Show Notes for TWS098: Home Is The Building You Come Back To After You’ve Left

On the show this week:

• Life, But Not As You Know It
• Architechnology and Engineerance
• Rapid Apocalyptic Matters (EXTRA)
• Whipped Celery and Onions (EXTRA)

This week’s Challenge Question:
Are things like the elf-friendly opera house just wastes of money, time and energy? What about “frivolous” PhD’s?
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
• Promo: Podculture — “Equal opportunity geekiness” – fun, light conversations about geeky toys, geeky food, geeky movies and TV with the delightful Brad and Christina. Had a chance to meet them at Dragon*Con, and they are a bunch of fun.
• Life, But Not As You Know It
  • I think it’s out to poison us with it’s alien ways. But wait! Spock, try to communicate with it.. – ABC Australia: New ‘arsenic-breathing’ bacteria found
  • He’s going to have a rough life anyway.. Why stop him now, when he could have at least secured a world record easily? – The UK Telegraph: Doctors halt growth of seven-foot boy Brenden Adams
  • I suppose some will still blame the child for his obesity, calling him a lazy infant who was too stupid not to grow fat.. – The UK Telegraph: Eleven-month-old Colombian baby is the weight of an eight-year-old
  • … ah, but maybe he’s just too smart for his own good! – The UK Telegraph: Thinking can make you fat, study shows
  • Life as a particularly buggy program. Frankly, its spaghetti programming suggests more of Flying Spaghetti Monster to me than it does of any all-knowing God.. – ScienceDaily: Scientists Develop New Computational Method To Investigate Origin Of Life
  • I always thought that being able to “judge a woman by her walk” was an urban myth told to further depress me by pointing out just how non-perceptive I am.. – ScienceDaily: Sexologists Can Infer A Woman’s History of Orgasms By The Way She Walks
  • Hack life! Build me my symbiote! – Wired: Biologists on the Verge of Creating New Form of Life
  • Of course, we generally think of this in positive terms. The negative terms will make for better stories, however. – PhysOrg: Researchers develop nano-sized ‘cargo ships’ to target and destroy tumors
  • Light out your life! – Medical News Today: New Nanotechnology Paints For Hospitals Could Kill Superbugs
  • EXTRA: The largest and perhaps the least appreciated organ. – Eurekalert/American Friends of Tel Aviv University: Seeing through the skin
  • EXTRA: My genes, apparently, suck at setting up dates. Or they are asleep. – New Scientist: How genes pick our mates for us
  • EXTRA: File this under “duh!”. – BBC: Stroking reveals pleasure nerve
  • EXTRA: Well, there ya go: clones can propogate. One fear potentially stemmed — breeding others, of course. – News24/AFP: Cloned dog becomes a dad
  • EXTRA: I wonder if it is some sort of new hunting moss, that lures us in with the promise of finding WWII pilots… Although that’s rather specific.. – BBC: Papua ‘remains’ are not WWII body
  • EXTRA: I wonder if they represent miner branches of the species.. *ducks* – BBC: Ancient trees recorded in mines
  • EXTRA: I don’t buy it; sounds too much like those tiny water monkeys from the back of comic books.. – The New York Times: Tiny Water Bears Triumph Over Outer Space
  • EXTRA: If you can’t beat ’em, screw ’em! Er.. – New Scientist: Did we out-breed slow-maturing Neanderthals?
  • EXTRA: And old story, but new to me: 80 years ago, we could have faced certain doom, due to the power of pneumatics! – The Pink Tentacle: (O) 80-year-old Gakutensoku robot revived (w/video)
  • EXTRA: Even if it is a shark, it seems to be lost.. – BBC: New clues to mystery sea monster
  • EXTRA: Don’t get to excited: the horn was really just a bump. – The UK Daily Mail: Mythical ‘African unicorn’ caught on camera in the wild for the first time
  • EXTRA: I guess I can feel compensated by my big brain and my enlarged heart, then.. – New Scientist: Why a big horn gives beetles a tiny organ
  • EXTRA: Still on the trail of the NJ Devil. I drove through Jersey on my way back from Dragon*Con, and with that many trees I can see how something like that could exist out of sight.. – The New York Times: In the Wilds of New Jersey, a Legend Inspires a Hunt
  • EXTRA: I hate when that happens. Uh.. I mean.. They really need to get out more! – AP: Japan police fooled by life-sized doll
  • EXTRA: “Sir, I’d like to call a recess. We need to take the witness for walkies.” – The UK Telegraph: Dog appears as witness in murder trial
• Architechnology and Engineerance
  • At first I thought, “That’s silly! You’ll never get concrete jets to fly!” But then I realized they were talking about moonbases.. – The Register: Concrete-jet ‘printers’ to build houses, Moonbases in hours
  • The Cyberpunk future begins… in Dubai? – World Architecture News: Dubai’s latest offering is a carbon-neutral ‘pyramid’ city
  • “Ragnarokkin'”? *Really?* Are Elf Hogan and Elf McMahan gonna have a showdown there, or what? – Gizmodo: Iceland’s Ragnarokkin’ New Opera House Designed To Be Elf-Friendly
  • Who knew that birds were so clever and making unseen things see. (Oh, wait.. not “puffins”, “boffins”..) – The Register: Chinese boffins crack invisible-shed window problem
  • Ar… There be pirates, matey! Oh, wait, no — ’tis ecological salvation I sees, instead. Common mistake.. Arrrrr! – The UK Times: Ghost ship fleet could be a silver lining in clouds of climate change
  • First, they show us where to shoot. Then, they show us where to heal. Next: they show us where to hate, then where to love. – New Scientist: Robot spyplanes get new role as medical couriers
  • Wow, now *that’s* some lazy engineers.. Sheesh! “Teach your own damn self to fly, chopper — I gotta go study for exams and drink with my buddies!” 😉 – ScienceDaily: ‘Autonomous’ Helicopters Teach Themselves To Fly
  • I want one! (Ok, I should be really upset that this will further muddy the research into “actual” UFO sightings, but… COOL TECHNOLOGY! *drool*) – The Register: Brit firm to demo serious flying robo-saucer in 2009
  • Optical illusion or hoax? – The New York Times: The See-Through Skyscraper
  • EXTRA: No. (Next!) Wait — maybe? – The UK Times: Was 16th-century Scots alchemist the first man to fly?
