MetaFilter posts by caddis.
Displaying 251 through 269. Subscribe: http://www.metafilter.com/user/14349/postsrss 
Catholic church invalidates girl's first communion because she used a gluten free wafer. Haley Waldman has celiac disease which prevents her from eating wheat. It will also prevent her from receiving one of the most important sacraments of her church. Apparently, this has happened before. According to church canons wafers must be made only from wheat. Despite the Catholic Church's apparent inflexibility, an extremely low gluten wafer has been approved, but still may not be safe for some celiac sufferers.
posted on Aug-13-04 at 7:28 AM
A peek at Al Qaeda pre 9/11. Reports surfaced in early 2002 about al Qaeda computers purchased by a journalist from the Wall Street Journal. In this article details from one of these computers come to light - complaints about their new home in Afghanistan after being expelled from Sudan, rocky relationships with the Taliban and a difficult merger with Islamic Jihad. "Perhaps one of the most important insights to emerge from the computer is that 9/11 sprang not so much from al-Qaeda's strengths as from its weaknesses. The computer did not reveal any links to Iraq or any other deep-pocketed government; amid the group's penury the members fell to bitter infighting. The blow against the United States was meant to put an end to the internal rivalries, which are manifest in vitriolic memos between Kabul and cells abroad." via The Agonist
posted on Aug-11-04 at 11:51 AM
The virtue of idleness is lost upon our modern society with its Puritan work ethic. Perhaps a little idleness is good for the soul and the mind. Some would say Ben Franklin is spinning in his grave, but he also enjoyed his idle hours as much as any man, at least according to the recent biography, "Ben Franklin: An American Life" by Walter Isaacson.
posted on Aug-7-04 at 7:36 AM
We have all seen online quizzes to aid in making important life choices. For instance, this quiz purports to guide you in making career choices. Confused about religion and seeking to find a faith that suits your beliefs, now we have Belief-O-Matic.
posted on Jul-30-04 at 4:32 AM
Software has no sense of humor. A man whose car bore personalized license plates reading 'NO PLATE' received notices for thousands of unpaid parking tickets. No, not an urban legend, Snopes says it is true. For more classic software bugs check out Software Glitches which includes some software induced disasters. I, Robot anyone?
posted on Jul-24-04 at 1:50 PM
Where did dynamic range go? Compact discs seem to keep getting more and more compressed in an effort to make them seem louder. Didn't the compact disc promise greater dynamic range than vinyl? Then, some record label exec comes along and makes the recording so hot we lose the dynamic range. People have been complaining about this for some time. Papers have been written about it with proposed solutions. Where will it end?
posted on Jul-21-04 at 2:35 PM
Nuclear codes = 00000000 Remember Johnson's Daisy ad, which led to the question whose finger do you want on the button? Well it seems it was not the President's finger alone. SAC took it upon itself (if this article can be believed) to set all the nuclear launch codes to 00000000 and then to tell all of the launch operators. Any one of those crews could have by themselves started WWIII. Apparently, that whole "nuclear briefcase" trick was nothing but a charade for many years. YIKES! (via Geekpress and Slashdot).
posted on Jun-3-04 at 8:47 PM
Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy! Every time I sit down to peruse MeFi I hear "there goes daddy on the blue again." Once they realized that some of their favorite flash sites came from the blue they wanted daddy to put up their favorite. Well here it is, my boys present to you Captain Underpants' battle with the Bionic Booger Boy, a gross interpretation of Galaxian. If you have young boys, check out the author's site and his books. Dave Pilkey has written a slew of incredibly funny and readable books for young kids, especially young boys.
posted on May-20-04 at 4:18 PM
Memo to soldiers: Do not read the Taguba report on the Fox News website, it is classified. I didn't know the Pentagon had a sense of humor.
posted on May-11-04 at 12:37 PM
Takagism. This link was posted just a short while ago; so sorry for the sort of double post. However, the posted link was to the Crimson Room game, not the main site. It was Meta bombed so hard that I would bet that most people never got a chance to explore the main site. This guy is really creative. If you did get a chance to see it, I apologize for the double post.
posted on Apr-1-04 at 7:21 PM
Gyrussish Friday flash. All this spinning is getting me dizzy.
