52: Llama xrays

June 18, 2010 3:47 PM

Podcast 52 was recorded on June 14th and runs a tad over an hour. This episode features not just one, not just two, but (I think) three overly detailed and long explanations by cortex of something arcane that he loved.

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Llama xray!

posted by mathowie to MeFi Podcast at 3:47 PM (40 comments total)

re:unfortunate phrases, the last company I worked for decided that we had a moral problem, and that the solution for this was a new motto: "Drink the company name Kool-Aid"

I had just started there, and thought it was about the dumbest fucking thing I'd ever heard, and actually said so out loud when I saw the email.

An older gentleman who had walked into the tech support office said: "Oh really, why is that?"

"Well, it's kind of about mass suicide."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah [long explanation of Jonestown]"

"Huh I hadn't thought about that, I thought it was about The electric Kool Aid Acid test."

"Well, either way, it's suggesting that working here will make us want to kill ourselves or take drugs, and either is pretty stupid."

It turned out it was the CEO, who was tossed out a few weeks later by the VC company that was funding us. Unfortunately the dumb-ass motto outlasted him, and as far as I know they are still using it.
posted by empath at 4:26 PM on June 18, 2010 [4 favorites]

moral = morale
posted by empath at 4:26 PM on June 18, 2010

Jessamyn a disciple of Ol' Dirty Bastard?

for any em-cee in any fifty two states
I get psycho, killer, Norman Bates

posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 4:32 PM on June 18, 2010

I work with a man that shares the name of the man responsible for the above mentioned massacre. I also work with a woman with the same last name as a certain former Serbia President with the first name of Slobodan. I'm often confounded why neither change their names.

I'm not sure what this has to do with anything. That said, I am off to find out cortex's arcane loves. If one isn't the original [side barred] Japanese bear, doughnuts or kittens, I will be sorely disappointed!
posted by cjorgensen at 4:57 PM on June 18, 2010

Woo!

Arcane cortex is my favorite cortex, followed closely by posh cortex and sporty cortex.
posted by koeselitz at 5:23 PM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yay, podcast!

OMG, cortex said my name in the podcast!
posted by FishBike at 5:25 PM on June 18, 2010

*stops self from punching llama in the face for jessamyn*
posted by terrapin at 5:34 PM on June 18, 2010

I remember in the 1960s the producers of Bullwinkle were promoting "Moosylvania" as the "52nd State", never explaining what the 51st was supposed to be...
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:50 PM on June 18, 2010

Rougelike? Better clean that up before JHarris gets here.
posted by jedicus at 5:53 PM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

Jessamyn's "How you know you're a pothead" comments made me fall over laughing. Awesome!

I also loved the silence after the scolding re: fidgeting.
posted by Riverine at 7:03 PM on June 18, 2010

Better clean that up before JHarris gets here.

Handled. Don't tell mathowie.

I don't even remember the "how you know you're a pothead" part, will listen again.

um....
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:53 PM on June 18, 2010

I don't even remember the "how you know you're a pothead" part

It was in the part where we were talking about your favorite Ask MeFi post about what you can do with less of. I was mentioning I saw lots of mention of Cable TV, and then I was surprised to see "weed" mentioned and that's when you said it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:12 PM on June 18, 2010

wait ...wut?
posted by The Whelk at 8:59 PM on June 18, 2010

"like ...what 52 ....13x4 ...Oh a deck of cards...sometimes I think there are 52 states."


Oh ..this is delightful.
posted by The Whelk at 9:01 PM on June 18, 2010

there is a very high level of GIDDINESS on this podcast. I approve.
posted by The Whelk at 9:03 PM on June 18, 2010

Also, I would listen to "nerdtime with cortex" assiduously. DO IT NOW.
posted by koeselitz at 9:13 PM on June 18, 2010 [5 favorites]

YAH MAYBE IT COULD BE COMBINED WITH THE MUSIC PODCAST OH SNAP
posted by The Whelk at 9:17 PM on June 18, 2010 [2 favorites]

Having something I made mentioned in the podcast and looked upon favorably by the mods is like being named student of the week the first week of kindergarten. In other words, awesome.

And hearing Matt go, "WOAH, baby hippo!" literally made me squeal with delight. Thanks, guys.
posted by sarahnade at 9:50 PM on June 18, 2010

Is this the Firday nigth drunk threda?
posted by special-k at 10:23 PM on June 18, 2010

This episode features not just one, not just two, but (I think) three overly detailed and long explanations by cortex of something arcane that he loved.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
posted by davejay at 10:28 PM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

$4.75 SAIT.
posted by special-k at 10:30 PM on June 18, 2010

When are you all going to record a podcast done entirely in song? Or alternatively, a musical version where Cortex replaces his long nerdy explanations (which I actually love, but then, I do the same thing myself) with well-constructed songs about the things he loves?
posted by davejay at 11:53 PM on June 18, 2010

First of all, a librarian gig listed in Jobs? This is I do not see, but would love to, so I could apply for it and then I could have a job again!

