Episode 190 – The One Where We Name Things After Columbus & Tri-agedy

In This Week’s Show, episode 190, we’re back from Copper Mountain – whose Grilled Cheese event didn’t include grilled or cheese – to triangulate Russian condom bombs.

Episode 190 – The One Where We Name Things After Columbus & Tri-agedy
Episode 190 – The One Where We Name Things After Columbus & Tri-agedy

In This Week’s Show, episode 190, we’re back from Copper Mountain – whose Grilled Cheese event didn’t include grilled or cheese – to triangulate Russian condom bombs.

Now, grab a beer and help us test the god hypothesis — because, whileTereteth(the Micronesian goddess of coconut toddies) hasn’t struck us down yet, we are trying her patience!

Shea’s Life Lesson –

This week I learned that CNN and Fox news has done to our parents what they thought violent video games and Marilyn Manson would do to us.

Jenn’s Actual Lesson –

Did you know that the great squid has the largest eye in the animal kingdom? I’ve been under the weather and watching a lot of science docs. :D

But before we get to all that, let’s have a beer!

This Week’s Beer

Redacted Rye IPA – Renegade Brewing

From Eli

BA Link: http://bit.ly/2lnYwRj

BA Rating: 3.82/5

Style: IPA

ABV: 7%

  • Aaron: 3 … 4? Angry 4…
  • Jenn: 5
  • Shea: 6
  • Steve: 7

This Week’s Show

Round Table Discussion

New Patrons – http://patreon.com/w4w

  • Brian
  • Nate

Voicemail

From Miss Marti Gras and Mr. Bible Pants… like, two voicemails, not Mr. and Mr. Gras-Pants.

FB note from Petar

Thanks for a kind email from Gerhard!

Hot Shots

Aaron –

Fucking woos will fuck your teeth.

We usually look to Canada’s healthcare system for means of improving our own… or at least pissing off the GOP. But not everything is so pearly in Canada — especially the teeth of Calgary. In 2011 the city council decided to fuck everyone within the sound and smell of their persons by removing fluoride from the drinking water. You might recall fluoride as the brainwashing pseudo-medical elixir of the elitist lizard-alien overlords. But Calgary’s dentists paint a different picture. One of “Sammy” an 8-year-old whose teeth had become so rotted that an infection had spread from his gums to his eye, where it threatened his brain and life. Children whose primary and permanent molars are decaying before they even erupt through the gums. Most of the local drinking water is naturally fluoridated at 0.1 to 0.4 parts per million… unfortunately, the required therapeutic level is 0.7. Of course, there are still those who blame the unprecedented increase in tooth decay to not brushing, drinking soda, tooth actors, and of course, “nu-uh.”
I would say c’est la vie, but, it shouldn’t be and without fluoridated water, it will be a much shorter life indeed.

http://bit.ly/2IAIeO6

Shea – Big Baby Balloon

  • Thousands of Brits rallied together to raise over $10,000 to fly a giant inflatable orange baby with a unique quaff of hair over parliament square in London to protest the great American clown’s visit.
  • The six-metre tall balloon has been crowdfunded by members of the public and is expected to be a focal point during protests against the trip
  • http://bit.ly/2tCPhBg

Steve – Supremely Stupid – The US Supreme court ruled 5-4, you can guess the breakdown) that it’s perfectly okay for California “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” aka Christian crusader clump of cells charlatans, to stop posting information regarding where women could get actual good advice regarding her pregnancy options. Prior to the ruling, California’s Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care and Transparency Act or FACT Act, required these bullshit places to provide actual complete and honest information to women. http://bit.ly/2KiJkDV

Shea -Homanberg defense

  • Thomas Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday that comparing ICE agents to Nazis is unfair, because “they’re simply enforcing laws enacted by Congress”.
  • Homan employed the “Nuremberg defense” – used by German Nazi officials in an attempt to escape accountability with the claim they were merely following orders.
  • http://bit.ly/2KhP9Sa

Steve – Repubs tax churches – HA! The dumbass republican congress passes a hastily written, poorly considered, terrible for nearly everybody tax overhaul law and now it’s coming to notice that in that law is a beautiful, unexpected little easter egg for the rest of us. It seems that these dolts decided to strip churches of tax breaks for employee benefits like parking and meals. In their desire to trim deductions companies have taken for these items and to keep it even for non-profits who don’t pay taxes, they created a 21% tax on the value of some non-profit employees’ benefits. As usual, many religious motherfuckers are now up in arms since they’re being treated like everybody else, at least in this one, small way.

http://bit.ly/2KhSeBL

Shea – Russia is running out of beer…

  • As the world cup continues to heat up in Russia, an unforeseen consequence has reared its ugly head. The beer keeps running out and fans refuse to switch to vodka.
  • A bartender in Moscow, said fans drank more than 211 gallons of beer in three days and are waiting up to 24 hours for deliveries
  • And in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, where Sweden played South Korea on Monday, the taps ran empty before the match even started
  • http://bit.ly/2KiJmf1

This Week’s Stories

Jenn’s Story

Solving Brain Cancer By Blowing Naturopath’s Minds!

http://bit.ly/2KilVmc

In a combination of all things people who don’t understand health and science are afraid of, The Duke University Cancer Institute is throwing it all against the wall and seeing what sticks. And so far, it seems like some good stuff IS sticking.

