Bumper: Jim Ryan (The Great Debate, Every World News, JimYesThatJim)

Promo: Technorama

CQ: Fiction often inspires us to great things, to make things real that don’t exist yet. Google Wave, for example, was partially inspired by Firefly; Star Trek is commonly believed to be the inspiration for the cell phone. What fictional thing do you think should inspire something real?

On the show this week:

• Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails
• A Section By Another Name
• Unrecognizeable Portions

Full list of 62 articles after the jump!

• Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails:
  • The good news: it’s not a variant. The bad news: it’s not a variant.: The UK Daily Mail – British scientists testing Ukrainian ‘super flu’ that has killed 189 people
  • Something is going on, but it turns out that it’s poor healthcare..: Radio Netherlands Worldwide – Ukraine paralysed by “superflu”
  • Welcome to the Monkey Man of 2009!: NaturalNews – H1N1 “super flu” plague in Ukraine sparks concern, conspiracy theories about origins
  • Ho Ho Achoo?: Metro – Santa group demands swine flu vaccine priority
  • If you cook the swine flu with onions, it’s just tasty!: Metro – Moldovan army fights swine flu with onions
  • The man-machine interface has begun! Only, not quite the same in the end..: The UK Telegraph – Man uses remote to control his ‘bionic bottom’
  • Somehow, I don’t find this surprising. OOHH! SHINEY!: BBC – Hypnosis has ‘real’ brain effect
  • Go to your happy place..: ScienceDaily – Thinking of a Loved One Can Reduce Your Pain
  • Turns out, our bodies make us care.: ScienceDaily – Genetic Variation Linked to Individual Empathy, Stress Levels
  • (EXTRA) But can they figure out how to make it purr?: Ars Technica – IBM makes supercomputer significantly smarter than cat
  • The answer: space babies. No?: LiveScience – The Future of Evolution: What Will We Become?
  • The only real surprise here is that people find it a surprise.. Now that I’ve told you that, will it change your read on the article?: Haunted America Tours – The Art of Priming
  • This is really just a training ground for future underground dwelling.. Or outerspace colony ships..: The UK Telegraph – French hamster hotel lets guests live like rodents
  • Since they are often linked in literature and life, why not chemically dependant?: ScienceDaily – Love and Envy Linked by Same Hormone, Oxytocin
  • We already love our machines; it’s just that we don’t LURV out machines.. Much.: The UK Telegraph – Society must decide if it ‘will accept relationships between humans and robots’
  • This is so yesterday’s computer..: MSNBC/DiscoverNews – Tiny insect brains can solve big problems
  • I blame everyone else..: PhysOrg – Shifting blame is socially contagious
  • I wonder what the kid’s accent will be like.. and what his first words were..: City Pages – Local dad spoke only Klingon to child for three years
  • (EXTRA) Even more caffuffle over the calendar changing to 13.0.0.0.: World Around Us – 2012: Six End-of-the-World Myths Debunked
  • (EXTRA) In a very Western solution, they lassoed the ground..: ScienceDaily – Bacterial ‘Ropes’ Tie Down Shifting Southwest
  • (EXTRA) Every suspected that they had walked into a coal mine..: The UK Telegraph – Dozens of budgies drop dead during country show
  • (EXTRA) I think we’ve decided that we’ve overlooked snot for a long time, and must examine it for potential uses for everything..: MSNBC/DiscoveryNews – Snail goo may turn out to be a lifesaver
  • (EXTRA) Makes you really appreciate how arbitrary gender really is..: BBC – Worms turned into hermaphrodites
  • (EXTRA) Of course, then you have to deal with an outbreak of bacteria…: STV – Glowing bacteria could help locate landmines
  • (EXTRA) WORMS. IN. SPAAACE!: The UK Telegraph – British worms join Nasa space mission
  • (EXTRA) Wait.. coral EAT things? *shiver*: BBC – Predatory coral eats jellyfish
  • (EXTRA) “Do you have a green thumb?” “No, I’m just a whiz!”: BBC – Pee to help make your garden grow
  • (EXTRA) I thought this was was Crazy Glue was invented for? Ok, maybe not internal surgeries, but still..: NewsDaily – Canada doctor uses glue to aid open-heart recovery
  • (EXTRA) I’m not sure if its nice to know that we’ve always had bad hearts..: The UK Telegraph – Ancient Egyptians ‘had heart disease’
  • (EXTRA) Soylent Kebabs are PEOPLE!: MSNBC/Reuters – Body parts sold to kebab stand, police say
  • (EXTRA) In this case, he *didn’t* want to do it..: BBC – Man killed wife ‘during a dream’
• A Section By Another Name:
  • Shouldn’t it be “defriend”, like “befriend”?: Metro – ‘Unfriend’ is Oxford’s new word of the year 2009