  • EXTRA: Lost/hidden, semantic/somatic, liberated/conquered.. – BBC: ‘Lost towns’ discovered in Amazon
  • EXTRA: How gumption and hard work triumphed over nature, a mountain and pretty scary heights. – Crazy Planet: Guoliang Tunnel
  • EXTRA: You had to be at least a Druid Level 10, a Paladin Level 6 or a Priest Level 20 with a Good Alignment, or it was completely invisible. – The UK Telegraph: Stonehenge ‘was hidden from lower classes’
  • EXTRA: Everyone loves a nice rack with a wild side.. – Fox News: Haunted Spice Rack for Sale
  • EXTRA: Sold! for a moest couple hundred bucks. I hope it brings the new owner much oddness. – ebay: Spice Rack haunted by Spirit
• Rapid Apocalyptic Matters (EXTRA)
  • I’m really, *really* happy when they give specific dates (Oct 14, 2008); it makes scheduling soooo much easier. Cautiously optimistic (but not much). – UFO Digest: Blossom Goodchild’s Predicted Mass UFO Sighting: Will it Force Disclosure to Occur?
  • It makes perfect sense that you want a supportive environment, given how unsupportive (and downright mean) the rest of the world can be to those who have had unexplained experiences.. – Alien UFO Believers: UFO Believers Social Network
  • Coochie-coochie coooo, little star! Speak for me, little nugget o’ superheated gases! – New Scientist: ET could ‘tickle’ stars to create galactic internet
  • Turns out, we just might be able to have too many things. *sigh* Fine.. I’ll start to get rid of the media I want to consume. – New Scientist: Too much food can be bad for biodiversity
  • The trick is to get to them early, before society steps in and they become Bloods and Ticks.. – ScienceDaily: Dogs And Cats Can Live In Perfect Harmony In The Home, If Introduced The Right Way
  • Why do we seem to need religion? Science fails at the question “why?” — it describes cause and effect, not goals. – ScienceDaily: Anthropologists Develop New Approach To Explain Religious Behavior
  • Toast me up the morning paper — I’m late for work, and I’ll eat-read it on the way! – The Register: Net-talking toaster to burn news onto bread
  • Are you being watched? If so: what are your ratings? – The International Herald Tribune: Culture of surveillance may contribute to delusional condition
  • Imagine that: you *can* affect the body from the mind! Frankly, I’m too much of a multi-tasker to be able to get this to work.. – Yahoo!/LiveScience: Study: Zen Meditation Really Does Clear the Mind
  • I think there are some people who might consider *all* PhD’s to be superflous… – The West Australian: Frivolous PhDs spark serious deliberation
  • EXTRA: Something to drive the Skeptics nuts, perhaps.. Still, if he has proof that can be reproduced it would be simply astounding and realy important. As it is, it’s great mind-fodder for what-ifs and speculative fiction. – IOL: ‘Water can absorb emotions, cure illness’
  • EXTRA: Silver is not the greatest of medicines. At least no lyncanthropy will break out.. – The UK Telegraph: Woman who turned silver warns of dangers of internet medicines
  • EXTRA: She was blind enough not to see that coming.. (groan) So, the question: can she wear an eyepatch, or does she need to gouge out her good eye? – IOL/Sapa-AFP: ‘You are not blind enough’
  • EXTRA: Think about it: pets are more prone to unconditional love, despite the fact that you can lock them up whenever they are being a pain or you need a bit of “me” time. – News24/Reuters: Americans pick pet over partner
  • EXTRA: The biggest persistent problem to debunkers is the apparent success that some people perceive. – Medical News Today: ME Sufferers Rely On Alternative Medicines
  • EXTRA: Because sometimes you just want the world to stop, so you can get off? Or because we feel we live in an increasingly complex and scary world with machinations far beyond our comprehension or control and we therefore transfer our anxieties on to the universe in general, thus manifesting fears that, while not entirely unjustified, might be aggravated a bit out of proportion? No, definitely the former.. – BBC: Why the fascination with the end of the world?
