I think I've been here before...

I came here to make sure someone posted that statue. Spot-on.

How do you smoke in it? Eh, probably like this:

That would be very cool!

Try and fire off a few more - you'll hit it eventually.

On the other hand, if a book isn't worth banning, it's probably not worth reading.

We have this already - it's been sort of the touchstone of Web 2.0 technology. That's more or less how "smart" services like Google or Pandora or Amazon or work. The system themselves are pretty dumb, but by soliciting and collecting data from millions of users, they're able to effectively simulate intelligence.…

And then there's the cow lamp:

Thanks for your reply as well! I always like reading a comment from someone who's passionate about a subject or position they've put a lot of thought and research into. Certainly, if you've found a diet that works for you, and makes you feel healthier and more energetic, you should stick with that.

This is an interesting comment, though I disagreed more as I read through. Obviously, avoiding large amounts of processed food and animal proteins is correlated with better overall health. But I'd rather live a slightly shorter life and enjoy my food in moderation than live a slightly longer life by cutting off most…

"Fluffy bunny"

I think it's supposed to be this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.…

But aren't the exceptions the reason we're valuable, as a species? The people who only wanted coins are a vast average mass of mostly meaningless lives, but if they didn't prop up civilization simply by continuing to live, we'd never have had those special few who were able to do something great. Every pyramid needs a…

This, I think:

Numbers 5 and 9 are possibly my two favorite tricks - and they work for any kind of character, not just the amoral ones. Screenwriter Matt Bird has several very good blog posts about each:

I'm sure if I try hard enough, I can come up with some kind of arrangement.

"Dogs, unsurprisingly, are a cut above the rest and consistently perform better than other animals on pointing trials..."

Interestingly enough, I think there's an argument to be made that that kind of flexibility is actually a liability rather than an asset to a modern TV audience. Given the success of serialized dramas and the fact that online streaming encourages people to watch half a dozen episodes in a sitting, it seems like we've…

Given the success of serialized TV dramas since the last time Trek was on TV, this could actually be the most interesting idea in these comments. I wouldn't necessarily jump between a bunch of totally unrelated plotlines, but some kind of plot-heavy "Breaking Bad" or "Mad Men" show in the Trek universe has a lot of…

It's sort of amazing to watch the new movies (which I don't particularly dislike) alongside the original series, for exactly this reason. When you watch a TOS episode, there's always a palpable sense that these guys are the only ones out there – the Enterprise is a single, lone ship, on the very edge of what's known.…