SPLAWG

For thousands of years, humanity has wondered how the world would end. The ancient Sumerians, for example, thought a planet called Nibiru was on a collision course with Earth. The speculations have only increased in recent years: A meteor (like the imaginary one that attracted a strong following during the 2016 U.S Presidential Election), nuclear war , global warming , or even artificial intelligence (which Elon Musk, head of SpaceX, recently called our “biggest existential threat ”). But what if they were wrong? What if instead, it will be giant slug-like intergalactic creatures called Vogons who destroy the earth to make room for a hyperspatial express route? In addition to being somewhat of a bummer (after all, then we would never live to see a world of fully autonomous cars , supersonic hyperloops , and ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces ), the scenario poses the all-important question: Is there a legal remedy? The civil legal issues raised by de...

Those not up-to-date on the world of claymation and it’s pioneers, Wallace and Gromit, catch up here . The tale of their Grand Day Out is one full of extraterrestrial . . . treaty breaking! (For the full list of Top 10 Space Crimes, go here .) The Story: Wallace takes advantage of the Moon So Wallace and his cunning pet Gromit are on the Moon. You know it’s the real moon because it’s made of cheese — “Moon-ster” most likely. On the Moon made of Moon-ster they encounter the Cooker: a mysterious vending-machine-security-guard robot planted on the Moon most likely by COPUOS, a mysterious bunch that hides behind an ominous acronym they say means “ Committee On the Peaceful Uses Of Space .” Once the Cooker is activated, it finds Wallace’s homemade rocket ship to be illegally parked on the Moon. The Cooker leaves a citation on the rocket ship. The Cooker next spies Wallace harvesting the moon-ster moon cheese. The Cooker doesn’t like that. Eventually, the Cooke...