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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 266 - 8/19/2010

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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, LLC - dedicated to promoting critical thinking, reason, and the public understanding of science through online and other media. The first episode of the SGU podcast went online on May 4th, 2005. It soon became a popular science/skeptical podcast, and remains one of the most popular science podcasts on iTunes.

SGU Podcasting Awards: SGU on XM: You can listen to the SGU on America's Talk XM 166 every Saturday night from 8-9pm Eastern.

Podcast 266 - August 19, 2010

Interview with Bruce Hood
News Items: Banning Wi-Fi, Psychic Finds Wrong Body, Kurzweil on Brain Complexity, Magnetars and Black Holes
Who's That Noisy
Science or Fiction



Segment:   News Items     
Banning Wi-Fi     http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=2215
Psychic Finds Wrong Body     http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/psychic-searching-for-kiesha-discovers-womans-torso-20100812-120mf.html?autostart=1
Kurzweil and Brain Complexity     http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/08/ray_kurzweil_does_not_understa.php
Magnetars and Black Holes     http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/spaceastronomystars

Segment:   Who's That Noisy     
Who's That Noisy     Answer to last week - spiney lobster

Segment:   Interview     
Interview with Bruce Hood     Author of SuperSense

Segment:   Science or Fiction     [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
Item #1     A new analysis confirms that the so-called mitochondrial eve lived about 200,000 years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news201266386.html
Item #2     New research indicates that for adults internet access at home is significantly associated with a decreased probability of being involved in a romantic relationship. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100816095615.htm
Item #3     New images of the Moon's surface indicate that the Moon is shrinking - by about 100 meters in the recent past. http://www.physorg.com/news201427392.html

Segment:   Quote of the Week     
Quote of the Week     "You know that chemistry has an impact on your daily life, but the extent of that impact can be mind-boggling. Consider just the beginning of a typical day from a chemical point of view. Molecules align in the liquid crystal display of your clock, electrons flow through its circuitry to create a rousing sound, and you throw off a thermal insulator of manufactured polymer. You jump in the shower, to emulsify fatty substances on your skin and hair with chemically treated water and formulated detergents. You adorn yourself in an array of processed chemicals - pleasant-smelling pigmented materials suspended in cosmetic gels, dyed polymeric fibers, synthetic footware, and metal-alloyed jewelry. Today, breakfast is a bowl of nutrient-enriched, spoilage-retarded cereal and milk, a piece of fertilizer-grown, pesticide-treated fruit, and a cup of a hot, aqueous solution of neurally stimulating alkaloid. Ready to leave, you collect some books - processed cellulose and plastic, electrically printed with light-and-oxygen-resistant inks - hop in your hydrocarbon-fuelled metal-vinyl-ceramic vehicle, electrically ignite a synchronized series of controlled, gaseous explosions, and you're off to class!" Martin S. Silberberg
 
 
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