Show Notes for TWS089: Say What You Think You Believe, and Things Happen

On the show this week:

• Substance of Superstition
• Flock of Families
• Cavalcade of Communications
• Unspoken Utterances (EXTRA)

This week’s Challenge Question:
What are your favourite/worst/most memorable “lies-to-children”? Are they good, in general? Bad? Important? Unimportant?
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: Arkle and Mike B
• Promo: Geek of All Trades — Arkle has alternative and geeky views on politics, religion, odd news and anything which ticks him off. Rough, but worth listening to. At least once. 🙂
• Substance of Superstition
  • Whistle while you leave.. – BBC: Superstitious town bans whistling
  • One could do worse than lead a country by astrology.. At least it’s less likely to be greed or religious bias.. – The Nation: Thai Politics are still in the grip of the spirits and the stars
  • Sometimes I wonder why we spend so much time worrying about the distant past mistakes.. – The UK Telegraph: Europe’s last executed witch to be cleared
  • … and then I see that in some parts of the world, the past isn’t so distant.. – ninemsnAFP: Four Indians killed for ‘witchcraft’
  • … and might be worth worrying about still… – The India Telegraph: Stoned & buried alive for witchcraft
  • Short answer: it doesn’t. – How Stuff Works: How Friday the 13th Works
  • Nice melons. – CBS/AP: Watermelon Fetches $6K In Tokyo Auction
  • It takes all the mystery out of it, so it will end up being the most boring job evAR.. – Ananova: New scanners ‘strip’ passengers
  • EXTRA: You know what they say: you should love what you work at, but never work at what you love.. – Ananova: Watching porn – a taxing job
  • And the reason behind thinking that this is a possibility is because you take anti- and -gravity and.. When grammar leads scientists, is it any better than superstition? Or is that what *most* scientific discoveries are like? – New Scientist: Would an antimatter apple fall up?
  • EXTRA: Whoops! Looks like a time-traveller left the BBQ on! (Sorry!) – ScienceDaily: Mystery Of Infamous ‘New England Dark Day’ Solved By Tree Rings
  • EXTRA: We are subconsciously capable of ignoring fear, but the subconscious also sprouts its own fears.. – Independent Television News: Daredevil sleeper in Tokyo
• Promo: The Signal — The source for all sorts of wonderful news, interviews, audio drama, reviews and much, more for the
  fans of Serenity and Firefly. Unite, Browncoats!

