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I remember hearing at some point early in the war that you had to read European papers to get anything remotely resembling real news. I believe Greg Palast was having to write his columns in one of the London papers because none of the major US ones was interested. It seems to be the case that...

42?

I saw the movie a couple of days ago and promptly had nightmares about people having their throats cut.... It was very Tim Burton, I'll give it that. Creative, interesting, different, but I don't think I'm going to watch it again.

I think Madame Sousatzka was greatly improved in the transition from book to movie. I loved the TV adaptation of Mapp and Lucia. So far I must say I haven't seen an adaptation of Rebecca that does justice to the book.

Have you tried the Princess Diaries series?

Many scientists are notoriously bad at communicating with nonscientists about their work, and it's really important that people should have some level of knowledge about issues like global warming, cloning, genetic engineering, gene therapy, birth control, evolution and other science/religion...

The thing is that so many people apparently believed this nonsense that the Iraq war was easily winnable and we'd be spreading Western-style democracy throughout the Middle East and all that wonderful stuff. My husband and I both said at the time that these people were fantasising (or lying)...

I remember reading Sarum years and years ago and not liking it much. I wish I could remember the details of why, but I think it was that he didn't seem to me to catch the atmosphere of some of the historical periods as well as he could have. Mind you, that book was a heck of an undertaking, and...

Someone should point Harrypotterrox at this thread and perhaps she'll have second thoughts about wanting to be a mod. Apparently mods sometimes have to deal with some very weird stuff.

The Belgariad is pretty good; personally I don't find it a series I want to read over and over, but it has some very interesting characters although IMO the plot is rather unoriginal. Polgara is one of the most compelling fantasy characters I've ever come across (although on the whole I prefer...

Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Terry Pratchett, and Sharon Kay Penman for fiction. And JK Rowling if she keeps up her standards after the Harry Potter series. Richard Dawkins, Bill Bryson, Richard Fortey, and Fareed Zakaria for nonfiction. All these (with the exception of Shakespeare, who has...

Killjoy....:p

Well, unfortunately I think that's probably true, especially in systems like the US one, where raising money for election is so important. It means the eventual winner is under a deep obligation to the organisations that bankrolled him, and those organisations usually have very different...

It's just a shame he didn't have the guts to blow the whistle while he was in the press secretary position and resign on principle. Or maybe the country was so far gone and Karl Rove was such a talented smearer of reputations that it wouldn't have made any difference. I'm surprised that Gordon...

Well, really, I don't see the attraction in becoming a moderator if it doesn't mean that you get a free pass to cuss people out. :D

I need to go through that book again too because it's a while since I read it. I do remember being a little disappointed by his debunking of Aquinas's arguments for God - they struck me as being more superficial than I'd hoped for, good enough to convince atheists that they needn't be...

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Even by Hardy's standards, this one was depressing.

I suppose that calls to boycott the movie are preferable to calls to ban it. I do think it's ironic that in a country that's so dominated by religion, people seem to be so scared of atheists. I must admit to being disappointed by the movie. I think it lacked a lot of the atmosphere of the...

I don't know if Madame Sousatzka is exactly a classic, but for me that was one of the rare times when the movie was better than the book.

1984 was pretty amazing, wasn't it? Have you read Brave New World?