Show Notes for TWS118: I Could Be Small In Japan

On the show this week:

• Life-sized
• (Not So?) Smart… Not?
• Mushylanneous (EXTRA)

This week’s Challenge Question:
What “absolutely true” thing do you and everyone know that has never been scientifically proven (as far as you know)?
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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.
• Life-sized
  • Giant cryptid or floating log? Or yet another crappy Photoshop job. Like the article says: “you decide!”. – The UK Daily Mail: Picture of 100ft-long ‘snake’ sparks fears of mythical monster in Borneo
  • Makes my mouse problem looks really small.. – The UK Telegraph: Giant rat caught in China
  • IF there is any place a large, hairy hominid creature could be roaming around unseen, Northern Russia would be a good candidate location. – Cryptomundo: Siberian Snowman: Hot Story or Hoax?
  • Turns out: the little buggers have jet packs! (Where’s mine?) – ScienceDaily: Songbirds Fly Three Times Faster Than Expected
  • EXTRA: Given how far birds can fly, why can’t fish spread tha far? – AOL/LiveScience: Same Species Found at Both Ends of Earth
  • Yet another child actor gone nuts. – BBC: Chimp shot after mauling US woman
  • Turns out, we stepped in a puddle when we landed. Oops! – New Scientist: First liquid water may have been spotted on Mars
  • EXTRA: It’s not what you think: the patients *survived* the arsenic! – NewsDaily: Leukemia patients treated with arsenic, vitamin A
  • EXTRA: Soon, other cells will arrive to tell the cancer cells: “Come with me if you want to live!”.. – ScienceDaily: Engineers Create Intelligent Molecules That Seek And Destroy Diseased Cells
  • … where they sipped on coconut cocktails (made from *space* coconuts!) and chatted with Hugh Hefner about life, the universe and Playgirls. – ScienceDaily: Life forms May Have Evolved In Ancient Hot Springs On Mars
  • I wonder if I can vaguely point to any direction in space and go, “you know, over that way, somewhere”. – BBC: Galaxy has ‘billions of Earths’
  • First, be vewwy, vewwy quiet.. Then, throw away all your assumptions about your prey. Finally, wear a hat with large earflaps.. – New Scientist: How to hunt for shadow life
  • A more provocative title, although they aren’t really “alien” in terms of “extraterrestrial” so much as in “not like us”. How very us-centric! – The UK Times: Aliens ‘may be living among us’ undetected by science
  • Most movies which have a “gene bomb” portray it as a bad thing.. – NewsDaily: Gene explosion set humans, great apes apart
  • EXTRA: Similar to a story last week: if we take the LEGO blocks of DNA and rearrange them, we can make our *own* toys! Er.. “life” – we can make our own *life*. (How embarrassing..) – Fox/LiveScience: New Artificial DNA Points to Alien Life
  • EXTRA: Pretty soon, they’ll know the home address of the origin of life. They’ll undoubtedly dub it the “stork galaxy” or something.. – ScienceDaily: Astronomers Unveiling Life’s Cosmic Origins
  • EXTRA: Time for a new generation of “killer bees” films, perhaps? – Yahoo!/AP: Africanized bees found in Utah for the first time
  • EXTRA: More sightings of Alien Big Cats from the UK. Not as scary a print as last week, though. Again: only 1-2 prints? – BBC: ‘Big cat’ print found on farmland
  • EXTRA: Geez.. I mean, you’d think it would take more than a chicken shed to capture the beast. Can we mythologize a bit here? – The UK Press and Journal: The snarling “Beast of Buchan” captured alive in chicken shed
  • EXTRA: Mentioned in passing: I literally read half the story, thought “Hnh! It’s like biological rock-paper-scissors”, continued the story and read them describe it that way.. – ScienceDaily: Survival Of The Weakest? Cyclical Competition Of Three Species Favors Weakest As Victor
  • EXTRA: What caused this mass spawning to turn into a mass death? – CafeTerra: Graveyard of Olive Ridley sea turtles
  • EXTRA: Old people should just slow down and relax. That’s what I’m looking forward to, at least.. – Ananova: Rope-swinging pensioner’s fitness plan
• (Not So?) Smart… Not?
