Show Notes for TWS116: So Little Time Is Now

On the show this week:

• The Past Tells A Story..
• (Not So) Simply Criminal
• The Future Holds Potential
• Uncertain Present (EXTRA)

This week’s Challenge Question:
Is Humanity is a rut?
Leave your answer in the comments, send your email to weirdshow[[at]]gmail.com, leave a comment or record your message via the MobaTalk client on the right hand side of The WEIRD Show or call in at 1-206-203-2292.

Thanks to @martyndarkly from the excellent Movie Mantras podcast for the Ibex tip and anim5 of The International Detective Dragons From Outer Space podcast for, well, just making me think.

Full links to all stories covered and many more after the jump!

• Theme Song: Caffeine by Grubspoon from The Podsafe Music Network
• Promo: The House Of Grey — When you don’t remember who you are, the world is not that stable, either. A tale of mystery and magic in a slightly alternate present.
• The Past Tells A Story..
  • Another stop on my (mythical) cross-Canada tour, to be sure! (If only to check the time.) – The Canadian Press: Canada’s Stonehenge: scientist says Alberta sun temple has 5,000-year-old calendar
  • Technically, couldn’t these be claimed as an heirloom? – The Daily Star/Agence France Presse: Tools found in Malaysia turn out to be 1.8 million years old
  • It’s like a modern-day archeological adventure-mystery story! Soon, there will be Nazis and ancient rituals and tribes and half-torn shirts.. – MSNBC/Discovery: Pagan cult mosaic found under cathedral
  • Some people just can’t let anything be left in the past.. – The UK Telegraph: Extinct ibex is resurrected by cloning
  • Sure, it can live forever — but would it *want* to? – National Geographic: “Immortal” Jellyfish Swarm World’s Oceans
  • It seems a pity that my life will not be as long as it could be; or, will I live long enough to live forever? – AOL: Uzbekistan Claims World’s Oldest Woman
  • Shall we call this the “Energizer” gene? – ScienceDaily: ‘Longevity Gene’ Common Among People Living To 100 Years Old And Beyond
  • At one point, we could have bitten the dogs. – ScienceDaily: Early Humans Had ‘Jaws Of Steel’
  • I think I may have just beached an assumption or two.. – ScienceDaily: Early Whales Gave Birth On Land, Fossil Find Reveals
  • At one point, when the Earth warms again, we shall see them return. Mark my words: we shall have monsters once more! (Hooray!?!) – BBC: Largest snake ‘as long as a bus’
  • We shall soon find the dragons and wizards, I’m sure of it.. – Yahoo!/AP: Mammoth remains found at Calif. construction site
  • Did our collective consciousness store memories of huge, ancient creatures? And do those memories account for the belief in cryptids? – Cryptozoology Online: RICHARD FREEMAN: The Global Monster Template
  • EXTRA: Good question: let’s stop that, immediately! Or, start a second species of humanoid.. Wait: there are so many species of every other animal: why is there only one species of human? – New Scientist: What’s the point of being warm-blooded?
  • EXTRA: Turns out, changes in one species influence changes in another. While blindingly obvious a conclusion, I suspect that it is often not considered.. – ScienceDaily: Key Insights Into How New Species Emerge
  • EXTRA: Who was the first brave butterfly to try this? Or rather, who were the first million? I suspect that there’s more Lamark than Darwin out there than we’d like to commonly admit.. – MSNBC/AP: Ants tricked into raising butterflies
  • EXTRA: Nothing like someone *else* saying your research is “worthless crap” — and then responding: “it’s not worthless!”. – The UK Telegraph: Student in legal threat over excrement blunder
  • EXTRA: Wonderful, even the chimps are in the Game.. – ScienceDaily: Small Male Chimps Use Politics, Rather Than Aggression, To Lead The Pack
• (Not So) Simply Criminal
  • Nothing smells as sweet as the blame you can give your neighbours.. – Philly.com/AP: NYC’s mysterious syrup smell tracked to New Jersey
  • Vampires dating vampire hunters? That only works on TV.. – The Star-Ledger/AP: N.J. ‘Vampyre’ jailed after allegedly harassing teen
  • What ever happened to “right of way”-type legislation? – Ananova: The ladder of the law
