A Little Bit Of Science

A Rome-based research team discovered poetry can jailbreak AI systems by bypassing safety filters that normal prompts can't crack, making verse a genuine cybersecurity vulnerability. Medieval physicians believed flatulent foods like beans and onions were aphrodisiacs because intestinal gas supposedly enhanced sexual performance, Palmer Luckey, the tech billionaire behind Oculus, now advocates for submarines that tunnel through Earth's crust for national defense, while a Dublin man contracted penile tuberculosis from working with deer in a rarely documented case of genital TB.

Poetry defeats AI security by exploiting how language models process poetic structure, proving Aristotle's warnings about poets in governance were surprisingly futuristic. Medieval fart-based aphrodisiacs never worked but show humanity's eternal optimism for simple bedroom solutions, while Luckey's crust-submarine idea sounds insane until you remember he actually made VR mainstream. The Dublin TB case demonstrates that tuberculosis can infect any body part and that working with animals carries risks nobody considers - including your genitals contracting lung diseases.

The biggest threats to AI are poets, the worst aphrodisiacs involved intestinal wind, crust submarines might actually happen, and deer can give you dick tuberculosis. Science is weird, history is weirder, and Palmer Luckey wants to make it weirder still.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

02:07 Plato's Republic and AI Poetry

03:54 The Power of Poetry in AI

07:59 Historical Aphrodisiacs and Fertility

19:01 Simultaneous Orgasms and Farting

19:36 Windy Meats and Fertility Myths

24:19 Palmer Luckey and Virtual Reality

31:00 Penile Tuberculosis: A Rare Case

36:50 Smart Toilets and Privacy Concerns

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Sika deer on Japan's Yakushima Island let macaque monkeys groom them in exchange for food scraps and sexual mounting, creating what scientists awkwardly call "interspecies sexual behaviour with mutual benefits."

Nederland, Colorado hosts annual "Frozen Dead Guy Day" festivals celebrating Bredo Morstoel, whose body has been preserved in a shed on dry ice for decades after his grandson's cryogenic dreams failed.

Brazilian Butt Lifts cause "BBL smell" - a rancid odour from fat necrosis when transferred fat cells die and rot inside the body, which surgeons rarely mention before surgery.

Milan researchers found commuters offered seats to pregnant women more often when Batman was on the train, proving superhero costumes trigger prosocial behaviour because nobody wants to look bad in front of Batman.

AI-generated recipes tell people to bake cakes for days and combine impossible ingredients, confidently presenting unworkable instructions that ruin dinner.

Chinese researchers discovered rock, paper, scissors players stick with winning choices or switch after losses, revealing predictable patterns that can be exploited.

From deer trading sex for grooming to frozen dead guy festivals and butt lifts that smell like death - nature is uncomfortable, humans are weird and technology can't cook. Maybe stick to human recipes, don’t try to freeze Grandpa and think twice before committing to a bouncy-butt medical procedure. 

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

00:35 Interspecies Sexual Mutualism

01:24 Unexpected Observations: Monkeys and Deer

06:15 Frozen Dead Guy: A Bizarre Tale of Cryogenics

14:03 Batman and Prosocial Behavior

20:20 Hilarious AI-Generated Food Recipes

30:39 The Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors Strategy

33:54 The Dark Side of Plastic Surgery

39:59 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Horseshoe theory proposes that political extremes loop back around until far-left and far-right ideologies find disturbing common ground, sharing authoritarian tactics, propaganda methods, and contempt for democratic norms despite claiming opposite values. 

Scientists are using AI to decode brain activity and caption your thoughts, raising serious questions about privacy and future thought-policing. The technology has remarkable potential for medical applications like helping locked-in patients communicate, but it's also concerning for policing applications where authorities might claim to know what you're thinking even when the AI is wildly guessing. Despite frankly not-so-great accuracy, it sets us on a path toward the dystopian surveillance that sci-fi has warned about for decades.

