Solve flopping problem, create hacking problem.

This comment is so German I'm afraid it's going to cheat on an emissions test.

Soccer is the UN of sports. An enormous number of countries are involved, and fans think that, in and of itself, makes it important, but in spite of all the lofty rhetoric and uplifting images of kids who've never seen hot and cold running water kicking a crumpled up Coke bottle around the real thing is utterly…

Do you have a source for the swords splintering? I know that people on the internet tend to (vastly) overestimate the quality of Japanese swordsmiths, but this sounds like a bit of overcompensation in the other direction. While it's true that some European nations had remarkably high-quality steel at some points,…

There's a youtuber who has a bunch of videos on this stuff (scholagladitoria). One of the takeaways is that European and Japanese swords and armor were not nearly as far apart as popular culture would lead one to believe.

J O, F U

Not a primary source, but based on this it looks like the Harry Potter kids were not subject to multi-film contracts (at least not covering the entire series). http://www.glamourmagazine….

Can you give me an example? Because if I were on the other side of a table from JLaw when she attempted to "renegotiate" her Hunger Games contract my initial bid would be "nothing." My secondary bid would be "you don't breach your contract, and we don't sue you for the net present value of the expected lifetime…

That is why studios negotiate multi-film contracts. I doubt she could have backed out of the Hunger Game sequels.

Are the ways it is a pain mostly related to steam burns? Because that would be my number one guess.

Say what you want, but that story probably scared the bejeesus out of his wife and kid.

Hey, I'm doing the same thing. He knew everyone's names because they had either captured them at the end of last season (after meeting and greeting them as if they were friendly). He knew Tyrese's name because Martin (a/k/a The Asshole) had talked to him in the cabin, but he only knew Carol as "that greyhaired bitch…

On Mars, they're just called Martians, Bizarro.

Sandra Oh! We're up to five actual names! Sure, three of them are in their like late '40s and one of them's Indian, but I've seen an internet comic that very convincingly demonstrates that yellow ladies basically ageless until they get their AARP cards. Plus Sam Seaborn's Secretary (taking your word here) probably…

Honestly, that totally works for me. Interesting unintentional callback to Ralph Ellison, too.

I mean, Watney is pretty clearly a stand-in for Weir, who looks like this: http://www.google.com/imgre….

I find that hard to believe. The only way that name could be more Korean-American is if her first name was Grace. I mean, it's not like the casting director's in Wichita, either. They're in California.

I was going to dispute (2), but then I discovered that Japan is still, to this day, 98.5% ethnic Japanese, with only 0.6% of the remainder being other than Chinese or Korean. I can actually believe that you couldn't reasonably assemble a cast of white folks out of the remaining ~750,000, and that you'd be basically…

I would think more like Constance Wu for Mindy Park, though that's mostly because—now that I think about it—I can only name like two Asian-American actresses.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but in the book I'd say that Venkat is as close as you get to second billing. Watney takes up way more than half of the pages, but Venkat is really the center of the Earth-based story.