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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 88 - 3/28/2007
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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.
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Podcast
88
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March 28, 2007
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Interview with David Seaman, DC; News Items: UFO news, Houdini exhumed, Buhhda boy returns; Your E-mails and Questions: PETA, GM foods, Satanic Barcode; Science or Fiction; Skeptical Puzzle
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Segment: News Items
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Segment: Questions and E-mails
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PETA
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After listening to #87, i have two issues:
1. painting all animal right activests with a single brush
2. PETA wants all pets released
as for #1, i am a longtime vegan and animal rights activist, and i completely against the ALF and whatever organization that guy is from who wants to euthanize the bear cub. He speaks only for himself and maybe his organization. i can not find one mention of the name of his group. i am surprised you guys are falling into the same trap as MSM and reporting this as he represents all of the animal activists.
for #2, please site where you got that information from. all i can find was anti-PETA websites that make that claim and nothing to back it up. here is the FAQ i found on petas website, and look and answer #1:
http://www.peta.org/about/faq-comp.asp
it seems like they are more against puppy mills and cruelty to domesticated animals, and not the release of your pet dog or cat into the wild.
how many logical errors and falicies were created in this podcast?
i am writing this because i am a big fan of your show (yes, even Perry *can* be funny sometimes), but i was really dissapointed in the handling of this issue.
thank you,
Adam G.
Philadelphia, PA
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GM Food
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Hello,
I have been trying to do research into the big debate over the safety of GM foods. In my research I have failed to find many reliable resources that aren't motivated by political agendas. Are some of them safe? Most of them safe? Are there many that are confirmed dangerous? If you can link or talk about any studies that test food safety with GM crops it would be greatly appreciate it!
Love your show,
Sean Safken
Denver, CO
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Satanic Barcode
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Hi Guys,
Love the podcast, have been listening for a few months now and I am catching up with all the older episodes too, it help me keep sane at work in my mind numbing boring job, the quality to information is first rate plus the humour between the rouges is ace too!
I have a "believer" friend at work who has been telling me all sorts of stories about conspiracies and so on, and when I heard you out line the classic red flags and ploys they employ you are describing this chap, amazing!
But one ting has got me wondering, he explained about the brackets on bar-codes and the middle and end brackets are 6 and there are 3 of them, you guessed 666! But I have wondered why this is as a bar code used 1 to 10 and logically the centre weighted number should be 5? However I do suspect there is a reason for this and I just don't know it yet, maybe you could throw some light on this subject?
Did you get the Nikon D80 in the end, as you mentioned you were shopping for one? I've just got into photography and have this model too, not captured any ghosts yet!
Kind Regards Damian "Shropshire, England"
PS, a big thank you to all involved in the podcast.
Damian Dodd
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Segment: Interview
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Segment: Science or Fiction [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
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Question #1  Fiction
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In order to help relieve China's chronic food supply problems, Chinese scientists have discovered how to process panda poop into an edible fiber rich wafer.
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Question #2  Science
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Scientists have discovered a pair of semi-identical twins who share 75% of their DNA.
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Question #3 Science
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Taiwanese officials have shut down a major highway in order to make way for a butterfly migration.
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Segment: Skeptical Puzzle
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Puzzle
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This Week's Puzzle
Take a rose
Place it in lime
The outcome is usually death
I am mired by what Doctor Griffin would say
A dimmer version of a baby's last breath
What am I describing?
Last Week's Puzzle
Between us, if I raise my goblet to you, and open my heart, on the grounds of conjecture, what psuedoscientific act am I performing?
Answer: Tea leaf reading - tesiography
Winner: Cosmic Vagabond
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Segment: Quote of the Week
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Quote
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"Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it."
-Andre Gide, French author and critic (1869-1951).
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