Choice of meme shows good judgement. Day needs to start with some tea, too.

Every year I think "this is the least one" 😄

Coming up next: the MechHitler companion bot.

Couldn't twirl to show lingerie (or twirl his mustache), but imagine what he could ask his followers to do (especially now that he's working for / with the Pentagon).

Just finished the third book. Enjoyed them all enormously.

I kept thinking about Cthulu in the descriptions of unspace and the "Presence" and the beings at the center of the universe.

Also thought about religion / creation stories.

Thanks for really interesting work!

Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers featured a lucky character.

It seems to me like as an attribute, it's hard to separate from divine predestination: does the lucky character have free will or does their "luck" guide them to preordained ends?

Good example of car culture.

For cars: cut an (expensive) tunnel through the mountain.

For humans: don't make the tunnel wide enough for a sidewalk. Rather, build a (cheap) set of stairs and make them hoof it over the mountain.

Assuming the numbers are true (which I doubt), this could be a textbook example of lying with statistics.

500% increase from what base?

Give us the actual numbers, please.

Amazing! Planes flying from Israel to Iran can be contacted and turned around mid-air.

But when a judge ordered planes flying from the US to El Salvador to turn around, the admin has argued it was impossible and the planes HAD to continue.