• Flock of Families
  • Wasn’t this a Doctor Who episode? – The UK Daily Mail: Woman dressed as bumble bee gives birth after friend’s hen night – and she didn’t even know she was pregnant
  • What is this, repeat night? – Ananova: Tummy ache was baby
  • Next week, he’ll just rent a car instead.. – Ananova: Boy, 3, tries to board plane alone
  • It looks more cartoonish than alien, like a deformed mascot. – Hemmy: Alien-Like Being Born From A Cow In Thailand
  • “Who among you is fit to cast the first stone?” Uh.. well, not *that* guy.. – Metro: ‘Cow-porn’ judge suspends bestiality film trial
  • It’s one of those cliches that is proven true.. – Ananova: Crook prefers jail to wife
  • If you love her, choke her nearly to death. If she still says yes, she’s a keeper! – Ananova: Woman swallows surprise ring
  • I can see that this child’s future presents are all mapped out.. But how long before he realizes that they aren’t all labelled just for him? – Ananova: Couple win right to name son Lego
  • EXTRA: Pure, simple, apocalyptic love. – Ananova: Cat adopts rat
  • EXTRA: Ah, them sally unicorns… Er.. Unideers? – NewsVine/AP: Single-horned ‘Unicorn’ deer found in Italy
  • EXTRA: I suppose it’s unethical to run humans through this sort of evolutionary trial to see if they change, right? *looks at glass bubble around Solar system* Oh…. right.. – New Scientist: Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab
  • EXTRA: I think it evolved to solve the problem of information overload. It just came early. – New Scientist: Did hyperactivity evolve as a survival aid for nomads?
  • EXTRA: And, when they looked away, it danced and sang. – New Scientist: Human egg makes accidental debut on camera
  • EXTRA: This is how I can listen to more than one show at once. Of course, I fail. – New Scientist: ‘Party chat’ brain filter discovered
  • EXTRA: Dang! Asimo will be able to pick us out of a crowd, soon! Spybot! – New Scientist: Robot Asimo can understand three voices at once
  • EXTRA: Why do some animals live right up until they die, and others (like us) start dying just after briefly living? (Really, we spend most of our lives dying..) – New Scientist: Animals in the wild may hold key to ageing
  • EXTRA: Sleepiness is in the eye of the beholder.. (Cone of Sleep!) – New Scientist: ‘Circadian eye’ could be key to insomnia
  • EXTRA: If he can just get out of his house, he can get into a marriage. – Ananova: ‘Half tonne man’ to wed
  • I don’t even understand sneakers on babies — this is less senseful.. – Ananova: Stilettos for babies
  • EXTRA: I hope they at *least* gave her a new broom! Cheap buggers! – Ananova: Woman sweeps roads for 84 years
• News From The Future: Today Has Been Cancelled
• Cavalcade of Communications
  • “To Whom It May (and Probably Does) Concern: you sinned in life, now you’ve got to live with that in a Hell on Earth. Good luck with that!” – Fox News: Web Site Offers to Send Post-Rapture E-Mails to Friends ‘Left Behind’
  • Knock once for yes. Knock twice for no. Wait — what does no knocks mean again? – NewsMonster: Has a famous paranormal researcher returned from the dead?
  • WTF? They’ve developed *working* quantum entanglement communications, and they want to beam it off the ISS? – New Scientist: Space station to be quantum communications hub?
  • Holy crap! What does this mean? Laser-crypto-quantu-magification movies? – PhysOrg: Physicists produce quantum-entangled images
  • EXTRA: It’s not like it’s stock market updates, but it’s still sophisticated communication.. – ScienceDaily: School Of Robofish Communicate With Each Other In Underwater Robot Teams
  • “And now that we’ve stripped you of your crown, we’re also going to void your birth certificate and reclassify you as ‘just one of *them*’.” – New Scientist: Pluto-like objects to be called ‘plutoids’
  • BILLBOARDS… INNN…. SPAAAACE! (i.e. We, as a species, EPIC FAIL.) – New Scientist: First space ad targets hungry aliens
  • Finally, one of these gives us a distinct message… that we already knew. D’oh! – This is Wiltshire: Crop circle predicts solar eclipse
  • EXTRA: How long is dead enough? Or.. “I’m not dead yet!” – The Tasmanian Mercury/Reuters: ‘Back from dead’ case stuns doctors
  • EXTRA: A rise in ghosts, or a rise in TV? – CNN/AP: Ghost hunters more in demand
  • EXTRA: Monkeys are deep. (Watch them carefully.) – ScienceDaily: The Symbolic Monkey? Animals Can Comprehend And Use Symbols, Study Of Tufted Capuchins Suggests
  • EXTRA: Not exactly a welcome wagon, but then again, he’s probably also yelling at these “kids and their computrons and pierced ears and loud music”, too.. – FW Daily News: It’s time for UFO freaks to go home
  • EXTRA: “Hello, aliens? Um.. we’re a primitive culture just ripe for abuse. Wanna come over? kthxbai!” – The Age: Star wars: who are we inviting in from the cold?
  • EXTRA: Let’s all question whether we need the best space exploration company in the world.. Because, y’know, space is so “done” and we’ve obviously found everything now.. – New Scientist: Will NASA last another 50 years?
