Transporting a minor from West Hollywood to Brentwood for sex isn't illegal itself — the sex is, not the transporting. Transporting a minor across state lines IS illegal, even if the sex doesn't happen.

He was not running around as an evangelist for Copernicanism, and he was not a "martyr" for science, as Tyson claims.

a person who spurns the goodwill of colleagues at a time when a major institution is rooting out heresies doesn't end up with many friends.

My point is not the Bruno was killed for heliocentrism, he was killed for engaging in freethinking and open inquiry. Dr. Ma wants to drag Galileo into the argument because he wants to make the issue about science vs. religion, while I think the fundamental issue is speech vs. suppression.

There's a lot more to it than he "held an opinion" and everyone got a sad face. The dude was a major prick

Believing in a heliocentric model is not listed as a heresy in any Inquisition manuals used during the period.

I interpret the piece as a defense of the freedom of speech, I think Tyson makes that the prime aspect from his narration, I don't see a fundamental anti-Church polemic in it, insofar as the Church was merely the vanguard of conservatism and intellectual authority in 16th century society - - the Church was very…

Copernicanism was not a heresy.

You need to look at Bruno as a parable for freethinking, and not an instance of Conflict hypothesis. There was no equivocation in the pre-Reformation Catholic Church's position on free thought.

The Bruno story is problematic.

Rupert Murdoch is weird. His politics in the US context are basically Republican, but it's more complicated than that.

The Fosse films are actually the exceptions that prove the rule, because they were genuine risks. While a film like "Chicago" or "Slumdog" isn't a challenging or original work of art at all, it's just "risky" due to the perception among industry types that musicals are suicidal for box office, which has never been…

Argo, Slumdog and my personal beet noir, The Artist are all excellent examples of perfectly competent films winning all the love due to favorable comparison with the prevailing product, which is terrible.

I stand corrected.

Just write a couple lines for Robert Picardo about introns or epigenetic resonances ("like an echo?" says Neelix) or something.

In response to both, I would just say:

I'm not sure DS9 ever laid down a marker on wether or not the symbionts were sentient. They retain memories of their hosts, they bond with sentient beings, but they don't talk to them, they don't really have an independent identity. When we see them they don't really seem to have a civilization or a culture of any…

I add, just as an aside on VOY: just imagine how different Voyager would have been if the Maquis had spent the first season hiding in Voyager's air ducts, trying to take control of the ship?

I'd read, I think it was from that RDM interview, that getting the Maquis into uniforms by the end of the first episode was Berman's idea. RDM had his issues with Berman he cited it as the number one problem with the series, so take it as you will. (Getting the Maquis off the table as quickly as possible makes the…

Kinda letting Brannon Braga off the hook I see…