If you are reading this site, you already know "Battlestar Galactica" is the greatest science-fiction show of all time.  Yes, yes, "Farscape" was terrific and "Star Trek" set the standard but Battlestar Galactica as number one brooks no argument.   The only thing that could make it better is being able to play as part of a  Battlestar Galactica MMORPG universe.

Bigpoint has announced today the successful launch of the first phase of its Battlestar Galactica Online closed beta. The initial phase granted hand-selected players from Europe and the United States the opportunity to experience one of the most ambitious browser-games ever developed. 

Can plasma be beautiful?   Surely, anything can, but physicists are luckier than most because when they probe the mysteries of plasma, the fourth state of matter, they often discover phenomena of striking beauty. 

Plasmas support a large variety of waves, some familiar to all such as light and sound waves, but a great many exist nowhere else and one of the fundamental waves in magnetized plasma is the shear Alfvén wave, named after Nobel Prize winning scientist Hannes Alfvén, who predicted their existence.

The big knock on huge wind or solar farms in developed countries is whose back yard the new power lines will run through.   Off-shore wind farms or solar farms in remote deserts may be a solution to that but current methods of transmission are unsuitable - at long distances, alternating current will have as much as 40% loss and while direct current will only lose about 7%, it means huge converter stations are essential before the power can reach homes.

High-voltage direct-current transmission (HVDCT) could be made more achievable using low-cost semiconductor cells, the focus of research at Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB in Erlangen.

Voter turnout was huge in 2008 - some of that was due to advertising; since Sen. Obama did not limit adhere to campaign finance reform rules the way Sen. McCain did, Obama was able to raise and spend more money than Bush and Kerry did in 2004 combined, spending twice as much as his opponent.    But a large part of that was message also, and it led to 64% of eligible voters showing up, the highest turnout since the 1960s.

Know why vegetarians are so angry?  They don't eat meat, it seems.  So this Thanksgiving, grab the turkey leg and tear off a hunk of flesh with your teeth and rationalize that evolutionary psychology thinks it made your cavemen ancestors nicer people.