On the show this week:

• Front Page
• Sounds Like A Broken Record
• Not What You’d Expect To Find
• Extras

CQ: Humans have been actively transforming their environment for millenia, instead of being transformed by it — but does that make us less natural and weaker as a result, and how should we try to ensure that a human being is capable of surviving when our technology fails?

Full list of 44 articles after the jump!

• Front Page:
  • What happens when you really *should* have a limit to being nice?: The UK Daily Mail – Brazilian stroke victim cannot stop helping others after developing pathological generosity because of changes in the brain
  • Scraping metal or geologic phenomenon?: The UK Mirror – Mystery hum? Listen to spooky sound that baffled scientists for 40 years after new claims it is now recorded on camera
  • It hasn’t aged well.. So the odds of us finding a functional Transformer may have gone down..: Yahoo! News – How I met Britain’s first operational robot 50 years ago – and now he’s up for sale
  • Will the future be filled with professions that rely upon your 1337 skillz?: New Scientist – Gamers unleash swarms of nanoparticles on tumours
  • Ah, the annual celebration returns!: New Scientist – Opera therapy and beetle astronomy win Ig Nobel prizes
• Sounds Like A Broken Record:
  • These aren’t usually the fanciest of sightings, but they _are_ usually the ones with the best observers.: The Examiner – Top 10 UFO cases from 2012 released by Science Review Board (Photos)
  • Sounds like he really needed the fibre.: National Post – Mysterious American swallows Yukon bar’s last human toe, pays $500 fine
  • Update: he didn’t get that far (Newfoundland).: Metro – Up, up, and away: Balloonist Jonathan Trappe attempts to float across the Atlantic
  • Granted, the bear isn’t probably going to do as much press..: Orange – Bear beats Baumgartner’s skydive record
  • I doubt that the extra fee will turn into anything fruitful for the town..: Orange – Spanish town to charge for tomato-throwing
  • Whatever floats your boat! Whatever lifts your ladel!: Orange – World Gravy Wrestling Championships takes place
  • Food fights have evolved.. (Or devolved..): Orange – History made at World Black Pudding Throwing Championships
  • It says: “By opening this bottle, you have agreed to the following terms: …” (No, not really.): Metro – World’s oldest message in a bottle found after 107 years
  • Some challenges, when failed as kids, may haunt us for the rest of our lives..: Orange – Engineer builds world’s tallest domino tower
  • He probably made sure to colour between the vines..: Idaho Press-Tribune – Chimp wins $10,000 prize in art contest
  • A few more weeks, and I’ll give this cat a run for his whiskers..: Sky News HD – Furriest Cat: Colonel Meow Snatches World Record
  • If I saw a dog on a tightrope, I’d probably recognize them to!: Orange – Guinness recognises tightrope-walking dog
  • Finally: something that is easy to park!: Metro – World’s smallest car measuring 63.5cm tall enters the record books
  • Any reports of it hanging around the bar are strictly rumours.: New Scientist – NASA says Voyager 1 has left the solar system, honest
• Not What You’d Expect To Find:
  • It’s like finding a needle in a haystack by suggesting how many needle-like strands of hay might be confused for needles.: The UK Guardian – The new equation for estimating alien life across the universe
  • The full article explaining yet another way (of an infinite number of ways) to divide up the universe, so as to make it impossible to find just about anything.: Astrobiology Magazine – The Drake Equation Revisited: An interview with Sara Seager
  • (EXTRA) Most people probably remark on the cougar.. But.. A SPEAR?!?: BBC – British Columbia man thwarts cougar attack with spear
  • (EXTRA) You know it isn’t likely going wrong when the outside collapses.: Orange – Job interviews with apocolyptic twist
  • (EXTRA) Probably by sitting on it..: Orange – Giant 50-stone alligator breaks record
  • (EXTRA) Was it waving — or drowning?: The UK Telegraph – Was this wave caused by the Loch Ness monster?
  • It might be a bit like me, not so much about floating gracefully as much as desperately running along the bottom of the water.: The Guardian – ‘Walking shark’ discovered in Indonesia
  • (EXTRA) It really shouldn’t have been driving, or at least wore a seat belt..: Toronto Sun/QMI Agency – Three-foot-long alligator killed on Ont. highway
  • In contrast to the goldfish, you will probably have forgotten about this story by the time you have finished reading it, if listening to classical music..: The UK Daily Mail – Goldfish, the classical music aficionados: The famously forgetful fish can distinguish between Bach and Stravinsky, study shows
  • (EXTRA) And by “drama”, we mean “hopeful yet cautious optimism”..: Ghost Theory – Drama Building For Bigfoot DNA, Update
  • (EXTRA) If it goes badly, however, I can certainly imagine which one will end up in the stew..: London Evening Standard – Brazil man weds GOAT – but says he won’t consummate marriage
  • (EXTRA) I’d much rather see the demons inhabit the exorcists, to give both sides a fair share at the ratings..: BBC – Teen exorcists: Women who expel demons on stage
  • Maybe the spartan aesthetic in life is rewarded by bling for heaven?: The UK Daily Mail – Incredible skeletal remains of Catholic saints still dripping in gems and jewellery discovered by ‘Indiana Bones’ explorer
  • (EXTRA) Is this more than a spring-loaded cat?: Orange – Dinosaur scares Japanese workers witless
  • (EXTRA) It means the trolls won’t get their mail.: Orange – Mystery river postbox to be removed
  • Is this a new version of the Toynbee tiles?: News Channel 4/KFOR-TV – Strange monument mysteriously shows up in front of Paseo area restaurant
  • (EXTRA) You could say that this issue weighs heavily on the masses..: New Scientist – Strength of gravity shifts — and this time it’s serious
  • (EXTRA) I think I’ve found a limit for my omnivorosity..: Metro – Festival-goers tuck into live octopus… despite risk of choking on wriggling legs
  • (EXTRA) As long as you go in one direction..: Metro – Professor Brian Cox tells Science Festival that time travel IS possible
• Extras:
  • (EXTRA) Did he try to argue he had simply peed himself?: Orange – Man tries to smuggle fish in his trousers
  • (EXTRA) There’s something brilliant about the idea that you should be able to charge spam deliverers..: Orange – Man makes £300 receiving cold calls
  • (EXTRA) I guess he’s going to be far over “We Are The World”.: Orange – Geldof honoured to be a space rat
  • (EXTRA) The world’s most specific frickin’ laser beam.: BBC – ‘Walkie-Talkie’ skyscraper melts Jaguar car parts
  • (EXTRA) I’m sure no one saw this coming.: USA Today/The Des Moines Register – Iowa grants gun permits to the blind
  • (EXTRA) So, the story is: “Did you ever hear of these guys? No, neither has the sasquatch..”: The Standard-Examiner – Hunting Bigfoot: Squatching trip in Perry Canyon fails to produce evidence of creature

Podcast: Play in new window | Download