Yep—and it makes sense that we're that way. Lots of animals are stronger and hardier than we are, but we're really, really good at the social stuff—forming groups to protect ourselves, raise our really weak and vulnerable, and to pursue a goal or woolly mammoth in common. We also make war and such on one another,…

Just as long as it doesn't accidentally step on us, or roll on us or something.

Thank you—this sort of fits with my ongoing muttering when watching things like the Walking Dead—fact is, humans have lived through various disasters before and we don't go crazy. We actually try to keep things together and adapt to an amazing degree. Look at London during the Blitzkrieg—bombing every night for…

Yep, there's something about the juxtaposition that made me want my mommy and a teddy bear. We're awfully small and its awfully big.

Because we're being told to categorize writers by something other than their writing. It's countering perceived discrimination with counter-discrimination. No thanks. I get that it's optional, but it's also wrong-headed and rubs me the wrong way. I've read wonderful things by men, women and none-of-the-above. As…

The thing is, most published novels are written by women. This has been true for a long time. Even in the Victorian era, half the novels published were written by women. The exclusionism isn't in what's published and sold, but happens at the reviewer/taken seriously level. Joanna Russ wrote a wonderful take-down…

Yep, I'm very skeptical of the notion that you can't be subject to racism because you're of a particular ethnicity. I had a Japanese-American teacher who said racist things about whites and blacks—talked about how we smelled bad, while "orientals have no smell." It's quite similar to the kind of comments an…

I don't get that sense from LeGuin's comments above. More like she found the book itself had a commitment problem. LeGuin hasn't suffered as much from being marginalized as a genre writer as others have. She was the first SF writer I remember whose work was seen as being serious literature—i.e. stories of hers…

Ugh, I'm sorry—that's both depressing and ugly. You deserved atomic-ranch style.

Ours don't—i.e. the ones in California. They're all from the 50s/60s, one-story, with big windows and large overhangs. It's very atomic ranch. One of the very few advantages of Prop. 13 is that they haven't replaced them with something more current, but more poorly made, requiring air-conditioning all the time.

Thing is, she really was a girl—well, 19—when she wrote Frankenstein and you never hear about how she must have been this genius-prodigy type to do that—instead, at best, you get to hear about how Shelley's wife just happened to write it—as if it were some sort of cosmic accident and how Shelley must have been a…

It's actually kind of annoying how Mary Shelley's authorship of Frankenstein has been questioned over the years. She had to come up with the premise at some point, so why not in the middle of the night after being told to come up with a story?

Yes, I think the Danarys storyline will end where it does in ADWD—it's kind of a natural—but that leaves me wondering what they'll do with Tyrion's storyline, since it looks like they're cutting a bunch of it—the mummer's dragon, Penny . . . though he may still end up saving what's-his-name. (Fine by me—Iain Glenn's…

Well, the main point of the Euron storyline seems to be about getting a certain item to Essos. If, however, the people in Essos get to Westeros more directly that may not be necessary.

Looks, like a huge chunk has been skipped—I don't think we'll get the endless ins and outs of Mereen—instead Dany's already thinking Westeros in detail, which she hasn't been doing in the books.

China's economy's now larger than ours and its growth is slowing down. I don't think it's a situation where it needs to be protected so it can climb out of Third-World poverty. If anything, it needs to slow down and get its corruption, real-estate bubble and resources management under control. While I don't like…

China's not the developing world. It's pretty damned developed at this point. Unfortunately, it also emits a ton of pollution—a third of the air pollution in the SF Bay Area is from China and it's not like we don't generate our own smog. Meanwhile, China, itself, is facing insane amounts of smog, but in classic…

Whatever it takes, honestly.

I've had non-sticky mochi, but I can't get into it. I've really tried—tracked down the Two Ladies mochi in Hilo that people rave about and it was *better* than other mochi I've had, but it's just not my thing. Not when there are cake and cookies to be had.

Here's the thing—the guy's in public, not in a private space. You really want to live in a place where you have to get permission to take a photo on a public street? Do I have to name the kind of places where you can't do that?