tell kids to USE CONDOMS! (And for that matter, what is the secretary of state doing appearing on that smut-filled network in the first place, and what kinds of parents allow their children to listen to satanic rock music and hip-hop, and how dare insolent children raise filthy questions with government officials about SEX?!)
comment posted at 6:16 PM on Feb-15-02

www.computerhistory.org is the virtual incarnation of computer historian and collector Michael Williams' phat-ass computer museum. My favourite, BTW, is the timeline, searchable by year or topic. What technological milestones occured in the year of your birth?
comment posted at 5:24 AM on Feb-15-02

Will you marry me? - Is this the first weblog marriage proposal? What a way to ask... (courtesy of Slashdot).
comment posted at 7:50 AM on Feb-14-02

Does anyone care that nobody needs to sing well anymore? Spot-on piece about the way that digital music tools aren't just making rotten singers sound OK (with software that shifts their pitch upwards), but good singers lazy ("hey that's fine, just copy'n'paste it into the next chorus"). And removing the excitement from studio performance. Is the only honest response to this electro-fakery to go all Daft Punk? Or am I just an old Stevie'n'Retha'n'Marvin nostalgist?
comment posted at 5:40 AM on Feb-14-02

Is Justin Chapman a misunderstood genius (at age 7) or just an average little boy pushed beyond reason by an abusive, mentally ill mother?
more thoughts inside...
...with thanks tocrabwalk.com
comment posted at 5:52 AM on Feb-14-02

Valentine's Teddy Bear bomb warning The FBI said a man, "possibly of Arab descent", bought 14 gas canisters, 12 packages of lead gun pellets and nine white Valentine teddy bears at Stevenson Ranch in California on January 15. Please be careful.
comment posted at 6:34 AM on Feb-14-02

Do you think there is a possible connection between the events (NYT headlines): Attack Possible in U.S. or Yemen, the F.B.I. Warns and Small Fire Becomes Inferno, Burning Homes in California ?
comment posted at 5:54 AM on Feb-13-02

Shock! U.S. takes all medals in snowboarding Was anyone honestly surprised by this? Or (for that matter) when USA Basketball beats all opponents in the summer Games? We don't tend to win in things like figure skating, luge, bobsled, etc. ... so we add events like this, then trumpet them when we sweep the competition...
comment posted at 6:29 AM on Feb-13-02

Damn, that's just sad. 13 kids. 4 moms. 1 dad. No dairy products, no sunshine, and apparently no clue. One child is dead of malnutrition, others have ricketts, and none of the adults are cooperating with authorities.
comment posted at 5:19 AM on Feb-12-02

Wanna Cure Back Pain?? Australian Freestyle Skier Jaqui Cooper drank a potion of Diet Coke and crushed cockroaches to help cure her fractured vertebra. Finally, something roaches are useful for!
comment posted at 7:45 AM on Feb-11-02

Artificial womb. Goodbye women, hello complex ethical debates. ... artificial wombs raise the prospect that gay couples could give 'birth' to their own children. 'This would no doubt horrify right-wingers, while the implications for abortion law might well please them,' he added.
comment posted at 5:35 AM on Feb-11-02

This article was mentioned briefly in another thread several days ago, but I thought it was time it had its own forum, since it's quite possibly the stupidest, most infuriating article you'll read all year (and it's only February). Let's see: poverty is positive because, "hey, I'm a writer!" Right. Now go get a job. (Scalzi has a fine piece about the article).
comment posted at 7:54 AM on Feb-10-02

Princess Margaret dies It was only a matter of time. The palace have announced a private funeral for family and a few friends.
comment posted at 6:10 AM on Feb-10-02

The 19th Winter Olympics are now officially under way, begun with America's take on the traditional opening ceremonies. What moved you to tears? What made you gag? Were you proud to be an American, or so embarrassed that you couldn't watch? Was the WTC flag presentation tasteful? Was John Williams' score inspirational? Did you like the ice dancing, the fireworks, and the Native Indian celebrations? Who did you want to see light the Olympic caldron?
comment posted at 9:36 AM on Feb-9-02
comment posted at 7:39 AM on Feb-11-02

The Case of the Head-Butting Hoopster. High-school basketball players collide during a game; the guy from the visiting team allegedly head-butts the other but is called for only a personal foul. On the home team is the son of the local district attorney, who is sitting (or perhaps ranting) in the stands. He's just sure that a crime has been committed, so ... (more inside)
comment posted at 6:04 AM on Feb-9-02

"AXIS OF EVIL" was supposed to send a message. "Those who condition themselves to think that an axis of evil surrounds them will only live a painful, gloomy and uncomfortable life. They will, in effect, loose many of their powers and abilities as a result of their exaggerated sensitivity and drown themselves in fatal ignorance of the blessings and good things of the world."
comment posted at 5:49 AM on Feb-7-02

"They thought I was some kind of Greek god." Tim Eyman, the self-styled "maverick" author of several tax-slash initiatives in Washington state, has admitted to not only taking $210,000 from his "grass-roots" campaigns for personal use but consistently lying about it. Now, he says, he wants "his peasants" to decide whether he should give it back. When will people learn what populists usually amount to?
comment posted at 6:22 AM on Feb-6-02

