Not A Thing!

Episode 207
Ads may use ultrasound to link your devices.

A Dr. Seuss and Star Trek mashup gets a Cease and Desist order.

During testing NASA’s Scout system for detecting asteroids finds one.

Spinach can be used to detect explosives.

IBM’s Watson AI agrees with oncologists (non-paywalled link here).

Male birth control goes though a trial phase. (Bonus link with less snark)

Iceland has an election which may involve their crowdsourced constitution.

Spoiler Alert:
We talk a little meta-politics at the end.

Episode 206
One in two (that’s like every other person) is potentially in a police facial recognition database.

A proposed sanctuary for whales in the South Atlantic was blocked.

Iceland intends to drill 5km to liquid magma for geothermal energy.

Sweden bans camera drones in public places.

Uber purchased self-driving truck company Otto which made its first delivery of beer.

Astronaut spines are shrinking in space.

A parasite causes mice and other animals to be unafraid of cats.

Researchers are testing a vaccine cocktail for the common cold.

Spoiler Alert:
It’s not all bad in Scandinavia.

Episode 205

There’s now a robot that does pushups and sweats.

Does being compelled to unlock a phone violate the 4th and 5th Amendments?

Bill Belichick and others in the NFL are done with the MS Surface tablets.

Tesla to include self-driving hardware (but not yet software) in all production cars.

Mercedes has taken a stand on the trolley problem.

Scientists have figured out how to reduce a person’s self control.

Nintendo’s Switch will be a combination console and mobile gaming system.

When cows are fed seaweed it reduces their methane output by 99%

Spoiler Alert:
We’re on the road to 216!

Episode 204

The NFL bans gifs from the teams and players.

Argentina advocates e-voting but also advocates making auditing those votes illegal.

In the wave of creepy clown news, McDonald’s moves to reduce Ronald McDonald’s presence.

Tyson Foods buys a 5% stake in veggie burger company Beyond Meat.

Silkworms fed carbon nanotubes weave super-silk that conducts electricity.

CoverGirl cosmetics adds their first male spokesmodel.

A company makes a machine to extract moisture from the air for arid climates.

Spoiler Alert:
We talked just a little bit about the second Star Wars Rogue One trailer

Episode 203
California standardizes so its police departments use a statewide, open source, use-of-force incident database.

Elon Musk unveils very grand plans to send people to Mars a hundred at a time.

NASA announces plumes of liquid (maybe water) on Europa, a moon of Jupiter.

A 2 mile beer pipeline is the first of its kind in Bruges, Belgium.

Amoeba Records gets a license to sell marijuana from its Berkeley store.

A 25 year old demonstrates a polymer which kills bacteria without using antibiotics.

Russian researchers capture dolphins speaking in sentences.

Spoiler Alert:
We saw Hell or High Water (Thing) and the Magnificent Seven remake (Not A Thing!)

Episode 202
LA cops use a bomb disposal robot to grab a suspect’s shotgun to end a standoff.

Wells Fargo Bank admits 5300 fired for creating 2 million fake accounts.

Woman sues smart sex-toy company We-Vibe for collecting usage data about their sex toys.

The Chinese space agency admits the Tiangong space station is in a rapidly decaying orbit.

Sandisk announces they will produce a 1TB flash memory SD card.

Twitter relaxes their 140 character limit slightly in an attempt to make it more simple.

Researchers develop a method to guess people’s emotional state by wirelessly monitoring breathing and heartrate.

The US army is testing a new ambidextrous grenade.

There’s a robot tank that can shoot down mosquitos. With lasers!

Spoiler Alert:
Alan is a man with simple needs.

Episode 199
We were not aware there was a uniform for Podcast Co-Hosts. Because it’s Not A Thing.

At first there was a signal from outer space…then SETI and others said it wasn’t.

California’s bill to end Daylight Saving Time dies in the state senate.

Facebook’s algorithm to find and show users “Trending” news finds fake news.

The Madden 17 game will have regular commentary updates.

Hackers can use computer cables as antennas to beat airgapped security measures.

Researchers are testing mind controlled nanobots for medicine delivery.

Spoiler Alert:
Don’t buy a podcast co-host shirt unless you’re banishing people to the penal asteroid of Rura Penthe.

Episode 198

It’s our (shhh) Two Hundredth Episode (counting the 000th and 12b episodes) – but it’s still labeled 198. It’s the Animal Style Fries 200th Episode.

We say THANKYOU… which for a short while was a trademark dispute for CitiGroup and AT&T.

Kalashnikov opens a lifestyle and firearm replica store at the Moscow Airport.

The US Justice Department decides to end involvement with private for-profit prisons.

Social Network Nextdoor introduces measures to reduce racial profiling.

The City of Hayward obliterates a curb that showed evidence of tectonic movement.

A New Zealand company makes a personal faraday cage wetsuit for swimming undetected with sharks.

Astronomers confirm an exoplanet Proxima B in the next closest star system of Alpha Centauri — still 4 light years away

Spoiler Alert:
Listen to Brendan and Not A Thing! Podcast theme creator (and podcast guest) Garrin O’Brien on Stillborn Messiah’s Shanked By A Unicorn