At the risk of seeming pedantic: only three of the films referenced (all Sergio Leones) are available on Netflix streaming, so one better have their disc service or else look to another streaming option (Amazon, iTunes, etc.)

Congress is passing less legislation than ever, and regulation by and large has relaxed. How is that "micromanaging," exactly?

That's probably the way to go. :) Don't forget Thunderdomes - we'll need a bunch of those!

Income is definitely a factor globally. I can't speak to smoking in minorities outside the U.S., but would assume the experience is shared in many countries.

Lower SES and being a member of most minorities automatically put one at greater risk of addiction, not to mention a host of other diseases. It is discriminatory by default.

No, it looks like they used corn, which is odd because potatoes are a much bigger deal here.

Thanks to the Earth's irregular geometry and unstable geology, the nutations can also alter slightly every time we have a major earthquake - even minor changes to the shape of the planet's surface can change the wobble. Case in point, the earthquake which caused the Japan tsunami in 2011 shifted Earth's axis by 25…

This seems to be mostly conjecture, in keeping with Mr. Bisson's claim, but is still an interesting read. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Centuries from now, future Earthicans will speculate about the ancient civilization that created the mysterious Phallus of Mars.

Iron Patriot is such a square, maaaaan.

If memory serves, Jean-Paul Valley redesigned the cape partially because he saw Bruce's version as a safety liability. So maybe Bane gets his way in "TDKR" simply by forcing Bruce to do some BASE jumping...?

Little-known, fairly useless fact: Old Faithful is not even the Earth's most voluminous geyser (nor Yellowstone's, for that matter):

Point, Doctor Lizardo.

I'll take an Emmerich over a Bay any day.

Looking forward to seeing this, if only because I'm dreading the fervor and conspiracy mongering that Anonymous is sure to stir up. (Then again, I felt the same way about 2012 for a while, and that turned out to be too silly for even conspiracy theorists to take seriously, so.)

"And then there were Wookiees!" = my keyboard getting snarfed upon.

Okay, you get to share equal credit when this is published in Lancet.

As far as I can tell, the progression goes like this:

Yes - I was actually thinking about that very example after posting this. The test card phenomenon became an entire, very effective and affecting plot device for that show. And the BBC's old one even featured a picture of a kid - probably in an attempt to make it less scary (which obviously backfired!)

Yep, this is the exact kind of stuff that terrified me as a kid. These guys nailed it.