CQ: Unlimited power question: Post-secondary education, particularly universities, seem to have evolved into a pretty common format: take a mostly-standard set of courses for several years which build toward a specific degree or certificate. But this is not the only way — it’s the way we do it right *now*. Given unlimited ability to make it happen, what features or structure would your ultimate educational experience take?

On the show this week:

• Front Page
• Out Ere Space
• Mysterycal
• Extras

Full list of 82 articles after the jump!

• Front Page:
  • Gotta admit: I love a hug… But would I love one I paid for?: The UK Daily Mail – No nudity, no sex, just cuddles: How one woman is making a living from snuggling – but for $60 an hour, would you pay to hug a stranger?
  • Seems strange that they’ll likely have the hidden nude right across the hall from some painted nudes in full display..: Orange – Peep show set up in National Gallery
  • This is a little like shooting someone because they forgot your birthday — when you never told it to them..: The UK Telegraph – Netherlands councillors call for fines for wrong weather forecasts
  • (EXTRA) The numbers are only lucky or not if your are playing games of chance..: BBC – Lucky and unlucky numbers: How some industries respond
  • Taking advantage of our subconscious for personal profit.: New Scientist – The password you can use without knowing it
  • Undoubtedly, it has something to do with a “cat factor”..: New Scientist – Genes predict who places their trust in machines
  • Pretty soon, we’ll realize that “love” has nothing to do with “procreation”. What a _wonderful_ world that will be!: The UK Telegraph – Euroscience Open Forum 2012: DNA gene testing ‘will screen out lovers’
  • See Serenity, the movie. Remember Miranda. We’ll do it to ourselves..: The Sydney Morning Herald – Finding the ‘moral molecule’
  • This may just be how new species are born. The universe can thank us sloppy, trashy humans later (if it survives us).: New Scientist – Plastic ingredient makes fish court other species
  • So, be sure to plot your sex along with guidelines of probable child lifespan!: New Scientist – Autumn babies more likely to hit 100
  • Of course it is..: BBC – Cat video film festival to celebrate web’s furriest virals
  • They will rule over us all!: Metro – Stubbs the cat celebrates 15th year as mayor of Alaska town Talkeetna
  • All the fat cats are in positions of power, man!: Geekosystem – The Cat That Was Mayor, And 7 Other Animals In Politics
  • It’s the newest bovine bling..: Orange – Moo-bile technology – cow gets QR code
  • The French _really_ know how to live!: The UK Telegraph – French cows reared on fine wine
  • If it takes the rich living forever for this to happen, so be it!: The UK Daily Mail – Russian research project offers ‘immortality’ to billionaires – by transplanting their brains into robot bodies
  • (EXTRA) A proper place to live out forever, perhaps?: Orange – Up for grabs – an island fit for a king
  • (EXTRA) Would-be despots need not apply.: The Scotsman – Tiny Shetland rock is not a breakaway state, rules judge
  • What’s “natural”? What’s “fair”?: New Scientist – Tale of two runners exposes flawed Olympic thinking
  • (EXTRA) I hear it’s peaceful and good for long rests..: Metro – Mortuary expected to be turned into chalet after being put up for sale
  • (EXTRA) It’s a little like figuring out how to de-alcoholize beer, and then realizing what a terrible mistake you’ve made..: CBC – Saskatchewan scientists discover key to drug-free hemp
  • (EXTRA) Also on the bill: children-tossing?: Metro – Couples compete in Wife Carrying World Championships
  • (EXTRA) If you can do it, someone will tell you they can do it better, then try to demonstrate.: Metro – Sniffing victory at the 18th Snuff World Championships in Germany
  • (EXTRA) Finally! A job that *requires* you be laying down on the job!: Sky News – Human Dominoes Smash Guinness World Record
  • (EXTRA) Most people want their last words to be poetic or profound, but maybe we’ll all write tell-all books? (Or rather, tell-all blog posts..): The Sydney Morning Herald – Val goes out with a bang: throat cancer victim uses own obituary to confess all his secrets
