Proper show notes to follow (generated via my excellent new buddy, the OMEGA support system for TWS!).

TWS132: To Boldly Return To Where I’ve Never Gone Before

CQ: If you were to convert your brain, your programming, into a digital form, then run that instance of you on a computer, would it be murder to turn it off? Or suicide? What if you terminated your physical self — would you still be alive, in the machine? Tell me your posthuman digital thoughts.

On the show this week:

• Animals and Other forms of life
• Inventioneering
• Outrageous behaviour

Promos:

• The House of Grey – A podiobook whose every episode leaves you with new revelations, new questions and more.
• The TWS Contest! – Tell somebody about the show, then tell Nimlas about it, and get entered into a contest for original art! Spread the word!
• Technorama! – Chuck and Kreg have returned to their weekly format of geekery, makery, computery goodness. Hoorah!

Full list of 70 articles after the jump!

• Animals and Other forms of life:
  • The worst that can happen is they find one, right?: The Australia Courier Mail – Journalist hunts for acid-spitting Mongolian death worm
  • Not having the right cat can leave you feeling left out.: The UK Daily Mail – Now here’s paws for thought… is your cat left or right handed?
  • So the Nazis finally get their revenge, eh?: The UK Daily Mail – Britain invaded by power-crazed super-ants that cause blackouts and fires
  • The truth is, no one knows exactly how long dogs have been domesticating us, or whether they are rivals or partners with the cats.: BBC – Domestic dog origins challenged
  • The real story is of a guide dog working for a blind dog. Next: dogs with cars.: The UK Telegraph – Border collies Bonnie and Clyde find new home
  • 11. Everything else.: New Scientist – Ten things we don’t understand about humans
  • This will only work if they allow Mario to think outside the prize boxes.: New Scientist – Race is on to evolve the ultimate Mario
  • Someday, when we uplift chimps, this story will be cited as an example of simian oppression.: The UK Telegraph – Bubbles the chimp to ‘publish’ tell-all memoir about Michael Jackson
  • If music is math in aural form, does that mean that they might appreciate higher math?: BBC – Chimps born to appreciate music
  • Nature likes efficiency; important ideas, shorter words.: The UK Telegraph – Dolphin body language ‘follows human verbal communication’
  • For their next trick, they will write a best selling memoir: “We are Crow, and So Can You”: ScienceDaily – Crows Can Use ‘Up To Three Tools’ In Correct Sequence Without Training
  • You’d think that nature would evolve smarter predators..: BBC – Orangutan ruse misleads predators
  • Yet another excuse for wayward husbands and frolicking wives..: ScienceDaily – First-ever ‘Wanderlust Gene’ Found In Tiny Bony Fish
  • More impressive would be: “Raging humanoid mice created from pinky fingers”, but that’s just me.: New Scientist – Fertile mice created from skin cells
  • Besides not killing off entire species, that is..: The Australian – A cure for extinction
  • A plant that grows *upward* into snow? I sense the next ice age winner, here..: ScienceDaily – Newly Discovered Snow Roots Are ‘Evolutionary Phenomenon’
  • A good roundup of just who says they don’t know what they saw.: The Gralien Report – UFO Declassification Around the World: An Online Resource
  • Is there an upright rock on Mars? And does it mean anything?: The UK Sun – Mars monument ‘proof of life’
  • (EXTRA) Where did we all go wrong in just asking for information to be revealed?: The UFO Chronicles – The Idiocy of the Disclosure Movement
  • (EXTRA) It’s rather romantic to believe that “life here began out there”. It’s also rather reasonable.: Science Daily – Evidence Of Liquid Water In Comets Reveals Possible Origin Of Life
  • (EXTRA) Maybe the cause of life, not end of life, it seems..: Space Daily – Crashing Comets Not Likely Cause Of Mass Extinctions
  • (EXTRA) Turns out that while their belief in God was unshakable, their belief in taxes was questionable..: PNJ – Judge clears way for dinosaur park to be seized
  • (EXTRA) Because, y’know, that’s what you do.: The Sun News – Man used meat cleaver to fend off would-be robber in gorilla suit
  • (EXTRA) There are radical eco-friends out there, and there are those who wear it on their sleeves; or *as* their sleeves.: The UK Telegraph – Human shrub returns with his wife
• Inventioneering:
  • Here’s a guy who deserves an honourary degree.: Ananova – Farmer’s home-made helicopter
  • The only certainty is that it likely doesn’t predate the Greeks. Much.: The UK Guardian – Antikythera clockwork computer may be even older than thought
  • I always like moving sidewalks (the term “slidewalk” hasn’t seemed to take off) in airports.: New Scientist – How the moving walkway nearly overtook the Metro
  • It sounds bad, but it would smell even worse..: NBC – Space Program Bans Body Odor, Bad Breath: Report
  • (EXTRA) .. and when it comes to smells, they *do* matter!: University World News – JAPAN: Aromatherapy really works
  • Everything suddenly becomes cooler when there are LASERS involved!: Space.com – Laser Propulsion: Wild Idea May Finally Shine
  • A new note played from HAARP, but it still sounds out of tune to me.: Wired – Strange New Air Force Facility Energizes Ionosphere, Fans Conspiracy Flames
  • (EXTRA) The family that sees dead people together, stays together (and usually is avoided by others).: Hartlepool Mail – ‘We see dead people’
  • (EXTRA) Proof that not only can the mind be tricked, but it might be useful to do so.: New Scientist – Out-of-body experiences help bring avatars to life
  • (EXTRA) While he misses his dad, why do you really think having a stinking, rotting corpse around would make it better? Although in the future, when we can digitize minds, will they look back on burial as wasteful tragedy?: WPTZ/NBC – Vermont Man Charged With Digging Up Dad
