"Its main proposition is that AI is already close in 2014"

This kind of warfare wasn't new - starving the enemy is a tactic as old as civilization. For most of history, all you had to do was cut the population off from its fields by forcing them to stay sheltered behind city walls. Britain just took the same tactic to the seas.

Why should a think tank write about science and technology? They aren't journalists, it's not their job to make the public aware of scientific discoveries. Isn't the point of think tanks to write about government policy and political situations?

Would anyone mind explaining this joke for me? I googled Robert Pollard and it just says he's a musician, which doesn't help much.

Agreed. But I think even if the author is aware, it's still a bad idea - readers should be able to pronounce your fake names. For it to be worthwhile, you'd need readers to know that an apostrophe meant a glottal stop and to be able to say the name with the glottal stop in place. Otherwise it's just decoration.

Yeah I was really hoping for some actual history, not just jokes.

Oh, you're right, I remember that now. Nevermind!

I've heard it argued that it's actually Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Eagles vs Goblins/Wargs together. Not sure which I believe.

I just... don't understand how anyone thought this was a good idea. It's so, so generic. The chosen one farmboy, the magical talisman, the gruff mentor guy, the evil-for-evil's-sake villains. This stuff was old hat a decade ago. I swear every line in that trailer I've heard before. Even the title is stolen from some…

It's a dumb idea even on a purely logical level - Sauron has nine Nazgul on flying pterosaur-birds guarding Mordor. How are the eagles supposed to get past them?

Yeah, the combination of items seems pretty unlikely - there's no gun-with-silver-bullets in the Dracula book, for example. And if a gun works, why do you need the stakes?

To be honest I was always pretty fond of RTD's "yeah the plots are dumb and make no sense, just roll with it" brand of storytelling. It was kind of charming, and allowed for some really fun stuff from time to time.

I don't know, my knowledge of comics isn't very deep. If it were up to me I'd have made her Wonder Woman, that would have been ideal. A gender-swapped Black Panther could have been cool as well, as long as they avoided going all sexy-cat-woman.

Hm, I guess you're right - maybe Phase 3, not Phase 2. But I still think Phase 4 is way too late.

I agree that it was logical for Marvel to start with their big-name properties like Captain America and Thor, but we really should have gotten a female-led movie in Phase 2, not Phase 4. There's no reason Ant-Man or Doctor Strange needs to come out before Captain Marvel. Plus there's always Black Widow - if Lucy could…

I don't think it's a lost cause - The Hunger Games are nice example of a female action hero who is neither cheesecake nor "girl power", so it can be done. I agree, though, that there aren't many actresses in Hollywood right now who can pull off a superhero character, much less a superheroic physique.

I would watch the shit out of an Aunt May movie, if they actually took it seriously and tried to do something interesting. Her scenes were one of my favorite parts of ASM2 (never saw the first one).

If Netflix has half a brain, they'll swap out one of their planned Marvel series for a Kamala Khan one. That being said, they may not have the budget needed to keep her powers from looking really dumb on screen.

I don't know... I was 12 when it aired and at the time I found it really comforting and enlightening. Sure, watching it again 10+ years later as an adult it's kind of obnoxious, but I think it filled a need at the time. At least they were smart enough not to make it part of continuity - there's no way that would have…

I was very tempted to dismiss your comment for being unnecessarily rude and condescending, but your points at least are worth discussing.