Your fingers and toes developed from genetic blueprints originally designed for a fish's cloaca, meaning your hands evolved from ancient fish butt architecture through evolution's tendency to repurpose existing solutions. Your ability to type, paint, play piano or give someone the finger exists because millions of years ago evolution looked at fish butt genes and decided to work with them.

 Harry Whitaker's attempt to collect every element from the periodic table ended with police at his door after he stockpiled explosives and radioactive materials, proving that even well-intentioned scientific curiosity needs tempering before it crosses into illegal weapons manufacturing.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction 

01:40 Exploring Horseshoe Theory in Politics

03:33 The Impact of Trump on Science and Health Policy

04:38 Pandemic Preparedness and Public Health

09:33 AI Mind Captioning: Decoding Brain Activity

14:13 Evolution of Tetrapod Digits

14:55 Genetic Regulatory Landscapes

15:33 Research on Fish and Mice Genes

16:18 The Role of Hox Genes

19:54 Harry Whitaker's Science Obsession

25:19 Conclusion and Call to Action

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Scientists in the mid-20th century created "atomic gardens" where they bombarded plants with gamma radiation to induce beneficial mutations like disease resistance and higher yields. Microwaves have been accused of causing cancer, destroying nutrients,and functioning as listening devices.

"Phubbing" - phone snubbing - describes ignoring someone in front of you to look at your phone, and it's become the modern signature of distraction. We've created connections across continents through technology yet find it increasingly difficult to maintain eye contact with people sitting across from us. The accidental side glance at notifications has become so normalized that we barely register the social damage it causes, making it a choice we make every time we prioritize the buzzing rectangle over the human in front of us.

From gamma-ray gardens to microwave paranoia and phone addiction ruining dinners, this week showed that human curiosity and technological advancement create both excellent outcomes and noteworthy disasters. We've learnt to mutate plants with radiation and overcome irrational appliance fears, yet somehow can't put our phones down long enough to have a proper conversation - proving that some technological problems are harder to solve than others.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction 

01:32 The Birth of Atomic Gardening

04:09 Muriel Howorth and the Atomic Gardening Society

12:25 The Legacy and Impact of Atomic Gardening

12:59 CJ Spies and the Atomic Golf Balls

13:39 Radiated Golf Balls: The New Sensation

14:04 Introducing the Food Babe

14:48 Microwaves and Nutrient Destruction

17:17 Microwaves and Radiation Exposure

19:57 Microwaved Water and Negative Energy

22:45 Phubbing: The Modern Social Dilemma

26:18 Wrapping Up: Listener Interaction and Feedback

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Atomic Gardening

A woman survived without a stomach or small bowel after a catastrophic medical episode at her 18th birthday party, proving the human body is more adaptable than we thought. Philosophers and tech billionaires are convinced we're living in a computer simulation, though Canadian physicists disagree and insist our universe is real. And forensic scientists discovered that your DNA floats in the air wherever you breathe, meaning you're leaving genetic evidence in every room you enter - except mysteriously not in cars, which apparently offer some kind of DNA stealth mode.

Today, we're exploring a world where essential organs are optional, reality itself is questionable, and simply breathing in a room could implicate you in a crime. These stories prove that whether we're talking about medical survival, existential philosophy, or forensic science, nothing about human existence is straightforward.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction

00:30 Can You Live Without a Stomach?

01:58 The Story of Gabby Scanlan

06:29 Living Without a Stomach: Modern Medicine

08:00 Are We Living in a Simulation?

14:22 Understanding Dog Emotions

16:12 Understanding Dog Behavior

17:16 Dog Reactions to Positive and Negative Stimuli

18:33 Human Interpretation of Dog Emotions

22:54 Forensic Science and DNA Collection

28:42 Dinosaur Discovery and Misleading Headlines

31:55 Listener Engagement and Closing Remarks

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