Those guys up in the ISS have all the best laughs. Not content with throwing out an old spacesuit loaded with comms gear a little while ago, now there is a plan for one of them to go outside and whack a golf ball into orbit with a gold plated 6-iron some time later this year.

Space.com is reporting that Rocketplane’s owner has just purchased Kistler Aerospace, a reusable orbital vehicle company. Seeing as that Rocketplane is looking more in the sub-orbital adventure tourism market, adding Kistler is an interesting twist.

Octavia Butler was an intriguing, original writer whose death on Saturday will measurably impoverish American speculative fiction. I remember reading Wild Seed with mouth agape, discovering for the first time that fantasy didn’t have to be about Europeans with swords. Here’s the obit from her home town paper.

Colombia is taking a new approach toward eradicating cocaine plants — rather than spray with insecticide from the air, they’re sending in workers, guarded by soldiers, to rip it out by hand. Unfortunately, the rebels have been attacking the escorts and scaring away the workers.

Web 2.0, that is, according to Dion Hinchcliffe.