This Week in the Future, September 19-23, 2011

This Week in the Future, September 19-23, 2011 Baarbarian

Netflix's plan to separate itself into two separate services may have seemed ill-considered and inconvenient--but little did we know, the next step involved a group of DVD-chomping pigs. It all makes much more sense now.

Want to win this DVD-chomping Baarbarian illustration on a t-shirt? It's easy! The rules: Follow us on Twitter (we're @PopSci) and retweet our This Week in the Future tweet. One of those lucky retweeters will be chosen to receive a custom T-shirt with this week's Baarbarian illustration on it, thus making the winner the envy of their friends, coworkers and everyone else with eyes. (Those who would rather not leave things to chance and just pony up some cash for the t-shirt can do that here.) The stories pictured herein:

• Agriculture Continues to Plow Into the Future, Now With Autonomous Robot Tractors
• NASA Will Award $1.6 Billion to Speed the Development of Commercial Space Taxis
• China Makes Clones Of Super-Swine That Survived ’08 Quake
• Netflix, Stop Floundering Around and Making Things More Complicated

And don't forget to check out our other favorite stories of the week:

• Archive Gallery: Mail Order Kits, From the Back Pages of PopSci
• Mind-Reading Tech Reconstructs Videos From Brain Images
• Baffling CERN Results Show Neutrinos Moving Faster Than the Speed of Light
• Approved for Use: the First Birth Control for Wildlife
• New Theory on World Trade Center Collapse Blames Explosive Chemical Reaction
• Video: Hands-On With the Sphero Robotic Ball (Slash Cat's Dream Toy)
• What Is the Point of the Female Orgasm?
• Today in 3-D Printing: Musical Instruments and Instruments of War
• Video: Hands-On With New York's On the Go Mobile Station, a 47-inch Touchscreen Subway Map
• FYI: Can Anything Move Faster Than Light?
• The Incredible Shrinking Shot: Needles Get a Pain-Free Makeover