File this under "you gotta be kiddin' me." ... Read this and 44 comments.

They don't make movies like this anymore. Folks, this film (which I recently caught on TCM) is the perfect storm of nerdiness. For the movie nerds, you have stellar performances by Peter O'Toole as Henry and Audrey Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine, an endlessly quotable script with razor-sharp dialog that crackles with riveting drama and biting comedy and the first screen performance of the future Sir Anthony Hopkins. The story centers around Christmas Eve 1183, as Henry summons Eleanor from ... Read this and 5 comments.

The Assassination of Jesse James is not for everyone. It is long, slow paced, and contains very little action. That being said, the movie was excellent - truly Oscar-worthy. Assassination is an historical piece, a character study, a mediation on fame and infamy, and a look at America's celebrity obsession - particularly with regards to "bad" people. The story of Jesse James' celebrity status and mythic tales of heroism almost directly contradict the real man's violent, casual ... Read more.

Here is an interesting little experiment. Google "Gillian Gibbons" -- go ahead, I'll wait. Now, you'll see that she is the unfortunate UK national arrested in the Sudan for allowing school children to name a teddy bear "Mohammad." She won't get the lash, but she does get to spend 15 days in what I am sure is a lovely Sudanese prison. Now go to the Amnesty International website and do a search for "Gillian Gibbons." I am sure that AI must have numerous ... oh, ... Read this and 1 comment.

The Alaskan town of Barrow is the Northern most human settlement in the United States, eighty miles from anywhere. Every year, the sun sets and does not rise again for a month, leaving the town isolated for thirty days of night. This is where the movie begins, as the town's population settles in for a long, cold, snowy, dark month. The town sheriff Eben Oleson, played by Josh Hartnett, makes his rounds before night falls while dealing with the separation with his estranged wife Stella ... Read this and 7 comments.

They think I don't know what they're up to, but I know!! The other mods and admins know I've gleaned all of their darkest secrets from the hidden code on OmniNerd, scrying like a seer and they seek to silence me! But I will not be silenced! In order to protect myself, I must reveal what I know! ... Read more.

HALO 3 is the perfect storm of videogame First Person Shooter (FPS) story-driven sci-fi epic heroic multi-player goodness. Normally I like the single player campaign to clock in at at least twelve or so hours, but it works perfect for HALO 3 at around 6 on Normal difficulty, so I wasn't bored with it when I decided to give Legendary a whirl-- which looks to clock in at probably twelve or so hours. On Normal I was able to wade through hordes of enemies with ease. On Legendary I have to take ... Read this and 1 comment.

People wonder how anthropogenic global warming became a "left/right" debate. Maybe because folks on the left propose to "fix" AGW like ... Read this and 4 comments.

A recent Wall Street Journal write-up discussed the findings of one Dr. John Ioannidis, who has posited that most of the thousands of peer-reviewed research papers published every year are full of flawed findings and analysis. The vast majority of mistakes, he says, aren't purposeful, but stem from miscalculation, poor study design or self-serving data analysis. The summary to his widely-cited essay states, "Simulations show that for most study designs and settings, it is more likely for ... Read this and 1 comment.

I'm about to describe two homes, one belonging to the Oscar-winning former Vice President and star of An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore, the other to President George W. Bush. Can you tell which home belongs to which ... Read this and 74 comments.

At the Democratic National Convention winter meeting on February 2nd, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton commented on the record profits posted by Exxon, saying, "I want to take those profits and put them into an alternative energy fund that will begin to fund alternative smart energy alternatives that will actually begin to move us toward the direction of independence." Is she really proposing that the Federal Government seize the profits of a legitimate business? Does she know ... Read this and 30 comments.

The application of the Geneva Convention articles on POW treatment as related to captured terrorists has been a controversial issue. On one hand, some argue that if we don't apply the letter of the convention to all detainees, any captured US troops are liable to be mistreated in a future conflict. On the other hand, some point out that virtually no wartime enemies of the US have ever treated American POWs in accordance with the Conventions - no matter how we treated their POWs. Additionally, ... Read this and 196 comments.

Orthodox history/archeology tells us that human civilization began about 6000 years ago in Mesopotamia and that progress has been a steady rise upwards. A few researchers and authors, however, think that a highly advanced civilization might have flourished earlier, 10 to 14,000 years ago, meeting its demise violently during the end of the last ice age. This view, which is strongly rejected by the vast majority of academics, claims the influence of this pre-ancient culture in codes embedded in ... Read this and 28 comments.