  • Next: the baboons and pigeons are given the chance to conduct the study themselves, and we discover that they can also be vindictive.. – ScienceDaily: Baboons And Pigeons Are Capable Of Higher-level Cognition, Behavioral Studies Show
  • By “mind-reading” they really mean “we can tell you what you might be thinking, after having primed you with things to think about..” – The UK Telegraph: Mind-reading technique developed in US
  • Is there something different between the manipulation of the conscious mind and an internal wiring difference? In the end, is their *really* a difference? – New Scientist: Hypnosis used to induce ‘synaesthesia’
  • Turns out, when you are distracted by things like a “classroom”, you can learn pretty good. – New Scientist: ‘iTunes university’ better than the real thing
  • Turns out: they know quite a bit. The teacher took notes.. – Ananova: Pupils told to write down rudest insults
  • Like all research, it has it’s ups and downs, loud claims to fame, and can have unexpected results. – Ananova: Scientist studies whoopee cushions
  • EXTRA: Using such outdated tools like “logic” and “smarts”, has this academic succeeded where the biggest military brains have failed? (Or ignored..) – Ananova: Academic ‘pinpoints Bin Laden’
  • EXTRA: Just wait until the RIAA gets a hold of this guy! I’m sure the tune was copyrighted.. – UPI: Man gets 20 weeks in jail for whistling
  • EXTRA: When life coach becomes death coach, it’s time to call a lawyer. – KYW/AP: Ohio woman pleads guilty in over-exercising death
  • EXTRA: Now *that* is being caught “red-handed”! – Dispatch Online: Muti murder suspect found with body part
  • EXTRA: It’s not what you think: merely the *presence* of these blighted restaurants (should we call them “riskaurants”?) is enough to threaten your life. – New Scientist: Study links fast food joints with stroke risk
  • EXTRA: There are obvious conclusions, and then there are… well… – Ananova: Blind mechanic can work in the dark
  • EXTRA: A millionaire humbles his staff by forcing them to dine on takeout food. He must really hate them, to risk their health like that.. – Ananova: Let them eat burgers
  • EXTRA: Talking about inverting an idea: instead of a container, use a *sponge*. – New Scientist: Gas tank of the future takes a step closer
  • EXTRA: And people wonder why scientists are starting to get left out of the best parties! – ScienceDaily: Scientist Predicts A ‘Miserable Future’ For Our Universe
  • EXTRA: Turns out, there may be good reason to suspect that robots will eventually rise up and destroy us: mostly because *we* created them.. – MSNBC/AP: Scientists debate a robot war
  • EXTRA: Congratulations are in order. Also: ewwww.. – The UK Daily Mail: Pictured: The man with the world’s longest ear hair
  • EXTRA: There’s seems to be a resurgence in interest in this collection of bizarre art and design elements. I really should travel through there someday. – NewsFlavor: Mystery Surrounding Denver International Airport
  • EXTRA: Was it sickness from colonial ambitions more than an internal agricultural collapse that killed the stone-head worshippers? – ScienceDaily: Easter Island’s Controversial Collapse: More To The Story Than Deforestation?
  • EXTRA: Yeah, but who’s exploring the *truths* of it, then? – Der Spiegel: Artist Explores Myths of Nazi UFO Technology
  • EXTRA: Like all good tools, a computerized soap bar will do what you want based on how you hold it. – New Scientist: Gadget reads users’ minds from their grip
  • EXTRA: Is one of the world’s most prominent magicians playing tricks? – Natural News: Randi Backs Out of Challenge with Homeopath George Vithoulkas
• Mushylanneous (EXTRA)
  • Maybe I was tired when I read this, but I think it told me something new. And that it told me to “find Kevin”. – New Scientist: Are bad sleeping habits driving us mad?
