Tomb Raider Legend was a critical and financial hit. Anniversary was a re-do of the the original with better graphics and a story engineered to fit the Legend continuity. Critical hit and pretty good financially. The last one was Underworld. While it wasn't a flop, it did underperform.

The best intelligence is probably the data on the financial networks. That intel is not as time dependent, and if the U.S. can shut them down, it could cripple Al Queda more than capturing a few terrorists.

There was a Discover article a long time ago about researchers using software to mimic life and reproduction. They found that asexual reproduction was much more efficient. However, the simulated life was much worse at surviving traumatic environmental changes. Things can go more wrong during sexual reproduction and…

There was a Discover article a long time ago about researchers using software to mimic life and reproduction. They found that asexual reproduction was much more efficient. However, the simulated life was much worse at surviving traumatic environmental changes. Things can go more wrong during sexual reproduction and…

You guys are just not getting it. READ the entire article. Custodians and Kitchen staff GET red badges and HAVE access to the perks. The book scanners get yellow badges and are prohibited from the googleplex.

My aha moment was when I went to buy the soundtrack for the Matrix. It was $25. The DVD was $14. The soundtrack and DVD of Grosse Pointe Blank had similiar price points.

DU rounds were used in a lot of guns in the armed forces. I know the AF used them in the A-10's gun and the Navy used them in the CIWS. I personally handled rounds from both. However, the Navy has done away with DU. That's worrying for me since the Navy isn't exactly at the forefront of personal protection. Makes…

NASA isn't giving up on manned space flight. They will concentrate on the high risk / high reward missions like Mars and beyond and outsource Low Earth Orbit operations. SpaceX and others are geared to take on this role in the near future, maybe even as early as 2013-2014.

This concept is very similiar to the U.S. X-30 National Aerospace Plane (NASP) of the 80s-90s. I'd assume the Skylon would have the same engineering challenges, namely:

Dear God. I so wish I had not watched that.

@Fodder650:

The Sea Shadow was a one off technology demonstrator. It was never designed for deployment. Think of it like a concept car. Those radical designs never make it into production, but certain elements appear in the next generation of production vehicles.

Big Dog has been cancelled. A victim of the recent funding cuts. True it was designed to carry supplies in, but it was also designed to get medical supplies to wounded troops caught in the open. It was hoped that later versions would also be able to extricate wounded troops from the battlefield without endagering…

I really liked the first one. I think because of that I didn't like the second two, because there was something missing. Maybe the first one's humor was more subtle.

There is no oxygen to ignite the methane, so a lander would be safe. There are other problems though. The cassini probe lander slid around quite a bit on the surface. It is theorized that the heat of the lander caused the methane to evaporate and created a cushion of vapor underneath the lander.

Here's a few notes for your guideline

I urge you to read Mars Direct by David Zubrin. It outlines all the reasons we shouldn't go to the Moon first. It's a great book and it actually managed to get me to change my mind on a couple of things...no small task.

Let's count

The difference is that the engines are tested under full power before liftoff. They can still fail in flight, but it is rare that they would fail in flight and not show some anomaly before shutdown that would signal an abort.