TWS151: Wise Men Say What Fools Know

Bumper: JR Murdock, author of V and A Shipping

Promo: All Games Considered

Promo: Tuning In To Scifi

CQ: These days, we seem to be fascinated, as a society, in the convergence and ubiquity of technology. We want all of our devices to work with each other, and all of our devices and things to be connected to each other. Is this just a fad, or do you think that, in 100 years, the idea of having separated items that aren’t integrated with the rest of your digital live will be unusual?

On the show this week:

• Front Page
• April Fools May March
• Illectronics and Madgets
• You Thought You Did, But You Didn’t
• Extras

Full list of 70 articles after the jump!

• Front Page:
  • Phew! Nothing like the authority of a “local professor” to calm all fears! I guess I’ll stop with the good deeds and otherwise cleaning up my soul, then..: NBC Connecticut/AP – End of the World’s Not Coming in 2012, Local Professor Says
  • Who ya gonna believe? GHOSTBUSTERS!: Las Vegas Review-Journal – DOUG ELFMAN: Aykroyd and the end of the world
  • This is one of those stories just begging for the ending line: “… and that’s when he shot him, your honour.”: The Times – Sceptic challenges guru to kill him live on TV
  • It’s kinda like the opposite of a “golden parachute”..: The Sydney Morning Herald/The Sun-Herald – Abductions test management mettle
  • Ah, inflation finally making its way into art..: Medical News Today – Portion Sizes In Last Supper Paintings Have Grown Over The Years
  • You mean, it’s not so much what you’re made of as much as how you’re put together? Hmm… Obvious?: ScienceDaily – What Makes You Unique? Not Genes So Much as Surrounding Sequences, Study Finds
  • The term “splicesosome” just seems like modern namers aren’t even trying..: ScienceDaily – Spying on a Cellular Director in the Cutting Room
  • (EXTRA) Because there’s less temptation to wander outside rather than study?: BBC – Cloudy weather ‘increases university appeal’
  • (EXTRA) Not an uncommon co-occurence, but not necessarily acknowledged. Could they be used as a general warning indicator?: Inexplicata – Chile: Sixteen UFO Cases Reported on Earthquake Night
  • (EXTRA) Like all robbers, he was looking to make a withdrawl..: STV/BangShowBiz – Vampire robber fails
  • Well, it *is* said that we are best known by what we leave behind…: Alternet – Poop Is the Most Important Indicator of Your Health
• April Fools May March:
  • I suppose it’s one step up from “you are being replaced by a machine” to be given the order “you must act like a machine”… Or is it?: PS News – PS told to answer back
  • Is this an abuse of statistics, a hoax, a frightful reality of opinion, or something deeper (like a misplaced decimal point)?: LiveScience – Quarter of Republicans Think Obama May Be the Anti-Christ
  • Well, it might work better than the tricks that’ve been used so far..: MyFoxDC/Stars and Stripes – Parachute-Wearing Bears Could Sniff Out Osama Bin Laden – DOD Releases Public Emails
  • (EXTRA) What makes this almost unbelievable is the toy soldiers, not the cow..: STV – Found in sewers: a snake, toy soldiers … and a cow
  • I refuse to stoop to that sort of pun. Nope, no slips here!: The Wall Street Journal – In California, the Banana Museum Has Lost Its Appeal
  • Yeah, but they are really lousy with the popcorn buying, with all the accusatory stares from strict non-cannibals..: News.com.au/AFP – New York plants go to the movies
  • (EXTRA) Another reminder that we all see the world from our unique perspective..: 9MSN – Teen sees with ‘kaleidoscope eyes’
  • A thought-provoking finger in the eye of dogmatic evolutionists, without hitching a ride with creationism either.: The UK Guardian – Why everything you’ve been told about evolution is wrong
  • Impatient organisms always trump convinient theories like “evolution”. : ScienceDaily – Fungi Can Change Quickly, Pass Along Infectious Ability
  • Only when women are as sick as men can they truly be considered equal..: The UK Telegraph – Man flu is no myth as scientists prove men suffer more from disease
