Was there a typo in the original article which is now corrected? The text currently reads: “Welcome to July 2099, according to 21 different climate models. CO2 concentrations have topped 900 parts per million, comprising nearly 0.1 percent of our atmosphere.” 900 PPM is 0.9 parts per thousand, or 0.9%.

“What you find in the rocks is that more than 99% of all species entombed in the rock record are extinct. This simple fact offers a stark contrast to what you would expect to find based on a literal reading of the biblical story.”

Ah yes, the old “Ship of Theseus” paradox.

I agree, SOME GOP representatives will happily support SOME NASA spending. Getting Kentucky's GOP'ers to agree to fund $100 billion-plus manned Mars expedition will be a deal breaker.

In the Apollo era, the mantra of the space program was "waste everything but time. But now, 40 years later, the United States has no serious competition in deep space exploration. And so, the government is more focused on the wasting of money. Rightly so, I think. I think that the backlash against the expense of a…

I went through a phase in the 1970's and '80's when I adored Paolo Soleri. I was inspired by his vision of mile-high architecture, surrounded by vast swaths of nature. Somewhere along the way, Soleri forgot to explain how these mega-structures were going to obtain their energy.

There's one subsidy that Big Oil gets that NO other industry gets. They get the United States Armed Forces to secure the Persian Gulf, free of charge. In fact, our government even does Big Oil the favor of anticipating the industry's needs. We have resources pre-positioned in the Middle East at all times.

"If you have solar panels on your home, good for you. You're the ones supporting the solar energy industry and driving that awesome innovation."

Meanwhile, in Tennessee... ;^)

Eh, I looked at my electric bill. It was $5.60 this month. It was $5.60 last month. It has been $5.60 EVERY month since April 2005. Those of us who have solar power (and no, I'm not remotely rich, I just cared) tend to have electric bills like that.

OK, Palpy must be totally sensitive about his first name. So we need a scene where someone calls him by it! And so, Palpy pulls the Sith Force Choke on the offender, while slowly explaining through his gritted teeth: "Never... call... me... Sheev."

Oh please, not this again. We Californians endured this power-plant "shortage" nonsense in 1999 and 2000. It's one step removed from "drill-baby-drill".

I thought that the Orion trajectory upon return to Earth, like the Apollo missions, will go straight into re-entry. If there's an extension module:

"Pheromones" are widely suspected to be odorless. They are also the same chemicals from person to person. However, the detectable, conscious odor signature of people does vary from person to person. That scent has been shown to be related to a person's MHC genes, which are important in the immune system. We are…