Artemis gets a victory lap as the crew celebrates the mission’s safe splashdown and talks about how a future moon landing would dominate the internet in a way Apollo never could. From there the conversation turns into an extended AI state-of-the-industry check-in, focusing on Anthropic’s reported compute bottlenecks, Claude reliability complaints, and the restricted Mythos model that appears powerful but not yet practical to serve widely. They compare Anthropic’s strategy with OpenAI’s emphasis on efficiency, lower-cost coding performance, and upcoming model releases, while also discussing how AI companies are navigating government and defense relationships. The back half becomes a hands-on look at OpenAI’s Codex computer-use features, with examples ranging from inbox summaries and printed morning briefings to media sorting, podcast post automation, and desktop app control, all framed around the idea that AI works best when you identify which parts of a workflow require human taste and which parts are just repetitive clicking.

Picks:

Andrew Mayne: Astromat YT
Justin Robert Young: Defunctland’s video on the broken promise of Disney intelligent characters
Brian Brushwood: The pilot of Magnum P.I.
Andrew Mayne: Double Reel TV

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OpenAI’s shutdown of the Sora app kicks off a broader discussion about how AI companies are being shaped less by hype cycles than by raw compute limits, with Disney deal fallout, Anthropic’s work-hour throttling, and rumors of even bigger next-generation models all pointing to infrastructure being the real bottleneck. From there, the conversation shifts into what these tools look like in practice: Andrew talks through using Codex, plugins, and repeatable evals to automate work, build tiny playable games under extreme constraints, and treat coding more like cultivating projects than manually assembling software line by line. The hosts compare notes on how intimidating the current tool landscape can still be for newcomers, why iterative prompting and experimentation matter more than waiting for a perfect “super app,” and how app stores may be poorly equipped for a wave of AI-generated software. They also detour into social media, scams, platform incentives, and the question of whether better guardrails earlier on could have reduced some of the worst outcomes of the last platform era before wrapping with movie, parenting, and gadget recommendations.

Picks:

Andrew Mayne: Project Hail Mary
Justin Robert Young: The Ferber Method
Brian Brushwood: Logan
Andrew Mayne: Arduboy FXC

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The episode surveys an accelerating AI landscape where new hardware like Cerebras and Groq enables near real?time model responses, making voice and agent interactions feel instantly conversational. The conversation covers the rise of code models (Codex, Claude Code), practical tips for using multiple models to check each other, the tug-of-war between frontier labs and big incumbents (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, xAI), and how talent, salaries, and state-level data?center politics are shaping the field. They also touch on a striking story about a dog treated with an experimental mRNA therapeutic assembled with help from multiple AI tools, hands-on demos of rapid content generation and deepfake video, and a challenge to listeners to build weird things with these new tools.

Picks:

Brian Brushwood: Project Hail Mary.

Andrew Mayne: Sentimental Value.

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Two years ago a research paper about the longevity of DNA crushed the hopes and dreams of a generation who grew up believing we one day might be able to clone blood-thirsty, human-devouring dinosaurs. Scientists determined the half-life of DNA, the rate at which it degrades by half, at around 521 years in a best case scenario. This meant that after about 8 million years there would be effectively no DNA left. Which is 60 million years too short for hopefully gleaning any useful T-Rex DNA.

Science and pop culture bloggers were quick to point out that this meant the Jurassic Park idea popularized by Michael Crichton could never possibly work. As the Jurassic World trailer became available, nerds around the globe have reminded us this is an impossibility, along with making pedantic comments about crane flies and feathers.

At the time of the first research paper’s publication, I wrote an article on Weird Things pointing out how we could still make badass dinosaurs without original DNA and suggested that nature throws curveballs and the research paper on DNA half-life may not be the end of the story.

Hold on to your butts.

Science is never settled.

Nature finds a way (maybe).

A few years ago Dr Mary Schweitzer, a palaeobiologist at North Carolina State University, who sawed open a T-Rex bone at Jack Horner’s encouragement (they couldn’t fit it on a helicopter) discovered soft-tissue inside the bone after decalcifying it. This lead to the discovery of cells common to egg-laying birds and blood vessels.

Last year, curious about the process about what lead to the preservation, she and her team working with a group led by Mark Goodwin, a palaeontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, conducted some experiments using fresh ostrich blood and found a process that could occur in nature where DNA would be preserved much, much longer than the half-life research paper indicates.

Using this information, they went back to the original T-Rex samples and used a stain to test for DNA and found surprising results: Evidence that indicates the presence of DNA. It turns out 521 years may not be an absolute. DNA preserved in certain conditions or in certain parts of the body may last millions, maybe tens of millions of years longer.

To be sure, if this is DNA, it’s twisted up into tiny little knots and may be impossible to read. But given the advance of technology, I wouldn’t rule out future developments.

It’s also important to consider that trying to find DNA in fossils that old has only been attempted by a few people. Most paleontologists are afraid to even crack open bones, let alone subject them to these kinds of tests.

