Episode #99

News Items

    Interview with Phil Plait

    • Phil Plait is the Bad Astronomerwww.badastronomy.com/Article on Expanding Universenews.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070604-universe.html

    Rods

    • Steve,I would love for skeptics guide to cover ‘rods’. Some people believe they are a flying creature as yet unknown to most of science. A Los Angeles news program can be viewed here:video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4569858645044577004&q=rods&hl=enOf course the immediate idea is that these are artifacts of video cameras. I was frustrated that the crew didn’t just film the phenomenon with two cameras and sync the footage. From that you could pretty quickly and imply determine if the event was in the camera or in the world. If it’s in the world, you could determine size and speed from triangulating the two signals if you just recorded how far the cameras were from each other. It doesn’t take much to really narrow down this kind of thing, and it’s frustrating to see peoplemiss easy opportunities.Anyway, if you guys could discuss it, that could be a fun topic.As always, you do great podcasts.Regards,Matt DickWikipedia rods entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_(cryptozoology)Debunking site reproducing ‘rod’ pictures: www.opendb.com/sol/bugs.htm
    • I was watching a show on the Science channel on cable, and they seemed to give some support to John Hutchinson & zero point energy, Jim Ventura and lifter research and anti gravity, Joseph Newman energy machine, Thomas Townsend Brown and anti gravity. Surprised they were taken quite seriously on a science channel. I don’t know much about them, any science behind their claims? ThanksFrank AuerUSACredulous ZPE theories: www.soulsofdistortion.nl/SODA_chapter4.htmlHutchinson article: www.sciencepunk.com/v5/2006/10/john-hutchison/Thomas Townsend Brown: www.antigravitytechnology.net/thomas_townsend_brown.htmlSkeptical article on Joseph Newmanwww.phact.org/e/skeptic/newman.htm

    Science or Fiction

    • Item #1 Science

      A newly published study shows that spontaneously recovered memories of childhood abuse are almost as accurate as continuous memories.

    • Item #2 Fiction

      Among the many new species recently discovered in the deep Antarctic ocean is a shrimp species the size of dolphin.

    • Item #3 Science

      Physicians report a case of a man who bled green blood during a surgical procedure.

    Skeptical Quote of the Week.