Link Salad, Government Shutdown Edition

Because I have Rotary today, have some links, some with more commentary than usual.

A) As a science fiction geek writer, I have to come up with reasons for people to settle moons and planets. "Reasons" usually equal "money" or the making thereof. I've assumed that the economic reason to settle Titan, Saturn's big moon, would be plastics. Apparently plastic feed-stock is a natural occurrence on Titan.

B) Speaking of writing, in the Amazon age, independent bookstores are growing. The advantage of a book store is that you buy books you didn't know about. In my case, I recently visited a local independent - Barbara's Books - and bought The Black Count. This was a great read about Alexander Dumas' father, who started life as a black slave and ended a French count and Napoleonic general.

C) Juan Cole asks, with a solar minimum and La Ninas, why isn't it really cold? I mean, if the anti-global-warming crowd is right, we should be freezing. Instead this past decade has been the hottest on record.