I think it’s true that people on the left are more likely to consider what they believe to be all sides of an idea, but I’m not sure how helpful or meaningful that tendency is. The problem, as I see it, is that people on the left aren’t particularly better than people on the right at understanding what their…

So you're saying it's time for timer? I am hankering for a hunk of cheese.

I wouldn't go quite that far, but I think engineering education does enculturate its students to think of themselves as a breed apart. At the engineering school where I work, they're encouraged (usually tacitly, sometimes explicitly) to start identifying as engineers from their first engineering class onward, and to…

Twice in my life, people have asked me to call them when I got home. When I did as they'd asked, both times they were audibly pissed off when asking why the hell I was calling them. I can really pick 'em.

That's been my experience, too. A couple of years ago a student fainted in my (university) library's computer lab; he hit the desk on the way down, so there was the drama of the fall and the crack of his head against the wood and a gout of blood. Two students who had EMT training went completely professional and…

At one Thanksgiving dinner I was both the only adult present who wasn't receiving some sort of government assistance and also the only person not complaining about their taxes.

Oops, didn't that Mandaliet had posted the same joke. Supid Disqus.

I think B.A.N. was great parody but not very satirical. Parody points out the silliness in its subject, or places a non-comedic subject in a context of silliness. Satire is weaponized comedy, using humor to point out how its subject is loathsome or dangerous. That's my understanding, at least, and I think Joshua may…

Like, it turns out that the talking heads we've been seeing in the interview segments are actually actors, and the in-universe "real" Matt has been Cuba Gooding Jr. all along? That would be neat, and I'd like to see how they'd pull off communicating that to the audience.

My guess is that the actor playing Matt in the reenactment is named Ben, and the actor playing Shelby in the reenactment screwed up during the take they used and called him by his real name instead of his character's name.

When the first restaurant with that gimmick opened up in my area when I was an undergrad, the servers would actually come around and encourage people to throw them on the floor. Conversely, the peanut-gimmick restaurant that opened up in my current town soon started giving everyone a second, empty bucket to contain…

Thanks for bringing in the Hooters angle. I was only seeing Sea World and strip club, and the gag—while funny—wasn't quite hitting for me. Now it's even more uncomfortable and hilarious.

I saw Ghostbusters II opening weekend, and at least among my peer group denouncing the sequel as an abomination was a thing from the very beginning. On the other hand, my friends and I also thought Hook was terrible, and it seems to have become one of the internet's most beloved movies. Berenstain, Berenstein.

Very well put, thanks! I hadn't thought much about "aging out" of stuff, but I think you're onto something there. "Arty" movies do tend to rely more on tone and themes, and at some point you will have encountered, considered, and determined your own personal position on the themes that are commonly found in these…

"Undertow" is an important film for me, because it was the work that set me on the road to accepting the fact that I have limited tolerance for (let's call it) artiness in film.

I'd love to know what the pre-premiere marketing for this show was like. I remember 6-year-old me was ridiculously excited for the first episode, yet I have no idea why. I also remember 6-year-old me didn't make it more than 10 minutes in.