I just finished reading the 1996 science fiction novel “The Sparrow,” after seeing it recommended on one of the main page’s lists. While it was an excellent book in so many ways, I also found it really frustrating.

Lions need to step up their game. In the last week or so, I've stumbled across videos of a baby elephant fighting off 14 lions, a mongoose fighting off 4 lions, and even a plucky porcupine fighting off an impressive 17 lions. All of these seem awesome in isolation. Such a cute little animal fought off so many lions!…

If you have ever been a human child, you have probably read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, though you may not remember it very well. It's an interesting little story with a highly ambiguous message. If you need your memory refreshed, here's a Wikipedia summary:

Yesterday Jezebel posted a picture of a young woman cosplaying as Elsa, and the accompanying text encouraged us to mock her for the low quality of her costume and her unpleasant expression. The article did not mention her weight, but it seemed obvious to me that it played a large role in why she was seen as unfit to…

Just in time for your holiday weekend, astronomers predict a brand-new meteor shower late tonight and into early tomorrow morning, visible throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The meteors will appear to originate from near the North Pole, from an obscure constellation called Camelopardalis (camel-leopard!). Let's…

Within both atheist and Christian dialogues, it often seems that agnostics are dismissed as "fence-sitters" - people who simply can't decide what to believe. The weird underlying assumption always seems to be that the "fence" is between Christianity and Atheism. As if I think to myself, "Maybe the Bible is true. Or…

I can never get used to seeing this response on otherwise normal OKCupid profiles.

I went to a midnight showing last night, so I'm just going to throw some of my reactions out there semi-coherently and non-spoilery.

So yesterday I was thinking of buying a LotR-related t-shirt on ThinkGeek. I even put it in my cart, but then I changed my mind. Today I got this message:

I know that the depiction of women in movies has become so fraught with controversy that filmmakers are forced to walk a very narrow line to avoid one cliché or another. So I try not to be too harsh about minor missteps. I try not to view every film through a warped feminism lens, snarking on every time a woman…

Make sure you try all the combinations :)

Would you like to see Benedict Cumberbatch playing Smaug on the set of the Hobbit? Of course you would!

I got a notification that didn't make any sense. It was from serenada replying to ukuleledan, and it had nothing to do with me. That's when I realized that I was logged in as ukuleledan. I have no idea how this happened.

Does anyone know what the reddish star just below and to the left of Venus was last night? Or know the best way to find out that sort of thing?

In which I rub it in to Captain Max and Jinx that I have easy access to this limited edition beer by Brewery Ommegang inspired by Game of Thrones.