This sort of thing isn't completely out of date:  consider Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko's death by polonium-210 poisoning in 2006;  traces of it were found in his tea cup.  How did it get into his tea?  Nobody who knows is saying anything.

"I know that she said that because she wrote it on her iPad" (5:32).  Glad I wasn't drinking tea at that point, or it would have ruined this Apple product in front of me.

Dave, in a small way I know what you're writing about.  I lived in Hawai'i for 6 months and... it was lovely, but after a while I needed to get back to a place where I could just drive all day and never see the same place twice.

In the summer months when I can rent a small plane, it's a lot like what you describe from the cab.  During the day I see parts of America I'd never have imagined, and meet the nicest people at tiny airports that no one but pilots know about.  At night, it's just me and a glowing instrument panel, looking out at a world turned beautiful by darkness.  The voices of other pilots and controllers keep me company, but it's just me up there with the stars and a rumbling engine, while the world slides by underneath.

Hooray!  I extend my (belated) congratulations.  It's a long road to tenure (I'm still on it).

You have my sincere sympathy.  After 20 years I still miss a Siamese I had from childhood.

Congratulations, Amy!

As one of the Old Ones, I vote for the cat, just from nostalgia.That YouTube video was worth it just to know there is a job called "Cat Behavior Consultant".

Wish I could come, but I'll be flying to Colorado that day.  Hope I can make it some other time.

If you wish to be very depressed at the state of our culture,  watch some clips from the old Tonight Show with Steve Allen or Jack Paar;  then watch the modern version with Jay Leno, or worse yet, Jon Stewart's show. 

I was thinking of Rob just the other day as I set up my Blu-Ray player to get streaming video from Amazon.com (and, soon, from Netflix as well).  The near future is certainly volatile and uncertain for people in television.

One of the developments that 2001 absolutely nailed was the "glass cockpit"--instrument panels in which analog gauges are replaced by computer-driven displays.  By the year 2001 most new airliners had them, and now they're available on small planes (e.g. Garmin G1000).

In 2001:  Filming the Future, Piers Bizony wrote that Kubrick employed engineers from British aerospace companies to design the cockpits in 2001.  They deserve a lot of credit for making the film as good as it is.

I'm one of the (very few) people who actually like the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey.  But my explanation as to why I like it sounds pretentious even to me, so I'll skip it.

Those were exactly my thoughts at the end of A.I., too.  It would have been a fitting ending to the story.  Probably didn't play well with focus groups, though.

Welcome, Plain Tom!  I haven't been active on the site for a while, because my work has kept me too busy.  But I'm glad people are joining--and I don't want the business to fold.

On the one hand, I don't want you to have more nightmares, Dave.  On the other hand, this one made for a great story, a "gripping tale" as they say.  In a way, the best thing I've read on Ricochet in many months.

I think Martin Luther said "Pray as if it all depends on God, and work as if it all depends on you."  That will be my motto in the coming days.