  • Now if only they could make them properly last, and keep themselves from falling off..: New Scientist – Bored drivers could get a prod from their car
  • I can see a lot of nagging post-living spam threads being spawned..: The UK Telegraph – Emails ‘sent by dead’
  • Is the universe about to give birth to a new self-replicating information structure? Cosmically, we are just carriers.: New Scientist – Evolution’s third replicator: Genes, memes, and now what?
  • I don’t blame the social networks, I blame the people on the ends of them. All criticism should be filtered for ego.: New Scientist – Cosy social networks ‘are stifling innovation’
  • Is Wikipedia become a collection of walled gardens? How do we shake the virtual tree?: New Scientist – After the boom, is Wikipedia heading for bust?
  • (EXTRA) I find these stories amusing. Did at one point archeologists claim that their shovels were responsible for finding buried treasure, or their pencil unveiled the words of the universe?: ScienceDaily – Computers Unlock More Secrets Of The Mysterious Indus Valley Script
  • (EXTRA) Garage sales are a proper way to redistribute goods that have some use left in them, and occasionally have stories in them, too..: The UK Telegraph – Car boot wood ‘could be Crusades tabernacle’
  • (EXTRA) Amazing finds are still being made; this can only mean that the Earth hasn’t given up all her secrets yet..: BBC – Hidden Gobi Desert relics found
• Outrageous behaviour:
  • They’re not accurate, but they’re good.. Like much of art, really. He’ll probably be told to go into investment banking or become a grocer..: The UK Daily Mail – Pictured: Incredible watercolour paintings by boy aged just SIX
  • I blame the additives in the water..: Ananova – Britain’s strongest schoolboy
  • They’re renaming it “Kidsa”.: Ananova – Boy, 4, invited to join Mensa
  • They claim that at 2, he beats players older than him. But at 2, *all* the players are older than him.: Ananova – Tot tipped as tennis champ
  • (EXTRA) It’s a pretty way to waste a whole lot of coffee.: Ananova – Mona Lisa latte
  • (EXTRA) Something about a nutjob-themed donut shop making people mad just feels right..: Metro – Fury over psycho doughnut shop
  • It’s a pretty way NOT to waste a whole lot of rice field..: The Guardian – The rise of Japanese rice-field art
  • (EXTRA) I think he should have another record: “person with most abundant useless free time”.: Ananova – World record record holder
  • (EXTRA) It sounds rough until you realize that people also get this from airplane flights, so she really didn’t study *that* long.: The UK Daily Mail – ‘I sat so long revising for exams I suffered a DVT that almost killed me’: Pupil reveals her horrifying ordeal
  • (EXTRA) Soon, he’ll release his secrets, and the world will be saved from global warming.: Ananova – Bubbleman’s record bubble bid
  • (EXTRA) Obviously, he planned this all through, as in the middle of his forehead he already has the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not tattoo..: Metro – Man has many, many flags tattooed on face
  • (EXTRA) But you must make sure that both feet are placed firmly on the ground.: Dutch Amsterdam – Defeat for silly rule: You can once again drink while standing in Amsterdam
  • (EXTRA) Somewhere along the line, either someone didn’t realize the long-term implications of town names — or they really, really *did*.: Metro – W**k tells F**king to get a grip
  • (EXTRA) When they said he was born under a bad sign, maybe they really meant that he was conceived under a F**king sign.”: STV – F**king signs
  • (EXTRA) The Scots claim they invented chicken tikka masala.. They invented just about everything else.: The UK Telegraph – Chicken tikka masala row grows as Indian chefs reprimand Scottish MPs over culinary origins
  • But.. but.. wait! The Scots may not have invented bagpipes either, but try to find a Scot without one.: The UK Telegraph – Haggis was invented by the English, not the Scottish, says historian
  • (EXTRA) I think the new project will be called “The Wall of Unsound”.: STV – Phil Spector ‘alarmed’ by Manson note
  • (EXTRA) Is it a prank or just a clever way to.. not just a prank.: The UK Sun – Teeny Weeny dissolvable bikini
  • (EXTRA) This is the one villain that Batman never really tried to apprehend. He was a little creeped out. He even offered him some tights once.: MSNBC – Naked Burglar Named
  • (EXTRA) Why is American spying on Canada? If we’re going to take you over, we’ll do it by invading openly, through the media, tv, movies, and… Hmm.. *ssshhh*: The Toronto Star – Cheeky Sarnians to ask Americans to butt out
  • (EXTRA) Even if it doesn’t work, you won’t care.: STV/Reuters – Fans urged to drink whisky to ward off swine flu
  • (EXTRA) Save water, shower in the pool.. No, wait — this might get out of control..: Ananova – Save water – wee in the shower
  • (EXTRA) She knows its never going to be an exclusive affair, right?: The UK Telegraph – Woman getting married to fairground ride
  • (EXTRA) I don’t recall if the ring was a pin on a grenade, but a war-themed wedding seems like it would a bomb.: Ananova – Love is a battlefield
  • (EXTRA) They really *do* think there’s something in the water..: Yahoo/Reuters – Doctors baffled by Indian village of over 200 sets of twins
  • (EXTRA) Birds do it, bees do it.. but bird-watcher shouldn’t.: Ananova – Warning to amorous twitchers
  • (EXTRA) For some reason, “Pope Sings Sinatra” comes to mind..: The UK Telegraph – Pope Benedict XVI releases album for Christmas
  • (EXTRA) At a certain point, prayer does turn into wishful thinking.: Yahoo/Reuters – Swiss seek Pope’s blessing to stop glacier melting

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