  • EXTRA: I said it before: I’m all for alternative approaches to fuel, but panicked rushes to the side of the boat just cause it to tip over. Diverse responses to complex problems, otherwise it’s just Oil 2.0. – New Scientist: Europe backs downs on biofuels from crops
  • EXTRA: I always find it saddening when people do this. Always consider the actual more than the potential, I say. No jokes here, just sadness and tragedy. – PhysOrg: Indian teenage suicide over black hole test: reports
  • EXTRA: I think nature is trying to screw with us.. – Metro: Giant ice penis – is climate change to blame?
  • EXTRA: Melting ice caps suck — and that may be exactly what we need to survive? – New Scientist: Melting ice caps could suck carbon from atmosphere
  • EXTRA: With all the stuff whizzing around up there, you’d think that this would be a daily occurrence.. Then again, space *is* rather big.. and empty.. – News24/Sapa-AFP: Exciting comet discovery
  • EXTRA: Yay! Lazer beam, lazer beam, lazer beam! – The Register: Northrop in electric blaster cannon milestone
  • EXTRA: I’m sure they saw this coming.. (Ok, ok, it’s a bad joke, and you didn’t have to be psychic to predict it was going to come.) – CBS/AP: Vermont Town Repeals Ban On Fortunetelling
  • EXTRA: They aren’t *wrong*, really.. just objecting to the wrong thing.. Personally, I find dead-end, ubiquitous technology to be abhorrent. – Wired: Farmers See ‘Mark of the Beast’ in RFID Livestock Tags
  • EXTRA: Personally, I’m wondering when he made the deal with the alien robot people. – National Nine MSN Australia: Kim Jong Il dead since 2003: author
• Whipped Celery and Onions (EXTRA)
  • EXTRA: Part 1 of 3: the other side of the skeptics is no less vocal. (Haven’t read it yet, to be truthful; will check it out after the show.) – The UFO Chronicles: REPORTER DUPED BY UFO DEBUNKERS
  • EXTRA: Part 2 of 3: in which more is written on the unfortunately gaudy blog. (But I don’t hold that against the article.) – The UFO Chronicles: CSICOP, now CSI: UFO Debunkers Kendrick Frazier and James Oberg
  • EXTRA: Part 3 of 3: in which they make it clear that they are not fans of the organization, no matter how sexy they make the initials.. – The UFO Chronicles: CSICOP, Now CSI: CSI’s “Scientific” Analysis of UFOs: Thanks, but No Thanks!
  • EXTRA: I can’t see how an elephant hopped up on cocaine is going to be *easier* to control.. I mean, sure: they can’t pull out a 9mm and waste someone, but they could still stomp over Wall Street with a phone call.. – BBC: Elephant cured of drug addiction
  • EXTRA: I wonder if we should be wary of the fact that they all left? – BBC: Mammoths moved ‘out of America’
  • EXTRA: I know that restaurants are expensive at times, but do they now *actually* cost an arm and a leg? – The UK Telegraph: Man tries to amputate his own arm in California restaurant
  • EXTRA: To some people, we’re nothing more than an inventory of parts. Chilling.. – Yahoo!/Reuters: Cash-for-corpse murders probed
  • EXTRA: Art as punishment. – The UK Telegraph: Murderer to be turned into fish food
  • EXTRA: Watch for the CSI-inpsired episode soon.. Or is this a CSI-inspired crime? – Fox/AP: Young Siblings’ Skeletons Found in California Storage Unit
  • EXTRA: It’s not drowning on dry land so much as forcing your organs into shutdown. Yikes! – The Macomb Daily: Victim drank too much water
  • EXTRA: Nutmeg is poisonous! Well, kinda in the same way that water is poisonous: en masse.. – The Province/AFP: Swedish magazine recalled after faulty recipe poisons 4
  • EXTRA: Now *that* is a killer exam! – BBC: Mass fainting in Tanzanian exam
  • EXTRA: Do all mysteries really have to be solved? – CBS13: Zodiac Killer’s Identity And Weapon Uncovered?
  • EXTRA: Another mystery that was plausibe, even if not actual. – NewsDaily: Bulgaria casts doubt on London “poisoned umbrella” killing
  • EXTRA: Traditions are changing all around, and must change as the world expands. Still, it’s good to hold on to something.. – Yahoo!/Reuters: Maasai warrior hairdressers break taboos
  • EXTRA: This is some sort of martial arts I’m not familiar with.. – WTOP/Fresno Bee: Authorities: Burglar wakes men with spice rub
  • EXTRA: The maintenance people aren’t going to pull up their boots and get moving any time soon — because they aren’t qualified to. (Kinda reminds me of the limitation on mages wearing only cloth. Ridiculous! Like any person couldn’t slap on a bit of chain mail when facing a dire enemy!) – The UK Telegraph: Council refuses to clean up spilt bin without staff qualified to wear wellies

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