Ted Cruz is a 'Star Trek' fan and that is a good thing

Just to prove that he is a multifaceted character, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas sat down for an interview for the New York Times Magazine on Thursday and opened his mind, not on matters of high policy, but on comic books and science fiction. As a lad, he liked Spiderman and Han Solo. But it is in the realm of “Star Trek” that the presidential candidate may have created some controversy for himself. He very much prefers Captain James Kirk to Captain Jean-Luc Picard. There are Star Trek fans who will argue passionately for either Enterprise skipper. But then again, some Trek fans will fight over what angle Spock’s ears protrude from his temples.

Star Trek: The Complete Original Series (Seasons 1-3) [Blu-ray]

Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection (First Contact / Generations / Insurrection / Nemesis) [Blu-ray]

NASA's Kepler telescope discovers Earth-like world orbiting star like the sun

NASA announced on Thursday that the Kepler Space Telescope has discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting in the so-called “Goldilocks Zone) around a star much like the sun. The new planet is designated Kepler-452b. It has a radius about 60 percent greater than Earth. Its mass and composition has yet to be determined. It orbits its star every 385 days, making its year slightly larger than Earth’s.

Complete Guide to the Kepler Space Telescope Mission and the Search for Habitable Planets and Earth-like Exoplanets - Planet Detection Strategies, Mission History and Accomplishments

NASA Oddly Cuts Life Transmission after UFOs Spotted on Video

'Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!' continues a great tradition of cinematic excess

It’s the middle of summer, which means that it’s time for another Sharknado movie to blow up social media. “Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!” premiered in the SyFy Channel Wednesday night. The movie, which was not overly burdened with plot, character development, or common sense, started with the destruction of Washington D.C. and ended with a mission to low Earth orbit on board the space shuttle, using a top secret military model that was conveniently not retired and was ready for launch from the Kennedy Space Center.

Sharknado

Sharknado 2: The Second One

Russia could force ISS bound American astronauts to train in occupied Crimea

According to a Monday story in the Moscow Times, Russia appears to be contemplating forcing American astronauts training for trips on the Soyuz to the International Space Station to use facilities in the Crimea. The problem is the Russia recently forcibly annexed the Crimea from the Ukraine, something that the United States does not recognize. If the United States does not like Russia forcing it to recognize tacitly said occupation, it can find another ride to the ISS.

You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station

Barack Obama lies to Jon Stewart, claims IRS targeting scandal never happened

President Obama sat down with the departing Jon Stewart one last time for a pre-taped interview on “The Daily Show.” As the Washington Examiner reported on Wednesday, Obama lied to Stewart’s face about one of the more awful scandals that have marred his presidency. According to POTUS, the IRS targeting scandal never happened. Instead, what many victims of the campaign to harass conservative and tea party groups perceived as a violation of their civil rights, was just the result of a poor implementation of a vaguely worded law passed by Congress.

Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS

NASA funded moon base study gives Newt Gingrich the last laugh

Thus far, the NASA-funded study that suggests that American moon boots could be on the lunar surface by 2021 for $10 billion, which was rolled out Monday, not coincidentally the 46th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, has not gotten any reaction from politicians. But, Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker and former presidential candidate, must be feeling a kind of bittersweet vindication. When he ran for president in 2012, he proposed building a commercial moon base and ran into a withering barrage of ridicule that sank his candidacy.

Duplicity: A Novel

NASA's New Horizons turns its attention to Pluto's moons, Hydra and Nix

Tuesday, NASA released enhanced colored images of two of Pluto’s moons, Nix and Hydra. While Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, has been getting most of the attention of scientists, the two smaller moons turn out to have some intriguing features of their own. The two small moons were discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2005.

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet

Is the Mars Colony Base Plan Just a Conspiracy?

Ted Cruz warns Iran nuclear deal means war that could kills tens of millions

Buzzfeed reported on Monday that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a candidate for president of the United States, invoked his inner Churchill and gave a stark warning about what the likely result of the Obama Iran nuclear deal will be. “I think it is likely the next president will be advised in January ‘17, you have two and only two choices. Either you acquiesce to Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon or direct military action must be used to take it out. I think that’s unfortunate but that’s what President Obama is forcing.” In effect, the senator and the would-be future president is saying that President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry has assured a war between the United States and Iran.