Every multiculturalist is a recruiting officer for al-Qa’eda. The Spectator's cover story this week suggests that white intellectuals' posture of hatred for Western civilization is at least somewhat responsible for British Muslims' hatred of the West. Is this a revealing insight, or just a twisted blame-the-victim argument? Or both?
comment posted at 6:11 AM on Feb-6-02

How the U.S. Killed the Wrong Soldiers I read the original report of this attack and discounted the possiblity that it was a major screw up but it looks like it was. The same story from Knight Ridder
comment posted at 7:40 AM on Feb-6-02

Bye Bye Amtrak? "If Congress and the Administration do not appropriate adequate funds for FY '03, Amtrak may be forced to discontinue all long-distance train service effective October 1." Rail advocacy groups have differing reactions.
comment posted at 5:36 AM on Feb-3-02

How's this for a rape defense: It wasn't me, it was my alter ego. Edward Lawrence Frostbutter, 17, told police that he does not remember assaulting the 16-year-old classmate in a restroom stall in Calvert High School on Jan. 16, according to court documents. Instead, he said his alter ego "Sam" was responsible, and he told police that "he felt awful about what Sam had done," according to charging documents.
comment posted at 4:27 AM on Feb-2-02

Was tonight's "Will and Grace" a coming out episode for Rosie O'Donnel? Sure, it was her character that came out---(though, so was Ellen's)---but she seemed a little choked up when she said the line: "Jack, I'm gay." PlanetOut.com discusses the matter and reports that Rosie will be coming out for real in her soon to be published Biography: "Find Me." Either way, though, whether it was just her character or Rosie speaking through the character, it was a prettty memorable TV moment.
comment posted at 5:26 AM on Feb-1-02

Probe into FBI missarage of justice despite Bush objections over Many Rep[ublican conservative Republicans support the investigation.
comment posted at 7:24 AM on Jan-30-02

The USA Freedom Corps announced last night during the State of the Union address now has a live website for you to peruse. Is this a long-overdue program, or another feel-good waste of tax dollars? Can you name a better way to serve your country and countrymen?
comment posted at 7:27 AM on Jan-30-02

Florida town casts out Satan If he's thinking of visiting Florida's west coast, Satan might want to steer clear of Inglis. The mayor of this small fishing village in Florida has declared the Prince of Darkness persona non grata -- in essence, telling him to go to the devil. ROLF.
comment posted at 5:53 AM on Jan-30-02

Governor of Maryland married his deputy chief of staff; she resigned (effected immediately) from her $103,588 position on Friday, the day the couple were married. I'm sure boss/subordinate relationships go on all the time, but isn't it a problem when the boss is the governor of a state? I'm not one to focus on the personal lives of politicians, but this does raise my eyebrows. What do you think -- should state employees be subject to a dating policy simply because they work in the government? Or is this no big deal?
comment posted at 5:46 AM on Jan-30-02

Svalbard, the Arctic pearl. It appears Svalbard has a tourism industry, a pretty good FAQ, some cold weather, but not that cold, since the Gulf Stream terminates there(scroll down to map). The Polar bears are being studied for PCB accumulation, which strikes me as interesting, considering the location of Svalbard. Granted, it's not out of the way, like Franz Josef Land, but then they don't have Restaurant Nansen, do they?
comment posted at 5:19 AM on Jan-29-02

Privatizing Censorship "The Official Secrets Act (in the UK) will soon be unenforceable, and the internet already makes absolute control of information impossible, says Northern Irish web journalist Newton Emerson. What worries him is the changing nature of censorship. Over the past 20 years, mostly by accident, he argues, censorship has been privatised." And Emerson should know: his satires have caused an uproar in Northern Ireland.
comment posted at 5:32 AM on Jan-29-02

Speaking of bibles, a man gets 2 years in prison in China for smuggling them to an underground Christian organization. Nothing like religious tolerance.
comment posted at 6:33 PM on Jan-28-02

Chney refusal to turn over records may soon end up in court Th eEnron scandal begins to mirror the Clinton Whitewater affair, with an apparent suicide, the use of executive priviledge, congressional groups investigating. Now all that is needed is some sex and an independent prosecurtor.
comment posted at 7:35 AM on Jan-28-02

Recipe for Disaster? The World Economic Forum meets in New York this week, and the usual parties are going to converge on the city. With 9.11 so fresh in people's minds will things get way out of hand? It seems like a powderkeg to me.
comment posted at 5:55 AM on Jan-28-02

10 Days in September: Inside the War Cabinet The Washington Post today publishes the first of an eight-part special series, by investigative reporters Dan Balz and Bob Woodward, on the US government's -- and more specifically, the Bush Administration's -- initial response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The series is based on interviews with President Bush, Vice President Cheney and many other key officials inside the administration and out, and is supplemented by notes of National Security Council meetings made available to The Washington Post, along with notes taken by multiple participants. This is what journalism at its best is all about...
comment posted at 11:52 AM on Jan-27-02