Episode #653

[lucek]

Does anyone know if someone is really working on GM to get crops to fix nitrogen on their own. That would be incredible.

It's been on the 5-10 year slot for a few decades now. There's a new promising paper every few years but to my knowledge no real breakthrough yet.

[Friendly Angel]

I think it was in SoF that a mention was made of soft artificial muscle, and the question was asked, "What would that be needed for?"

Answer: Sex bots. Invent a sex bot with soft muscle, that can move realistically, and you will have more money than God.

I am reminded of being a boy on a farm.  Farmers were always trying to convince little boys to put their wieners in the electric milking machine - somehow I knew I wasn't really supposed to do it... but damn it sounded like something I would've enjoyed.

[daniel1948]

I think it was in SoF that a mention was made of soft artificial muscle, and the question was asked, "What would that be needed for?"

Answer: Sex bots. Invent a sex bot with soft muscle, that can move realistically, and you will have more money than God.

I am reminded of being a boy on a farm.  Farmers were always trying to convince little boys to put their wieners in the electric milking machine - somehow I knew I wasn't really supposed to do it... but damn it sounded like something I would've enjoyed.

Farmers were always trying to convince little boys to do this??? What the fuck? I worked on a dairy farm and I never heard anybody suggest anything of the sort.

[pestalinc]

SOF this week could have gone differently if these guys had stuck with their design.

https://makezine.com/2015/05/28/weedebud-solar-powered-weeding-robot/

I got this week wrong because I saw them at the 2015 Maker Fair and figured they were still around and this was the product Steve was referring to. The plan was to use visual recognition to identify the weeds in your garden and pull them out.

[GodSlayer]

anyone else had their SGU RSS feed stuck in 2017? (neither of the two newest ep come up on my podcatcher (Feedreader 3.14)

I got an email from them saying I might have to change the URL for the feed. However, I changed nothing and got this episode just fine. Maybe iCatcher did it for me?

hmm,
mine was
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/feed/sgu
and pasted into Chrome it autocorrected to
https://feed.theskepticsguide.org/feed/sgu
the latter in Chrome shows me a list with the newest episodes (but nothing I can click to download it) and neither of these work in the RSS feeder

[arthwollipot]

I think it was in SoF that a mention was made of soft artificial muscle, and the question was asked, "What would that be needed for?"

Answer: Sex bots. Invent a sex bot with soft muscle, that can move realistically, and you will have more money than God.

I am reminded of being a boy on a farm.  Farmers were always trying to convince little boys to put their wieners in the electric milking machine - somehow I knew I wasn't really supposed to do it... but damn it sounded like something I would've enjoyed.

Farmers were always trying to convince little boys to do this??? What the fuck? I worked on a dairy farm and I never heard anybody suggest anything of the sort.

I think this was one of those cases where someone was using hyperbole for rhetorical effect.

[Ah.hell]

Still deserves a WTF, because that shit is creepy as F.   There's something wrong if even one farmer did.

[daniel1948]

Still deserves a WTF, because that shit is creepy as F.   There's something wrong if even one farmer did.

I'm going to guess that maybe kids dared each other to do it. I doubt that any farmer did.

[Jeremy's Sea]

Still deserves a WTF, because that shit is creepy as F.   There's something wrong if even one farmer did.

I'm going to guess that maybe kids dared each other to do it. I doubt that any farmer did.

Also, growing up in rural WI and knowing lots of farmer's kids, I would be shocked to find out they didn't stick their dick in something like that.

[arthwollipot]

Still deserves a WTF, because that shit is creepy as F.   There's something wrong if even one farmer did.

I'm going to guess that maybe kids dared each other to do it. I doubt that any farmer did.

Having known a couple of farmers, I'm pretty sure that at least a few of them did it as a joke. Like sending the new guy out to pick up some doughnut holes.

[daniel1948]

Still deserves a WTF, because that shit is creepy as F.   There's something wrong if even one farmer did.

I'm going to guess that maybe kids dared each other to do it. I doubt that any farmer did.

Having known a couple of farmers, I'm pretty sure that at least a few of them did it as a joke. Like sending the new guy out to pick up some doughnut holes.

Off-topic, but we used to get doughnut holes. Basically, little pastries made exactly like doughnuts but spherical and about the side of the hole in the middle of a doughnut. They really are a thing, or were when I was a kid. I have not eaten a doughnut since I worked at the homeless shelter where we got donated stale bakery goods. Not yet spoiled, but very disappointing to bite into. The doughnuts looked just like the fresh ones, but yuck! they put me off doughnuts forever.

[Harry Black]

I grew up next door to a dairy farm and am APPALLED at the idea that people would have done this?
I spent more time than I wanted googling this and the only 'evidence' I found was a rather disturbing video on pornhub.
I would not have imagined that anyone would risk their one and only penis by sticking it in an industrial machine designed for another species.

But there ya go.

[Ah.hell]

Off topic but donut holes are definitely a real thing as described by Daniel and widely available in US donut shops.

[Jeremy's Sea]

Off topic but donut holes are definitely a real thing as described by Daniel and widely available in US donut shops.

And delicious, but we all already knew that Daniel's relationship with "the truth" was a little off anyway. 

[daniel1948]

Off topic but donut holes are definitely a real thing as described by Daniel and widely available in US donut shops.

And delicious, but we all already knew that Daniel's relationship with "the truth" was a little off anyway. 

Hey, I'm not saying they're not delicious. I'm saying that after working in a homeless shelter for five years and eating stale doughnuts, they just don't appeal to me any more. All doughnuts look stale to me now.