Songbirds and Snakes thought they were really awesome with their superfast muscles. But we mammals, we are not to be left out, no. Bats have now been proven to use the special class of muscle to help create their echolocation calls.

The discovery of superfast muscles in mammals may also help scientists disentangle the muscles’ evolution overall, Elemans said.

For instance, researchers will now be able to compare the bat genome with other genomes of superfast-muscled animals—such as songbirds and snakes—to figure out when and how the muscles evolved.

What’s more, Elemans suggests that the tracking boost afforded by terminal buzz helped bats flourish when they first evolved 50 million years ago.

“You need these buzzes to catch stuff,” Elemans said. In addition to flight and “regular” echolocation, terminal buzz is “the third reason why they’ve been successful evolutionarily.”

[National Geographic]

Who doesn’t love Remember The Titans. A story of redemption, hope, togetherness and the cheerleader from Heroes when she was like, 9.

You know who really loves Remember The Titans? High School football coach Jim Marsh. On the way back from a loss, he decided to inspire his team in the style of that film by pulling all of his kids off the bus at a cemetery, telling them to lie down and giving a motivational speech.

The same way Coach Boone brought the kids to Gettysburgh and encouraged his team to learn a “lesson from the dead“? Right?

The only difference is that Coach Boone’s team took that energy, conquered racism and won the championship and Coach Marsh just got suspended for two weeks thanks to some parental complaints.

As for the people in the graves that were walked upon, they had no comment. Because they are dead and dead people don’t give comment.

[CBS]

Andrew has a mystery present for the boys which leads to Brian whispering to fish and Justin leering at strangers from a tree branch, waiting to strike. The gang finishes talking about faster than light neutrinos. The gang begins talking about faster than light neutrinos. Andrew struggles with his decision to go green. Brian’s theory on sacrificing his body for trans-planet teleportation is put to a disgusting test.

Support the show by purchasing Andrew’s new book The Chronological Man: The Monster In The Mist for only 99¢ at Amazon.com by clicking the image below!

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Florida Panhandle resident Stephanie Pistey is currently on trial as an accessory to the murder of a 16-year-old friend. When explaining to a local television station her role in the death, she cited a supernatural bloodlust:

Cracking a smile, she said: ‘I know this is going to be crazy. But I believe I’m a vampire – part vampire and part werewolf, so it’s not really a cult, it’s more just like my personality.’

Pistey’s fiancee is accused of murdering 16-year-old Jacob Hendershot.

The Daily Mail reports that Pistey posted the following on her Facebook page days after the alleged murder:

On August 20, days after changing her relationship status to ‘engaged,’ she posted: ‘Yea were merryied and hes going to die hes the one that killed jacob hendershot well i let him i wanted the blood.’

Pistey has since claimed her account was hacked.

[Daily Mail]

If you’ve used hallucinogenic mushrooms (active ingredient psilocybin) in the past year, you could still be feeling the effect. Long past peaking, 60% of participants in a Johns Hopkins study found a marked rise in openness a far as a year past initially tripping their faces off.

Openness is defined as such:

…traits related to imagination, aesthetics, feelings, abstract ideas and general broad-mindedness.

The changes were measured against the normal shift in adult personality. Researches said that openness is traditionally something that decreases as one gets older.

Here is another fun fact to the study, more than half of the 51 participants had postgraduate degrees. Higher learning, indeed.

[Science Daily]

At a National Press Club luncheon today, Elon Musk, head of SpaceX announced plans for a reusable rocket that could dramatically lower the cost of going into space by a factor of 100. By amortizing the hardware costs over a lifespan of 1,000 launches, the capital costs per launch would be $50,000 (plus $200,000 in fuels costs and support). He compares the goal of the rocket to achieve the same level of reliability as a 747.

SpaceX envisions a three stage rocket where each stage returns to Earth via powered flight, as opposed to crashing into the ocean or burning up in the atmosphere.

In a speech that outlaid his goal of seeing humanity becoming an interplanetary species, he explained the need for this technology to help humanity make a permanent settlement on Mars. Musk suggested the cost of such a trip could eventually fall to the price of an ‘average California home’.

SpaceX

Click the image below for an awesome animation of their space flight mission profiles:

Along with announcement for an Elon Musk appearance at the National Press Club, SpaceX revealed new conceptual images laying out their vision for the future of spaceflight.

One image gives us our first look at what is probably the ‘Grasshopper’ reusable vertical take-off and landing rocket that SpaceX sought permission from the FAA to test at their McGregor field launch facility.

For more images, including the Dragon capsule doing a landing, check out the SpaceX page.

Those ambitious folks at SpaceX aren’t going to let American enterprise sit out the new space race. They’ve requested permission to test out a vertical take-off and landing rocket system at their test site in McGregor, Texas.

Although building on existing systems, like their Merlin engines, this is a new area of space flight for them. Previously they’ve focused on the more traditional approach of single-use rockets.

Recently, Jeff Bezos backed Blue Origin, tried a similar test, which ended in a crash after attaining 45,000 feet of altitude.

Both programs are very similar to the McDonnell Douglas DC-X single-stage vertical take-off and landing program which was abandoned in the 1990’s.

The FAA document

via SpaceRef.com and NasaWatch.com

Welcome to the big leagues Ireland. You’ve just confirmed your first ever case of spontaneous human combustion!

The pioneer went by the name Michael Faherty, he was 76.

