Yes, Mr. Sherman. Everything stinks.

A nitpick — but Banks' Culture series is not all set in the future; the setting is an alien society that already attained the level described in this article centuries in our past. It's not a society of humans from Earth, just remarkably humanoid aliens... But then again, I've only read a couple of the books in the…

The Gentleman Adventurer for the modern age!

Maybe there will be a Scooby-Do ending where it turns out that everything in the film actually has a scientific explanation? :P

I can't help but make two comments: First, I think everyone knows that SATs can be trained for — there's an entire industry of test preparation tutors, practice testing, and what-not making money off of this. Second... YouTube comments. As a measure of intelligence. :( I know the whole "YouTube comments are all…

I hear this argument a lot, but I don't really see why it would be such a big issue... The third season of the original Star Trek series was pretty bad, but that doesn't stop people from enjoying good episodes from that series to this day, didn't keep the names of Kirk and Spock from becoming household terms that…

That is good news and makes me happy. :) Thank you.

You're right! And I have the mistaken impression that a coal-fired power plant can produce energy! But when I stop to think about it, I see that your insight is applicable here, as well: To use any coal in the power plant, you'd first have to dig it out of the ground and refine it, which would require you to *already…

Yes, and this generator refines urine into hydrogen gas, which is usable as fuel. Unless you're doing something horribly wrong, you don't actually need as much energy to refine a fuel as the fuel will go on to produce, which is the claim meredithjh33 seemed to be making.

In practice, it's pretty difficult to leave your workplace and find a new one. Certainly some people do so successfully and are better off for it, but for many it's just not a risk they can afford to take, or not a challenge they have the resources to overcome.

Justified because in this scene she had just gotten out of the hazmat suit she was wearing moments earlier and — oh god, why do I know this!

I think you're just thinking of Vinge's "Zones of Thought" books. :P I don't think anyone's come up with a plausible list of "un-achievable" technological goals. FTL just happens to break some pretty well-established physical laws. :(

As an added bonus, the book's title makes no sense — wouldn't "Phobos" be... Greek fear?

I don't get this position from those on the right of the spectrum. I just don't understand how it fits, ideologically. Isn't cutting back on government spending a good thing, republicanly speaking? Isn't encouraging more private, free-market participation in a government-dominated industry also a good thing? Mind you,…

JUST AS NOSTRADAMUS FORETOLD.

The fact that they intentionally knocked on the guardhouse door tells me that the force used against them might have been a bit excessive.

I think it's a fairly pretty cover. I dunno. I see pretty thing, I don't take much time analysing whether I should be annoyed with it for trying to be hipster-ish or not. I just enjoy the pretty.

Maybe? That's neither here nor there — I was responding to the "SHOCKED!" comment by saying that just because a book was written 70+ years ago, does not mean we can't, or shouldn't, talk about things like the way it portrays gender, etc.

Why is the age of a work an automatic get-out-of-jail-free card? Why can't we critique old works and the culture that both helped shape them, and that they in turn shaped — especially when aspects of the culture of those times are with us still? I mean, can you really morally justify everything that people did or…

Pete forever!