The same Captain who was promoted straight up from Cadet without even graduating from the academy? What a wonderful role model of entitlement.

A South Korean corvette was just sunk too. Maybe this IS the beginning of the end.

Natural selection more or less explains this, as well as almost any other phenomenon (biologically based or not) you can think of.

Missing option: Universal Darwinism

It's too old a civ. With entrenched culture like that (the Kong Miao, the forbidden city, the wall, etc.) the artist will hardly make a dent. Besides, I'm pretty sure that the "revolution mod" option is turned on for this game. Think of the revolts! For now, demand the resources as tribute an risk the "-1 you made an arrogant demand".

Death by snu snu.

Clever sig, but isn't it out of date now?

I don't think we are going to impress any alien civs with a Dyson sphere built around our planet. I think they tend to be more effective when encompassing the star.

Empirical evidence seems to indicate that marijuana improves my creative problem solving capabilities substantially. Then again, it can hinder the normal solution methods at times too. For example, I once struggled for about 10 minutes to compute 3 * 0.25 (definitely an exception, it usually does not impair numeracy so severely), but I approached the problem in ways I had never imagined before. A supposed 4-point temporary drop seems well worth the longterm effects of remodeling my perspective on, well, everything. I think I owe a lot of my intellectual development to that wonderful plant.

If society is open to allowing psychoactives with demonstrably negative long and short-term effects (i.e. ethanol), then why not allow psychoactives that make me creative, philosophical, non-belligerent, and in general the happiest man alive? One of my favourite inside jokes when high is to think that "Feeling this good should be a crime. Oh wait, it is" It's quite a depressing thought that it is in fact illegal to ingest (who inhales anyway? there are far more effective ways to go about it!) something to make oneself happy while not infringing on the rights of others. Unfortunately, by disobeying the law in this matter I am risking all credibility in my profession due to the strong social stigma against it. It's too bad that people fear that which they do not understand, that which they have only been told bad things about growing up and are thus nearly unable to form their own informed opinions on. However, as a greater portion of the population practices such peaceful civil disobedience, it drives the eventual rescindment of marijuana's illegality (at least one can hope).

I have been surprised to learn how prevalent this form of civil disobedience is. Perhaps a lot of people conceal their use out of fear (it's illegal, and socially frowned upon) as I do. Perhaps there are more benevolent marijuana missionaries out there spreading the word of peace and happiness.

These papers studying cannabis as a risk factor for steatosis and hepatitis C (a finding which is contradicted by another study that I can't find at the moment) indicate that 24-30% of patients use it daily (in France at least, but I've seen similar numbers for other locales).

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WFX-4R7J81G-5&_user=10&_coverDate=02%2F29%2F2008&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1212900528&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=fb8c342ecca065efc61e77e527067e0f

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110493927/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

If that proportion ever exceeds 50% or so, I see no alternative for governments but to concede to the will of the people and legislate accordingly.

Real women? No true Scotsman?

"What are you listening to?"
"The Dead."
"The who?"
"No, not the Who, the Dead!"

Matrix Revisited

http://xkcd.com/566/

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scrabble
See definition 3a of the intransitive verb. It actually made sense.

I think there's a missing word or two there. The comparison is almost certainly being made about nuclear plants, hence the mention of a fuel cycle.

http://www.xkcd.com/623/