Fun fact about the flag of British Columbia: the original design by Arthur Beanlands had the wavy blue part with the sun on the top half, and the Union Jack on the bottom. This was flipped when it was officially granted by royal warrant in 1906, supposedly because it conflicted with the expression "the sun never sets…

Which raises the question what that stat is supposed to prove. That if you search for "rape porn" you will find pornographic depictions of rape? Isn't that kind of what you'd expect? When critiquing porn, is it not more important to examine the most popular or mainstream sources (like the other quoted survey examining…

I would actually love to see Jonah Hill as Yorick. He has the goofy incompetent-slacker vibe, while also having the acting chops to pull of the real dramatic stuff. Plus that would almost force them to avoid making the character the super-badass alpha male that would ruin the point of the story.

A couple with elementary school age children who live down the street from me got divorced a year or two ago, and they've come up with what seems like a great solution. They kept their family home and the kids live there full time, but the parents trade off when they each have their turn (I'm not sure if they…

My first job while in high school was in the kitchen at a trendy/casual dining place. On the wall in the break room was a list of dress codes for employees, and one of them was that all female servers, bussers, and bartenders had to wear at least 1 inch heels. I mean, I'd be mostly standing still behind the salad…

I think that's a fair assessment. The book was a quick and fun read; well-paced plotting and an interesting main character. Unfortunately, the same concept (having society based around living your life by a single character trait) that makes the story intriguing at first glance doesn't really hold up once you start…

Anyone reading superhero comics right now should be reading Matt Fraction's Hawkeye series. Not only is it a well-written, well-drawn, and all-around awesome book, but it co-stars Kate Bishop, one of the best characters Marvel has introduced in the last 10 years. She's not the girlfriend or love interest, and even…

The "cold fusion in the volcano" gripe is going to be the new "too much lens flare" for people who want to criticize Abrams in a lazy way without actually addressing any real issues. Is the science of that scene right? No, of course not. But is it absolutely implausible that 250 years from now that Starfleet would…

There's no real belief in Toronto that Dwayne Casey is in the hot seat. He seems well-liked by his players, respected by fans and the media, and has been endorsed by Ujiri. I can't see him being fired without seeing what he can do with the roster Ujiri will put together over the offseason, which will hopefully include…

I second this. I saw Doomsday in theatres and it was crazy fun, but it made no sense at all. None.

If you search something along the lines of "stephanie browns explains batman history" in google images it should come up. It's 3 pages of one of the issues of Batgirl, so if you can find each image separately it'll probably be in better quality.

Nope, War Games is stupid and ridiculous and never happened in my mind; Stephanie Brown is amazing a deserved so much better. Cassandra passing on the cape was the most logical thing they did to her character in a long time, since most a lot of the later stuff she did was kind of stupid and didn't make a ton of sense…

Oh no disagreement there. I was just remarking on how the Bechdel test seems to have become the go-to way for feminist commentators to evaluate movies, when really having female characters converse with one another is just a part of the picture.

Which brings me back to a problem I have with the Bechdel test. You can have a misogynistic movie the passes the Bechdel test, and you can also have a feminist movie that fails it. It's illustrative to look and say, hey only x% of some studio (or director or series or genre or whatever)'s movies pass the test it seems…

I guess unsustainable should be better defined, as it is a bit of a fuzzy term. At current prices, solar panels are a money-losing proposition for a manufacturer whether they're American or Chinese. With the backing of big Chinese banks and Provinces, some companies are content to lose money selling to international…

And it's worth noting that while US-based manufacturers (like SolarWorld and Sunpower) are being hurt by Chinese price-cutting, there's also another side of the coin. Installation companies are benefiting from lower costs they can pass along to customers, which is one of the big drivers of the domestic solar boom.

Yep. They've flooded the market and driven the prices artificially and unsustainably low. Both the US and the EU have or are trying to impose import duties on chinese panels due to these business practices.

I've got family on Vancouver Island, and go camping there at least once a year. I remember the first year the news really broke about this (summer of 2000 or so), people were freaked out about hiking in the forest, but no one really knew what to do about it except not brush up against too many trees. Since the media…

Two things: First, I hope my argument didn't come across as "girls won't like it", that wasn't my intention, I was simply bringing up an example of how a person who doesn't read io9 everyday might feel. Secondly, no I don't think a movie that cost $150 million dollars can be successful if "just nerdy boys and men" go…