I've not read any of those. My first thought was for Card's "Maker" series. In that everyone can do magic, but some are better at it than others. It's an every-day thing, nothing special. Some people can cook better than others, and some people are better at making hexes.

I don't admire him. Part of why I've not finished the books or films is that I don't see much admirable about him. He inherited a lot of talent, and mostly wastes it by goofing around, and then cheating on exams. He also inherited a lot of money, and hence tools like the best wand, the best broomstick, and acquires…

The otters do it deliberately.

They featured similar technology on an episode of Lie To Me that I happened to watch last night. I wonder if the writers had prior knowledge of the research, or used informed speculation, or took a wild guess. They had it hooked to an augmented reality tool: you pointed your phone's camera at a room, and all the…

Out of Gas didn't work for me either. I don't know why not - I'd expect to love that kind of thing. The disjointed way in which the story is told may be part of the problem. Out of Gas isn't the worst, though. The Message is worse. (My favourite episodes are the first and last - the double-length Pilot and Objects in…

@aamadis: Mathematical objects with fractal dimension can turn up in practical studies. For example, if a dynamic system is chaotic, then it probably has an attractor with fractional dimension.

@Grandadmiralplisken: And it seems he justifies it by trying to distance it from "torture porn", which he then demonises. Not cool. People don't watch films like Saw or Hostel out of sadism. They are very much about the victim experience. Saw isn't about someone cutting your foot off. It's about what could put you in…

That would be why, during an MFM three-way, you may end up high-fiving the girl.

Game of Thrones doesn't really get going until the third book. I read the first book a few years ago, and like you wasn't impressed. The second book is a bit better because it doesn't have the problem of the two main characters (King and Hand) being dicks. What really makes the series, though, is the breadth and…

Apparently David Byrne isn't the same person as David Brin. I'm guessing the latter is better at prognostication.

But the evil twins in Fringe are awesome. Especially Fauxlivia. Partly because the original Olivia does in fact learn from her and decide to have more fun.

I've not seen the film but I loved this. The imperfections were what made it. Every girl is an individual. I prefer it over cookie-cutter robotic perfection.

No, but I will if you like: Saw isn't about multiple personality disorder.

If that's all they said, then maybe you need better friends. If instead they pointed out flaws in the movie, plot holes, elements that were derivative, unrealistic character moments, etc, then they may have legitimately changed your mind.

"You have acute angina."

I don't have much real interest in stuff that's just ornamental or geeky; I'd want it to be useful. I'd quite like wireless house keys, if the obvious problems (hacking, power cuts etc) could be overcome. Something that could fit in a ring and have a range of a few feet from the lock would be good. Probably the ring…

Generally lions know that they've not mated with the lioness, because they weren't the boss lion. When they become boss, they can just kill all the cubs without caring what they smell like.

You have just repeated the explanation the article suggests and then debunks.

Mild character spoilers from the books:

I guess this was inevitable: Zombies have invaded Leicester.