EMP Survival: :How to Prepare Now and Survive, When an Electromagnetic Pulse Destroys Our Power Grid

One Second After

SpaceX's Elon Musk says weak strut likely cause of Falcon 9 accident

According to a Monday story in Gizmodo, SpaceX’s Elon Musk revealed the preliminary results into the investigation into the cause of the Falcon 9 explosion that took place during a launch on June 28. The initial evaluation points to a weak strut holding a helium tank in the Falcon 9 second stage snapped, causing a cascade of events that destroyed the rocket before anything could be done. The part was provided by a SpaceX supplier.

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Can Sarah Palin make peace between Donald Trump and John McCain?

Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and former vice presidential candidate, is in a quandary. Two men whom she considers friends are in a public knock down drag out. Of course, the men in question are John McCain, current senator and former presidential candidate, and Donald Trump, businessman, media personality, and current presidential candidate. So, Monday. CNN’s Jake Tapper put the question to Palin, apparently in an attempt to see which side she came down on. Artfully, she refused to take sides.

Sweet Freedom: A Devotional

NASA funded study states people could be on the moon by 2021 for $10 billion

The Houston Chronicle reported on Monday that NextGen Space LLC has released the results of a study that suggests that if the United States were to choose to do space in some new and creative ways, American moon boots could be on the lunar surface by 2021. The cost from the authorization to the first crewed lunar landing would be just $10 billion. The study was partly funded by NASA and was reviewed by former space agency and commercial space experts.

Return to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space

Senate will have no role in the Iran nuclear deal, but Iran's Parliament does

One of the more awful aspects of the Iran nuclear deal is that the Obama administration’s position is that the United States Senate will have no input whether it votes to accept or reject it, as Hot Air noted on Monday. In the meantime, the Iranian Parliament, the Majlis, feels free to alter the deal at will. That body, not satisfied with the cave on inspections, is likely to do just that.

Nuclear Iran: The Birth of an Atomic State

A $5 trillion asteroid passed by Earth

It’s not every day that over $5 trillion passes by, just of reach. But that is exactly what happened Sunday night, according to Forbes. An asteroid with the innocuous name of 2011 UW158 passed the Earth at a distance of 1.5 million miles before moving back out into deep space. The reason the rock is so valuable is that it has a 90 million ton core of platinum group metals. If someone had managed to divert it into a safe orbit around the Earth and had started to mine it, that person would have become the richest in human history, with access to wealth greater than most nations.

Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets (Helix Book)

The Man from Mars: The Asteroid Mining Caper

The first moonwalk and the next moonwalk

Everyone who was of age on July 20, 1969, remembers where they were when men landed on the Moon. I was on a family vacation in Panama City Beach, Florida on that day. My family, along with another family with whom we had been friendly for years, crowded into a single beach side motel room with one of the only working TVs to watch the first moonwalk.

Children of Apollo: The Space Race Gambit

Children of Apollo: The Hard Road to the Stars

Children of Apollo: The First Woman on the Moon

The Last Moonwalker and Other Stories

After NASA's New Horizons, the fight is on to make Pluto a planet once again

The spectacular pictures coming from Pluto and the data that suggests that it is not only a bigger world than was hitherto thought to be but also more dynamic, has emboldened many to suggest that the current dwarf planet be reclassified as a planet once again. Gizmag reported Saturday that many of the scientists working on the New Horizons mission have taken up the call to redeem Pluto and allow itself to take its rightful place as the ninth planet of our solar system.

The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference

Company aims to launch spacecraft on beams of microwaves

The quest for cheap access to space, to make space travel as inexpensive as air travel, has eluded engineers, government policy makers, and business entrepreneurs from before the beginning of the space age. It has become axiomatic, almost to the point of being a cliché, that the true space age will not begin until launch costs come down significantly. Forbes reported on Friday about a company called Escape Dynamics that has a unique approach to the problem. The company proposes to launch payloads into low Earth orbit on beams of microwaves.

Space Launch System (SLS): America's Next Manned Rocket for NASA Deep Space Exploration to the Moon, Asteroids, Mars - Rocket Plans, Ground Facilities, Tests, Saturn V Comparisons, Configurations

Martin O'Malley booed for saying 'all lives matter,' backs down and apologizes

As the Washington Examiner noted Saturday, former Maryland governor and current presidential candidate Martin O’Malley was being interviewed at the annual Netroots Nation conference and was making a statement about the need for civilian police review boards. The interview was interrupted by a group of protestors chanting, “Say, ‘black lives matter!’” In response to a question by one of the protestors about alleged instances of police brutality against African Americans, O’Malley stated, “I think all of us have a responsibility to recognize the pain and grief caused by lives lost to violence. Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter." The statement is said to have drawn boos from the crowd. A minute or two later, O’Malley apologized.

Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City

Is the Earth Pole Shift Starting and Does It Matter?

Donald Trump questions John McCain's status as a war hero

he latest Donald Trump public feud started when the venerable and acerbic Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, suggested that the Donald had “fired up the crazies” with his anti-illegal immigration talk. Then Hot Air reported on Friday that Trump was courting Arizona’s State Treasurer to primary McCain when the senator runs for a new term in 2016. But the capstone of the kerfuffle occurred, according to a Saturday story in the Huffington Post, when Trump appeared at an event in Ames. Iowa and took a shot at McCain’s war record. "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren't captured.”

Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir

Could there be a joint 'US Iran space mission in the future?'

40 years ago on Friday, an American Apollo spacecraft and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft docked in low Earth orbit in the climax of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission. The mission was conceived as a symbol of the détente policy enacted by President Richard Nixon as well as a test of a common docking mechanism between the two spacecraft. The famous handshake between Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts was considered by some to be an amicable end to the Cold War era space race. The anniversary inspired Iranian-American businesswoman and space advocate Anousheh Ansari to tweet Friday, “Hey may be there will be a US Iran space mission in the future!”

Handshake in Space: The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project - a Smithsonian Odyssey Adventure Book (Smithsonian's Odyssey)

Animated Flyover of Pluto’s Icy Mountain and Plains

NASA's New Horizons send an image of an icy plain at 'the heart' of Pluto

New Horizons has flown past Pluto and its system of moons, headed into the Kuiper Belt in search of more discoveries. But the NASA space probe continued to send the secrets of the former ninth planet from the sun that it uncovered when it made its close encounter. The latest image, released by NASA on Friday, is of an area in the heart of the region that has been called “the heart,” but has been renamed “Tombaugh Regio” after Clyde Tombaugh, the man who discovered Pluto in 1930. The plain, dubbed “Sputnik Planum” after the first artificial satellite, is unlike anything scientists had expected before New Horizons visited Pluto.

Clyde Tombaugh: Discoverer of Planet Pluto (Sky & Telescope Observer's Guides)

Scientists develop a seaweed that is healthier than kale but tastes like bacon

One of the science breakthroughs that truly suggest that we are in the 21st Century is the development of seaweed that is healthier than kale and yet, when fried, tastes like bacon, according to a Thursday story in Gizmag. Thus, modern science seems to have combined two trendy foods, one that is healthy but is at best an acquired taste and the other that is delicious beyond the dreams of gluttony but is also a cardiologist’s dream.

Dulse Flakes - Certified Organic- Sea Vegetables, washed, Pure Vegan- Maine COhsawast 4oz.

Dulse, Whole Leaf, Organic, 2 oz.

Hillary Clinton wants to map meteors and asteroids 'on a security basis'

Politico reported on Thursday that Hillary Clinton, while holding a town hall in New Hampshire, was posed a question about her thoughts on space exploration. She responded with her belief that the United States needs to map meteors and asteroids “on a security basis.” She also told the story, often related, how she wanted to be an astronaut as a young girl.

The Queen: The Epic Ambition of Hillary and the Coming of a Second "Clinton Era"

Science and supernatural collide as 'Bones' and 'Sleepy Hollow' do a crossover

Entertainment Weekly reported on Thursday that two popular shows on the Fox Network are going to do a crossover story, lending a character from each show to the other in a two-episode arc. This sort of thing has been done before, but the unusual aspect of this effort is in the nature of the two shows involved. The two shows are “Bones” and “Sleepy Hollow.”

Bones Season 10

Sleepy Hollow Season 1

New York Times capitulates, puts Cruz book 'A Time for Truth' on bestseller list

Mary Katherine Ham over at Hot Air noted on Wednesday that Sen. Ted Cruz’s book, “A Time for Truth,” will debut on the New York Times bestseller list at number seven in its second week of publication. The book would have debuted at number three during its first week, but the Times kept it off, claiming that the Cruz for President Campaign was goosing up sales by making bulk purchases. The Cruz people hotly denied the allegation. Cruz was backed up by his publisher, Harper Collins, as well as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. The New York Times declined to offer evidence of the alleged bulk purchases or have given Senator Cruz and apology.

A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America

'Pluto Truthers' are pretty sure that the NASA New Horizons mission was faked

Forget about Apollo moon landing hoax theories. That is so 20th Century. Gizmodo reported one Wednesday that the “Pluto Truthers” have followed the astonishing images being sent back by NASA’s New Horizons probe and have come to the conclusion that they are faked. After all, if the space agency could fake the entire moon landing, it would be child’s play to fake a robotic probe to the edge of the Solar System.

