PAVING THE ROAD TO THE FINAL FRONTIER

Surprisingly, in 2014 the U.S. space transportation picture took shape in the sense that a viable way forward became clearer, although with no guarantee of ultimate success. NASA is not going to directly replace the Space Shuttle. That horse left the barn in 2009. The earlier demise of the Ares launch system as part of the cancellation of the Constellation program made that reality clear. Therefore, the question becomes, what now?

IT'S ALL RIGHT

People have an “equality bias” when it comes to competence or expertise, such that even when it’s very clear that one person in a group is more skilled, expert, or competent (and the other less), they are nonetheless inclined to seek out a middle ground in determining how correct different viewpoints are.

OR JUST WATCH 'BAND OF BROTHERS'

So rather than rehash the same tired conversation about which films feature the most truthful scenes of combat (the answer, by the way, is "Band of Brothers"), let's look at movies that best capture different individual facets of military life and deployment, of the people and experiences that make up that parallel universe. No movie gets all of it right, but some of them get little parts of it perfect.

FLYING SO LOW

"It's a commonsense idea that Republicans and Democrats can both agree on: members of Congress shouldn't be able to charge taxpayers for first-class airfare or long-term personal car leases," said Rep. Gwen Graham, who will likely be one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the next election cycle.

ROBOTS WITH WARM, FUZZY FEELINGS

One of the current aims of AI research is to design machines that can mimic human thinking as much as possible. We want to better understand what goes on in human thinking, especially when it comes to decisions that cannot be justified other than by drawing on our “intuition” and “gut-feelings” — the decisions we can only make after learning from experience.

WATCH WITH YOUR PARENTS' HBOGO LOGIN

HBO’s wildly popular fantasy show will air, as usual, on Sundays at 9pm in New York — which is also Mondays at 2am in London, 9am in Hong Kong, and noon in Auckland. Unusual times to watch a television drama, to be sure, but it will please some fans who can’t wait.

QUESTION OF INTEREST

I owed about $2,000 in state taxes which I can easily pay out of savings. But I also considered another option: paying the taxes owed on a credit card that offered reward points. This could be an easy way for someone who regularly pays off credit cards to rack up some points to put towards a future trip, right? Not exactly.