Book recommendation

I've mentioned this before, but I strongly recommend everyone read Hieroglyphs. The book is a science fiction short story anthology which came from a challenge to Neal Stephenson. He'd asked about new technology and Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, said, "You're the ones who've been slacking off." The writers were asked to focus on near-future tech and to concentrate on the benefits rather than the problems. The latter part of the challenge wasn't entirely successful; some people just don't want to give up their dystopias.

The reason this came up, is there's an article at BBC America about why a space elevator probably wouldn't work. The first story in the anthology, Stephenson's Atmospaera Incognita deals with the practicalities, and issues, of building one.

I know some of my friends are engineers. Can we build one? And, please go buy and read the book. Even the stories I didn't like made me think, and who can ask for more than that from their sci-fi?

Answer for question 4248.

[Error: unknown template qotd]Beginning with the last question: A viable TB vaccine would be wonderful, with AIDS as my second choice (purely because TB still affects more people).

As to the second question: HELL NO! Some people are allergic, and, especially early in the vaccination schedule, people should be observed to make certain they don't have an adverse reaction.

And to answer question 1: I've already written a post where I've listed everything I've been vaccinated against. I'll throw in that because I was a military brat (and because I'm over 50), bubonic plague, smallpox, and the old "killed-whole-cell" typhoid fever vaccine were among my innoculations. The last of those has some interesting side effects including a high fever localized to the injection site (seriously, I could put my hand two inches away from my arm and feel the heat) and soreness.