Discussion question: What is it about Avatar?

There seems to be something about Avatar. People talk about it a lot. Even people who hate it seem to hate it a lot more vehemently than they hate most equivalent movies (action adventures, etc.).

What do you think it is about this movie?

Also:
http://abstrusegoose.com/237

Obama talking to/with House Republicans

http://cos.livejournal.com/76609.html
Cos writes:

"After the State of the Union, Obama accepted an invitation to go to the House Republicans' retreat in Baltimore, where he gave a short speech and answered questions for more than an hour (transcript). Watch it, it's very good.

Audio on the Q&A is not good for the first ~2minutes, then they fix it."

Listening to the Q&A now. URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBuG2TdgMn0