This episode contains: Devon drove down to Steven’s house to play Star Wars: Armada over the weekend. It then took him 6 hours to complete a 2.5 hour drive to come home due to the weather in California. We discuss the current flooding in CA then Devon tells the tale of his post-apocalyptic journey home.
Brain Matters: Creative people may have better connected brains. We first dispel the whole right-side, left-side brain thing. We then discuss a study where scientists studied the brains of college students (who else?) in an MRI while they performed “creativity” tasks. We discuss the results and the definition of creativity. What is the connection between creativity and intelligence? Does creativity require intelligence? These questions are leading scientists to study connectivity in the brain and IQ.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170221101125.htm
This Week in Space: Astronomers have discovered a solar system with 7 Earth-sized exo-planets! These are orbiting Trappist 1, which is only 39 light-year from Earth. The star is much dimmer than the Sun and the planets orbit well within the orbit of Mercury. Some of these are in the habitable zone. There may be issues them being tidally locked with their parent star.
Vonnegut: Devon has gotten back into Kurt Vonnegut thanks to the new podcast from Cracked: Kurt Vonneguys. He read Sirens of Titan and Cat’s Cradle and gives us a book report. So get a quick plot recap of books you might have read in high school. And if you really like Vonnegut you must listen to Kurt Vonneguys:
http://www.cracked.com/blog/we-made-you-kurt-vonnegut-podcast21-heres-why/
Star Wars: We played more Star Wars: Armada this weekend. We recap our battles and follies. And Devon went out and made friends IRL! We also talk about new information about the Battle of Jakku and the book Aftermath: Empire’s End.