The looting thing isn't quite accurate - that certainly is the reason why Charlemagne's empire was unsustainable, but the Roman economic system had way worse problems than that - primarily, it was a slave economy, and a slave economy really slows down technological and other advancement. When the Romans started having…

Aha! Finally I can put my degree in Latin to good use. Come at me, guys.

I mean, Latin, like a lot of old languages, had noun declensions, which I don't think a lot of languages have these days (English used to, way back in the day…we still have vestiges of it in our personal pronouns). Latin has the advantage that a lot of other languages don't, which is that it's quite orderly and…

Non stultus es, sed illud studium lingua latina te perditum est.

I need this on my fridge so every time I get up from playing Shadow of Mordor to go and get a beer I can feel like I'm just advancing in the game and helping Celebrimbor get his revenge, with the aid of copious amounts of alcohol.

Wait…they got the casting mixed up, right? I'm pretty sure Dan Stevens is very much a Gaston and Luke Evans would be the ideal beast. I just don't get it.

"a bastion of liberalism and extreme political correctness. (It's where Lena Dunham went to college, after all.)"

So, I take it that the Slap is a commercial and critical success, judging by the serious and contemplative tone of this article.

Actually one of my favorite lyrics of any song - "Fineshrine" is so wonderfully explicit and is better for it.

This article reminds me of that scene from The Fall where Spector tries to explain why he kills and Gibson cuts him off, saying "It's just misogyny." That's why The Fall is an amazing show and The Following really isn't - introspection.

"Battle Creek is the Pontiac Aztek of cop shows."

And we ALL know what Saruman was up to.

idk, I disagree. I actually thought s7 of Buffy was pretty great - it just was a serialized story in a show that had never had that before, really. It was also super dark and depressing. Angel s5 was good in that it wrapped a lot of things up really well, but it never had the wonderfully gloomy feel of the first two…

I think Angel's best parts were way better than anything in btvs, but it was on the whole more inconsistent (seasons three and four kind of bum me out). The great thing about the finale is that it really gets back to the vibe the show had going for it in the beginning: Angel and a small group of friends fighting one…

Grey's Anatomy had an episode where an HIV+ woman is worried about being pregnant, but the doctors assure her that the baby will probably be fine. It was a reassuring story, though the show hasn't ever done a multi-episode arc or anything.

Actual slander. Have you never seen "Switching Goals"? "Our Lips Are Sealed"? "Billboard Dad"??? Cinematic masterpieces.

I got home from work around 6:00pm. I hung out on the couch for about 15 minutes, and then decided I was going to take a nap. Everything was normal. I woke up from my nap a little later than expected, around 9:15pm. I hung out in bed, scrolling through my twitter feed and tumblr dashboards.

You should get a farmshare. They're a relatively cheap way to get good veggies that are in season. That way you can have root vegetable medley, which is one of my favorite vegan dishes.

Something can be vegan or it can be gluten free. It cannot be both.

I sort of feel re: Middle Earth that you could just move to New Zealand and it'd be just as good, if not better.