- Publisher |
- The BS Podcast Network
- Media Type |
- audio
- Podknife tags |
- Comedy,
- Fiction,
- Natural Sciences,
- Science Fiction,
- Science & Medicine
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Submit ReviewThis episode contains: Welcome to the Ben Lawless podcast. Lawless: The Ben Story. Y'all seen the movie Lawless? Ben hasn't yet. Was it good? Devon's not here tonight, because of... dinner? With his wife? We still would love a tour of the Mighty Coconut offices. They're doing great work. Steven pitches a series of Walkabout Minigolf courses to Mighty Coconut. Wouldn't you love to play minigolf through the backlots for scifi movies? We pitch minigolf courses based on alien invasions and Buck Rogers. Did you know that Mighty Coconut made Pigeon: Impossible? Which Spies in Disguise is based on? What if there was a minigolf course based on Pigeon: Impossible? Steven is pivoting from podcasts to putting, and pigeons. Ben needs a vacation from his vacation, amirite? Ben's son wanted to watch Speed Racer 2. Ben's heart broke to tell him the truth. Emile Hirsch wants to do another Speed Racer movie! Get the Wachowski's onboard. http://screenrant.com/emile-hirsch-speed-racer-return-hopes-response/ Ben is SO STOKED about the Apple TV+ Speed Racer show helmed by J.J. Abrams. Let's make the Speed Racer Extended Universe a thing.
Today in the Weird Wide Web: Chrome will support WebGPU! What the hell does that mean? WebGL is cool and all, but WebGPU is going to revolutionize graphics on the web. Remember how Apple told Adobe "No Thank You" about putting Flash on iPhone? Ben does. Steven wonders why the name Mozilla sounds so familiar... Hint: he uses Firefox. Sometime in May, WebGPU is coming to Chrome! Ben is so excited. Ben is telling you: Arc is the best web browser ever. Steven and Ben argue whether Bing is a browser. Ben has worked in web development for the last 14 years. Feels like 40. Ben called it years ago: Microsoft finally stopped making their own browser engine.
Symphony of Scent: Making sense of scents: Deciphering our sense of smell. Remember the five senses? They're cool, right? What is smell? When do things start and stop smelling? Steven wonders. Scientists have created the first 3D picture of how an odor molecule activates an odorant receptor. "We need to see it so we can science it!" - Steven. Smells are somehow like hitting keys on a piano to produce a chord. Devon could explain it.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230315132416.htm
Science Fiction: The Big Door Prize on Apple TV+ is really good. Is it scifi? Ben thinks so. If you were in The Big Door Prize, would you want to hear your "life potential?" Getting big Tales from the Loop vibes from The Big Door Prize. Are there similarities between The Big Door Prize and Machine of Death? Steven really enjoyed the ending of Shrinking on Apple TV+. The Bad Batch's third season will be its final. We finally talk about Star Wars Celebration this episode. THREE NEW STAR WARS MOVIES?!?!?! WHAT?!?!?! The Filoni film is going to wrap up the Mandoverse? Hate that term btw. So... Grogu trained with Luke for 2 years?! We are digging the trailer for Star Wars Visions Season 2. The claymation looks incredible. Ben finally watched the first Hotel Transylvania. Cool flick! We spoil Star Trek: Picard's 3x09 Vōx because you have to spoil it to talk about it. Now we know why Ro Laren didn't use the transporters!
Pre-pod Patreon-only: Ben monologued about sleep for 49 minutes.
This episode contains: Steven and Ben survived Easter to bring you this podcast. Steven’s continuing sickness has taken a turn. Steven did some research and found out he has Cricopharyngeal spasms. Steven also tells us about his history with anxiety. Ben has a full stand up arcade machine, which is hooked up to a steam deck. Ben has returned to live poetry reading.