The researchers have been working with a genetically modified poliovirus in an effort to fight the most aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma is the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor in adults. It’s the cancer that killed former Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Beau. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is fighting glioblastoma.

“I’ve been doing this for 50 years and I’ve never seen results like this,” says Dr. Darell Bigner, the director emeritus of The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at the Duke Cancer Institute, who is helping develop the treatment.

It appears using this experimental treatment has greatly extended the life expectancy in a small group of patients where previous treatments didn’t work.

The researchers stress that it appears this treatment is only effective on a small percentage of the population and doesn’t appear that it will be an answer to every case.

Dr. David Reardon, clinical director of the Center for Neuro-Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, says the Duke group’s results may represent “a good, solid important step forward” for patients with no alternatives.

“Unfortunately, for most patients, this is not going to be the answer yet,” says Reardon, who used to work at Duke but wasn’t involved in the new research. “My fear is that every patient and family dealing with the devastating disease of glioblastoma is going to think the poliovirus is the cure. Unfortunately, the patients who are benefiting do reflect a relatively small percentage of the population.” In the study, only 21 percent of patients experienced a prolonged survival. Much more follow-up research is needed to better assess and hopefully improve the treatments’ effectiveness, the researchers say.

Exactly how does a poliovirus come into play when fighting brain cancer? Directly from NPR:

The Duke researchers decided to try to use a genetically modified version of the poliovirus which can cause a devastating form of paralysis, because of the virus’ ability to infect nervous system cells.

The scientists removed one of the virus’ genes to prevent it from causing polio and replaced that gene with one from a harmless virus known as a rhinovirus, which normally causes the common cold.

The engineered virus was then infused directly into tumors in patients’ brains with a tube inserted through a hole in their skull. The modified virus retains the ability to infect and kill brain tumor cells, and also appears to trigger the patient’s own immune system cells to attack the tumors, the researchers say.”

The article that’s in the show notes gets into a lot more detail on the trial studies, and the treatment has some serious risks, but two patients have survived more than six years. One has survived more than five years, which for a prognosis for glioblastoma patients is very positive.

“You just don’t see this percentage of long-term survivors with this disease,” Bigner says. “Those that have survived more than two years are in remission, and we expect them to continue to be long-term survivors.”

Missing Second Half Mystery!

I’m just gonna preempt this shitshow by saying that it was hastily done and we were drunk. So… yeah.
For actual information check out https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4464 and a few other sites I lost the URls for ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Then watch Spock at http://bit.ly/2IC9QCx because that shit is wicked fun!
~ Aaron

I fell into a burning triangle of fire…

Well ok, not really. There’s usually too much water to start a fire. Unless you’re on a boat. Then you’ve got a pretty good chance of super-mystery style explodenating if you dare sail the stormy geometric seas…

Our first port of mystery most folks are likely familiar with: The Bermuda triangle!

You’ve heard of it, even if only because it’s the de facto hot-spot of eerie supernatural doom in every movie that’s about water ever. Located in the oceanic areas between Florida, Puerto Rico, and — you guessed it — Bermuda the triangle is said to have claimed dozens, if not millions, of planes trains and automobiles… err.

Ok, planes, boats, and the aliens, I guess?

The triangle’s sorted past begins, like most things that eventually become graveyards, with Christopher fucking Columbus. On October 8th of 1492, douche-McGee was sailing the ocean blue and wandered into the triangle, presumably looking for a rhombus. Noting that his garbage ye-olde times compass was fucked he took the logical step of blaming the ocean. This, it turns out, was probably the way to go because his illiterate, superstitious, crew had already threatened to mutiny because they saw “a light.” Great reason not to drink your own piss…

Unfortunately, for the superstitiously minded the compass’ oddities are easily explained. The U.S. Coastguard set out to do something once upon a 1970’s and found that inside the triangle a compass goes all wobbly because of magnets, which, as well all know, can’t be explained and are of the alien-devil.

It turns out that as one moves around the globe magnetic north isn’t always north because the Earth generates variable magnetic fields in different areas, some of which can be more powerful locally than the far away from magnetic north. Fortunately, this effect, now known as “compass variation,” has been a known effect for pretty much as long as compasses and sails have existed and can be easily accounted for by anyone with even a little bit of compass or navigational training…

the modern tail of the mysterious blue came from, like most things we trust in and now consider “traditionally American,” the 1950’s. See, Edward Van Winkle Jones was a writer published in the Associated Press of the time. He reported a bunch of boats and planes — including five US Navy torpedo bombers which the Navy is not in the habit of losing — along with a bunch of commercial stuff just up and vanished. Further investigations by the world’s greatest journalists produced the 1955 book, The Case for the UFO, by M. K. Jessup, which uncovered the obvious truth — aliens!

