Show Notes for TWS072: The Past Future is NOW!

On the show this week:

• SCIFI IS NOW!
• Life will leave us behind, if we don’t do it first.
• Dumbness
• The Indeterminate Past (EXTRAS)

This week’s Challenge Question:
What is a current technology or way of doing things that we should we should revert to an older way of doing things?
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
• SCIFI IS NOW!
  • This is what happens when your Guru dies: you start interstellar war (potentially). – The UK Telegraph: Beatles space broadcast ‘risks alien attack’
  • Are they seeing more because they are looking more? – Ananova: UFO sightings soar
  • Zero-g class: even better than First class. – New Scientist: Forget the plane, take the intercity spaceship
  • To the moon.. and beyond! – New Scientist: NASA calls for ambitious outer solar system mission
  • The stuff that may not exist can’t be found where it doesn’t seem to be… – New Scientist: Galaxy without dark matter puzzles astronomers
  • A problem of galactic proportions.. – New Scientist: ‘Astronomical unit’ may need to be redefined
  • EXTRA: Aside from the fact that no technology should go near it, it’s pretty cool… – The UK Times: It’s lift-off for the Star Wars armchair
• Life will leave us behind, if we don’t do it first.
  • Yeah, but where’s the mecha? – LiveScience: Navy Tests Incredible Sci-Fi Weapon
  • I recommended Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany. Wacky book!
  • Spiderbot! Spiderbot! Does whatever the crazy scientists says to do! Spiderbot! Here come’s a… well… mothbot. – LiveScience: Implants Create Insect Cyborgs
  • More proof that the future is now.. especially if these guys screw up.. – The Daily Mail: The world’s first time machine? Tunnel to the past could open door to future within three months, say Russians
  • Some science stories keep going, and going, and going, and going, and… – The Toronto Star: Turning physics on its ear
  • Soon, we will no longer be allowed to waste any energy.. – New Scientist: Knee device makes phone charging a walk in the park
  • EXTRA: See! More proof that we waste too much energy as a universe! – New Scientist: Robotic glider feeds off ocean temperatures
  • Roses are red, violets are blue.. No, wait.. This will screw up new generations. – Ananova: Blue roses for you
  • New fundamental force? The “weak telepathic force”? – The Daily Galaxy blog: DNA Found to Have “Impossible” Telepathic Properties
  • It’s really what you know, not what you can do.. – New Scientist: (VO) Is information essential for life?
  • EXTRA: Monkey see, monkey think. – New Scientist: Monkeys tune in to your way of thinking
  • “Hey, give me that remote! That’s not funny!” – New Scientist: (O) Radio-controlled sperm ‘tap’ turns off vasectomies
  • Oooh, how romantic.. – The Daily Mail: Death of the father: British scientists discover how to turn women’s bone marrow into sperm
  • The Science of the Latter Day Saints? – BBC: Three-parent embryo formed in lab
  • EXTRA: Some hope that fathers are still useful.. – New Scientist: Helpful baboon dads boost offsprings’ success
  • Brings a tear to my eye.. Kids today, they’ll never know the agony I suffered through. – Yahoo!/AFP: Scientists create ‘no tears’ onions
• Dumbness and not
  • They are worried about the sharp edges the pancakes have.. – Ananova: Pancake race axed over health and safety
  • EXTRA: Sometimes, the way things were done is still the best way to do them.. – Ananova: Wanted: Donkey to help with shopping
  • EXTRA: Apparently, mankind is too dumb to remember anything, and we must create nanny objects.. Hmm… “nannytechnology”? – New Scientist: Smart pillbox joins the fight against TB
