A weblog by Hao Lian.
A journey into the soft of night.
A terrible secret guarded by golems.
Monks on Segways, with fire on the top of their heads, playing “Lightning” by Philip Glass. Good night, everybody. We’ll start storyboarding the next chapter of the internet tomorrow because this one just ended.
I went to see some live heart surgery yesterday. Sat in a auditorium for three hours watching the queer thing beating, then not beating for a bit, then beating again. Didn’t lose concentration once.
A woman, on the internet, posts about her anencephalic baby online [link omitted] and how she comes to understand it through her fundamentalist Christian faith. Anencephaly is a heartbreaking condition; anencephalic babies are born without “a major portion of brain, skull, and scalp” (Neurology Channel, no pictures). The link makes its way to MetaFilter and atheism.reddit [link omitted]. Both threads turn into disasters.
The mark of a strong community is a common sense of ethics. The ability for MetaFilter to self-police is unparalleled. And, while MetaTalk and the human moderator system seem suspiciously formal and un-internet, their existence prevent the unreadable, repulsive train wreck on reddit where the shit about sex dolls, atheism, and reddit’s own sense of smugness continues even after the woman asks the people to stop.
“I think this is the saddest thing I’ve read today.”
That there’s nobody to moderate reddit, that having comments like those exist on your website with a negative number standing next to it with your tacit approval, betrays a deep misunderstanding about how communities work and how much the people behind reddit are responsible for the monsters they’ve created at the feet of their indulgent, selflish, bullshit laziness.
Two excellent Ask MetaFilter threads about touchy discussion topics when you talk about someone’s job.
Obama recently received endorsements from the White Aryan Resistance, the American Nazi Party, segregationists, and anti-Semites. The dumber the world gets, the more I think Terry Pratchett’s Discworld isn’t all that different from our world.
Recently, the denizens and monsters of Ask MetaFilter listed weird but lovable jobs. One person is schoolbus router, and another is a soap documentation writer. “I was an intern at a magazine, and their factchecker was overwhelmed by a fact-filled article.” “Hi, my name is Spatula, and I spam old people.” Suck it, Web 2.0.
XQUZYPHYR, MetaHitlerBiden is perceived as flawed while Obama needs to shrug the mocked stigma of being a flawless messiah. Obama is the insightful, visionary newcomer. Biden is the established attack dog. Obama has compassion; Biden has rabies.
The less I say about this, the less I’ll ruin it—but this is always what I wanted The Dark Balloon to be and what I know Digg and reddit will never achieve. “The Wheel” by Drew Meger.
Police invades mayor’s home and kills his dogs with an incorrect warrant, Washington Post“We’re not in the habit of going to homes and shooting peoples’ dogs,” Ellis said. “If we were, there would be a lot more dead dogs around the county.”
Someone get this man a job in public relations. (via MetaFilter)
“Under the wide and starry sky / Dig the grave and let me lie: / Glad did I live and gladly die, / And I laid me down with a will.”, Metafilter
- Brandon Blatcher (in reaction to a cat’s story): God, cat lovers are annoying sometimes.
- loquacious: You must love cats a whole lot, then.
(On vasectomies)
bruce on MetaFilterThe ability to have sex without fear of impregnation makes a vas deferens.
