Episode 503: WHO’S YOUR DADDY? Mando’s your daddy!

Science Faction Podcast

This episode contains: These three fools are back at it this week. Steven’s had a rough go with little sleep, and he really enjoys the new videogame Manor Lords (are those two things related?). Ben’s super excited to play the new Venice course in Walkabout Minigolf. All we can say is “Good Job, Mighty Coconut!” Devon’s had a rough go of it too, what with dealing with extended family staying at his house. There’s also been car troubles. TEST THE BATTERY! FIX THE GARAGE DOOR! GET IN THE CHOPPA! Steven had a different experience this week: he attended the DisneyLand Star Wars night “Season of the Force.” It was AWESOME: so many Star Wars nerds everywhere, and since it was after hours, there was a much smaller park population. Goes to show you gotta give the mouse his due to be around Steven’s people: Star Wars people meets Disney people in a capitalist Venn diagram of scum and villainy. He also got to try out new food. The events were a little boring. I mean, the wrong era is represented in Galaxy’s Edge: Steven wishes it was Vader and the 501st instead of the “March of the First Order.” And then they changed Space Mountain to… HYPERSPACE MOUNTAIN??!?! Star Tours premiered some new characters and scenarios from Mandalorian and Ahsoka. And… well, Ben’s ready for May the Fourth with his Star Wars Day shirt: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1100663519/galaxy-far-away-sw-space-wars-inspired

Shock to the Heart: How Pluto got its heart. The mystery of how Pluto got a giant heart-shaped feature on its surface has finally been solved by an international team of astrophysicists. The team is the first to successfully reproduce the unusual shape with numerical simulations, attributing it to a giant and slow oblique-angle impact.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/04/240415163720.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tombaugh_Regio

Big Cheese: A vegan cheese beat dairy in a big competition. Then the plot curdled. A vegan cheese called Climax Blue was selected as a finalist for the prestigious Good Food Awards, shocking traditional cheesemakers. However, the cheese was later disqualified by the awards foundation, leading to a controversy over the definition of "cheese" and the role of plant-based alternatives.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/04/27/vegan-cheese-good-food-awards-climax

Book Club: Void by Veronica Roth (from The Far Reaches Collection).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4QLYVHG

TLDR, here are the ratings: Steven: 4/4 stars. The mystery allowed him to turn off his brain and just enjoy it. The characters were just right.

Ben: 3/4 stars. This could have been a decent pilot for a tv show on the Redundancy.

Devon: baseball analogies? Something about a bunt? Does that mean 1/4 stars? Devon compared it to other murder mysteries (Apples Never Fall, the works of Liane Moriarty) and this falls short.

Next week: 2043…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) by Nisi Shawl, part of the Black Stars collection. Ben’s excited because the Audible version is read by LeVar Burton.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B098QPR7QG