I love Swype but since my S3's last update, its predictive text has gone out the window. My S3-owning friends report a similar decline. I might have to try Swiftkey again.

Like almost every other creative industry, publishing used to be in the hands of people who were passionate about it. Publishers tended to be book-lovers, record company execs were music lovers, film studio heads were film-afficionados, etc. They wanted to make money, for sure, but on some level they respected the art…

I think portal fantasies aimed at younger readers tend to take that route. They're like a metaphor for imagination: "You can temporarily visit other worlds of wonder and fantasy, but eventually you have to come home and live in this one."

He is an extremely polarizing writer in recent fantasy fiction, though.

'European' peoples inhabited most of Siberia until after the end of the last ice age, when populations from East Asia moved into the region.

He does remind me a lot, at least in the face, of the Mandarin's appearance from the Extremis storyline, which is supposedly the inspiration for this film.

He's not a blatantly Chinese character. He's half-English and claims descent from Genghis Khan. Also, the Chinese backers of IM3 probably appreciate the villain's China-connection being toned down a bit. I'm suspecting they go in a more Manchu or Mongolian direction with him.

The Mandarin from the comic book is half-English, half-Asian. The latter part is kind of nebulous, but he claims descent from Genghis Khan.

These reminded me of this old McSweeney's: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/stories-that-would-have-turned-out-differently-if-the-protagonists-had-had-cell-phones

"I'll see you at nine o'clock...and you at ten o'clock...eleven o'clock..."

You're reading it wrong.

I'll add my vote. I consistently found G'Kar, Londo, and Delenn the most intriguing characters on the show, and the best portrayals as well. But I have to give G'Kar the edge for having the most compelling character arc on the series, with Londo running a close second.

You're right, I remember hearing that too, but it looks like there's been a long-term national debate in Switzerland on how important they still are:

Well, yeah, but it's been a while since the last one. And the last one had a lot of shortcomings. I imagine hockey fans will feel similar when the NHL lockout finally ends.

The Chinese actually built one, Dixia Cheng, under Beijing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixia_Cheng

Chalk it up to Martian arrogance. According to the book, the Martians had eliminated anything in their environment that could be a threat to them, including all diseases, parasites, etc., a long time ago. It didn't occur to them that such things existed on Earth. It's still probably bad science, but Wells was…

Now if someone just edits that commercial to slo-mo Superman right before the point of impact, then resume normal speed just as he hits the Black Zero, we'll have a more likely rendering of Zack Snyder's vision.

In the artist's own words:

Some ocean-born, plankton-formed giant-sized version of Swamp Thing: "They call it the Walking Sargasso!"

Really, I think almost any of those five would be better than Winstead. Maybe I'm not familiar enough with her broader work, but she always seems to be phoning it in for genre films. Are they considering her because of her action roles?