Entertainment
The Strangest Ship In Sci-Fi Is From The Most Insane Series Of The 90s
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
You can tell a lot about someone by asking them their favorite spaceship. Ask 100 sci-fi fans, and you’ll get dozens of different answers ranging from Star Trek’s Enterprise-D and Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon to the more offbeat, including Farscape’s Moya and that one Whovian who insists the TARDIS counts. If you’re lucky, at least one person will choose the truly bizarre Lexx from the offbeat late 90’s series Lexx.
A biomechanical ship that resembles a wingless dragonfly, Lexx is the most powerful weapon of destruction in the two universes. It can talk, achieve ludicrous speeds, and has a tail, all of which put together make it the weirdest ship to ever appear on a sci-fi series.
The Power To Destroy Planets Used to Find A Date
Lexx (voiced by Tom Gallant) was designed by His Divine Shadow as the tool he would use to wipe out humanity and bring all of existence under the insects’ control. That doesn’t quite work out after hapless security guard Stanley (Brian Downey) accidentally kickstarts the spaceship during an escape and becomes Lexx’s captain. Instead of bringing doom and destruction to the universe, Lexx is tasked to use his incredible powers to find planets of open-minded women. Lexx, the series, is very strange with deep lore stretching back thousands of years, but it’s also very horny.
The biomechanical design of Lexx gives it a unique look on both the outside and the inside, similar to Farscape’s Moya, except it’s considerably more squishy on the inside. Passages are smaller, the crew’s quarters resemble organs, and even the ship controls look like fleshy, bulbous nodules. That’s the controls for everything from the shower to the steering, and the toilets. Instead of a bidet or toilet paper, Lexx’s toilets come complete with a tongue. Yes, it’s a strange show.
Lexx Is The Strangest Sci-Fi Show In History
Lexx isn’t a great series, but it at least dared to do something different within the sci-fi genre by acknowledging sex exists. That part is obvious within a few minutes of watching an episode. Lexx, the ship, though, you’d think would be super-advanced, maybe thanks to an “organic computer” or accumulated hivemind memories from other insectoid ships, but no, Lexx makes Stanley look smart. The courier/security guard turned captain often has to explain simple concepts to the ship, but once he finally understands, he’s willing to do basically anything Stanley wants.
The exception is when it comes time for food. Throughout the run of Lexx, Stanley keeps asking for fancy, exotic foods, and each time, the ship provides goop. There’s no fancy technology creating limitless amounts of food here. Only what the carnivorous ship is capable of producing for the rest of the crew, including Zev (Eba Habermann)/Xev (Xenia Seenburg), the rescued love-slave and later her clone, and Kai (Michael McManus), the thousands-year-old undead assassin. Fast, powerful, capable of feeding and taking care of the crew on the inside, Lexx is, thankfully, a one-of-a-kind ship.
During the four seasons that Lexx was on the air, the quarters and bridge took on different appearances, explained by Lexx himself that he was growing, but in reality, the result of different budget levels for each season, letting the production crew go absolutely wild or, for Season 4, forced to restrain themselves. Throughout it all, Lexx is destroying planets both for noble reasons and Stanley’s selfish impulses, eating other ships and people, and remaining the weirdest ship in sci-fi that could only ever be a part of the strangest sci-fi series.
Entertainment
NASA is all but certain it wont fly to the moon in March for good reason
NASA is already walking back its Friday announcement that it will try to launch to the moon in March, after discovering a new problem with the Artemis II rocket.
Officials said they’re eyeing Tuesday, Feb. 24, to haul the rocket off the launchpad.
During a routine step to restore pressure in the Space Launch System, the team couldn’t get helium to flow properly through the rocket. Helium, though not a fuel, is important because it helps protect the engines and keeps the fuel tanks at the right pressure. Though the helium system worked fine during a launch rehearsal that ended Thursday night, engineers are especially troubled knowing a similar pattern cropped up before the Artemis I launch in 2022, which didn’t carry astronauts.
The affected part is the rocket’s upper stage, which uses super-cold fuels — liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen — to power the mission once it’s in space. Engineers are looking at several possible causes, including a connection point between the ground equipment and the rocket, a valve in the upper stage, and a filter in the helium line. Fixing any of those issues would require work at the Vehicle Assembly Building, the rocket’s enormous hangar about four miles away from the pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Unless NASA suddenly discovers a different cause that can be addressed at the pad, a delay is inevitable.
“We will begin preparations for rollback, and this will take the March launch window out of consideration,” said NASA administrator Jared Isaacman in an X post.