Conspiracy Theories and Secret Societies For Dummies

Barack Obama enraged about question concerning American hostages in Iran

During a Wednesday press conference that ranged from the Iran nuclear deal to the Bill Cosby rape allegations, President Barack Obama got something that he rarely has to deal with – a tough question from a member of the mainstream media. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Major Garrett put it to the president, why has he abandoned the four American hostages now languishing in prison cells in Iran? Obama was clearly engaged at the impertinence of the question. One of Garrett’s fellow reporters was also irritated and called the question “disrespectful.

Principles from the Underground House Churches in Iran (Principles from Underground House Churches)

NASA's New Horizons discovers icy mountains on Pluto, deep canyons on Charon

NASA announced on Wednesday some of the initial data returned by the New Horizon flyby of Pluto. The space agency also released some of the initial images of the dwarf planet, as well as its moon Charon. The images show icy mountains on Pluto as high as 11,000 feet as well as a conspicuous lack of impact craters. Both findings suggest that the former ninth planet has experienced some sort of relatively recent geophysical activity that is of unknown origin. Ice worlds like Pluto usually experience these kinds of forces because they orbit gas giants, such as Europa orbiting Jupiter, with massive gravity. This is clearly not the case with Pluto.

Pluto Welcomes New Horizons: An Historic Adventure in Space

Media uses the New Horizons mission to Pluto to take shots at Ted Cruz

The New Horizons mission to Pluto has fascinated and even excited millions of people around the world. Politico noted on Tuesday that one of those people is none other than Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a candidate for president of the United States. Cruz stated, “This is a historic milestone in space exploration.” Cruz is being called an “NASA critic” and is being accused of wanting to do the space agency harm by certain fringe elements of the media.

Why Mars: NASA and the Politics of Space Exploration (New Series in NASA History)

Scientists create micro human 'hearts' from stem cells

The New Scientist reported on Tuesday that researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have created what are, in effect, microscopic, beating hearts from human stem cells. These “hearts” are half a millimeter in diameter and have a single chamber or ventricle. But the newly grown organs beat just like the larger hearts that circulate blood in most higher animals, including human beings. Moreover, the microscopic hearts were grown without recourse to building scaffolds made from donor hearts as previous stem cell grown organs have been created.

Stories of the Heart: Refelections on the Heart Transplant Journey

Stem Cells: An Insider's Guide

European plans for a 'lunar village' could lead to a joint NASA lunar return

Recently, Johan-Dietrich Woerner, the head of the European Space Agency reiterated his desire that the next big project that his agency should be to undertake is the construction of a “village” at the South Pole of the moon, according to a Monday story in the BBC. Using inflatable habitats and 3D printing with lunar regolith, Woerner hopes to begin construction as early as 2024, the year the International Space Station is due to end its operational life.

The Moon: Resources, Future Development and Settlement (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)

Ted Cruz cites his grandmother's death from Alzheimer's to support disease cures

Proving that sometimes Congress can work, the House passed a bill called the 21st Century Cures Act by an overwhelming, bi-partisan margin, according to a Monday story in the Atlantic. The bill would infuse nearly $9 billion dollars over the next five years to fund research into finding cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer. It will also attempt to streamline the FDA approval process for such cures to get them to patients and doctors more quickly. The bill now goes to the Senate where it will likely find no more fervent supporter than Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a candidate for president.

Breakout: Pioneers of the Future, Prison Guards of the Past, and the Epic Battle That Will Decide America's Fate

Planned Parenthood official on camera discussing trafficking in fetal body parts

Thanks to a video clandestinely taken by a group called Center for Medical Progress, Planned Parenthood, a federally funded nonprofit that provides birth control, abortions, and other services for women is at the center of a media firestorm. According to a Tuesday story in the Washington Examiner, the senior director of Medical Services for Planned Parenthood Deborah Nucatola is seen discussing with operatives whom she thinks are buyers for a biomedical company who are interested in purchasing body parts from aborted fetuses. Nucatola discusses how the organization modifies a late-term abortion method to harvest hearts, lungs and livers from fetuses. A procedure called partial birth abortion is performed to terminate the fetus.

