Show Notes for TWS114: Chemical Romance

On the show this week:

• Love ’em and Leave ’em
• Space is Big(-ish)
• Crazy Random Happenstance
• More Than You Know (EXTRA)

This week’s Challenge Question:
What is your “bathroom book”, your “throne text”, your “pausing perusing”? Or what *should* 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
• Promo: Comedy4Cast —
• Promo: International Detective Dragons From Outer Space —
• Love ’em and Leave ’em
  • Men obviously can’t, because then fathers would not have to ask menacingly: “What are your intentions toward my daughter?” – LiveScience: Women Can Smell a Man’s Intentions
  • Those crazy hormones.. I wonder if they’ll come in a spray? “Want to be wild tonight? Afraid of your inhibitions getting in the way? Just take some of our new ‘Loose Goose’ spray!” – New Scientist: High hormone levels in women linked to unfaithfulness
  • Apparently, being a man or woman might be largely up to how our mom’s tickled us.. – New Scientist: Mum’s behaviour may make young rats more butch
  • Be careful of having multiple kids and pets. Will you have enough love (chemicals) to give around? – New Scientist: Pet dogs rival humans for emotional satisfaction
  • Apparently, *caring* for someone makes them easier to remember.. Wait.. isn’t that obvious? – NewsDaily: Familiar face? “Love” hormone may help, study says
  • EXTRA: I’m thinking applications for cryogenics, but that’s just me.. – BBC: Brain-cooling devices developed
  • EXTRA: The world doth vex me, sleep avoideth me too./Are others plotting to pull me askew? – ScienceDaily: Macbeth’s Curse: Link Between Sleeplessness And Paranoia Identified
  • EXTRA: Does literature reflect humanity — or help drive it? – New Scientist: How novels help drive social evolution
  • Nudity is not a concept that children can relate to, because they don’t yet know enough shame.. – Ananova: ‘Indecent’ cartoons trigger warning
  • Adults who need lessons on porn appreciation were obviously sheltered too much.. – Ananova: University opens porn course
  • EXTRA: I’m not surprised at people going crazy with texting, given how some people are just very talkative chatter-boxes.. Now, excuse me while I update my Twitter again.. – Ananova: Text maniac
  • Surprisingly, I didn’t find this story surprising.. – New Scientist: Model of surprise has ‘wow’ factor built in
  • Surprise is written across the brain in ‘wow’ measurements, I’m sure.. – New Scientist: Magic reveals the brain’s response to the impossible
  • If you drank *real* coffee instead of *instant* coffee, the sights are much better. HD vs SD, really.. – The UK Daily Mail: Go easy on the coffee, you could start seeing things
  • Sometimes, it’s really good to let out a tear. Life can’t be good all the time — and probably shouldn’t be. – New Scientist: Is it really bad to be sad?
  • EXTRA: The joke wasn’t even that funny.. – Ananova: Girl laughs for 12 years
  • EXTRA: Always make a map of your crazy lair! – The UK Daily Mail: Loner who built network of tunnels out of rubbish in his home dies ‘after getting lost in labyrinth’
  • EXTRA: Hope springs eternal; bed springs hurt the back. – Yahoo!/Reuters: Would-be Chinese bride, 107, seeks first husband
  • And here I gave mine away for free… Well, I gave it away for sex, I suppose.. – Ananova: Bids for student’s virginity hit ~£2.5m
  • EXTRA: Contracts made while under duress aren’t enforceable; is true love formed under stress undeniable, however? Particularly after noting the role that oxcytocin (a stress hormone) plays in bonding and mating.. – Ananova: Couple got engaged while stranded on mountain
• Space is Big(-ish)
  • Flying Spaghetti Monster or UFO? – The UK Telegraph: Wind turbine destroyed after ‘octopus UFO’ seen in sky
  • Nothing to see here, folks. It’s all just “natural”… – Virgin Media: Mechanical theory in ‘UFO mystery’
  • Oh, those lights? Uh, that’s just… Swamp gas. Or the moon. Or a planet. Or anything else.. – STV: Shock video footage of “UFO” near Bonnybridge
  • EXTRA: If they don’t exist, we will build them. But if we build them, doesn’t it show that they really can exist, and therefore, given the infinity of space and time, they *do* exist? – The Detroit News: Clinton Township man dreams of creating flying machine
  • All it takes is a shake and a shimmy.. – BBC: Getting into space by broomstick
  • EXTRA: “No — it’s even bigger than that!” – BBC: Milky Way ‘bigger than thought’
  • It’s the chicken-and-egg problem, only in reverse.. Huh? – BBC: Black holes ‘preceded galaxies’
  • “Computer: freeze program!” – New Scientist: Our world may be a giant hologram
  • Soon, we will discover the moon cows when the rovers accidentally step into a cow pattie. [Cue laugh track.] – New Scientist: Martian methane traced to three ‘hotspots’
  • EXTRA: Hey, it’s not just me! Even the entire planet needs to slim down a bit! – New Scientist: A high-albedo diet will chill the planet
  • Flight of the Living Bread? (Ok, that was reaching..) – BBC: First flight of algae-fuelled jet
  • EXTRA: We are being colonized. (Sigler is scary.) – New Scientist: Ground-based bacteria may be making it rain
  • EXTRA: They are in collusion with the makin-in-rain bugs to create fuel-air bombs.. Ok, maybe not.. – New Scientist: Bug enzyme generates fuel from water
  • EXTRA: Apparently, they are close to getting PLAID SPEED to work.. – ScienceDaily: Physicists Squeeze Light To Quantum Limit
  • EXTRA: Just imagine all the uses for something that makes stuff invisible: invisible dashboards in cars, invisible wires running between machines, invisible dirt on the floor that I should have swept/vaccuumed up.. – PhysOrg: Next generation cloaking device demonstrated
  • EXTRA: Welcome to the modern medieval times.. – The UK Daily Mail: Young woman lashed naked to post and burnt to death ‘for being a sorceress’
• Crazy Random Happenstance
  • Apparently, even golf is no longer healthy for you. Next: breathing is a chronic addiction. – BBC: Playing golf can ‘damage hearing’
  • Never make promises that no one else will ever make you keep, because you’ll “feel bad” when you fail. (This is feel-good crap.) – BBC: Resolutions ‘bad for your health’
  • Eventually, all of humanity will have a label: “Warning: may contain stupid.” – Ananova: Dairy Milk contains milk – shock
  • Want to have fun on your own tropical island for months at a time with fantastic pay? The catch? You have to blog. (Ok.) – Ananova: The best job in the world
  • The most outrageous part of this story is dressing up for New Year’s parties. Do people do that? Why wasn’t I informed? Of course, I’ve never been to a New Year’s party.. – The UK Telegraph: Burglar scared off by man dressed as Thor after New Year party James Bond star Daniel Craig was rumoured to be taking the lead role, but no actors have so far been confirmed.
  • Another case of Massive Shoe Migration, although this time on land, which makes it more rare.. – Houston Chronicle/AP: Nary a soul claims shoes left on Florida highway
  • I’m all for Force-training devices (especially if the Church of the Jedi happens to endorse them, which they don’t (yet) here..), but single-use items always bug me. The Force is not settled in me over this one. – USA Today: Toy trains ‘Star Wars’ fans to use The Force
  • EXTRA: I’m sure they are feeling rather persecuted right now.. – Metro: Adolf Hitler taken from parents
  • EXTRA: I just moved the stickers and/or pulled it apart. I cannot remember legitimately solving one, but I think I’ll use the Kirk defence.. – Ananova: Man solves Rubik’s Cube – after 26 years
  • EXTRA: Just because I’m temporarily incompetent doesn’t mean that I’m fireable.. – Metro: You can’t fire me, I’m drunk
  • EXTRA: Not only is the flying car available, crazy adventurers are going to take a cross-continental tour in one. The age of the airship cannot be far! Tally ho! – Ananova: African trek – by flying car
  • EXTRA: Maybe, just maybe, our bodies might be able to show us brains a thing or two about health.. Hmm.. does that mean we are yet again screwing up evolution? – ScienceDaily: Evolution In Action: Our Antibodies Take ‘Evolutionary Leaps’ To Fight Microbes
  • EXTRA: You *could* say “Well, what did you expect?”, but you might also say “I figured he had some level of decency”. – Ananova: EU’s costly insult
  • EXTRA: At least it was a sparkling way to go… – BBC: Diamond clues to beasts’ demise
  • EXTRA: I think the term “trophy” is probably the most telling term, isn’t it? – Astigan: Discovery helps solve mystery of South American trophy heads
