Episode #793
News Items
Who's That Noisy
- Answer to last week: Ostrich
Question #1: Black Bear Follow Up
- How dangerous are black bears?
- Hello Skeptics, first off thanks for responding to my last email, love the show! The air quality in Vancouver was the worst in the world according to IQ Air on Sunday September 13th. It was reported that much of this is due to smoke from wildfires in the US blowing up towards our country and spreading over our province. This prompted me to search for more information on the fires. The President of the US and Governor of California met and discussed the wildfires and the exchange was a bit odd to say the least. It seemed both agreed there was bad forest management at play – and that policy could change this for the future – but the Governor implied climate change was a major factor. Is this true? I’ve read conflicting information. How much of this is caused by bad forestry management and is there anything that can be done, policy wise, that can make California and the PNW safer and better equipped to manage fires? Derek S. British Columbia, Canada
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Fiction
Archeologists have found direct evidence that our human ancestors were boiling food in hot springs almost 2 million year ago, one million year before the first evidence of cooking with fire. https://news.mit.edu/2020/early-human-hot-springs-food-0915
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Item #2
Science
Scientists have discovered a new mass extinction, occurring 233 million years ago and paving the way for the rise of the dinosaurs. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-discovery-mass-extinction.html
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Item #3
Science
Paleontologists have discovered the oldest known sperm, of a 100 million year old crustacean preserved in amber. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.1661
Skeptical Quote of the Week.
‘Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?’ -Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams