It's based on a short story called "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. He's published only eighteen stories in his career (starting in 1990), nothing longer than a novella and mostly short stories. Despite that they've won him four Hugos, four Nebulas, and six Locus Awards. He's worth reading, is what I'm trying to say.

Artist: Sarah C. Andersen

It would probably be faster to list the things he doesn't have a negative view about.

The EU already has a land border in the Americas. French Guiana is part of the union and it touches Brazil and Suriname. So the gate is already open to work it from the south up instead of the north down.

I read somewhere -- great source, I know -- that the existing rule is that the country has to be in Europe, though, not that it has a border. Otherwise Malta, Ireland, and Cyprus would not qualify, and the UK too back when they were in.

Oddly enough, the Canadian/Danish border is a questionable one for this purpose anyway -- Hans Island (where the border is) is part of Greenland and Greenland is not in the EU. It left in 1985 and is now one of the "Overseas countries and territories" that have special rights in relation to the EU but are not actually in it.

Whoever the writer thinks should be faster, so as to serve the needs of the story being told.

I'd be more impressed if it was a 1970s car they discovered.

Depends on the compressive strength of the material. Sooner or later the weight of the pyramid above the base exceeds the base's ability to support it. Considering that a mountain is basically a stone pyramid, Everest has to be in the neighbourhood of how tall you could go -- call it 10-12 kilometers high. Other materials would do better.

I'd say try reviving the group by posting there yourself for a while. There's probably a few people who are still subscribed to it, so you'll get more eyeballs right out of the box than you would starting a fresh one.

Cadbury is also owned by Mondelez, so many British chocolate bars are out too.

It sometimes is, but the word is already taken for "a young pig"!

Turned into a slurry and then administered as an enema.

distant sound of Italians exploding

The key word in "constitutional monarchy" is "constitutional", not "monarchy". The monarch must follow the parliament's requests, and not doing so is unconstitutional. Parliament is sovereign, at least in all of the countries that derive their monarchy from the UK's.

Outside of the UK there wouldn't be a fight anyway: in all the Commonwealth countries (except the ones that have since gone fully republican), the monarch has a representative called "the governor general" who is selected by the Parliament and recommended to the monarch at which point see above. The monarch has to take the advice of who is to be their governor-general. Issues basically never get to the monarch for them to mess anything up. The loyal-to-his-country deputy gets first crack at everything the monarch does in theory and has no reason to go against Parliament. If somehow the g-g or the king did speak out, it'd be a legal mess but everyone would ignore them. Practically we'd either get ourselves a new monarch or just say to hell with it and become a republic.

To answer your specific question then, yes, it's pro forma. The monarch's role is to be the embodiment of all legislative, judicial, and executive power, in a fairly close analog to what the American Constitution is. But the Constitution can't exercise any of those powers and the monarch can't either. It's just a historical oddity that they can walk and talk, unlike a piece of paper.

It's been a long time coming. Department stores in Canada have been dying off one by one, and they were the last. It's a business model that just doesn't work here anymore.

*oldmanyellsatcloud.jpg *

Yes, but it doesn't matter enough. The square-cube law means that the mass being supported goes up faster than the area of the layer doing the supporting does. So each additional brick on the bottom still ends up carrying more weight as the pyramid gets taller.

For Ontario readers, Farm Boy's store brand cereals are made in Canada.

Naw, it's got to be Aretha Franklin's "Respect". Or maybe the Beatles with "Twist and Shout". Soft Cell's "Tainted Love"?

The Mysterious Poop Chuckers is definitely going to be my next band's name.

Commander Keen is probably the one that I liked the most that is also well known.

My personal favorite was Bass Class, which is weird because I've zero interest in real-life fishing, then or now.

https://www.saeproducts.com/...