* FiveThirtyEight has been doing a great series on Mars colonization. Today’s entries are all about space sex. Also: Everything About Mars Is The Worst.
* Also at FiveThirtyEight: The Odds You’ll Fill Out A Perfect Bracket.
* TRAPPIST-1 seems like a no-go for humanity, but three of the worlds are close enough for life to hop between them.
* New York 2140 vs. The Collapsing Empire: Which New Sci-Fi Novel Is for You?
* ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Turns 20, from my “Buffy at 20″ co-organizer James South.
* On the coming apocalypse (and other’s people’s babies).
* What if Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Had Swapped Genders?
* From the archives: Snow Days Under Socialism.
* No, big snowstorms like this aren’t normal.
* America elected a parasite. Let’s take away health insurance from 24 million people. Or 26 million, who’s counting. This Level of Corruption Is Unprecedented in the Modern History of the Presidency. Gotta save money to steal money. “Senate Democrats prepare for spring battle over Trump’s border wall.”
* Remember the People America’s Healthcare System Has Already Killed.
* The university in ruins, Trump edition.
* The Party of Eugenics. They both are, honestly, but the GOP is just so much more vulgar about it.
* At every moment when Trump might have been stopped, when he might have been forced into bankruptcy, had his credit denied, had his loans called in, his licenses revoked, at every juncture where he might have been convicted of a crime or sent to jail—and, again, this is well before he makes his successful bid for the White House—some unplanned and unintended conspiracy of economic reason and political lowlifery mobilizes to protect him. (And it really is unplanned and unintended. The genius of the American system is how the Invisible Hand works to produce systemic vice rather than incidental virtue.)
* We’re heading towards something very ugly: Employers can ban staff from wearing headscarves, European court rules.
* American Empire: The Reboot.
* Seeing red: Membership triples for the Democratic Socialists of America.
* The Onion struggling to lampoon Trump.
* Violent video games found not to affect empathy, again.
* The hype for Logan seems to be reaching comical proportions, but still, you’d be hard-pressed to find another recent superhero movie that was worth emulating.
* Should a Chimpanzee Be Considered a Person?
* MMMBop: Hanson announces 25th anniversary tour as your death rapidly approaches.
* The economics of airline classes.
* Bowie impersonates other singers like Springsteen, Lou Reed. Everything has been bullshit since Bowie died.
* Because you demanded it! Young Sheldon.
* USA Today discovers Hello from the Magic Tavern. They’ve hit a real stride lately as story events have allowed them to move away from their standard format — and they were great before.
* Every Author on Your English Syllabus, Summed Up in a Single Sentence.
* It’s Donald Trump’s Fault Iron Fist Is Bad, Not Marvel’s, Says Star Finn Jones. If you say so.
* A People’s History of the Marvel Universe. Via Abigail Nussbaum’s second Hugos post.
* And a nation turns its lonely eyes to Veep.
