The current process leaves shareholders in the dark. It leaves the impression that executive pay practices are entirely subjective.

A modest increase in a gigantic sum of money is still too much.

We're focusing on executive pensions because working families are being asked to bear increased risk for their own retirement at the same time that CEOs are receiving multi-million dollar defined benefit pensions.

It's often better to read first-rate science fiction than second-rate science - it's far more stimulating, and perhaps no more likely to be wrong.

Perhaps future space probes will be plastered in commercial logos, just as Formula One cars are now. Perhaps Robot Wars in space will be a lucrative spectator sport. If humans venture back to the moon, and even beyond, they may carry commercial insignia rather than national flags.

We know too little about how life began on Earth to lay confident odds. It may have involved a fluke so rare that it happened only once in the entire galaxy. On the other hand, it may have been almost inevitable, given the right environment.