Jinx August 8, 2012 10:26 AM Subscribe
At first I thought someone had hit "post" twice, but no, it was just that that Fight or Flight and Zoomorphic entered the Metafilter Singularity at 1:01 PM.
Yeah that was neat. See what cats can do? UNITE!
posted by Namlit at 10:39 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Namlit at 10:39 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
I had the same dream again last night. You know the one I'm talking about.
posted by BobbyVan at 10:39 AM on August 8, 2012
posted by BobbyVan at 10:39 AM on August 8, 2012
This is almost as good as the simultaneous Teddy Ruxpin seizure stories.
posted by phunniemee at 10:40 AM on August 8, 2012 [7 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 10:40 AM on August 8, 2012 [7 favorites]
Here in Pacific Daylight Time, the event happened at 10:01 on 8/8 (which is even more palindromic).
posted by mbrubeck at 10:42 AM on August 8, 2012
posted by mbrubeck at 10:42 AM on August 8, 2012
This is exactly how people find out their Cylons.
posted by The Whelk at 10:51 AM on August 8, 2012 [20 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 10:51 AM on August 8, 2012 [20 favorites]
That's just the toxoplasmosis talking.
posted by zamboni at 10:52 AM on August 8, 2012 [20 favorites]
posted by zamboni at 10:52 AM on August 8, 2012 [20 favorites]
That's pretty amazing.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:53 AM on August 8, 2012
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 10:53 AM on August 8, 2012
To whom is the beer owed?
posted by mannequito at 10:58 AM on August 8, 2012
posted by mannequito at 10:58 AM on August 8, 2012
WHOA
posted by Wordwoman at 11:06 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Wordwoman at 11:06 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
I dreamt about cats last night. And I fell out of bed twice.
posted by maudlin at 11:11 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by maudlin at 11:11 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
WOAH
posted by carsonb at 11:12 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by carsonb at 11:12 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
If I saw that kinda thing in the days when I marked research papers, that'd be two zeros for plagiarism right there.
posted by Sternmeyer at 11:18 AM on August 8, 2012
posted by Sternmeyer at 11:18 AM on August 8, 2012
I had the same dream again last night. You know the one I'm talking about.
Yeah, but eggplants and trained squirrels don't work like that in real life.
posted by zombieflanders at 11:21 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yeah, but eggplants and trained squirrels don't work like that in real life.
posted by zombieflanders at 11:21 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
And the user names people. Fight or Flight and Zoomorphic?
posted by 2bucksplus at 11:22 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by 2bucksplus at 11:22 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
The effects of toxoplasmosis. So sad in ones so young.
posted by MuffinMan at 11:41 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by MuffinMan at 11:41 AM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
Their Cylons what?
posted by Splunge at 11:47 AM on August 8, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by Splunge at 11:47 AM on August 8, 2012 [5 favorites]
Hilarious! I almost had that happen once and thought the same thing.
posted by griphus at 11:58 AM on August 8, 2012
posted by griphus at 11:58 AM on August 8, 2012
"Hello Starbuck my old friend...."
posted by The Whelk at 12:03 PM on August 8, 2012 [9 favorites]
posted by The Whelk at 12:03 PM on August 8, 2012 [9 favorites]
I was wondering why I heard a distant and slightly strange version of All Along the Watchtower playing around 10:01...
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:17 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:17 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
"Hello Starbuck my old friend...."
Here's a song that was beautiful when performed by my ancestor Art.
posted by zamboni at 12:51 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
Here's a song that was beautiful when performed by my ancestor Art.
posted by zamboni at 12:51 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
I seriously just finished the series finale of BSG last night and am having a Galen Tyrol-esque freak out over the possibility that I'm a skin job.
posted by zoomorphic at 12:58 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by zoomorphic at 12:58 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
Well it's a good thing no one hid remote-controlled speakers all over your apartment
Where's that damn remote...
posted by griphus at 1:02 PM on August 8, 2012
Where's that damn remote...
posted by griphus at 1:02 PM on August 8, 2012
I think this means means me and Zoomorphic have to do a pinkie swear or something.
