It's called "Repression" and it's your mind's way of blocking out painful or upsetting memories so they can't disturb your consciousness.

@Post-Apocalyptic iPod: I became interested in the gender of things that presumably shouldn't have gender through my limited exposure to Cajun French. French is one of those languages where everything is referred to in either male or female tense. Boats, for example are female. Why, I have no idea . . .

@Post-Apocalyptic iPod: You might want to tag that post with #corrections

@Krakenstein MK-II: Lycanthropy? Or is that the name of the condition, rather than the disease?

@In The Flesh: Like most Latin, those are easy when you break them down. The "poly" in both words means many. "Amorous" means love(s), "andry" means male(s). So, it means the female whale has more than one male love(er). Latin: sounds cool; usually is descriptive.

@tomqvaxy: As one who has actually visited the DOE Savanna River Site, I can understand your point. A frozen glacier is better than building a lot of messy experimental reactors in a bottomland swamp, by a major river. However, eventually that glacier would dump the mess into the sea.

@Blue Funnies: I can relate with your position. Larry Niven was one of my favorite authors until I became aware of his political ideology. Fortunately, little of it makes it's way into his work. However, I can't read anything by him anymore without looking for those types of references. It sorta ruined it for me.

@MargaretMoony: Not just vanilla whale sex, but in fact this is polyamorous polyandry!

One hopes the reactor and its waste were removed from the glacier prior to the facility being abandoned.

@MonochromeMolly: Does seem safer than bringing back Terror Birds.

@bonghammer: I think it is, because the number on the T-Shirt appears to be 42.

@PierceTheVin: No doubt! They probably would have some warm fur.

@ManchuCandidate: Or if MTV is mentioned, make sure the story doesn't say that music videos are being shown on it.

@MonochromeMolly: I wonder if they would make good guard marsupials?

@cortexiphansession: That's very true. I picked up a coffee-table book at a sale a while back called "Vanished Species" which details various species that have went extinct in recent (historical) time scale. Most were due directly or indirectly to human impacts. There are so many! Dodos, Giant Auks, Passenger Pigeons,…

@Ash (Not From Pallet Town): Mastodons should be just as easy to clone as Mammoths. Maybe technically easier since there has been actual frozen carcasses found in Siberia. I think that they are going for Mammoths instead because of the "wow" factor. Mammoths are significantly bigger and furrier. Mastodons would just…

@AgentW: There are 30+ works by C.J. Cherryh set in her Union/Alliance Universe that all share the same future history. The events at Pell were a turning point in that history, so references to it likely turn up in many of her books.

Josh: Excellent review of one of my favorite books, by one of my favorite authors! I think "Downbelow Station" is one of the first books I ordered from the Science Fiction Book Club when I was in high school. It has held up very well over time in my opinion, possibly due to it not being so focused on some form of…

@Touchstone: "Cyteen" is a must if you like strong women characters. It chronicles the times and tribulations of Ms. Adrianne Emmory, Union's greatest geneticist. It stands on it's own, like most of the Union/Alliance books, but it does have a recently written sequel. So, if you like it, you can read more about the…

@Dr Emilio Lizardo: Although there are over 30 books in C.J. Cherryh's Union/Alliance Universe, they almost all stand on thier own. There are a few trilogies, but one can generally start reading anywhere. I always tell folks to start with the Hugo winners, "Downbelow Station" and "Cyteen." Not really a series, more…