Yes, it does matter.

Or just read "The Year When Stardust Fell" or "In the Days of the Comet" for other examples. Many would say more interesting ideas, because they're not simple monster movies.

I never tried to mold my daughter, but I also made sure that opportunities for science and technology were there for her. There were numerous signs along the way that she was headed in the direction of the sciences. She's always been interested in critters - We used to go to the Maine seashore, and one of our big activies there was exploring tide-pools. She "adopted" woolie bears in our front yard one fall, building villages for them. When she was in 5th grade, I read "The Hot Zone" with her. For years after she kept a picture of the ebola virus on the wall of her room, and we still trade ebola news over a decade later.

She got her bachelor's and master's degree in biological sciences, and started her PhD. About a year in, she discovered that she really didn't like the life sacrifices of the PhD lifestyle required, especially of a woman. She also realized that she likes the outreach side of science more - bringing science to students and others. She's managed to find a job in that field, while her husband continues to work on his PhD.

She's one terriffic daughter and person.

You forgot to mention that Peter F. Hamilton weaponized some of his tattoos. I presume that's at least part of the reason for your "awesome".

Would you care to enlighten us with an example of a popular real-world language that has not had problems with backwards compatiblity?

Earth has been advertising itself for more like a half-billion years. An atmosphere with free oxygen is rare, at least we haven't found one yet out of the explanets we've discovered. To be sure, we haven't studied the atmosphere on very many, but at the very least we know how to do so, at least for some.

There has been some suggestion of merely chemical processes that can give rise to free oxygen in the atmosphere, but I don't know how likely (or un) those processes are, and whether they cause the levels the Earth has, especially with traces of methane present at the same time.

We know our atmosphere has been biosculpted, and that would be something others could have seen for half a billion years.

One must assume that any alien civilization capable of interstellar travel would know at least as much as we do about the relevant technologies. That would include something Keplar-like, only better. You don't want to take your first interstellar steps to a place with no relevant planets.

I can maybe see the life evolving in one of these solar systems after it leaves the black hole area, presuming the atmospheres of planets aren't scoured away by high-speed interactions with the interstellar medium.

However, how could this life "spread"? I don't see how you slow down any complex molecules from these speeds without totally incinerating them.

More value was returned to the shareholders. After all, what are they there for, to provide a solution where the free market acts to optimize the situation for both provider and customer, or to use a de-facto monopoly to maximize shareholder value?

AMD is completely out of the game and the thrust of their current design work seems to have entirely ceded low power x86 to Intel in favor of better performing hybrid CPU/GPU products.