In 1975, critic, killjoy, and obvious lizard-alien co-conspirator Larry Kuche, the real OG, published The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved. Alleging that previous investigators had exaggerated numbers, failed to take storms into account and that they would have gotten away with it if not for those meddling physics.

But what about the other triangles you say?

Ok fine. Not being a group to be discouraged by facts and evidence, Triangle-Heads are as relentless as their horrific Silent namesake.

Another mysterious “triangle” is the Michigan Triangle—an area stretching between Michigan and Wisconsin over the center of Lake Michigan where disappearances are said to have occurred. For example, Captain George R. Donner supposedly simply vanished from his cabin on the O.S. McFarland as it carted coal to Wisconsin. I’m pretty sure the crew ate him, I remember hearing something about Donnar and cannibals…

If you’re really interested in this mess of nonsense, Spock himself narrated a 1978 episode of “In Search Of…” focused on the Michigan Triangle.

The earliest reference my sources list is a book entitled “The Great Lakes Triangle” by Jay Gourley, who really wants you to know he’s a pilot. The Michigan Triangle is said to have disappeared many more than Bermuda. Which makes sense as the MI encompasses a bunch of land and a few towns you may of heard of, like Toronto and Chicago — interesting side note, I’m pretty sure Tom and Cecil aren’t real, but are, in fact, the ghostly left-overs of doomed sailers gloryholing it up before, inevitably, dying “mysteriously” in the east-side.

The introduction to Gourley’s book describes an area…

…principally between longitudes 76° west and 92° west and between latitudes 41° north and 49° north

That’s four coordinates and a triangle really only has three so… The Michigan Square is said to have swallowed a lot of seamen in its day.

“Maybe it’s such a square after all…”

Of particular note is a 727 which crashed into Lake Michigan, presumably misunderstanding how Foursquare works. The lakes are basically inland oceans and come with all the perils thereof. So, they ran into each other, rocks, giant waves, tornados… it’s a long list of shit what can fuck up a boat. In the case of the 727, that specific model apparently had an altimeter with a shoddy bit of glass over it that obscured the first digit of any number over 1000… which is a problem for things that tell you how to not crash into Earth.

Luckily, we have a solid explanation of how all of these events occurred!

Author Hugh Cochrane writes in his book Gateway To Oblivion: The Great Lakes’ Bermuda Triangle, that the missing people, planes, trains, automobiles, buggies, maple syrup, and whatever Chicago has to miss, were, of course, abducted by aliens. It would seem that the Great Lakes are host to a slew of vortices, UFO hotspots, Earth energies, and otherwise unproven hocus-pocus.

Not to be outdone, Hugh’s contemporary Cochrane also created his own area, the “Marysburgh Vortex,” where over 100 ships have disappeared.

Today’s lucky Triangle Heads have a wealth of choices of places to go missing. Most commonly today is the other Lake Michigan triangle, that covers half the lake from Benton Harbor to Michigan, and Wisconsin. It’s got even more disappearances, what with containing primary shipping lanes. And we all know that shipping companies don’t just “lose” things, especially entire vehicles… or German beer.

Investigating the strange events in 2007, underwater archeologist Mark Holley — having leveled up from basket weaving — found what is now known to the ones of people covering the story as “North America’s Stonehenge” … at the bottom of the lake! About 40 feet down in Grand Traverse bay there lays a “mysterious pattern of stones” with carvings of one might decide is a mastodon. And as we all know the Earth is only 6000 years old so nevermind the lake-bed once being accessible to early man, the only reasonable explanation is an alien Earth-energy stealing vortex to the unknown.


Photos: http://bit.ly/2KfYVE9

If found to be true, the wannabe petroglyph could be as much as 10,000 years old – coincident with the post-Ice Age presence of both humans and mastodons in the upper midwest. The formation, if authenticated, wouldn’t be completely out of place. Stone circles and other petroglyph sites are located in the area. But fuck that, aliens!

Next Week’s Beer

M-43 – Old Nation Brewing

Steve E – Michigan

  • BA Link: http://bit.ly/2tsTuGS
  • BA Rating: 4.44/5
  • Style: American IPA
  • ABV: 6.8

Faith In Humanity Restored

http://bit.ly/2KepLwq

Court rules religion can’t be a defense for anti-gay hate speech

Bonus Cat Video

(Leonard Nimoy) In Search Of.. The Bermuda Triangle (Season 1 Episode 4) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XyDNJHJtCE

Predator – https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=WaG1KZqrLvM

Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and The Wasp | Who is The Wasp? Featurette – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn9uHjqeqFQ

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