What the hell is this shit in the North? This doesn't come from any canon LOTR map I've ever seen, and I thought I had seen all of them.

The Old World. The part we're more familiar with compares well to Europe, North Africa (Harad) and the Near East (Mordor). Tolkien very loosely envisioned Middle-Earth as our world thousands and thousands of years ago, and the Lord of the Rings is set in what later became Europe.

Oh, I know. Great civ. I meant that Luke's wrong in saying Australia should be in there instead of Brazil, which was maybe a bit of an overinterpretation of what he said. Because Brazil should be in there, and I'm glad it is. I'd be glad if Australia were in there, but I don't think it necessarily needs to be.

Oh, wow, I've never heard this perspective before. I really, really hate her in the first season of 30 Rock - her guest bits are fiercely cringeworthy. I'm sure a lot of that is the writing, but Jane is so spot-on perfect. I assumed this was more an issue of Tina wanting to work with a long time friend, but having to…

I used to drive about seven days a year and now it's down to zero for the last two years. But I feel the same way. And that zero makes me nervous now whenever it comes up, because I was never a good driver in the first place, and I'm sure I'm much worse now.

Not to hate on you, Luke, but there are only 24 million of you and there are 200 million Brazilians.

Yea, I don't know who these people with 'extra bedrooms' are. Presumably either not New Yorkers, or not New Yorkers who particularly need to be working in the first place.

This is especially handy when your library happens to actually have a coffee shop in it! As the Brooklyn Central Library does. Gives you your fix but is not mandatory. The only downside to libraries in my experience are their somewhat curtailed hours, but if you don't have a day job, that's a good way to keep you…

So basically I was right. Try to respect yourself a little more and your employer a little less. NDAs have their purpose, but the kind of violations we're talking about range from the utterly trivial to the actually important, and very rarely do any harm (Cranky Kong leaked? If not for that, Nintendo would be crushing…

Wow... that's your definition of integrity? Making sure your employer makes money?

Or you can end up stuck in Russia forever, with the CIA watching your every move, just because you leaked the next Mega Pokémon!

This only sort of relates, but it's somewhat frustrating when an article is updated months later and all the comments are old. This happens mainly with the Best Games of Whatever System articles - it's hard to discuss the new additions when the comments about the last update are still down there. No idea how you'd…

It's worth mentioning that sometimes these leaks are very deliberate on the corporate side. They aren't ready to go on the record, but want to start drumming up buzz or getting attention. As long as the real thing is as good or better than the rumor they spread, it'll work out in their favor. It's a subtler and…

Yea, I don't think Yoshi's Island DS was a disaster by any means. I didn't love it, it didn't blow me away like the first one did or reach its heights, but it was solid and fun.

Ah, fair enough. I didn't know it gave more control. I don't think my driving skill is up to the level where I would benefit from that, though. I think that requires basic comfort with driving. Luckily, it's academic (for now) as a New Yorker!

Wow, it's really beautiful. Hard to tell if it will keep the magic of the original, but it looks pretty promising. Love the art style.

I'm a bit late to this thread, but is there any actual benefit to knowing how to drive a manual, or is it just a vestigial technology? Why is this still ever made?

Yea, now that I'm properly awake and have had coffee I can tell. Thanks for the clarification!

Okay, maybe I'm not really awake yet, but I'm staring at these two images and really can't notice a single difference. Are they actually different?

How do you know you're attracted to someone if you aren't already friends (well, acquaintances)?