I like the Batman comparison, particularly because the USS Halibut actually had a Batcave on board. Or at least that’s what the crew called the former Regulus hanger where the computer and intelligence gathering equipment were housed.

Yep, came here to say that.

There are also a number of libraries in California that offer free or discounted museum passes through a program called Discover & Go. You can logon through your local library's website and print out passes at home.

Little known fact: The Coneheads had a luge team in the 1976 Winter Olympics.

It would be great in case of a Zombie apocalypse.

Gordon Fullerton passed awqay this week at the age of 76. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Gordon…

This is a TOZ-82 which was carried on board Soyuz capsules. It has two shotgun barrels and a rifle barrel. The stock also functions as a machete and the are flares that can be fired from the shotgun barrels.

There was avery good NOVA episode about him a few years ago called "Wings of Madness". It doesn't seem to be available on-line but the companion website is still up and there is a first hand account of his first airship flight. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sant…

And there was a Gundam amusement park attraction called "Gundam Crisis" back in 2007.

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!