The Pale Blue Spot

I heard a report on the radio this morning which said that there are 26% more Americans who will be more than 30 days late on credit card payments during Christmas this year than the same time last year. Christmas is becoming more and more difficult to afford as the cost of living in this country continues to soar, while at the same time, big business is doing everything it can to instill the belief that it is customary to spend thousands of your hard-earned dollars on gifts during this season. I mean, pay attention to the commercials... you'll see companies advertising a Plasma screen TV (that costs $2000 or more) as being "The perfect Christmas gift"... either that or a "Suzuki ATV or Dirt Bike", a diamond ring, a Mercedes Benz, etc. I remember when an elaborate Christmas gift was something that cost $75. It's just really sad when we need to bleed the common man dry in order to "stimulate the economy". It was estimated that the average family sp

Alright, I know I'm a huge nerd for even noticing this stuff, but whenever I watch Star Trek: TNG I like to pay attention to the technical terminology that they use. I was just thinking about one of those things today and would like to put it into context for everyone (all two of you who might read this). Data says something like: "The neutron radiation must be interfering with my positronic net..." First of all, if Data is being exposed to neutron radiation, that probably means that everyone else is too, which would be incredibly bad. After all of the times where the Enterprise crew is exposed to one type of radiation or another, they should all be covered in tumors. If Data has a positronic brain, that suggests that his brain is at least partially composed of positrons , which are the antimatter counterparts of electrons. In case you didn't know it, antimatter is the same stuff that they use on the Enterprise in their photon torpedos. Whenever antimatter comes i