Agreed. A large part of the problem is not the education system, but rather the media's inability to recognize that, sometimes, "balanced" coverage means giving 2259:1 weight to one side over the other.

But at least with an educated populace, we can get more people to dismiss those deniers. And, hopefully, to stop electing them.

Agreed! I can't help thinking that those movies must have been a ton of fun to film.

This one certainly adds some perspective...

So, having seen the trailers and previews leading up to Helix, it appears to me to be a pretty standard gross-out-horror/sinister-zombie-conspiracy kind of show. Is there any particular reason to pay attention to it other than that it's RDM?

Today, I was designing a safe mode controller to get a spacecraft to point its solar panels Sunward in the event of failures in its usual set of sensors and actuators.

Nicely done, sir.

This question is not contestable.

Veers does look quite sinister there.

Excuse me. Don't put Grand Moff Tarkin's words in General Veers' mouth.

I agree that we should have fewer majors in finance, and less focus on financial gain. But we definitely should have more scientists, engineers, and technologists! Part of the problem in the US today is that the only places to do basic research any more are in universities, where the tenure process constricts hiring…

I'll admit, a lot of the story ends up of your own making. But that's the great thing...the game facilitates that. All the raw material was there - the nickname, the events, and so on.

Here's why you should play XCOM: Colonel Margeet "Scotch" Bakker.

I totally agree. You empathize with Lara tremendously in this game. The character animations, the detailed sound effects, the comments she makes as she navigates the world - the end result being that it's not a faceless protagonist the bad guys are after...it's you.

In general, I agree with you.

Assuming that by "here" you meant "the US," the answer is yes, I got a doctorate in spacecraft engineering here and now work in the aerospace industry here. I also have a lot of feelings about it.

Intriguing, but I have one gripe: I'm tired of people associating the end of the Space Shuttle program with the end of US space exploration. We still have NASA astronauts living in space, we have had NASA astronauts living in space continuously since the Shuttle ended, and we are developing new vehicles to take NASA…

Apologies if I came off as confrontational. I'm just sick to death of every Europa story on io9 spawning a rash of "ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS" comments. The inanity gets to me, as I think Europa represents our current best chance at discovering extraterrestrial life. I don't think it's going too far to suggest that Clarke…

Just gonna leave this here: http://www.homestarrunner.com/drivethru.html

That's what I think, too. Any discovery that points to life would be self-justification for further exploration.