I assume he was going to shoot the puppies dead before skinning them. Which is somewhat less evil.

Actually the "supposedly" was there because your post was the first time I'd heard of Lucas's philanthropy and I couldn't be arsed checking online if it was accurate. Bit lazy of me? Sure.

"Why would anyone live on an ENTIRE PLANET that looks like the Sahara?"

What does Lucas being an "elderly philanthropist" have to do with the price of eggs?

I would if I could.

I think Hamsterdam gets a pass, despite the realism problems, for a few reasons:

Everything till the end of season 6 is "old classic" for me. Seasons 7 and 8 are "newer slightly less classic". Everything after that is "shit I mostly didn't watch and when I did it wasn't that good".

Something that just occurred to me: if you want to see evidence of how a comment system influences comment quality you need to look no further than the AV Club's pre-Disqus comment system. Despite it's problems the current Disqus system is vastly superior to the old system and so (IMO anyway) comment quality in the…

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.

I think this has the potential to go very badly for the site (seriously). Comment quality is very strongly influenced by the technology enabling comments, both in terms of overall reliability and in terms of features the system enables or prohibits.

I haven't noticed any problems with their comments, but I agree that their web design is a complete clusterfuck. I can't glance at the front page and immediately see which stuff is newest. I've ended up just using the "Reviews", "Features" and "News" links in the footer which do take you to a reverse chronological…

Shaka, when the walls fell.

I really have no idea why Trek has so many long lived races. In fact I can't think of any major race which isn't long lived. You can see why they did it with the Vulcans as it fits with their whole "we are wise and ancient pacifist elvaliens" thing. I think the Klingons were only retroactively made long lived so the…

attempt to act as legitimate and threatening villains.

@avclub-3be42d8a3412057f79af152555e39bd4:disqus From memory, The Mule is only defeated in the third book by a trap hatched by the Second Foundation. Who have psychic powers rivaling The Mule now for some reason…

I'm not sure if Asimov is saying that (though it's been a while since I've read the books). I'd say that The Mule is very much an Outside Context Problem, which means to me that Asimov is saying that social history trumps all, unless disrupted by an actor far beyond human capability.

NOT AVAILABLE ON YOUR PADD BECAUSE IT APPARENTLY ONLY HAS ENOUGH MEMORY FOR A FEW PAGES OF TEXT

Right, this isn't a matter of NDT picking at a ridiculous movie like Pacific Rim or The Avengers (although that would be awesome). I haven't seen Gravity, but it's marketing seems to be pushing it as a super serious super realistic sci-fi space drama, so when they can't get basic things like the direction of the…

I'd rather he work on something (anything) else. Looking back, the KB films are not among his best, IMO.

@avclub-0ae7484a9f3bbd2a21df420050c032ae:disqus @avclub-c3420bfbd159b546b7ac7f38c6f7fa55:disqus @avclub-c701a997d9bef627835b036efb4eca63:disqus I'd argue that the only thing that makes Star Wars not-sci-fi is the Force. Remove the Force and Star Wars is really no more fantastic then Star Trek (in any incarnation).