Show Notes for TWS077: Food, undies and Japan: one of these does not stink.

On the show this week:

• Japan FTW!
• Food is What We Eat
• Space is the Place

This week’s Challenge Question: (repeat)
Where did life on Earth come from? Panspermia, spontaneous chemical reaction, God, aliens.. Make it funny, make it clever or make it serious.
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
• Responses
  • Thanks to: Julian, Mike, Jen, Arkle
• DEDICATION: From “Geostationary Satellites” to “Childhood’s End” to “Mysterious World” to “Clarke’s Laws”, he left a meteoric impact. – BBC: Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90
• Japan FTW!
  • I hope the space station is either large or curved.. – PhysOrg: Boomerang works in space: Japanese astronaut
  • These probably still do nothing for the patented “Five-Alarm Chili Fart” but I can hope.. – LiveScience: Japanese Astronaut Tests Stinkless Space Undies
  • The farthest anyone has ever gone for delivery. – Space.com: Japanese Space Food a Hit in Orbit
  • It has something to do with decay rates of matter and anti-matter. Yeah, I don’t understand entirely either. – New Scientist: Japanese particle accelerator hints at ‘new physics’
  • It’s like saying “Flipping thief can explain the flippin’ theft”. Ok, maybe not. – New Scientist: Flipping particle could explain missing antimatter
  • As long as it looks like it’s thinking, maybe we’ll back off a bit. – New Scientist: People prefer robots that do small talk
  • Things are looking up in Japan. – Metro: The huge penises of Japan
  • Finally: government gets less stuffy and gets animated! – Metro: Government post for cartoon robot cat
• Food is What We Eat
  • It’s almost as though they don’t think the trip to Mars is going to be hard *enough* — now the food stinks? – New Scientist: Proposed space food suffers from ‘smell problem’
  • I dunno.. if I could eat the same steak every day (prepared a zillion ways), then isn’t it worth it? – PhysOrg: Probing Question: Is cloned meat safe to eat?
  • Imagine that: there won’t be *enough* ice and snow? *looks around* Hard to believe.. – New Scientist: Melting glaciers will trigger food shortages
  • I didn’t think that opening up your milk and giving it a sniff is all that hard that we have to invent new tech for it. Overengineering much? – New Scientist: Supermarket sensor warns of pre-packed bugs
  • It’s Eric the half-a-bug. Ewww.. – Metro: Watch out, beetle’s about
  • I see stinky pee in your future. – The Telegraph: (O) Asparagus mystic offers tips for the future
  • Technically, “evolution” is just niche satisfaction with pressure to remove failures… So… sure! – New Scientist: Recipes came about by evolution
  • It all sounds a bit flakey to me. – AOL/AP: Illinois-Shaped Corn Flake Up for Auction
  • An un-prepared meat thief? – The Gloucester Daily Times: Restaurant owner has ham slam for prosciutto thief
  • EXTRA: I wonder if tastes like barbeque or microwaved? – The Sun/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: ‘Fire God’ has heating hands
• Space is the Place
  • EXTRA: “Dear blog: today I sanctioned (tee hee) 4 illegals and 2 dissenters, stole the plans to a top-secret device, and went shopping for new boots.” – BBC: Israel’s Shin Bet launches blog
  • EXTRA: Proof that we overcome our base instincts? – PhysOrg: Brains are hardwired to act according to the Golden Rule
  • EXTRA: As long as you give it to *me*. – New Scientist: Give away your money and be happy
  • EXTRA: After all, it seems like such a waste of time.. – New Scientist: Do we read too much into our need for sleep?
  • EXTRA: When feeling blue is a *good* thing.. – New Scientist: Blue LEDs to reset tired truckers’ body clocks
  • EXTRA: Blood is a living substance, and can die? Whoops! – New Scientist: Two-week-old blood no good for transfusions
  • EXTRA: There’s a lot of demand for blood. People keep losing it. – BBC: Illicit India ‘blood farm’ raided
  • EXTRA: Fashionable, sexy, and warm, too! – Lancashire Evening Post: Women knit false boobs
  • EXTRA: Will also be forced not to have knit boobs, likely. – Ananova: Man forced to have breast reduction
  • EXTRA: Chemical imbalance, or the true seat of personality? – Lancashire Evening Post: Mum’s personality changed after kidney op
  • Every once and a while, does Nature need to wipe the slate clean in order to improve? When’s *our* bitchslap? – ScienceDaily: Do Meteors Create Life? Explosion Of New Life Coincided With Hundreds Of Meteorite Impacts
  • Cool, life! Cool life. – Astrobiology Magazine: Frozen Life Cubes
  • EXTRA: Given that the Earth’s surface is 75% water, you’d think they’d expect to be disappointed often.. – The Globe and Mail: Meteorite’s lake landing leaves space-rock collectors all wet
• Superfluous Necessities (extras)
  • EXTRA: Dem bones, dem bones, dem dino bones.. – Yahoo!/Reuters: Mastodon skeleton awaits sale in California garage
  • EXTRA: I’ve often advocated the return of ancient mystical and fellowship societies — simply so that I can become part of one. And wear robes. – The Guardian: The last charge
  • EXTRA: There was an X-Files episode that posited that a recording of Jesus could’ve been made into a spinning clay bowl. This is similar, but actually makes sense. – The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies/Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub: CHTHO’s Cultural Blunder and Documentary Production on World’s Oldest Animation
