Yes, he wrote that series. No, it is not a good series to read, nor is it a good series, period. However, it is to the taste of many, despite its (many) objective problems.

Starred for the shout-out to Pierce’s Pit! Good on ya!

Somebody hire Andrew. That was priceless.

It makes me think of some of the more nuanced criticisms of journalistic bias. For example, one of the truisms that I follow is that the bias is journalism is often for conflict, or divisiveness. One of the ways that’s often achieved is to, say, mention that there are critics, or to give “equal time” to opposing…

I hate the trolley problem. I enjoyed my philosophy classes without the pseudo-Economics bullshit.

Yup. I loved ‘em both as a kid. The Norse one has a new intro by Michael Chabon now.

I’m a fan of the old podcast “12 Byzantine Emperors”. If you haven’t, you should check it out.

There’s apparently a legend (story? aprocyphal bullshit? w/e) about how when Christian missionaries first approached the Norse, the Norse had stories of Thor challenging Jesus to a fight, which he “respectfully declined.”

Yes. When I taught high school, my students would often talk of transferring after a year. I always told them to try to finish the Associate’s first. It just made more sense.

Naw. McGregor wasn’t bad at all, until the third movie, and he gave up on the green screen. The scene where he’s talking to the cook guy or whatever, who’s totally CGI, and you can see how McGregor’s just staring off into space rather than looking at the guy who’s supposed to be there.

Or, as Harrison Ford put it, “You can sure write this shit, George, but you can’t speak it.”

Thanks. I’ve been making the same argument through this thread as well.

Nope, ‘cause the way the line shows up in Return of the Jedi, it specifically implies a difference between her mother and her birth (or real) mother. Luke makes the distinction in his line.

No. The line in Return of the Jedi is “Tell me about your mother. Your real mother.” Luke makes a distinction there and then that they are conscious that she wasn’t raised by her real mother and knew that. It is a gross continuity error.

Agreed. Halberds are almost exclusively an infantry weapon.

Full plate armor didn’t show up until the late Medieval period. “Throughout medieval Europe” covers a time frame of hundreds of years, and hundreds of thousands of square miles. There is no way to make that statement accurate covering that much. The Metropolitan Museum of what particular metropolis?

Visiting the British Museum one time, they had a display case that included—I forget the details, but, like, an earl or rich benefactor, or something like that—the response of this guy to Gibbon’s sending him his most recent volume:

I’ll bite: what “works for its hosts” is what’s dumb about this, because this isn’t about working for the hosts. The way it works now is the way that the IOC and its partners feel like they can make the most money. That’s it!

Nothing is out of character for the all-father.

Best. Post. Evar.