Show Notes for TWS071: Missing My Old Blue Genes
On the show this week:
- A few animals I might miss when they go away
- Lost and Found
- Impending Doom
- DN Eh?
- Found Stuff That’s Lost Again
This week’s Challenge Question:
If you were to use genetic engineering to create one thing, one change, what would it be?
Leave your answer in the comments, send your email to weirdshow[[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
- Challenging Answers
- The sad tale of smacking the otter. Wait.. that sounds dirty.. – Grinning Planet: It Isn’t Cruel Shoes That Make Natural Arches Fall
- A few animals I might miss when they go away
- Just because it’s rare, doesn’t mean it’s not endangered — but maybe it should! I think we need to apply this to the Sasquatch as well… – LiveScience: Rare 3-Foot Spitting Earthworm Found in Legal Battle
- Quick, Fluffie! Scatter! The humans are onto us! Until the next congress! BAaaa! Baaaa.. – This is London: Forget crop circles – now we’ve got a mysterious SHEEP circle
- Not so much immune as “indifferent”.. – Yahoo!/LiveScience: Strange Creature Immune to Pain
- The chameleon is the disco animal. – BBC: Chameleon colour not to blend in
- The other hens are green with envy.. – NDTV/AP: Blessed chick: Hen that lays green eggs
- If you go into the woods today… – BBC: ‘Bizarre’ new mammal discovered
- EXTRA: The original “out-sourcing” of effort… – BBC: Honour sought for ‘Soldier Bear’
- EXTRA: Just more proof that “freedom” is really, really scary. – BBC: Wild side makes parrot speechless
- EXTRA: Proof that hummingbirds are, in fact, beings from another universe. At least, to me. Still, the time-lapse photo of the dive is pretty cool. – BBC: Hummingbird ‘uses tail to chirp’
- EXTRA: NANA NANA NANA NANA, NANA NANA NANA NANA, BAT DEATHS! – Yahoo!/AP: Bat deaths in NY, Vt. baffle experts
- Lost and Found
- Ouch! Embarrassing! Well, at least mail deliverers don’t leave a slime trail.. – Yahoo!/Reuters: It’s official: mail is slow as snails
- As long as the letter doesn’t say “In you I put all my fears, my hatred, my sadness. I commit you to the wind, to forever leave me!” Yeah, getting that back would suck.. – News24/SA: Fish ‘returns’ girl’s letter
- Um.. this would be heart-warming, except that metal-detectors have been around for a long time.. – This is Leicestershire/Leicester Mercury: Lost After A Lovers’ Tiff In 1941. Found In 2008
- I think I did this story before, but I don’t remember.. – The Independent: Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory
- “Tell me, oh spirit, who’s grave is this? Who lies in this terrible, lonely place?” – The Daily Record: Cancer Dad Finds Own Headstone In Cemetery
- Slovenia: were the hospital food tastes you back! – Ananova: Human tongue served up in hospital
- “No, no, no! I ordered the *thai* food!” – Ananova: Eyeball delivered to hotel
- EXTRA: Ugh! Caveman bring food! Brought to you by Nike. – New Scientist: Ancient bones suggest cavemen wore boots
- EXTRA: Bad puns and glass do mix. – The Argus: Debbie’s smashing love life
- EXTRA: Ok, so the urban myth about cleaning your ears with cotton swabs isn’t an urban myth.. – BBC: Deaf boy’s cotton wool bud ‘cure’
- EXTRA: The Swedish invasion has begun! Wait… let’s get these guys to design the next space shuttle or lunar station.. – Ananova: Ikea’s flat-pack village
- EXTRA: Hey, whaddya know! It really *does* pay to go to church! But is it tax deductable? – Ananova: Priest pays parishioners to boost flock
- Impending Doom
- That which does not exist (officially) cannot hurt us (officially). – BBC: Satellite could plummet to Earth
- Please look into this flashy-thingy, I need to explain something to you.. – New Scientist: Earth-bound satellite ‘nothing to worry about’
- Panic! Or.. Winter! – Novosti: Russian scientist says Earth could soon face new Ice Age
- Imagine that: geologic processes continue on over time! – New Scientist: Is the Pacific splitting in two?
- Be afraid, be very afraid.. NOW! – Wired/Danger Room: (O) Pentagon Explores ‘Human Fear’ Chemicals; Scare-Sensors, ‘Contagious’ Stress in the Works?
- Why not? Hasn’t the government been trying to stop time for quite a while now? – News.com.au/Mercury, The Voice of Tasmania: China ‘will stop the rain’ for Olympics
- Because the regular Olympics is sooooo last century.. – Ananova: Underwater olympics
- By the time he got home, wouldn’t it be time to go back? – Ananova: Student tried to ski 150 miles
- No, I am not! I mean.. It does not! The Greys told me so! Hey — at least *they* are *around*! – Yahoo!/LiveScience: Loneliness Breeds Belief in Supernatural
- EXTRA: This would be great, if it weren’t for the fact that we’ve been sending signals into space for a looooong time now.. – AP: NASA Launching Beatles Tune Into Space
- EXTRA: Oh sure.. now that the Beatles are *astronauts* these guys *totally* cave in! – Ananova: Israel says ‘sorry’ to Beatles
- EXTRA: Now, why doesn’t someone write nice, mournful song about this? “New Orleans is sinking” is so… terrestrial! – Yahoo!/AP: NASA photos reveal Mercury is shrinking
- EXTRA: Remember kids: always eat your plastic bottles deep fried — for your health! – New Scientist: Plastic bottles pose health risk if boiled
- EXTRA: I couldn’t see this coming. – Ananova: Blind photographer to hold exhibition
- EXTRA: Sure, it’s ugly.. but it isn’t the ugliest *completed* building, at least! – Esquire: The Worst Building in the History of Mankind
- EXTRA: It raises the question: do we *really* believe in rehabilitation? – Yahoo!/AP: Killer expelled from Swedish med school
- EXTRA: Don’t worry, he’s a teenager, and didn’t think this through.. Neither, of course, do the airplane security officials, of course.. – msnbc: Calif. teen arrested for plotting to hijack plane
- EXTRA: I think that all people who talk to God are a little suspect.. – The Guardian: Pilot restrained after ‘talking to God’ on flight to Heathrow
- DN Eh?
