You know what, you’re right. Living in space would not be worth it, unless you were like an asteroid miner getting paid obscene amounts of money to do it. But I bet a 2 week visit would be about the most awesome thing imaginable.

The Expanse series. Terrific old-fashioned space opera. Just right for two weeks at the beach, and it will get you spun up for the TV series.

Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. Rich, deep and satisfying. (Just like I like my women.. /Airplane)

Are we alone?

This thing is a marvel of engineering. There I said it, as an engineer I absolutely respect their accomplishment. However given the mission, it's a misuse of technology. Aircraft are thirsty creatures and need a power to weight of anywhere from 5% to 100%. The only thing worse would be a solar powered rocket…

Yes vaccines are safe. Are you referring to mercury? This breaks it down pretty clearly:

No, vaccines are safe for anyone who is not allergic or immuno-suppressed.

A closed bookstore is always a hole in my soul.

Plus, while all those little explosions in the cylinders are making heat, that heat is being transferred to the coolant, which is then being piped through the heater core, which then can be blown into the passenger compartment so your lovely ass doesn't shatter like an ice sculpture shoved by a drunk bridesmaid. The…

Another set of books that look at this a little bit is Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes.

I don't think the western POWERS downplay it, it's just that the western world likes being the good guys, the powers and the people as well. From my neighbor to Haiti, everybody forgets the incovenient bits.

History is written by the victors...and rewritten by whoever is currently in power.

All three Lord of the Rings films are just amazing in the theater. The Mines of Moria, The Siege of Isengard, the Battle of Helm's Deep, the Battles of the Pelennor Fields and Morannon. Just spectacular.

Great call with Bellwether - I wouldn't have immediately thought of it for a list like this, but it's a great little book, and hilarious to boot. I wish Willis would write more stuff!

It seems likelier that we'll go through a period — either a short one, or a very long one — in which you have competing organisms online, essentially. And as Greer puts it, there will be more like a pantheon of these intelligences.

Obama the President made an image of T. rex, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of the Potomac, in the province of Washington DC.