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- This is the Improve and Have Fun podcast,
where I'm improving myself, having fun along the way
with the hopes of encouraging you to do the same.
These are Weird Stories
for the week of April the 11th, 2017.
Story number one,
Elon Musk to Connect Brains with Computers.
Download Thoughts.
This is a story from The Verge,
the subtitle being Rockets, Cars and Now Brain Chips.
I'll read you a paragraph or two here.
"SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk
"is backing a brain computer interface venture
"called Neuralink, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"A company which is still
"in the earliest stages of existence,
"has no public presence whatsoever,
"is centered on created devices that can implanted
"in the human brain with the eventual purpose
"of helping human beings merge with software
"and keep pace with advancements in artificial intelligence.
"These enhancements could improve memory
"or allow for more direct interfacing
"with computing devices."
Very interesting.
We're talking about like the Borg,
or we're talking about like a...
I don't why, but this makes me think of Starship Troopers
and they talk about the Klendathu and the Brain Bug.
James Altucher,
and I know I go on about James Altucher a lot.
I enjoy his material.
He recently did a interview with Yuval Harari,
the author of Sapiens, and he has a new book,
which talks about us combining with machines
and it's very interesting.
I'm gonna go ahead and do like a little sub-link
to this story to that podcast interview.
In the interview, they talk about regular people
may not be able to afford to combine with technology
in order advance.
That the price for this may be super high.
And that may be where the new discrimination.
I will link to this podcast interview.
Definitely check it out, it's very interesting.
So that's one article.
Let's move on to the next one here.
The second one is
Man's Last Name Too Offensive for License Plate.
All right, so let's go ahead and read the article here.
These articles are all linked in the blog post on the blog
at ImproveAndHaveFun.com.
"In Halifax, Nova Scotia, a Canadian provincial government
"has withdrawn a man's eponymous personalized
"vehicle license playing saying, Lorne Grabher's surname,
"which is offensive to women when viewed on his car bumper."
And it literally is Grabher.
It's spelled G-R-A-B-H-E-R, Grabher, crazy.
"Mr. Grabher said Friday that he put his last name
"on the license plate decades ago
"as a gift for his late father's birthday.
"And says the providence's refusal
"to renew the plate last year is unfair.
"Grabher says the Nova Scotia government
"is discriminating against his name."
Speaking about discrimination, that's one story there.
The next one.
The World's Most X-rated Restaurant.
This is on The New York Post,
by way of TheSun.co.uk.
"Many restaurants are now seeking to set pulses racing
"as well as satisfying hunger pangs.
"These are some of the world's steamiest restaurants
"that let people indulge in both dining
"and sex at the dinner table."
Wow.
Once restaurant here is the Robot Restaurant in Tokyo.
"Neon lights, scantily-clad waitresses and sexual robots,
"the Robot Restaurant sure knows how to turn heads.
"The unusual dining spot is filled with mirrors,
"video screens, and robots that staff climb on."
Another sexy restaurant is Bikini Beans Espresso
in Washington.
"It may be a cafe instead of a restaurant,
"but Bikini Bean Espresso has also been causing a stir.
"The cafe's uniforms have very little to the imagination.
"And the women wearing everything from tiny bikinis,
"or underwear, to simply having colorful stickers
"covering their nipples."
Hello!
One more restaurant I'll cover here is Care in Beijing.
"Now the creators of Care thought they
"would combine two things almost everyone enjoys,
"sex and food, at their restaurant.
"Waiters in the Beijing eatery serve guests
"with fake breasts as part of their uniform
"and drinks are served in boob-shaped cups."
And there's a picture of it on the article here.
And there's some pretty big boobs.
Next story here.
Parrots Make Other Parrots Laugh.
Okay.
This is on the National Geographic Website,
the News section here.
The news!
Shout out to Candy Knapsack on the Schmoes Know Show.
"The kea of New Zealand is a first non-mammal species
"to demonstrate infectious laughter, a new study says."
There's a picture of the bird here.
