Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with 2004

2004 Olympics Opening Ceremony in HD?

thewalrus — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:23:22 -0800

I'm looking for a copy of the 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony video in a high quality HD format (like x264 720p about 3GB/hour). One of my relatives was a participant in the games and would like to keep a copy of the video for posterity. I know the ceremony was recorded and archived in some possibly proprietary (Sony MPEG-4 on Digital Beta?) HD formats, but was broadcast mostly in SD/480p as HD direct-to-home satellite and cable services were uncommon in 2004. We can pay any reasonable cost for media duplication and shipping, but because this is for personal use, not for rebroadcast or any commercial purposes if it costs many hundreds of dollars to obtain that would be prohibitive.

Tipping of the 2004 election

crapmatic — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:17:42 -0800

What exactly was it in 2004 that suggested in the final weeks that John Kerry was going to win? Case in point here and here (yeah, I know the latter is a Democrat site). Maybe I have selective memory but I thought a lot of pundits had expected a Kerry win. Or did many neutral sources have Bush pegged? If not, what I'm trying to figure out is where the forecast errors were made, and whether these same issues could produce a surprise tomorrow (not counting a "Bradley effect", since that was of course not a factor in 2004).

What Makes a Dubya 2000 Vote an Understandable Decision?

WCityMike — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:38:18 -0800

I'd honestly like to know why half of America voted for George W. Bush in 2000: what their reasoning was. Please note right off the bat: I'm not asking this in order to encourage mockery of, or lambaste, those people who voted for George W. Bush in 2000. Quite the contrary: I am actually asking this in order to try to fuel an attempt to get rid of a mindset that does mock and lambaste them. (2004 was a different matter, as far as people's reasoning was concerned: the terrorist attack introduced the meme, appropriate or not, that Dubya was needed to continue to be tough on terror, that it was patriotic to vote for him, and so on. So that meme was there and can explain among other things the 2004 win.)

But in the 2000 election, patriotism while under attack was not a theme available to Dubya yet. Yet he got a huge part of the country. The precise vote count and the election controversy doesn't matter for this question: he convinced nearly (or over) half the country that he would be a good President.

My question is: why? Is there a way that this question can be modeled where that half of America doesn't come off as looking bad?

A few days ago, in order to write a comment in a thread (that ended up being deleted), I ended up digging up via the Internet Archive an old web post I wrote the first weekend of December 2000.

That made me realize this question was in my mind and had never been answered, and that it was really coloring my opinion of the people who live in this country with me towards the heavy negative. All that evidence was available before the election took place, if I was able to write that essay a few weeks after the election. Why didn't it count in the public eye? There's about ten to twelve good and even media-juicy stories, any one of which you would think would have sunk his campaign. Why didn't it?

Since the 2000 election, so for eight years now, my answer has been one that paints an extremely nasty picture of HALF of the country. "Those who voted for Bush in 2000 are fucking dumbasses who didn't bother to research their vote." Complete with the hostile anger implied by "fucking dumbasses."

I imagine some of you are going, "Yeah, that's exactly how I feel, they are dumbasses." But that's not what I want your answer to be! I don't want this thread to be a pile-on for Bush voters. I don't want to think that half of America are fucking dumbasses. I have walked around with anger and with cynicism, and while I'm not seeking to swing all the way over to the other pole of things ("Charrrrliiiiieee!"), I am trying to get a better framework — free of preconceptions made angrily a long time ago — of parts of my worldview. I think the world is filled with a lot more kindness and nobility than I gave it credit for, and I think I need to start thinking better of the world in general.

So in order to do that, I want to figure this out. I want to know why people thought about it and decided to themselves that George W. Bush would be a good President, a better one than Al Gore would. And, moreover, why that decision was made with such evidence as to have that decision repeated in such massive numbers that the 2000 election was so damn close. I don't want my explanation to be "nation of dumbasses" or "sheep led by media trends" or "neocon manipulation" or other cynical nastiness anymore, so I am trying to get a different perceptual framework of the event.

It doesn't necessarily mean that media trends or neocon manipulation wasn't at play. But I just want to get a handle on why it would be a understandable decision for half of America to make back in 2000.

Anyone?

Word 2004 Document Won't Save

Dasein — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:24:31 -0800

Emergency Tech Support: Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac has suddenly become unable to save a document. It says "Too many files are open. Please close a window." Then "Saving the autorecovery file is postponed." Then "Too many files are open. Please close a window." Then "Word has insufficient memory. Would you like to save your document as Rescued Document X?" Nothing works. There's plenty of hard drive space. There are no other open documents. What's going on? Creating a new document doesn't work - it won't allow that to save either. Trying to save to a USB drive won't work. Any ideas?

Vatsim help

drleary — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 07:26:27 -0800

Where can I find a free email address that vatsim will accept? My friend just moved in with me, and he doesn't have a "permanent" email address, which vatsim requires. Where can I find an email service that vatsim will accept? He's very much into vatsim when I let him use the radio on my account, and I think he would do great with his own account.

Thanks much hive mind!

