Episode 005: The Australian Issue (with special guest Steve Hues)

**('Radio station days' archive)** David is not with us, but comedian Steve Hughes is! Together from the food court we discuss mushroom ski resort giraffe race, a future without men, exploding meteor turns night to day, time machines being invented, Chocolate dipped portabello mushrooms. In other news, a man sees Tasmanian tiger twice, Steve has a theory about taking power away from the media and a Russian billionaire wants to make humans immortal by using robots. - Official episode description

## Weekly World Weird News

### High-Speed Mushroom-Fueled Ski Resort Giraffe Chase - Rhys

A woman called police to report that her juvenile granddaughter ate what she believed to be portobello mushrooms covered in chocolate and proceeded to hallucinate that she was being chased by giraffes down a ski hill.

### Mens Sex Chromosome Set to Die - Buttons

Scientists have discovered the y chromosome is "rapidly" degenerating and will disappear in about five million years, and if the human race manages to survive that long men will die off. Prior to the release of this episode, this has already been debated.

Buttons reveals that he had not read the article prior to reporting and now sees the the study is flawed as the experiments have been conducted on Australians.

### Night Turns to Day As Spectacular Meteor Explodes Over Argentina - Rhys

A "giant fireball"of a meteor was witnessed from at least eight provinces in Argentina and was captured on video by a man filming a music festival. Some reports put the meteor was at least 18 inches in diameter while other state 18, and they say it exploded roughly 40 miles above earth.

### Iranian Scientist Claims to Have Invented Time Machine - Buttons

Iranian scientist Ali Razeghi claims to have invented a device about the size of a laptop that can "predict five to eight years of the future life of any individual with 98 percent accuracy" by taking readings from the touch of a user. It can be used to predict military conflicts, oil prices, foreign currencies and more. Razeghi says his device will "not take you into the future, it will bring the future to you."

Razeghi has not released information on his device out of the fear that China will get their hands on and steal it.

## Cryptid Buzz

**Rhys' news:** Australian naturalist and thylacine enthusiast Colin "Col" Bailey is releasing a memoir called 'The Shadow of the Tylacine.' Bailey claims to have seen the thylacine on multiple points.

Rhys thinks the way to find cryptids is to send in robot dogs with cameras, as they don't have any scent that would tip off cryptids. Alternatively he suggests that he could pretend to be a robot because (according to him) he doesn't have any scent.

**Buttons' news:** A second generation copy of the famous Patterson-Gimlin film has gone up for sale on eBay. Bidding was currently up to $27.50, and Buttons had put a max bid of $50. Rhys suggests that they buy it and play it the TV screens at the mall they are broadcasting from - an idea he claims to have had for a while but was never acted on - but Buttons suggests a better idea is simply to hold onto the footage until it goes up in value and sell it down the line, because "You've got to bring the bling."

## We're All A Bunch of Theories

Guest Steve Hues theory is less of a theory and more of an idea, and even "more of a dream". His idea is in regards to taking power away from the media. He says that they (the people) don't have any weapons or money, so the idea of a traditional revolution is out, but if everyone simply turns off the radio and tv people would think for themselves and this could be a new form of revolution and lead to people living more peaceful lives.

Rhys seems to disparage the growing amount of technology, calling out "your iPads, your laptops, your smartphones, your talking watches" but this must be a fleeting feeling, as in later episodes he gets great joy from such "talking watches."

Steve is concerned about the future when machines gain artificial intelligence, fearing that "you go to turn off your computer and it just goes 'Bugger off! I'm staying on!'

Rhys unsuccessfully attempts to close down the segment by delivering a message to all humans: "Don't rely too much on electronics, don't give up, don't give up learning, don't give up on your brain, because it will always be more powerful than anything that we can create, because it's our brain that created the thing that we've created that you're staring at in the first place, so...um."

Steve chimes back in that the brain is the antenna for the invisible realms and seems a bit put off that Richard Dawkins runs around telling people that God doesn't exist when he can't know that for sure. Steve clarifies that he "[doesn't think] God exists like an old bloke with a beard on a chariot that fires lightning, although that would be very cool" and also states that myths are the bridge for the mind to have dialog with the unknown.

Buttons seems distressed about the idea of having to compete with androids in the future, specifically in a scenario where he is at a dinner party trying to chat up a lady and impress her with facts, but an android with "all of Wikipedia in him" is sitting across the table correcting his mistakes, and in the end the androids will "get all the girls."

## Eye Witness Account

A couple of people in Melbourne were driving in their car when they saw something they thought was a bear caught in a fence. It was light brown-red, shaggy hair, and on a closer look she realized it wasn't caught in the fence, but instead was "crushing it down" and "screaming about something." When it stood up she realized it wasn't a bear and she screamed as she violently turned her car around. It was about seven feet tall with long arms that reached down to its knees, and no neck or shoulders (just a small slope).

## Robot News

### Russian billionaire wants to create cyborgs - Rhys

Dmitry Itskov would like to make humans immortal by merging then with machines. Work towards this started in 2011, and he has created the "2045 Initiative," a non-profit organization that is moving towards the ultimate goal of moving a persons living, conscious brain into a machine, with its personality and memories in tact.

### US researchers have reported they have made a display that gives three dimensional images without special glasses - Buttons

This new technology gives full 3D parallax view that you can actually walk and look around on all sides, much like Princess Leia's hologram in Star Wars.

1. ↑ https://www.gawker.com/ski-towns-most-exciting-incident-in-years-high-speed-476825008
2. ↑ https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-17127617
3. ↑ https://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1112828934/meteor-explodes-argentina-night-to-day-042313/
4. ↑ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/130412-iranian-time-machine-time-travel-grandfather-paradox
5. ↑ https://www.nhbs.com/shadow-of-the-thylacine-book
6. ↑ https://www.smh.com.au/technology/russian-billionaire-wants-to-create-cyborgs-20130402-2h3o9.html
7. ↑ https://phys.org/news/2013-03-scientists-glasses-free-3d-cellphone-video.html