This episode contains: We’re caffeinated and ready to podcast. Devon and Steven stayed up really late last night playing Baldur’s Gate3. Steven’s AC is not working and Ben is getting a new microwave. Ben had his first roller derby experience.

This Week in Space: The closest planet to Neptune turns out to be… Mercury. While Mercury is the innermost planet in the Solar System, on average it spends more time closer to Earth than Venus does. This applies to all the planets the solar system, including Neptune. ​To identify our closest neighbor, engineers affiliated with NASA, Los Alamos National Observatory, and the US Army’s Engineer Research Development Center built a computer simulation to calculate the average proximity of Earth to its three nearest planets (Mars, Venus, and Mercury) over a 10,000-year-period. Because of the way the planets align during their respective orbits, the model shows that Earth spends more time nearer to Mercury than either Venus or Mars. ​

https://www.iflscience.com/the-closest-planet-to-neptune-turns-out-to-be-mercury-70424

Here In My Car I Feel Safest of All: Connected cars are a “privacy nightmare,” Mozilla Foundation says. Data privacy protections are almost nonexistent when it comes to automobiles. Today, the Mozilla Foundation published its analysis of how well automakers handle the privacy of data collected by their connected cars, and the results will be unlikely to surprise any regular reader of Ars Technica. The researchers were horrified by their findings, stating that “cars are the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy.”

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/connected-cars-are-a-privacy-nightmare-mozilla-foundation-says/

Big Question: What are some small but transformative moments you’ve experienced with technology? Devon’s answer: cars and music. Steven: CDs, cells phones and no ringtones. Ben: phone calls “in stereo,” Hearing an orchestra tune up when booting my PS3 for the first time, and silencing unknown callers.