In hindsight, it shouldn't have come as a surprise. My parents had always had a soft spot for the undesirables, the animals that no one else would want. Growing up, I remember a succession of pets that looked as if they had been salvaged from some feline or canine refuse heap, from Growltiger - one-eyed, lop-eared,…

So long as they eat Jack and Rose, I'm cool with it.

Conan, in Robert Howard's original works, is usually described as a very practical (but rather sharp) dresser, wearing clothes and armor appropriate to (a) the climate and (b) the fact that he ends up fighting everyone he meets. Conan in the movies wears a leather loincloth, rain or shine. I blame Frazetta.

SF writer and marine biologist Peter Watts thinks that Bradbury is someone to listen to, based on his experience and qualifications: http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=3253

Vladimir Demikhov was the inspiration for a classic Roky Erickson track, of which the chorus goes: "Two-headed dog, two-headed dog, been working in the Kremlin with a two-headed dog."

And that's good, right? Nothing bad can come of that, surely?

Roger Bradbury, a coral specialist and mathematical ecologist, argues that coral reefs worldwide are essentially doomed: dead, but they just don't know it yet. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/opinion/a-world-without-coral-reefs.html

Everything old is Noo again.

"Y'en a marre que les les noirs soient noirs

Quibble: in all the variants of Tam Lin that I've heard, Janet is not exactly raped by Tam Lin. She goes to Carterhaugh of her own volition, knowing exactly what the consequences are, she specifically takes responsibility for her actions and their consequences, and she battles the Queen of Faerie for the right to…

If African animals were Star Trek crewmen, impalas would be the guys wearing red shirts. Any time you see a bunch of them, you know some of them aren't going to make it to the end of the episode.

Does this actually work? It looks as if the actress gives a girlishly high-pitched 'Eeek' and steps backwards, which lacks something in the dramatic impact department. Reportedly, when Scott surprised the "Alien" cast with his chest-burster, Veronica Cartwright fell over backwards onto the floor with her feet sticking…

Ooops, you failed to make your saving throw against 'Staring in a kind of creepy way'. The DM is going home.

Finally! And it's about time, is all I can say.

"Colony Termination Disorder".

Trying to extinguish a gasoline fire by spraying water on it probably runs a close second to throwing a Molotov cocktail at your own house in the stupidity stakes. The fact that it worked in this case doesn't make it a good idea.

The text says you can "jack in", but I think the video is encouraging viewers to pair that word with a different preposition.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Blaine asked. He was anxious to get back to the crawler, putting its massive steel hull between him and the residue of the planet-twisting energies that had birthed the worldship. It didn't offer much protection, but it was better than standing outside in nothing but a pressure suit.

Have we considered the possibility that vampires really exist, and that all the "vampires r teh s3xy" stuff is just paid disinformation put out by their PR company? Anne Rice set the ball rolling, but it really took "Twilight" to guarantee an almost limitless supply of naive young girls who think that every…

I always wondered how many people died when Ripley-Redivivus let the Auriga hard-land on Earth in "Alien Resurrection". Anyone unlucky enough to be underneath when it re-entered didn't stand much of a chance, so if it hit a populated area, the body count could be spectacular. But it's a while since I've seen the…