posted on Aug-1-03 at 10:08 AM
Attack Nader early and often to prevent the Greens from throwing another election into the hands of the Republicans. Michael Tomasky in the American Prospect argues that Howard Dean is the man who can best profit from this technique. Will Nader give us four more years of GW? He makes a good point that the Green Party would get more results from working within the Democratic Party than from essentially attacking it like they did in 2000.
posted on Jul-30-03 at 12:20 PM
Welcome to the Machine This article in the Washington Monthly describes a long term project of the Republican party to change the largely bipartisan nature of K street lobbying firms and install Republican thought leaders. In return for political benefits to the lobbyists clients, the lobbyists and their clients are expected to play nice with the Republicans on other issues. K Street has been a moderating influence against drastic change, as some constituent always objects. Under this new right-wing symbiotic relationship, individual interests are somewhat subordinated to the right-wing agenda. One of the more fascinating aspects is how it dramatically improves Republican fundraising; for instance:"For years, conservatives have been pushing to divert part of Social Security into private investment accounts. Such a move, GOP operatives argued, would provide millions of new customers and potentially trillions of dollars to the mutual fund industry that would manage the private accounts. The profits earned would, of course, be shared with the GOP in the form of campaign contributions. In other words, by sluicing the funds collected by the federal government's largest social insurance program through businesses loyal to the GOP, the party would instantly convert the crown jewels of Democratic governance into a pillar of the new Republican machine. " Of course the whole premise of this system rests upon continued Republican control. If the Democrats can wrest back control of the House and Senate, or install another strong president some of these lobbyists and their constituents will likely find themselves closed out of the process. Oh what a lovely way to govern. (via The Filibuster)
posted on Jun-29-03 at 5:40 AM
Technology comes to the rescue via the Department of Homeland Security. Now we will never have to fear terrorists, or criminals again. This post is 23 days late, but remains ever so relevant.
posted on Apr-24-03 at 2:10 PM
The New York Times Magazine (yes, I know the link disappears in a week or two, sorry) published a fascinating article about , "The Philosopher of Islamic Terror." An Egyptian born in 1906, he veered toward radical Islamic fundamentalism by the 1950's, but had much company in Egypt in this endeavor. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood, a precursor to Al Qaeda, and became the editor of their journal. Nasser imprisoned him and eventually executed him. In prison he wrote powerful works which described in his view a diversion in society between human nature and human reason, with human reason having so overwhelmed human nature as to lead to mankind's potential downfall. The answer was a return to human nature through a ritualistic adherence to the teachings of God, as described by Muhammad. Rather than separate science and reason from religion, he sought to combine them as taught in the Koran, thus providing real freedom for mankind. For a liberal Episcopalian (me) these are difficult ideas, but they are nevertheless compelling not only to the poor and uneducated Muslims but more importantly to the intelligentsia. They explain the pain of modern existence, especially to those raised on the Koran. The author describes Qutb as the Islamist's Marx. Scary - religion and philosophy carry much greater power than Marx's mere economics and philosophy. Western media portray Islam as mostly a fringe group drawing power from economic poverty and the power imbalance between the West and most Muslim countries. This article shows that, at least at its heart, the movement draws upon a powerful philosophy which for many answers their agony of modern existence, regardless of their economic status.
posted on Mar-23-03 at 3:21 PM
The Houston KMart mass arrest saga continues. The arrest of 278 people, many seemingly innocent, for trespass in a KMart parking lot was hotly discussed here as was the Chief's suspension of the Captain in charge of the raid. The Chief later suspended an additional twelve officers. Apparently, the captain and the chief have a running feud from well before this raid, which has now led to the chief being indicted for perjury and stepping down until his trial is over.
posted on Sep-6-02 at 9:28 PM
Perhaps the world's largest food fight. 38,000 people gathered in Bunal, Spain to throw tomatoes at each other. They were supplied with 132 tons of ripe, juicy ammunition.
posted on Aug-28-02 at 12:51 PM
A robot called Pyramid Rover will explore two 8 inch wide mysterious passages in the Great Pyramid at Giza. A previous robot exploration by the Upuaut Project found the passage blocked by a slab with copper fittings which looked suspiciously like a door. The Pyramid Rove will carry ground penetrating radar and fiber optic cameras to explore what lies beyond the "door."