“This fire was thoroughly investigated and I’m left with the conclusion that this fits into the category of spontaneous human combustion, for which there is no adequate explanation,” he said.

This would also represent the first confirmed spontaneous human combustion case this decade.

[BBC]

Wrangled by a man in overalls, friends with people in devil costumes, ladies and gentleman: Medusa, the world’s largest snake.

Simone Allyne is the Weird Things eBook reviewer focusing on readily available, affordable Science Fiction and Fantasy. If you have a book you’d like reviewed, please email WeirdThingsMail@Gmail

Imagine a world a millennia from our current time line. Humanity is still engaged in warfare, but now has it down almost to an exact science. Government-funded armies still exist, however there are also independent mercenary groups for hire ready to engage in campaigns. In this enjoyable sci-fi action and adventure, author Jed Fisher has conjured up an entire universe in such detail that the reader can easily become engrossed in it.

First Enlistment: War for Profit Part One follows a group of boys fresh from one of many military academies, as they enlist for their first taste of warfare. First Enlistment, the first book of three currently in the War for Profit series, focuses on the details of soldiering; for example weapons training, and tactics. In particular, the author focuses on a cadet’s mission inside a tank and the technical knowhow that goes along with it.

The book is very action oriented, and draws heavily on the author’s military background. As I continued reading, I found myself thinking of this book as a sci-fi inspired telling of Full Metal Jacket.  The story focuses very heavily on military themes, and very little on the backgrounds of its characters. It does not delve into how or why they ended up on different planets that don’t seem to be located in our galaxy. This however is not necessarily a detriment to the story though, as readers with similar interests will feel right at home, but I would have liked some of those other elements to be more fleshed out.

I liked the author’s story line and the characters were more or less believable. I did feel that the characters were not quite developed enough. It’s hard for me to put my finger on it, but the writing seemed “light,” incomplete, not quite enough depth. This book is also a little fast paced at times, and clear time frames that might have helped with this have been left out. It holds up like any good science fiction and I think you will enjoy this book.

So if you enjoy military and or sci-fi stories I know you will not be disappointed with First Enlistment: War for Profit Part One.

[Amazon]

A feral child in the woods of Germany lead the Gang into a rousing conversation that eventually ends with Hitler running a magical chocolate factory. Brian is tasked with stocking a new theme park with the most deadly animals on the planet, his choice for an apex predator leaves much to be desired. Justin justifies his belief in elves.

Support the show by purchasing Andrew’s new book The Chronological Man: The Monster In The Mist for only 99¢ at Amazon.com by clicking the image below!

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Download url: http://www.itricks.com/upload/WeirdThings092111.mp3

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Ghostbuster, Blues Brother, UFOlogy advocate: Dan Aykroyd.

The comedic titan has remolded himself in recent years as not only a hawker of Crystal Head vodka but a celebrity endorser of UFO research. What follows is a brief tour trough Aykroyd’s opinions on the matter including his eight-part Unplugged documentary opus.

Above we see the most recent interview with DA at a Crystal Head signing. A self-confessed spiritualist, Aykroyd’s most refined passions in the research community surrounding unexplained flying objects. In the interview (in which Aykroyd rattles off a who’s who of UFOlogists and gives props to up and coming research teams) he mentions his 2005 UFO doc Unplugged which cemented the actor’s place in the UFO community.

We see that AFTER THE JUMP… (more…)

Simone Allyne is the Weird Things eBook reviewer focusing on readily available, affordable Science Fiction and Fantasy. If you have a book you’d like reviewed, please email WeirdThingsMail@Gmail

If you are looking for intriguing characters, antagonists with a very plausible attack on society, and fast moving plot that will leave you holding on for the next turn, then Thermals by Evan C. Currie is for you!

With a fascinating premise, characters that evolve, and science that has me wishing for tomorrow, Evan’s novel delivered a great read that had me waiting for the next adventure of Anselm.

When Interpol Inspector Anselm Gunnar assigned the job of tracking down one of the world’s most wanted eco terrorists, he is expecting the job to be a straightforward liaison assignment with the local police. However, the inspector is about to learn that the man everyone thinks is hiding from the law is actually planning something much worse then any thing he has in the past.

The story builds logically from the methodical actions of one agent to a frantic skirmish involving a large number of characters both good and evil.  Both the villains and the heroes are well written and intelligent, lending the main characters Amir and Anselm believability.

The science behind the power generation, and detailed descriptions make the Tower an intriguing and edgy backdrop to this story of bio-terrorism.  The science fiction elements are fairly light, very near-future stuff.

Thermals is a fast moving near future thriller about terrorism that will keep you turning the pages as fast as your eReader, and your eyes can. From the start it builds to a rising crescendo that will leave you winded and cheering.

[Amazon]

Without delving into the debate on how it’s happening, most reasonable people can agree the world is getting warmer.

If we want it cooler, we are going to have to do something about it. Sure, we could all drive electric cars to our self-sustaining farm communes where we split an organic zucchini soufflé with Ed Begley, Jr. Or we can just stick a hose in the air (as if we don’t ca-re) and pump sulfates into the atmosphere, simulating a volcano eruption, cooling the planet in the process.

The latter is code named SPICE (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering) and will undergo it’s first test this next month when a hose suspended one kilometer in the air will pump water into the atmosphere. Although geoengineering strategies have been tested before, researchers believe this to be the most cost effective option should the results come back favorable.

[Scientific American]