The difference between the presentation of the Higgs Boson and God is slight, but important.

Whenever I read about the Higgs, the reader is reminded that it has not yet been located, it is being rigorously searched for, and/or it is a best-guess theory that fits nicely into the Standard Model. It is assumed to exist, though I have a feeling nobody would be terribly upset if a better theory came around to account for its lack of existence.

Whenever I read about God, it's implicitly assumed that he exists, he's good, and he can read your mind.

There's an order of magnitude of difference between these two "faiths" and assuming they are, in any way, guilty of the same logical fallacies is preposterous.

See, now teachers have a good reason to sign up for Google+

They won't go to jail.

Dunno how MS Office is, but I've always used Ctrl+Shift+V in OpenOffice, then you can paste the text without formatting.

Didn't Andrew Ryan try this?

Something about a wealthy entrepreneur constructing a libertarian paradise unhampered by the laws of government or moral responsibilities...

But then again, Rapture was UNDER the water, while this city is ABOVE the water.

Totally different circumstances then.

I've been outgeeked by microwave popcorn enthusiasts. I am deeply humbled.

No offense, but I can't stand the "it just works" cop-out. I have heard it so many times, it sounds like it was ripped straight from an Apple commercial. Of course "it just works"-- even Androids "just work," if you mean they can do all the basic functions, like making calls, storing contacts, showing the time, accessing webpages, etc., in some fashion or another without a ton of modification.

However, when given the ability to customize and personalize, some of us enjoy going the extra mile to upgrade a sufficient "just works" interface to an optimal "OMG check out what my smartphone can do" interface. Sure, the default Android browser works fine, but I want tabbed browsing, so I upgrade to Dolphin HD. The default gTalk app does what it's designed to do, but I'm a power chatter with five or six different IM accounts (which could require many different apps!), so to standardize the interface and save on the RAM, I grab eBuddy for an all-in-one solution. And that's not even getting into all of the cool stuff (and money-saving stuff) you can do if you root your phone.

I think that when a geek gains that ability to tinker, "just works" becomes "hmm... maybe I can do better." If you don't have any other options, you don't bitch about a lousy interface--you learn to adapt. For instance, every microwave oven I've ever owned has had a POPCORN button on it that always seems to burn any popcorn I give it. Naturally, I just ignore it like many others do. However, if I could take that button off and replace it with a +30 SECONDS button (in addition to the regular +1 QUICK MINUTE button) or a QUICK RECALL button or something other that would be more useful, I would do it in a heartbeat. But I can't, because the microwave's interface is locked and can't be modified. So you learn to adapt to the quirks and ignore the deficiencies.

However, as soon as you learn you have other options, the minor problems become glaring obstacles that can be overcome with a little bit of research and tinkering. Maybe that's not a big deal to some people, but I like it.

In other words, Sony is saying, "Hey consumers, it's the developers' fault for using buzzwords we helped promote. We know 3D sucks ass right now, but come on, give us another chance! Remember Avatar? Come on, remember?"

The adaptive rumination hypothesis (ARH) is a popular though highly controversial explanation for the evolutionary origin of depression.

Basically, depressed people ruminate. They think deep thoughts. They are overly self-critical, pessimistic, and lethargic. Of course, taken to these extremes, major depression is certainly a disadvantage in any context. But in moderation, there are some activities that might benefit from a less optimistic mindset:
1. Reflecting on one's self-worth ("Maybe I'm not strong enough to take on that saber-toothed tiger without help...")
2. Ascribing high likelihoods to the probability of future disaster ("Maybe we won't be able to survive the winter without more food stores...")
3. Having a proclivity for solitary, non-social activities (inventors, artists, etc.).

By contrast, optimists might charge head-first into danger without stopping to self-reflect. They might waste all their energy on unfruitful endeavors. And so on.

It could be the case that depression is like the gene for sickle-cell anemia. A little bit helps you resist malaria, while a lot makes you anemic.

Of course, ARH is fraught with problems and is by no means widely accepted, but it still shows that there's a possibility that what we think of as a negative quality (depression) could harbor some positive benefits.

In full disclosure, I did buy a pair of keys to open some Mann Co. crates I found while playing. For 5 bucks, I got extra weapons I already had (later gifted to a friend) and color-dyed my pyro's vintage merryweather helmet.

I felt like it was kind of a rip-off, but if you see a pyro with a purple helmet coming your way, you better run.

The rich, and those with more money than sense, subsidize everyone else's play by purchasing useless cosmetic doohickeys that fund further development of the game to the enjoyment and benefit of all.

Why can't the real world work this way?

You should have capitalized the word that, because it comes at the beginning of your sentence.

In the living room, light and sound both travel from the screen to the eyes and ears at an incredible speed, which gives us the illusion that both video and audio are occurring simultaneously, no matter where we are in the room.

However, these chemical reactions that produce odor take a bit longer to reach the viewer (smeller?). How long, I don't know. Assuming the device is centralized and not strapped to each viewer's nose, different viewers will experience the odor at different times depending on their positioning in the room. TFA also mentions that the smell of coffee beans can be used to clear an odor, but how long would this take? If the scene shifts from the sultan's filthy dungeon to his sexy perfumed harem, how would this product handle the dissonance caused by the high latency time of clearing an old odor and releasing a new odor?

Wow, all these years I managed to avoid seeing the goatse.cx guy, priding myself on my resilience to clicking on random image links from friends and trolls alike, taking comfort in the fact that I could identify a shock JPG based on a few lines of pixels while the holding the clipped window at the edge of my screen, and yet... now it's all for naught.

Pirates don't scrub music. They scrub poop decks. Yar.

Wow, reading through these comments is pretty upsetting. Lot of unwarranted, borderline misogynistic ranting. No reason to feel threatened, guys. Girls just wanna have fun.

Anyway, some observations about how women are portrayed in games:

Male protagonists dominate the top games, while female protagonists are primarily defined by their sex appeal (Lara Croft, Bayonetta, any female from Street Fighter) or are somewhat masculine themselves (Mass Effect's female Shepard, Samus Aran before she strips). In addition, many respectable female characters are relegated to sidekick status (Alyx Vance from HL2, Meryl from Metal Gear Solid) or become emotionally-wrecked villains themselves (GLaDOS, Aribeth from NWN).

For every non-mute (Sorry Chell), non-overtly sexualized, emotionally resilient lead female character, like April (Longest Journey) or Jade (Beyond Good & Evil), I can think of half a dozen females who always need rescuing by the boys: Princess Peach, Princess Zelda, Yorda (ICO), the Duke Nukem girls, and so on...

Based purely on personal anecdotes, most real-life girls I know gravitate toward games like the Sims, Oblivion, or World of Warcraft (PvE). Social chatting software like IMVU are popular among women too. I think in these kinds of games, they can define their own characters and their own place in the game world. They seem to like creating, customizing, and exploring, while approaching the content at their own pace.

That's not to say no women enjoy pressure-driven games like WoW (PvP), Starcraft, or Left 4 Dead--I remember at least 3 girls kicked my ass in separate L4D Versus matches--but the ratio of fiercely competitive girl gamers to guy gamers isn't very high, in my experience.

If developers want to attract more women playing games, I think they need to develop more characters that women want to play or characters that women can identify with. To do that, I would suggest hiring more female developers, writers, and play-testers. But that's a risky business move, and in this climate of conservative remakes and shooter clones, I don't see it happening anytime soon.