Science Faction Podcast

This episode contains: Posh dinner party, spices, scuba diving classes, enriched air diving, oxygen in the atmosphere, breathing pure oxygen, Twister and Michael Crichton, J.J. Abrams early career, no interview/guest

The Week in Space: Ceres bright spots identified, Nano-Mercury Terminators From Outer Space, Dawn spacecraft, salt deposits, briny solution, haze above spots,  briny sublimation, Ultima by Stephen Baxter

 http://gizmodo.com/we-finally-have-the-full-story-on-ceres-mysterious-brig-1746997700

Bonus Story: First puppies born by in vitro fertilization, beagles, wild life conservation, genetic manipulation and diseases

Insane in the Membrane: quantifying humorous words, “snunkoople effect,” lower entropy words, finglam v. clester, Dr. Seuss, comparing entropy of two words, laughter as communication, emergent properties, complexity of humor, Rick and Morty alien names

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151130131847.htm

Sci-Fi: We’re going to see The Force Awakens together!, fun drives, more Star Wars trailers/TV spots, scenes in space, there will be stars in Star Wars, crashing Falcon, non-Leia female dialog in the original trilogy, http://io9.gizmodo.com/this-supercut-of-all-the-female-dialogue-in-the-origina-1746855619, Aunt Buru, Ion Control Officer, Mon Mothma, Lupita Nyong’o in The Force Awakens, Rick and Morty: adult Futurama, not as clever with real science as Futurama, car battery episode, our spouses and sci-fi, “keep Summer safe,” Terminator 2, micro-universe, women in sci-fi, Rick and Morty season 3, Star Wars movie release schedule, “be like Han,” Futurama quote, shower thoughts

This episode contains: Jerky for dinner, Nick Offerman, videos to not drinking alone, science or drinking show, Batman v. Superman, if it is above 70% on RT then Devon will see it, out of words, lame corporate x-mas party, Batman becomes Ironman, powered by pain and justice, Batman should be dead

Untitled: water bears have strange genome, microscopic creatures that can survive extreme conditions, tardigrades, 17% of genome is foreign DNA, horizontal gene transfer, rehydration, Borg,

 http://gizmodo.com/indestructible-water-bears-have-a-genome-that-is-seriou-1744508070

Brain Matters: Interventions may temporarily raise kid’s IQs but there is fadeout overtime, head-start programs, fadeout, regression to the rest of the group, memorization and IQ, statistics, schools requiring the bare minimum, our anecdotal experience with advanced placement programs, nature propensity for intelligence v. effort, what you actually learn in college, Steven’s educational experiences, homework, paying attention in class, Devon tells us about law school, how to take a law school test, higher education tests applying knowledge, different for different subjects, science and engineering v. liberal arts, learning why something works even if using a computer, being a lawyer is easier than being an engineer, what lawyers actually do

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151203160142.htm

Sci-fi: Jessica Jones, Captain America: Civil War, Ultron, Spiderman, X-Men in the MCU, Super Soldier Serum as catalyst for other powers, (brief mention of Rick and Morty, Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!), Spiderman is the only masked super hero in Marvel, Thor as a god, Riddick movies, action sci-fi v. meaningful sci-fi, Tomorrowland, Hunger Games messages, theme of Ex Machina, Black Mirror, Steven apologizes unnecessarily, Futurama quote, shower thoughts from Cookie Monster  

This episode contains: Devon is a certified open water diver, 60 ft, out of air, emergency ascent, all day in a swimming pool, wet suits, breathing under water, buoyancy control device, decompression sickness, dive tables, dive computers, first world problems, life-time certification, enriched air, diving the Titanic

This Week in Space: certified astronaut, atmospheres of pressure, The SPACE Act of 2015, rights own resources in space, defining a citizen, signed into law, possible violation of international law, Out Space Treaty of 1967, Moon Treaty of 1979, should anyone own space?, what are space resources?, why privatizing space may spur exploration, Weyland-Yutani from Alien, future governing of space, problems of enforcement in space

Full Text of SPACE Act of 2015: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2262/text

Articles: http://www.iflscience.com/space/who-owns-space-us-asteroid-mining-act-dangerous-and-potentially-illegal

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-11/12/how-to-mine-asteroids-for-fun-and-profit

