Episode 487: Down with Hair, Up with Skulls

Science Faction Podcast

Pre-pod Patreon-only: The joys of passive agressively pretending you didn’t hear what other people say, 2022 is now 2 years ago (when did that happen?).

This episode contains: Three hosts check in for the first episode of the new year. Steven’s speech impediment comes back for a hot moment. Devon fervently rejects New Years resolutions, because as his wife says “he’s perfect the way he is.” Why wait till New Years to make yourself better? Ben resolved to not see a barber this year, as he’s shaved his head. Steven wonders about the bandaid on the back of Marcel’s skull in that OLLLD movie “Pulp Fiction.” We go through all of Ben’s discovered fears about having a completely bald head. Steven’s now getting a bunch of bald head stuff in his algorithm. But really Steven’s just geeking out over Remedy’s newest video game “Alan Wake II,” but he’s been a fan since the original “Max Payne.” Hey, what’s up with our newest member/non-member Dave? We guess some Patreon members cancel because they were looking for a different Science Faction podcast.

Video Game Talk with Devon: 13-Year-Old Boy Becomes The Only Human To Ever Complete Tetris. Hell has frozen over and Devon talks about the only game he’s ever played: Tetris. (Naw, he’s played other games. I digress.) Want to up your game? Tap buttons faster. An AI player can get up to level 237 recently, but a human player has crashed the game at level 157, essentially “winning” an unwinnable game. Eventually a glitch happens where the game switches from reading instructions from the code to reading the RAM as if it were code. Devon played Tetris as a kid on his computer, but Steven and Ben were Game Boy Tetris fans. We’ve seriously got to see the new Tetris film, and also stop snacking in the evenings. Ben recommends flossing nightly and going to the dentist yearly.

https://www.iflscience.com/13-year-old-boy-becomes-the-only-human-to-ever-complete-tetris-72267

Rawr: 'Juvenile T. rex' fossils are a distinct species of small tyrannosaur. How do scientists distinguish between young dinosaurs and a completely different species? Turns out it’s really hard to do.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/01/240102190920.htm

Moon’s haunted: White House responds to Navajo Nation request to delay mission that would land human remains on the moon. This week a commercial flight to the moon will carry human remains (among other things) to the lunar surface. Ben considers the ecology impact of humans and our waste (including human remains) on ANY environment, terrestrial or otherwise. Devon discusses whether anyone should change how they are behaving based on other’s opinions. This is all vanity, and is dumb, but perhaps there is an ethical angle we should consider.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/05/world/peregrine-moon-mission-navajo-nation-objection-human-remains-scn/index.html

Mid-pod Patreon-only: details on “corpses on the moon,” anybody can have a podcast… but does everyone deserve to be heard? One Piece anime adaptation, cheap anime, roller derby showers and glow parties.

A Big Question: Does knowledge have intrinsic value or does it need to have a practical use to have value? We spend a lot of time discussing what value even is, and whether it’s important to synthesize data with a more complete understanding of unrelated information. 2024 is all about Tetris, T-Rex, and Tiny bits of yourself on the moon.

Post-pod Patreon-only: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.