  • EXTRA: It’s not that I mind them having this information, it’s the fact that it *will* be abused.. – CNN: FBI wants palm prints, eye scans, tattoo mapping
  • EXTRA: The “dangling chads” of this election period? – Chicago Sun-Times: Voters are told pen had ‘invisible ink’
  • EXTRA: Take your pet to the movies.. and ruin the movie. – Ananova: Cinema goes to the dogs
  • EXTRA: How not to proove your superiour intelligence.. – The Independent: Briton killed sledging on mattress
• The Indeterminate Past (EXTRAS)
  • EXTRA: It’s like something out of Cryptonomicon – The Telegraph: Adolf Hitler’s ‘lost fleet’ found in Black Sea
  • EXTRA: A failed attempt to destroy Cthulhu, no doubt.. – NPR: For 50 Years, Nuclear Bomb Lost in Watery Grave
  • EXTRA: Didn’t anyone try to take the gold foil off? – RIA Novosti: Egyptian couple finds U.S. gold coin worth millions in closet
  • EXTRA: Beats a stupid coin anyday.. – National Geographic: Surprise Egypt Tombs Yield Ornate Coffins, Dog Mummies
  • EXTRA: Life began where Cthulhu sleeps… Uh-oh.. – The UK Telegraph: Lost city could have been cradle of life
  • EXTRA: … or are they just being dicks? – Stephenville Empire-Tribune: UFO witness claims harassment
  • EXTRA: Prelude to invasion by sub-aquatic beings? – Khaleej Times: Cable damage hits 1.7m Internet users in UAE
  • EXTRA: Surprise! Moving from one mono-culture (oil) to another (bio-fuels) isn’t the whole answer! (Duh) – New Scientist: Biofuels emissions may be ‘worse than petrol’
  • EXTRA: Aww, how cute.. let’s lean closer.. – CBS4: SeaWorld Dolphins Are Bubblicious
  • EXTRA: AAAAAH! AAAAAAH! THE DOLPHINS ARE KILLING ME! – The UK Telegraph: Killer dolphins baffle marine experts
  • EXTRA: I want to meet this woman and see if we spark. – Dail Mail: ‘Electricity Woman with amazing powers’ causes lights to flicker when she gets stressed
  • EXTRA: Exorcism is one of the few medicines where the death of the subject is both a good and bad outcome. – The Dallas Morning News/AP: Odessa man says he was performing exorcism when wife died
  • EXTRA: Good safety tip, Egon: don’t breathe in the porcine processor..” – The Washington Post: Inhaling Pig Brains May Be Cause of New Illness
  • EXTRA: A breakthrough: giving rodents colds.. – BBC: Sniffling mice raise therapy hope
  • EXTRA: Darn kids! Trying to take jobs away from my computers! – ScienceDaily: New Thoughts On Language Acquisition: Toddlers As Data Miners
  • EXTRA: It’s not all poo flinging and bananas, ya know! – Ananova: (O) Cheeta to ‘write’ memoirs
  • EXTRA: Aren’t pets good for rehabilitation? – News24/SA/Sapa-dpa: Bull, owner off to prison
  • EXTRA: Bird flu has caused quite a racquet. – Metro: Bird flu causes Indian shuttlecock drought
  • EXTRA: imnURtxts lol – Ananova: Predictive text triggers new slang
  • EXTRA: The reviews were probably more vocal.. – Ananova: World’s longest silent play
  • EXTRA: Proof that something which is unlikely just might happen. – The UK Sun: Close encounter of the bird kind
  • EXTRA: “Oh, God: let this cup not runneth over..” – Ananova: Praying for a cuppa
  • EXTRA: Yeah! Fat people should starve! Uh.. – Ananova: Ban on restaurants serving fat people?
  • EXTRA: These things never happen.. do they? – Ananova: Mystery man gives couple blank cheque
  • EXTRA: Geeze.. maybe these things *do* happen! – MSNBC/AP: College gets anonymous $5 million in the mail
  • EXTRA: Ah! There’s my ray of darkness! – Ananova: Pre-nups for bridesmaids
  • EXTRA: I thought poker was *caused* by not getting out and about.. – Metro: Bet you can’t gamble in these…

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