TWS213: Shameless, Blameless and Lameness

CQ: Having recently read “The Wealthy Barber”, and noting its lamentations about basic financial education, I started to think about other areas which could use some basic education. For example, where is the equivalent book for health and diet issues (“The Healthy Barber”)? What areas of basic education do we either do poorly or not at all?

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On the show this week:

• Front Page
• All Creatures (Fake and Small)
• Say It Ain’t So
• Antigovernmentarianism
• Extras

Full list of 61 articles after the jump!

• Front Page:
  • Valentine’s Day can follow the Apple slogan: “Think different.”: Orange – Romantic break – for threesomes
  • Everybody who games knows how hard party cohesion is; maybe that’s why gamer couples tend to stay married..: The UK Daily Mail – Dungeons, dragons and divorce: World of Warcraft can seriously damage your marriage, warn scientists
  • Wonder why some people’s smile droops? Well..: WFMZ – FDA: Some lipstick contaminated with lead
  • For a specific, selective definion of “man”..: Emerites247 – Man gets pregnant and gives birth to a baby
  • Finally, the burning question behind the follicular convention..: BBC – Science behind ponytail revealed
  • Yes, but the parking brake was off. 🙂: Orange – Woman pulls two jeeps with her hair
  • I’m at odds with myself.. Part of me thinks: “Awesome! Down with beaches! Gimme my flying saucer!”. Another part things: “Great, now we’ll never distinguish genuine phenomena from rich joy-riders..”: Death By 1000 Papercuts – German Inventor to Build Flying Saucer Fueled by Sand — Video
  • Some kids never grow up. (Yay!): Jalopnik – Since 1997, A Man Has Been Digging Out His Basement Using Only R/C Scale-Model Construction Equipment
  • As a bonus, he might be able to cook on top..: MSNBC – Zany Swiss man installs wood-burning stove in car
  • I think its more the equivalent of sweeping it under the rug, cosmologically speaking..: New Scientist – Swiss ‘janitor’ satellite to sweep up space junk
  • Finally, a kinder, gentler form of self-torture for food!: Orange – Eat yourself fitter with dumbbell cutlery
  • It obviously had great marketing..: BBC – Rare Martian meteorite given to science
  • Not all meteorites are recognized as virtual gold..: Metro – Britain’s biggest meteorite discovered after 80 years lying on doorstep
  • It hardly feels possible that this big a scam can be perpetuated in this modern age — well, at least in public, as opposed to personally or over email..: Yahoo!/Live Science – E-Cat ‘Cold Fusion’ Machine: Claims of Fraud Heating Up
  • On we on the verge of several new energy technologies? Or is the world just experiencing a rash of hoaxes?: PESN – Fund Drive for S. Africa Trip to See New #1 Free Energy Technology
• All Creatures (Fake and Small):
  • A passionate essay pointing out the pseudoscience argument against cryptozoology is nothing more than pseudoskepticism..: CFZ-Canada – On Being a “Cryptozoologist”
  • (EXTRA) It’s no inter-species marriage, but at least they got to go on a car ride..: Metro – Penguin couple married in bizarre ceremony ahead of Valentine’s Day
  • (EXTRA) So small, they’d have a hard time in a fistfight with a housefly..: BBC – Tiny lizards found in Madagascar
  • (EXTRA) There’s something in the Australian air, apparently..: The UK Daily Mail – Time to extend the barn? Record-breaking Texas bull has whopping 9ft 1in horns
  • (EXTRA) No.. *That’s* a lotta bull! 🙂: Metro – Girl plays tag and takes walks with six-foot moose
  • (EXTRA) Bugs who stick together, commit murder together..: BBC – Honeybees tell hornet predators to buzz off
  • (EXTRA) Something definitely seems wrong there..: Orange – Scientists check out egg-laying rooster
  • (EXTRA) To prevent her from getting to the other side?: Orange – Man tells why he saved dog from icy river
  • (EXTRA) The real question is: do the camels recognize their new robotic overlords?: New Scientist – Robot camel riders conquer the desert
  • It may not be a joke. but it’s nothing to rush through your coffee for (he didn’t).: IceNews – Iceland Loch Ness Monster cameraman says his footage “no joke”
  • Most likely, it’s a net loss.: LiveScience – Icelandic River Monster Mystery Solved
  • It seems like a major prize until you factor in the costs to get it..: The Inverness Courier – Nessie ‘sighting’ wins £1000 prize
  • Unfortunately, it turns out to be the worst possible case: a deliberate scam.: The Huffington Post – Woolly Mammoth Video Is A Big Hairy Mammoth Hoax
  • (EXTRA) Proving once again that nature still holds many surprises and secrets..: New Scientist – Prions point to a new style of evolution
  • (EXTRA) Finally: plastic may have a natural predator!: Frontiers of Zoology/ZME Science – Fungus That Devours Plastic Might Help Clean The Environment
• Say It Ain’t So:
  • (EXTRA) That’s bound to make some s**t hit the fan..: The Huffington Post – ‘S**tstorm’ Chosen By German Linguists As Top New Addition To Language