  • EXTRA: It took them seven tries to put dirt in a bucket, essentially. Granted, the bucket is on *Mars*.. – New Scientist: Martian soil falls into Phoenix oven at last
  • EXTRA: “Don’t worry, nothing to see here. Just some secret satellites orbitting around the Earth that you normally cannot see at all with the naked eye. Move along, move along..” – UPI: FAA: Reported UFOs likely satellites
  • EXTRA: Why does “new evidence” always feel like “new old evidence”? – This is Hampshire: New evidence in hunt for UFOs
  • EXTRA: Apparently, it takes scientists a long time to decide that the best place to look is “that big clump over there”. – The Daily Galaxy: The Ecliptic: Scientists Narrow In On the Best Shot at ET Contact
  • EXTRA: No way, Jose!?! (Sorry.) – KTVU: Satellites Or UFOS Over San Jose?
  • Although they were probably drunk aliens, out on a bender. Still, insurance is liable.. – UPI: UFOs hit Romanian plane
  • Wait.. *who’s* fault was it? – Metro: Fighter jet hits UFO
  • EXTRA: Once again, science progresses in telling us exactly what science fiction told us 40 years ago! Gotta read more classics.. – New Scientist: Algae oil promises truly green fuel
  • EXTRA: The problem with documentaries are that only the most exciting documents get “-aries”. – The Herald Tribune: Documents make bad TV
  • EXTRA: Ah, let the sightings begin.. – The UK Daily Post: Reports of UFO over North Wales
  • EXTRA: “But it says right here, his name was ‘Steve’.” “Well, cover that part up! That’s ridiculous!” – Yahoo!/AP: Egypt uncovers ‘missing’ pyramid of a pharaoh
  • EXTRA: I think we, as a species, are just starting to realize the full potential of those crappy inkjet printers, which can do everything (in principle) but print a page of paper without jamming.. – New Scientist: ‘Electron turbine’ could print designer molecules
  • EXTRA: Apparently, makeup works for men as well.. or at least male birds. – Discovery Channel/AP: From Regular Bird to Chick Magnet
  • EXTRA: The cat may not have been feral, but the response definitely was.. – Ananova: Students kicked off Facebook for eating a cat
• What was left unsaid (EXTRA)
  • EXTRA: I don’t care what the story’s about — that think is *monster creepy*! – BBC: Cuttlefish spot target prey early
  • EXTRA: When your lunch not only disagrees with you, but demands out.. – News.com.au: Cane toad a dog’s dinner for 40 minutes
  • EXTRA: Proving that the less you see, the more interesting it can be.. – UFO Blogger: Transparent Humanoid in Veracruz, Mexico?
  • EXTRA: The biggest, most open planned shooting in history.. – BBC: Britain’s Moon shot takes shape
  • EXTRA: “Right before all that ‘time’ stuff was created, we think some stuff happened.” “When was that?” “Before ‘time’.” “Oh, funnyfarm for you, then.” – BBC: Hints of ‘time before Big Bang’
  • EXTRA: “And also, just outside of all that ‘space’ stuff, we’re thinking that there’s some really cool stuff out there.” “Where?” “Oh, beyond ‘space’.” “And time?” “Sorry, I don’t have a watch with me..” – New Scientist: Hints of structure beyond the visible universe
  • EXTRA: Just in case you were noticing, uh.. I mean, I would have thought it would be more dramatic.. – ReligionNewsBlog/ABC: Texas Sect Leader: Doomsday Begins Next Thursday, June 12
  • EXTRA: Hey, give them a break! I mean, math is *hard*! – New Scientist: Have we underestimated total oil reserves?
  • EXTRA: Scale down your hopes and dreams and excesses. – Ananova: Credit crunch Hummer
  • EXTRA: Real Hot Cats! Live Webcams! $4.99/minute! – The UK Press and Journal: Webcams plan to ‘capture’ big cats
  • EXTRA: Uh-oh.. better put away the Sea Monkey Belt Buckle idea, then.. – The UK Telegraph: Beijing Olympics unofficial live goldfish keyrings are cruel, say RSPCA
  • EXTRA: A pig with a phobia might still make good bacon.. Yum… – The Guardian: Happy as a pig in … wellies
  • EXTRA: Yeah, well so can my car. Oh.. wait.. – Ananova: Dog can be seen from space
  • EXTRA: I just wonder what kind of stories he’ll tell when he gets older.. – The Sun: Baby born with penis on back
  • EXTRA: They all vote “no” on cemetary reform.. – Fox News: Dead Voters Still Showing Up on Election Records, Puzzling Officials
  • EXTRA: Don’t play chicken with a bomb. Or bomb with a chicken. You’ll be clucked either way. – Yahoo!/AP: Conn. police find pipe bomb stuffed inside chicken
  • EXTRA: Apparently, 25 is too young to start drinking BBQ sauce. Technically, I think any age is too young for that… – Ananova: BBQ sauce too strong for woman, 25
  • EXTRA: I could make a joke about this, but I actually admire this quite a lot. Also, I don’t want to get hit. – Ananova: Wu-Tang Clan’s chess move
  • EXTRA: It’s not that they were cheating or betting — they just suck. – Ananova: Team banned after 54-1 defeat
  • EXTRA: Ah, the Gnome Liberation Front (or similar organization) strikes again! – Metro: Gnome bandit caught

Podcast: Play in new window | Download