John Scalzi's (the author of the Pluto bit) blog "Whatever" is generally gud reedin's. It's a little light right now since he's on a book tour. I'm rather fond of his bit about coffee and caffeine:
I'll note that coffee's not alone in this; there are lots of drinks that taste like ass, but which people drink anyway, usually to get to whatever drug is suspended in the liquid. Coffee tastes like ass, but people drink it for the caffeine. Beer tastes like ass but people drink it for the alcohol. All those energy drinks taste like ass coated in cough syrup, but people drink them for, what? Taurine? You people are all high.