'Zero criminal record'

Books reading recommendations Five Science Fiction Stories About Investigating Enigmatic Artifacts “What is this thing, and where the heck did it come from?” is a great way to start any story! By James Davis Nicoll | Published on February 26, 2026 The Complete Venus Equilateral cover art by Rick Sternbach Comment 0 Share New Share The Complete Venus Equilateral cover art by Rick Sternbach Not very long ago, my attention was caught by an enigmatic fragment, which flew past me, just under knee-height, before deeply burying itself in a nearby snowdrift. It was clearly a small piece of a car, but did it come from the rear of a car, which was what initial evidence suggested, or the front of a second car I failed to spot? Alas, I was on my way to work1 and did not pause to investigate, although I did make time to collect my mysterious trophy on the way home. I suppose I will never know2. Photo credit: James Davis Nicoll Such enigmas are frustrating in real life. For authors, enigmatic artifacts can be the stuff of plot, allowing their characters to show off their intellectual and athletic prowess. Consider these five examples, drawn from across the decades. “Lost Art” by George O. Smith (1943) Enthusiastic engineers Barney Carroll and James Baler do not fully understand the forty-century old Martian device. However, the old Martians did believe in technical documentation, so the chums believe they are in possession of all the information they need to unravel the gadget’s secrets. This is why the pair elect to experiment with the relic in the middle of town. What the old Martians failed to predict is that certain facts considered by them so obvious that they need not be mentioned might be unknown to people from another, alien, civilization. Carroll and Baler lack the information needed to operate the gadget safely. After all, safety is not their primary concern3. It might seem odd that some core bit of information could be lost so thoroughly. But consider one of the world’s oldest known jokes: “A dog walks into a bar and says, ‘I cannot see a thing. I’ll open this one.’” We know that was a thigh-slapper back in Sumeria. We do not know why. World of Ptavvs by Larry Niven (1966) The 1.5-billion-year-old “Sea Statue” is clearly artificial. It is equally clearly not of human origin. Its reflective surface suggests an intriguing possibility. The apparent statue could be an alien within a time-freezing stasis field. If so, placing the statue inside another stasis field would nullify the original stasis field and free its occupant. A billion and half years ago, the galaxy was ruled by the Slavers, telepathic aliens whose formidable powers of mind-control almost made up for the fact that the Slavers themselves were all dolts. Every Slaver and all of their slaves died in the great uprising… all save one, the Slaver who has until now been imprisoned in stasis. The Slaver that curious humans are about to free. The first quarter of Known Space’s 22nd century was an interesting time from the UN’s perspective. First, humans stumbled over non-technological aliens in the Sirius System. Then they unleashed a would-be world-conquering alien. Then, a super-intelligent interstellar traveller with a penchant for genocide swung by for an extended visit. I imagine officials in the know were subject to severe on-the-job stress. Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky & Boris Strugatsky (1972) The aliens arrived on Earth, lingered briefly, then left without ever bothering to communicate with humanity. Disappointing. Humanity had to settle for poking through the alien’s discarded trash. Happily, the aliens were profligate litterbugs. Prudence demands cautious examination, under the watchful eyes of the International Institute of Extraterrestrial Cultures. Greed demands a more forthright approach. Stalkers grab what they can, and hope to survive the result. A few get rich. Others may pray for death. While I do own the old DAW translation of this classic, I recommend the more recent Chicago Review Press edition. The translation (by Olena Bormashenko) is better and the ancillary material fascinating. Blake’s 7: “Sarcophagus” — TV script by Tanith Lee (1980) By the ninth episode of season three of British SF television show Blake’s 7, Blake is gone, leaving cold, amoral Avon as captain of the starship Liberator. When Liberator encounters a derelict starship in deep space, Avon is sensibly cautious. Nevertheless, he, along with the craven coward Vila and telepath Cally, venture on board. The three find an ancient ship, a sarcophagus, a dead alien, and a timer counting down to an event for which the trio would be well advised to escape. Sensibly, despite impediments, Avon, Vila, and Cally manage to return to the Liberator. The only problem is that they’ve brought something back with them. Cold, amoral Avon did not pick Vila and Cally because they had the qualifications to conduct deep-space archaeology. He selected them because they were the two crew members least likely to stab him in the back while conducting deep-space archaeology. Camaraderie wasn’t really a thing on the Liberator. Vestiges by Laurence Suhner (2012) The Great Arch orbits quasi-habitable Gemma. The Great Arch is clearly artificial. Since no human made it, it is clearly alien. Beyond those facts, little is known. The aliens appear to be long gone and the Great Arch is, as far as anyone can tell, inert. Visionary scientist Ambre Pasquier believes she can uncover alien secrets down on the planet itself. Xenologist Seth Tranktak believes Ambre is on the right track. More importantly, he believes betraying her to an ambitious oligarch and the local militia is the key to his personal power. Revelations await! Few pleasant. The is the first of three installments. Rather frustratingly for monolingual me, while I found a translation of the first volume, the other two are, as far as I can tell, only available in French. There are surely more than five works that showcase insufficiently cautious characters investigating dangerous enigmas. Perhaps you have your own favorites examples. If so, please mention them in comments below.[end-mark] What would I have done had it hit me? Applied pressure to stop the bleeding (if any), limped home, changed, and caught the next bus. I plan for two significant service disruptions per commute, so in all likelihood I would have still been on time. Had the injury been more dire, I would have seriously considered seeking medical help despite the possibility that this might have left the theater short-staffed. ︎Unless I showed it to someone who knew one end of a car from another. But that would be extra work for which I would not get paid. ︎Jim’s sister, Christine Baler, watches the chaos and carnage escalate from a safe(ish) distance with the air of someone who has seen events very much like this play out before. I imagine her played by Myrna Loy, with an expression very much like Loy’s during The Thin Man’s airgun scene. ︎The post Five Science Fiction Stories About Investigating Enigmatic Artifacts appeared first on Reactor.

