I got the Phantasy Star Universe expansion in the mail today and played it a bit while my body tried to figure out how this new flu strain I picked up worked.

The good:
- story mode allows user-created characters
- new unique weapons, such as a man-portable lizard-pig that pukes grenades
- revised class system that retains stat bonuses when switching ( Read more... )

The Parable of the Tree by Andrew O. Weiss

It is what it is.

I'd have an easier time believing that they could bilocate and fly than this:

Romney, McCain vow to lift auto industry

I'm one of those eccentrics who only buys American cars (meaning "ones assembled in Canada and Mexico"), and I acknowledge that the US auto industry is well and truly fucked -- partly because of corporate cluelessness and partly by ( Read more... )

From Katha Politt's column in the new issue of The Nation:

"Just to bring the whole reproductive carnival full circle, Florida's 'Choose Life' license plates, of which more than 40, 000 have been sold, have raised more than $4 million for low-income single moms.  But there's a catch:  only women who choose adoption qualify.  A woman who wants to ( Read more... )

When I started AT a year and a half ago, this was intended to be one of the first posts I made.  I realize now why I procrastinated.

I really don't like to play the pedantry card, especially on the heels of such an emotionally-charged event, BUT...

...Pakistan is not a Middle Eastern country.  It belongs to the "South Asia" grouping of nations.  Calling it a Middle Eastern country because the predominant religion there is Islam is like calling Chile part of Europe because it's a ( Read more... )

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 On this day in 1991, 
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...that this ought to put the final, final, nail in the coffin of ironic Chuck Norris worship by hipsters and/or nerds?

( Read more... )