  • For some reason, this was easier than just everyone being original. They really should get cable.: The Sydney Morning Herald – Nicknames win official standing, ol’ Bean
  • And I thought I was clever with some of my tweets! These guys know data compression..: New Scientist – Best of Twitter tunes album released
  • Not only is there precedent, but apparently it happens ten or so time a year?: The UK Telegraph – French woman marries boyfriend one year after he died
  • Women must go pantsless! *rereads* Oh, wait..: The UK Telegraph – Women banned from wearing trousers in Paris
  • (EXTRA) Specifically, they stink like bees. BEES. Yikes.: ScienceDaily – New Orchid Deception Found: Wearing the Scent of Hornet’s Prey
  • Given the other recent sightings of 30′ snakes, this seems less surprising.: Tampa Bay Online – Man says 30-foot ‘monster’ lurking in canals of Madeira Beach
  • Sadly, it may have also been because they smelled cooked meat..: NewsMiner – Hundreds of birds seem to mourn deaths of fellow ravens
  • (EXTRA) Ok, now it’s official. Also: I should go there.: The University of Southern Maine’s Free Press – Cryptozoology museum opens on Congress Street
  • (EXTRA) Death to clouds!: NewsDaily – Chavez asking Cubans to ‘bomb clouds’ amid drought
  • (EXTRA) Deer, you have an amazing rack. Too bad your dead.: BBC – Starvation ‘wiped out’ giant deer
  • (EXTRA) The term “thief” is a bit harsh here; perhaps “scavenger” or “recovery specialist”? And does anyone own anything they don’t care to retrieve?: The UK Telegraph – Golf ball thief hits a rough patch
  • So.. really slow magnetic hill?: The UK Telegraph – Real-life rolling stones creep across Death Valley in California
  • (EXTRA) It sounds gruesome — up until you remember that it is a fish..: Ananova – Live fish meal shocks campaigners
  • (EXTRA) I want to taste one.: Phenomenica/ANI – Ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa may harbor 3 mn tons of fish
  • (EXTRA) If Ripples have Ridges, does that mean there is a boundary of understanding?: New Scientist – Ripples in space divide classical and quantum worlds
  • (EXTRA) It’s really starting to sound like we have no idea what’s really out there.. Hmm.. Maybe we should go and check?: New Scientist – Mystery ‘dark flow’ extends towards edge of universe
  • (EXTRA) Laziness is next to lizardness.: CBC – Australian marsupial soaks up sun like a lizard
• Unrecognizeable Portions:
  • This is the very definition of throwing the baby out with the bathwater..: The Star-Telegram – Texas marriages in legal limbo due to 2005 error, Democrat says
  • (EXTRA) Just because they aren’t human doesn’t mean they can’t learn things.. Duh!: The UK Telegraph – Lion opens family’s car door with his teeth
  • (EXTRA) Apparently, they don’t just grow there.: DiscoveryOn/WPBF – Piranhas Discovered In West Palm Beach Pond
  • (EXTRA) Maybe he should have paid his cell bill..: Yahoo!/AP – Fla. man arrested for calling 911, asking for sex
  • (EXTRA) Is this the first example of crowdsourcing with cell phones? I suppose not, but still, with all that portable networked computer gear, it seems like there should be more SETI@HOME-like apps.: New Scientist – Cellphone app to make maps of noise pollution
  • (EXTRA) I guess robbing banks isn’t as hard as I thought it was.. Hmm..: BBC – FBI hunting elderly bank robber
  • (EXTRA) Somehow, I don’t find it impressive to be able to simulate invisibility.. Maybe because I saw *Predator*..: ScienceDaily – Invisibility Visualized: New Software for Rendering Cloaked Objects
  • (EXTRA) I have mixed feelings; on the one hand, I like that people are trying to engage kids’ imaginations; on the other, I’m worried that they *have* to..: The Yorkshire Evening Post – Leeds pupils turn alien investigators in hunt for Zonk
  • (EXTRA) Is the real problem with current UFOlogy the fact that it requires too much belief?: Ellis C Taylor Blog – Messiahs of The New Age
  • (EXTRA) Admittedly, I think they’re only doing this because the guy’s name is Xenophon. Xenophon vs Xenu!: BBC – Australia mulls Scientology probe
  • (EXTRA) A mystery about a manuscript filled with drawings of airships and alluding to a grand conspiracy? Sounds like a good setting for a roleplaying game, if nothing else!: Magonia Review of Books – The art and airships of Charles Dellschau
  • (EXTRA) Buried beneath the pyramids might be tunnels.. Or more dirt..: Mysterious America – An Exclusive Interview with Andrew Collins
  • (EXTRA) That would be the state of “Confusion”..: Yahoo!/aap – Lost driver finds himself in wrong state

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