If there was a news story about someone who ran into a crowded theatre and shouted "FIRE, FIRE" just for fun, I guess boingboing would also categorize that as an example of "MAVERICK SPIRIT". How about serial killers, they're examples of "MAVERICK SPIRIT" too.

Don't know if it'll influence the film at all, but Sacha Baron-Cohen's degree at Cambridge was in History (he did well, graduating with a first class degree), and he especially focussed on the American civil rights movement for his dissertation

Here's an entrepreneurial idea:

how about a gun shooting range where customers can bring their own photos to be printed out and pasted out onto the targets??

maybe this is legal or maybe not.

if it is legal (surely in Texas and Mexico), then you will make $$$$ and so please credit anon poster "boinkboink3000" in the advertising blurb at least

if it turns out to be not so legal, I know nothings, what is "boinkboink3000?)

READ A PROPER BOOK FOR HISTORY,
don't rely on a 4 minute credits sequence for a crappy movie!

Look, this is simple really:

Is the supposed "religion" of Disney a life-and-death matter? Would its believers sacrifice and kill to defend the religion and its
community? Does it lead them to a profound spiritual acceptance about human mortality and suffering? Does it offer transformative rituals which give symbolic legitimacy to one's life cycle (including one's ability to become an adult, a spouse, a parent, a community leader etc.) ?

They can answer this question as "OBVIOUSLY, NO; EXCEPT FOR THE OCCASIONAL FREAK" within the first 15 minutes of the first class of the course, and then all the prof and all the kids can just take an extra free period per week for the rest of the semester! "A"s all round! Everybody wins! The tenure system works!!

@OM: I think calling WIkipedia's current half-hearted attempts at collective quality control and referencing "peer review system" unfortunately degrades the idea of peer review. Though I agree with your point that the Google Knol thing is defective if it purely relies on the popularity of content without any review/factchecking system.

@ROGER KNIGHTS: the WIkipedia community as it is now would never allow oversight by experts in this way. The whole point of Wikipedia is anti-expertise. If you want expert-led content, volunteer for Citizendium.

Well, hallelujah. Let's hope this completely crushes Wikipedia for good!

These things (in various shapes and designs) are like 10 cents each and are very common in any Asian city streetmarket.

I looked at the Dark Mission intro excerpt - it seems rather silly and doesnt really do itself any favours in propping up its own credibility with the tin-foil-hat-conspiracy-theory way it is written.

The big "shocking" revelations in the intro chapter - that NASA is a defense agency and NASA has been interested in extraterrestrial life - are not shocking at all.

Speaking as someone from the UK who has had no particular interest at all in space, space travel, NASA or science fiction, I've known that NASA was formally a military agency for a long time and assumed it was a widely known fact. And obviously NASA has been seriously concerned with the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It would be incredibly bizarre if it wasn't.

An unfair fine (in amount and warning given) but why is this posted under the CIVLIB categories? This is a consumer rights issue, not a civil liberties issue.

Unless BoingBoing is making the automatic presumption that consumer = citizen and corporate power = governmental power, which is grim but inaccurate and uncalled for.

Yes, lets all chortle about the crapification of the news media. Big laughs! No risk!