I think the whole idea of trying to convey what aliens might be like and what their language might be like runs into two big challenges: first is that the only limit on what life could be like is physical. That is, it has to obey the laws of physics and chemistry, but beyond that evolution could go a zillion different…

My big issue with Pretty in Pink is that the choices Ringwald's character is given are a weird obsessive and a guy who seems to be so bland it's like I was always asking, "what do you see in him?" That is, it wasn't as though he was really smart, or had some interest that was cool. I get that teenagers are teenagers,…

Oh lord yes. All of the endings were good— except that one, which I think Hughes could have handled in a zillion different other ways.

I am curious if our reviewer would now read the ending as rather sexist. I mean, here's a girl who is tomboyish and relatively independent, and she basically ends the movie by giving that up to become a more "appropriate" girl, and that's not really the message I'd want to send young girls these days. I'd rather tell…

Can someone explain to me why it is that having powers makes Caitlin evil? This seems like the laziest writing ever. "Someone who isn't really me had powers and was evil, so I must automatically turn bad because DESTINY" seems just .. dumb.

Apropos of @disqus_SiLde04c4K:disqus — it's important to note that while Christianity is a diverse group of people, generally speaking it has a pretty strong hold on the culture — after all, we put "in God We Trust" on our money, and many, many of our mythological tropes come straight out of the Gospels, and from the…

I'm no expert, but I can offer a couple of suggestions.

Yeah, I knew a lot of them did back then, I was thinking more of the recent crop. Some artists seemed to really "get it" and some I can sort'a tell had never been in the relevant neighborhood, and that phenomenon is much more recent. I suspect it has something to do with remote working, which clearly wasn't even an…

Per @adamfrey:disqus — one of the things that makes living in New York as a former comic book fan is the identifiable locations. As well, it's interesting to see how they sort of encapsulate some real history.

It wasn't that AT&T messed up. The cell tower data (in 1999 especially) only tells you the nearest tower. It does NOT tell you what direction you were in.

But that answer falls apart. I mean, it isn't a Christian's fault if I go an murder them (so the suicide problem you outline goes away). And it doesn't explain why any Christian ever gets cancer treatment, for example. The should be eager to get massive horrible deadly disease (canceraids!). Because hey, it isn't your…

Here's something I'd like to hear a devout-ish Christian (or even a non-devout one) give a logical answer to.

I cut my teeth in journalism in the early 1990s and Beta / cam was the standard for TV and sort of always had been, while VHS was for the home. I wouldn't expect a home system of any sort to be as good as a pro TV camera (which was pretty f-ing heavy).

Actually, eating is pretty damned efficient, as these things go, which is why it was evolved several times. We manage to break down long-chain molecules, which a lot of the time are pretty tough, into usable forms. ATP - ADP cycles are complex chemistry. One of the reasons we eat plants and animals is because the…

Interesting because the initial work Einstein published had Marić's name on it. But it was taken off later on. At the time that wasn't so unusual, in the sense that single authorships were more common, but it was still an underhanded move.

Yeah I know that the tracks at 125th and B'way look rather different; were I to guess I'd say that scene was shot (if it was shot in Manhattan; the production team altered street signs in some spots) was over by the Metro North tracks. Anyhow I was just referring to the number of stops (and the fact that it would be a…

Unless your exoplanet has an orbital period measured in weeks, it's hard to observe the period; that's the clincher for figuring out the mass. Imagine if you were looking for a planet with Jupiter's orbit around another star; if you saw the planet pass in front of its star it would be a dozen years before you saw it…

I'll cop to it being in Kubrick's script already, but Spielberg has some habits that make such flourishes worse, I think. Spielberg films a world where every goddamned thing glows in the dark, and sends shafts of light out of every opening.

The problem with A.I., though, wasn't the visual flourishes (and lord knows I agree that Spielberg tried to pay homage to Kubrick in that way).

Or if she got on at 50th in Hell's Kitchen, transferred at 72nd, and stayed on the 2/3 to 125th. That's a 7-stop ride from 50th.