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Margaret Hamilton, whose software helped land Apollo astronauts on the moon, has died

She was 90 years old. She was the first female programmer hired to work on the Apollo program, and is actually credited with popularizing the term “software engineering.”

The cost of Halloween candy spiked 71% in 5 years — consider a few boo-dget swaps

Why should Halloween candy be any different than anything else? There are going to be a lot of kids getting candy corn this year

More Stories Below, but first some new content in the News Sidequest Podcast Universe…

Auditory Anthology

SCI-FI SHORT STORIES - NARRATED BY DARREN MARLAR & PRODUCED BY KEITH CONRAD

The Burnt Planet by William Brittain - A crew of weary explorers finally finds the world they’ve been searching for through years of interstellar decline — lush, fertile, and seemingly abandoned, except for a handful of ragged, violent survivors hiding in the ruins of a bombed-out city. As the scholar aboard finally deciphers what’s left of the dead civilization’s language, the story lands on a gut-punch final line that’s stuck with readers for decades.

The Burnt Planet by William Brittain Keith Conrad / Darren Marlar Episode

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Also Worth A Look…

• Man discovers his parents’ coffee machine used 1TB of data in 10 days - What have we learned here? Literally everything around you is probably spying on you

• Diet soda vs water: Study reveals which beverage is better for weight loss - It ends up being about the same, but with a slight edge towards diet drinks. I would not have expected that

• Sexually transmitted diarrhea is on the rise — and it’s morphing into a drug-resistant superbug - Isn’t staying up to date and informed on the news just delightful these days?

• Sleeping With The Dog Won’t Disturb Your Sleep — It’s Actually The Other Way Around - Anecdotally, the same is true with cats

• Passenger Allegedly Left Terminal, Stole Airport Tug - Somehow it was possible for this to happen at the same time people were getting stopped by security for having full-sized shampoo bottles in their carry-in luggage

• Fugitive wanted in violent kidnapping found after 14 years living double life as chef - You wouldn’t think it would be possible for someone to actually do that in 2026. Good to see the victims get some justice though

• New gambling law bans bingo and threatens $750 fines – as beloved bar traditions suddenly ILLEGAL - I’m glad to hear things are going so well in Wyoming that the government can spend their time worrying about issues like that

• Sewer workers find class ring that had been missing for decades - The owner got just as much use out of their class ring as they would have if it hadn’t been lost in a sewer for decades

• Woman admits to marrying 14 men to keep her $300K Vegas gambling habit going - Maybe she should have tried some other activity. She clearly wasn’t very good at gambling

• 844-pound alligator named ‘Snaggletooth’ killed after years-long hunt - Captain Hook is said to be relieved