Louder:

Steven Barnes has collaborated with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (and improved them both a great deal, I think - I would read a new Niven/Purnelle/Barnes, but not a new Niven or a new Pournelle, or even a new Pournelle/Niven). He’s also put out at least a couple of hard SF novels of his own that might meet your…

Steve Barnes is worth a look.

If only there was a group of people who were educated about these matters and spent their working lives investigating them.

It’s -7 C where I live and the snow’s ankle-deep. Winter.

That is the best kind of antic.

Do they specifically defecate upon old punch-cards? I knew marsupials were rather primitive but this is a step beyond.

We don’t have it bad - we’ve got it good.

The unfortunate thing about talking to the checkout person, at least in my experience, is that they’ve generally been programmed by their employer to want to talk about nothing else than your shopping experience.

Yes. And they have their own national airline and space program.

Anyone who was parachuted into certain parts of Toronto could be forgiven for thinking the same thing.

Yes, but that could just mean that there are a lot of U.S. virgins there.

A very fine eulogy - thanks for writing it.

This has implications for how clear a field of vision the driver has.

The British actually did free them, or at least a significant fraction of them - look up the history of the black Loyalists. The white Canadians treated them pretty shabbily and they got a really raw deal once they landed in Nova Scotia, but at least they were free.

Coming as you’re going? Sounds indecisive to me.

Hard to make a decent comparison. The Irish were being sold in the Muslim states around the Mediterranean, in a different historical period.

I’m sorry to hear this.

Good quote, thanks for putting it up.