This episode contains: Devon eats bread after another long day at the law factory, which ended with a power outage. We then do the thing where we talk about our lives… weekend plans, food, the weather, etc. Also, someone won our Portal 2 giveaway contest! Which proves we have at least one listener.

“I Vant to Suck Your Blood”: Devon discusses whether young blood being put into an older person will have positive health benefits for the recipient. This topic stems from a company that plans on doing a study where they put young blood in old people, for a very high price. There is some science to support this theory, however, not surprisingly, it’s inconclusive and mostly done on rats. Devon then has to mention that his favorite band, Kamelot, wrote a song about Elizabeth Bathory, who may have killed virgins to bathe in their blood, believing it had rejuvenating properties. (“… drench me with your innocence tonight ... your blood preserves my place in time …”)  

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/for-8000-this-startup-will-fill-your-veins-with-the-blood-of-young-people-but-it-has-no-idea-if-itll-have-any-benefits/all/

Lyrics to Elizabeth, parts I, II, and III: http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/kamelot/karma.html#10

Mystery Solved: We now know what causes Nambia’s Fairy Circles. A new study has found that these are caused by two ecological forces: termites and vegetation self-organization. So it’s not aliens, unfortunately. Steven explains how these forces come together and his interest in natural formations.

http://gizmodo.com/we-finally-know-what-s-causing-namibias-mysterious-fair-1791329145

Sci-Fi: Steven told us about the Star Wars book, Lost Stars, last week but Devon now has also read it, so we talk about it some more. It’s really good so all the time we spend on it is warranted. Also: SPOILERS. We discuss how fun it is to see the events from the original trilogy from new perspectives. We get to see the day-to-day life of citizen’s of the Empire. There’s also interesting ideological conflicts and some political philosophy, albeit a bit simplistic. It is a “young adult” novel and that does affect it somewhat. We then discuss how much is still missing between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens and what books might fill the gaps. We then question how the First Order was able to become the force it is in The Force Awakens without the full resources of the Empire. Specially, and most importantly, how could they possibly build Star Killer Base.

Lost Stars by Claudia Grey on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Star-Wars-Force-Awakens/dp/1484724984

In other news, Steven has started watching Travelers on Netflix. There are some minor spoilers, but mostly he just describes the premise and some of the mechanics of this particular type of time travel. Steven still doesn’t have a science question. So instead, we end the ep by begging for money.

The BS Podcast Network Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/BSpodcastNetwork