Please Don’t Kill Me Skynet: Scientists unveil the world’s first cyborg plant, injecting polymers into roses, electrically conductive wires in roses, pixels in leaves, green antennas, tattoos, “filling time with crap…”

http://gizmodo.com/scientists-have-created-a-cyborg-rose-1743933339

Sci-Fi: pumpkin beer, baking pumpkin pie, Star Wars: Battlefront, Battle of Jakku, lines of defense, AT-AT escort missions, chaos of the last command point in the Battle of Jakku, The Man in the High Castle, Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part II, reviewing the books, possible companion books to The Hunger Games, movie better then book?, not a typical action/revenge movie, no big action climax, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Dune: Steven has switched to listening on Audible, sapping Steven’s energy, Paul and Jessica with the Fremen, saving water for terraforming Arrakis, The Harkonnens, gladiatorial scene, talking in code, what’s really important to the plot, subsequent books even more confusing, Miles Greb coming back on the show, Futurama quote, some kinda ending

This episode contains: Devon may be a little intoxicated, binge watching Rick and Morty, R2 squared and R2 ring bearer, http://www.r2d2.media-conversions.net/, Devon has a lot of free time apparently, Rick and Morty = Futurama + Archer + Back to the Future, scale and grading system issues, tease for interview

Biomechanics: standing v. sitting, pro-standing studies, burning fat, Devon bought his own standing desk, being active at work, psychological aspects, pseudoscience and “toxins,” standing desk is not complete crap, health trends, burning calories while standing may not be enough, standing v. actual movement, cons of standing, back problems, varicose veins, overcompensating for drinking diet soda and the application to standing, effect on posture, just sit less, evolution of sitting, bright squares of science, working out is not a silver bullet to sitting all day, taking breaks, Aaron Sorkin type meeting, smoking, we love M&M’s

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_desk

http://www.wisebread.com/science-says-you-dont-need-a-standing-desk-after-all-you-only-need-this

http://m.fastcompany.com/3053528/you-feel-so-good-about-your-standing-desk-that-you-go-straight-home-and-sit-down?partner=rss

https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2014/11/03/yes-sitting-work-bad-but-standing-actually-better/7ceei6fb0B7QjgAH3FlOrK/story.html

Interview: The Earth Collective, Michael Troup, Chris Ball the deck hand/fixer, radio show about the future of human society on a distant planet, staying in the light, 15 minutes of entertainment, roles for the show, the importance of social media, how The Earth Collective came to be, script v. outline, The Long Line of Cars, multiple characters, unknown history, story arcs, score for each episode, great production quality, day jobs, Mike’s voice and accents (holly crap!), District 9, Neil Blomkamp’s Alien 5, classic sci-fi inspirations, Twilight Zone, book tie-ins with the podcast, Devon pimps Steven out for his writing skills, “the greatest sci-fi story you haven’t heard,”

http://www.tecstory.net/

https://twitter.com/TECstory

Sci-Fi: Steven really is terrible with names, we give The Earth Collective a 4 or 5 out of 5 and our own show a 1 or 2 out of 5, Terminator: Genisys which Devon actually liked, better than 3 and 4, the twist spoiled in the trailer is not that big of a deal, assimilation, quality of time travel story, topical issues in Terminator, plot holes, Devon gives Genisys a 3 out of 5, T3: 2 out of 5, T4: 1 out of 5, Steven didn’t read anymore Dune, Devon watched the movie and couldn’t believe how bad it was, Futurama quote, anti-joke

This episode contains: No second chances, Fallout 4, wisdom teeth and babies, medieval dentistry, Devon is Home Alone, scuba diving lessons, Devon leans as a kid from Rescue 911 that he never wants to scuba dive, WWII wrecks, Futurama or The Little Mermaid

Nature Watch: Ant colonies respond to predators as a super organism, two types of attacks, contracting and fleeing, similar to a pain response, how ants communicate, the ants go marching one by one…, Australia!, ant facts, rafts, bridges, Spock ants, roles in the colony, Ant Man and The Wasp,

http://news.discovery.com/animals/insects/ants-form-superorganism-when-threatened-151111.htm

This Week In Space: Phobos (moon of Mars) is falling apart, large crater on Phobos with debris patterns, Viking probe, possible fracture lines, tidal forces, clump of rocks with dust, 330 feet of dust, 30 to 50 million years left for Phobos, Seveneves

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151110171214.htm

Sci-Fi: Big Wave Golden Ale, The 100, Fallout 4, creating settlements, raids, Minecraft elements, “Metroid Mindset,” the ethics of Fallout video by Cracked:http://www.cracked.com/video_19696_how-fallout-proves-morality-arbitrary.html, no karma in Fallout4, consequences for each action, trial/jury selection simulator, cost per hour of playing, how many hours Devon has spent on Destiny, cost of being a sports fan, Rick and Morty, “Right in our wheel house,” Parody of Back to the Future, interdimensional travel, continuity, sex robot, no Dune, back to Fallout 4, voiced protagonist, Mass Effect, using a RPG talking system for real life, SFP sketch troop, Killing my Lobster, The Groundlings, improv classes, Devon's tale of woe re improv, our show persona v. IRL, old SFP, talking fast and slow, Futurama quote, checklist, "solid content," Devon gets personal, Jar Jar is a Sith Lord, Luke evil or a failure?, lightsaber as a key, Indiana Jones and the Search for the Holly Grail, old Indy v. old Han, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, why the new Star Wars will be better than Crystal Skull,  anti-joke, anti-joke, anti-joke...

