‘Understood properly, the Death Star is not worth it.’
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
I wish to address the most important policy question of the millennium: Should we build a Death Star? This debate picked up this year after some Lehigh University students estimated that just the steel for a Death Star would cost $852 quadrillion, or 13,000 times the current GDP of the Earth.
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
Politics of Trek: “A Taste of Armageddon”
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Politics of Trek: “A Taste of Armageddon†Today’s episode is my favorite conservative episode. In addition to a bunch of other conservative ideas, this episode cuts to THE key difference between how liberals and conservatives view human nature. Let’s talk about episode No. 24, A Taste of Armageddon. The PlotAs the episode begins, the Enterprise is en route to star cluster NGC 321 to open relations with the locals. The Federation wants a space port in this sector because the lack of facilities has cost thousands of lives over the years. As the Enterprise approaches, it is warned away...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
NASA/Hathaway’s updated solar cycle prediction – smallest in 100 years
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
…the predicted size makes this the smallest sunspot cycle in about 100 years *********************************snip**************************From: http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/predict.shtmlThe current prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24 gives a smoothed sunspot number maximum of about 60 in the Spring of 2013. We are currently over three years into Cycle 24. The current predicted size makes this the smallest sunspot cycle in about 100 years.The prediction method has been slightly revised. The previous method found a fit for both the amplitude and the starting time of the cycle along with a weighted estimate of the amplitude from precursor predictions (polar fields and geomagnetic activity near cycle minimum)....
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
Politics of Trek: “Balance of Terror” (Original Series Conservatism)
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Politics of Trek: “Balance of Terror”Let’s talk about Episode 14: “Balance of Terror,” which introduces the Romulans! Patterned on submarine films, this episode involves a tactical game of chess between Kirk and a Romulan commander with a galactic war hanging in the balance. It’s also an allegory for dealing with aggression and it’s firmly conservative. The PlotAs the episode begins, Kirk is about to perform a wedding, when the Enterprise goes to red alert. An unknown alien craft is attacking a manned Federation outpost along the Romulan neutral zone. The Federation and the Romulans fought a war a century earlier,...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
Politics of Trek: “This Side of Paradise” (Original Series Conservatism)
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Politics of Trek: “This Side of Paradise”Some claim Star Trek presents a communist utopian view of the world. That is true of the Next Generation, where they pretend to have fundamentally changed human nature to the point of eliminating greed, jealousy, and the other human vices. But it’s certainly not true of the original series. To the contrary, Episode 24: “This Side of Paradise” is a fundamental repudiation of the idea of the communist utopia. The PlotAs our episode begins, the Enterprise makes orbit around Omicron Ceti Three. They are on a grim mission: to collect the remains of a...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
German astronomers have discovered an ancient planetary system dating from 13 billion years ago
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
German astronomers have discovered an ancient planetary system thought to be a survivor of one of the earliest cosmic eras, from 13 billion years ago. The system consists of the star HIP 11952 and two planets. Such an old system will help shed light on planet formation in the early Universe, which occurred under conditions quite different from those of later planetary systems such as our own. Accepted planetary theory states that, generally speaking, a star that contains more 'metals', (i.e. chemical elements other than hydrogen and helium) is more likely to have planets; it is also widely accepted that...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
President Obama is schmoozing with Angelina and Brad Pitt
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Everyone knows President Barack Obama likes a celebrity fix - just ask Johnny Depp. And today, just a day after pictures emerged of his extravagant 2009 Halloween party at the White House, the most powerful man in America was enjoying more VIP company. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie brought some Hollywood star power to Washington D.C. as they stopped by for a chat with the chief executive at the Oval Office.
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
Have Astronomers Found the Star of Bethlehem?
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The modern search for the Star of Bethlehem began with Johannes Kepler (imperial astronomer for Rudolph II of Germany), who shortly before Christmas in 1603 observed a conjunction (pairing) of Jupiter with Saturn from his observatory in Prague. That this occurred in the constellation of Pisces he thought was important as well – perhaps recalling Rabbi Isaac Abarvanel's belief, noted in his 15th-century commentary on Daniel, that not only does a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn foretell important events, but in Pisces this holds a special significance for Israel; and such an event might even foretell the coming of the...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
STAR test scores up despite statewide school budget cuts [ Steepest cuts net best scores- ever ]
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
RESEDA, LOS ANGELES -- The scores are in for Southern California students who took the annual STAR exam. Despite cutbacks and layoffs, scores are up for the ninth straight year. They're at their highest levels since the testing began. At a 10th-grade physiology class at Reseda High School, reading and language skills are combined with mathematics, and there are improved results in the latest statewide Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) examinations given to nearly 5 million students in grades 2 through 11. "Despite the cuts we are seeing that kind of significant progress. It's been steady over the last nine...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
ObamaCare stomping on liberty
Posted by admin / Under Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Who can forget that rare moment of honesty during the campaign to pass Obamacare when Nancy Pelosi said, "We have to pass the bill in order for you to find out what's in it"? Now we have it, and almost daily there are new revelations about the staggering extent to which our private lives and individual freedoms have been stomped on. We learn now that free birth control in the form of contraceptives, morning-after pills, and sterilization is part of the grand Obamacare socialist dream-come-true. The health insurance that Obamacare mandates that all employers provide and that all citizens acquire...
Published on Tuesday 22nd of May 2012 03:04:43 AM
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