This is a sonic screwdriver toy. I own it because I am a big honkin’ geek:

This is a piece from the boardgame Nexus Ops. I own it because it was on deep clearance and is a fun game:

The sonic screwdriver has an ultraviolet light on the end of it:

And when you put them together:

If you prefer it with music.

Observation: In science fiction, alien civilizations come in exactly two flavors:

1) Well ahead of our current level of technology
2) Stone age

Aliens are never wowed about their first color TV, their new computer with 64 whopping K of RAM, their exciting new plorg^*-less carriage, or the telegraph.

I know there are exceptions to this rule, but they’re few and far between. That Star Trek: TNG episode where Riker is on some kind of 50s-ish planet is one of the exceptions. What others are there?

—
^* — A four-legged creature similar to a horse.

In the last week I’ve seen:

• Two comics bloggers get into a slap fight with both threatening to leave the internet unless they’re not treated better.

• A dustup on BoardGameGeek resulting in the first-ever banning of a user there that grew out of the accusation that fans of “Eurogames” are elitist and disrespectful towards fans of “Ameritrash” games.

• People taking others to task for suggesting that Firefly is anywhere close to the “genius” of Buffy.

Dave passed this onto me: