The Onion AV Club's least favorite movie cliches

I have to say, I agree with... well, just about all of these, especially this one:

Jason Heller

There are two clichés in particular that really irk me—probably because they’re both staples of one of my favorite genres, science fiction. First is the monolithic, evil corporation that always seems to come complete with a malevolent CEO, a cadre of sadistic scientists, and an army of faceless storm troopers. The most recent example I can think of is the fictional entity Multi-National United from District 9; granted, there is plenty of evil perpetrated by military-industrial contractors, but the world is just way more complex than that. But even worse, cartoonishly evil corporations make for lousy drama: It’s pretty much the same as the mustache-twirling villain, no ambiguity or complexity. Another sci-fi cliché that gets on my nerves is the plastic, antiseptic vision of the future in the vein of Gattaca or A.I.—which, besides being played-out and hard to swallow, seems to stem from some antiquated, Boomer-era paranoia about suburban conformity rather than any plausible prognostication of tomorrow. Human systems and societies are fluid and messy, not the homogenous lumps that writers and directors often sculpt—and even when their creations’ dark underbellies are inevitably revealed, the overall shape is usually far too simple.

The New York Mets as a slasher film

The New York Mets have had an incredible number of people hurt on their team this year. Of the 25 Mets on the opening day roster, just 11 are still playing.

So Baseball Prospectus wonders (subscription required) takes a short look back at the season full of injuries as if it is a slasher-film.

And they wonder who is next

Inconveniently, none of these 11 men are named 'Tina,' so we don't have any easy picks as far as who's going to be next to fall. We know that for the final survivor, it won't be any of the ones who have been drinking a lot, or those having fun, loveless pre-marital sex, or those having fun, lusty extra-marital sex, or those having sex of any stripe with their wives, because let's face it, sex is death in such matters. But here again, we can also probably take it for granted, given the immutable laws of slasher movies, that the real good-time charlies are already toast. I know, that probably means the guys left aren't exactly the original fun bunch, but I don't think anyone's figuring the remaining Mets to be a bundle of joy. Let's face, it, we're almost seven months in since the start of spring training, and anyone left on this fun ride must be feeling like the guys left in the final third of Dan Simmons' interminable Terror, wondering whether they get to eat one another before the polar monster TBNL chomps them to bits.

The anti-Twitter

Woofer, which looks like Twitter but is incredibly different, has a unique premise. Instead of requiring users to stay below 140 characters, it forces users to use at least 1,400 characters.

CNET looked at the website:

When you look at the site's three principles of woofing, you begin to believe that Woofer truly will be the salvation of the language: "1. Be eloquent. 2. Use adverbs. 3. DEA (don't ever abbreviate)," the site says.