Beyond the Abortion Wars: A Way Forward for a New Generation

Fallout of Obama's Iran deal includes widespread condemnation

According to the Associated Press, President Obama, with Vice President Biden by his side, announced on Tuesday that the United States and other nations has reached a deal with Iran on that country’s nuclear weapons program. Despite the president’s boasts that the deal closes off Iran’s quest for a nuclear arsenal, the announcement sparked widespread condemnation from various quarters ranging from Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu to a number of Republican politicians. At issue is the fact that Iran will be allowed to be notified in advance when inspections occur at nuclear and military facilities, allowing that country time to conceal any cheating it might be undertaking.

A Time to Attack: The Looming Iranian Nuclear Threat

NASA's New Horizons has a close encounter with Pluto

The New Horizons Twitter feed announced early Tuesday that the NASA space probe has passed by its closest approach of Pluto, the dwarf planet at the edge of the solar system, at a distance of 7,800 miles. The historic event happened at 7:50 a.m. Eastern time. However, as Wired noted, the event is not the end but the beginning of what will be a steady stream of data and images from New Horizons. The probe spent the close encounter with Pluto with its instruments fully focused on the dwarf planet. Tuesday evening it will send back telemetry to Earth indicating whether all is well. Scientific data will stream back, according to Wired, at an agonizingly slow rate of two kilobytes per second, taking four hours to get to Earth. Data and images will stream in for the next 19 months. Scientists will be analyzing the data for many years.

Pluto: New Horizons for a Lost Horizon: Astronomy, Astrology, and Mythology

Hillary Clinton goes after Uber

Hillary Clinton, a candidate for president of the United States, delivered what the Wall Street Journal described as a “wide ranging” remarks on the economy at the New School in New York City on Monday. For the most part her speech was liberal boilerplate, part advocating more taxes and regulation, part slamming what she called “trickle-down economics,” the Reagan-era policy of tax cuts in order to allow people to keep and invest more of their money. Market Watch noted that she also took shots at new sharing services such as Uber and Airbnb.

Crowdsourcing: Uber, Airbnb, Kickstarter, & the Distributed Economy

As New Horizons approaches Pluto, politicians start to take notice

f one wants further proof that the United States is an exceptional country, one should look no further than the New Horizons probe, currently approaching Pluto. No other country on Earth has accomplished such a feat. No other country could accomplish such a feat. The National Journal noted on Sunday that official Washington has started to notice those spectacular pictures coming from almost four billion miles at the edge of the solar system.

Ted Cruz: Cruzing Republicans to the White House: A Researched Biography

Has Donald Trump painted a target on his back by calling out El Chapo?

According to a Monday story in the Christian Science Monitor, Donald Trump had some sharp things to say about the prison break by the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman – also known as “El Chapo.” Guzman responded with a thinly veiled threat against the presidential candidate who has become notorious by insulting Mexican illegal immigrants as being rapists and murderers.

The Last Narco: Inside the Hunt for El Chapo, the World's Most Wanted Drug Lord

Scott Walker announces for president, so should Democrats be afraid?

It has been a truism to the point of being a cliché that the perfect Republican presidential candidate would be a governor who has a list of accomplishments he could boast of. The Associated Press noted on Monday that a man who fits that description neatly, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, has finally announced for president. Some media analysis suggest that the Democrats, who are relying either on the ethically challenged Hillary Clinton or the far left socialist Bernie Sanders to maintain their grip on the Oval Office, should be afraid. Very afraid.

Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge

NASA's New Horizons focuses on Pluto's largest moon Charon

New Horizons has already discovered much of what was previously unknown about Pluto, the dwarf planet that is the former ninth planet from the sun. NASA reported on Sunday that the space probe has also uncovered some of the secrets of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon. It has found indications of impact craters on the moon’s gray surface as well as a chasm that seems to be bigger than the Grand Canyon on Earth. Charon has a diameter of just 1440 miles. Bu contrast, Earth has a diameter of 7918 miles.

The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference

'Brave's' Merida to arrive at Storybrook in 'Once Upon a Time' season five

“Once Upon a Time,” set in the fictional town of Storybrook, Maine, has featured characters from just about every fairy tale or children’s story that ever passed before a movie screen under the Disney banner. Last season. Elsa and Anna from the smash hit “Frozen” had their own story arc before passing back from our world back to their enchanted kingdom of Aerrendale. IO9 reported on Saturday that another recent Disney fairytale princess will be stirring up trouble for the denizens of Storybrook in season five. “Brave’s” Red haired Merida, archer, Highland lassie, and all round trouble magnet is coming as a live action character, courtesy of the network and Scottish actress Amy Manson.

Brave