On September 8, noted science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle passed away quietly in his sleep.

Very few people seem to realize how they compare and contrast.

Welcome to the last segment of A Brief Overview of the Dinosaurs! When we left off, we had traversed most of the way up through the theropod tree. The group that we have reached now is called Paraves, which means “next to birds.” This is a bit of a misnomer, though, because the vast majority […]

As we continue our jaunt through the evolution of theropod dinosaurs, we grow inexorably closer to birds. As we get closer to birds, we find dinosaurs that are more and more similar to birds as well as evidence of increasingly complex feathers. The story of Coelurosauria (SEE-lure-oh-SORE-ee-uh) shows us the evolution of feathers from simple […]

Here’s the post that you’ve all been waiting for! This is the second-to-last post in my Brief Overview series, and it finally includes many of the most popular dinosaurs — the theropods. This large group includes all known carnivorous (meat-eating) dinosaurs such as Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex as well as several very strange groups that reverted to […]

Amoma is one travel site that needs to be put on permanent vacation.

17 contestants gathered in the heart of Ohio to take part in the first official debate of the 2016 Presidential campaign. This first event included some controversy of its own. The oversized field was broken into two groups. The top 10 would take the stage in prime time on the Fox News Channel. The lower seven […]

I’ve been free from cable and satellite TV for a couple of years now — with mixed results. I didn’t give up watching entirely; I simply re-calibrated my priorities and expectations a bit and adopted my Roku box as the primary source of programming. As you can no doubt discern from my less-than-optimal happiness, it […]

Since the dawn of science fiction, people have contemplated the eventual reality of a fully-capable interactive assistant. Some imagine them taking the form of talking robots. Others picture a disembodied voice connected to a core computer as seen most popularly in Star Trek. The path toward that goal is forever moving forward, although often at […]

Fox News host Sean Hannity has been under fire of late for his over-the-top support of embattled Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who grew quickly famous thanks to people like Hannity giving him a prime-time platform to spew his anti-American rhetoric. Most recently, he and The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart have been sparring over this issue […]

One of the chief arguments against Obamacare is that the various plans are all-inclusive and, as a result, include coverage for conditions many subscribers won’t ever need. It could be Viagra for women or gynecologist visits for men. The theory is that this keeps the cost of individual plans high. Unfortunately, the argument doesn’t stand up to […]

It’s time for the next installment of dinosaurs! All of the dinosaurs that have been previously discussed belong to the order Ornithischia, which means “bird-hipped dinosaurs.” However, we are now moving into the realm of the Saurischia, the “lizard-hipped dinosaurs.” The first major clade in the Saurischia is the Sauropodomorpha.  This is the group that […]