"War on Science"? A bit of an overstatement, don't you think?

Wait. Leeches have cocoons? Since when?

I blame Jim Lee for this. Decent artist, but he has a distinct vision of how superhero costumes ought to look, which he is now able to export to the whole DC line at will. So outer-undies are ... out, and mock-turtlenecks are in.

I'm with you. Xavier walks, he doesn't walk; Jean is alive, she's dead, she's Phoenix or she's not — I haven't been able to keep it straight since about 1983. Which is why I try to avoid the X-Men comics the way I avoid the flu, incidentally.

"Physics are" or "physics is"? Or either way? Can we get some input from an expert on this?

For what it's worth, I'm a pretty religious guy, and I've been mocking creationism for years. I don't mock creationists — they're people, and deserve my respect. But the sort of claims this article describes are deeply at odds with the old-fashioned Christian approach to nature, which was (and for most of us,…

I'm with you on this. Lynda Carter was in the 5"8"-5'10" range (reports vary), but I distinctly remember reading, when the 70s series was still on, that she was six feet tall. My guess is that the publicity people were exaggerating for just this reason.

So .... once the son gets the crown, does the currency read "Charles in Charge"?

Yeah, yeah, Ledger was great. I mean, he was no Cesar Romero, but still great.

I guess it's about scientists balancing their own natural (and admirable) enthusiasm for their work with care to preserve the measured, objective character of the work itself.

I'm not quite sure I follow. Are you suggesting that the various churches which ordain women (as clergy and, although not in England, bishops) aren't Christian? Because it's not even especially uncommon in the West anymore, and one of the Anglican churches in Africa just chose its first female bishop. Obviously,…

My thoughts exactly.

Good point. I'm not sure why they bother advertising lingerie to men, because I can't imagine we're bulk consumers.

Yes, and there's a lot more to it than that. In the late Middle Ages, the Church was a major sponsor (if not the only one) of pure science — notably astronomical research. The idea was to date Easter precisely, which isn't an especially scientific goal in the modern sense, but these weren't modern people. And the…

There's a definite anti-biology bias at work here: not just no Darwin, but no Crick and Watson. Not to to mention no Galileo, Copernicus, Archimedes.

All good choices, but ... no Mars? From Lowell's canals to Wells' tripods to Burroughs' banths to Schwarzenegger's bulging eyeballs, the Red Planet has inspired a vast amount of speculative fiction. Doesn't it deserve a picture?

Sad? Not at all. Nothing I'd like better (except maybe the Valkyrie). The only sad thing is that Marvel won't have the heart to give Dr. Strange the weirdo Tim-Burton-meets-Guillermo-Del-Toro treatment he deserves.

I especially liked the part where the pizza delivery guy showed up and got pulled into the action.

We have mountains in the northern hemisphere. Species which used to live at the bottom may need to live half-way up. Species which lived half-way up may find themselves more comfortable at the top.

That's a great expression. If I recall correctly, Philip Jose Farmer explored the idea that a penis could fill with urine — " a piss erection," he called it — in his Vonnegut hommage, "Venus on the Half Shell."