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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 72 - 12/6/2006

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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 72 - December 06, 2006

Interview with Paleontologist Ken Macleod - New Evidence for the Single Impact Theory; News Items: Holiday shopping scams, NASA plans moon base, Flowing water on Mars?, Molecular manufacturing; Your E-mails and Questions: Hi from Down Under, Chiropractic HIV denial, Testing ID, High Tech Dowsing; Randi Speaks: End of the World and other nonsense; Science or Fiction; Skeptical Puzzle



Segment:   News Items     
Holiday Shopping Scams     Be skeptical when shopping online
NASA Plans Moon Base     http://www.space.com/news/050919_nasa_moon.html

Hawking article on people leaving the Earth:
http://www.infowars.com/articles/science/hawking_man_must_leave_planet_earth.htm
Flowing water on Mars?     http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/mgs-20061206.html
Molecular Manufacturing     National Academies Releases Report on Molecular Manufacturing http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=232

Segment:   Interview     
Interview with Ken Macleod     Dr. MaCleod is the lead author on a new article favoring the single-impact theory of the K-T extinction event that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

rcp.missouri.edu/articles/macleod-dinosaurextinction.html

Dr. MaCleod's Homepage: rcp.missouri.edu/geosci_macleod/index.html

Segment:   Questions and E-mails     
Hi from Down Under     Hey people

How I love to hear the new episodes of your show. Just the thing to listen to while walking through the streets of Sydney. I have recorded a short greeting and a question for you (attached). Maybe you can be a guest on my podcast sometime?

Wishing you well and another year of podcasting.

Richard Saunders
Producer of the TANK podcast

Home Page
http://www.MysteryInvestigators.com/richard' target='_blank' class='podcast_link'>http://www.MysteryInvestigators.com/richard
Investigator / Editor / Film Maker
http://www.MysteryInvestigators.com
Australian Skeptics Inc
http://www.skeptics.com.au
Chiropractic HIV Denial     Hi,

As always, I really enjoy your show. I am a former chiropractor, now skeptic, who listens every week.

The reason I am writing you is because I found a great article (or series of articles, rather) that you can possibly discuss on your show. I'm not sure if you have ever done a program on people who deny that HIV is the cause of AIDS, but recently there was a THREE PART interview in "Today's Chiropractic Lifestyle" magazine promoting this theory. Here are the links:

http://www.todayschiropractic.com/issues/2006/oct_nov/bull.html
http://www.todayschiropractic.com/issues/2006/oct_nov/bull_02.html
http://www.todayschiropractic.com/issues/2006/oct_nov/bull_03.html

"Today's Chiropractic Lifestyle" is published by Life University in Marietta, Georgia. It is where I attended chiropractic college. While at chiro college, I was misinformed about almost every public health topic you can imagine. This article above is a good example of chiropractic misinformation and seems to contain almost every "HIV denialist" argument available today.

I am happy to no longer be a quack and enjoy learning about science and reality from your podcast. Keep up the good work!

Jeff Jones, D.C. (Life University class of 2001)
Tokyo, Japan
High Tech Dowsing     I have begun listening to your show very recently, and I'm trying to catch up on them.

Tell Rebecca Watson that I got her skepchicks calendar yesterday, and after paging through it, I'm satisfied in a great investment.

Anyway, on to the secondary reason for this message.

I'd like you to take a look at this, and maybe see if there's more information about this out there: http://www.carteblanche.co.za/Display/Display.asp?Id=3233

There was another article, published over a year ago: http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/general/0,2172,93664,00.html

To me, it sounds like some kind of futuristic method of dowsing. The only positive results I've heard about this is from the articles, and they are obviously anecdotal. If the only evidence that it works is anecdotal evidence, should it be discounted? Is it too early to dismiss this, or should we give them time to come up with actual experimental data?

Thanks for your time,
Matt Frederickson
South Dakota, USA
Testing ID     Hi guys (guys is non-gender specific in England)

Love the podcast. I've nearly caught up with you now, I'm just on the October shows. It's nice to be able to listen to voices of sanity in what can seem a pretty insane world.

I have a question - more of a challenge - for you.

I know ID is not a science, and the actual answer is "you can't" but I'd like to hear you guys trying to design some experiments for a science class on Intelligent Design.

The issue is raising its head over here (only in a small way though) and I thought it might be fun to have a bit of ammunition.

John Ansari (pronounced AN-SAAR-EE)
UK

Segment:   Randi Speaks     
James Randi     The Uncompromising Observations of a Veteran Skeptic

Each week James Randi gives a skeptical commentary in his own unique style.

This week's topic: Will they ever learn? The end of the world and other nonsense.

Segment:   Science or Fiction     [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
Question #1     New study suggests that homo sapiens innovated male/female division of labor and this gave them a critical advantage over Neandertals.
Question #2     Newly published study has linked frequent cell phone use to declining cognitive function, as measured by standard IQ.
Question #3     New research shows that the effectiveness of advertising has nothing to do with the actual message they contain.

Segment:   Skeptical Puzzle     
Puzzle     Last Week's puzzle
This person had good motives in mind when he proposed that mans activities occur in predictable waves. He took stock in this belief, and in his own bullish way, brought his philosophy to bear. Perhaps he should have invested more time in his research, for he could have used some corrections to realize his theory would crash.

Who is this person?

Ralph Nelson Elliot
Winner: John Maddox


This Week's puzzle
Take a mylar coat.
Put it in a machine and mix it up.
Lay it out.

What's left is something that was once believed to exist, yet has never been found.

What is it?

Segment:   Quote of the Week     
Quote     "What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning."
- Werner Heisenberg
 
 
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