These are pretty awesome - Soviet Futuristic Illustration: Oodles of Optimism

From the '50s-'70s.

This extremely rare series of illustrations to various books by Alexander Kazantsev (one of the first Soviet science fiction writers) shows very clearly what kind of future the communist dreamers preferred. Think cool robots, intrepid explorers, brainy scientists, eerily Star Wars-like aliens and a huge doze of humanitarian optimism.

But I'm hamstrung by an inability to reimagine the customer/invoice/invoice header/invoice detail data relationships without getting all relational, for instance. How is that architected in a non-relational world?

or Clarence Thomas or John Roberts.

At least Thomas was a judge at the time of his nomination. And John Roberts? The best Supreme Court advocate of his generation? He's qualified. By comparison, Clinton was not a litigator, she was a corporate lawyer who worked less than full-time while being a public figure.

What happened to futurism? Why are we all steampunk now? Betrayed by the lack of jetcars?

What happened to futurism? Why are we all steampunk now? Betrayed by the lack of jetcars?

That and no rocket packs.

What happened to futurism?

A good question, on which much ink has been spilled. Short version - the energy crisis of the '70s, pollution, economic upheaval, etc. Plus a lot of the futurism stuff just was not practical.

I'd say futurism was a product of America's technological success during WWII, along with rapid advances in technology and the economy during the '50s and '60s. The moon landing was probably the zenith of futurism....

What happened to futurism? Why are we all steampunk now? Betrayed by the lack of jetcars?

That and no rocket packs.

Or intelligent robot dogs with lasers in their nose.

Or intelligent robot dogs with lasers in their nose.

Those exist, but the CIA decided they were too dangerous for the average person, and has kept their existence hidden.

It's possible this decision was influenced by the strong pro-cat faction of the CIA....

(I can't spell today -- I spelled "nominee" about 4 different ways before I got the correct one. Variations included "moninee," niminee," and "nominnr." My fingers are not communicating with my brain.)

Am I the only one who went to a "ma nah ma nah" place?

Clinton wouldn't be the first Supreme Court Justice appointed directly from the Senate. Hugo Black comes to mind, though I'd agree it hasn't been done lately.

While there's an appeal to an Obama-Clinton ticket, and certainly precedent (Reagan-Bush), I don't see her accepting VP if she weren't sure she could use it as a springboard to the White House. And in eight years, she'll be pretty close to the age McCain is now.