Not A Thing!

Episode 83

The ACLU pushes for more information about cellphone-snooping Stingrays

At least 4 people have gotten past security and up to the top of 1 World Trade Center. 3 of them recorded a (vertigo-inducing) video!

The Occupy movement spawns off a software app for decentralized decision-making.

Facebook to acquire Oculus, makers of the Rift virtual reality helmet.

Sony reveals a surprisingly good VR-helmet competitor to the Rift, presumably for use with the PS4.

We saw Need 4 Speed in D-Box.

Spoiler Alert:
Need For Speed might be the best game to movie adaptation.

Episode 82

According to Bill Gates, robots are taking our jobs.

Self driving cars may use magnets in the road for navigation.

Worm evolves preference for plants bioengineered to produce pesticide.

More evidence found for the Big Bang via gravity waves and background radiation and other science!

Bonus: analogy of curved space-time (arguably a difficult topic) abstracted by a stretched rubber sheet!

Palate cleanser: cookie shot glass!

The last films from the Cinequest film festival:
Eternity The Movie: fictional comedy of an 80s R&B duo
Unforgiven remade as a samurai film
Cheatin’ – Bill Plympton’s movie-length plymptoon.
The Hands of Orlac – Silent film soundtracked live with grand piano, wurtlitzer organ, and theremin!

Brendan gives a good recommendation for the LEGO movie.

Spoiler Alert:
Alan talks a bit too long about gravity.

Episode 81
Green Mountain Coffee effectively adds DRM to K-Cups of their “coffee”

New games tending towards local multiplayer instead of online.

Maybe soon dogs will be able to speak…. SQUIRREL!

COSMOS premiered last week.

Before the promo for Cosmos, Barack Obama was on Between Two Ferns

Some films from the Cinequest film festival:
Hunting Elephants
Grand Piano
Blood Punch
Kiss Me You F*cking Moron
Sex(Ed)
Teenage

Spoiler Alert:
Hebrew is both a written and spoken language

Bonus:
Jonathan “Mike Ehrmantraut” Banks in a sex-ed film. Watch at least the first 2 minutes.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/mike-ehrmantraut-learns-about-the-female-body/280101/

Episode 80

We recount a little bit about how we both took vacation last week.

Beer in Kauai is A Thing:

• Kauai Island Brewing Company – get the Lilikoi beer, or any of there multiple IPAs
• Kauai Beer Company– tap room only, but their Black Limo is great
• The Feral Pig – Irish bar, multiple island beer options.

The Art of Escape by Rift Recon in San Francisco is pretty cool.

Mt. Gox one of the largest bitcoin exchange suddenly shutters, stranding almost $500million worth.

This week begins the Cinequest film festival in San Jose

The series Cosmos is back on FOX this Sunday

Spoiler Alert:
NASCAR is not a sport

Episode 79

NBC has a clandestine Starbucks in Sochi.

Driving under the influence of marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol…or so we’ve heard.

Extreme loneliness greater threat to life expectancy than obesity.

New fossil field including findings of new species and soft tissue samples.

Bacterial evolutionary jumps witnessed in far less than one human lifetime.

What is in your Facebook “News Feed” really?

Spoiler Alert:
Don’t be a dogecoin

Episode 78

Verizon “admits” to throttling internet connections to Netflix.

Comcast acquiring Time-Warner Cable would combine the two biggest cable operators into, uh… an even bigger one.

3 million dollars of bitcoins stolen from the relaunched darknet Silk Road.

9th Circuit Court upends California’s restrictions on concealed carry of firearms.

Special Operations Command invests in next generation battlefield armor.

Russian River Pliny The Younger is available… for a short wait.

Alan recommends the movie Her, Brendan doesn’t quite recommend Bad Grandpa.

Spoiler Alert:
We think people liking pumpernickel bread is a Thing worth being on the podcast.

Episode 76

CERN isolates a “beam” of antihydrogen.
bonus link: The /r/explainlikeimfive explanation of antimatter.

The Downworthy plugin might figuratively be the most mediocre plugin you’ll never click on.

Federal judge rules an IP address doesn’t constitute enough to be personal identification.

Man uses first class air ticket in a very ingenious way.
bonus link: another gaming of a first class ticket.

Spoiler Alert:
Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters was released in D-Box.

Episode 75

Chipping away at the secrecy of the No Fly List.

The Opportunity Mars Rover comes across a “Jelly Donut” Mmm. Donuts.

NASA inspired EVA-style “Space Jacket”

A bit about “Paratexts” or other multi-screen, multi-channel modes of consuming information, particularly TV.

Twitter (and NetFlix) have “Chaos Monkeys” to help them maintain uptime by shutting down things randomly.

Hacking OKCupid with fake profiles, math, and (frankly) balls.

Also a quick recommend for Warped Brewing in Sebastopol. It’s A Thing.

Spoiler Alert:
Beer is A Thing.

Episode 74

Alan’s in Florida again!

Net Neutrality heavily under fire this week.

Bonus: a nice comic explaining Net Neutrality.

Some 300,000 West Virginians are without clean water.

3d sugar-printing gets us one step closer to food replicators.

We like setlist.fm for their umm… setlists.

Spoiler Alert:
Jon Bon Jovi both is and is not Bon Jovi.