Watching Babylon 5 and decided to share my thoughts.
It was aired parallel to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There were watchers who switched from DS9 to Babylon 5, the so-called 9 to 5ers. The reason given was that Babylon 5 has a continuing story line and most  of the episodes are written by the series' creator J. Michael Straszynski, and that DS9 is patchwork: episodes in which a story arch is in the background and very sketchy (i.e. the Android Data explores Art and Music to become more human). However, I think that the writing in DS9 is better and somewhat denser than it is in Babylon 5. I might come back to this point later in a review of an episode.

Season 1-3. Continuous storyline. Climax is the war against the shadows. Again, at the end of season 3, Captain Sheradon is stylized to be a redeemer, a messianic figure. They even let him come back from the dead. The background story is problematic. There are the so-called "First Ones", an old race that watches the birth and development of the younger races. Humanity is one of them. The Shadows and the Vorlons are old races, their war was about humankind deciding which way to follow: either progress by learning process (Vorlons) or progress out of conflict (Shadows).
Season 4: Sheradon is reborn indo a wiser version of himself.

We need to inform the Vatican! St. Barack is born. One of the photographers (or maybe even more than just one) really likes this shot. I doubt that Obama is a Saint but many people see him as a kind of savior. We'll see....

St. Barack

St. Aloysius

Sitting here, reading news on the net and want to smoke. But hanging in there... like our president.

Barack Obama

The urge to smoke is still there. It creeps up on me on occasions when I used to smoke. Once I finish a project or just a chapter in a book, my mind goes: Oh, fine, now I can smoke a cigarette.

Here's Ben. Still Smoker. I smoked my last Cigarette 31 days ago...

This fine institute does not exist (yet). 

The objective of such an institute would be to function as an academic think tank that would study models of an imaginary future, fictitious, as presented in Science Fiction literature and confront those models with actual developments in society. This institute should be connected or associated to a major university (perfect would be UC Riverside, since they have the Eaton Collection, the collection of Science Fiction Literature). Based on what science is explored in the science fiction story, the studies can focus on physics or life science, more on the scientific ideas or on the impact technology has on human society.

As Science Fiction Literature has two polarities, science and fiction i.e. philosophy/humanities, the Institute for Studies into the Future would offer two lines of studies. On the one hand there would be the science based programs and on the other hands there would be philosophy-humanities based programs. Both programs will intertwine, meaning that most science fiction stories present ideas on how daily human life would change given technological advancement. In those stories, humanities (ethics, metaphysics) and sciences influence each other. Correspondingly, students in the science programs need to get a basic introduction into humanities and students in the humanities programs need to get a basic introduction into science.

It is a great problem and creates a lot of tension that either side, humanities and science often lack an appropriate understanding of and sympathy for the other side. Both sides need to understand what the other side is saying and implying in a professional discourse. In addition to basic academic knowledge of the other, courses are offered that intend to provide a better understanding of the self.

One of the programs’ pillars will be core instruction in what I will call here for lack of a better word, Spirituality. I will emphasize however, that this spirituality is not connected to a specific religion. Rather, it envisions as role-model the spiritual masters of Medieval Spain. Those masters were versed in the spiritual traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Sufism) and their pupils or students would pick the tradition(s) in which they would like to be taught. This core instruction in spirituality intends to educate scientists and academics to know themselves better, find their roots and spiritual home and, in this process of getting to know themselves better, also to learn to co-exist with colleagues that adhere to a different spiritual tradition than themselves.

More to come.

Have you realized that Star Trek is one of the very few shows from the 60's and 70's where nobody smokes?

Oh, by the way. It wasn't that I thought: ooh smoking is so bad for you. You'd better quit. Not at all.