  • EXTRA: Seems pretty obvious that Stonehenge Rocks.. – The UK Telegraph: Stonehenge was ‘giant concert venue’
  • EXTRA: There bringing monster back. (Yay!) – New Scientist: Ten extinct beasts that could walk the Earth again
  • EXTRA: I’ve looked for the sparks behind my car, but I haven’t seen them yet.. – New Scientist: Car exhaust fumes cause lightning strikes
  • EXTRA: Surprisingly, it’s not where you put the armour, it’s where you put the holes. (Um, and the bullets.) – BBC: Holes give edge to new MoD armour
  • Warning: do not consider your livestock as early warning devices! – The Swedish Local: Swedish cows make lousy earthquake detectors: study
  • EXTRA: This happened a while ago, but the idea is spreading to the other countries. Soon, there will be a “Church of the Athiest”, I’m sure.. – The UK Telegraph: Atheist buses denying God’s existence take to streets
  • EXTRA: Funny.. I find them all a little creepy.. I thought that was, in a way, the point. – BBC: Church removes ‘scary crucifix’
  • EXTRA: So.. persecuting those who have *too much* faith will be the next order of the day for the church.. Wha? – The UK Daily Mail: Pope declares ‘holy war’ against people who falsely claim to have seen the Virgin Mary
  • EXTRA: They say that fire prevention begins at home. Oops. – Ananova: World’s worst firemen?
  • EXTRA: Apparently, the “cleansing” mechanisms have not entirely come clean.. I support a crackdown on falso advertising, I just worry that they are using careful scientific techniques like “blanket accusations” and “evidence-less arguments”… – BBC: Scientists dismiss ‘detox myth’
  • EXTRA: This has many levels of creepy written on it. – Yahoo!/AP: Texas death row inmate pulls out eye, eats it
  • EXTRA: Wanting to make a more realistic display, they added a messy boy’s room to the house. I wonder if they also included dirty dishes, dog/cat hair, and that mysterious pile of stuff in the basement that you can’t remember getting.. – Ananova: Room with a phew
• More Than You Know (EXTRA)
  • EXTRA: He would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for those pesky kids and their smoking! Hmm.. Maybe smoking isn’t so bad, after all! Thanks, smoking, for all the good things that you do to help catch criminals. – Ananova: Crook hid in carpet
  • EXTRA: If you think that having any sort of status or authority makes you exempt from the foolish enforcement of ridiculously bad rules, I’ve got some “lemon juice” for you to drink.. – Ananova: Policeman ordered to drink his own urine
  • EXTRA: If there is one consistent pattern to worfare history, it’s that if it goes on long enough, we’ll try anything. – ScienceDaily: Archeologist Uncovers Evidence Of Ancient Chemical Warfare
  • EXTRA: Is the Earth harbouring a pair of intertwining turbines? That would make the Molemen kinda screwed, wouldn’t it? – Discovery News: Did Earth’s Twin Cores Spark Plate Tectonics?
  • EXTRA: Scientists always use the power of their minds to do stuff.. – Yahoo!/Reuters: U.S. scientists learn how to levitate tiny objects
  • EXTRA: An interesting explanation of how an ice circle might form; kinda like a frozen swirly.. – The UK Daily Mail: Ice one! Walker discovers 10ft-wide, spinning frozen arctic circle in British waters for the first time
  • EXTRA: Gives a whole new meaning to “touch screen”. Now, if it wasn’t a couple of frames per second. – New Scientist: Morphing gel display puts images at your fingertips
  • EXTRA: Eventually, people will question the reliable sightings by suggesting that they were geese. – The UK Independent: ‘Reliable’ big cat sightings revealed
  • EXTRA: It’s the British version of the Montauk monster, perhaps? – The UK Daily Mail: Is this the Beast of Exmoor? Body of mystery animal washes up on beach
  • EXTRA: Apparently, “monkey see, monkey do” really *does* happen! – Great Ape Trust of Iowa: (O) Orangutan’s spontaneous whistling opens new chapter in study of evolution of speech
  • EXTRA: They were not, apparently, useful for TV reception.. – BBC: Dino feathers ‘were for display’
  • EXTRA: Forget “Hungry Hippos” — the new game is “Rampant Rabbits”! – New Scientist: Rampant rabbits trash World Heritage island
  • EXTRA: Man.. that’s some really slow fish, or a really quick pig. – Ananova: Pig catches fish

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