  • (EXTRA) So, the only way he steals a scene these days is to be stolen?: Metro – David Hasselhoff cut-outs stolen in spree of thefts outside US stores
  • (EXTRA) Or.. not.: National Post – Higgs boson find could make light-speed travel possible, scientists say
• Out Ere Space:
  • A safe prediction, given that they aren’t likely to be around for the whole thing.: OpenMinds TV – Oxford scientist suggests alien encounter will occur this century
  • It’s always the things you _don’t_ see which are the most dangerous..: LiveScience – ‘Invisible UFOs’ Fill the Skies
  • More sightings among the released files.: The UK Telegraph – The UFO Files: Alien sightings in Britain
  • Probably just a patent war or a copyright fight.: io9 – Would finding life on Mars create a power struggle on Earth?
  • Well, it _is_ kinda the only boat in port..: New Scientist – Asteroid miners to hitch a ride with Virgin Galactic
  • I suspect that it’s older than that..: RT – ‘Baltic UFO’ may be secret Nazi sub-trap
  • So: don’t eat it. Don’t breathe it. Try not to get any on ya.: io9/Universe Today – The Moon is toxic
  • (EXTRA) Hey, if you normally spent your entire life struggling and dragging yourself along the ground, I’m sure you’d find yourself healthier when you floated, too!: BBC – Worm lifetime ‘longer in space’
  • (EXTRA) I was disappointed about the total lack of tinfoil hats..: The Register – Finnish boffins don tinfoil hats, admit Northern Lights are noisy
  • Is it possible that nature has devised a way to take advantage of the natural magnetic field of the Earth? … Probably, I mean it’s had enough time..: Wired – Magnetic Cells Give Sense of Direction to Fish
  • It’s a polarizing topic. Most people flip-flop on their position when they encounter an opposite opinion.: io9 – Earth’s magnetic field just might be gearing up for a reversal
  • Are we being groomed for alien encounters?: Mysterious Universe – Saucers of Manipulation Pt. 1
  • And just who is getting us ready?: Mysterious Universe – Saucers of Manipulation Pt. 2
  • Wait.. “National Geographic” is getting us ready with bad TV?: Transcendent TV & Media – New shows ‘Chasing UFOs,’ ‘Spacing Out’ help prepare public
  • (EXTRA) Or are they snobs?: UFOs and the Psychic ETs – Would They Talk to Us?
  • (EXTRA) Pretty soon, they’ll also disprove that there is any life possible on this planet, and disappear in a puff of logic..: The National Post/AFP – NASA’s ‘new form of life’ found in arsenic-rich lake disproven, scientists insist
  • (EXTRA) This is basically saying, “I have no idea what they might be, but I can be as imaginative as anyone!”: The UK Daily Mail – Forget little green men: Aliens may look like jellyfish with orange bottoms, says government adviser
  • (EXTRA) Does being from an agency which conducts covert operations, deliberately withholds information and engages in misinformation campaigns make your claims _better_ or _worse_?: The UK Daily Mail – ‘It was a craft that did not come from this planet’: CIA agent speaks out on 65th anniversary of Roswell ‘UFO’ landings
  • (EXTRA) There’s not a lot of options for a Company to do, right?: Herald-Tribune – CIA smacks down former employee
  • (EXTRA) Isn’t _everyone_? He’s also probably briefed about the bathroom use policy..: The UK Telegraph – The UFO Files: Tony Blair briefed on alien defence policy
  • (EXTRA) It’s a government agency: they take *everything* seriously. Seriously, try to joke with them. They won’t get it.: The UK Guardian – Latest release of ‘X-files’ shows MoD took idea of alien visitors seriously
  • (EXTRA) Although, frankly, we *all* need to do more research..: Bigfoot Evidence – “Skeptics” Need To Do More Research
  • Strangely, they were all wearing sunglasses when announcing this..: BBC – Academics say ‘no truth’ to lying eyes theory
• Mysterycal:
  • 0th rule: it’s TV, stupid!: Nick Redfern’s World of Whatever – The 10 Commandments of Paranormal TV
  • Or will over-saturated multi-media data interfaces just make us that way anyway?: The Atlantic – Can You Teach Yourself Synesthesia?
  • Now, if only they would take full advantage of this and *raise* them this way.. There’d be a movie deal in it!: BBC – Twins Dylan and Hannah born in England and Scotland