"Forget the laughing kookaburra, kea are the birds
"that really tickle each other's funny bones.
"The highly intelligent parrot has a specific call
"that, like human laughter, puts other parrots
"that hear in a good mood.
"This makes the kea the first known non-mammal
"to show contagious emotion, joining the ranks of humans,
"rats and chimpanzees.
"Scientists already knew that kea, native to New Zealand's
"mountain on South Island,
"make non-threatening warbling sound
"while playing with other kea.
"But since the birds also warble alone,
"the noise could simply be an expression of pleasure.
"To find out if kea use their play call to spread emotion
"among other kea, researchers led by Raoul Schwing
"of the of the Messerli Research Institute
"in Austria, went to Arthur's Pass National Park
"to broadcast recordings of several bird calls
"in the earshot of wild kea.
"The team then observed
"how the wild kea reacted to each sound.
"The effect was clear:
"When kea of both sexes heard play calls,
"they exhibited more and longer play behavior
"than when they heard the other calls."
Very interesting, parrots making other parrots laugh.
The next story.
Man Has Sex with Fence.
All right.
"Texas man arrested for allegedly having sex with a fence."
This is on the NewYorkDailyNews.com.
"They had an emotional link."
Okay, pun intended, I'm sure.
"Giving new meaning to the term hopping the fence,
"a resident of Austin, Texas, was arrested
"after his neighbor claims she saw him making love
"to the chain-link fence
"that separates their two properties.
"According to The Smoking Gun website,
"Diana Vasquez spotted Eliodoro Estala
"begin the chain-link courtship."
Wow.
"By urinating on the fence late Wednesday morning."
Yikes, okay.
"Vasquez then began recording Estala
"as he started yard working it by taking his clothes off."
Jesus.
"Proving that chivalry isn't dead,
"the 32-year-old North Austin man put his mouth
"inside the chain-link fence, and stuck his tongue,
"moving it up and down, the police reports says."
Wow, he really was going in on this
(laughs) chain-link fence.
All right.
Next story.
Study Finds Second Opinion
From Doctor Nets Different Diagnosis 88% of the Time.
Wow.
This is on studyfinds.org.
"When it comes to treating a serious illness,
"two brains are better than one.
"A new study finds that nearly nine in 10 people
"who go for a second opinion after seeing the doctor
"are likely to leave with a refined or new diagnosis
"from what they were first told.
"Researchers at the Mayo Clinic examined 286 patient records
"of individuals who had decided
"to consult the second opinion.
"Hoping to determine whether being referred
"to a secondary specialist, impacted ones likelihood
"of receiving an accurate diagnosis.
"The study, conducted using records of patients referred to
"by the Mayo Clinic's General Internal Medicine Division,
"over a two-year period, ultimately found
"that when consulting a second opinion,
"the physician only confirmed the original diagnose 12%
"of the time."
Very interesting.
The next story.
Adult Theme Parks of the Future Similar
to the Westworld TV Show.
This is on the DailyMail.co.uk.
The headline is Adult Them Parks Where You Can Get Drunk
and Shoot Robots.
"Digital drugs and spray-on clothes,
"tech firm reveals its vision of life in 2050."
Some of the subtitles underneath the headline.
"Futurologists, researchers, artists and scientists
"teamed up to capture a very realistic view
"of what is yet to come.
"predictions are of what life will be like in 2050,
"which includes spray-on clothes and digital drugs.
"Experts suggested human and robot relationships
"will be common and we won't ever have to wash our socks.
"Apartments will be self-rearranging,
"skyscrapers will stand 30 miles high,
"but everything will be hackable
That's very interesting.
There's a full article there on the DailyMail.co.uk there.
Next weird story is Sleep Is The New Status Symbol.
This is on the NewYorkTimes.com
and let me read you a couple of paragraphs here.
"At MIT's Media Lab, the digital futurist playground,
"David Rose is investigating swaddling,
"bedtime stories and hammocks,
"as well as lavender oil and cocoons.
