It’s the week of December 13, 2016 and Devon is back from Mexico to tell us about his honeymoon, scuba diving, drinking and all. Steven then reminisces about gifts Devon got him during a trip to Europe. Devon talks a bit more about his struggles with scuba diving. Steven assures Devon that getting sick in Mexico is part of the experience.

Technologically Speaking: Earth’s technosphere now weighs 30 trillion tons. First, what the heck is a “technosphere?” Our tech is providing a “fossil record” of all our crap. Includes all our stuff from tools to porn. Devon then goes all stoner and thinks of the crazy amount of stuff we make and waste. This of course leads to baseball. But also, what about wasted tanks and disposable packaging?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161130085021.htm

Mother Nature is a Harsh Mistress: The Great Smog of London of 1952. Devon learned about this just a day ago while watching Netflix’s The Crown and low and behold there’s a new science article about it! Scientists have discovered how the fog became deadly by studying pollution in China. Be prepared, it has to do with chemistry. The fog left 12,000 people dead and 150,000 people hospitalized. Devon somehow missed this event despite taking a class on London history (that he claims to have aced). This event lead to the Clean Air Act of 1956 in the UK and the new research may lead to reforms in China.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503156414/research-on-chinese-haze-helps-crack-mystery-of-londons-deadly-1952-fog

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London

The Expanse / Westworld: We talk about the season finale of Westworld, but first we give a shout out to another podcast and talk about The Expanse. We were mentioned on the podcast: Adventitious (http://adventitious.podomatic.com/) They correct us one some of our misconceptions about Mormons. They also let us know there are other Science Faction Podcasts. Moving on to The Expanse, we first ask why they name the books how they do. We then talk a little about the events in book 2 and 3 with very minor spoilers. We also discuss how they might be mixing the first two books in the next season of the TV show. Lastly: Westworld! Major spoilers. We talk about the end and our interpretation of events. We talk about the maze, escaping Westworld, other parks, loose ends, and the robot rebellion. We then speculate wildly on what could happen in the next season. We also realize we should watch the movies. Also, there was a previous, very short lived, Westworld TV show!  

QA: What would happen if the Sun disappeared for one second?