If we're being nitpicky here... weren't the Normans from northern France?

What's the point of grossing people out about flies? They're not actually a public health concern, are they?

Yeah, I'm needle-phobic and I have to say, "here swallow this pill full of tiny needles that will stab your stomach" is not exactly an improvement.

I guess that's why I disagree with the article - I think that ratings systems for books *are* a way for censorship to be "upfront, based on clear standards and open to scrutiny and review." I think it's a *good* thing that parents are provided an easy way to check out what their kids are reading, rather than leaving…

I really don't have a problem with censorship in schools. Children are not adults, they shouldn't have access to anything and everything that was ever written.

The short answer is that no one predicted an outbreak of this size. Previous outbreaks were all quickly contained, and it took a lot of extenuating circumstances for this one to get out of control (a new region, cultural practices, weak governments, distrust of health care workers, open borders, etc). It didn't seem…

Excepting Guardians of the Galaxy (which isn't really an Avengers movie), at each "Avengers Phase" movies featuring RDJ have made at least $130 million more at the box office than those not featuring RDJ. They may be frustrated with how much he costs them, especially if the rumors were true that he was using his…

Also, baking soda is about 3-4 times as strong as baking powder. I'd imagine that's the main reason why getting them mixed up turns out bad.

I loved the Librarian movies! They're such stupid campy fun.

I'm not able to wade into the greys since I mostly read io9 at work, but I would like to get myself followed eventually so my comments don't sit pending all the time. How do I do that?

This sounds all-too-plausible to me, actually. Why else put random whales in Man of Steel? Hopefully they won't be so explicit about it as to actually show a flashback, though - there's no way to make that look anything but dumb. More likely Aquaman just brings it up in a line of dialogue.

There's a reason airlines don't use WilMA - it's great if you're traveling alone, but half the people on the plane are sitting next to their friends/family, and really won't appreciate having to split up for boarding.

Yeah, the simplest explanation seems to be that people were using "made of glass" as a figure of speech to describe feeling fragile and all-too-mortal. It could even just be normal old generalized anxiety.

The theology one sounds interesting, what's it called?

Maybe they borrowed a friend's button down and didn't want to mess it up?

I think it's because as women we're trained from a young age to fear sexual assault from strange men. (Whether that's justified is a whole different discussion, but it's definitely the case.) It's hard to get past those instincts, even if you know intellectually that this strange man is a doctor and everything is…

I wonder, too. I'd imagine they feel much like Christians often do about loved ones who have died - they miss them and grieve them, but also have faith that they are in a better place (even if they aren't in a rush to join them!).

Isn't "bad press" press that reflects negatively on its subject? I'm not sure I understand where "a good story" comes into things.

I agree with your intention here, but I think it's worth pointing out that asking a fat person if you can buy them a salad will probably come across as really condescending.

I think it's black widow spiders where there's a perfectly effective antivenin, but it carries a risk of allergy and so in a healthy adult, standard practice is to wait until you look like you might be dying before they give it to you. 3-7 days of muscle spasms....