To some extent, I get the sense that Unity's fan-worship of Hitler was seen as a bit beneath her—Hitler was Germany's leader, but he was certainly not an aristocrat and he was foreign. Two big strikes against him as far as the British aristocracy was concerned.

Her family, even Jessica, kind of accepted her political…

Thing is, anti-semitism was pretty standard among the British aristocrats—even fascism was met with a certain amount of approval. Diana married Mosely, of course, but the brother, too, was pro-German enough that he refused to fight against Germany in WWII (He was willing to fight against Japan and was killed in…

The Chanur books are a fun read—nicely subversive too with the male felines who are initially considered to be too emotional to be on ships—and I love how alien the aliens are—the methane breathers that look like hair snarls who seem to be unclear on the difference between trading and kidnapping. Also, of course,…

Sorry, I responded to your first comment before I saw your second.

I kind of love the chart just because it's looking at solutions instead being yet another handwringing gloom-and-doom forecast. The effect of the Montreal Protocol being so huge is a big deal—and, yet, it didn't hurt the global economy. Hell, I doubt anything on that list has.

Thanks—I've been hunting through the comments hoping that someone would explain this part.

To some extent, but other countries tend to have more stringent environmental standards. So emissions would still be down, but the cost of goods would go up.

Yeah, I get the many negatives with China's one-child policy, but I'm not sure the alternatives would have been better. Longterm, we need to educate poor women—education has an amazing effect on birth rates.

Sigh, I just know that if I'd been the teacher I'd have been bitchy enough to point out that the mons pubis is not the vagina. If you're going to push sex ed, know your terminology, dammit.

Vagina-Mom needs to learn how to make cannoli.

Glad to see Downbelow Station on here—you don't hear a lot about CJ Cherryh these days, but she created an interesting universe—a bit underappreciated, I think, because she has a clunky, somewhat detached writing style, but she's done some elegant world and species building.

Page views = money. Simple, really.

Yeah, the flat lighting's a definite part of it, but I think we also have kind of an aversion to food that doesn't look pristine—other people's food isn't clean. I've been learning to photograph food because people want my recipes and people like photos of the results, but it's been a real learning curve on taking…

Nope, casein is a milk protein, so you're right—that would be an allergy. But, it's also true that kids can outgrow allergies, so you can now tolerate more than you did as a kid. I wouldn't think butter would be a huge problem either way, since it's basically fat.

Sorry about the celiac. A couple of my relatives have it and because going gluten-free is such a fad, they worry about being taken seriously when eating out.

Doesn't sound like you have a dairy allergy, more like you're a lactose malabsorper, which is common in adults and causes stomach issues, but won't result in hives, itching, rashes or swelling up with an allergic reaction.

Yep, I was once in an SF restaurant and heard a customer go on and on to a server about how she was allergic to sugar. You can't BE allergic to sugar, you can only be allergic to the proteins in a food. No protein in sugar.

Yep, a friend of mine's husband has a bad peanut/nut allergy—traveling to Asia on business is hell for him (all that peanut cooking oil), he basically brings food with him and always loses weight.

I've read that what a nursing mother eats affects a baby's taste in food later on.

Yes, little kids can't take super spicy stuff, but that just means you start the spice in smaller doses and, over time, they're able to manage more heat. It's heat, more than spiciness, per se.

Thing is, it won't even be a good photograph of food. Food looks kind of yucky if it's not lit right—and that doesn't happen in most restaurants. I've been called a foodie and I've occasionally photographed a dish I've created, but I find the idea of photographing one's restaurant meal really unappetizing. In…

I'm glad to hear that—not the first part, but the second part. I knew there had been some cases in Nigeria, but didn't know about it having been in Lagos.