The comedy4cast network. Let's dog ear that for now.
This is comedy4cast, Episode 818, Far From the Shire.
It's time once again for the Dog Days of Podcasting. For more information and
to hear all the shows, go to dogdaysofpodcasting.com.
Let's get started with Odd News Plus. Here are our odd news stories for
Monday, August 26th, 2024.
First up, a look at your daily horoscope. If you're a Gemini,
a playful and flirtatious energy surrounds you today.
Be mindful of your words and actions, as a casual remark could be misinterpreted.
Remember what happened the last time that happened?
You had to fake your own death and move to Dayton.
Now, let's get to our actual, for real, odd news story.
The Lord of the Rings is the gift that seems to keep on giving. And giving.
And giving. Whether you want it to or not. Like a relative shoving more food
onto your plate at Thanksgiving.
No, Gran Gran, I don't want any more Silmarillion.
And, thanks to new information about a 20-year-old discovery,
we've just been reminded that at least one element of the story has worked its
way into the real world and is here to stay.
Back in 2004, some fossils were discovered on the Indonesian Isle of Flores.
A group of explorers, or THE group of explorers, had come across fossils of
an early human species that stood about 3.5 feet tall.
Their diminutive size earned the species the nickname.
Hobbits. And like everything else Lord of the Rings, someone's always coming
along to reinterpret the story.
Meaning it's no surprise that we have new information on the species that is
officially classified as Homo floresiensis.
A new study suggests that ancestors of the hobbits were even shorter,
by around two and a half inches.
The original hobbit fossils date back to between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago.
The new fossils were excavated at a site called Mata Menge, about 45 miles from
the cave where the first hobbit remains were uncovered.
Researchers have debated how the hobbits evolved to be so small and where they
fall in the human evolutionary story.
They're thought to be among the last early human species to go extinct.
Scientists don't yet know whether the hobbits shrank from an earlier,
taller human species, Homo erectus, that lived in the area, or from an even
more primitive human predecessor.
More research and fossils are needed to pin down the hobbit's place in human evolution.
Great. Expect another sequel.
And finally, coffee or tea? Which is better?
To find out, we sent eight lab mice to a local coffee shop.
Spoiler alert, it did not go well. In order to drink the coffee or tea,
the mice had to dive into the cups.
And while mice are, by nature, good swimmers, they are not, by nature,
good at swimming in water that has been heated to 195 degrees Fahrenheit.
The good news is we got our beverages for free when we pointed out that there
were mice in our drinks. The bad news?
Cookie, Pip, Hhadow, and Buttons, you will be missed.
That about wraps it up for today's Odd News Plus.
A big thanks to the comedy4cast patrons for helping make this show possible.
Story, voices, and original music by Clinton Alvord. Copyright 2024.
All rights reserved. Talk to you next time. But for now, that's it.
We're done, done, done, done, done. Bye-bye.
Music.