  • I think I would argue that while the sophistication of interaction has increased, there is no particular increase in fairness or proper punishment..: ScienceDaily – Evolution of Fairness and Punishment
  • (EXTRA) And then God said: “LET THERE BE AFTERGLOW.” And Joseph was not found celebrating.: 3News/NZPA – ‘Blasphemous’ billboard ruled not offensive
  • (EXTRA) It’s only fair, as the targets are also using it.. And is this really any different than blessing your troops or stating that God is on your side?: The UK Telegraph – Mexico drugs war: police use ‘voodoo’ to win desperate battle against violent cartels
  • (EXTRA) Ah, nothing like a little excrutiating public pain to reinforce the good of your soul.. No, wait — there is! Try GOOD DEEDS.: Yahoo!/AFP – Philippine bishops condemn Easter whippings and crucifixions
  • Otter they do sometin’ betta wit dat money?: STV – Town all shook up after Elvis the otter dies
  • (EXTRA) It’s like the argument by meatatarians: “if only evolution hadn’t made meaty animals so tasty, we wouldn’t eat them! It’s evolution’s fault that I like my burger!”: BBC – Folk medicine poses global threat to primate species
  • (EXTRA) Aw, she thought of giving at Christmas! How lovely..: The Herald Sun/AAP – Woman kills boyfriend on Xmas Day, texts friend to see if he’d like to help eat body
  • (EXTRA) It was either that, or the iPad, but the timing was off on international sales..: Phenomenica/Bureau Report – First-time cosmonauts set to blast off with toy duck
• Illectronics and Madgets:
  • Rock on, feathered brothers and sisters!: EDP24 – VIDEO: Zebra finches play electric guitars
  • (EXTRA) Finally: a reason to get high def!: BBC – Octopuses excited by high definition television (HDTV)
  • This is the same argument that bards made against paper, making it possible for just anyone to sell their livers..: BBC – Internet threatens rare species, conservationists warn
  • The only question is: do they have wifi at the treatment centre?: BBC – Technology addicts offered treatment
  • What if no one calls you?: BBC – ‘Ring tone therapy’ sweeping mobile phone-mad Japan
  • I’m not sure if a Facebook page should really be confused with “a website”.. And why is it that Facebook pages sometimes are seen as rallying points far beyond normal websites? What subliminal messages do they put in those dating ads on the website, an: The Mercury – Bryant website smears ex-cop
  • It also causes marriage failures, male pattern baldness, UFOs and the loss of your favourite sports team’s championship..: The Telegraph – Facebook ‘linked to rise in syphilis’
  • It’s not likely that they can’t use the Internet, just that they prefer the smell of a real book..: The UK Telegraph – Ageing spies unable to use the internet
  • (EXTRA) Unfortunately, my grammar demon suggests the tart response: “Oh? What made them stop?”: The Dispatch – Mountain fog used to provide water
  • It’s not exactly new knowledge, but it was off the curve: “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics” — Mark Twain. : Science News – Odds Are, It’s Wrong
  • The founder of the Gaia hypothesis has bold words for our efforts..: The UK Guardian – James Lovelock: Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change
  • So much to read here, I’m going to mine it later..: The Guardian – James Lovelock on the value of sceptics and why Copenhagen was doomed
  • The reaction to the Fleishman and Pons debacle clearly showed that while scientists get all sciency in the lab, they clearly throw that out the window when it comes to politics and opinion..: PhysOrg – ‘Cold fusion’ moves closer to mainstream acceptance
  • It’s when they took out the lead sheilding that the Hulk of the engine started smashing out? (Oh wait.. that was *gamma* rays..): freep/Free Press Washington – Are cosmic rays really causing Toyota’s woes?
  • (EXTRA) It sounds impressive, until you realize that they’re still talking really small things..: BBC – Team’s quantum object is biggest by factor of billions
  • (EXTRA) Leprechauns everywhere perked up their ears..: STV/Reuters – Scientists hide gold with 3D “invisibility cloak”