This episode contains: Sitting far away, having a beer and relaxing, Steven’s Loot Crate is finally coming, Apple Watch and unwrapping videos, Fallout 4 coming out so soon!

This Week In Space: most earthlike worlds haven’t been born yet, NASA’s Kepler Mission, looking into the past, we’re early in the universe, more stars to be born in the future than have been born in the past, Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter thought experiment regarding population collapse, 92% chance that we are not the only civilization the universe will ever have, logical fallacy that we couldn’t remember (it’s the argument from ignorance), what it would actually be like to discovery an alien civilization, space holes

http://gizmodo.com/most-earth-like-worlds-havent-been-born-yet-1737908129

Enter Sandman: sleep walking and pain, not feeling pain until waking up after having sustained serious injury, we don’t know any sleep walkers, sleep twitching, reality testing in dreams, lucid dreams, Steven tells us about his dream, Devon gets lost in the woods

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151102100222.htm

Nature Watch: lathering up with sunscreen may protect against cancer but it’s killing corral reefs, the importance of reefs, loosing algae, great white sharks are letting us down

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151020103704.htm

Sci-Fi: no harmonica, a butter knife with a Star Trek communicator and an Enterprise key chain in a coffee cup that has NX-01 on the side, The 100, The CW, lowered expectations, science of The 100 (what they get right and what they get wrong), Lord of the Flies, interesting characters, surprisingly violent, Twilight Zone ending, we give The 100 4 out of 5, Ascension – miniseries on the Syfy channel, bad science, Doppler shifting, new Star Trek TV show, time travelling based Star Trek concept, 7 things we want in the new Star Trek, CBS streaming service, new timeline next generation, non-Enterprise based shows, history of the Enterprise, new ship designs, go back to the ideals of the original Star Trek, new characters with cameos of old characters

Dune: “Ruler of the Stars,” Steven has read a few more percent, Jessica and Paul in the caves, cutting away to other characters, environmentalism, meeting the Fremen, Futurama Quote, laugh tracks, anti-joke

This episode contains: High school drink, no beer, no mixers, The Quantum Entanglement or The Solution (peppermint vodka and ginger beer), Star Wars tease (that’s never paid off)

This Week in Space: Gizmodo, simple design change to build a thruster to Mars, Hall Thruster, less fuel use, ion thruster, the engine of the future, just using explosions, energy and propellant, space travel is really easy

http://gizmodo.com/a-simple-design-change-could-make-a-thruster-to-get-us-1738997991

Gee! (ology): Earthquakes in San Ramon, SF bay area, Devon was there, 400 + earthquakes in few weeks, group of earthquakes: swarm, 1989 earthquake, World Series, 1906 earthquake,

http://www.popsci.com/over-408-earthquakes-hit-california-town-in-two-weeks

Pop Sci: Jacked up dogs with gene edited muscles, creating dogs with genetic problems for testing, CRISPR, bacteria and viruses used to replace genes, myostatin gene, human gene manipulation, efficient energy use, China may have shaved a dog to look like a lion, why we use beagles for testing,

 http://gizmodo.com/gene-edited-dogs-with-jacked-up-muscles-are-a-worlds-fi-1737545538

Please Don’t Kill Me SkyNet! Ethical decisions to be made by self-driving cars, should car kill 10 pedestrians or the driver?, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, survey on what car should do in moral dilemma, setting a self-driving car’s morality level, self-driving cars still safer, AI and ethics

http://www.iflscience.com/technology/should-self-driving-car-be-programmed-kill-its-passengers-greater-good-scenario

Sci-Fi: The harmonica is back!, banjo, history of The Turk, chess machine, The Night’s Tour, Bojack Horseman, three kids in a trench coat, Dune returns, Devon is way ahead of Steven, Steven’s feelings on Dune, Paul and Jessica, side characters, Paul’s rise to power, we learn there’s a glossary!, Dune Messiah, the ending of Dune, appendices, Steven’s problems with the pacing and characters in Dune, talking in riddles, invitation to Miles Greb, rise and fall of Paul, no such thing as a happy ending, why “Paul?”, Frank the Fremen, Dune is like reading legal documents, Futurama quote, anti-joke