  • EXTRA: Just because you see incomprehensible squiggles on Google Earth, doesn’t mean that they are alien. We are perfectly capable of coming up with our own nonsense, thankyouverymuch! – Metro: Proof that aliens are out there?
  • EXTRA: But, of course, this is “anecdotal” evidence, and therefore worthless in the eyes of science. *sigh* – The Epoch Times: Ancient Chinese Texts Indicate Alien Sightings Four Thousand Years Ago
  • EXTRA: Space robots are doin’ it for themselves! – New Scientist: All eyes on Europe’s Jules Verne spacecraft
  • Our universe had a beginning.. but were the moon, Mars or the Earth here then? – National Geographic: Earth, Mars, Moon Have Different Origin, Study Says
  • EXTRA: Love *won’t* tear you apart, somehow. – New Scientist: Love stops partners from sleeping around
  • EXTRA: Or, conversely, bad marriage will cause heart attacks. – PhysOrg: Good Marriage Equals Good Blood Pressure
  • EXTRA: All I know is that I want attractive women. Well, one. Well, smart, funny and intelligent, and not hard to look at.. – PhysOrg: Do Attractive Women Want it All? New Study Reveals Relationship Standards are Relative
  • EXTRA: The universe does not play dice with anyone, let alone God. – New Scientist: Quantum randomness may not be random
  • EXTRA: ‘Fraidy-Bot? – PhysOrg/AP: Cowardly Robot Steals Show in Amsterdam
  • EXTRA: I want a military research slush fund, so *I* can consider such wacky ideas! – New Scientist: US Army toyed with telepathic ray gun
  • EXTRA: Given an infinite number of alligators and an infinite number of rivers and an infinite amount of time, and they will evolve a diving helmet, too.. – ScienceDaily: Alligators’ Muscles Move Lungs Around For Sneaky Maneuvers In Water
  • EXTRA: It’s an ant-fight-ant world out there.. – MSNBC/LiveScience: Ants riddled with cheating and corruption
  • EXTRA: Dat’s a lot of bees, honey! – NBC30: Swarm Of Bees Closes California Highway
  • EXTRA: So, the tail is like a fifth limb.. Um.. D’uh! – BBC: Tail ‘key’ for gecko acrobatics
  • EXTRA: An exhibition of creatures that may never have been. – Huliq: Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, Mermaids
  • EXTRA: The Field Museum Website. – The Field Museum: Mythic Creatures
  • EXTRA: Dave Barry gets both crypto and creepy, not to mention enviro. – The Sun-Herald: Please don’t eat the bats
  • EXTRA: This is “palmistry” in the same way that “poker” is “tarot”.. – News Monster: Can palmistry help catch criminals?
  • EXTRA: WARNING: Nailing yourselves to crosses is DUMB and DANGEROUS. Don’t do it, m’kay? – BBC: Filipinos warned on crucifixions
  • EXTRA: Just because its cheap, doesn’t necessarily make it bad. It *does* make you handy, however. – Anorak: Brain Surgeon Operates With £10 Cordless Drill
  • EXTRA: Some people are confusing, simply because they are old. – The Times of India: 130-yr-old patient puzzles doctors
  • EXTRA: This is a “robot” in the same way my car is an “airplane”. Or a robot. – Sky News: Man Kills Himself With ‘Suicide Robot’
  • EXTRA: I don’t think Nostrodamus predicted this.. – The Northern Star: Nostradamus delusion ends with man killing family member with bayonet
  • EXTRA: Were they using both hands when they tried to find her leg? – Fox/news.com.au: Woman Goes for Leg Operation, Gets New Anus Instead
  • EXTRA: Since its virtual, does it mean that you can pay virtually as well.. – New Scientist: ‘Virtual massage’ can relieve amputees’ phantom limb pain
  • EXTRA: Their answer is: take it one year at a time. In other words: they aren’t saying. – MSNBC/Today: Couple, married 83 years, share their secret
  • EXTRA: I hope he gets his reserve bid.. – Yahoo!/Reuters: Man auctions his life
  • EXTRA: Take that, Harry Potter! – BBC: Tolkien’s Hobbit fetches £60,000
  • EXTRA: I say: it beats just stuffing them! – BBC: Pair dress in ‘dead dog’ jumpers
  • EXTRA: Has he got a lot of pent-up aggression? – Ananova: World record smashed
  • EXTRA: Does this mean he can’t be around really spicy food? – Ananova: Winemaker’s £4m nose
  • EXTRA: In which the lowest of society also have the lowest of monies.. – Ananova: Begging for change
  • EXTRA: Another failed geography student, apparently.. – Ananova: Runaway boy cycled 600 miles
  • EXTRA: Pfft! There’s no light on the top, and it’s probably *smaller* on the inside.. Hmm.. unless there is a basement lair.. – Metro: Tiny Doctor Who Tardis house on sale
  • EXTRA: Was it a neighbouring Nigerian email scam? – BBC: Fake fears over Ethiopia’s gold
  • EXTRA: Foot washing is, of course, taught in wedding school. – The Lancashire Evening Post: Groom burned to death in dirty feet row
  • EXTRA: It’s like trying to upstage a comedian.. – Metro: Pickpocket chooses worst possible victim
  • EXTRA: I can’t remember my childhood memories, but I’m sure I did at the time.. – Science Daily: Children’s Memory May Be More Reliable Than Adults’ In Court Cases
  • EXTRA: I’ve often wondered why those warm semi-public buildings *aren’t* used as secondary shelters.. And hey — free laundry would be good! – Ananova: Beware of the tramp
  • EXTRA: See the previous week’s advice: wear a gasmask. – Metro: Woman tries to rob bank with smell
  • EXTRA: Tasty, *candy* iceberg! No wonder that the ice caps are disappearing.. How many licks *does* it take to get to the center of the glacier? – The Daily Mail: Revealed: The Antarctic iceberg that looks like a giant humbug

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