Well, there's this . . .

Pretty sure they are not taxed. But if they are, then those taxes couldn't possibly be high enough to ever satisfy me.

I *instantly* had fantasies of being crushed between the tree-trunk thighs of a speed skater . . .

IOC would never go for it. It would be like buying second-hand underwear: Everyone knows that those sports facilities are single-use. I mean really, after a couple hundred guys in skin-tight suits slide down a luge track, do you want to use it again? Ew.

*...an already rich corporate sports conglomerate...*

Obligatory shill for this awesome book about Beijing before, during and after the games:

Stop saying 'science-based' or 'evidence-based': We already have a perfectly good adjective in English for the meaning you are trying to convey with that term and it is 'SCIENTIFIC'.

McDonald's Filet-o-Fish sandwiches: A 60 Minutes Special Report . . .

Very simply, Do Not Go. It's very loud, very crowded, very overly-aggressively air-conditioned, very stinking of cigarette smoke and body odor. There is nothing to be bought there that cannot be found either A.) on the internet or B.) at a million smaller, freestanding stores throughout the country (best otaku shop I…

Bullshit. It's just more sneaking around in an urban environment and killing things. If I want characters, I'll do more of what I'm already doing and *read books.*

Perfect. Now off to kill the the Chancellor of the Klingon High Council . . .

[something about American decline]

To me, it doesn't matter what the supposed image quality is or how 'revolutionary' the experience will be: I don't want to strap things to my face. Especially nothing as large and vision-occluding as a Rift or Morpheus looks to be (probably not even a Glass either). I tried one of these on at a con once. The video…