This episode contains: Crashing TIE fighter, trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Trek Beyond, Star Wars through the generations, ubiquity of Star Wars, tickets and servers crashing, Football/Star Wars tie-in?, bringing back fans that hated the prequels, playing it safe/similarities to A New Hope, Rey in Star Destroyer hanger, The First Order, who’s on the stage?, Fin as a storm trooper, new Star Destroyers, escape and explosion, more similarities to A New Hope, Kylo Ren, Adam Driver’s voice, Morgan Freeman cut of Star Wars, Kylo Ren’s lineage, lens flare, new super weapon, Poe being tortured, the events of the Original Trilogy is a legend in the Star Wars Universe, Rey and Han, Luke’s lightsaber, Falcon at light speed, Ren and storm troopers, lightsabers in the rain, forest planet, Finn may be a force user, x-wings and TIE fighters, temple, Luke with mechanical hand, R2’s hexagon port, female storm troopers and armor, Rey crying, BB-8 is an astromech, snow planet, a new trench run, no space battles, mouse droid, Leia and Han sad or happy?, where’s Luke?, who dies?, Finn with a blue lightsaber looking scared, music: love theme from Empire, no major plot points revealed, our impressions, rating: likely PG-13, Han’s prior marriage, Vader’s flings, Kylo Ren’s heritage, spider Darth Maul, CG characters, Max Von Sydow,  counting down the days and hours and minutes and seconds, Futurama quote, anti-joke

This episode contains: Delorean doors, Back to the Future Day!, Facebook hoaxes, Biff and Trump, first time watching BTTF, election night, our first sound tracks

This Week in Space: NASA's Kepler Mission, star brightness dropping strangely, scientists baffled!, debris, comets, Oort Cloud, Dyson Sphere, aliens?, radio waves, Calculating God, advanced civilizations retreating to the matrix, No Man's Sky

 http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/10/14/weird_star_strange_dips_in_brightness_are_a_bit_baffling.html 

 Physical Challenge: accuracy of clocks at high acceleration, billions and billions of Gs, atomic clocks, Muon decay, Unruh effect, speed of light, speed limit and acceleration limit, thought experiments in physics, sushi, unagi

http://phys.org/news/2015-10-perfectly-accurate-clocks-impossible.html 

 Sci-Fi: Dark Matter reprise, show you can walk away from, RPG characters, Black Mirror, break from Dune, Audible, BTTF sequel?, Mad Max in a Delorean, the 2015 of Back to the Future part II, flying cars, cold fusion, inducing sleep, perfect weather prediction, rejuvenation, organ transplants, power laces, resizing jacket, justice system, bionic implants, phone booths, smart phones, robot gas station, Jaws 19, 3-D movies, hover conversions, virtual wait staff, Pepsi Perfect, arcade games, sound board, self-adjusting baseball bat, hover boards, Cubs win World Series, Curse of the Billy Goat, dust repellant, suspended animation, woman president, thumb print activation, voice activation, dehydrated pizza, fax machines and TVs, digital glasses, HD TV, atrocity channel, video phones, privacy, history of skate boarding, Futurama quote, anti-joke

This episode contains: No harmonica, dentists and pain, taking it in the mouth, Wild Card game, Devon may be drunk, our extremely tenuous connection to the Nobel prize in physics, neutrinos, SNOLAB, Steve Maguire,

 https://www.snolab.ca/

Tech Upgrades: The $1 Billion City Nobody Calls Home, full scale town for tech testing, sensors, self-driving cars, energy technology testing, conflicting technologies, New Mexico Memorandum of Understanding, Mythbusters, no people so not real testing, Eureka, Hunger Games

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/06/business/test-city/

Brain Matters: Singe Neuron May Carry Over 1,000 Mutations, ever neuron’s genome is unique, point mutations, protecting from harmful mutations, protecting the brain from mutations, brain facts, Lucy, Limitless, Morgan Freeman, the brain studies itself! (ominous music),

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151001153931.htm

Sci-Fi: Dark Matter (TV show, not the matter), amnesia cliché, Firefly influences, The 100, scratching a lot of itches

Dune Book Club part II: dinner party scene, political strategizing, on the cusp of things happening, Judge of the Changes: Kynes, spice mining, wormsign, ornithopters, carryalls, Tremors, is Arrakis hot?, stillsuits, prophecies, Bene Gesserit missionaries, Jessica’s parentage, water at the dinner party, Neuromancer, Cryptonomicon, Audible, renting audio books from the library, Idlewild, Patreon, @Iotaman1701, Miles Greb and After the Gold Rush, Futurama Quote, anti-joke