The Speculist has become one of my favorite once-or-twice-a-week reads, because they bring me the latest maybe-gonnabe-real used-to-be-science fiction news, and they're fun to read while they do it.

Take this post about the UN's Office for Outer Space Affairs, for exaple:

Gee, why does it upset the UN so much that they can't control the US when they apparently get to call the shots for the entire universe? Our potential insectoid galactic overlords are going to have a real chuckle over that one. Wasn't there a Pope in the middle ages who divided the world up into quarters (or thirds) and assigned each piece to some western crown? It's somehow comforting to know that, for all the progress humanity has made, we're still capable of the same kind of fatuous nonsense.

Ha. I say again: ha.