This episode contains: Before the science Devon laments just how outrageously expensive it is to buy a house in San Jose. Steven, meanwhile, spent the last week in the mountains under an insane amount of snow. He tells us about spending time with his wife’s family in “juvenile hall.”
Biological Imperative: Spiders eat an astronomical number of insects. We first ask what is an astronomical number. There are about 25 million metric tons of spiders. Turns out spiders eat between 400 and 800 million tons of insects (annually?). Steven then tells us how afraid of spiders his wife is and Devon tells a story of finding a spider in car… while driving.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170314111251.htm
Run Forest Run: Whole body vibration (WBV) may have the same affect as regular exercise. Scientists tested this on two groups of mice, one group was normal and the other was obese. They then split each group into thirds and made each third either do nothing, use a treadmill, or WBV. The obese mice had a similar benefit from the WBV as they did from the treadmill. There’s still a long way to go to see whether this translates to people.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170315143836.htm
Sci-Fi: A new Matrix movie was just announced. Who’s going to be in it? What’s it going to be about? Why are they making it now? We know the answers to none of these questions. That doesn’t stop us from droning on about it. Apparently Michael “Basketball” Jordon will be in it (not the basketball player). Devon then stumbles onto some photos from the set of Ready Player One. Devon also saw Hacksaw Ridge and it was good. More importantly, it had Agent Smith in it. This leads to a discussion of Cloud Atlas (mostly the movie). We examine why the same actors played differed characters throughout time and if this was part of the book. Devon then reveals that he sometimes pretends some movies are episodes of Black Mirror. This works particularly well with Get Out.
The Last Jedi: Frank Oz would not confirm or deny being involved in Episode VIII. We then discuss whether there will be Force Ghosts in the new movie and how they could be used. Also, who are the weird people in masks in Clone Wars and Rebels that are always around in Force hallucinations? We then discuss who Benicio Del Toro might be in The Last Jedi. Ezra maybe? Also, Devon reminds us of his accent in the Usual Suspects and says that Benicio came up with it on his own. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/30/benicio-del-toro-accent_n_6580574.html) Devon then asks why everyone is so obsessed with who Ray’s father is when her mother probably did more to care for her and raise her (at least until she was dumped on Jakku). Steven reminds us that there haven’t been that many women in Star Wars so there’s less of a chance of her mother being a known character. Lastly, Star Wars: Armada is going to have Hammerhead ship in it soon!
Q&A: Do all the ants in the would outweigh all the humans in the world?