Aircraft for FS2004?

drleary — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 11:13:03 -0800

Does anyone know of a website that offers decent to high quality downloads for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004? I'm mostly looking for single engine props and turbo props made from 1935 to 1950. If anyone knows of a great site for that sort of thing I would be very appreciative.

Searching across blogs for everything during a specific period?

staggernation — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:31:01 -0800

I want to read as many blog posts as possible that were posted during a specific week-or-so period in 2004. What tools/sites can help? This is for research for a novel. I know I can go to any given blog and navigate to its archives for the desired period. What I'm looking for is a meta-search that will return posts across many blogs, restricted to a given period. Do any of the blog aggregating sites (Technorati and company) have a feature like this? Or is there a clever way to get Google to do it? Any other thoughts about doing searches like this?

Any regrets?

GernBlandston — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 09:58:01 -0800

This is an honest question to just those people who voted for Bush in the last election. If you didn't vote for Bush, please don't respond. I want to know if you still feel like you made the right decision. With all that's been happening lately, do you have regrets? Do you feel betrayed? Bonus points: What are your top 3 sources for news?

Trying to find a copy of the Wine Handbook 2004.

Irontom — Tue, 07 Dec 2004 11:32:47 -0800

I am trying to track down a used copy of the Wine Handbook 2004. It is distributed by the Adams Beverage Group, and I cannot find a copy on Ebay, in my local library or even the Library of Congress. Can anyone help me?

Where do I find US election results sorted by congressional district?

Vidiot — Sun, 05 Dec 2004 00:30:46 -0800

Is there any place where results for the recent US election are available, sorted by congressional district? This site doesn't seem to have them yet...anywhere else?

best of music in 2004

ifoughttheapemen — Fri, 26 Nov 2004 08:38:50 -0800

Every year I put together a 'best of' comp' to hand out to holiday guests. This year I'm drawing a blank. Fiery Furnaces- sure, Wolf Eyes- Maybe. Mirah, again, this year? I'm having a hard time finding the anthems of 2004. Maybe today's songwriters got too swept up in the election to write a classic 'head-nodder'? Maybe I just got to caught up in the election to listen? Can you help? What's your best pick of the year?

How was voting today?

DrJohnEvans — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 10:36:56 -0800

How was voting today? Being a veteran only of the ultra-bland Elections Canada process, and having heard so much about the varied U.S. voting systems in the past few months, I'm curious as to what the American voting experience was like for you. Were there agressive partisan challengers? Sketchy electronic voting machines? Democratic registrants being declared enemy combatants? Are you confident that your vote was handled and recorded competently?

Also, a bonus question: as I understand it, you can register to vote as a Democrat or Republican or what have you. Why? Why would any partisan affiliation be recorded? What use would it be, other than picking out people whose registration to challenge?

Debate Downloads

punishinglemur — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 08:41:58 -0800

Where can I download a somewhat high quality video of last night's debate?

Name That Tune

kahboom — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 08:59:04 -0800

At the Frankfurt Musikmesse '04, Powercore did a demo of some of it's latest Whizzbang equipment to let DJ's apply less-fake sounding filters to music samples and other fun things. The guy who did the presentation, Jim Motley,
seems like an absolute spaz, and it's kinda fun to see how into it he is. Here's for the question - does anyone recognize the music that he's messing with in there? It seems like a British version of Ozomatli, which could be a fun thing.
I can't get this outta my head. Anyone recognize it?

Here's Jim, freakin' out.
More videos here.

What's this book that was an editor's pick in Entertainment Weekly?

drezdn — Sun, 08 Aug 2004 21:29:58 -0800

I'm looking for a book...[mi] As a professional bookseller, this is driving me mad. I spent part of my day trying to answer this question. The book was an editor's pick in the issue of Entertainment Weekly with Matt Damon on the cover (3-4 weeks ago). It was a collection of essays. It's not David Sedaris or Mark Singer, but I believe the author's last name begins with an S. If you flip to the pages with the book reviews it's on the page on the right, near the fold, near the top of the page.
Please Hope Me!

Sting's Instrument

notsnot — Sun, 29 Feb 2004 22:57:56 -0800

What the hell was that *thing* Sting was playing at the Oscars? It had an almond-shaped body, but the two strings were spread wide, with what looked like a harmonica in between 'em, and almost no neck. Plus, he was turning a little hand-crank on it with his right hand. It had two small f-holes in it, too. I'm completely stumped.

Looking for an in-depth comparison of the Democratic presidential candidates

anathema — Mon, 26 Jan 2004 16:38:38 -0800

Besides this CNN page, does anyone know of a site that has an in-depth, side-by side, easy to navigate comparison of the Democratic presidential candidates? [Is it obvious that I'm one of those still undecided New Hampshire voters?]

Looking for the 2004 Beano Annual

putzface_dickman — Wed, 17 Dec 2003 10:09:51 -0800

Could someone in the UK send me the 2004 Beano Annual before Christmas? It's for my 5 year old. If someone knows how to get it in the US that works too. I'd pay via Paypal or whatever.