You were aware that falconflyer1 was presenting those as examples of the sort of nonsense that creationists spout, yes?

Yep. He is in all of the Blackadder series. Highly recommended, although the series about the First World War is one of the best.

Some species of stink bug (family Pentatomidae) are non-native and problematic. You are probably thinking about the “Brown Marmorated Stink Bug”, Heteromorpha halys. Some species are indigenous and are equally pestiferous. There are a number of fun pests of corn and soy.

We decided that illusion was the fundamental school of magic in that world. All magic was illusion, but some of it was more convincing than others. We had just come back from playing a lot of White Wolf’s “Mage: the Ascension”.

Hold portal is also really great for those times right after you have tossed delayed-blast fireball into the barracks, and you want to make absolutely sure nobody leaves.

The ultimate assassin’s spell. Pop in from concealment, hit ‘em hard, pop out.

Agreed that this is an incredibly useful spell when you need to beat a quick retreat! Maybe you don’t have the key to that particular lock, or want to make sure that the barracks can’t empty out after you tossed the delayed-blast fireball in the door...

Nightmare illusionists always start subtle and then work on to the more fantastic effects. We called it “layering”, and had to implement house rules to my games just so that my more creative players would not overly abuse the system. If the illusionist was not actively concentrating on the illusion (and maintaining…

Drop a shield or a barrel over the disc, and you have partial cover that your friends can hide behind. If the wizard has taken some levels in thief and learned to “move silently”, the party warrior in full plate can now hang out on the disc and quietly float along behind until they are needed. Heck, if the wizard is a…

It was entirely appropriate in a pirate-themed game I ran a million years back. How best to coordinate raids on the Spanish treasure fleet with the Saughain, or to convince the dolphins to be ready to escourt you and Conchita back to your ship once you have stolen the Admiral’s hat?

I have a friend who works over there in the library. His opinion? “Polite, but dumb.” That, and holy cow is there a huge cocaine problem on the campus.

There wasn’t any point in arguing with her. While she knew the accused was innocent, the rest of the jury collectively concluded that whatever reservations we might have, the prosecution presented insufficient evidence to overwhelm reasonable doubt and achieve a conviction.

That depends on the jurisdiction and the media attention paid to the trial. There is a discretionary budget for some juries, and sequestered juries can be isolated and kept in hotels. The first trial I served as a juror on, we got fed dinner downtown on two nights when the judge kept us until ten to make sure the…

For the record, the ROUS was supposed to look a little cheesy in homage to the cliffhanger serials of the Flash Gordon era.

I once served on a jury where one of the other jurors swore she “knew the difference between real and fake tears”, and used this ability to decide which of the parties in this horrifying rape trial was lying.

Man, Lawless is a close personal friend of the Raimi brothers and Tapert. That is why she got cameos in all of the Raimi-directed Spiderman movies, just like Campbell did. There is no way possible that she will not be involved with this production unless she personally chooses not to participate.

Prometheus is terrible, but it has beautiful cinematography. I am not sure that is enough to expiate its sins of story...

Heck, even the second Dark Horse AvP title, “Deadliest of the Species” was great. Took the feminism and action inherent to the first two films and stretched it out to reflect all three of the competing species, bound together on an uneasy quest for revenge.

I’m not sure that “big ag” is going to be opposed to this. I see big ag investing in this as a method by which to increase yields or production of particular products that can be grown in this fashion, or so that field space can be freed up for higher-value commodities.

I sort of genuinely hope that you are right. I say “sort of” only because by that point I will also be out of a job in agriculture.