It's the holidays! This week, we are joined by producer Anthony and our old pal Ant Pruitt to celebrate and discuss a wide variety of topics, from first space memories to our favorite space toys to what spaceflight means to each of us. It's a warm "family reunion" you won't want to miss! Join us for some holiday cheer, and Tariq's "Tiny Tim" moment...

Headlines:
• NASA's Parker Solar Probe to make its closest approach to the sun on Christmas Eve 2024, flying within 3.8 million miles and withstanding temperatures up to 2,500°F to study the sun's behavior and dynamics
• Christmas and Hanukkah to be celebrated on the same day in 2024, with astronauts on the ISS enjoying the holidays and connecting with their families on Earth, continuing a 50-plus year tradition
• A potential partial shutdown is looming for the U.S. government, which could impact NASA and limit public outreach during the Parker Solar Probe's close approach to the sun

Main Topic - Space Memories and Space Toys:
First Space Memories:
• Tariq recalls building paper rockets with his mother and launching them on a friend's farm
• Ant shares his first space memories from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and the Challenger disaster
• Anthony mentions playing with Lego space sets sent by his aunt from Denmark
• Rod remembers listening to a Gemini mission on the radio at the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra lounge where his father worked and being captivated by Apollo 8's mission to orbit the moon and reading of Genesis on December 24, 1968

Favorite Space Toys:
• Rod shares memories of his ca. 1965 Big Loo Moon Robot and Major Matt Mason action figures, discussing the evolution of space toys in the 1960s
• Tariq reminisces about his Transformers Omega Supreme toy and a paper tab and slot space shuttle and carrier aircraft model
• Ant recalls his Transformers Skywarp toy and the appeal of its counterpart, Thundercracker
• Anthony talks about playing the video game Escape Velocity on his family's iMac computer
• The group discusses the joys and challenges of building model rockets, with Rod and Tariq sharing stories of their experiences
• Tariq shows off his new pre-built Estes space shuttle model rocket, comparing it to the more challenging build-it-yourself kits

The Importance of Space Exploration:
• Ant questions the allocation of resources for space exploration while critical issues on Earth remain unaddressed
• Rod counters by highlighting the technological, educational, and inspirational benefits of space programs, as well as the economic returns on investment, and the cultural importance of exploration
• The group discusses the potential impact of SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation on global connectivity and the debate surrounding its sustainability and alternatives
• Rod emphasizes the distinction between Elon Musk's ambitious Mars colonization plans and NASA's more measured approach to exploration
• The TWiS crew wishes everyone a happy holiday and Merry Christmas

Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik

Guests: Ant Pruitt and Anthony Nielsen

Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space.

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

• Amazon Paid Almost $1 Billion for Twitch in 2014. It's Still Losing Money.
• Craig Newmark stops by
• Galaxy fold unboxing
• We know almost everything about the Google Pixel 9 series already
• A Few Blockbuster Podcasts Are Making All the Money
• Friend in a box
• US border agents must get warrant before cell phone searches, federal court rules
• The gymnastics world braces for an AI future
• NASA will shut down NASA TV on cable to focus on NASA+
• W3C Slams Google U-turn on Third-Party Cookie Removal
• Senate passes the Kids Online Safety Act
• Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
• Follow Ant's ZDNET stuff
• Scots brat

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Ant Pruitt

Guest: Craig Newmark

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Sponsors:

• betterhelp.com/TWIG
• cachefly.com/twit

• Federal government reaches deal with Google on Online News Act
• Google DeepMind researchers use AI tool to find 2mn new materials
• Some Pixel 8 Pro displays have bumps under the glass
• Reflecting on 18 years at Google
• Google's new geothermal energy project is up and running
• AWS Unveils Next Generation AWS-Designed Chips
• Amazon Introduces Q, an A.I. Chatbot for Companies
• Does Black Friday and Cyber Monday Matter?
• Adobe's $20 Billion Purchase of Figma Would Harm Innovation, U.K. Regulator Provisionally Finds
• Elon goes full Pizzagate. How does this end?
• A new low in manels
• Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers
• OpenAI Made an AI Breakthrough Before Altman Firing, Stoking Excitement and Concern
• Hugging Face CEO on What Comes After Transformers
• Hinton vs LeCun vs Ng vs Tegmark vs O
• Anthony Levandowski Reboots Church of Artificial Intelligence
• Unauthorized "David Attenborough" AI clone narrates developer's life, goes viral
• Google Slides getting built-in presentation recording tool
• Google Will Start Deleting Old Accounts This Week. Here's How to Save Your Google Account
• Google's .meme domain is here to serve your wackiest websites
• Some Google Drive for Desktop users are missing months of files

Picks of the week

• (Paris) The 2000 cinematic masterpiece Chicken Run
• (Paris) Pentiment
• (Jeff) Jezebel to Be Resurrected by Paste Magazine
• (Jeff) After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer offer a magazine
• (Ant) City Nerd on YouTube
• (Jason) No Ads in Albania, Ethiopia and Myanmar

Hosts: Jason Howell, Jeff Jarvis, Paris Martineau, and Ant Pruitt

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google.

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Sponsors:

• INFO.ACILEARNING.COM/TWIT code SN100
• mylio.com/twit
• hid.link/twigdemo