Show Notes for TWS053: Abnormal Normality

On the show this week:

• First comes marriage, then comes evolution.
• It’s a Mod, Mod, Mod, Modern World
• Food… It’s got what people want

This week’s Challenge Question: What has been the most influential food in your life — and why?. Leave your answer in the comments, send your email to encaf1[[at]]gmail.com, record your message via the MobaTalk client on the right hand side of Encaffeinated!, leave an answer on Facebook or call in at 206-203-2292.

Full links to all stories covered and many more after the jump!

• Theme Song: Caffeine by Grubspoon from The Podsafe Music Network
• First comes marriage, then comes evolution
  • “I now pronounce you Lord and Lady.” – Ananova: Joust married
  • Some people never outgrow their toys.. I still have LEGOs. Then again, my LEGOs don’t smell. – Evening Chronicle: When does a doll become a baby?
  • But what happens if he wants to be a *real* boy? – Yahoo!/AP: Robot maker builds artificial boy
  • If you have twins, do you get a minivan? – Ananova: Make a baby – win a car
  • Score one for the Kal-el’s out there.. – Metro: (FOLLOWUP) Stupid names okay, say officials
  • If mankind is ever going extinct, will we resort to this? – New Scientist: ‘Surrogate sex’ could save vulnerable species
• News From the Future #3
• It’s a Mod, Mod, Mod, Modern World
  • Next: old shoes provide a fresh food source. – The Pittsburgh PostGazette: Salt water as fuel? Erie man hopes so
  • Makes those old jokes about solar-powered flashlights seem kinda weak. – BBC: Solar plane flies into the night
  • I like the Predator effect better. – New Scientist: Invisibility cloak turns you into ray of light
  • Redesigning the gasoline engine to make it work more like a diesel engine. My question is: why not just se diesel instead? – New Scientist: Redesigned petrol engine promises green gains
  • Dude! You got pwned by my grandma! – Ananova: ‘Nurse, I need a Wii’
  • That’s *Doctor YouTube* to you, buddy… – Metro: Get a degree in YouTubology
  • Jesus’ tomb was a TARDIS? – IC Wales: Dr Who fans will flock to his church
• Go see Idiocracy!
• Food… It’s got what people want
  • I still say that meat is my reason for living… – BBC: Starch ‘fuel of human evolution’
  • Pass the pasta! Forget the fusilli! Leave the lasagna! – Ananova: Italy stages pasta strike
  • Stop laughing: prison sausage is no laughing matter! – Ananova: Prisoners riot over sausage
  • Everyone who sees it cries — it’s a genuine slice of life. – Ananova: Village’s onion tribute
  • The lesson here is: even the worst of foods can be made better by making it yourself and not adding corporate filler. – Ananova: Woman loses 4st on burger diet
  • If your food tastes funny, DON’T EAT THE WHOLE THING! Sheesh.. – Ananova: Salty burger lands mum in jail
  • Apparently, it was easier to reinvent gum than convince people to be courteous. Ugh. – New Scientist: High-tech chewing gum could end sticky streets
  • After all, have you ever seen an old bee? – New Scientist: Honey is the bee’s knees for staying young
  • EXTRA: As mankind moved, they packed a lunch, and now we trace the wrappers. – LiveScience: Stone Age Pigs
  • EXTRA: The diet craze has finally gone too far. – MSNBC/AP: Kilogram prototype mysteriously loses weight
  • EXTRA: It’s like the bling of the jungle. – Yahoo!/Reuters: Forbidden fruit: Chimp ladies love it
  • EXTRA: Never, ever, ever get your dog drunk. This doesn’t sound like a good idea. – Ananova: Beer festival for dogs
• Lint, stale popcorn and change; or, odd things left over
  • EXTRA: Bloody Vikings! – BBC: Viking ship ‘buried beneath pub’
  • EXTRA: I’ve never heard of a time before ears.. – MSNBC/Space.com: Fossil shows traces of first modern ears
  • EXTRA: It’s like a Shakespearean play, cousins killing cousins.. – MSNBC/Reuters: Dramatic climate shift didn’t kill Neanderthals
  • EXTRA: Sounds like *somebody* wants a balloon.. – New Scientist: Dark matter and inflation — one and the same?
  • EXTRA: Dark roasted universe, double-double. – New Scientist: Warm dark matter solves mystery of giant black holes
  • EXTRA: Asteroids, comets and meteors as the bees of the universe? – MSNBC/Space.com: Life’s ingredients may have ‘sprinkled’ on Earth
  • EXTRA: “Livable” is used very, very broadly here.. – World Science: Sunless but livable planets may be detectable
  • EXTRA: And you thought that adding space to Google Earth was just an encyclopedia expansion rather than a corporate expansion.. – New Scientist: Google sponsors $30 million Moon landing prize
  • EXTRA: Like a strange, hibernating animal, this robot finally steps up, shakes the dust off, and gets back to work. – New Scientist: Mars rover starts long-awaited drive into giant crater
  • EXTRA: Never take the pressure off finding out the truth. – BBC: 9/11 demolition theory challenged
  • EXTRA: World’s smartest parrot, dead at 31. Satisfied look on the cat. – The Alex Foundation: Alex the African Grey parrot and subject of landmark studies of bird intelligence dies at 31
  • EXTRA: Well, that’s one way.. – Ananova: Reservoir drained in search for monster
  • EXTRA: … and that’s another. – Yahoo!/AFP: Reporter films China’s own Loch Ness monster: report
  • EXTRA: Mother nature’s army is getting ready… – The Seattle Times/ Fort Worth StarTelegram: Spiders worked together to weave massive web
  • EXTRA: The supernatural fascinates many people, even actors. – bOING bOING: Jackie Gleason’s occult library on exhibit in Miami
  • EXTRA: Old architecture and ghosts make a place *better* to me, not *worse*. – Portland Press Herald/AP: ‘Makeover’ starts on family’s new haunt
  • EXTRA: Chuck Norris can do this — and his boogers are made of PURE STEEL! – Ananova: Man pulls car with nose

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