And even Apple has started confusing its customers with the Iphone numbering.

You can count me equally concerned about this rant. Normally I'm a big fan of scientific progress. But I'm uncomfortable with the quasi-religious "science uber alles" approach some take. A little humility and the odd internal ideological challenge never hurt anyone.

Still seems dangerous to me, though. Even slight changes to language have a profound effect on the way people think. And a lot of these aren't just banned words, they are banned categories and topics. There will be a lot that becomes de facto taboo since language required to discuss and test them is banned. Are…

Clearly not just a nutty religion thing. About half of the full list appears to have low-income kids in mind.

Still waaay better than some of the old alphanumeric strings we used to get (and still get on laptops). Though it does seem some companies are intent on reintroducing the old confusion with interminable name trains.

...a popular book*

I may have jumped the gun. I've been especially impatient with the "all religion is a conspiracy" nuts. I certainly accept your point about environment and ethical origins.

Right, because there were only a few smart people in the world back then, and they all wanted to control people through fear and misinformation. And it totally worked, right? Just like it does now?

Certainly agreed on that. Name recognition is nearly the only reason we see so many adaptations and remakes. For most people, though, I think the Tarzan connection wouldn't be valuable because anyone thinks Tarzan was particulary good or historically important, but because they know that the hunky guy swinging through…

It was easy to watch this trailer and hear a little bell in my head go off every time one of my family or friends would have tuned out. Even my brother, who normally goes to see anything that looks remotely cool, will ignore it if the trailer gives him the impression that he might have to think even a little bit.

Not just the blue, but the white saltire that gives the diagonal red bits a nice border. I'd say keep it for tradition or history's sake, but I also wouldn't want to live next to a country whose flag symbolizes a claim of sovereignty over my homeland.

Seems a very American aesthetic. They're the only country I know whose flag can be summarized as, "This is how much we started with, and this is how much we have so far."

Or you could wear a sweater.

No kidding. The wasted time could have opened 25 more pomegranates. I haven't eaten that many in the last 5 years!

It's totally fine to admire hard work and technical proficiency. I do, too. I still think Avatar fell short of looking like real life, but advances were made and should be appreciated. I do think people make a mistake when they think that these things redeem the end result, though. Hard work and great skill…

It is indeed. Can take a little work adapting the idea to your own rice-cooking method and tea strength preference. Personally, I think it turns out best with a "boil first, then add rice" method. I just stick a bag/ball in when I start heating the water.

I'm not getting any tool tips. This leaves a lot of the characters' true form ambiguous.

Charmap also lets you search for symbols, and gives you access to the whole unicode list. Proper typographic names usually work. Sometimes unicode disagrees with the typesetter lingo.

I know more than a few people who, for lack of any truly strenuous activity in their lives, can't seem to tell the difference between discomfort and pain. So when they're short of breath or feel a healthy "burn" during a weight session, they count it as pain and give the whole thing up. I feel like pushing "no pain,…

"This moment in film history marks the day when movies can escape the realms of the limited and venture out to more creative things." I just can't accept that Avatar was that milestone. It was reached about a hundred years ago (for film, anyways). Avatar doesn't come close to what can be done with less realistic…