You know, much as I like Chris Claremont's stuff, he seemed to have a real inability to deal with writing anyone not white and American.

Fiction writing 101: If the whole plot depends on the protagonists being idiots, then you have a problem.

Yeah, they were brothers, and you can't account for how close people are. They're human, you know? I know people that still talk to relatives who are basically petty criminals — in one case the guy's a cop and his brother is sort of a ne'er do well, and there's risk there if the worse-off bro does something really…

I'd forgotten about Howie Carr, but I haven't lived in the Boston area for a long time. But I do remember that all through the 80s the word was that Billy had to know something. I guess the term now is plausible deniability. He had that, anyway.

More seriously, Billy Bulger (the brother) was the president of the Mass. Senate. He was also the president of the University of Massachusetts. The University forced him out when he wouldn't testify about communicating with his brother Whitey in 2003.

yeah, it's not hard to see why — in fact in modern steelmaking annealing is common. (They roll sheets of it, basically). But in swordmaking you fold the metal for the same reason that folding a piece of paper makes it stronger. Like, if you fold a piece of paper several times, it becomes thick and stiff. If you just…

Well, it isn't just about that, or the adrenaline rush. It's also because sometimes the paperwork can get in the way. I know several docs who have to hire someone full time whose sole job is to fight with insurers over getting stuff paid for. @bfred is correct, this kind of thing hits small practices, but it also can…

It's not really entanglement they are talking bout per se. What you're describing is what I was talking about above-you measure the quantum state of every particle and transmitting the information — but you would destroy the original because of the no-cloning theorem. One of the reasons that happens is measuring the…

Thanks. There's a lot of interesting implications there, a really funny comic strip posits .the moral implications of Trek teleportation — "you beamed me up? You killed me!" Which is true — an interesting metaphysical question is if you were teleported, would you "die" — your existence stops — and another "you"…

For the benefit of @avclub-f5fc0943a2d597c869afec4103a54605:disqus — allow me to put on a science in science fiction hat. Nerd wanking, yeah, but…

You know, I never read the original 80s Dragonlance books, but I did run into one in the early 90s that involved a woman with a magical blue tattoo… anyone remember which one that was? Anyhow the thing that sticks with me is they actually used in-game terminology in the book — "Let me try a Remove Curse on that…"

"It also strives to understand why tuition is at an all-time high when knowledge is practically free."

near the border, anyway. I haven't read the thing and only know it as a piece of his bibliography.

Well besides the incidents mentioned below, there's also William Walker, who while he wasn't going to Nicaragua/ Honduras/ Costa Rica at government request, was an example of the kind of intervention that makes many people from south of the border twitchy.

Some observations for the more literary minded:

It might not be the makeup but the person's skin. People have different allergies, and the chemical options to get certain colors aren't unlimited. Example: if you have some form of psoriasis, makeup of ANY kind becomes a bit of a crapshoot, depending on where the lesions are and how severe. I don't know Virginia…

Actually, apropos of Lou Reed, my two favorite concept albums are New York and Magic and Loss. I know a lot of people don't feel that the former is his best work, but there's only one track on there I'd call a dud — and that's a dud by Lou Reed standards. (And really the problem is it just doesn't fit the album well).

Well, again, I say after seeing this I might change my mind, and it might just be I didn't get my first exposure to him when he was at his best.

I am a bit of a detractor of Norm McDonald. I never liked his work on SNL that much. But watching that clip made me chuckle a bit more than that, so I might want to watch the whole thing. Maybe the issue is that he was given crappy material (his tenure on SNL was not one of the show's better periods, and that wasn't…

the thing is, it isnt about intent, as they say. One of the reasons that prejudices are so insidious is that they are just that — pre-judgments that a lot of the time we aren't conscious we make. Like, why is it always played for laughs when some straight-laced dude ends up in jail and faces the prospect of getting…