Gary Oldman

Since this topic is about Science Fiction, this Iain Banks novel was incredibly difficult to read. It was only on the second reading that I started grasping the details of the plot.

Surveillance cameras don't stop or prevent all crime. Look at all the morons you see caught on tape doing stupid things. And if someones drunk, they aren't going to leave you alone because of the cameras. The cameras just make it easier to convict them after they're caught.

The astronaut smacking the camera on the moon (1:28) is a real thing. Apollo 12 moonwalker Alan Bean accidentally pointed the tv camera at the sun and fried it. In an attempt to fix it he hit it with a rock hammer. It helped.

I never watched the series, but I love Cavil's rant. I just absolutely love it. The way he does a fuck you to the humans, his own creators and God in one huge swoop.

As most of these intuition pumps are flame-bait to get a rise out of cognitive physicalists and strong AI proponents, like myself, I'll just pass on this.

Number 2 could be called "Cavil's Lament" as well.

I would argue that all of those guys (except Bond) are just Sean Connery and that Connery himself is the Iconic character.

How about Walter Koenig's Pavel Chekov and Al Bester?

You know what they say. Everybody's working for the peak-end.

Steampunky sci-fantasy gothic urban horror. Or something. I believe the formal classification ended up being "The New Weird". Man, I really do hope we get a return to Bas-Lag some day.

Re: ". . . but genetic mutations have to be advantageous to become dominant in multiple species.": no, they don't. All a widespread variation means for sure is the variation showed up a long time ago, and it hasn't been disadvantageous enough to cause extinction in the species in question. There does not have to be…

The trick here, is processing. We mash beef, chicken, fish, etc... into unrecognizable goo and people gobble it up if it's molded into a "fun" shape and called something cute (like "McNugget"). Why not do this with protein sources that we just haven't yet wrapped our brains around yet? I mean... I don't want to eat a…

I read the article, shared it, discussed it. I am in favor in more analytical research, and fact gathering. I would like to see the studies cited get peer reviewed and evaluated without being arbitrarily dismissive.

I do not think that there is a knife buttered enough to cut through widely accepted assumptions about…

Presumably scientists know if they're feeding lab rats fluoridated water or not.

It's evil because it represents a shift in why games are created and for what purpose.

Oh this is so easy. I win.

One show that had a really great balance of this kind of thing in it's early seasons was Stargate SG-1. Jack Sheppard was a perfect foil for the science banter between Carter and Jackson. The later shows biggest failure was not living up to this chemistry. There were some good attempts, but the franchise never really…

They are called review articles, and they are very useful.