90: Pic Pedantic

Episode 90 of the MetaFilter podcast was recorded today and runs about an hour and twenty minutes long, covering all the best bits from the MetaFilter universe for February.

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MeFi Jobs
Vodka delivery in Poland

MeFi Projects
Notes to Self by nihlton

Non-Stop Scroll Shop by ignignokt

DotDotCo, tumblr of cool signage by redsparkler (DAT AMPERSAND (dat ass explained))

UXLaunchpad one-day design course in Seattle by jragon

Deep Sea Dubstep by redbeard, also posted to MetaFilter

MeFi Posts
Two guys in a pizza shop cover Toto's Africa



3+3+3+2+2, the Terminator movie theme

Stephen Glass, famous fabricating news reporter finished law school, passed the bar, but was blocked from practicing law (Hayden Christensen)

MeFi's own brownpau's Twitter account @PicPedant points out sourcing on unsourced famous photos (also appeared on BBC, below)



Pete Seeger obit post from last month (Pete Seeger's kid music album on YouTube)

MetaFilter's gender text field roundup updated

Booze + Popsicles

Flappy Birds (Flappy Braille in the browser address bar, Roguey Bird)

House of Cards (no spoilers) and House of Cards (w/ spoilers) threads

Fake Chef pranks 5 morning shows with disgusting dishes

AirPnP to find public restrooms/reviews along with ColdChef's excellent Mardi Gras story (jessamyn's Vermont Mardi Gras)

Twitch Plays Pokemon

Bitcoin threads: Mt Gox shuts down and Newsweek doxxes the possible creator?

Ask MetaFilter Questions
What were Abbie Hoffman's foolproof methods to fly free?

What do you call Havard's extension night school on a resume?

How does someone with stage 4 cancer find The One through dating?

When did enslaved Africans in the US stop speaking African languages? (user zaelic's story of researching this subject)

Old questions resolved: Hamlet Pig kids book identified and Song that sounded like an Adele song identified

Best thrift shop shopping techniques?

What other great podcasts should I listen to?

What are some great documentaries I might have missed?

What are some real-world artifacts that have an air of the fantastical?

I need some good non-fiction book recommendations

MeFi Music
Stealers by groklock

Tooth Reef Wharf Hive by mubba

Spider on a dream by es_de_bah

The Raven by TheNegativeInfluence

Until I Found You by BlerpityBloop

partytime by CarrotAdventure (played as the outro)

MetaTalk Posts
Improving the "There Is Help" wiki page

The "Worf" day

New favicons are here!

How many MeFi old-timers are still here?

posted by mathowie (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 7:51 PM (32 comments total)

crtl [f] "Senna" in the What are some great documentaries I might have missed? askmetafilter - was dissapoint.

also "Somm"
posted by vozworth at 8:11 PM on March 6, 2014

I still can't believe everyone thinks I'M the crazy one for noticing the favicon change.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:29 PM on March 6, 2014

Re: Harvard - No, no no no, if you are in a degree program at the Extension School that IS the same thing as enrolling in a degree program. The only difference between an extension program and a standard college is that you can take some of the classes in extension without matriculating - taking classes is just taking classes, but you can also undergo an application process and enroll in a degree program - a rigorous program, a serious program, a graduate program - in an extension school. Yes, extension programs do offer light & fruity one-off classes that grownups with free time like to enjoy and that's good for overall revenue and that's why they're offered. But that isn't all they offer, and that's one of the reasons that thread got stupid; people don't have a full perspective on what they do.

I'm seriously kind of sad that so many people can't quite understand that there is such a thing as serious degree-granting programs offered through extension services. They're not all made up of film studies survey classes. This makes me despair a lot about the endless writing I'm doing and the many grand I'm shelling out to get a degree from the goddam place.
posted by Miko at 8:50 PM on March 6, 2014 [3 favorites]

Sorry about that Miko, my only experience with UCLA extension was classes that are kind of blow off, for fun things, I never noticed full courses were offered that's good to know.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:51 PM on March 6, 2014

I looked and it seems like UCLA offers open enrollment classes and professional certificate programs, but doesn't grant degrees, just the certificates. That's not true of all extension programs, though. "Extension" just means extending learning opportunities to people outside the traditional 4-year or 2 year fulltime programs. It can take a lot of different shapes and forms. It has a philosophy of educational access to the many, but within extension there can be degree granting programs like those people mentioned in the thread - MBA, pre-law, professional master's, as well as BA degrees. Depends on the institution. There was a lot of "extension isn't really school" in that thread, which was disappointing especially after so many people took pains to explain that the popular image of extension as a place where retired people take art history classes doesn't match the real extension world of today. I go to a Harvard Extension degree program and it's a professional interdisciplinary program which is housed in Extension because it has been piloted there as something that is aimed at midcareer professionals getting a qualifying degree, and most of those people work full-time - so a traditional 2-year residency in a program would not be feasible for them.

I'm admittedly a little sensitive, as you could imagine anyone being if they were hearing the popular perception that they degree they earned wasn't real. It's no big woop but I liked the thread for clarifying a little bit.
posted by Miko at 5:57 AM on March 7, 2014

"How does someone with stage 4 cancer find The One through dating?"

Thanks for linking to this. I didn't make it through the thread, but the few comments I saw were deeply moving.
posted by zarq at 6:51 AM on March 7, 2014

Thank you for mentioning the There Is Help thread. :) I've been remiss in not updating the wiki page with my own suggestions--I'm still really intimidated by making substantive edits to a page that especially needs to be helpful. I'll get on that this weekend, though.