This Week in Space: A scientific salad for astronauts in deep space. The ingredients were chosen for their nutritional value, as well as how easy they’ll be to grow with the limited room and resources available on a spacecraft.
https://astronomy.com/news/2023/03/a-scientific-salad-for-astronauts-in-deep-space
Mr. Peanut Dusts Off His Monocle: First-of-its-kind mRNA treatment could wipe out a peanut allergy. Peanut and tree nut allergies affect millions, yet there’s only one approved treatment. But a major breakthrough might be around the corner, with scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) testing a world-first mRNA medicine packaged up in tiny nanoparticles that not only reversed peanut allergies in mice but equipped the body with the microbiological tools needed to stop the often-life-threatening condition developing.
https://newatlas.com/medical/mrna-treatment-peanut-allergy/
Mostly Video Games: Steven tamps down his ego and decides to let Ben talk on the rest of the episode. We talk about Biomutant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomutant Spaceborne 2: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1646850/SpaceBourne_2/ and then the Super Mario Brothers Movie. (no link, you already know what it is) Ben then tells us about the end of Hello Tomorrow! (SPOILERS)
This episode contains: We talk about April and it's Fools. Ben did some axe throwing, and his kid out-paced him. Devon attempts to get his kids to be quieter this episode, to varying degrees of success. Steven sick.
This Week in Space: Scientists observe flattest explosion ever seen in space. Explosions in space are almost always spherical, but this one was not. What is an FBOT? Fast Blue Optical Transient, and it is very rare, first discovered in 2018.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230330210745.htm
Some Good News? Maybe?: Renewable energy outpaced coal this year. According to the Energy Information Administration, wind, solar, hydropower, biomass and geothermal generated 21% of US power in 2022, exceeding coal by 1%. Natural Gas, which is a fossil fuel, still generates a lot of power. The US is having trouble with it's aging power grid, making connecting renewables more difficult.
https://www.popsci.com/environment/renewable-energy-generation-coal-2022/
Big Question: How come we’re not more jazzed up as a society about climate change? We talk about the struggles of climate change and how difficult it is to even imagine changing things in our current society. Steven talks about the Apple TV+ show Extrapolations and how it tells our future story. Our final answer? Vote.
Science Fiction: We couldn't be all dour this episode, so we lighten things up with some talk about The Mandalorian and Picard. We're having issues with Mando, but Picard is finally firing on all cylinders. Neat.
This episode contains: We’re three podcasters who are probably not playing jump rope right now. Steven talks about the Nightmare on Elm Street films. They are… not good. Remember the Sam Goody in the mall in Santa Maria? Pepperidge Farm remembers. Ben had some poetry drama; Conflict with another poet. What?!?!? How?!?! Is Ben party to the silencing of women throughout history? He doesn’t intend to! Should we rewrite our tagline? It’s a show about science and… big questions? The bridge on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is SO WELL LIT. Steven finished A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers. So good.
It’s the End of Days, JTRO: The Internet Archive has lost its first fight to scan and lend e-books like a library. Ben can’t remember the name of the film “The FP.” Publishers have sued The Internet Archive for being a digital library. Save the library! The Internet Archive allows borrowing a book for an hour. It led to Ben purchasing those books. Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, music, websites, and more. How can you help http://archive.org/ ? http://blog.archive.org/2020/06/14/how-can-you-help-the-internet-archive/ The Live Music Archive is incredible: https://archive.org/details/etree Let your local library know what books you want! That’s how they know how to spend funds. The best part about Hyperstudio is me!
Little Glass Slippers: Scientists finally figure out why the water bear is nearly indestructible. Steven brings an article from the before times of 2017. We were so young then. Tardigrades can be dried out for decades, then come back to life with water. Amazing! Water bear don’t care! Instead of dying when drying out, tardigrades turn themselves into glass! Our website is terrible. We’re sorry. Join our Patreon! http://patreon.com/sciencefactionpodcast
Big Question: Is the prime directive actually ethical? What is the prime directive? Don’t interfere with the development of a young species. Can we work together as a species to create harmony and warp drives? Aliens haven’t contacted us because we’re monkeys with nuclear weapons. In our talk about the prime directive, we talk a lot about The Orville and The Bobiverse. Remember when Wesley was sentenced to death for stepping on flowers? Devon schools us on Star Trek history and the prime directive.
Patreon-only pre-pod: The Ben Lawless story: Nothing is different, but everything has changed. Will Steven ever learn how to use Notion? Not this week! We make a pact to watch Extrapolations on Apple TV+ for next week’s show. Is it possible to make climate change exciting? Can the end of everything be kinda jazzed up somehow? #ClimateChange We apologize for interrupting Devon’s writing music with recording a podcast. Hey Steven, cancel your showtime subscription after the trial! We can’t remember what we talked about in our podcasts.