  • (EXTRA) What’s in a name? (Hint: a promise..): Orange – Heart Attack Grill customer collapses
  • (EXTRA) Whereas, having giant burgers is a sign that you already *have* dementia..: The UK Telegraph – Having a curry could help ward off dementia
  • (EXTRA) Why not? Goats will consume everything else!: Live Science – Baaad Call: Young Goats Pick Up Accents
  • (EXTRA) You are what you hear!: The UK Mirror – Flu la la! Brummie mum gets French accent after illness
  • (EXTRA) Marriages should probably take at least as long to fall apart as they took to come together..: Orange – Couples can divorce inside 24 hours
  • (EXTRA) I wonder if it is also similar to the ergot poisoning believed to be the catalyst for the Salem Witch Trials..: The UK Daily Mail – New York high school’s Tourette’s outbreak mirrors bizarre ‘Dancing Plague’ in France in 1518
  • (EXTRA) When did it become controversial to require clear language skills?: The UK Telegraph – Pupils banned from using slang in school
  • (EXTRA) Because nothing is as scary as the past ways of thinking..: Orange – Fairytales ‘too scary for modern kids’
  • (EXTRA) She does better than most teenagers do awake..: The UK Daily Mail – Pillow talk: The woman who texts (coherently) in her sleep
  • (EXTRA) The problem is: only one site seems to say that this is the case, and everyone else just refers to them..: Huliq – UFO sightings reveal more strange metal boxes along coastal beaches
• Antigovernmentarianism:
  • The beginnings of “disclosure”, or the beginning of a distraction campaign?: The UK Daily Mail – President Eisenhower had three secret meetings with aliens, former Pentagon consultant claims
  • Cult Leader? Genius? Economic Pirate? Saviour? (These aren’t necessarily mutually-exclusive..): The Times Union – Secrets of NXIVM
  • Governments (and the law) should have very little to do in the bedrooms (and car backseats) of the nation.. (Paraphrased from Trudeau..): KTVB – Couple pleads guilty after naked and bound Valentine’s role-play
  • Now they’ve gone to far! … Oh, it’s a parody.. Clever protest, or political masturbation? Sadly, many will vote for it, and it will come terrifyingly close to passing. : RT – Oklahoma Democrats want to ban Onanism
  • What I find most refreshingly unbelievable about this story is the fact that the police didn’t overreact to the prank.. There may be an island of sanity left in the world!: Orange – Scilly parking ticket prank
  • Beyond the smirking puns about “money to burn”, this is one of those excellent rational government strategies.: Orange – Hungary’s needy given money to burn
  • (EXTRA) Now, if we could just get everyone to stop peeing on the seat! (eww…): Metro – Swansea University gives unusual toilet guidance on posters
  • Ok, now we need a mandatory “humour and innocuous joking” course for all police..: The Huffington Post – Fart Joke Leads To Bomb Scare: Student Harold Wayne Hadley Arrested In Mississippi
  • (EXTRA) Ok, that was just waaay too much oversharing..: The Huffington Post – Wax Obama Photo On Facebook Helps Catch Alleged Sicilian Drug Dealer: Michele Grosso Arrested In London
  • I would imagine that the car refused to put its hands up, thus it forced them to escalate..: Fox5 San Diego/KSBW-TV – Cops surround empty car for 2 hours
  • (EXTRA) It’s all caused by anti-smoking laws… This time, I’m going to side with the government, and not the pro-smokers..: The Huffington Post – Chainsaw-Wielding Drunk Attacks Pub Patrons; Dean Dinnen Arrested In UK (VIDEO)
  • (EXTRA) Apparently, we’ve fixed all the injustices that have happened in the intervening 400 years..: The UK Telegraph – 400-year-old witchcraft trial resumes in Germany
  • (EXTRA) Suffocated by onions? What an awful way to go! (But does there need to be a regulation against it?): GulfNews – Dubai Police to launch safety campaign after porter dies in container
• Extras:
  • (EXTRA) I’m not sure I want my desserts to challenge me, so much as comfort me..: New Scientist – Eat rich or die trying: just desserts
  • (EXTRA) The sun has suffered shrinkage..: io9 – A super-sized Sun could explain why Earth didn’t freeze to death long ago
  • (EXTRA) Somewhere along the way, the point of breaking a record seems to be lost..: Metro – Flipping amazing: 900 students set new pancake tossing world record
  • (EXTRA) A remarkable case of a real cybernetic human being. Expect more cases in the next few years..: BBC – The man who hears colour
  • (EXTRA) It doesn’t know the words.: DiscoveryOn/ANI – Milky Way humming in mysterious haze
  • (EXTRA) Are ghosts just jerks who like to photobomb?: Galway Independent – Ghostly image causes a stir
  • (EXTRA) A sad case of someone being forced… to deal… with.. unpredictable.. *THUNK* *Zzzzzzz*: The UK Daily Mail – Pictured: The seven-year-old boy with such severe narcolepsy that he couldn’t kick a ball without falling asleep

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