posted on Aug-27-02 at 12:35 PM
British Telecom patent does not cover the Internet. Yea, another overreaching patent holder has gone down in defeat. BT has a patent for a remote terminal/mainframe/modem combination which they asserted covered linking over the Internet. In a recent opinion the US District Court for the Southern District of New York held that BT's patent was not so broad as to cover the Internet. Thank God. Are some people just too greedy?
posted on Aug-23-02 at 6:47 AM
posted on Aug-13-04 at 7:28 AM
A peek at Al Qaeda pre 9/11. Reports surfaced in early 2002 about al Qaeda computers purchased by a journalist from the Wall Street Journal. In this article details from one of these computers come to light - complaints about their new home in Afghanistan after being expelled from Sudan, rocky relationships with the Taliban and a difficult merger with Islamic Jihad. "Perhaps one of the most important insights to emerge from the computer is that 9/11 sprang not so much from al-Qaeda's strengths as from its weaknesses. The computer did not reveal any links to Iraq or any other deep-pocketed government; amid the group's penury the members fell to bitter infighting. The blow against the United States was meant to put an end to the internal rivalries, which are manifest in vitriolic memos between Kabul and cells abroad." via The Agonist
posted on Aug-11-04 at 11:51 AM
The virtue of idleness is lost upon our modern society with its Puritan work ethic. Perhaps a little idleness is good for the soul and the mind. Some would say Ben Franklin is spinning in his grave, but he also enjoyed his idle hours as much as any man, at least according to the recent biography, "Ben Franklin: An American Life" by Walter Isaacson.
posted on Aug-7-04 at 7:36 AM
We have all seen online quizzes to aid in making important life choices. For instance, this quiz purports to guide you in making career choices. Confused about religion and seeking to find a faith that suits your beliefs, now we have Belief-O-Matic.
posted on Jul-30-04 at 4:32 AM
Software has no sense of humor. A man whose car bore personalized license plates reading 'NO PLATE' received notices for thousands of unpaid parking tickets. No, not an urban legend, Snopes says it is true. For more classic software bugs check out Software Glitches which includes some software induced disasters. I, Robot anyone?
posted on Jul-24-04 at 1:50 PM
Where did dynamic range go? Compact discs seem to keep getting more and more compressed in an effort to make them seem louder. Didn't the compact disc promise greater dynamic range than vinyl? Then, some record label exec comes along and makes the recording so hot we lose the dynamic range. People have been complaining about this for some time. Papers have been written about it with proposed solutions. Where will it end?
posted on Jul-21-04 at 2:35 PM
Nuclear codes = 00000000 Remember Johnson's Daisy ad, which led to the question whose finger do you want on the button? Well it seems it was not the President's finger alone. SAC took it upon itself (if this article can be believed) to set all the nuclear launch codes to 00000000 and then to tell all of the launch operators. Any one of those crews could have by themselves started WWIII. Apparently, that whole "nuclear briefcase" trick was nothing but a charade for many years. YIKES! (via Geekpress and Slashdot).
posted on Jun-3-04 at 8:47 PM
Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy! Every time I sit down to peruse MeFi I hear "there goes daddy on the blue again." Once they realized that some of their favorite flash sites came from the blue they wanted daddy to put up their favorite. Well here it is, my boys present to you Captain Underpants' battle with the Bionic Booger Boy, a gross interpretation of Galaxian. If you have young boys, check out the author's site and his books. Dave Pilkey has written a slew of incredibly funny and readable books for young kids, especially young boys.
posted on May-20-04 at 4:18 PM
Memo to soldiers: Do not read the Taguba report on the Fox News website, it is classified. I didn't know the Pentagon had a sense of humor.
posted on May-11-04 at 12:37 PM
Takagism. This link was posted just a short while ago; so sorry for the sort of double post. However, the posted link was to the Crimson Room game, not the main site. It was Meta bombed so hard that I would bet that most people never got a chance to explore the main site. This guy is really creative. If you did get a chance to see it, I apologize for the double post.
posted on Apr-1-04 at 7:21 PM
Gyrussish Friday flash. All this spinning is getting me dizzy.
posted on Aug-1-03 at 10:08 AM
Attack Nader early and often to prevent the Greens from throwing another election into the hands of the Republicans. Michael Tomasky in the American Prospect argues that Howard Dean is the man who can best profit from this technique. Will Nader give us four more years of GW? He makes a good point that the Green Party would get more results from working within the Democratic Party than from essentially attacking it like they did in 2000.
