Houston, we have a chill pill. Back in the 1960s, Soviet scientists developed a sweet little supplement that they stocked in the space kits of cosmonauts — the Russian version of an astronaut — to keep them cool under pressure. Still a popular over-the-counter option in Russia today, the drug promises to curb anxiety, cure … Read more
I love Ronald Reagan, the man. So I expected to eat up “Reagan,” the new biopic that opened last Friday. Playing the 40th president, Dennis Quaid is affable and charming. However, the movie — which clocks in at 2 hours and 15 minutes — was not the complex portrait I was expecting, but a hagiographic highlight reel. … Read more
The “space race” of the 1950s and 60s conjures images of the gleaming Sputnik satellite, Soviet scientists in crisp white coats and sharp-nosed rockets rising into the sky with fiery splendor. But, the reality of the USSR’s space program — which narrowly beat the US to send the first man to space — was far … Read more
It’s one giant explosion for mankind. At the end of the 1950s — a decade shy of Apollo 11’s successful lunar landing — the US military had the radical idea of detonating a nuclear bomb on the surface of the moon, Air Force documents from 1959 show. “Nuclear detonations in the vicinity of the moon … Read more
On Sept. 22, 1998, police were called to the Palo Alto, California, home of Vladimir Pokhilko. They discovered a gruesome scene: The Tetris co-developer was dead, his throat slit; he was still gripping the knife. His wife Yelena and their 12-year-old son Peter had been bludgeoned to death with hammers and then stabbed. There was … Read more