Elendil

Your Plan 2 describes every American fast-food worker and other minimum wage worker except for the line "state run" should be "corporate monopoly run"

As a Canadian, I remain dumbfounded that you Yanks don't join the rest of the civilized world and get universal single-payer health care. Obama care looks like a half-hearted step in the right direction but it still keeps the useless insurance companies in the loop. And for those silly idealogues who parrot the line that "socialism never works" how do you explain that Canadian health-care, government run, costs less as a percentage of GDP than the private American system? Much less. And everyone is covered, no exception. Sure, our system is not perfect but the people would never change to an American style system. Even to hint at privatization of health-care is suicide for a politician here. Just ask former Conservative leader Stockwell Day.

Thanks for playing everyone! Here's what it means: First of all, ignore the first part of each question. It doesn't matter which animal you like, it's only why you like it that counts. Example, someone might like a lion because it's "beautiful", someone else because it is "ruthless." 1. Why you like your favourite animal indicates your aspiration, what you wish to be or strive to be. 2. Why you like your second favourite animal indicates your self-image, how you see yourself as you are now. 3. Why you like your favourite hot drink indicates your attitude toward sex.

Last chance to jump in, I'll post the key tomorrow

Some good answers, folks. Let's see if we can get a few more before I post the key.

I'll post the questions and when we've got a few answers up I'll explain how to interpret it. 1. What is your favourite animal? And why do you like it? 2. This question is harder. What is your second favourite animal? And why do you like it? 3. What is your favourite hot drink? And why do you like it? Don't skip the second part of the questions!

INTJ = socially inept nerd

Yet another INTJ

Whoever the hell it is, they need to get their act together.

"any random crap"

Yeah, Asimov is good. Another one I like is Gregory Benford. His "Timewave" was the best and most thought-provoking time travel story I've ever read. Any recommendations for writers active now of the hard science sci-fi genre?

To my taste the best sf takes real science and pushes the boundaries just a bit to ask "what if?" Steven Baxter is the best current hard-science type sf writer today. I don't think of Star Wars as sf at all, more like space fantasy. Star Trek is better but still full of the technobabble stuff. I used to have a little computer widget that would generate random phrases of ST-TNG babble like "Sir, the cross-polarity of the quantum matrix regenerator is isolating the proton reflux drive." I think the writers had one of these and used to it end almost every episode. Incidentally, there was a great article in Wired some years back on the "Science of Star Trek" and the conclusion was that the one thing which was absolutely impossible is the transporter because it violates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. The writers were savvy enough to include "Heisenberg Compensators". When asked how they worked, someone on the writing team said "very well thank you."

What recurring tropes in SF annoy you by their silliness or unscientific assumptions? I guess this mostly applies to movies and TV series, books usually have a higher standard, but feel free to include something literary if you want. I'll start: 1. space battles with sound-effects, in a vacuum. They all do this. Bugs me every time. 2. use of "light-year" as a unit of time. 3. confusion of star-system and galaxy. Numbers 2 & 3 are not so common now, but used to be very widespread.

Amadeus was great visually and musically. Good acting, great story. Too bad it had nothing whatsoever to do with history.

Anarchy: 2 Communist: 6 Democracy: 5 Federal Government: 11 Monarchy: 12 Republic: 10 Revolutionary Government: 8 Transitional: 2

Knowing how stuff works, cars, computers whatever. I know there are a *few* women who know a spark-plug from a drain-plug but they are always a surprise. Only machinery it's not manly to know - a sewing machine.

On a few occasions I've gotten lost and asked for directions. I'm not proud of this...

Anarchy: 5 Communist: 5 Democracy: 5 Dictatorship: 2 Federal Government: 11 Monarchy: 12 Republic: 5 Revolutionary Government: 6 Transitional: 5