(Do Cylons have pinkies?)
posted by fight or flight at 1:39 PM on August 8, 2012
(Do Cylons have pinkies?)
posted by fight or flight at 1:39 PM on August 8, 2012
Entire necklaces of them, yes.
posted by griphus at 1:48 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by griphus at 1:48 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
Don't they simply cancel each other out or cage fight or something?
posted by arcticseal at 1:54 PM on August 8, 2012
posted by arcticseal at 1:54 PM on August 8, 2012
So what's the high score you people have hit on today's Olympic basketball free-throw-shooting Google doodle? I kind of need to know whether higher than 42 is humanly possible.
posted by .kobayashi. at 1:58 PM on August 8, 2012
posted by .kobayashi. at 1:58 PM on August 8, 2012
Dang it, .kobayashi., I can only get 18. My little guy moves farther away from the basket half-way through!
posted by misha at 3:06 PM on August 8, 2012
posted by misha at 3:06 PM on August 8, 2012
It always amuses me when me and Jessamyn do this. But it's a bit less impressive when it's a policy question in Metatalk.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:10 PM on August 8, 2012
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:10 PM on August 8, 2012
"If I saw that kinda thing in the days when I marked research papers, that'd be two zeros for plagiarism right there."
Yes, most people accept without any reflection or research that their intuition about these things is reliable.
It's not.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:11 PM on August 8, 2012
Yes, most people accept without any reflection or research that their intuition about these things is reliable.
It's not.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:11 PM on August 8, 2012
"I think they both copped the same wikipedia page."
Thanks for proving my point.
Here's the two pairs of strikingly similar sentences:
"Cats are born and bred to catch and eat vermin like mice. Unless the mouse is already seriously sick or poisoned, it's very very unlikely that Winnie will get sick from eating one."
and
"Cats are born and bred to chase mice, rats and all sorts of vermin. Unless one of the mice in your apartment has eaten poison, it's unlikely that mousing will get your cat sick."
In both cases, they are the initial two sentences of their respective comments.
I don't assume plagiarism or dishonesty, but the similarity is so remarkable that it's difficult to believe. Nevertheless, if you actually check the Wikipedia pages on cats (and cat evolution), you don't find an example of the first sentence. And that both second sentences follow the first can't be that they're taken from a general reference — they'd need to be from something that answered the same question that this AskMe posed. The shared use of unless and unlikely is startling, too.
If there's something shady going on, it seems to me that it's likely that it's the same person mistakenly posting the same comment as two different people (which I find somewhat hard to believe) or two different people happen to have read/consulted a source that answers a question almost identical to the one here. In that case, however, it wouldn't necessarily be intentional plagiarism because, as I've written here and elsewhere before, memory research has shown that people can unwittingly recapitulate whole paragraphs of written text they've read almost exactly.
But, also, there's the law of large numbers and confirmation bias. Given the constraints on answering a straightforward question like this, how often are these questions asked where such coincidences don't happen...and shouldn't we expect that they will happen now and then by pure chance? Is our intuition about what is likely and unlikely reliable? In fact, it's generally not.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:35 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
Thanks for proving my point.
Here's the two pairs of strikingly similar sentences:
"Cats are born and bred to catch and eat vermin like mice. Unless the mouse is already seriously sick or poisoned, it's very very unlikely that Winnie will get sick from eating one."
and
"Cats are born and bred to chase mice, rats and all sorts of vermin. Unless one of the mice in your apartment has eaten poison, it's unlikely that mousing will get your cat sick."
In both cases, they are the initial two sentences of their respective comments.
