Which naturally leads to:
This story was *made* for sitting back with a bucket of popcorn and watching the intersectional fur fly.
If you have a few minutes to kill and want to learn some disturbing facts about the horrible, horrible animals that evolution saw fit to plop down onto the planet, “Casual Geographic” is the YouTuber for you. He’s informative, rapid-fire, deadpan and funny as hell. Note: this is nature red in tooth and claw, so if Bad Things happening to critters ain’t your thing, this channel might not be your thing.
Because why not: my SR-71 book currently has seven reviews on Amazon, all of which are five-star. So… huzzah! Now… to sell a million copies. For starters. If people will buy books about sparkly mopey vampires, why shouldn’t books about the evolution of the SR-71 sell like hotcakes? Anyway, Christmas is coming up. Make sure to stock up on copies of the book before the forthcoming collapse in the world transportation infrastructure leaves you flatfooted. “Sorry, little Timmy, but the PlayBoxStation 12 is still stuck in China. But here’s the best book ever written!”
Also: if you click on the Amazon link below (or use the Amazon search box up and to the right) and then continue on to search for and buy other stuff, I get a pittance. Woo.
If you’ve purchased a copy through Amazon, feel free to leave a review for the book there. The more reviews, the more it’ll likely be seen, and the more it’ll likely sell… and the greater likelihood of more books like this down the line. Maybe even a greatly expanded second edition.
George R.R. Martin has completed principal photography on a short film of the short story “Night of the Cooters” by Howard Waldrop. It’s been a few decades since I last read it (though it’s available online HERE), I recall it being quite entertaining: H.G. Wells’ Martians land in Texas, and it turns out Texans have guns and are ill-disposed to being invaded by illegal aliens; hijinks and kerplosions ensue.
The film has been shot on all-green-screen. So… hmmm.
I first read “Night of the Cooters” in the “Global Dispatches” collection. That is a collection of short stories written by a bunch of different sci-fi authors, all writing as historical figures from the time of the Martin Invasion, seeing the invasion from all around the world. Teddy Roosevelt comes across them in Cuba; Winston Churchill and H. Rider Haggard in Africa; H.P. Lovecraft in (where else) Providence, Rhode Island; and others.
This had a very “Early Atlas Test Flight Anomaly” feel to it.
This launch went wrong right form the get-go… but it did a *magnificent* job of recovering. It just wasn’t magnificent enough; seems it never did have enough thrust due to one of the five engines failing right after liftoff. Went terminally goofy at Max-Q, apparently on a command to terminate the flight due to being outside of its launch corridor.
This is the third flight for the Astra in a year… and the third failure. SpaceX also failed a lot, as did the Ranger lunar missions. if the funds and the will are there, they can fix the problems and make a success of it. *If.*
I feel like I need to apologise to Astra for this…. but it was too good a joke to ignore. pic.twitter.com/Wg8ybvhDDU
— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) August 29, 2021
If so… AIDS would be something we only read about in the history books, I suppose. But imagine the screeching from the people who cheer *this* story on:
I have need of a Monogram 1/48 scale “F-19 Stealth Fighter” model kit. It need not be pristine and unopened; it can be partially or even completely assembled, so long as it is intact-ish and complete (and preferably with instructions). They pop up form time to time on ebay, but they’re too expensive for my budget. If you have one you’re willing to part with for a reasonable sum, let me know: 
… an oven.
Who needs context?
Oh, no! Mankind might finally be on the verge of spreading life to the rest of the universe. Better crap on it lest people – worse, Americans – gain a measure of hope and optimism.