Sputnik: When we think of the space race, it’s all guts and glory, matching jumpsuits and golfing on the moon. But did you know that for all of those cosmonauts who made it up into the inky blackness, there were many who blew up, lost contact or fell to Earth? The Soviets hushed events recently revealed by a pair of Italian brothers, who monitored the space-to-earth communication during the ’60s from a ramshackle spy station. Hear actual recordings of dying cosmonauts trapped in a tin can hell at www.lostcosmonauts.com.

Missing: People disappear all the time for many different reasons. If you vanish in New York City and someone reports it to the police, eventually you’ll end up on the Web. The NYC long-term missing persons cases is a fascinating gallery of people who haven’t turned up in 20, 30 or nearly 70 years. See if you recognize anyone at www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/missing/long-term-cases.html. :

» Michael Citrome