Schweitzer’s original discovery of soft-tissue in a T-Rex totally caught the scientific community off guard. Her work with Goodwin suggests that there could be many more awesome surprises awaiting us.

So if any nerd tries to tell you cloning dinosaurs is impossible, tell them to step back. We don’t tell mother nature her rules.

Andrew Mayne is the star of A&E’s Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne and the author of the best-selling thriller, Angel Killer.

(Me touching an actual Tyrannosaurus fossil in Jack Horner’s lab at the Museum of the Rockies)

Researchers have found the tentacled god Cthulhu at last he shall walk the earth and consume us all. By earth we mean the gut of termites and by consume we mean engage in a symbiotic relationship. Oh, and this Cthulhu as described in the PLOS ONE paper is actually a microorganism. But he does have tentacles and is as scary as the deep dark hell from which he most certainly came from.

Researchers Invoke Cthulhu In Naming Two New Microorganisms : World : Latinos Post.

What’s better than Yeti tracks in the snow? Video of a Yeti. What’s better than a Yeti? Two Yetis! What’s better than that???? A mama yeti and her child filmed by some 12 year old Russian kid. To top it all off, a Russian scientist has even declared the footage is legit, because it’s not like you could fake something like this. Next you’ll have us believing it really was a meteor that slammed into Russia a few months back. Seriously. Science. Yetis.

Siberian Times
HuffingtonPost.co.uk

As one of his last acts as pope, retired Pope Benedict decreed that Italians should be given a special look into the Turin Cathedral and the Shroud it’s known for. Sealed inside it’s climate controlled case, viewers will get a glimpse of this controversial artifact that some say was the shroud used to bury Jesus. Through some kind of divine Polaroid intervention, his image was supposedly fused into the shroud.

While the scientific evidence says it dates from the medieval times and researchers have shown how easily the shroud could have been made, it’s still a source of inspiration and fascination for millions.

Rare TV appearance for Turin Shroud, Christianity’s famous relic – CNN.com.

NASA plans to put a line for $100 million in an upcoming budget for an asteroid snatching mission with a total expected cost of $2.6 billion. The goal is to grab an asteroid and move it into a lunar orbit so we can get a closer look.

What do you think? At a starting cost of $2.6 billion (and that’s the floor) would we be better off with an X-Prize style initiative? Given the success of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, is there something to the idea of getting commercial enterprise to offset the costs?

via Bold asteroid-snatching plans to appear in NASA 2014 budget | Ars Technica.

It’s green and came from outer space. While scientists haven’t completely ruled out a Kryptonian origin, they think this rock may in fact be the first piece of the planet Mercury ever found on earth. Sheared away in a collision billions of years ago, further tests will be required to tell us if it came from the first planet, but right now prospects look good.

Green Meteorite May Be from Mercury | Space.com.

The folks at NextBigFuture via Rocketeers.co.uk are reporting the rumor mill has SpaceX planning to send their reusable Grasshopper test rocket to a height of 300,000 feet in the near future with an eye towards trying a controlled re-entry of the primary stage sometime this year.

The first high-altitude test flight would see the first stage going to the edge of space (the actual edge, not the make-believe-one whenever the media sees a photo from a high altitude balloon) and returning to the launch pad (ideally) at White Sands Missile Range.

If that proves successful, they plan to bring a first stage back down to earth via a rocket controlled descent into the ocean.

Either mission would be a huge, groundbreaking (only figuratively, hopefully) event in space travel. A successful return of a first stage takes us dramatically closer to the dream of a rocket as reusable as a commercial airplane. This would bring the cost of putting things into orbit low enough to create a boom in aerospace development.

Yesterday at the SXSW keynote, SpaceX’s Elon Musk showed the first footage of their most recent test of their reusable rocket system. In what has to be a new record of some kind, the Grasshopper, a rocket 10 stories tall, flew 268 feet in the air and then landed back down on the pad without incident.

Next Grasshopper rocket test is called the Johnny Cash Hover Slam (yeah baby!). Might be our first smoking crater…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2013

Even Elon Musk was publicly unsure of the success of the test, suggesting on Twitter this might leave a ‘crater’. The name, “Johnny Cash Hover Slam”, doesn’t inspire confidence in a happy landing. Watch the video accompanied by Cash’s Ring of Fire and remind yourself of the scale of what you’re watching. 268 feet is tall enough to clear the crown of the Statue of Liberty. It’s also probably the heaviest object in the world to ever VTOL.

What’s next for the Grasshopper program and their goal of rapidly reusable rockets? At SXSW, Musk said they’d like to go hypersonic before the end of the year. Any song suggestions for that one?

Dream big kids as you check out this retrotastic video from NASA on building colonies in space. Besides the awesome music, my favorite part is NASA’s recommendation for getting a better growing season from your crops on the space station – just increase the amount of CO2. Oh, the 70’s!

