Why I Enjoy SLATE

Three great articles for this weekend:

The Evidence that Pot Doesn't Lead to Heroin
But she found no evidence that they were more likely to become addicted than the rats in the control group who'd never been exposed to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, marijuana's main ingredient.

Superheroes and Male Anxiety in My Super Ex-Girlfriend
A less willfully misogynist movie might have made Thurman's double identity the starting place for an exploration of female power, super- or otherwise. What would you do if your girlfriend not only made more money than you, but knew how to stop an incoming missile with her bare hands? Instead, the movie, like Wilson's character, spends two hours cowering under a table, waiting for the scary lady to go away.

In Defense of M. Night Shyamalan
It's shaping up to be the worst summer of M. Night Shyamalan's charmed career. Nearly a decade has passed since The Sixth Sense catapulted him onto the Hollywood A-list, and the critics have been souring on his twist endings, earnest mysticism, and crowd-pleasing thrills.