I don't assume plagiarism or dishonesty, but the similarity is so remarkable that it's difficult to believe. Nevertheless, if you actually check the Wikipedia pages on cats (and cat evolution), you don't find an example of the first sentence. And that both second sentences follow the first can't be that they're taken from a general reference — they'd need to be from something that answered the same question that this AskMe posed. The shared use of unless and unlikely is startling, too.
If there's something shady going on, it seems to me that it's likely that it's the same person mistakenly posting the same comment as two different people (which I find somewhat hard to believe) or two different people happen to have read/consulted a source that answers a question almost identical to the one here. In that case, however, it wouldn't necessarily be intentional plagiarism because, as I've written here and elsewhere before, memory research has shown that people can unwittingly recapitulate whole paragraphs of written text they've read almost exactly.
But, also, there's the law of large numbers and confirmation bias. Given the constraints on answering a straightforward question like this, how often are these questions asked where such coincidences don't happen...and shouldn't we expect that they will happen now and then by pure chance? Is our intuition about what is likely and unlikely reliable? In fact, it's generally not.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:35 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
keep the favorites in balance this is driving me nuts
posted by furiousxgeorge at 5:25 PM on August 8, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by furiousxgeorge at 5:25 PM on August 8, 2012 [4 favorites]
IF, you need to turn up your humor detector, I think it's on the fritz.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:28 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:28 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
That's all well and good, but my big cat just brings in the small snakes.
posted by vozworth at 6:43 PM on August 8, 2012
posted by vozworth at 6:43 PM on August 8, 2012
My cat has been acting weird this evening. I think she's inhaled some of the pot my roommate's brother has been smoking outside my window.
posted by maryr at 8:16 PM on August 8, 2012
posted by maryr at 8:16 PM on August 8, 2012
WOHA
posted by shakespeherian at 8:26 PM on August 8, 2012
posted by shakespeherian at 8:26 PM on August 8, 2012
HAVE YOU EVER REALLY LOOKED AT THAT RED DOT?!
posted by The Whelk at 8:38 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by The Whelk at 8:38 PM on August 8, 2012 [1 favorite]
phunniemee: "This is almost as good as the simultaneous Teddy Ruxpin seizure stories."
Well now I'm disappointed that my Cricket doll didn't do that when I stuck a non-Cricket tape into her.
The Whelk: "This is exactly how people find out their Cylons."
NOT AGAIN didn't we just go through this in the Edit Window thread... *steps away from the MetaTalk*
posted by IndigoRain at 9:04 PM on August 8, 2012
Well now I'm disappointed that my Cricket doll didn't do that when I stuck a non-Cricket tape into her.
The Whelk: "This is exactly how people find out their Cylons."
NOT AGAIN didn't we just go through this in the Edit Window thread... *steps away from the MetaTalk*
posted by IndigoRain at 9:04 PM on August 8, 2012
furiousxgeorge: "keep the favorites in balance this is driving me nut"
Sorry, I just had to. I'm sure someone else will see it and fix the imbalance, don't worry!
posted by Grither at 3:43 AM on August 9, 2012
Sorry, I just had to. I'm sure someone else will see it and fix the imbalance, don't worry!
posted by Grither at 3:43 AM on August 9, 2012
"keep the favorites in balance this is driving me nut"
Sorry, I just had to. I'm sure someone else will see it and fix the imbalance, don't worry!
AGHHH!
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:19 AM on August 9, 2012
Sorry, I just had to. I'm sure someone else will see it and fix the imbalance, don't worry!
AGHHH!
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:19 AM on August 9, 2012
This blew my mind when it happened. I’m still suspicious. Am I the only real person on this site and the rest are computer responses, this glitch being the tell? Who were those people at the meetup?
posted by bongo_x at 11:43 AM on August 9, 2012
posted by bongo_x at 11:43 AM on August 9, 2012
What do you mean Who were those people at the meetup? Tell me more about This blew my mind.
posted by maryr at 3:21 PM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by maryr at 3:21 PM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]
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posted by elizardbits at 10:31 AM on August 8, 2012 [2 favorites]