While I understand that the m-theory angle in this episode refers to the fourth-wall television audience and the show's creators - isn't there a connection to the relationship between m-theory and the holographic principle being outlined here, as well?

For "science"... for the study of "aerosol distribution in the atmosphere". How many "black" programs in the NSA and DoD budgets have used "for science" as a cover for intelligence and weapons development? How many times has the U.S. government used international scientific events and programs as a cover for testing…

Might be tempted to pay for an edition of Red Mars and its sequels - illustrated by Celle. Here's a depiction of the elevator falling - from his DA folder:

Pris: Must get lonely here, J.F.
J.F. Sebastian: Not really. I make friends. They're [dogs]. My friends are [dogs]. I make them. It's a hobby. I'm a genetic designer.

I'm seeing equal parts The Thing, X-Files, and the Umbrella Corporation.... I'm hoping for a more Lovecraft-in-his-SF-horror mode, like At the Mountains of Madness. What sort of buried city of aeons past might this Antarctic laboratory be built over...?

MW wrote: "Here's hoping The Imitation Game will educate the masses on that historic injustice, as well as the pivotal role Turing played in shaping the world we all live in."

That's an interesting summary, and obviously I need to do more reading in the area. Thank you.

I've been told that I'm fascinating at parties, and I don't think they were kidding me, but I could be wrong. I do a wicked impression of Bob Dylan singing the Gettysburg Address to "Like a Rolling Stone" - complete with a Fender guitar.

I think you're mistaking "historical fantasy" for "history" - reference my reply to HistoryDoc above and you'll see more about the motive behind my criticism. Believe me, I won't be "stewing" about what you and others who've agreed with you think about historical subjects - I'm very glad you find the discipline as…

I suspect you (and some others) have read perspectives into my comments which aren't there. My point is that without the context - what you call "standing on the shoulders of giants" - breathless rhetoric like "new" and "incredible" is misleading to readers who aren't too familiar with how the historical profession…

I agree with you that Alexander's gifts were far more in the political realm than the tactical one. And I would also agree with the Clausewitz/Jomini rejoinder that politics and warfare are the same - so Alexander can be seen as a good general.... I think, however, that in terms of the "experiment" as outlined in the…

The studies I'm referring to form part of the curriculum at West Point and the Air Force Academy. Yes, they're interpretive to some degree - military "science" being something of a misnomer - and yes, you can either accept them or not. But you could also go beyond "cute" and do us the courtesy of telling us why you…

It's a promising list of anthropological and archaeological developments, with interesting attempts to recreate certain every day cultural characteristics in the past. But "the most incredible historical discoveries of 2013"?

No. That's the sort of historical hyperbole I see a lot of here. History is more often a…

"If the sculptured maps and pictures in that prehuman city had told truly, these cryptic violet mountains could not be much less than three hundred miles away; yet none the less sharply did their dim elfin essence appear above that remote and snowy rim, like the serrated edge of a monstrous alien planet about to rise…

Alright, let's give Alex and GK the same equipment and the same soldiers, give them each several months to train their armies, and then set them at each other. Who would win?

No question; Genghis Kahn. Why? Because he was a vastly superior strategist, tactician, and leader of men in combat. Alexander's reputation has…

A full six months before 7 Dec 1941, US ASW ships were tracking and harassing U-boats and sharing information and intelligence with British ASW and merchant ships - they had, in other words, taken on a support-combat role in the British convoy system. Toward autumn, US ships began to engage U-boats with live fire and…

The difference between Shanghai's Pudong District and Hong Kong, Seattle, or Richmond, Virginia, is that Pudong is one of the PRC's "coastal economic enclaves" — planned and built by Deng Xiaopeng and his successors as an "attractor" for Western capitalization under the shared "51/49%" plan. It has little to do with…

Lauren Davis wrote: "The teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar doesn't reveal any new details of the plot...."

Tough for anything to live up to this standard:

Water is fuel and life support. Fuel and life support mean exploration and exploitation of large areas of the outer solar system. Europa has a comparatively small gravity well; costs to lift resources into orbit are relatively cheap.