Secondly, this is the most minor of points...but for anyone in the future looking at this, I wasn't a librarian when I was working at UC (now yes, then not exactly) in the Nature journals discussion. Oh, and boo Nature for trying that shit, let me just say.

I'll just be in the corner over there, mumbling about the government killing the safest car ever built.
posted by librarylis at 3:06 AM on June 19, 2010

Oh, I never saw that Mukhtar birthday post! It made my day. It also made me wonder if the song they are singing is the standard "Happy Birthday" song in Denmark. Which got me thinking about "Happy Birthday" songs around the world (with ukelele). And now I'm off to find recordings/videos of world birthday songs! Perfect Saturday morning project; thanks Podcast!
posted by bluefly at 5:49 AM on June 19, 2010

I give "nerdtime with cortex" a week before he loses interest. cortex is a doer, not a cataloger.
posted by terrapin at 7:08 AM on June 19, 2010

I just watched Mukhtar's birthday surprise, and since the original thread is closed, I'll just have to say this here: fabulous!
posted by FishBike at 7:49 AM on June 19, 2010

Hey, thanks for acknowledging my half-baked project! I just need to get around to updating it again!
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:36 PM on June 19, 2010

I'm 21, ma'am. ; _ ;
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:54 PM on June 19, 2010

Some numbers for the devotchki saga: between the original AskMe post and the two MetaTalk posts about this, there's activity from 1465 users visible in the Infodump. Activity meaning posting the thread, commenting in the thread, or favoriting either the post or a comment in the thread.

Just looking at comments alone, there's 584 different users between those three threads.

Wow!
posted by FishBike at 1:44 PM on June 19, 2010

You're very youthful mr .tim.
posted by The Whelk at 6:14 PM on June 19, 2010

Also, Cortex I'd like to mention that while I was listening to this my SO was quietly doing his work until you said "van neuyman"

He looked up and went "Vhon Nueh-man! Vhon Nueh-man!" and then went back to his work.
posted by The Whelk at 6:20 PM on June 19, 2010

He looked up and went "Vhon Nueh-man! Vhon Nueh-man!" and then went back to his work.

I do not remember where I picked up the "NOY-man" pronunciation for the man's name, actually; my default go at that would be "NEW-man" but at some point I think someone pounded the version you heard into me. If they were mistaken, well, hell, I dunno. I can pronounce Linus' name correctly, at least.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:12 PM on June 20, 2010

The top results in a Google search for "John Von Neumann pronunciation" all seem to support the version used by cortex.

For me it's one of those weird names that I see all the time in print, but it basically never comes up in conversations at work or within my social circle, so to me it has no pronunciation at all. Which is actually... slightly depressing.
posted by FishBike at 5:49 PM on June 20, 2010

Heh. "But Bondcliff couldn't get his shit together" is pretty much the story of my life.
posted by bondcliff at 5:42 AM on June 21, 2010

Oh hey thanks for mentioning my project!

I'm very excited - I just performed my first braze with a hardware store MAPP gas torch and it went off without a hitch. There should now be less pictures of random pieces of wood and more pictures of FIRE!
posted by backseatpilot at 6:14 AM on June 21, 2010

Has anyone had any luck subscribing to the podcast on Miro (for Windows)? It doesn't seem to recognise the feed properly.
posted by chorltonmeateater at 9:39 AM on June 21, 2010

I'm too young to ever have met him, but my grandparents knew von Neumann pretty well, and they always referred to him using the same pronunciation as cortex. Or, more frequently, "Johnny."
posted by nickmark at 12:01 PM on June 21, 2010

Thanks for mentioning my public synthesis thing. I turned the latest one into a weird processed video. A weird processed video in two parts on youtube.
posted by idiopath at 7:54 PM on June 23, 2010

I've been listening to the podcast for ages. But for some reason this was the first time it struck me how odd it is to BOTH follow a website regularly throughout the day AND listen to a podcast about things that happened on that same website.

But anyway, the podcast is awesome, and entertaining, and useful, and it always highlights tons of stuff I somehow missed. So thanks everyone for taking the time to record it and put it together and publish it and stuff! I always get excited when a new one pops up in my queue.
posted by ErikaB at 7:53 PM on June 25, 2010

I chuckled a lot while listening to this podcast, especially during the commentary for the little things blog:

mathowie: WHOA, a baby hippo? What!
jessamyn: Didn't you see the baby hippo when it came out?
mathowie: No... I think my ovaries just burst.
jessamyn: You don't HAVE any ovaries! I don't care what kind of medicine you're taking!
posted by cobwebberies at 11:58 AM on June 27, 2010