http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/s…

The Sun has exactly the kind of readership that totally did not get the satirical nature of Seth MacFarlane's 'We Saw Your Boobs'. One might argue that's the fault of the Sun's readership and not MacFarlane, but any successful satire that manages to successfully skewer the…

I understand what you're saying, that castigating Martin Freeman for facetiously implying that he was the type of person who would drug and rape an imaginary creature seems over the top, but I don't think that people (including me) are taking issue with the putative rape of a fictional being so much as the very act of…

Totally agreed.

It depends who takes care of all that for her, though. I mean, if she manages her own money, owns her own business, etc. it's one thing because that does show a level of maturity that might actually assuage some of the creepiness I feel, but if she has other actual adults doing those things for her, that probably…

Oh, now I see what you mean. But I'm not sure it can be classified as actually being more maturity being forced upon them: more responsibilities to be sure, and it does bring about a certain kind of life experience, but I agree with others who said that maturity can really only come from experience (and often from…

Woh wait, what?! Paul Walker was dating 16 year olds?!

OMG, I had no idea (not that I've actually watched even a single Fast & Furious movie, much as I'm a fan of Vin Diesel).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2…On the one hand, he sounded like a super nice guy who died during a charity race, but on the other…

I think more modern scientific studies seem to indicate that the human brain doesn't stop developing till much later than we used to believe, and that it doesn't actually stop growing till mid (to possibly late) twenties:
http://hrweb.mit.edu/worklife/young…

Personally speaking, I think I can attest to the fact that I…

You have a point. I didn't know what Applebee's was (it's not that big here in Canada from what I can tell, although there are a couple around) until I went to one a year or so ago and it was the worst dining experience of my life. If the server hadn't been so solicitous (I suppose being young and attractive didn't…

You know, you have a point there. On the one hand, the punk part of me is all totally down with grannies wearing Docs and dressing like they are in their twenties to challenge ageist (and definitely sexist) notions of what 'appropriate' attire for people of a certain age should be... but another part of me is kind of…

Yeah, I have a female friend who I met online when she was uh, 16 I think? and I was 21. And she was dating a 31 year old at the time. I lost touch with her for a while, but ran into her again on Facebook when she was in her early twenties, and she'd told me how that guy ended up being this creepy stalker and such,…

Well, it depends on the child star, I guess. It does screw a lot of them up, though, but it seems to depend as much on the maturity of the parents. Unfortunately, a lot of child stars come from parents who also were/are stars and may be incredibly messed up. I know Drew Barrymore is a case in point, and she was…

Although you put it a little more judgmentally than I would have, I can't say I disagree. I think there's a good reason to have these age of consent laws, even if it may seem unfair at the time to the occasional 'mature for her age' teenage girl who wants to have that incredibly illegal and unethical affair with her…

Yeah, I was a straightedge until first year university, and I don't think I had a drop of alcohol until I was actually legal (in my province, anyway). Well, maybe a week or two shy of my actual 19th birthday, but then, my birthday comes very late in the year. I was also actively into social justice issues and…

Well, it's that intersection of sex and age which is troubling, I guess, particularly because our society not only socializes girls at a very young age because of the idea that girls learn socialization skills much earlier in life than boys, which is only true to a certain extent and definitely only as a…

If you think that's bad, the age of consent in Canada used to be 14 until relatively recently.

Not that this was exactly an issue for me since I was a virgin till I was 25... or maybe 26, I can't remember. ;P I'm glad I waited though, because even at that age, I was pretty fricken immature. Even without any sex…

Woh, she's only 17, and he's 24?

Well, I guess I would be a hypocrite to condemn that when I was briefly seeing a just-turned 18 girl when I was 21, but even then I felt vaguely uncomfortable. I don't know if I could do it (especially now at 38) because I always feel the pressure of being the 'older man' in the…

I can believe it: since I _am_ that Asian guy who dates white women, and Canadians are generally too polite to say anything to my face, I don't often get to hear the racist crap that gets said about me behind my back, but I definitely hear about it later from friends. :P

Hell, I dated a woman once for almost a year…

Really? I've often been curious about Germany, especially because Japan and Germany have some cultural similarities which I always found fascinating.

My father visited Germany (Karlsruhe to be precise) for an AI conference back in the '80s, and I think he learned some basic German phrases just for that trip. I…

I hear ya. Everyone just thinks I'm gay (not that there's anything wrong with that, but it gets _awk_WARD when asking a girl out and she's like all "aren't you gay?" ;P). Apparently it's because I'm polite (apparently saying 'please' and 'thank you' is a lost art) and dress relatively well or something. It's also…

Probably not so much now, given the state of the industry right now. She'll probably still make some money because she's got name brand recognition, but the adult entertainment industry, like any other form of largely superficial entertainment, is notoriously ageist, especially towards women. I honestly think she'll…