Private group designs cheap space probe for Alpha Centauri.

Minor drawbacks:

* payload is only 1 kilogram
* transit time is 80,000 years
* probe will lose contact with Earth after only 18 months

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/private-group-wants-to-launch-cheapest-possible-mission-to-alpha-centauri

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Angel

But my absolute favorite was "Space Angel", with artwork by the great Alex Toth. It may look laughably crude now, but it was heady stuff for a 5 year old boy. Each episode was only 30 minutes but they were packed with action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gKEt_lpjfE&list=PLKqlP-ZZ8Rv2DIRVhz37cDHXsWmnorQCu

Another weird cartoon I remember watching was "Mr. E from Tau Ceti".
Amusingly the same star is featured in the movie "Project Hail Mary"

https://youtu.be/rgJIKAsXcVA?is=hrieD648Qf3Cg760

I remember watching this cartoon when I was a child. Colonel Bleep had a secret base at zero degrees longitude, zero degrees latitude (off the coast of Africa). They called it Zero-zero Island.

https://www.cancelledscifi.com/2026/08/29/colonel-bleep-is-a-forgotten-classic-of-sci-fi-animation-and-it-could-be-making-a-comeback

I was in a gloomy mood. I thought of how AI can generate graphic images on command. Then I remembered a science fiction story called "Blit" by David Langford. It was about a scifi image that would kill anyone who looked at it, by causing the human brain to crash.

Wouldn't it be nasty if an AI was poisoned to randomly emit the deadly image?

https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunexotic.php#id--Ridiculous_Handwavium--Medusa_Weapons

A Canadian lab just ran a chemical process on real spent nuclear fuel and pulled out 90% of the long-lived danger in 24 hours, the part that forces a burial site to last 100,000 years, with the leftovers meant to fuel a reactor

https://www.autonocion.com/us/canadian-lab-nuclear-fuel/

Wil Wheaton tells a story about former star trek actors

https://wilwheaton.net/2026/07/can-i-tell-you-a-story/

ACK!!!

Who asked for this?

https://gizmodo.com/researchers-built-a-scuba-suit-for-cyborg-cockroaches-2000781231

#TTRPG game masters who would like a Mashup world which is a cross between modern-day political conspiracy theories and the works of H. P. Lovecraft should check out Charles Stross' short story A Colder War.

Story online: https://web.archive.org/web/20231204074008/http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm

Review and analysis: https://reactormag.com/nuking-them-from-orbit-may-not-help-charlie-strosss-a-colder-war/

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/with-starfall-spacex-eyes-an-edge-in-global-cargo-delivery-from-orbit

https://gerryanderson.com/en-us/blogs/blog/brian-johnson-has-died

NASA to wear Prada as luxury group pushes into space industry

https://www.reuters.com/science/nasa-wear-prada-luxury-group-pushes-into-space-industry-2026-06-07/

@StefanEJones

Stefan, get a load of this...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=epwbsQf2sSM

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/04/vast-reveals-flight-suit-tests-timepiece-for-commercial-space-station

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID’s, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

-Time Enough For Love by Robert Heinlein

US Navy has four aging Ohio-class guided-missile submarines approach their mandatory retirement dates.
The problem is that Navy shipbuilding capacity has diminished over the years, and the vital Ohio submarines cannot be replaced in a timely manner.

https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/04/us-navy-2080-tomahawk-loss-ohio-class-submarine/

Must...resist...purchasing...

(Warning, spoilers)

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/project-hail-mary-11389

https://spacenews.com/nasa-halts-work-on-gateway-to-develop-a-lunar-base/

https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-exoskeleton-test-battle-fold-briefcase-run-artillery-shell-2026-3