We told you to check this film out in theaters. We pleaded on the Weird Things podcast, we begged you on Twitter. We even asked you all to take the Dredd Pledge.

Some of you did. For those of you who didn’t, or those of you who love, love this movie and want to take this gem of a film home, now here’s your chance.

Amazon is running a promo on Dredd (over 50% off!) where you can get the Blu-ray, the 3D Blu-ray version, the UltraViolet version nobody will use AND a digital copy you can save to your iTunes account you can watch on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad and AppleTV. It’s basically future-proof, so when we’re all living in the irradiated wasteland of America in Mega City One, we can stay safely behind barred windows and watch this awesome little flick over and over again.

Dredd isn’t for everyone. But for those of you into the idea of a High Noon meets Die Hard meets Mad Max in one glorious riot of ultraviolence, we think you’ll dig this. Plus it stars Karl “New Bones” Urban and Lena Headey of Game of Thrones and Sara Conner Chronicles fame.

Get it now while it lasts for just $19.99

Okay, maybe not quite – at least it looks like Bilbo’s house from the photo of the archeological site. What scientists do think they’ve found is the oldest town in Europe, dating back to somewhere around 4500 BC; 1,500 years before the start of Greek civilization.

Located in modern day Bulgaria, the town may have centered around the trade of salt bricks used to preserve meat.

40 years prior, the oldest hoard of gold was found in a cemetary 21 mile away, indicating this area was rife with commerce nearly 7,000 years ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20156681

Go to IndieGoGo and support this project

Here’s Brian’s explanation of what it’s all about:

What’s This All About Anyway?

Hey all, Brian Brushwood here, host of Scam School on the Revision3 network.

For the past four years, the Scam School audience has been asking for a place to go to pick up all of the odd and fun stuff they see on the show. So I want to launch ScamStuff.com, a sort of “Con Man’s woot.com” for fans to go to get all the hard-to-find stuff I recommend on the show, from bump keys to flat-edged toothpicks, to the unusual shirts I wear on the show.

**Note: The above is a mockup of ScamStuff.com

The problem is I’m constantly touring with my live stage show to audiences across the globe. Starting Scam Stuff would require me to stop touring for a couple of months to focus on making this project possible.

What We Need

The first product we want to make available on ScamStuff.com is the “Scam Pack.”

The Scam Pack contains everything you need to pull off over 115 of the best Scam School tricks, including 17 unusual or hard-to-find items and (most importantly) Theory 11’s premium Rebel deck of cards. Everything will come packed in the first-ever official Brian Brushwood pint glass.

The thing is, we need $10,000 in total presales to launch everything smoothly. The funds will go directly toward purchasing the intial stock for hundreds of Scam Packs and other goodies we plan to sell on ScamStuff.com.

Additionally, this fund will make it possible to stop touring for some time to move my main focus to building ScamStuff.com, while keeping my family fed and happy, including the newest member who is due on December 24th!

Awesome Loot

We have perks of all sizes to fit your giving ability accordingly, from exclusive desktop wallpapers to personal tutoring sessions with me over Skype, and from digital downloads of the Scam School books to flying YOU out to San Fransisco be on the show!

At the $30 level, we’ll hook you up with one of the very first Scam Packs, AND digital copies of Scam School books 1 and 2.

(Important Note for International contributions: We’d appreciate an extra $7 to guarantee quality shipping to your region. Please just add this on top of your chosen perk leve. Thank you!)

For everyone who contributes $75 and above, we’re hooking you up with one of the first 200 copies of the physical Scam School book! (That’s right, I’ve signed my very first real publishing deal, and I couldn’t be more excited!)

Take a look at the specifics of each perk – there’s some seriously awesome, and highly unconventional rewards over there.

-Brian

PS – You are looking very tall and handsome today. I forgot to mention that.

Other Ways You Can Help

Spread the word!

Go to IndieGoGo and support this project

During interviews on SpaceX’s current and near-future plans for the company, both Elon Musk and SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell have made allusions to a much larger rocket than the Falcon Heavy they plan on launching next year. The Falcon Heavy, basically three Falcon 9’s strapped together with modified Merlin engines will be the most powerful rocket since the Saturn V with a launch to low earth orbit capacity of 53 tons. The new rocket, powered by “MCT” engines would have a capability of up to 200 tons to LEO. That’s enough capacity to put the entire International Space Station up in two trips.

By comparison, NASA’s next rocket system, the Space Launch System is planned to have a cargo capacity of 130 tons to LEO, a third less than the MCT.

The engine cores for the MCT rocket would each be capable of 1.5 millions pounds of thrust. Shotwell says final specs are still being determined. The vehicle itself could have a diameter of 21 feet – making it wider that an Boeing 747 jet.

Elon Musk hasn’t elaborated on what MCT stands for, but that hasn’t stopped people from speculating. Given his stated goal of retiring to the red planet, the “M” could stand for Mars; making this the Mars Cargo/Crew Transport?

SpaceX aims big with massive new rocket