Warp is nearly instantaneous now. Earth to Klingon in ten minutes by starship or instantly by transporter. There is no such thing as deep space anymore.

Several years ago, I read Salon religiously. It was a smart piece of work that struck many diverse topics. It's just so much left-wing click bait anymore.

My nine-year-old self was terrified but not enough to keep me away from book two and three.

Gotta stand up for my hometown here. Rochester has had some tough times, but it's not a sleepy city by any means. Take a walk up South, Park, or University avenues any you'll see packed bars and bistros, lots of people hanging out in sidewalk cafés, and a well-maintained early 20th century housing stock at prices that…

Don't get South Carolina going on its inferiority complex:

So typical of the right wing approach to establishing its legitimacy. Real science, which much of the public finds fascinating, has helped launch universities and museums, create authoritative textbooks and works of research, and drive the careers of scientists who have become household names. The right wing thinks if…

Seeing the Matt Smith post has me thinking that Star Trek could come back to TV in a very similar way if there was a Trill for a dynamic main character. This allowed Jadzia to become Ezri Dax on DS9—but as a main character, a Trill could go through many "regenerations" spanning decades. There could be a 300 year arc…

I can't wait to see how Sean Bean's gonna die in this one.

Two things.

Looks like a good place to set the next Firefly movie.

Heh. That's what insurance is for. The tunnel would actually rise above the sea between the two Diomede islands. Perhaps this bridge could be designed to flex or fail without flooding the tunnels?

Yes, and mostly federal and state land. There would be right of way discussions and promises to use American labor. Once the rail made it to Fairbanks, it could shoot down the same corridor as the Alaska Highway, arguably more difficult than the tunnel itself.

I used to be editor of, no shit, The Bering Strait Record, a newspaper in Nome, Alaska. A transcontinental railroad is an idea that's been talked about since the age of the Tsars. It crops back up every twenty years or so. We did a similar story in 1997.

Ooooh. I saw the logo, and now I want to buy all the North Face.

I use my microwave exactly once a day to heat one cup of water to exactly 185 degrees for my Aeropress coffeemaker. Microwaves heat up water pretty well.

Because the messages Katy Perry signals to tweens shapes the next generation of women. Jezebel often dwells on feminine ideals; a manic pixie girl with blue hair and pouty lips is fair game.

This post is pretty great. I had a chance to meet George Dyson about twenty years ago. He's the son of none other than Freeman Dyson, of the Orion starship and Dyson Sphere fame. George's writings explore, among other things, the evolution of technology going back to prehistory.