This episode contains: Steven and Ben grill Devon as to why he was not on the last episode. The answer is sleep. Ben had a weird bug so took a day off work. Devon keeps complaining about his kids, who can be heard in the background. Ben is applying to be the president of the PTSA. Steven has been making his "old wife" play a new Star Wars deck building game. Ben recommends the Humble Bundle:
Walmart Has Everything: A bug expert went shopping at Walmart—and made a historic insect discovery. The giant lacewing had seemingly disappeared from eastern North America over 50 years ago. “The fact that this insect was spotted in a region that it hasn’t been seen in over half a century tells us something more broadly about the environment.”
F’ing Finally: FCC orders phone companies to block scam text messages. First robotext rule requires blocking of texts from invalid and unused numbers. The Federal Communications Commission today finalized rules requiring mobile carriers to block robotext messages that are likely to be illegal. The FCC described the rules as the agency's "first regulations specifically targeting the increasing problem of scam text messages sent to consumers."
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/03/fcc-orders-phone-companies-to-block-scam-text-messages/
Big Question: Would you be able to tell if time had been altered in some way? Sci-Fi: Everything Everywhere All at Once review, The Last of Us season1 finale talk, Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister recommended by Devon's book club, maybe.
This episode contains: Just Ben and Steven on this episode, sorry not sorry. We kick off everything with a quick chat about the 2001 film 'The One' w/ Jet Li. Why? No idea. Steven and Ben are playing single dads, because wives need a break too. A lot of Mario Land 2 talk, and Steven makes some bold declarations. Steven is steadily introducing his kids to video games and scifi. Wall-E is a gateway movie. We played some VR mini golf with listener Josh. Thanks Josh.
Clicktacular: Bin, app, and subscription combo pledges a cleaner kitchen, environment. Mill is a company that wants to send you a trash can with wifi capabilities that will process your food waste, so you can mail it back and it can be used to feed chickens. Steven is enamored by this idea.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/new-service-wants-to-turn-your-food-waste-into-chicken-feed/
Brain Buzzing: Scientists complete first map of an insect brain. It took scientists 12 years to fully map a fruit fly larva brain: all 3,016 neurons and their 548,000 connections. The fruit fly brain map showed features that were reminiscent of machine learning architectures. First the flies, then comes mice.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230309164711.htm
Science Fiction: Since it's only the two of us this week, we decide against a 'big question' and instead catch up on some science fiction we've been consuming. Picard season 3 has been outstanding, with it's first four episodes collectively being a new TNG movie. It's great, and stands on it's own without the need of watching season 1 and 2. The first two episodes of season 3 of The Mandalorian have been released and we point out some cool stuff that it's doing. Steven especially likes seeing 'live action Mandalore'. We also call out The Bad Batch for doing it's best to glue three trilogies together, and mostly successful. Finally, Ben informs us of the cute as heck sounding Dogs In Space on Netflix. Why send dogs to space? Loyalty.
Thanks Josh.
This episode contains: Ben and Devon's relationship is on the rocks, according to Steven. Things have finally settled down this week for Steven's family, since the holidays. Steven's now officially an old man, says him. Would you throw a rave at a 5 year old's birthday party? With whistles as party favors? Ben's super stoked about Owen Davies releasing Farscape Remastered in 4K. Shout out to the Farscape subreddit! If you like space muppets who fart helium and pee fire, watch Farscape. Steven had a bunch of fun 'stream tweeting' Star Trek: Picard s3e03. Everyone is disappointed that Steven hasn't seen Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Steven's gotta clear his schedule for 89 hours of DS9. Ben wishes he could rewatch DS9 for the first time. This could be the I WISH I WAS WATCHING STAR TREK podcast.
Paint by numbers: Scholars unify color systems using prime numbers. RGB and CMYK? Get outta here. It's time for the C235 color system. In CMYK, K stands for Key Black. Now you know! How could C235 colorize DNA codons? This article does not go into that. CMYK is subtractive color theory, where everything adds to black. RGB is additive color theory, where all colors add up to bright white. C235 is a color system based on prime numbers, and doesn't make sense unless you see the image at https:/ [www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/976375](http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/976375) Steven eats some focaccia bread baked by his daughter. Good job, young one! Go colors!
