Free Republic

CORUSCANT—Emperor Sheev Palpatine has made a new push for blaster control in an effort to bring peace to the galaxy. “We live in a world where the common rogue feels he can just shoot first whenever he feels like it,” Palpatine said in a speech at the former headquarters of the Galactic Senate. “This violence has to end.” Palpatine was also dismissive of the idea that people need blasters in case they have to overthrow the Empire if it turns tyrannical. “It’s just a ridiculous idea that a rebellion armed with blasters could do anything about us,” he said. “You’d...

Andy Woerner and his crazy rocketeer friends have built a 21-foot long X-Wing model that can actually fly. Yes, this is a real X-Wing powered by four solid-fuel rocket engines complete with radio-controlled moving wings. It blasts off in California next week, and we talked with Andy about the project, and how they expect it will do. All the details and a full construction gallery after the jump. The X-Wing model is huge. At 21 feet long and with a wingspan of over 19 feet it is, in fact, big enough to fly a kid in. However, knowing that it...

The major and minor articles are done; now I'm just wrapping things up and doing final editting. This issue will be more than three times larger than normal; as a consequence, it will cost more to print and ship. I hope to get it to the printer by the end of the week. To help pay for the printing cost, I'm selling them in advance for lower than the full price: $14 each (for US orders) rather than $18, which will be the price for US orders after they are printed (that might go up, depending...). The three main articels...