  • Now if this boy grows up to meet a girl named A… – The Sweden Local: Swedish couple denied right to name their son Q
  • Comics are afraid people will paint with too big a brush and use stereotypes.. – io9: Will Anti-Porn Law Kill Comics In The UK?
  • If they won’t put up with it at school, the “real world” is hardly to be more forgiving.. – Ananova: Smelly footed student wins right to study
  • Aren’t shared experiences more powerful when they are real? What sort of environment are you building? – The UK Times: Nothing builds a team like a nosedive
  • Not everything is art just because you say it is. Some things are just acts of deliberate stupidity… – The Sweden Local: Irate doc to ‘psychotic’ art student: get a haircut
  • Litter cops? – Yahoo!/AP: ‘Litterbug vigilante’ stops cigarette tosser
  • Should vigilantes exist, to cover the gaps between the law and good taste? – ABC Australia: ‘Phantom Expander’ targets New Zealand hoons
  • Is that a pigeon in your pocket, or are you an alien? – BBC: Australia holds ‘pigeon smuggler’
  • EXTRA: Could you tell the truth for a whole year? I can’t. (That’s a lie.) – Ananova: Man’s year long truth vigil
  • EXTRA: If they were hungry, why did they only eat organs? – Fox/AP: ‘Hungry’ Killers Ate Girl’s Body Parts, Prosecutors Say
  • EXTRA: Likely not so much honour was gathered from this action.. – ABC7 News: Pic Shows Man Robbing Stores With Klingon Sword
  • EXTRA: Leeches on society, these crooks.. – The UK Journal: Hunt for ‘Dracula’ thieves
  • EXTRA: She should have just stolen the food.. – Yahoo!/AP: Woman robs restaurant while tearfully apologizing
  • EXTRA: … and not everybody even steals what they need.. Or does stolen food taste less palatable? – Ananova: Burglars return stolen food
  • EXTRA: It’s more Dalek than ED-209.. – BBC: Japanese firms unveil ‘robocop’
  • EXTRA: Apparently, bunnies can’t tell the different between the tractor-as-robo-cow-with-guns and a real mooer.. – Yahoo/The Press Assocation: Bunnies target of ‘gun-toting cow’
  • EXTRA: There are two way to think of this: never give up, and you can achieve anything; and, sometimes, the odds are against you. – Ananova: Woman fails driving test 771 times
  • EXTRA: There’s tough, and then there’s cheap. Then there is stupid… – Ananova: Man pulls teeth with pliers
  • EXTRA: Ok, *this* on is the toughest.. – The NJ News: Shooting victim spits out bullet
  • EXTRA: Ok, I take it back: these guys are now the official toughest. – Ananova: Survival of the toughest
  • EXTRA: Just because you seek psychic advice doesn’t make you a bad cop, no more than non-linear thinking.. – Florida Today: City must rehire officer
  • EXTRA: What a smelly diet. A wonderful, smelly diet. If it includes steak. – Ananova: Man loses 160lbs – on garlic and onions
  • EXTRA: When you leave this world, don’t take the world down with you. – Ananova: Surf ‘n’ turf funeral
  • EXTRA: If it is for the better, is it wrong? We are all subject to mass hypnosis — shouldn’t we do it intentionally, and for good goals? – The Kansas City Star/The Wichita Eagle: Kansas high school coach told to stop hypnotizing team
  • EXTRA: From now on, apparently they can only take paintings… – The Sweden Local: Camera ban hinders hunt for Swedish sea monster
  • EXTRA: Turns out, leaders are made (or become) not born. So the excuse for not being a leader is basically: you’re a loser. 😉 – ScienceDaily: No Such Thing As A ‘Born Leader,’ Study In Fish Finds
  • EXTRA: Does colour have power? Technically: yes and no.. – MSNBC/Discovery: ‘Green magic’ protected child mummies
• The Future Holds Potential
  • Hey, at least someone is looking out for us.. – Ananova: ‘Warning – zombies ahead!’
  • Apparently, the world *will* flood when the ice caps melt… – ScienceDaily: Collapse Of Antarctic Ice Sheet Would Likely Put Washington, D.C. Largely Underwater
  • “Renewable energy” has he same ring to me as “perpetual motion”.. – New Scientist: Why sustainable power is unsustainable
  • A genetic anomoly — or the beginning of a new species of human? – KTVU: Baby Born In Bay Area With 12 Functioning Fingers, 12 Toes
  • Turns out, the minotaurs, centaurs, satyrs and mancats will have to wait for a while.. – NewsDaily: Animal-human clones don’t work: study