Miko, if it helps to know, I did know about the nature and extent of the Harvard Extension School's programs prior to that thread, and I think it's wonderful that you're pursuing a master's there in a program that's relevant to you. Having also been in situations where I felt my own education was being devalued by others when I was under a lot of stress from its workload, I sympathize with where you're coming from. It seems to me that there are many parts of postsecondary education in which the signaling value of a degree and the value of the education involved in getting it are only loosely correlated, if that. I hope that the situation is better within your field; it sounds like you've been doing a lot of meaningful work that very much deserves to be recognized as such.
posted by beryllium at 7:06 AM on March 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

crtl [f] "Senna" in the What are some great documentaries I might have missed? askmetafilter - was dissapoint.

also "Somm"

With apologies to Jessamyn:

♫ The wonderful thing about open AskMes is that anyone can answer. ♫
posted by SpiffyRob at 7:07 AM on March 7, 2014 [4 favorites]

crtl [f] "Senna" in the What are some great documentaries I might have missed? askmetafilter - was dissapoint.

Just ctrl-F'ed again. You didn't post it there?

I never noticed full courses were offered that's good to know.

I felt like that thread got derailed by people's particular one-school perspectives (about a non-Harvard school) or people's Harvard perspectives who didn't know anything about the specific Extension program. And since the set-up was "This person said this on their resume they went to Harvard but really they just paid to take a few classes... is this kosher" it started off with that particular slant. It sort of highlighted for me some of the downsides generally of AskMe in a way that is useful to highlight since you can actually encapsulate the truth values of various statements (as opposed to the just "Is my boyfriend a jerk" things) and then decide how to weigh them when determining "kosherness"
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:08 AM on March 7, 2014

I am probably way! too! excited hearing my username.
posted by cashman at 8:14 AM on March 7, 2014 [6 favorites]

I hope that the situation is better within your field

Kind words, beryllium: fortunately within my field the degree has a great reputation. It's more outside the field that it's not understood what the structure is.

w/r/t jessamyn's comment, yeah, and in truth it does get complicated because there are people who are intentionally shadily vague about referencing their interactions with Harvard.
posted by Miko at 9:17 AM on March 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I am probably way! too! excited hearing my username.

Surely I'm not the only one who quickly skims the list before listening to see if any of my posts made it?
posted by pjern at 9:54 AM on March 7, 2014 [6 favorites]

The transcript is live!
posted by Pronoiac at 10:43 AM on March 7, 2014

OMG THE TRANSCRIPT IS JOHNNY 5
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:53 AM on March 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

So happy about this, I've been largely away from MeFi the past 2 weeks so this will help me catch up.
posted by arcticseal at 1:50 PM on March 7, 2014

Ah, I enjoyed that. "Later never comes" may also be the name of my future ambient post-BoC electronic band.
posted by Wordshore at 3:52 PM on March 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Jason Voorhees was the worst New York Times reporter ever.
posted by ignignokt at 4:17 PM on March 7, 2014

You know one of my favorite things about brownpau? His website is "How now, brownpau." How cute is that?
posted by ocherdraco at 4:21 PM on March 7, 2014

Jason Voorhees was the worst New York Times reporter ever.

Tenacious, though!
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:26 PM on March 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Whoa, I'm in this podcast three times! I'm going to get some ice cream to celebrate.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:59 PM on March 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Tenacious V, cortex?
posted by wenestvedt at 6:31 PM on March 7, 2014

Also: WHAT HO, MODS
posted by wenestvedt at 6:32 PM on March 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

After seeing that my post was mentioned (and squealing a little, I'll admit), I specifically skipped late into the podcast to listen to them talk about it. I'm still excited to be mentioned even though my name wasn't said.
posted by Night_owl at 8:50 PM on March 7, 2014

Sorry about that. We really try to get people's usernames in there and I like your username.

hoot!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:27 AM on March 8, 2014

Jason Voorhees was the worst New York Times reporter ever.

Yeah, his 1996 article on Bob Dole was a real hatchet job.
posted by SpacemanStix at 6:22 PM on March 8, 2014

I must have spent an hour last night listening to the two guys in the pizza shop. They were pretty awesome, and I missed the post the first time around.
posted by SpacemanStix at 6:25 PM on March 8, 2014

ignignokt: "Jason Voorhees was the worst New York Times reporter ever."

Still better than Jayson Blair.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:41 PM on March 8, 2014

Jayson Blair

I just did a Google search on him, and the picture that comes up is not correct.
posted by SpacemanStix at 7:19 PM on March 8, 2014

I saw Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox in the weird refurbished indie film theater in Cambridge MA when it came out and it was fantastic. So go find 90 minutes already, geez.
posted by Mizu at 6:02 AM on March 9, 2014

mathowie, loved that shoutout so much, thank you. and jessamyn, so impressed you got the username right on the first try!
posted by deliciae at 10:03 PM on March 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'm starting to wonder if Cortex and mat are having a contest to see how many consecutive months they can manage to sneak Cookie Clicker references into the podcast....
posted by schmod at 10:31 AM on March 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

Aw, man, I'm totally in this podcast, but I've only just discovered it! That's rad! And yeah, I took all those photos myself. Big thanks to my boyfriend, who is super patient on road trips when it comes to pulling over for photographic opportunities.
posted by redsparkler at 4:04 PM on November 16, 2015