TWS175: Shaken _and_ Stirred

CQ: The loss of life and property is immediately understandable, tragic and painful — but what do you think the biggest cultural impact of the Japanese quake will be?

Bumper: Braindouche!

Promo: Every Photo Tells..

On the show this week:

• Front Page
• Scratched Records
• Sense and Senselessability
• Extras

Full list of 52 articles after the jump!

• Front Page:
  • One of the first reports I read. Still in (after)shock.: BBC – Japan earthquake: Tsunami hits north-east
  • If this theory holds, this episode will arrive with the moon — and could be a huge disaster.: The UK Daily Mail – Is the Japanese earthquake the latest natural disaster to have been caused by a ‘supermoon’?
  • Seems appropriate, given that the images of devastation moved the whole world.: MSNBC – How the quake shifted Japan
  • Having watched these videos, I’m suddenly not so skeptical of this..: Yahoo!/Reuters – Lost city of Atlantis, swamped by tsunami, may be found
  • Are there any fish yet? Just the ones in my freezer?: The UK Daily Mail – Incredible swarms of fish form off coast of Acapulco: But was surge caused by tsunami thousands of miles away?
  • Oh, that’s much better, then.. Um.. Wait..: CNN – Scientists: Powerful neurotoxin drove millions of fish to deaths
  • Um.. Who will sign on behalf of the aliens?: AOL News – New Treaty Would Ban Space Weapons for Earthlings and ETs
  • Taking work away from honest herbs..: AOL News – Need More Air? Artificial Trees to Convert CO2 to O2
  • Eventually, we will have known that we ought to already have known that we were right… or wrong.: Science Daily – Large Hadron Collider Could Be World’s First Time Machine, Researchers’ Theory Suggests
• Scratched Records:
  • This is not helping my hydrophobia and my acrophobia..: The UK Daily Mail – Splashdown: Shallow diver breaks world record with 36ft leap into paddling pool containing just 12 inches of water
  • Now *that’s* boredom!: Metro – Divers play underwater game for 36 hours in world record bid
  • Location, location, … and that other thing.: Metro – 7ft-wide home for sale – but it will cost you £95,000
  • Lady and the Tramp would have been a trilogy..: Metro – It’s the world’s longest noodle!
  • Apparently, noodles > infinity.: Boing Boing – Wonderful noodle stretching and folding video
  • … and then die from beer shortly after. Or belch for 40 days (and pee for 40 nights)..: Orange – Man plans to live on beer for Lent
  • There’s something sort of tragicomic about this. At what point does the regret settle in?: AOL News – Pretty Man? Mexican Man Has 82 Tattoos of Julia Roberts
  • Always be careful what you order on a badly-translated menu!: Orange – Export hopes for urine-boiled eggs
  • (EXTRA) Nothing like a market confusion to really ruin a drug..: AOL News – Overdosing on ‘Bath Salts’: Designer Drug a Headache for Retailers
  • Well, it’s probably a better talent than juggling, but… Wait — that’s the PRIZE?: The UK Daily Mail – Only in Texas: The beauty pageant where the winner gets to behead and skin a rattlesnake
  • (EXTRA) Well, there’s not really much point in making small political gestures, really..: Orange – From far right skinhead to left wing nurse
  • (EXTRA) Ok, maybe there *is* a more extreme political shift..: The Maine Morning Sentinel – Benton residents elect deceased man as town’s road commissioner
  • (EXTRA) Much worse than heart on your sleeve..: Orange – Baby born with heart outside body
  • (EXTRA) When you are so rich that normal complaints don’t work, consider grand gestures guaranteed to prove that you are too rich to have money..: Orange – Sledgehammer gang hired to trash car
  • It’s all in the way you (under)sell it..: Orange – eBay wetsuit listing goes viral
  • (EXTRA) For that much, I expect it to wrestle bears. From the look of it, it might!: Metro – ‘Most expensive’ dog sold for nearly £1m
• Sense and Senselessability:
  • (EXTRA) Seriously not funny. (lol): AOL News – No Joke: America’s First Laughing Competition Guffaws Off Ground
  • Probably more successful than the Playboy/Christian Science crossover..: The UK Daily Mail – Glossy ‘Jihad Cosmo’ combines beauty tips with suicide bombing advice
