Not only that, but "doling out cuts" is a stupid phrase anyway. Giving out small amounts of something you're actually taking away?

Most people I know who finished it enjoyed it, but I also know plenty of people who couldn't finish it (which I understand-- the pages describing the broken tooth on Turing's bicycle as a metaphor for a substitution cypher were torturous. And tortuous.).

I mean, it's not high literature that scholars will be analyzing to death two hundred years from now, but Stephenson's books are generally creative and fun, and I enjoy them. OP's mom was probably at least half troll.

I'm more shocked by the "Corvair-ize your VW for $146!" headline on that Science & Mechanics magazine cover. Why?

That, or Faraday-cage helmets will be all the fashion rage...

Well that's fucking clever of them.

But I've received online security training by IT, ethics training by legal, harassment training by HR, business development training by BD, health training by our new insurance provider, all delivered by automated Flash apps voiced by a kindly sounding lady, after which *I had to get 80% on a 5-question multiple-choice test* to get my printable Certificate of Compliance! I have a hard time remembering which side of this keybored thingy to bang on sometimes, but by God I know company policies!

More O2 and CO2, at double the atmospheric pressure of today, so higher partial pressures of oxygen and fewer problems getting oxygen to the extremities. I think.