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230302114200.htm
Whoa: Newly discovered chemicals are so deadly to fungi they are named after Keanu Reeves. "Keanumycins:" new fungus-killing compounds are so effective they were named after actor Keanu Reeves. During Keanu's AMA, someone asked him what he thought about Keanumycins. He said "Thanks, scientist people." Keanu Reeve's first pet was a guinea pig named Carrot. He was a cutie-pie. Keanumycins kills bad fungus, is biodegradable, and is safe for humans.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/world/keanumycin-fungus-killer-discovery-scn/index.html
The Big Question: How important is it to 'belong' to a fandom, and what does it mean to give it up? Is the entire concept of 'fandom' manufactured? Fandom has been important as a shortcut to find people who have like interests. As good as fandom can be to connect people, beware of the toxicity. The importance of fandom is based on what the fans get out of it. We talk about growing up and finding other Star Wars and Star Trek fans. Did corporations ruin fandom? They didn't used to use fandom to sell stuff, right? A fandom became a found family, people you could share jokes with about the subject. Will the next Metallica album be good? The singles have been alright. We have a lot of hot takes on the Big Question about fandom this week. Devon changed his mind about the quality of the last two seasons of Enterprise. Ben is a positive person who tends to like everything. How does he feel about Harry Potter? JK Rowling's views on trans rights and human rights are abhorrent. How does Ben feel about Harry Potter being read in his son's class, given Rowling's views? Canceling Harry Potter would be similar to banning books. The cultural value is in the conversation. Godzilla (1954) is EXCELLENT, Ben talks about watching it and it's cultural significance. 1956's Godzilla: King of the Monsters is terrible; they Americanized and removed all mention of H-Bombs and Nagasaki. Godzilla (1954) is like watching an H-Bomb walk around Tokyo causing the same destruction in slow motion. Is there a direct correlation between subreddits and fandom? So... spoiler alert? Godzilla died at the end of Godzilla (1954). How strange it spawned the franchise! We talk about Tom Cruise's personal beliefs and whether we can differentiate between the actor and the art. Where do you draw the line about creator's beliefs, and when you choose not to support it? Roblox is a digital narcotic for children... but it's fine? I guess? The cheapest way that eggs are made, the ways those chickens are treated is terrible. Shout out to carrots! You're a cool veggie.
This episode contains: Steven, Ben and Devon are all present and accounted for on this all new episode. Southern CA is getting snow for the first time is like forever. Steven had a mini family reunion while Ben is helping his sister-in-law move out. Devon saw Nate Bargatze live in Shreveport LA.
Bramble Pie Company: https://www.bramblepiecompany.com/
Stop in Name of Love: Traffic Lights Need a Fourth Color, Study Says: Here's Why. As more autonomous vehicles (AV) begin driving American roads, those roads need to change with them. One research team proposes a white light that allows AVs to leverage their impressive networking capability. These white light would signal human drivers to simply follow the car in front and could decrease traffic delays significantly
Sorry Florida: A Giant Destructive Blob Is Headed For Florida, And It Stinks. Reports are forecasting that a gargantuan blob of sargassum seaweed has accumulated in the Atlantic Ocean and is headed for the US state, bringing with it millions of tons of odorous seaweed.
https://www.iflscience.com/a-giant-destructive-blob-is-headed-for-florida-and-it-stinks-67696
The Big Question: How would you make a truly multi-playing pinball game? We then meander a little and talk about Jeffrey Combs, the Fallout tv show, Hello Tomorrow on AppleTV and The Last of Us. Only then do we finally end this monstrosity.
This episode contains: Devon, Ben and Steven all record in the same room again! It's crazy! Devon tells us about his travels, and Ben tries to QA a Tesla. It's a whole thing. Only one Science and no Big Question this week because we have Sci-Fi to talk about.
Robot Overlords: Researchers Discover a More Flexible Approach to Machine Learning. Liquid neural nets can transform their underlying algorithms on the fly. They are based on the Caenorhabditis elegans nervous system. Nonlinear equations, worm nervous systems, and liquid neural nets are all here.
