Diamond is by no means perfect, but his critics (especially the hyper-p.c. cultural anthropologists who call his work "dangerous" and the specialists who get butt-hurt at a generalist and popular science writer encroaching on their territory) end up making him look good by comparison.

See also: War Before Civilization. http://www.amazon.com/War-Before-Civilization-Peaceful-Savage/dp/0195119126

She went from writing an off-Broadway play to headlining her own network sitcom in under a decade, having lots of respectful press coverage along the way. Apparently you set the bar for being celebrated really, really high.

She's not a billionaire (yet!) but Maggate Wade of Senegal has become a multi-millionaire by manufacturing consumer goods (organic drinks and cosmetics) from African ingredients and marketing them in Europe and America. She's a brilliant, rising young entrepreneur who's made her own money, gives back to her country…

News flash— if you want to look more Caucasian you don't make your jaw SMALLER. Blaming everything in the world you don't like on the West is just another form of Western narcissism— sometimes it's not about us at all.

Randomly hostile stupid person is randomly hostile and stupid.

Human extinction?

The Nazi T-4 euthanasia program was supported by most of the German medical establishment, while the opposition was mostly...the German Catholic Church. So there's that.

Which is fine. Don't like religion all you like. Just don't make silly statements like "religions don't evolve" when they clearly aren't true. Like any other human institution, the world's religions have changed in huge ways over the years and centuries on the subject of women's rights, slavery, race relations, and…

Nonsense. The fact that both religions (along with pretty much every other one) still have aspects that you don't like doesn't mean they haven't changed over time in major ways. You're just making shit up because you don't like religion, and abusing the language in the process.

Religion doesn't evolve? That's a nonsensical statement. Religions change and evolve all the time. Look at the Catholic church and evolution. Or Mormons and black people.

It's more a matter of resisting the temptation to get your heroes into trouble by having them behave stupidly (if you've otherwise characterized them as intelligent people.) And it is a very real temptation, especially in long form storytelling.

Seven is a really interesting variation that defies the cliché because the Spacey character has no intention of escaping after getting captured.

In my small town high school I was literally the only person who had heard of H.P. Lovecraft (I introduced several friends to his stories and started up a Call of Cthulhu gaming group) so it's really weird to see him become such a huge part of nerd culture. Credit/blame the Internet?

This is the smartest comment I've seen all day. Great observation.

Ha. Now I know how every actress who clicks on the comments section of a Perez Hilton article to see what people are saying about her feels.

How is it ironic? Tesla never reproduced, and I know lots of people who have opted not to have kids because they have a history of mental illness in the family and don't want to pass it down to the next generation. Isn't that a form of bottom-up eugenics?

Daniel Day-Lewis is six foot two, barely two inches shorter than Lincoln and the same height as Tesla. What race of giants do you come from where that's considered short?

Just when I'm ready to give up on Jezebel, y'all post an article like this. Very funny and clever inversion of an all-too-familiar article about women nominees. Bravo (-a?)

I want to live in the alternate universe where Boorman made his nutty '70s Lord of the Rings. It would have been blasphemy to Tolkien purists, but an absolutely amazing film.