Let's hope people get franchise fatigue! I've heard people here say that these movies are made by comic book fans, which maybe true but that doesn't mean these fans have that much control. When a studio/distributor like Disney spends $230 million just on the film and the same again on marketing they couldn't give a stuff what fans want. They need a return on the money they spent and no one in the project is left free of micro management, they can't be with that type of money being spent.

There maybe parallels with the past here. When tv was biting into the market for cinema film in the 50s and 60s Hollywood decided it was going to concentrate it's wealth in sure fire hits, the musicals. When these started to bomb studios had an issue on it's hands. They responded by making cheaper films by auteur directors, and as a consequence we had the cinema of the 70s. Lets hope Disney & Co lose confidence in what they think people will watch, only then will we get the Taxi Driver and Serpico type films being made again.

Whoosh!

Not necessarily You could be learning the language and want examples of how a library (or some other part of the language) is used.

Could you comment (in regards to the exclusive album created for you by the Wu-tang Clan) on the urban legend that if Bill Murray steals the recording in a heist he can then release the recording to the world.

Never really understood the need for these types of adventures, could someone explain why traveling to a barren rock is so thrilling! No trolling, and I understand the importance to science but even the quest for knowledge has it's limits.

I enjoy this blog, I like that fact that slashdot is carrying them and I find them educational. So speak for your self.

Interesting information, and also finds some use for bing.

ESR = Eric Steven Raymond the third. I'm kidding about the the third bit.

I'm actually a Muslim, who has some interest and self and formal study on Islam. Suicide is not part of the tradition of Islam, it has approximately 30 years of history in Islam. This started with Hezbollah conducting a suicide attack during the Lebanon war. Islam is vast, full knowledge I think is beyond me, and most people. This is because the Qur'an, the hadith (sayings and actions of the prophet) are all sources. The hadith alone represent millions of accounts and sayings, which all have to be verified with the number of people retelling the same events, along the the biographies of these witnesses. Plus some parts of the Qur'an abrogate others, each verse can be a sourse of law. This is because the Quran was composed over a twenty year period of the Prophets life, and times change. These are only the sources mind you, there's a bit more than this that goes into what is considered Islam. I suggest that you learn something about Islam.

I agree with your point, culture is allways an important interpretive element, which is actively embraced in traditional Islam.