  • If no one considers the future, can anyone really consider the present? I, for one, am glad such an initiative exists. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes of it. – Google News/AFP: Singularity school unveiled at elite TED gathering
  • EXTRA: A completely creepy construction of cancer cells created. – New Scientist: ‘Living doll’ made of human cancer cells
  • EXTRA: Winter babies are apparently “short and cranky”. 😉 – BBC: Summer babies ‘tall and strong’
  • EXTRA: Again: anomoly, or race of new humanoids? Are we growing hobbits? – ABC: Medical Mystery: The Baby Who Wouldn’t Grow
  • EXTRA: There are two competing trends: having children younger (e.g. high school pregnancies) and having children older (e.g. retirement home pregnancies). The future PTA meetings are going to be confusing. – Yahoo!/Reuters: 60-year-old gives birth to twins?
  • EXTRA: It should really say “movie rights”, as they have acquired the rights to make a movie about a man with a brain which never remembers. I wonder if it restarts from a blank slate every 10 minutes.. – Variety: Columbia, Rudin acquire brain rights
  • EXTRA: I wonder if this will lead to a line of cosmetic products? – MSNBC: Belly buttons may cue potential mate
  • EXTRA: Turns out: people believe weird things. But, is that entirely wrong? – CBS/AP: “Hey, Babe, What’s Your Blood Type?”
  • EXTRA: Yay! Cancer is cured! (Again!) – BBC: Cancer protection secret revealed
  • EXTRA: Once again, gaining a new perspective on the world enables new discoveries. – ScienceDaily: Many New Species Discovered In Hidden Mozambique Oasis With Help Of Google Earth
  • EXTRA: Do we need all the variations? How many is enough? How many is too many? If evolution happens, don’t species die off periodically anyway? Who are we to stand in the way? – ScienceDaily: Dozen New Tree Frogs Discovered In Rapidly Vanishing Habitat In India
  • EXTRA: I do! I do! I keep all my best ideas there.. – ScienceDaily: Who Cares About The Fourth Dimension?
  • EXTRA: More news of the UFO information released in Denmark because it’s already been cleansed of anything useful (or didn’t contain any useful info in the first place..). – Jyllands-Posten/The Copenhagen Post: The truth is now out there
  • EXTRA: But the real question was: was it a pick-up or a drop-off? – The UK Telegraph: UFO spotted opposite Houses of Parliament
  • EXTRA: As long as the answer remains, approximately: “Some, more than likely more than a little, pretty sure it’s not none.” – BBC: Number of alien worlds quantified
• Uncertain Present (EXTRA)
  • EXTRA: Age, after a certain point, is irrelevant. Love (and movies) may live forever. – Ananova: Couple bridge huge age gap through art
  • EXTRA: Thar’s gold down there in the bowels of th’ Earth! – Reuters: Sewage yields more gold than top mines
  • EXTRA: Get screwed twice: first on price, then, on… – Yahoo!/AP: Careful! These statues could get you pregnant
  • EXTRA: In these modern days, we cobble together the is-shoes. – BBC: Bush shoe sculpture ‘taken down’
  • EXTRA: It’s funny how the things we’ve had forever are the things we understand perhaps the least.. – ScienceDaily: Vision Explained: Scientists Finally Capture Elusive Signaling Device Our Retinas Use To Tell Us What We See
  • EXTRA: I was less certain about this story until I saw a version of it in my local newspaper. I guess you can add this to the list of “things women can do that men can’t”. – Cafeteria/Bureau Report: Kidney removed through vagina
  • EXTRA: Turns out “playing it out in your mind” is not just an expression.. – CBC: Brain simulates actions in stories as a person reads: study
  • EXTRA: Given how tight we are as a society (and how unlikely it is that the family unit will be destroyed, at least historically), is this surprising at all? – ScienceDaily: Orphan Chimpanzees Cleverer Than Humans, Study Finds
  • EXTRA: Does this mean we can’t stare down a lemur? – BBC: Humans share lemur gaze tendency
  • EXTRA: At this point, it’s really just variations on a theme. I wonder if we truly have discovered all the truly different life forms on Earth? – The UK Telegraph: Ten new species of amphibian discovered in Colombia

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