Yep, the whole het-minority thing makes for an interesting thought experiment, but in terms of evolution it just doesn't make a lot of sense—at least for a species like ours. Now, if we had reproduction strategy akin to bees—where only female gets pregnant in a hive—you could get something interesting going.

But…

Golden Compass was ruined by gutless film-making—they pulled back on the darker aspects of the plot and the whole thing just sort dissipated.

I agree that the Dark is Rising deserves a real chance—Will needs to be English, it's a very, very English book—and I'll throw in *Wrinkle in Time*—saw a completely horrendous…

Not doctors, medics—so support personnel. Really, really rough for everyone.

Nah, let's push that out a bit and blame a Congress that has done its damnedest to kill the CDC and other government-funded scientific institutions. I don't think it's an accident that the Dallas debacle happened in a state that prides itself on being anti-regulation, anti-labor and anti-government.

I thought the Spanish Flu is thought to have mutated to a less-lethal form. Measles has been around since antiquity. Smallpox has been around since 10,000 B.C. and it took more than 200 years post-vaccine to eradicate it—and it's one of two diseases that have been eradicated.

HIV is alive and well, with 34 million…

Yep, there's no particular reason for Ebola to become airborne, though I did read one good fear-mongering post that worried about a lower level of lethality, but the emergence of an asymptomatic infectuous period. That would be worrisome. At least now, with Ebola, when it's contagious, the patient feels like crap…

Oh this. This, this, this. I'll just add that along with antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, there are also 50,000 new HIV infections a year in the U.S. and more than 1 million in Africa. I feel like half the concern about Ebola comes from hype—a weird combo of video games, a movie or two and the Walking Dead.

Flu…

My understanding is that that viral load is really low. Like 12 particles.

Actually, AIDS kills more people than malaria and the number of people with AIDS is still growing. But, yes, you're right. Measles still kills more than 100,000 people annually and that's with vaccinations being the norm in First World countries. It's incredibly contagious—just read of an outbreak where the kid…

Oh Martha's been touting the whole American-made small-business thing for a while—though Martha's indigo plant is way better than your indigo plant. It's a heirloom variety originally grown by a photogenic family in northern Africa.

It would be a special small-business-American-made-artisanal tattoo using dyes made from the plants in Martha's garden. You just know Martha would grow her own indigo.

It doesn't really go away, but you get used to it and, as time goes by, your mind begins to get occupied, part of the time, by newer experiences and memories. I used to think of my mother's death as just kind of a big hole, but slowly the image became a little greener with things growing around it, near it. The hole…

Finally, some fear-mongering that actually makes some sense. Kudos.

They don't—and there are 50,000 new HIV infections in the U.S. annually. Not that Ebola research doesn't need to be funded and the situation in west Africa is grim, but Americans need to get a grip.

Yeah, I bet there's a generational difference in reaction—those who remember AIDS pre-antiviras and those who can't.

Next few thousand? Oh, I think we'll have the technology for a place like Mars (some atmosphere, water present) before that. Think how radically different things are from 100 years ago. Not sure why we'd send our petty criminals there—that's an expensive way to jail people. We don't send them to Antarctica. Canada…

Oh she's supposed to be totally horrible. Just explaining why Martha would notice Gwynnie and why she might care—poaching executives is not the way to make friends. And I'll bet that the CEO will poach some other lower-level employees as well. So, I get the digs at Goop.

I'm going to go with over-the-top wedding by Indian or Middle-Eastern plutocrats. Maybe Chinese—though dragons and phoenixes are the big mythical animals for Chinese weddings.

Not to mention malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. I keep thinking that people weren't such idiots when I was younger, but then I remember Twitter, Reddit and such mean that I just hear more idiots than I used to.

The product of his time thing just doesn't wash—plenty of more fully drawn women in popular culture of the times (1920s and 1930s, in particular). But I've found i09 is one of the better places for discussions that don't devolve into nonsense. Though I once said something I considered pretty matter-of-fact about…