- When the words of power are not capable of describing what you want, just add more! – New Scientist: Artificial letters added to life’s alphabet
- EXTRA: Proving that the power of the masses is incredible. I bet there is a word for that.. – New Scientist: Word nerds capture fleeting online English
- EXTRA: The world changes fast, then people try out some new words for a long time.. – New Scientist: Languages evolve in sudden leaps, not creeps
- My body does this already! It’s called *gout*! 🙁 – New Scientist: DNA construction kit self-assembles 3D ‘crystals’
- “If you can read this, you are really, *really* too close.” – New Scientist: Gene pioneer signs his synthetic DNA creation
- It is all due to Frank Sinatra and an incident with a time machine.. – LiveScience: One Common Ancestor Behind Blue Eyes
- EXTRA: Yeah.. but do his legs answer the phone? – CNN: Double amputee walks again due to Bluetooth
- EXTRA: Be careful whom you give the remote to.. – New Scientist: Radio-controlled sperm ‘tap’ turns off vasectomies
- EXTRA: Wait.. your *skin* can tell time? – New Scientist: Human skin cells hide circadian clock
- EXTRA: This just means that they might die off before they propogate; natural selection in action. Or, inaction natural selection. – New Scientist: Couch potato lifestyle may speed up ageing
- EXTRA: You really do grow younger after growing old.. – Ananova: Playground for pensioners
- EXTRA: Just because you are old, doesn’t mean you don’t care about sex. – Ananova: Gay OAP home a success
- EXTRA: Just because you don’t have kids doesn’t mean that you won’t have someone else’s. – New Scientist: Family ties defy changing society
- EXTRA: Next time, I’m going to hold up a picture of Tom Cruise. “Do you know who I am? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” – Ananova: Mayor used magazine as ID
- EXTRA: Chapter 1: Oook Eee AKAKA OOO, or “Bananas are not for the weak” – Ananova: Cheeta to ‘write’ memoirs
- Found Stuff That’s Lost Again
- EXTRA: Apparently, everyone still in Russia is related to royalty. – Yahoo!/Reuters: Russian poll draws fake royals and eccentrics
- EXTRA: “Sonic boiler” or blowing hot air? – The Press: Sax notes lead to off-beat boiler
- EXTRA: An urban myth in the making? Or an accidental release now that the world is sufficient under alien control? – The Daily News: Empire State Building car zap mystery
- EXTRA: Arr.. here be buried treasures.. Er. wine! Buried wine! – Yahoo!/AP: Cyprus divers to dig out ancient ship
- EXTRA: Because the keyboard and mouse are not the be-all-and-end-all of computer interfaces.. – New Scientist: Smart ‘Lego’ conjures up virtual 3D twin
- EXTRA: His best ice breaker is “I am a tantric master”. – CBS/AP: Tantric Master Breaks Ice Record In NYC
- EXTRA: Um.. what’s the ISBN number for “divine intervention”? – Yahoo!/AFP: Polish nun cites “divine inspiration” for bestseller cookbooks
- EXTRA: Shouldn’t we all know the answer, then? – The Daily Mail: Could there be proof to the theory that we’re ALL psychic?
- EXTRA: Second case that I’ve heard of; at least this time, it wasn’t directly tied to a stupid contest… well, unless you consider “marathon running” to be synonymous with “temporarly loss of sanity”. – The Daily Mail: Man, 35, drank himself to death after consuming too much water
- EXTRA: You can’t outrun most nicknames; you might as well accept them. – Ananova: Man changes name to Russell Sprout
- EXTRA: It appears to be the second-largest smurf-up that ever smurfed. And boy, are they smurfed about it! – Ananova: Smurfs up!
- EXTRA: If there exists no holiday for carrots, we will invent one! – Ananova: Crunch day for carrots on May 16
- EXTRA: Doesn’t he know that there is (likely) a vending machine for that? – Yahoo!/Reuters: Japan teacher said to take kids pants at knifepoint
- EXTRA: See! There really *is* a vending machine for *everything*! – BBC: Marijuana vending machines in US
- EXTRA: Which is cooler: that he built his own *castle*, or that he hid it for several years?!? – The Daily Mail: Hay presto! Farmer unveils the ‘illegal’ mock-Tudor castle he tried to hide behind 40ft hay bales
- EXTRA: Why some people should not be allowed to have sex, let alone children. – myEarthlink/AP: Witness: Mom Copped to Microwaving Baby
- EXTRA: Estonia isn’t on the top of my “cyber war” list, but who knew? – BBC: Estonia fines man for ‘cyber war’
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