Another year comes to its conclusion! Back in ’84, Isaac Asimov made some predictions for our coming year. Like all good futurists and SF writers, he got a few things right and others…. Well…. He foresaw in broad strokes where the computer/information age was heading, but he was a tad optimistic with regards to our future presence in space.

Not that we’re not involved in space.

Dr. Brian May’s just-released tribute to New Horizons

If you think you might have to travel a bit to get to wherever you’re going for New Year’s Eve, consider: just as 2019 gets underway, NASA’s New Horizons will pass the Kuiper Belt object, 2014 MU69 aka Ultima Thule.

Click for more, including some top science stories, a blue day in NYC, a strange defense for a fallen geek star, and some recent cosplay video.

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Sure, I planned to post my video of the 2018 Forest City Comicon, but then this past week also turned out to be full of science-related stories. From ancient life forms to raving octopodes to…. Spock’s actual home planet? We have a news round-up below.

And more video of events, of course.

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This remarkable short film Scavenger from Raphael Rogers on Vimeo has been posted as a “proof of concept” for a feature. Whether or not it gets made, we have these visuals to enjoy.

Actual space news, and some recent con cosplay, appear below (along with a sneak preview of Halloween, not for the weak of heart):

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The planet Mars will pass closer to Earth tonight than it has been since 2003, or will be again until 2287 (though it will pass close-ish in 2020).

Meanwhile, on Earth, Actor Topher Grace has edited The Hobbit into the two-hour film it probably should have been, to much online applause.

See both while you can.

For fun, below: the recent Aquaman trailer and an amusing fan revision of it:

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Okay, it has some serious limitations and the price tag is a tad hefty, but Richard Browning’s outfit is the closest we’ve come to a real life Iron Man suit, and you can have one, if you can spare the cash.

True, the suit is not a brand new item (you may have read about the prototype last year) but its more impressive flight-capacity and hypothetical availability appear to be.

I’ll have to get back to you with brief footage of my foray (as a spectator!) into second-tier “Pro Wrestling” later this summer. Meanwhile, we have a range of posts from around the net: new rocket engines, the Tsar’s space program, a Homestar Runner boardgame, a new Buffy, and video reports from San Diego:

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For those interested parties, NASA is telecasting a spacewalk on May 16, 2018.

Deep in the Borneo jungles live exploding ants, who self-sacrifice for their colony while having a bit of a blast.

They’re no Atlanteans, but the Bajou people may have a genetic advantage when it comes to sea-diving.

If you’ve been following one of the creepier celebrity stories making the rounds this year, you may know that Allison Mack, best known as Chole from Smallville, has been arrested this week for complicity in crimes allegedly committed by a bizarre sex cult. Earlier, the investigation looked at Kristin “Lana Lang” Kreuk’s involvement, but she left the group years ago, and claims the activity at that time was less legally and ethically troubling.

If you want something less serious or scientific, we’ve got two recent cosplay videos by Youtubers, below.

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Sometime this Easter weekend, the Chinese space station Tiangong 1 will crash to earth, but the odds of anything hitting you are very remote. If you think you might hit those odds, buy a lottery ticket.

UPDATE: What didn’t burn up went down over the south Pacific.

The last blue moon until 2020 rises tonight.

And they’ve put Stephen Hawking to rest. His ashes will lay next to Sir Isaac Newton.

Far less seriously, we have posted some fan video from WonderCon 2018, held last weekend, below:

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We dropped the regular Newspace features awhile back, but I still like the idea of wide-ranging posts on news of interest to Bureau readers, so here goes another attempt:

SciShow Space takes a look at forthcoming space missions:

While, elsewhere, we learn what led the Ariane 5 rocket off-course. I’m not saying it was aliens, but…

Okay, actually, aliens had nothing to do with it.

We have a round-up of video from around the Net, looking at science, cosplay, and Play-Doh superheroes.

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