Picard: We talk about the first episode of the third season of Star Trek Picard. There are a lot of nits to pick, but we are generally optimistic about this final season. We start off with some complaints about seasons 1 and 2, but it seems season 3 has rectified some of those. We have deep discussions about Captain Shaw, The Orville, and ship refits.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania: SPOILERS. Devon and Steven just watched it, Ben watched it a few days before and we do a deep dive. We talk about plot, characters, editing, Kang and how there was a bit of dissappointment in all of those things. Steven attempts to explain Kang, and we all try and figure out M.O.D.O.K. In there end, there was little consistancy, which is consistant with other Ant-Man movies.
This episode contains: Devon doesn't feel the valentine's spirit this week. Ben's kid loves Trailmakers, Ben used barter.vg to trade for the game. "Are we back to bartering?" asks Steven. Did we ever stop? Steven knows about bartering thanks to Fallout 1. Devon & Ben watched the Superbowl. Steven went to a SB party but didn't watch it. Steven is really enjoying Hogwarts Legacy. Steven recognized Ben was way too stressed out over debt in our Traveller game. Ben learned that he had more fun in an RPG by making it a "yes day." We don't want to be Murder Hobos in RPGs. Context around the term "murder den" is helpful.
This Week in Space: Ring discovered around dwarf planet Quaoar confounds theories. There's a ring around the dwarf planet Quaoar just outside the solar system. How is the dwarf planet Quaoar pronounced? Devon tries his best. Quaoar has rings further away from the planet than we thought possible. The Roche limit is the zone where a planetary ring can be created. Scientists discover planets by observing their gravitational pull.
THE YEAR 2000! I mean 2038: Remember the year 2000? Destiny's Child was huge. Y2K was a thing. Is Y2K behind us? Maybe! Y2K38 is upon us. It's the Epochalypse! Unix time started 00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970. What's a Unix system? Got an iPhone or an Android? You have a Unix system. Watch out! The Epochalypse bug will happen 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038, and all 32-bit systems will crash! When was Unix first created? Development started in 1969. We can solve the Epochalypse by going 64-bit, and give us 292 billion years more time. In 2038, do you think Destiny's Child will make a comeback?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
The Back Half: Devon encourages our Patrons to keep doing what they're doing. We talk about some feedback we got from a Patron! You know Ben has a Merriam-Webster's unabridged dictionary. Silly Ben said Roget's Thesaurus, meant Merriam-Webster's unabridged dictionary.
The Big Question: Is technology making many jobs obsolete? If so, should we have a universal basic income? We talk the iterative nature of societal development. Are white collar jobs becoming obsolete too? YEP! Should government slow the pace of tech to ensure worker's can keep up? No. We talk about how cool universal basic income would be. Ben grew up a welfare kid: his parent's had govt support, and Ben is grateful. Ben's family had the benefit of society helping people, and made Ben who he is. Steven talks about how life changed after getting laid off. Life would have been easier for all of the hosts with universal basic income. Do you think less people would be willing to work with universal basic income? The 1980s concept that more money = happy life is not true. A good emergency can financially derail anybody. Is there a solve? Just because some people leech off a system, does it mean we shouldn't have nice things? Is offering help with conditions really offering help? Is it fully altruistic? Which other social programs would be superceded by universal basic income? How can we fix the inflation problem with universal basic income? Minimum wage is not a living wage. Would universal basic income be a living wage? Will Devon go to the robot-run McDonalds in Texas? Time will tell.
Kurzgesagt Universal Basic Income video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl39KHS07Xc
Patreon Only:
Patreon-only pre-show: "Up is go!" The Lost in Space movie has a cool level of 1 million, says Ben. Devon has trouble with embedding websites in Notion, and he's frustrated. Devon doesn't know what a fuzzy search is. Even if you're a boomer on TikTok, you can say "get off my lawn" to mean gatekeepers. Ben is happy to be a house spouse.
Patreon-only mid-show: Have you guys heard about bit flips from cosmic rays? Devon has. Steven: Player's Guides are trash, now that we have the internet. Next week we'll be recording in person! All three of us! Maybe talk Quantumania.
Patreon-only post-show: We talk Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. So touching. Devon likes the book Anxious People. There's a reason for the different zombies in The Last of Us. That new Flash trailer looks fun. Ever wanted to know why Ben is pissed at a Star Trek novel?
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