I don't disagree with anything you said here. I picked C.S. Lewis's Miracles specifically because it is a work which deals with rationality and the supernatural. The personal decision though is still ultimately one over which religion you believe offers the best predictive framework.

Thanks! :)

Indeed. Even as a Christian, there are things I disagree with him on. My main point was that it's accessible literature which is good at dismantling the "religious people are all magical-thinking superstitious anti-rationalists" myth.

Daddy Longlegs are *not* the most poisonous spiders in the world. And tachyons only make sense if you ignore quantum field theory.

I'd recommend C.S. Lewis's book on Miracles. While superstition and magical thinking are common in much of religious culture, they are also common in much secular culture (cf. anti-vaccine nutjobs, anti-nuclear power crazies, homeopathy, horoscopes, etc). Intelligent people on either side are typically quite rational.

99.99% sure this is not true. Citation please.

I thought there were a lot more problems with the marketing than anything else. The number of people I know who have *actually seen* John Carter and have negative things to say about it is quite small.

That makes perfect sense, even though I'd never thought about it before. Thanks for explaining :)

That likely has more to do with DD going bankrupt.

I'm rooting for Stanton, but I think it is unlikely that Disney will put him at the helm of another big budget sci-fi action flick for quite a while. Even if it was their marketing which killed John Carter (in a way that ought to be impossible for Star Wars).

Short answer: no.

Damning with faint praise? Last Starfighter is iconic, yes, but it also missed the peak http://xkcd.com/653/

In VT. At home, not preparing, except to make sure there's gas in the generator and the chainsaw. Here at school I have no idea what maintenance is doing.

Because that's the correct formula. Classically: E = (m/2)v^2 = p^2 / (2m) (where p = mv). Almost anywhere you see a quadratic factor in physics, and many places in mathematics, there should be an associated factor of (1/2). Which you should expect if you've taken calculus. i.e. Integral kx dx = (k/2)(x^2). And more…

You win :D

This. So much this.

Also, John Carter and Spiderman reviews here on io9 were some of the only positive reviews I saw for those movies. You and Charlie Jane are some of the few movie reviewers I actually pay attention to.

I think you forgot a factor of (1/2) in your kinetic energy calculations.

Are you familiar with the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever? Not quite the same thing, but it definitely messes with the trope.

I'm pretty sure he's actually not "super super liberal", but a traditional moderate conservative who's pissed off at the nutjobs who've taken over the GOP.