"Mr. Rose, a researcher, an inventor-entrepreneur
"and the author of Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire
"and the Internet of Things, and his colleagues
"have been road-testing weighted blankets
"to induce a swaddling sensation and listening to recordings
"of Icelandic fairy tales,
"all research into an ideal sleep environment
"that may culminate in a nap pod, or, as he said,
"'some new furniture form.'
"Meanwhile, at the University of California in Berkeley,
"Matthew P. Walker, a professor of neuroscience
"and psychology and the Director of the Sleep
"and Neuroimaging Laboratory there,
"is working on direct current stimulation as a cure
"for sleeplessness in the aging brain.
"Dr Walker is also shifting through the millions of hours
"of human sleep data he has received from Sense,
"a delicately lovely polycarbonate globe designed
"to look like the National Stadium in Beijing
"that measures air quality and other intangibles
"in the bedroom, then suggests tweaks
"to help you sleep better."
That article, once again, is in the New York Times,
Sleep New Status Symbol.
Our second to last story
is the headline for this particular episode.
Dead Bat Found Inside Packaged Salad in Walmart.
This is on Macon.com.
And here are a few paragraphs.
"Fresh Express recalled its Organic Marketside Spring Mix
"from Walmart stores
"in the Southeastern United States Saturday
"because a dead bat was found
"in a packaged salad in Florida.
"At the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's
"recall chart notes, if there's the possibility
"of bat body parts,
"there's a minimal risk of rabies contamination."
Yikes.
"The CDC, that's the Centers for Disease Control
"and Prevention says it's working with the FDA
"and the Florida Department of Health
"to investigate the situation."
Yikes.
Dead bat parts.
My goodness, what happened there?
Now the final story for this week, the final weird story,
is Kidults: Toys Are Not Only For Kids.
This is, once again, on the Telegraph.co.uk.
"For Rob Willner, when work finishes, playtime begins.
"He likes nothing more when he gets home of an evening,
"than to kick off his shoes and upturn a crate
"of sleek Scandinavian Lego.
"He says, 'It's not like I'm obsessed with it,
"'but there's a simplicity to Lego models
"'that's quite nice to clear your mind
"'and help it focus a bit,' he says,
"only a touch sheepishly.
"Willner is 25 years old, and combines studying for a PhD
"in anthropology and religion at the University of Kent
"with youth work in North London,
"where he lives with his wife, Adele, a teacher.
"And he is not alone in rhis childish after-work habits.
"According to new research conducted by NPD Group,
"a retail analyst, sales of toys to adults have increased
"by almost two thirds over the past five years,
"and by more than 20 per cent in just the last year.
"As a result, the toys for adults market, which, by the way,
"is a careful Google search, best done at home,
"is now worth 300 million pounds,"
For this article,
which is out of the UK,
so they're doing everything in pounds there.
"300 million pounds,
"and said to be growing three times faster
"than the children's toy market itself.
"As with most things, millennials are largely to blame."
As with most things, millennials are largely to blame.
I think that's a bad way to put it there.
"More than half of the kidult"
And it's spelled K-I-D-U-L-T.
"spend comes from 18 to 34-year-olds,
"snapping up everything from 500 pound Scalextric sets
"to drones, Nerf guns
"and 2,000 pound Star Wars Lego models."
Jesus.
"For some it's a chance to recapture the careless raptures
"of childhood, while for others it's a chance
"to escape the hassle and hardships of adult life,
"akin to other mindfulness aids like adult coloring books
"and dot-to-dot.
"For Willner, it's both."
And that is the last story there for this week
in Weird Stories.
If you found any of this interesting,
of course, please comment below.
As to wherever you may be reading this,
or seeing this, or hearing this,
or go onto the blog and comment.
That will be amazing.
Like I said, your commenting is the same
as me putting out these podcasts,
it's me just putting my spin on this information
that I find interesting.
And I'd like to hear what you have to say.
Thank you so much for listening.
Catch you on the next one.
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