  • (EXTRA) Because otherwise, this work is going to the dogs..: Yahoo!/Press Association – Top prize for seizure-sensing cat
  • (EXTRA) This is a lot like having an assistant for your assistant..: The UK Daily Mail – Blind man keeps his old guide dog after it loses its sight… and then gets a new one who now leads them both around
  • (EXTRA) Yeah, but can it either smell illness or see for another? I think not..: AOL News – Roboroaches: Students Prepare to Control Roaches With Remote-Control Brains
  • (EXTRA) Eventually, we hope to get rid of the roaches. And the last shreds of humankind.: New Scientist – Rubbery muscle motors to make robots more lifelike
  • Probably, not well.. (“IT’S TOUCHING ME!!!!!!!”): Georgia Tech/Newswise – How Do People Respond to Being Touched by a Robot?
  • (EXTRA) In the next movie: feathers everywhere!: The UK Telegraph – Quentin Tarantino sues over neighbour’s macaws driving him to distraction
  • (EXTRA) Not only that, but they criticize _endlessly_..: BBC – Barbary macaques recognise photos of their friends
  • (EXTRA) Usually, in a heron vs alligator fight, I’d bet on the alligator being the aggressor. Maybe they’ve been misjudged?: The UK Daily Mail – That’s my baby! Cheeky heron is chased by irate alligator mother after it swipes young from her nest
  • (EXTRA) Probably bred to combat the macaque/macaw vs heron fights.: BBC – Experts unravel ‘churkey’ appearance mystery
  • It is the vegetable voted runner-up in the “Most Likely To Be Declared A Weapon” category (behind peppers).: The UK Daily Mail – Police arrest ‘onion torturer’ who used vegetable to extract information from drug dealers
  • (EXTRA) Maybe he should stop eating some of the crayons..: AOL News – Olympics Choreographer Says His Crayon Paintings Reveal Faces From ‘Another Dimension’
  • (EXTRA) Blue? No – green! *waaaaaaaagh!*: The UK Telegraph – Scientists attempt to discover the colour of the Atlantic Ocean
  • (EXTRA) Somehow I doubt that the “study in realistic effects” excuse is going to hold up..: The UK Daily Mail – Horror filmmaker arrested after ‘decomposing body of his mother found at home a year after her death’
  • (EXTRA) For many in the UK, they can probably get a similar exception when a new Star Wars movie comes out.: The UK Daily Mail – Court allows ‘warlock’ out to break curfew on full moon nights to perform Wicca ritual
  • (EXTRA) Silly – that only works in the movies. You need to pummel them with bonbons to really kill a human.: The Belfast Telegraph – Arizona ‘vampire’ stabs roommate
  • (EXTRA) Pretty sure, we’ll find out that they could roll cigarettes with one hand while chopping down T-Rexes with the other..: Science Daily – Neanderthals Were Nifty at Controlling Fire
• Extras:
  • (EXTRA) It may have been straight as an arrow, but those things travel in wicked paths..: The Guardian – Britannia Superior: Why Roman roads may not be quite as Roman as we think
  • (EXTRA) They seem to have a failure in their RPS, or Roman Positioning System.: BBC – The Roman Ninth Legion’s mysterious loss
  • (EXTRA) Probably, but the precious cargo is even more precious than before..: The Smithsonian – Did Archaeologists Uncover Blackbeard’s Treasure?
  • (EXTRA) Well, not so much literally as newspaperly..: The Hürriyet Daily News – Turkish woman chases UFOs around Lake Van
  • (EXTRA) The privileged used to walk in style..: BBC – Tunnel found in Forth Valley hospital grounds
  • (EXTRA) After several hundred years of using down for jackets, only know we figure out that that was the reason the birds had them, too?: ScienceDaily – Chilly Times for Chinese Dinosaurs: Abundance of Feathered Dinosaurs During Temperate Climate With Harsh Winters
  • (EXTRA) Where *does* one bury a ginormous creature like that?: BBC – University archaeologists to dig for Tregaron elephant
  • (EXTRA) It says: “Made in R’lyeh.”: AOL News – Laser Scan May Reveal Stonehenge Secrets
  • (EXTRA) “It wasn’t armed.”: CBS News – Monkey in Bra: Woman appears in Va. court with baby monkey cleaving to her

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