Click for the “Lost Cut” edit of the Mos Eisley cantina, lots of space-related news, and a legal update of some interest.

The Space Hotel opens in five years, but the price is a little steep….

“Lost Cut” of the Mos Eisley Cantina Scene:

Can I borrow your time machine?

Private companies move into NASA facilities, while Russia’s Orbital Technologies have a Space Hotel scheduled to open in five years.

Privatized Space Race, anyone?

Will China’s Tiangong Spacelab launch on time?

This article suggests that the two most popular Alien Encounter tropes– aliens attack and aliens save us from ourselves— may be exactly what would happen.

Other evidence, of course, suggests that habitable planets may be rare indeed.

On our own planet, at least in the developed world, the age at which boys as well as girls become physically, but not socially, mature, has changed dramatically.

Finally, it may not be science news, but the release, after eighteen years, of the West Memphis Three, represents a victory of sorts for rational thinking. Sadly, the problematic deal struck leaves them unable to seek reparations for the original investigation and the local police unlikely to pursue the case any further. The murders of three children will remain unsolved, and the actual killers, in all probability, will never be brought to justice.

Also suggesting a return to intelligence: Abercrombie has offered to pay the Jersey Shore cast NOT to wear their clothes.