@fluffywarthog1029: It's occurred to me that it's not really clear how the freedom to do whatever you want with yourself translated into a right to create new sapient beings.

@m1ndtr1p: The best way to bury such childish comments would be to not promote them, Mr. Star Commenter. ;)

@Zero9: Those who would agree with the Culture's position on this are not few, and I number among them.

@GeneralBattuta: Hey, cheer up! Here's an (edited) conversation that I think is apposite:

@Annalee Newitz: I'm not sure the referrals from porn sites are strong evidence of titillation, either, rather than pranks ("shock" photos) or even genuine health warnings. It's not improbable that some percentage are, but what number I cannot guess.

@nctrns: At least a percentage of those referrals may be genuine health warnings or used in pranks (as "shock" photos), though.

@Chuck: So I wasn't the only one who thought that!

@VoxExMachina: I thought the protagonist of Whit was very vivid, though that was one of his non-SF novels. (Very good read, though.)

@☆Giroro G66☆: As I recall, one of them actually ripped off the other's homepage redesign. Can't remember who ripped off who, though.

@John Steele: Basically, it means that instead of your CPU doing all the work, your GPU can pitch in too. And since your GPU is designed for graphical stuff, your browser should be able to handle graphics better now.

@entei53: Yeah, MSE is great.

@go-falcons: Player of Games is generally the easiest to get into. Use of Weapons is the best but has a less conventional narrative structure. Consider Phlebas is good but has less literary polish. Excession is closer to typical SF fare than the other Culture novels (spaceships, big ideas, less literary polish).

@pierceye: WHAT?! YOU ARE NOT A MANLY-MAN!

@BarbarianLibrarian: "The ability to adjust which hand a person uses also has medical applications. Ivry explains that they hope to use this research to fight learned limb disuse, in which victims of stroke and other brain injuries start favoring the arm or leg they can more easily control. This magnetic stimulation…

@sentroshi: Though, of course, you'll need an ad blocking extension for Chrome, such as AdBlock [chrome.google.com] or AdThwart [chrome.google.com]

@Mr. Gunn: Aaron Boodman, the original author of Greasemonkey, works at Google on Chrome. More importantly, Chrome has natively supported (most) Greasemonkey scripts for some time, alongside its own extensions (which are not dissimilar).

@ExZ: Interesting, thanks. That article on Anatoli Bugorski also links to proton therapy, which uses particle accelerators to treat cancer. I suppose accidental exposure would be somewhat like botched proton therapy, and likely give you cancer. [en.wikipedia.org]

I'll just take that "Windows 7 Home Ultimate," please.

@imajoebob: Brilliant. Since Google hasn't completely closed their China portal, they must be willing to sell your personal information to the CCP. In fact, I'm sure they've already sold your personal contacts, email, and search history to the communists.

@kingbob337: Sure, that's one theory. You might also take the observations at face value and conclude there's no other technological civilization within some considerable radius.