  • I need a kiss, cutie; oh, I’m not a doctor, but it *is* for health reasons.. – Yahoo!/AP: Kisses unleash chemicals that ease stress levels
  • Calms the nerves and saves the heart! Gives small children the gumption they need, and the strength for the old! – BBC: Heart pill to banish bad memories
  • Is the world ready for another me? (Hey, it’s easier than finding a mate these days..) – Ananova: Japan invents Mini-Me robots
  • EXTRA: How much you care in influenced by how much your ancestors cared. Somehow, that can make sense.. – ScienceDaily: Empathy Partly Based On Genes, Mouse Study Shows
  • EXTRA: He’s also eaten several nails, which are mysteriously absent from his body, and can now fly on waves of energy generated by accumulated caffeine and sugar. – Ananova: Man drinks nothing but Coke – for 40 years
  • EXTRA: I wonder if this is yet another consequence of the space program.. – WCCO: GoGirl: For The Girl Who Needs To ‘Go’ On The Go
  • EXTRA: I wonder if this just makes the tigers laught, rendering them harmless.. – Yahoo!/Reuters: Boy marries dog in India to ward off tiger attacks
  • EXTRA: “Wait.. Whadya mean we ain’t got no Empire State Building here?” – CBS/AP: Philly Transit Agency Sells Pass With Photo Of NYC
  • EXTRA: These monks drank a *lot* of beer, it seems… – The UK Telegraph: Buddhist temple built out of one million beer bottles
  • EXTRA: There is a special Hell reserved for me, too. (It has cable.) – Ananova: ‘His and her’ gates to Hell
  • EXTRA: Freaky secret societies bum me out, because I don’t belong to any.. – Yahoo!/AP: Geronimo’s kin sue Skull and Bones over remains
  • EXTRA: How terrible is that going to sound, those historic, majestic bells on that tinny, diminishing speaker? – Ananova: Church bells to be turned into ringtone
  • EXTRA: Oh, great: something even *more* ridciculous as a demand for continual passive obeisance.. – New Scientist: Diamond no longer nature’s hardest material
  • EXTRA: Doesn’t that count as assault and battery? Wait.. what’s the difference between “assault” and “battery”? I mean, if you “assault” someone, aren’t you also “battering” them? – The News Star/AP: Woman uses wedgie and headlock to hold suspected thief for police
  • EXTRA: Apparently, Stephen King killed John Lennon. Or maybe just the concept of “average book length”.. – ABC7: Man escorted from commission meeting Tuesday
  • EXTRA: I just wonder if they either a) make the preachers nervous, b) expect a fire fight to explode over communion, or c) think a seige from aliens is likely to occur at any second… – ABC/AP: Ark. House OKs Bill Allowing Guns in Churches
  • Physical science sounds pretty *sweet*! – MSNBC/AP: Cotton candy may help grow human tissue
  • But, if they start to use the code against the cold, it’ll just change, so keep this info under your hat for now, k? – ScienceDaily: Code Of The Common Cold Cracked
  • EXTRA: Turns out, real life isn’t as efficient as CSI. Go figure. – New Scientist: Forensic science ‘too unreliable’, says report
  • EXTRA: I wonder if they’ll talk to Socks, The Clinton White House Cat? (RIP 2009) – Ananova: Psychic claims to chat to dead pets
  • EXTRA: My question is: do the knitted jumpers make the chickens *taste* any better? And do you remove it before or after cooking? – The UK Telegraph: Jumpers for chickens appeal kits out 1,500
  • EXTRA: Oh, wow! The ancient Egyptians built those pyramids out of LEGO! That explains SO much.. – The UK Telegraph: Lego Pharaoh floats down River Thames
  • EXTRA: There are combinations of lame and awesome here beyond words.. – The UK Telegraph: James Bond-style jetpack powered by high-pressure water invented
  • EXTRA: I think this is one of the signs of the apocalypse or something.. – BBC: Lamb ‘head-butted golden eagle’
  • EXTRA: Isn’t this just like any other performing animal? – BBC: Indian charmers want their snakes
  • EXTRA: I’ve heard of dogs sniffing cancer, but this is the first time I’ve heard cats *kneading* cancer.. – CANOE/Cnews/Sun Media: Cat nips owner’s lung cancer
  • EXTRA: If you think of gravity as ropes, you’d just be torn to shreds if the gravity were strong enough; otherwise, they are calm folds in the fabric of space. – New Scientist: Do gravity holes harbour planetary assassins?
  • EXTRA: “Transparency” is one of the buzzwords of Obama’s presidency, but can we expect that to extend to the UFO cases? – The Herald Tribune: Not so great expectations
  • EXTRA: What if you were told by your superiors at Roswell to be quiet — and had to live with that for decades? – Herald Tribune: Free at last
  • EXTRA: Or is this just like the canals on Mars? Or maybe it is, indeed! – Ananova: Atlantis found on Google Ocean?
  • EXTRA: Are we seeing more of these things these days, or are there more to be seen? – Yahoo!/AP: FAA says Texas fireball was meteor, not a UFO
  • EXTRA: An embarrassing case of multi-lingual confusion. The question is: just how many Polish(?) drivers are *in* Ireland? And do they all dive badly? – The Irish Independent: Rogue driver Prawo is lost in translation

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