A lot of housing units on UC campuses got LOTR influenced names in the 70's. There's Lothlorien at Berkeley, Hobbitton at Davis (sadly not there anymore) and an entire Middle-Earth themed housing area at UC Irvine. http://www.housing.uci.edu/me/hall_Desc.asp

This is good news for SpaceX but it's really a question of a small company (SpaceX) vs a big one (United Launch Alliance )rather than "private" vs government. ULA is a 50-50 joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin and they've been doing these since 2006. They also do a lot of launches for NASA including the…

Well, there are some robots based on studies of the movements of roaches. They just need to make them smaller.

If you're in the Bay Area NASA Ames is having a free event from 5pm-midnight on Sunday. Registration is required and when I last checked there were ~1500 tickets left. http://nasaamescuriosityevent.eventbrite.com/

Oklahoma has also produced a surprising number of astronauts. Having grown up there, my theory is that astronaut is the profession that can get far far away from there as fast as humanly possible.

NO CAPES!- Edna Mode

Not sure I agree that Robert Downey Jr. was "in the middle of a huge career comeback." Kiss Kiss Bang Bang only made about 15.5 million worldwide. Yes things were starting to look up for him (mostly due to positive reviews and bit of cult following) but Iron Man was his comeback. A lot of the credit goes to john…

Good point. It's possible that the unmanned X-37B is just the tip of the iceberg. It's possible maybe even likely that there are other DOD programs we know nothing about. And then there's the NRO whose budget is classified but is estimated to be almost as big as NASA's. Back in the 80's an entire shuttle launch…

Because the shuttle couldn't go beyond Low Earth Orbit. To escape the Earth gravity you need way more fuel than shuttle could carry and for the re-entry speeds a spacecraft would have coming back from anywhere beyond Earth orbit the capsule shape is much better.

Name for Stark offspring superteam... Ironglourious Basterds!

And then there's Cosmo bot... the bartender robot shaped like a rocket!

Silly Romney.. everyone knows it's spelled 'MERICA!

I loved the statistical analysis that showed the whenever Kirk had a fling with one of the locals the Reshirt mortality rate went way down. Someone should do a story about that. [www.sitelogicmarketing.com]

Eagle fans should check out the Sci-Fi Airshow site. [www.scifiairshow.com]

#corrections — It's kind of sweet that this ultra-popular show is showing a NASA space launch when we're not really doing those any more in real life. Maybe this will inspire somebody.

What is it with Brits putting SF/Horror experience in their malls? Back in 1995 I went through the Alien Wars attraction in the Trocadero in London.

Okay so that's cleared up (sorta). But what about Platypuses, or Platypi or Platypeople?

Son of Coul!

I went to Oklahoma over the holidays and found out there are still Sinclair stations there. Most don't have dinosaurs anymore ( except on their signs) but the one in Hennnesey.Ok. on US-81, has a small one.

If the mission happens in 2025 as planned it's possible that some of the younger astronauts using this facility now might be still active fourteen years from now. Story Musgrave flew his last mission at the age of 61. John Glenn flew at 77 but that was a special case. More likely Those training now would have a role…