The Last Ephor

Consider the following video: via videosift.com Given the absolute massive size of just one star out of hundreds of billions that comprises just one galaxy out of hundreds of billions more, I think it impossible that there is not life somewhere. I'm not talking about the Star Trek sense where their planet is just like our with one teensy difference (i.e. the Nazi's won WWII or they're all Prohibition Era Gangsters). Life, in some form, must exist elsewhere. Maybe it's amoeba or germs or some form of life we can't fathom, but it's out there.

any load screen from id Software.

h/t: Everyone

Be More Than You Can Be so sayeth DARPA . The article is incredible. It outlines how they are using basic physiologic principles to makes soldiers endure heat extremes much easier. This is going to be a very very big breakthrough. Reducing muscle fatigue and inuring soldiers against weather will have a profound effect on capability and even morale. Read the whole thing. It's fascinating.

Hube has a post here about the latest installment of BSG. It's one of the few shows I watch closely and the only one that has any sort of political subtext (or even text for that matter). I hate to part company with Hube on this one (esp. after the nice link) but I must. He says: Here we are -- yet again -- in an absolute life or death situation, and the few surviving humans are ... going on strike ... because they haven't had a day off? Because working conditions are brutal?? The show's writers once again have attempted to demonstrate that they're "with it" -- they're "connected" with modern-day issues and concerns (in this case, growing social inequality, poor working conditions, child labor) yet they always seem to fail to grasp that the situation in which they themselves have placed ... themselves doesn't quite make for a believable (nay, feasible) yarn. I have to disagree. The fatigue of being forever under threat means that you event...

John Scalzi has written a very successful book called "Old Man's War." In this article, he pulls back the curtain to let his readers see about how much he earned last year doing so. I was surprised by his frankness but moreso by the mechanics of the business. I, of course, had this notion that once the book was in the galley, the writers were off on vacation while the royalty checks rolled in. Silly deluded me. Read the whole thing esp. if you're a scifi fan or aspiring writer (or both).