Dog Marley, surely?

Because Earth is, like, so amazing, you know? Mars isn't romantic.

Ireland standing in for the Amazon in "The Lost City of Z"? I can just imagine "Men, the way up ahead may be a bit dodgy. Let's nip into this pub for a pint or two before proceeding.". Seriously, looking forward to the film as I read the book a couple of years ago.

, because once you’re a certain amount of rich you just hang out with equally rich people and talk about Davos

In a lot of ways that was kind of a remake of "Moscow on the Hudson" for the post Soviet world. They were both rather twee - a collection of various American stereotypes band together to help the clueless foreigner.

Really? I thought those images gave more the vibe of the crazy person: "See! See! These links show that the American Humane Society is really a shadow government! They control congress by way of the Girl Scouts!"

But IPAs were actually made for the British troops by British brewers, and not for or by the natives, so it's okay.

If movies could actually kill.

Oh, Gibson and Sterling were well aware of the similarities of the 19th century to their future dystopias. Besides cyberpunk they also wrote "The Difference Engine" which was about the 19th century if Babbage's engines had been completed.

But cyberpunk, the movement that FF VII takes its inspiration from (albeit in weakened form) really was more than a "harmless piece of pop entertainment". People like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling were trying to warn us that the increasing merger of political and corporate power wasn't going to lead to something…

Are you going to refuse Social Security when you retire? That's another one of those Commie things that came out of the New Deal.

To really have a valid view on a scientific topic you have to base it on the evidence. Charles' nutty views suggest that he isn't doing that but simply choosing positions on various topics that seem attractive to him for some emotional reason. Such people are problematic even when they happen to capriciously pick a…

No. Prince Charles has dangerously ignorant views on medicine for starters (he thinks homeopathy hasn't been given a fair shake by science). Of course, in that regard he isn't much unlike Trump (who is an anti-vaxxer).

Wilson, yes (he even overturned early attempts at racial integration). FDR, no. Did he make mistakes? Yes. But the New Deal made America into a civilized country that actually had a social safety net (which has been eroding since Reagan, of course).

Essential Iowa
Do these two words go together?

Yes, the music was quite good — both the synth stuff by Eurythmics and Dominic Muldowney's "in universe" music such as "Oceania Tis For Thee" and the "Children's Anthem" — they were a good mix of Soviet-style and a very English Elgar-style — very realistic in the way that an Ingsoc regime would use.

Even Legoland got it wrong.
Is nothing sacred? We can't even trust Legoland?

Or worse — Portuguese! Seriously, he has several villainous Portuguese immigrants in his stories. Which may seem odd, because they aren't exactly a big immigrant group in America in general, but apparently in 1920s Providence, they were relatively common.

The Romans liked to *bathe* in it, not drink it — hence the name!

Exactly. You made me just put the soundtrack on. It really had the "something momentous is about to happen vibe".