  • Ah, nothing like the classics!: The UK Daily Mail – Man develops BUBONIC PLAGUE from stray cat bite and narrowly escapes death… but will have fingers and toes amputated
  • It’s a week of classics!: The Huffington Post – Beaver Attacks Sisters Annabella And Alyssa Radford; Experts Testing For Rabies
  • Careful, or you’ll have to ban a whole lot of stupid food choices..: Orange – Health officials ban poison pizzas
  • (EXTRA) This is *not* the way to “rock-hard abs”!: Metro – Rock fan Teresa in danger of biting off more than she can chew
  • (EXTRA) Isn’t this just recycling?: The Sydney Morning Herald – Human corpses harvested in multimillion-dollar trade
  • (EXTRA) Now *that* is holding a grudge!: The UK Daily Mail – French demand Crown Jewels from the Queen to compensate for 1499 murder of Edward Plantagenet
  • (EXTRA) Today’s drone strikes have nothing on subtlety..: The UK Telegraph – ‘Death by chocolate’ plot to kill Sir Winston Churchill
  • (EXTRA) The jewels aren’t meant to be cramped.: The UK Telegraph – Fashion for tight jeans is increasing testicular problems among men
  • (EXTRA) The monks of ancient Europe tried this, and the fashion never caught on then, either..: Orange – From rags to riches?
  • It’s not so much a superpower as you might think..: BBC – Congenital analgesia: The agony of feeling no pain
  • The Singularity may just be the apocalypse of our own creation — but then, why would we create it?: The Sydney Morning Herald – Rise of the machines
  • Just what is the Lifeboat Foundation, and how does it plan to stop the coming apoca– I mean, “future singularity”..: Lifeboat – Mission Statement
  • “Why does the McDonald’s employee care about Steve Mann’s ocular implant?” is as bewildering and revealing question as “What does God need with a Starship?”: io9 – What may be the world’s first cybernetic hate crime unfolds in French McDonald’s
  • (EXTRA) Apparently, the bra has enjoyed parallel and recurring evolution. Much like the corset.: Neatorama – This Is a 600-Year Old Bra
• Extras:
  • (EXTRA) Funny, I wasn’t just wondering about this the other day..: Metro – Cuban cyclist tries to break record for pedalling world’s largest bike
  • (EXTRA) Eerily enough, it seems as though they didn’t think of it as a crime, merely dinner.: The Huffington Post – Papua New Guinea Alleged Cannibals Charged
  • (EXTRA) Is it hipster to build chic places out of shabby things? I think it might be..: Orange – Container comforts
  • (EXTRA) Well, if I’m going to commit suicide, I suppose that might be preferable to cigarettes..: CVG – Man dies after playing Diablo III for 40 hours
  • (EXTRA) Ain’t it a shame when a pun goes wrong..: The UK Telegraph – Boyfriend squirted partner with brown sauce when she refused to stop reading Fifty Shades of Grey
  • (EXTRA) Case in point: a pun gone wrong. Also: a person gone pretty wrong, too..: The Sun – Fizzical wreck
  • (EXTRA) And yet, we somehow think they are bad for people. We are too nice to pets!: The UK Telegraph – ‘Love hotel’ for pets to open in Brazil
  • (EXTRA) That’s fine, so long as the bigger bathrooms are built for women..: Metro – German mayor designates ‘more challenging’ parking spaces to men
  • (EXTRA) I believe they are now called iRangutans, and there’s an apple for that.: digital spy – Orangutans taught how to order their lunch on iPads – video
  • (EXTRA) Sadly, it did not come to life and start marching across the moors..: National Geographic – “Frankenstein” Bog Mummies Discovered in Scotland
  • (EXTRA) No, probably just a zombie, or early-onset zombism not yet fully manifested.: WOAI – Vampire Attack in Corpus Christi?
  • (EXTRA) I don’t care what they teach them: they don’t count!: Metro – Fleas times table as scientists teach insects how to count
  • (EXTRA) That’s a story about the Australian Bigfoot, not just any story that made you go “Yowie!”: Wingham Chronicle – Got a yowie story?
  • (EXTRA) Hint: your sixth sense is your whole brain.: Psychology Today – Your Sixth Sense
  • (EXTRA) And by “found”, they really mean “might have glimpsed something that could have fit our criteria for this creature”.: The UK Daily Mail – Why the big paws? Paranormal creature hunters claim to have found Vietnam’s Bigfoot

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