The point is that if the rules aren’t grounded in science, it’s not science fiction. You can have the trappings of science, like space travel or whatever, but if people are moving objects and doing impossible acrobatics by using a magical force, it’s fantasy.

Though not mine, I personally think that definition works better than most. Still, if you pin me down, I’d say that there’s a spectrum, with hard SF (where everything is rigorously anchored to scientific principles) at one end, and pure fantasy (with magic and such) at the other. There are lots of things between those endpoints, with some being closer to one or the other, and some being very much in the middle.

Oh, it’s fantasy

I always liked the distinction (I forget who originated it) that science fiction is a story set in a world where the rules are defined by physics and fantasy is a story set in a world where the rules are defined by the author.

As other people have said, it would be way worse to have him him assassinated. If it’s looking like he’s going to lose, I could see the people who want the US unstable to prefer assassinating him instead.

It’s not like wasp nests are much less organized on the inside. Here’s an example.

It’s a valid point, but it’s kind of like saying it’s great that the restaurant you’ve started going to has such a small menu compared to the old one because you’re not eating as much.

There seems to be this disinformation campaign trying to spin it that the reason the US government has an issue with TikTok is because they don’t want the free expression of ideas. What’s going out on TikTok isn’t what the government cares about. It’s that the company is controlled by the Chinese government and the potential use of it for spying and major privacy violations is significant.

He’s so disingenuous. He says “I’m just a dumb guy asking questions,” but his show is clearly slanted and he gives sure time to people who wouldn’t and shouldn’t reach that kind of audience without him.

I’ve been careless with a delicate man

My wife has a chronic pain condition, and there were a bunch of years where it was just impossible for her to stand in the kitchen, so I did all the cooking for the family. I have this vivid memory of going to the grocery store after a demanding day at work, pushing my empty cart down aisle after aisle, and being so completely out of ideas that I started to cry. Even at the time I thought it was the most pathetic thing ever.

I always hear about people lamenting that they lost their boomer parents to Fox News or Facebook or whatever, but I’m a boomer parent who lost a son to Rogan. He’s always quoting absolute nonsense he heard on that show about Kamala or liberals. It’s so sad - he’s a pretty smart guy.

I’m not at all bothered by “swear words,” and I’ll use them occasionally (mostly when I think it’s funny), but it’s somewhat rare. I just don’t find it very necessary most of the time. I can usually make my point just find without, but sometimes the emphasis seems right out, again, it seems funnier.

I’m confident you won’t regret it. I read quite a lot of SF, both older and newer. There’s a lot of classic SF that’s really good, but you have to constantly keep in mind the time it was written in because the story or the characters or the dialog is dated. There was zero of that with that book, it could have been written yesterday (the setting kind of insulates it culturally and technologically). And the sensibilities are so, so far ahead of its time.

I just reread The Left Hand Of Darkness last month, and it’s such a great book. Nothing in it is dated. It was written in 1969, and it’s not just about hermaphrodites; the people of that planet are essentially genderless except once a month when, if they get together with someone else also going through it, one becomes female and the other male essentially randomly - it could switch next time. She takes that situation and explores what a society like that would be like. Further, it’s told through the eyes of a more traditional male who seems somewhat misogynistic. It’s an amazing piece of work, and it’s amazing it was published when it was.

Loathsome, misogynistic convicted felon? Yeah, about right, though at 72 he’s a bit young.

He’s got some weird things about fathering children. That story about him wanting to donate his sperm to Mars settlers was just too bizarre.

It does, but that’s invaluable too, and you get used to it pretty quickly. It let’s you see if there’s a space (dot), tab (arrow), line wrap (bent arrow), or whatever. Very useful if you deal with documents a lot.

It’s better to use sections or paragraphs formatted as starting on a new page. Using page breaks or lots of blank lines to get to get things paginated is how you end up with wonky formatting like blank pages.

“Watch for the voter fraud because we win without voter fraud,” Trump said. “We win so easily. Hopefully, we’re going to win anyway. But we want to keep it down."

Yeah, this is just him doing more to set up January 6 Part 2.

It’s kind of amazing how upfront they are about it