  • (EXTRA) I find it fascinating to think that all dogs started in one place… Then again, doesn’t everything?: Science Daily – Dogs Likely Originated in the Middle East, New Genetic Data Indicate
• You Thought You Did, But You Didn’t:
  • (EXTRA) What role does the mind play in health?: New Scientist – Picking our brains: How strong is the mind-body link?
  • (EXTRA) All the more reason to isolate kids entirely from bad influences, like, for example, other kids..: The Daily Mail – Following the herd: Fear dictates what music teenagers listen to
  • (EXTRA) How could I love thee? Let me count the ways…: New Scientist – Picking our brains: How many ways can we be conscious?
  • (EXTRA) Does having a comforting figure in early life give you unconscious expectations?: The UK Telegraph – Baby boys who have a nanny ‘turn into womanisers’
  • (EXTRA) Ah, but who is sitting on this throne of desire?: LiveScience – Seat of Temptation Found in the Brain
  • (EXTRA) Yes, it really is all about boobs.: NBC Los Angeles – Now We Know Why Men Look at Women
  • (EXTRA) Nothing like ruining it for the rest of us!: Reuters – Cat-calling men give all men a bad name?
  • (EXTRA) Does your moral compass point North? Which North?: The Daily Mail – Scientists discover moral compass in the brain which can be controlled by magnets
  • (EXTRA) Is this really scientific method? Or just something that people *think* is scientific method? And didn’t scientific method arise from human observation to begin with?: ScienceDaily – Brain Naturally Follows Scientific Method? Less Effort to Register ‘Predictable’ Images
  • (EXTRA) By now, this has been ret-conned..: New Scientist – Time Lords discovered in California
  • (EXTRA) If we can win wars more effectively through introspective desires for Peace, I can’t really see a bad side..: Medical News Today – Transcendental Meditation: Military Application Gaining Acceptance
  • (EXTRA) This is what happens when you take their roleplaying games away!: The UK Telegraph – Dutch prisons use psychics to help prisoners contact the dead
  • (EXTRA) Uh.. I don’t know if the past life in the photo is the woman or the dog..: NWF Daily News – Past lives can make you sick, says therapist (PHOTO)
  • (EXTRA) Always take the money! You can live out your morals more effectively by taking the money!: The UK Guardian – Grigory Perelman, the maths genius who said no to $1m
• Extras:
  • (EXTRA) Somehow, the story about a bloodsucking fiend living in a dreadful castle makes more sense, knowing that the author was Irish..: STV/Reuters – Dracula creator’s relative seeks Dublin memorial
  • (EXTRA) A fuzzy photo of a fuzzy ball of fuzz. Why do they only take a couple of photos? I’d take dozens!: News.com.au/The Daily Telegraph – UFO buzzes Sydney – and here’s ‘proof’
  • (EXTRA) Nothing like alien inspecters to make sure you do a good job..: NT News – UFOs buzz NT nuke site
  • (EXTRA) Sorta “panspermia-lite”: it’s not that life here began out there, just got kick-started by it.: Nature – Comet crash creates potential for life
  • (EXTRA) They did this, of course, to prevent him from being an instant math whiz..: The Daily Mail – Schoolboy with 31 fingers and toes has surgery to remove his extra digits
  • (EXTRA) It doesn’t matter what the circumstances: one should *always* be careful when things are being stabbed into you!: BBC – Global acupuncture infections ‘under-diagnosed’
  • (EXTRA) I’ve said it before: sometimes the past seems to get larger as we examine it, like it unfolds once being looked at..: BBC – ‘Hobbit’ island’s deeper history
  • (EXTRA) So, what do the bees have to do with the Templars? : BBC – Rosslyn Chapel was haven for bees
  • (EXTRA) Somehow, I never thought it would be an *actual* door..: Huffington Post – Ancient Egyptian ‘Door To Afterlife’ Found
  • (EXTRA) Greenpeace propoganda states that chocolate bars kill or displace orangutans. Given how tasty the bars are, we have a moral quandary..: The Sun – KitKatastrophe

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