The problem is, I think, that the US sees itself as different states, but the rest of the world mostly sees the whole. Americans need to look at the bigger picture.

Jezebel posted an article taking apart the study in #5 just yesterday: http://jezebel.com/5937945/semen-probably-isnt-a-magic-super-elixir-after-all

Not to mention Jezebel wrote and article about how ridiculous that study is just the other day.

In my country the husband's vow contain some line about protecting and providing for the wife I think.

The majority religion in my country is (Eastern) Orthodox Church and the marriage vows have always had a line about the wife obeying the husband which both gives me the creeps and pisses me off. Alas, no one is inclined to change it any time soon.

I imagined that too. I also thought they'd each be 2 or 3 minutes long.

Don't I wish. But some fiction has other roles. Or maybe as the world has become more urbanized and thus having more people in the same place and creating many more opportunities for socialization and rejection fiction has changed it's primary function from learning tool to escapism.

Well all of those would fit into the umbrella of "familiar fictional world" - the settings and the characters are familiar, thus comforting. The actual novelty plot might be irrelevant. It may also explain the backlash that happens when TV shows mess with their established formula, or major world changing events…

Hmm... if I'm reading this right, watching new episodes of old shows wold have the same effect. And maybe fanfic, too. Or other fannish activities.

Just use the KotakuFix extension - no figuring out needed!

What is this "sensible" that you are talking about?

Still a lot of clicking and not a lot of reading. With added "too much information coming at me at the same time" and too narrow columns.

Does this mean we can declare animal hunting a war crime? Extinction as genocide? What happens to circuses? Zoos? Shouldn't we ban all medical testing on all of these animals starting immediately?

Ah, that time when 1996 was the future!

God YES! I work in a really small office with a lot of people and it's incredibly hard to concentrate sometimes exactly because of this.

I'm ESL and my native language is phonetic, but I've never had a major problem with English spelling. It feels intuitive to me, and it always baffles me when people complain it's illogical.

I don't understand your analogy. The aired version of a pilot or a first aired episode has the job of introducing the viewer to the world it operates in, the characters and give you some idea of what it's going to be about in future episodes. And most importantly, it has to "hook" you so will watch again next week.…

I'd say pilot = first aired episode, as most people here don't have advanced access.

The 1 hour version was never aired though, so for all intents and purposes A Study in Pink serves the same functions as the pilot.

I have issues with season 4, but the second and third seasons are my favourites. I love the strangeness and the awesome characters. Indeed she is.