This episode contains: Devon is sick of dumb studies a bad science reporting! He tells us how most headlines are just for clicks and the studies themselves are usually BS. So now we talk about some science studies based on second hand reports:

Oceanographic: Someone has proposed a novel method of stopping tsunamis. Acoustic gravity waves (AGW) may be used to reduce the strength of tsunamis, if only we had a way to make them… and harness enough energy equal to a tsunami… We discuss exactly what AGWs are, how they might work, some recent tsunamis and how Devon thinks he could survive a tsunami.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170125093743.htm

Buggin’ Out: Steven has two stories for you this week. Lucky you. First, an ancient, scary bug found in amber is part of a new order. There had been 31 orders before the discovery of this bug. Steven tells us what makes this insect so strange and why it’s not just an ant (as Devon thinks). We then get a little side tracked with other cool stuff that’s been found in amber. Second, a wasp grows in, and eats form the inside out, a different wasp. This wasp lays it’s eggs in the head of the larva of another wasp then alters the behavior of the host wasp, before eating them. If that doesn’t gross you out, Devon then has to bring up the dreaded Bot fly. Don’t Google Bot fly.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170125145747.htm

http://gizmodo.com/diabolical-parasite-grows-inside-baby-wasps-and-eats-th-1791608651

Star Wars: Episode VIII is now officially called: The Last Jedi. What does it mean? Who is the last Jedi? Is it plural? Do Star Wars titles even tell us that much about the story? We also analyze the names of the other films and again realize how disappointing the prequels were. We then discuss Star Wars marketing overall and whether there will ever be a Star Wars flop. And what about the Knights of Ren? Who the hell are they? We also speculate on how Disney will handle the passing of Carrie Fisher.

Books: Steven is still reading The Expanse series, a few pages at a time. Devon is reading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, a Hugo and Nebula award winning space opera. It’s got IAs, battleships, militaristic empires, moral questions, and multiple time-line storytelling. And it’s… okay. As Devon puts it, “it’s like Ian M. Banks without the whimsy.”

Q&A: How big of a hard drive would be needed to hold the same amount of information held by the human brain?