Episodes

  • Tell Me How to Feel

    A new article describes a study in which doctors told patients they would just be getting a shot of vitamins, but instead gave them something a thousand times more powerful.  Whether these subjects thought something strange was happening or not …

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  • Objects that Click

    Anthony found an article that describes the community around the IBM Model M keyboard, a sublimely clicky keyboard that has spawned cult-like devotion and a second hand black market.  It makes him consider our fetishization of things, and the ties …

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  • Who’s the Robo Boss?

    Researchers have discovered that employees are actually more content taking orders from a robot than a human being in the workplace.  This prompts Anthony and Jeff to wonder what it might take to promote robots into middle management, what the …

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  • That Runner’s High

    As a runner himself, Jeff was very impressed to read of James Lawrence, the endurance athlete who is attempting 50 ultra-distance triathlons, in 50 different states, in 50 straight days.  Anthony, on the other hand, thinks it is unhealthy, obsessive, …

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  • Spider House

    Anthony has found a story about a Missouri family fleeing their home because between 4500 and 6000 spiders came “bleeding out of the walls”.  To which Jeff of course wonders, “What the #%$#?!”  Spider senses tingle, spider stories are shared, …

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  • Photo Synthesis

    Google’s Auto Awesome will take the best areas of slightly different photographs and combine them into one new, never-quite-was best version.  A new article suggests that this kind of artful interpretation of history may prove problematic when AI determines what …

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  • Saturday Mourning

    Saturday morning cartoons are no more! And Jeff has decided that this means something really bad for today’s youth – but Anthony is certain that it’s a good thing, and that Jeff is just a cranky old man yelling at …

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  • Pet Smart

    Anthony has been reading about Chaser, the wonder dog who has learned over 1,000 different words, which makes him wonder how smart Jeff believes canines to be.  Is obedience less intelligent than independence? Is there a bias in measuring intelligence …

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  • Go Go Gadget Soul!

    Shipyard workers in South Korea have been using Exo Suits to assist them in loading and unloading scrap metal, and Jeff and Anthony desperately want to try it out. But why stop there? Why not replace human limbs with robot …

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  • The Part of ‘No’ We don’t Understand

    An article by Kevin Ashton proposes that saying “no” to things is vital to the creative process.  Anthony and Jeff wonder why they have such a hard time saying “no” and what that might mean about them. 

     

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