They live in a mechanistic, soulless world with no moral compass to guide them, utterly bereft of any kind of emotional and spiritual depth, and then, when you point it out them them, they get hostile!

I wouldn't count those examples as fan faction by virtue of the fact that they are written by professional writers. Although, I concede Lost Girls does seem to tackle the themes of traditional amateur fanfic.

I keep hearing about the "Real Gamers" that will ultimately flock to the PS3 and put Sony back on top.

Here's a tip: There are more people with kids than there are "Real Gamers". Marketing to them is not a bad idea.

Also, Graphics really don't matter if the game isn't worth playing.

As for Nintendo relying on gimmicks, well, many people thought a Double Screen Gameboy was a gimmick, and we all know how that turned out.

Isn't there a quality difference here? When you get the DVD of a show you usually get 3 or 4 episodes per disc. I recently bought Season 3 of Lost and all of it fit on my iPod at the cost of 5GB of space (maybe less?). The video quality can't be the same. If I tried to stream them to a 32" TV I imagine it would look like crap.

I thought the study implied that "spatial abilities" would improve with video game training, not math skills.

Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault

It would have to be something like a First Person Shooter if they wanted to improved spatial abilities. Apparently they had a control group playing a "non action game".

The legal definition of "solicitation" is "the crime of encouraging or inducing another to commit a crime or join in the commission of a crime. Solicitation may refer to a prostitute's (or her pimp's) offer of sexual pleasures for pay".

Since sodomy (which also has a specific legal definition) is still illegal, even consensually, in many states, what Craig did was illegal.

This is a good argument for taking all sodomy laws off the books, even though they are rarely enforced.

The other thing that's VERY true is that your husband will never, EVER EVER EVER stand up for you with his mother. That's written in stone somewhere, like the 11th commandment.

I'd say if your fiance is unwilling to stand up to his mother for you, then he's not the guy you want to marry.

I've never had to stand up for my wife to my mother, but if it came up I would do so without hesitation.

Honestly, I think she made the comment about Dumbledore because of all the Potter fanfic/slashfic out there. Either she was trying to connect to those who see the "obvious" tension between Harry and Malfoy, or she was trying to beat them to the punch by saying "Well, maybe Harry and Draco aren't gay, but here's a character who is!".

Didn't I read that there were cheers when she revealed this?

I know that the sword is supposed to be available when any stout-hearted Gryffindor is in great need (a little like Siegfried's sword in Wagner?) but that seems to me a little tenuous as an explanation...and surely such an important event needs a little more support. Any ideas?

You nailed it. Neville was a stout-hearted Gryffindor in great need, and the magical hat teleported the sword from wherever it was right into his hands so he could save the day. It's no more complicated than that.

P.S. The hat was gay, too.

I don't think we have a good basis to say that more "modest" societies have less sex crimes. Not only would they be radically underreported, but in many cases the victim is blamed for the crime. Not to mention the fact that women can still be killed (by their own family!) for injuring the honor of the family and the perpetrators are infrequently charged.

If the claims of this cleric were true than I would expect a pandemic of sexual assault in the U.S. and this just isn't the case.

I thought a theory required the ability to be falsified. There is no way, in your orthodoxy, to argue anything. I could be mistaken. Please describe a scenario that falsifies evolutionary theory (any part of it). NOT one that proves creationism because it also cannot be falsified.

I believe the discovery Rabbit fossils in the Precambrian period was already mentioned as a good way to disprove evolution.

I was sure I read about this last week (or saw it on the news) and the issue was completely about scaring children, and had nothing to do with the connotation of "ho". It sounds like someone wants to make PC hay out of this, when it really should fall under the "Won't Someone Think Of The Children!" rubric.

It's stupid either way, but the PC angle seems slightly more stupid.

Thanks, Wes

Not sure this is word of the year material. It's similar to saying "Awesome!" was the word of the year for 1995.

Ah well, what can you expect from the 14|/|3X0rz at M3rr!am-W3bst3r. ;)

I'm sure 9/11 did have an effect on the production of this movie. That is, everyone was instantly educated on 9/11 as to what effects a collapsing building would produce in NYC. To have collapsing buildings NOT look like that would be what, willful ignorance for the sake of some weird sentimentality for the horrors of that day?

This is right. In a bizarre way, 9/11 itself was life imitating blockbuster. Most people seeing what actually happened, either first hand or in the endlessly looping TV images couldn't help but compare it to Independence Day, Armageddon, or any of the numerous disaster films of recent memory.

For the first time, we have a visual vocabulary of what a destroyed NYC would really look like. If you're trying to make a gritty, realistic take on a giant monster movie, made from a firs t person perspective, there's no way you can ignore that.