“He’s a sex offender. With a record.”

(I’m kind of zombie posting here, but I happened upon this article recently.)

Scientists studying animal behaviour will use the mirror test to see whether an animal is capable of self-awareness:

Radiation is one of the big unknowns for manned space exploration right now. There have been plans to use water or hydrogen tanks as shielding against gamma radiation, and have specially shielded shelters for high radiation solar storms; those workable ideas have been around for awhile now, and enthusiasts have…

“I could get Clooney in there and you want them? You know it’s not ‘99 right?”

But there are certain types of side benefits that you can’t get from other types of spending, or at least no where near as quickly. Manned space travel presents challenges that can only be solved by developing new technologies, whereas if you tried to simply invest in those technologies on their own, you wouldn’t be…