I'm surprised there hasn't been a major battle over acetaminophen/paracetamol. Yes, they're the same thing.

@Nath: Incorrect (well, about your history of the name; this very comment is proof that you were correct that you'd be starting a Wikipedia-style argument). The element was initially named "alumium," which was then changed to "aluminum;" this subsequently got changed again to "aluminium" to match the other elements.…

If this theoretical model holds up to experimentation, will this be the first actual meaningful result derived from string theory?

@Captain_Tripps: Hey, I read the Grudge Match website back in the day; they did "combat between fictional spaceships/people/armies" both accurately and humorously. No reason to expect less of a panel which has apparently happened 15 times.

Seriously, assigning random human or AI pilots to the ships, then deciding who will win based on that? Are they trying to actually see which ship is better in a fight, or just whether they can get people to attend a panel at a convention?

I'm not following — how does this differ from "standard" quantum cryptography, where the signal can't be intercepted because Eve doesn't know which polarization Bob is using for a given photon, so she can't send Bob an exact copy of the photon she received?

I think the chart at the bottom-right of this page is probably a more accurate depiction of the temporal mechanics of Primer...

@8x10: I'm not sure what you're talking about....that's just what DNA looks like, when written down in molecular form. You'd find the same picture in any textbook.

@thekeith82: Is it bad that I knew you misspelled raxacoricofallapatorius without looking it up?

What effect will this have on aging, though? Telomere extension has been a target of anti-aging research for some time, so drugs which specifically inhibit telomere extension might well have the opposite effect (e.g., driving patients to an early grave). That's the problem with curing cancer and/or aging: the two…

Having seen the original many times, I caught the curtain change in the second video, but completely missed the player leaving...and I wasn't even trying to count passes. I guess I shouldn't try to be an eyewitness...

@Serge.: Actually, if by that you mean "The Doctor should visit Tesla during season 6," my only objection would be that the whole "visiting a historic figure with a sad ending" thing was done with Van Gogh, and I don't know if it would be different enough.

What, you guys didn't like this version? (DailyMotion link) [dai.ly]

@strideo: Sorry, dupe; the bug where posts don't get shown to you after they're posted needs to be fixed.

@strideo: IIRC, the water itself isn't radioactive, it's just that the deeper you get, the less water there is between you and the spent radioactive material. I'm sure they build in some extra depth for safety margins, so as long as you don't go diving, you should be fine...

I know there's a lot of hate for TBBT here, but I don't understand why; sure, they exaggerate the social ineptness of nerds a bit, and not every episode is perfect, but only Futurama beats them in terms of actually doing the scientific research for their jokes. And you can't claim you haven't had conversations just…

Team Both Mangled And Killed!

A comment below made me realize something: Johnny Depp would actually be perfect for the role of Jack Harkness's college roommate or something. We don't know much about the era that the Time Agents come from, and if a hypothetical Doctor Who movie explored that period while also introducing us to another character…

I hope I'm not the only one reminded of this:

Random thought: the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows bridge would be an interesting event for the Doctor to visit/accidentally cause, since it's a freaky disaster that didn't actually result in any loss of life (aside from the dog).