posted on Jul-30-03 at 12:20 PM
Welcome to the Machine This article in the Washington Monthly describes a long term project of the Republican party to change the largely bipartisan nature of K street lobbying firms and install Republican thought leaders. In return for political benefits to the lobbyists clients, the lobbyists and their clients are expected to play nice with the Republicans on other issues. K Street has been a moderating influence against drastic change, as some constituent always objects. Under this new right-wing symbiotic relationship, individual interests are somewhat subordinated to the right-wing agenda. One of the more fascinating aspects is how it dramatically improves Republican fundraising; for instance:"For years, conservatives have been pushing to divert part of Social Security into private investment accounts. Such a move, GOP operatives argued, would provide millions of new customers and potentially trillions of dollars to the mutual fund industry that would manage the private accounts. The profits earned would, of course, be shared with the GOP in the form of campaign contributions. In other words, by sluicing the funds collected by the federal government's largest social insurance program through businesses loyal to the GOP, the party would instantly convert the crown jewels of Democratic governance into a pillar of the new Republican machine. " Of course the whole premise of this system rests upon continued Republican control. If the Democrats can wrest back control of the House and Senate, or install another strong president some of these lobbyists and their constituents will likely find themselves closed out of the process. Oh what a lovely way to govern. (via The Filibuster)
posted on Jun-29-03 at 5:40 AM
Technology comes to the rescue via the Department of Homeland Security. Now we will never have to fear terrorists, or criminals again. This post is 23 days late, but remains ever so relevant.
posted on Apr-24-03 at 2:10 PM
The New York Times Magazine (yes, I know the link disappears in a week or two, sorry) published a fascinating article about , "The Philosopher of Islamic Terror." An Egyptian born in 1906, he veered toward radical Islamic fundamentalism by the 1950's, but had much company in Egypt in this endeavor. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood, a precursor to Al Qaeda, and became the editor of their journal. Nasser imprisoned him and eventually executed him. In prison he wrote powerful works which described in his view a diversion in society between human nature and human reason, with human reason having so overwhelmed human nature as to lead to mankind's potential downfall. The answer was a return to human nature through a ritualistic adherence to the teachings of God, as described by Muhammad. Rather than separate science and reason from religion, he sought to combine them as taught in the Koran, thus providing real freedom for mankind. For a liberal Episcopalian (me) these are difficult ideas, but they are nevertheless compelling not only to the poor and uneducated Muslims but more importantly to the intelligentsia. They explain the pain of modern existence, especially to those raised on the Koran. The author describes Qutb as the Islamist's Marx. Scary - religion and philosophy carry much greater power than Marx's mere economics and philosophy. Western media portray Islam as mostly a fringe group drawing power from economic poverty and the power imbalance between the West and most Muslim countries. This article shows that, at least at its heart, the movement draws upon a powerful philosophy which for many answers their agony of modern existence, regardless of their economic status.
posted on Mar-23-03 at 3:21 PM
The Houston KMart mass arrest saga continues. The arrest of 278 people, many seemingly innocent, for trespass in a KMart parking lot was hotly discussed here as was the Chief's suspension of the Captain in charge of the raid. The Chief later suspended an additional twelve officers. Apparently, the captain and the chief have a running feud from well before this raid, which has now led to the chief being indicted for perjury and stepping down until his trial is over.
posted on Sep-6-02 at 9:28 PM
Perhaps the world's largest food fight. 38,000 people gathered in Bunal, Spain to throw tomatoes at each other. They were supplied with 132 tons of ripe, juicy ammunition.
posted on Aug-28-02 at 12:51 PM
A robot called Pyramid Rover will explore two 8 inch wide mysterious passages in the Great Pyramid at Giza. A previous robot exploration by the Upuaut Project found the passage blocked by a slab with copper fittings which looked suspiciously like a door. The Pyramid Rove will carry ground penetrating radar and fiber optic cameras to explore what lies beyond the "door."
posted on Aug-27-02 at 12:35 PM
British Telecom patent does not cover the Internet. Yea, another overreaching patent holder has gone down in defeat. BT has a patent for a remote terminal/mainframe/modem combination which they asserted covered linking over the Internet. In a recent opinion the US District Court for the Southern District of New York held that BT's patent was not so broad as to cover the Internet. Thank God. Are some people just too greedy?
posted on Aug-23-02 at 6:47 AM
« previous page |