[You may want to just hit delete now? ;-) ] I don't know where everybody else is, but where I live, we have various science programs on TV from time to time. (Horizon being a fairly regular one.) They grab a bunch of eggheads, and try to get them to explain (in soundbites) some topic or other. Sometimes it's string theory, or quantum dynamics, or chaos theory, or something like that. (And sometimes it's economics - and then I change channel.) Usually the producers go to great lengths to make the subject seem "interesting" - that is, try to be as over-dramatic as possible. Often accompanied with copious computer graphics, which mainly just look pretty. Anyway, I was sitting here thinking to myself "hey, what if they got a bunch of people to talk about Haskell?" (That's *one* way to get publicity...!) I don't know how many of you are as neurotically familiar with The Matrix as I am, but... I found myself visualising that scene from about mid-way through the film. Morpheus: "This may feel... a little weird." [6 inch metal plug injected into the back of Neo's skull] Neo: "AAAAAAAAAAARRGH!!" [They turn on the computer.] [Neo finds himself floating in a sea of lambda functions, higher-kinded class instances and parametric polymorphism.] ...and then I find myself thinking of http://xkcd.com/c224.html Erm... OK, I'll go sit in the corner and be quiet now.