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Artemis II is a 10-day flight around the moon and back, testing the new Orion spaceship with humans aboard. It’s the space agency’s first crewed mission beyond Earth orbit since 1972. The test flight sets the stage for a moon landing during Artemis III. The overall Artemis campaign is intended to establish a permanent human presence on the moon in preparation for more challenging missions to Mars.
The four-person crew began quarantining at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Friday, when a launch on March 6 seemed achievable. The astronauts — Commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — were released from their sequester Saturday night.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman says President Donald Trump wants Artemis to exceed the achievements of the Apollo program.
Credit: NASA / Aubrey Gemignani
Acting quickly now could keep an April launch on the table. The windows include April 1, April 3-6, and April 30. NASA has not released future launch window dates to the public, despite requests from reporters.
At this time, the rocket is safe and using a backup method to maintain stable conditions in the upper stage, according to NASA. The upper stage is critical because it pushes the spacecraft onto its trajectory after liftoff.
NASA studied the Artemis I helium issue and confirmed the system was still working within safe limits before the inaugural launch. But given that Artemis II involves human lives, the bar is much higher on what risks the agency will accept before launching.
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NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens said the team had been “up all night” from Friday to Saturday, troubleshooting the helium issues at the Kennedy Space Center launch pad. Officials plan to hold a detailed briefing on the situation later this week.
Delays are frustrating, but space missions often hit technical setbacks, and fixing issues before a crewed flight is the right move, Isaacman said.
“The President created Artemis as a program that will far surpass what America achieved during Apollo. We will return in the years ahead, we will build a Moon base, and undertake what should be continuous missions to and from the lunar environment,” he wrote. “Where we begin with this architecture and flight rate is not where it will end.”
Entertainment
Windows 10 is vulnerable, but upgrading to Windows 11 Pro is only $13 right now
TL;DR: Windows 11 Pro was $199, but right now, it’s only $12.97.
Last year, Microsoft ended support for Windows 10. One major consequence of that is that machines running Windows 10 aren’t getting the essential security updates that keep your data private. The good news is that it’s also really cheap to upgrade right now. Before, it would have cost you $199 to get Windows 11 Pro, but right now, it’s only $12.97. This offer ends very soon.
Security is one of the main reasons to move away from Windows 10. Windows 11 Pro uses newer hardware security tools like TPM 2.0 and UEFI, which help your PC check that nothing has been tampered with when it starts up. BitLocker can encrypt your whole drive so your files are harder to get into if your laptop is lost or stolen, and Smart App Control helps block shady or unsafe apps before they run. If you run virtual machines, test software, or connect to business networks, tools like Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, and Azure AD support give you a safer way to do that work.
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You also get a simpler desktop layout, a new Start menu, and snap tools that make it easier to line up windows side by side without dragging them around forever. Virtual desktops let you keep separate setups for work, school, and personal use on the same computer. Built-in Teams and Widgets keep calls, calendars, weather, and other quick info close so you are not digging through menus just to join a meeting or check something basic.
Copilot adds an AI assistant directly into Windows. You can use it to change settings, summarize pages you are reading, draft emails or other text, or get quick code suggestions. You open it from the taskbar, with the Windows logo key plus C, or with a Copilot key if your keyboard has one.
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Time to upgrade. Get Windows 11 Pro while it’s only $13.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
Moon phase today: What the Moon will look like on February 22
The Moon is a quarter of the way back to us now, meaning there is more than enough of its surface lit up that we can enjoy some Moon gazing. So, what can you see when you look up tonight?
What is today’s Moon phase?
As of Sunday, Feb. 22, the Moon phase is Waxing Crescent. According to NASA’s Daily Moon Guide, 26% of the Moon will be lit up tonight.
There’s plenty to see on the Moon’s surface tonight, but some Mares and craters stand out. With just your naked eye, you should be able to make out the Mares Crisium and Fecunditatis. If you add binoculars you’ll also be able to see the Endymion Crater. And with a telescope, enjoy a glimpse of the Apollo 17 landing spot.
When is the next Full Moon?
The next Full Moon will be on March 3. The last Full Moon was on Feb. 1.
What are Moon phases?
NASA tells us that the Moon completes a full orbit around Earth in roughly 29.5 days. During this cycle, it passes through eight distinct phases. Although we consistently see the same side of the Moon, the portion illuminated by the Sun shifts as it travels along its orbit. The changing angle of sunlight reflecting off the Moon’s surface is what makes it appear full, partially lit, or nearly dark at different times. The eight phases include:
New Moon – The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).
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Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).
First Quarter – Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.
Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.
Full Moon – The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.
Waning Gibbous – The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)
Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) – Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.
Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.
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NASA is all but certain it wont fly to the moon in March for good reason