Rats on Sunken Drug Ship: Regime Capos Turn Informer on Maduro

It’s unclear if it's even feasible, but it would be a danger to space exploration, astronomy, and even our health.

NBC’s Seth Meyers reacted on Late Night to President Trump’s State of the Union address on Wednesday by attacking him for condemning Democrats for not standing up and applauding and for allegedly trying to “co-opt” Team USA's men's hockey gold medal for himself. In both cases, Meyers left out some crucial context. Meyers introduced a clip of Trump by lamenting, “And yet despite the fact that it strained everyone's attention spans, Trump expected everyone—everyone—to leap to their feet and applaud for him, including the Democrats. And his feelings were very hurt when they didn't.” In the clip, Trump observed, “Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I'm telling you. They're crazy.”   Seth Meyers's State of the Union reaction has him declaring "Trump expected everyone—everyone to leap to their feet and applaud for him, including the Democrats. And his feelings were very hurt when they didn't." (The clip Meyers introduced was about Trump calling for a ban on… pic.twitter.com/YIBgKhT3oG — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) February 26, 2026   Meyers reacted by breaking out his Trump impression, “These people are crazy. They said electric boat batteries cause shark attacks. They called Hannibal Lecter a wonderful man. They sent a hospital boat to Greenland for no reason. Oh, I real—those are all things I did. I'm hearing myself now and realizing maybe I'm the crazy one. Let's see, pull up a pic of my face and tell me if I look crazy. Oh, it's me. I'm the crazy one." What Meyers didn’t mention is that the context for that clip was Trump calling for a ban on gender transitions for children. Nevertheless, Meyers kept rolling, “In fact, Trump is so desperate for a win, he tried to co-opt the U.S. men's hockey team's Olympic gold medal like he had something to do with it.” Another clip of Trump showed him declaring, “Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. People are asking me, ‘Please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in our country until you came along. We're just always losing. But now we're winning too much.’ And I say, ‘No, no, no. You're going to win again, you're going to win big. You're going to win bigger than ever.’ And to prove that point—to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud, the men's gold medal Olympic hockey team.” Meyers wasn’t having it, “Hey, man. You're not winning. They're winning. You didn't win [bleep]. I didn't see you out there lacing up your skates, taking slap shots with your weird Death Becomes Her hand—although maybe the hand showed up by itself and scored a goal.” Again, Meyers left out some crucial context. When the Miracle team beat the Soviets, President Jimmy Carter also called them after the game and later welcomed them to the White House after they won the gold. Nobody thought that was a big deal because the president is the leader of the country, whether you voted for him or not. Trump’s impression of someone he had a conversation with is just not a big deal. He concluded by recapping, “Trump used this speech the way he uses all of his speeches, as a vehicle to attack anyone who doesn't bend the knee. And since that's a majority of the country, his polling is terrible. Republicans think the strategy is working, but that's only because—” The sentence was punctuated by the clip of Trump saying, “They’re crazy.” Based on Democrats’ reaction to a proposed ban on transitioning children and late night’s descent into madness on Trump’s relationships with the men’s and women’s hockey teams, “they’re crazy” is an appropriate observation. Here is a transcript for the February 25-taped show: NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers 2/26/2026 12:53 AM ET SETH MEYERS: And yet despite the fact that it strained everyone's attention spans, Trump expected everyone—everyone to leap to their feet and applaud for him, including the Democrats. And his feelings were very hurt when they didn't. DONALD TRUMP: Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I'm telling you. They're crazy. MEYERS: [Trump voice] "These people are crazy. They said electric boat batteries cause shark attacks. They called Hannibal Lecter a wonderful man. They sent a hospital boat to Greenland for no reason. Oh, I real—those are all things I did. I'm hearing myself now and realizing maybe I'm the crazy one. Let's see, pull up a pic of my face and tell me if I look crazy. Oh, it's me. I'm the crazy one." In fact, Trump is so desperate for a win, he tried to co-opt the U.S. men's hockey team's Olympic gold medal like he had something to do with it. TRUMP: Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. People are asking me, “Please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in our country until you came along. We're just always losing. But now we're winning too much.” And I say, “No, no, no. You're going to win again, you're going to win big. You're going to win bigger than ever.” And to prove that point—to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud, the men's gold medal Olympic hockey team. MEYERS: Hey, man. You're not winning. They're winning. You didn't win [bleep]. I didn't see you out there lacing up your skates, taking slap shots with your weird Death Becomes Her hand—although maybe the hand showed up by itself and scored a goal. Taking credit like that, you sound like our cue card guy Wally when the Patriots win a game. "Oh Seth, we played great on Sunday." "Oh, did you? How many yards did you get, Wally? How many yards is it from your couch to your kitchen?" Trump used this speech the way he uses all of his speeches, as a vehicle to attack anyone who doesn't bend the knee. And since that's a majority of the country, his polling is terrible. Republicans think the strategy is working, but that's only because— TRUMP: They're crazy. 

If you love a good cabbage recipe that is super simple, this is the one to try! It’s so easy and so good and made in one pan. ❤️WHY YOU WILL LOVE THIS UNSTUFFED CABBAGE ROLL This Unstuffed Cabbage Roll is versatile and delicious and comes together quickly. These are all the things that make...